"A Year in Spain" My "last gasp" attempt at posting (informative info).

daveinspain said:
We´ve always had plastic credit card size SIP cards. I just assumed that was the norm in Spain - but clearly not!
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As Judith said so have we but they can't find a new supplier for the cards.As an aside how long do yours last before expiry or are they for life/ until lost/damaged?
 
daveinspain said:
Our SIP cards have no expiry date, just a date of issue - having to use a piece of paper must be a real nuisance!
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It is, they get creased and tatty and we're not allowed to do copies 🤣

Ours are now carefully folded to card size and I've made a cellophane envelope to try to protect them.
 
Yesterday I did another volunteer stint at the Farm.

For the first time in 18 years I took charge of an equine. Little Sarah has a condition called Sweet Itch and rubs herself raw scratching the itch, so she has to be covered and kept inside, only going out for a walk or a short, supervised turnout in the paddock. Yesterday I took her for her walk. It was nice to be with horses again.

Colin is hopeful to rehome her to a place that will manage her condition.

Sarah
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We're off on a short trip either later today, depending on a packet delivery, or tomorrow morning.

Got to do a bit of cooking now to take with us 👍
 
daveinspain said:
Our SIP cards have no expiry date, just a date of issue - having to use a piece of paper must be a real nuisance!
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So Valencia must be the same as Andalucia with cards for life basically? Here in Murcia it has always been 4 yearly renewals for everyone to cut down on fraud.
jumartoo said:
Ours are now carefully folded to card size and I've made a cellophane envelope to try to protect them.
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I don't know why they can't adapt the SMS app 'Portal de Pacientes' as it has everything else on?

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gus-lopez said:
So Valencia must be the same as Andalucia with cards for life basically? Here in Murcia it has always been 4 yearly renewals for everyone to cut down on fraud.

I don't know why they can't adapt the SMS app 'Portal de Pacientes' as it has everything else on?
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Yes, the cards are for life. To access the SMS app, we have to scan in the bar code on the card. I assume yours is the same system?
 
daveinspain said:
Yes, the cards are for life. To access the SMS app, we have to scan in the bar code on the card. I assume yours is the same system?
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Our App works well, to enter the Murcia system to make appointments, we type our SIP number in and DOB....the biggest inconvenience is the need to carry a piece of paper, and in fear of being verbally attacked by a grey haired, and very stroppy Centro Salud receptionist, that's what I intend doing...until it becomes unreadable, then they can ask me if I have a copy, to which I will reply....no....Only Originals accepted...🤔😀
 
We got away late yesterday because the parcels arrived at the shop in the town 5 minutes before it closed at 1.30 (and we are 20 minutes away), so we had to wait until it reopened at 5.30 to collect them.

We arrived at our overnight spot in the dark, not something we normally do. There was one other van, with logos all over it, advertising climbing, diving and outdoor activities. We didn't see any signs of life either last night or this morning before we left, so we didn't have a chance to find out what they were doing.

Our overnight parking was near the Embalse del Cierva and above a climbing area that we used to frequent. Our views were towards the castle above Mula. The embalse is the one seen from the motorway.


We planned to drive to the village of Valentin and leave the van in the village to go for a ride and then, maybe, park up alongside the reservoir nearby.

We did, but it's on the next post.

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We parked in our usual (well once before!) spot in Valentin, near the Health Centre and went out on one of my previously recorded rides.

We joined a, very, newly tarmacced road that, two years ago, had been a badly eroded track to a Fuente and Barbecue area. We'd thought then that the access was pretty bad, but didn't expect they'd put in a very nice road. It did suddenly come to a stop/track.

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We'd remembered some more difficult bits, but thought that they may have been smoothed out, but they were actually worse than they'd been two years ago. It matters not, we managed and got back safe and well.

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We're now parked alongside the Embalse del Argos. The view from our window.

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I'm keeping 🤞🤞🤞🤞 that we get a nice sunset 🤞🤞🤞🤞
 
We left the Embalse del Argos this morning, and said goodbye to the two resident dogs (no photo) and headed to our present spot back at Caravaca. We came mainly to do a ride we last did in the spring and also for the service point. The ride was so much more difficult this time. More use of it has created more loose stones, deep gravel, and channels. Even the previously driveable track is now very unstable. I got off my bike in one or two places, to be safe, where previously there had been no need.

We're staying here again tomorrow night, and trying a route I've found that goes into an area we haven't ridden before (we think).

Then ... the weather forecast is for dampness and cooler temperatures, here and further west, so we may head east across towards Archena and then Fortuna. But we may yet have another change of direction.

We got the "big cheese" spot 😂
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An old house near the beginning of our ride.
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And an old farm early on the route.
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Moratalla, as seen through the pines.
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A house in the middle of nowhere, we've passed many times before, but from the opposite direction, so never got a photo.
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And two photos from the same spot. Martin, with me shooting the camera into the sun ...
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And a rare one of me, in the opposite direction
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We have a German neighbour, Peter and his wife/partner. We looked after his free standing solar panel whilst they went to visit the town. We were honoured to be trusted 👍

Martin is now Murcian (Caravaca Branch) Tourist Information 😂, and now coupled with motorhome gas/leccy info 👍

Peter's van. He's a very nice guy as well!

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We went for a ride and said goodbye to the German neighbours before we left.

A few photos from today's ride.

From Caravaca we rode towards Cehegin (pronounced (roughly) Thayeen, with a soft Th) on the via verde. We then climbed to the top of the local hill to get a view back down.

A local mural.
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On the via verde
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On the route to the top.
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And looking down to Cehegin.
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The weather was dull, but warm, and dusty, dusty, very, very dusty, it was dusty! (Sung to an old advert for something tasty).

The view back to Caravaca.
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Our German neighbours have left, we now have Dutch.

It's my birthday today and I had a pair of ....... brakepads (fitted at no extra cost) 🤣🤣🤣
 
Happy birthday:birthday:
Enjoy the day.

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I have had a great day. Exactly as I wanted. No fuss, no pressies (except for brake pads). I AM searching for, yet another, compact camera replacement. My original Nikon is still hanging in there, even though I discarded it a few years ago.

All I want is a tiny camera with a good zooooooom. I don't do videos or any other vlogging things. I just want to be able to zoom into birds, insects, flowers or far away animals or buildings.

The Panasonic I replaced the same Nikon with two years ago, played up on the first use. It was a brilliant camera (if it worked) but Panasonic were sh1t at answering queries.

So. I want the smallest camera I can carry, with, at least 20x zoom., and without paying more than 500€

Any ideas?

I have a few bookmarked.
 
daveinspain said:
Happy Birthday for yesterday, Judith. Glad you enjoyed your day. I can recommend our Canon Powershot SX730 HS, with a 40x optical zoom. We´ve had it 6 years now, still going strong.
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It looks like that could be just the thing.

Thank you.

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Mikey RV said:
Happy belated birthday. :party3:
What about the camera on your phone, that way you only need carry one thing around with you and you have it all the time. 👍
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I only have a cheap phone and it doesn't have a good zoom.

I do like to be able to zoom in to see animals etc that are far away

Thanks for my birthday wish 👍
 
jumartoo said:
It seems we made a good decision not to ride today, it's very windy.

So far we've done Mercadona and filled the gas (Cepsa at Cegehin). Next stop the bodega at Bullas then onto Archena.
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And after setting up...doing some jobs...it was time for lunch....off to Restaurant we visited a while back....quite busy...but secured a table ordered a very nice meal paid and left....now contemplating Siesta.💤....
 
Happy birthday for yesterday, and thank you for continuing the thread.

:birthday:

I have a Canon Ixus but it's only 10x, but it's very small.

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Archena motorhome area is fairly busy, but so far motorhomes are only parked around the edges.

We're between two Brit vans.
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We walked to the town and had a meal in the Restaurant International. We only had a Menu del Dia but it was very good. We finished off with a Cafe Asiatico, the first we've had for a few years.

We've just had another lovely sunset.
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It's been very windy all day and I'm hoping it'll be better tomorrow to go out for a ride 🤞🤞
 
jumartoo said:
A Canon Powershot XS740HS has now been ordered.

Thanks daveinspain 👍
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You´re welcome, hope you like it as much as we do. The zoom just blew us away the first time we tried it.

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