Three Ladies. A Day Out........Part Two

We moved on, Sue, on the left, still fuming and Ann and I still chuckling!!

It was a safe decision to have lunch at our usual Italian Restaurant but I did make sure that I knew how much the bill was before fetching out the kitty purse!! Ann also played safe and had a white wine!

Bowling was next on the agenda. Sue won the overall score but I'm sure it was because she was picturing ten little waiters at the end of the lane!

Almost time for home but as we have quite a steep hill to climb to the bus stop we normally call into the bar half way up for a relaxing drink. Using Spanish, we ordered our drinks from the waiter, paid the bill and left the bar just in time to see our bus going down the road!! Ann and I both had the same thought...........back to the bar!!

Seeing the raised eyebrows of the waiter, I pointed down the road and said 'La Gua Gua'. In a broader Lancashire accent than mine he replied 'oh, you've missed your bus'. The little tinker!!
All that wasted effort speaking Spanish!! I haven't laughed like that for ages and Ann had to wipe her tears with her bowling socks! Total of buses missed.............three...........but it was such a good day with memories I'll treasure x

Three Ladies. A Day Out........Part One

Sue, Ann and I set off on the bus to Las Americas this morning and what a silly day we had!!

We caught the bus around nine thirty which got me a few funny looks as everyone knows that I don't do 'mornings'.

Anyway our first mission was to check out Torviscas Market, which was teeming with folk of all nationalities. It was a struggle to get to see what was being sold but we managed to get around three quarters of it, clutching onto our bags for dear life!

All in all it was thirsty work so we wandered off to find refreshments. Luckily, or so we thought, there was a bar nearby with a pleasant terrace, perfect! We settled ourselves in the sun feeling like we knew how to live and ordered our drinks. An hour or so later having discussed women's things, chuckled about the state of some folk passing by (always a favourite) we asked for the bill. Being too vain to wear my specs, I just glanced at it, thought I saw five euros and paid it out of our kitty purse.

Sue was livid and it was so funny! Off she went, bill in hand, to complain. Five euros for a wine and soda!! She didn't get very far but ten out of ten for trying and at least the rest of the customers would have checked theirs before paying. I won't tell you what Sue called that waiter during the course of the day but as you might expect, his ears would have been burning. Sue kept the receipt and I think I may buy a frame for it!!

Be warned............avoid La Brochette.

No Bowling

I had to pull a sickie today as I've had some awful ulcers in my mouth this week. They have been so painful that I didn't sleep much last night. The plan was that Julie, Doreen's daughter, would take her mum's place but I sort of blew that. Never mind I'm sure it will all come right in the end.

Brian went off around one o'clock, leaving me at home to sulk. He phoned me around five to tell me that our Melvyn had broken down on one of the TF1's sliproads. It was all quite comical really as Brian's phone battery died, he found the car charger but then ran out of credit! Forever calm in a crisis, I rang for the grua and got him sorted! It's law here to wear a yellow jacket and have triangles in front and behind the vehicle. (You also have to carry a first aid kit and a thingy to break the windows). I would have loved to have seen him standing there looking like a council worker!!

Anyway, Melvyn is home and, hopefully, his mending mate will be around tomorrow to sort out his problems. He is carting on a bit, bless him.

The Strike Is Over!!

I've been long distance support for Valerie in Canada during the three week strike at the Health Authority there.

Having three sons to support and no pay during this time, life hasn't been too good for her. She was required to do five hours of picketing each day and sent me this pic of some of the supporters. Have a look at http://www.opseu.org/

Anyway, all seems a little better today as it's back to work on Monday.

What Will I Do Now?!!

My friend, Doreen, rang today to tell me that she is unable to bowl on Sunday and probably won't manage it for some time, if ever. She has had trouble with her back for a while but being a brave soul, has soldiered on. The doctor told her that she was aggravating it too much with the bowling, hence the decision.

We have played Sunday League together for three years or so and I can't imagine having a different partner. To be honest, I'm really gutted. She is a very true friend and also a person that I care about.

It needs some thought.

Our George

I was pleased to hear that George Best is having an airport named after him. It appears that Belfast City Airport will have a change of name in May this year after a commemorative ceremony.
It would have been George's sixtieth birthday. I think it's really brilliant and I'm glad that his talent is being honoured.

Poor Mums

I've never really noticed before but on checking my diary earlier, I realised that Mother's Day in England falls on the same day that the clocks change.

So much for being pampered.........we've all lost an hour of sleep!!

Having asked 'im indoors when Mother's Day was I was informed that it was nine months after Father's Day.......ummmm?!

Check out http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/bst.htm

Sunday Bowling League

Oh dear, it's not looking good for Doreen and I as we have managed to work our way down to the bottom of the league! We won our first game today by around 35 pins but lost the second. When I realised that we were so far behind on the last that we could never recover I whispered in Doreen's ear 'score low and keep our handicap safe'.

I wish I could practice what I preach. Trying my best not to knock many down, I managed to sort out a big split, with a perfect ball, and then get a strike! You should have seen the look on Doreen's face!

My Entry

I mentioned, the other day, that my favourite forum was having a photo competition.

The subject was 'Red' and here's my entry.

St Patrick's Day

St Patrick's Day has rolled around again. Most of the 5 o'clock club go off to Playa Las Americas to celebrate the occasion and as it's also Caron's birthday they really go for it. She's 40 this year so I expect she will have a wicked hangover on Saturday.

We have decided to give it a miss. I really need a day in the house as I've been quite busy this week. Well, busy for me!!

My first mission was to change my Spanish bank. The one I was with was completely useless so I've now moved to La Caixa. They seem to have a good reputation and were very friendly. The best of it is that I don't have to worry about the dreaded phone bill as they were able to set up a standing order. Phew!

Next was a parcel to collect from the Post Office or Correos as it's called here. It closes at eleven in the morning so the queue is always so long. It took me two attempts!! Nothing is ever easy here.

Top needed more heart worm tablets so another wait at the vet's, yet another queue in the pet shop for budgie stuff so it's a good job I used to live in Cornwall and learned to live with 'd'rectly'!!

Sunday Bowling League

Four unhappy bunnies today! I was useless as were Jeff and Brian. Doreen had a bad back and almost declared herself unfit but carted on and got better scores than all of us! My excuse was 'I haven't been well, you know'!! Never mind, we do have some fun.

I'm still having troubles with the software for my new dvd burner. I did think I'd solved the problem by converting my files before burning but it all goes to rats after an hour or so. I need an extra brain cell or three to get my head around it but, I won't give in! When I bought this computer just over a year ago the bloke said that there was enough memory to last me my lifetime. Now that I have to raid the euro coin piggy bank for that purpose, I'm feeling pretty insulted. Either he thought I was in my dotage or a bit dim!

My favourite forum is starting a photography competition soon. We have a month to come up with something spectacular, no prizes, just for the hell of it. Photography is one of my passions so I'm eagerly awaiting the topic. I'll be doomed if it's Lancashire streets or a winter morning so I'm hoping for flora and fauna or a nice landscape. I'll blog my entry and hope for comments.

Happy Birthday Valerie

My mate, Valerie, has a birthday today and I send her all my best wishes.

I've mentioned her on previous blogs and if you remember, she lives in Canada, suffers with loads of snow for half of the year and is a teaching professor.

Life isn't too good for her at the moment as there is a strike going on within her area of employment. Not too good on a picket line at minus 20!!

I'm well proud of her though, bringing up three young sons on her own and remaining cheerful, she's doing ok!

Happy birthday, love, make it a good year..............xxxxxxxxxxxx

Memory Lane

We all seemed to be remembering the past at five o'clock club today. As, Sue, Don, Brian and myself are of a similar sort of age, we were recalling when we first had television. The general opinion was the late fifies. How old are we!!

Sue and I went on to talk about the mini skirts and the naughty things we did as teenagers. David, in his thirties, was well shocked, he didn't think that we may have had a life when we were young. Mind you, I admit that when I was his age, I did think that the over fifties must have always been boring.

We moved on to childhood holiday memories. Sue told us about her Dad taking her and her siblings to Butlins every year, Brian went to his Gran's farm and if I was really lucky, we had a few days at Blackpool.

I'm a little sentimental about Blackpool. My late husband, Andy, and I, had some great fun there when we were 'courting', and we took our children there a few times. It was especially nice that our son took me there last October, along with his family.

Oh, well, back to the present!

Sick Week!

First I go and get bitten by those pesky mosquitos and then I develop a really bad cold! I expect a bloke would call it 'flu!! I tried to sleep it off today, hence the reason I'm wide awake now.

We watched the footie earlier and my Spanish team, Real Madrid, was knocked out of the Championship. A bit of a blow as Barca managed to get through. Who will I support now?

I haven´t mentioned things like budgies, daffodils, dvd burners or poinsettias lately, so here´s an update.

After speaking to my daughter, earlier in the week, who has a budgie breeding friend, Carol, it seems that the cere on the female goes very brown when it´s nesting box time. Looking at Juanita, I reckon we may have those easter eggs! Carol recommends some egg meal to feed her up a bit. That´s a good one to ask for in Spanish! I know eggs are huevos so I´ll work from there.

It´s a no go with the daffodils. For the second year running I just have leaves. Such a disappointment.

As for the dvd burner..........grrr. A mate of mine helped me to install it and gave me some software. I managed to ´burn´, if that´s the term, a file today and it worked wonderfully, but that was it. I´ve spent ages trying to repeat the process with other files and can´t understand what I´m doing wrong. Back to the drawing board and I refuse to be beaten!

My poinsettia!! Still going strong and it´s March! Well, I suppose I have to have some success somewhere!

Mosquitos

I awoke around five this morning feeling really itchy but after a minute or so of trying to doze off again the alarm bells rang in my head. A flippin' mozzie was around!

They seem to really love me but, unfortunately, I'm allergic so it was panic stations. Find the spray, find the cream and then I heard a mumbled enquiry from 'im indoors. Guess what he said? `They are about early´, I reckon I should have asked them to turn up after seven!!

I´m in a bit of a mess though. I have several bad bites on both of my arms and my right hand looks like someone has blown up a rubber glove!

It was a bit of a struggle bowling today but I did manage to score well. Martin and I were outclassed though and lost 8 - 0. Doreen and I had to put in a score yesterday so nothing much to mention there either. Happen I´ll have more to say next week.

The Sun Is Back!

We had a lovely day. The sun turned up and Tenerife was Tenerife again, even though the snow is still well visable on Mount Teide.

I decided that my savings pot was healthy enough to have a mooch around the computer shop this afternoon and found that I had enough dosh to be able to buy a DVD burner and 25 discs! More on that in a minute.

Casa Chrissy is within a stone's throw of the shop and so we met up with our Donna and enjoyed an English breakfast. I'm suffering a little with sunburn now as it was so nice to be warm again!
Lots of aftersun cream and I'll be fine tomorrow.

Back to the other type of burner. It's installed but doesn't seem to work. I'm fine with software but my knowledge of computer stuff doesn't seem to run to the hardware. Never mind, maybe I'll find a 'man who can' tomorrow. Hopefully, before 'im indoors and I come to blows!!

A Peaceful Interlude

It's quite peaceful now after the last 36 hours or so of storms and torrential rain. I have hated the wind since I was a small child and stayed awake most of last night, fretting. At one point all I could hear was the smashing of glass and patio furniture blowing around terraces and balconies. Our shutters were slamming about and along with the sound of the rain beating down it was all a bit horrid.

We did manage to get to five o'clock club though, all wrapped up, complete with my M & S brolly, which didn´t get turned inside out! There´s quality for you!

There I was quietly enjoying my beer when this old Canarian chap slipped on the wet floor tiles and head butted me in the middle of my back!! He was fine as I sort of broke his fall, but I´m in such pain. My right arm is really sore and it´s hard to type. Why am I always in the way?!!

Still, if I hadn´t have been the poor chap would have hit the corner of the bar. Not a nice thought.

If my blog is a bit neglected you all know why!