My Week

Ann and I caught the bus into Puerto Santiago on Tuesday for a lady's day out. We poked about a few shops for an hour or so and then walked down into Los Gigantes. I bought a new pair of shorts whilst Ann invested in some Tuc crackers. She must be missing Tesco!

I do enjoy her company as we always end up laughing. Caron, who joined us later, provided the amusement this week..........I won't go into it but it was well funny!!

It was house sorting day on Thursday as Shona arrives shortly. The usual problem of clearing out the spare room. More boxes of books to move down to the lock up. All sorted and Brian even got around to mending the shutter cord. Nine months of my nagging didn't seem to compare to a black look from his sister!

There is a new freezer shop in the village............smoked mackerel for tea! Unfortunately, they don't have onion rings..........I could kill for them.

My thanks to my friend, John, for his very compassionate email.

Other Matters

I'm taking advantage of a prolonged connection and blogging twice!

It struck me that, although I've been bowling for around five years, that I've never looked at what happens behind the scenes. Shippy, the mechanic, treated us to a visit on Sunday. Thankfully, there were only two lanes occupied as the noise was unbearable. It reminded me of when my Nana took me into the weaving shed when I was a child. Fascinating though. I always thought that the pins came down from the top but they slide in from the back and then tilt forwards. Clever stuff!

Corpus Christi

I've never had the opportunity to watch this before but really enjoyed the experience on Sunday. It kicks off around ten o'clock on Saturday evening when the local folk make pictures (using different coloured sand) in the middle of the roads. Some use flowers and place altars within them. The procession starts off in the church at around seven o'clock on the Sunday evening and I made sure I had a good seat.

They had a band and around ten of the young children who had just been confirmed, walked behind them. Really beautiful dresses. The Priest followed, carrying a gold statue thing, he knelt down and prayed whilst rose petals were thrown over him. I did feel quite emotional until little Lottie turned up. She sort of blew the moment by asking, in her forthright, four year old voice 'Who is getting the trophy?'. Kids!!

Sticky Buns

Ann, Caron's Mum, and I caught the bus to Alcala this morning. Our main mission was to buy some gloss paint as Ann has decided to do a little painting during her holiday. We had a peek into a few shops along the way. I'm still pricing freezers and flat screen monitors but, strangely enough, everything seems to be 250 euros!

With the business out of the way, we headed down to the cake shop. A couple of coffees, a bit of tapas..........more coffees and sticky cream cakes, what a way to live!! We paid the bill, ten euros for all that, and then sat by the sea for a little while talking about this and that, until it was time for the bus home. Well, we thought it was, but it took almost an hour for one to turn up. We could have walked it in a quarter of the time!

Being a little desperate for some refreshment we stopped off for a cool drink. I ordered a beer and Ann fancied a white wine and soda. She was more desperate than me as it turned out and wanted another before I was half way through mine. Panic struck as I thought I wouldn't get another.......'I will speed up'.............well funny and such a good day! Thanks Ann x

A Step Up

I've been quietly creeping forward with my bowling during the last few weeks but, even though I say it myself, I was pretty brilliant on Sunday and Monday. Good, almost consistant scores on Sunday........162, 138 and 163! Monday.........152, 163 and 153.

Ros and I played two German blokes on Monday and although we lost, we put up a terrific fight. At one point I had a 4, 7, 10 split. I've never seen it done before and neither had Ros but I went and did it!! As they say 'the crowd went wild'! Ueli, one of our opponents gave me three kisses and a bar of chocolate and I'm about to get a write-up in the local paper. Clever me, or as Ueli said 'Vunderbar' or something similar! Dare I even think of that 200 shirt?

A Strange Old World

It was 'Charlotte Day' today and as her Nana is here for a little while, all three of us went out for the afternoon.

We were wandering along the coast road in our village when I spotted someone I thought I recognised. You know what it's like. Is it him, or is it not? On drawing level........I was staring, I noticed that he was grinning at me! Our Vernon!

He is on the island for a few days and was just telling his daughter that he had a friend who lived nearby when I turned up! We had a few minutes to chat and it was really good to see him.

I found this old photo later, goodness knows when it was taken but I reckon it was at least fifteen years ago. Vernon, on the left, an old mate Jim, leaning on the bar and Vernon's three brothers, Greg, Jeff and Robert. Those were the days.

Back to Charlotte. We had a lovely walk and then stopped for refreshments. Charlotte had the biggest ice cream I've ever seen!

A Gift For Brian

As cigarettes are so cheap here it's very rare to see anyone rolling their own. In fact, I only know of two people that do......Brian and Terry. Subsequently, the Canarians regard the practice with interest and presume that there is something 'naughty' in the tin!

We were in Antonio's Bar this evening and Louis, the manager, asked me about it. I assured him that it was only tobacco and off he went. Five minutes later he returned with this dried up stuff.

I admit that I've never seen tobacco in it's natural state before and can't wait to see what Brian manages to do with it! A nice thought though and thanks Louis x

Bowling Bingo

I've never been so close! Strikes on 1, 2 and eight, just nine and the last one on ten and I would be 500 euros better off. It looked really good but one miserable pin, wobbled, and then decided to stay where it was! Happen if I hadn't been planning on how to spend the dosh I might have concentrated more!

Doreen and I played well but were outclassed by Jackie and Michael. Well done to them on an eight - nil win.

I normally wait outside the bowling alley until Brian fetches the car out of the underground garage but, for some strange reason, I decided to walk down there with him. Never again. It's like a trip down to hell. You can't see a thing for the first five minutes having gone from bright sunlight to a black hole and it's so flamin' hot. We had to queue for ten minutes as some numpty couldn't work the machine. Stress!!

Pick Up Your Bed!

On the whole, it has been a nice sort of week. Ros and I won at Monday bowling........more her good scores than mine, I must admit, but we are a team at the end of the day, so I can take a little of the credit!!

We had a Bank Holiday on Wednesday for Canaries Day. Five o'clock club started around two!

The children had to wear traditional clothes the day before, for their school celebrations. I took this photo of Charlotte wearing hers.....doesn't she look lovely?

Caron's mum, Ann, is coming over to stay next week and an extra bed was needed for their house. David and Brian elected to carry our foldie up one over this afternoon and knowing that a beer would be involved, I decided to give them chance to off load it and then meet up with them. Off load!! No chance. There they were outside Bar Esmerelda, supping beer, with the bed and mattress propped up against the wall!!