A cartoon with many memories

When I was travelling alone to the flat in Torreblanca I relied on the television for company in the evenings.

Most of it was in Spanish and I desperately wanted light relief from feeling lonely and feeling overheated. It was a big flat and was on the top floor of a block mainly occupied by Spanish families with a few flats still in the hands of UK residents who would come over for 3 or 4 months at a time. I was fortunate as the two flats on the same floor as me were invariably empty when I came. The families had children and were in the UK enjoying term time, rather than on holiday, so the place was eerily quiet.

Very little of the TV was in English as I said but there were two channels I loved; it didn't matter I didn't understand the words, I could follow it like a toddler, by watching the action in the cartoons.

 

Since the old lady who owned the flat died, I've not been back and I'm not even sure the family still own the property, but when I came across this cartoon, memories of the flat came flooding back.

Some of them were good, the beach only a matter of 5 minutes away, the corner shop where I was able to get my immediate needs and the supermarket, along the sea front, where I could get a bus back with a full load of shopping to see me through the week. 

Catching the bus, remembering the adage 'Number 1 is not the one',  up to the shopping centre on the outskirts of town and wandering down by the river to another beach which never seemed to be as crowded as those closer into town.

I remember sitting watching a cartoon and being aware of a cockroach with hobnailed boots running across the living room floor and taking ages to be caught and killed. Cleaning out the kitchen because a plague of ants had come up the pipework under the sink. The awful smell of sewers because the heat of the day had evaporated the water in the toilet traps, sink traps or bath and allowed the smell to seep back.

I remember the ability to go out when I wanted and sit on the balcony all day if  wished. The very efficient air con throughout the house and having to empty the big water containers and send the excess water down the sinks, toilets and bath.

I remember the frogs croaking into the night in the creek which ran down the side of the block and looking out on a lovely pool, surrounded by bougainvillea, Seville orange and oleander trees.

I watched an Olympics out there, a major athletics competition and numerous other high level sporting events, all in German or Spanish.

It was a beautiful flat and I have many really good memories of being out there; all brought back because I saw a cartoon on the Freeview channel, YAAS  for the under fives.