Orange Blossom Beginnings

“We’ll be up in a minute,” he said, smiling.

Colin, aware that I didn’t like flying, mistook my ‘what if and ouch’ look for air fright. I smiled as the aeroplane lifted off. I took out my book, pushed my spectacles further up my nose and dived into the text. Following a meal and two hours in the air, we descended into Valencia airport, with a perfect blue sky and brilliant yellow sun to greet us. At last, we were here. I had butterflies in my stomach; we were a step nearer our dream. I smiled at Colin and Blaise, realizing what a truly wonderful family I had.

Colin headed towards passport control and Blaise trotted behind him, looking for a toilet and a chance to stretch her vocal chords once again. Since my back was giving me some considerable pain, I walked with a very awkward gait and some of my fellow passengers stared at me in the most peculiar way. Perhaps they thought I was practicing a sketch from ‘Monty Python.' It certainly felt like I was. I sort of slid and shuffled my way along, as this was the most pain free way of walking. As I slid happily along, I caught sight of myself in the airport wall mirror.

“Good Lord is that me?” I said aloud, “I look like grandfather out the comedy series 'Bread.’"

My hair had greyed terribly since my slipped disc and I, not wanting to dye it, had left it ‘au natural’ as it would only get bleached by the sun and chlorine.

The passports were examined carefully. The guard looked at my passport and pointed to me. I looked over at Colin, lines of anxiety  creasing my face. The guard was saying something I didn’t understand and I wondered what, if anything, I had done wrong. Perhaps my awkward shuffle had been mistaken for something else.

“Please Lord; don’t let him think I have a bag of something illegal shoved up my anus!” I whispered to Colin.

Colin looked at the officer, then at me.  The guard pointed at my passport.

“Colin, what does he want, what’s wrong?” I asked panic struck.

Colin smiled and his eyes lit up.

“He’s saying happy birthday Ange,” Colin announced with a broad smile on his face.

The guard pointed to where my date of birth was written.

“Ah yes, it was yesterday,” I replied, beaming at the guard, who was grinning from ear to ear at me.

“Colin isn’t that just so sweet of him to wish me happy birthday?” I said excitedly, my anxiety totally forgotten.

“I think I am going to like this place just fine,” I added jovially.

I searched for my phrase book to check that my interpretation was correct and Colin headed towards baggage reclaim.

It was so quiet at the airport, hardly any tourists at all. At least what they wrote about the area was true. It was not your usual tourist place. Most people were either here on business or lived here. But the lack of bustle and hassle was delightful, not at all like an arrivals hall in a holiday resort’s main airport.

I headed off to find Hertz car rental whilst Colin and Blaise waited for our luggage. My past experience of Hertz car rental (in Alicante years ago) was not a particularly pleasant one. I was charged several extras when I didn’t want them and although they refunded the costs some six months later, it made me very wary of them. Still, the car was booked. There were two men in the Hertz booth and both of them looked very busy.

Colin had collected the luggage, visited the gents toilet, waited whilst Blaise returned from the ladies toilet and joined me at the desk before either of the Hertz staff had raised their head to look up at me or acknowledge me in some way. Eventually, one of them came to the desk and completed our paperwork. He handed us the keys and told us where to find the car. An hour after we had collected our luggage, we collected our car.

I had rented a compact car and was pleased to find that we had been allocated a Fiat Punto. The car was in good condition and the price had been reasonable. Colin loaded our luggage and we got in. With directions to our destination firmly grasped in my hand, we set off for Lliria and ‘Sunny Ridge,’ Craig and Helen Holden’s place and our accommodation for the next five days.

We followed the directions Helen had sent us and found Sunny Ridge quite easily. We pulled up outside double metal gates, got out of the car and peered through the gate bars. We were delighted to see the inviting, turquoise swimming pool, glistening in the sun. The air temperature had risen considerably since our arrival and it was now 31 degrees. Feeling the effects of the intense heat, Colin wiped his brow, Blaise squinted against the sun and I wiped the moisture that seemed to have accumulated above my top lip.

At that point we were unaware that Helen had two rather large dogs. We rang the buzzer on the gate and both dogs loped towards us, barking loudly. I had a terrible fear of dogs and didn’t want to enter the premises unless Colin carried me on his back, as for some reason I thought this would protect me.  I realized that whilst climbing on to Colin’s back might be the solution for small dogs, it definitely wouldn’t do the job with what I saw before me.

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