Jo – Hobbies

As a child I was mainly at boarding school Loreto College Llandudno and to be able to have time outside school (as it was a convent and we were very enclosed) I decided the best thing was to take up sport in a big way – Captain of the Netball team and a member of the hockey and tennis teams.  This enabled away day visits to other schools. Some photos of me at Loreto

On leaving school and living in Manchester and later London in the late fifties early sixties my main love was dancing particularly rock n roll!  I did not pursue any sport at this time or hobbies as I was working very hard and then later having a family.  I loved swimming and took the boys at an early age and taught them both to swim – important at the time as we lived near to the river Thames

Jump to 1999 when I married Tony and moved to Spain and thought it was time I took up some sports.  Tennis was my first return as Tony was a good player and I realised I still had the ability, particularly as I am very competitive!   My next foray was to join Tony on the golf course which was completely new to me and although I enjoyed it I found it quite a difficult game.  I joined the Javea Ladies Golf group (JUGS) which was very social, and eventually became the social secretary for two years.  Unfortunately, shoulder, back and ankle problems stopped me from continuing to play this game but I still keep in touch with all my lovely golfing friends and have recently started to play again but only nine holes and with a buggy.

During my early years here I found a new love, painting. Here are some of my paintings.  I was taught through Julia Evans who had a school in Gata and later Benidoleig which was a little further to travel.  First in watercolours – later Acrylic and then Oils.  Julia was an excellent teacher and I thoroughly enjoyed her classes and kept this going for quite a number of years until again my health problems made it difficult to sit for long periods of time, although now living in the port I am starting to try again (with some difficulty)

Again one of the most important things for me is speaking Spanish and after numerous different lessons, I am now talking to Carol once a week totally in Spanish and sometimes going to a small group at Cortado café to chat and finally practising on Duo Lingo and talking to my Spanish neighbours.

When the ‘Lock down’ is over I will go back to Petanque which I had just started before Covid hit Spain – unfortunately not allowed at the moment.  So now just carrying on with my other love, reading.