Autumn 2007

What we expected to be our last trip of the year came in October, and included the Halloween weekend, and party at the golf club. This proved a great success, with many of the participants getting into the spirit, and dressing up for the evening. Unfortunately, Carole was unwell on the day, and had to miss the party. This meant she missed my big moment, when it was announced that I had won the afternoon golf competition. As I made the usual ‘thank yous’ after accepting my prize (a Costa Esuri Golf Shirt ! ), and was about to sit down, David, who was sat at another table with Kathy, stood up and invited me to repeat my speech in Spanish, but I spared the assembled throng from that pleasure.

Carole’s stomach upset didn’t disappear the following day as we expected, but she had a few days of problems. When we got back to the UK, and she visited our local doctor, he diagnosed her with Salmonella poisoning! We had a meal in Monte Gordo that Carole had been forced to send back due to it being cold, and we assumed this was the cause of her illness. However, a visit from an official from the local Health Authority (apparently compulsory following this type of illness), suggested that it was more likely to have come from an egg meal. On our arrival in Portugal in October we stopped for lunch at one of the golf clubs on the way (not Costa Esuri), and Carole had enjoyed an omelette, and this was the most likely cause of the illness, we were told. Fortunately, the illness proved not too severe, and Carole was soon back to full fitness.

During this visit, dismantling began on the old, temporary Costa Esuri golf clubhouse. It is to be moved to the new course, Golf 2, which appears to be progressing apace. The word is that the new course should open around February/March 2008.

I knew that as we had completed on our Apartment in February 2006, we would be liable for tax in this financial year, but I find wading through the UK Tax Laws when I do my annual tax return difficult enough, so I wasn’t looking forward to trying to make sense of my Spanish obligations in this area. Fortunately, Gary & Val came to our rescue. Gary is a UK Financial Advisor, and also has the benefit of owning, buying and selling other Spanish property, before he bought on CE. Knowing what a minefield this area can be for the uninitiated, he has set up Numerological, a UK based company to help and advise on Spanish fiscal matters. He told me the documents I needed to furnish him with, and his company was able to calculate my tax liability, and arrange payment of it well within the necessary timeframe, and for a very reasonable fee.

As I said above, we expected the October trip to be our last of the year, but then found that Carole did not need to return to work until the second week in January. A search on the Internet found us some reasonable flights out to Esuri at the end of December, and when we discovered that there was to be a New Years Eve Party at the Golf Club, the decision to spend our first New Year away from home was made for us.