Reflection of Ice 35 Essential Telephone Nos

REFLECTIONS OF ‘ICE’ Joan Thompson

Joan was a founding member of ICE, president from 1996—2003 and is still an active Member. Here is her story …. Ed. Back in the early 80’s, I was living in Jersey and I came to Spain for the first time with my husband Bill and stayed at the Palma Sol in Benalmadena.

Sadly my husband died in 1985 and as I had always wanted to live in London, I applied for a job as Mail Room Supervisor with Granada Management in Golden Square. I was successful and started within a week, but after two great years I wanted to spread my wings and remembered how much I had enjoyed holidays on the Costa, so I got in touch with a girlfriend who had an apartment in Benavista. She invited me to stay and that’s when I sold my London flat and came to the Costa. By then it was 1988 and there was a Club in Fuengirola which had been started by residents. I joined, and together with three others from this area we decided we needed a Club of our own! At the start, we met in various restaurants but they soon got fed up with us meeting every Thursday and just buying coffee. We had several meetings but by then we had 30 or 40 people interested in the Club continuing so we started our search for permanent premises and rented, then bought premises in the Port. Paul Seward was our first President, Ray Oldfield our Treasurer, I was Secretary and Tony Winship was a committee member. We spent hours working on the Statutes for the Club as everything had to be legal. Paul Seward had just started his own business so he left after a few years and I was voted as President which post I held for the next 14 years. Ray Oldfield was a great Treasurer and he worked out the first bond issue which gave a very good return and especially when we sold the Clubhouse in the Port and bought the present Clubhouse in Bahia Dorada.

We had no experience of coach trips but one of the first was to Portugal. This was before the bridge was built to Spain, so the coach went over on the ferry but then coming back the tide was low so we had to drive up the road near the river to the nearest bridge. It was a very enjoyable trip and I still remember the Brandy stops!

We have had so many enjoyable trips since I wish I had listed them. One special memory was our visit to Expo in Seville in 1992 when our membership reached 600 because people joined especially to go on our back-toback trips.

So many Members have worked so hard back in early days, Jean Galloway was an excellent Secretary with backup from her husband Peter who is a loyal member and our Librarian today.

Before Covid we averaged 400 members a year, luckily not all in the Clubhouse at the same time!

Some lovely memories of ICE events and friends