Sunday Bowling

I didn't really feel up to it today, as I spent most of yesterday sobbing my heart out, but Brian thought we should go to take our minds off poor Top. I must admit that he was right!

Brian and Jeff won 6 - 2 whilst Doreen and I lost yet again! We did have some good scores though. Forty weeks to go until the end of the season so we are going to have to pull our socks up.

I must mention last week's efforts at this point. Doreen played a blinder on the last game having a turkey and then a double. I noticed that she had a score of 104 on the fifth end and, should she keep a steady head, she could win that 200 shirt we both covet so much. Knowing that she never checks the score whilst playing, I kept quiet, but did let Jeff know so that he could witness it.

It was so painful but well on course until the tenth. She went and got a SPLIT after throwing a very good ball. She ended up with 197. Such a disappointment for us all.

Our Little Man

He has been with us for over ten years and has shared our lives. He travelled through France and Spain with us six years ago, happily sitting between us, for almost six thousand miles.

Sadly, tonight, we held him whilst the vet put him to sleep.

We loved him so much and can't bear life without him. There is such a gaping void in our lives.

Topsie, we love you so much xxx

Topsie.......you were a nasty little ankle biting bastard.........I loved you.........from Daddy xxxx

A Long Ten Days

I decided to change my service provider from Telefonica to Direct Telecom, in the hope that the connection would improve. It looked very much like that I'd wasted my time as I've had no internet for ten long days. However, this morning (day eleven), I spoke to the engineer who talked me through the set up. It's a miracle!!

Fingers crossed that it isn't just a blip and Tenerife Tales can continue, as normal, later today.

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!!

Sunday: Bowling

I tried so hard but Doreen and I lost, 6 - 2 against Jeff and Brian.

Saturday: Nasi Goreng

We were invited next door for dinner on Saturday evening as Mimi was cooking Nasi Goreng.

Brian used to live on it whilst he was in Singapore, back in the sixties, and so it was a trip down memory lane for him. I must admit that it was well tasty and I had seconds!

I promised to take a bottle of red wine and there I was in the supermarket trying to pretend that I knew something about it. Saturday Kitchen came to mind. I finally decided on 'Sangre de Toro'. Mark and Katie seemed to like it when I took it back to England a little while ago. Thankfully, it went down well!

Friday: Little Lottie's Birthday

My mission of the day was to collect Charlotte from nursery and get her rigged out in her posh frock, ready to attend Lottie's party in the park.

It was a lovely evening. Her parents, Gavin and Hayley, are well known in the area and lots of folk turned up. Us adults had a few beers whilst the little ones pigged out on pizza. Maz, Brian and I escaped at around half past eight and had 'one for the road' at bar Rincon. You can only take so much of a good thing!!

Tall Tale?

We really wouldn't believe Brian's tale about this bloke driving down a Spanish motorway in his motorized bed until he found the proof! I flippin' hate it when he's right!!

Other things to catch up on:-

Doreen and I slaughtered Steve and Tomo on Sunday with an eight - nil win. Well done us.

Shona arrives on the 22nd of June to stay for a week.

Charlotte lost the first of her milk teeth today and is so proud of it. She says that she can't stop smiling and can't wait until the tooth fairy turns up.

Congratulations to Sue, the manager at the bowling alley, and her partner, Shaun, on the birth of their son, Keifer Brian. He's lovely, well done both xx

Laurel and Hardy!

It really was like a comedy duo when these two blokes turned up earlier, to sort out my everlasting problem with the internet connection.

They insisted on taking the computer to their workshop for the day just to make sure all was in working order. Such a waste of time because it has been checked so many times this past year that I'm sure it's dizzy. No-one will listen to a mere woman though!

Anyway, it came back home around four o'clock, complete with it's escorts and lots of wires etc. Nothing wrong with it.........I held my tongue and didn't say 'I told you so', even though I thought it.

They decided to tackle the router to see if that was the cause. Lots of head scratching, wires here and there. The pair argued like fury too which would have been well funny had I not been so anxious. To be honest, things started to look quite good at around half past five and I felt quite hopeful. However, five minutes later it went belly up. Time for me to disappear down to the bar as my comments didn't seem to be helping!

It took them four hours to get it sorted and I'm left with wires all over the floor and my furniture scattered around the room but I do seem to be online, however long it lasts. Hopefully, they will be back tomorrow to sort out the mess and I'll reserve my comments until later.

A Respectful Silence

ANDREW PETER EVANS

1949 - 1982

A Belated Blog!

I won't moan about my internet connection, suffice to say that it's the worst in the world!

We had a fun day on Saturday watching the F A Cup final. Terry, centre, even had his hair dyed for the occasion. It's such a shame they lost and even worse that Chelsea won!!

So Many Children!

I had a bit of an arty, crafty time tonight and ended up with this lovely display of pics.

I've been so unhappy with my higgledy piggledy frames that I went off to the Todo shop tonight and bought these black things. They seemed to match the photograph that Sam gave me of Jamie, Martin and Maisie and so I went for it.

From left, Dean with Bradley, bottom corner, Sophie, Maisie, Martin and Jamie, Tully and Charlotte.

Lovely!