Harry Andrew Evans

Harry turned up on Tuesday afternoon. A big welcome from Nana Top and see you next week. xxxxxx

Poor Liam

I've watched every episode this week, sick sad puppy that I am, and must admit to having been well disappointed. All that scriking and meaningful looks didn't do it for me and I did feel relieved by the end of tonight's last episode. Not a tear was shed and as his slurry speech annoyed me I reckon that it's time he went.

I logged on to the ITV website earlier to see the alternative endings..........not available outside the UK! There was a pic of him being shoved off a balcony which could have been better than the poor plot we ended up with.

Now we have to put up with moaning Maria next week!

My Newsletter

For the last couple of weeks I've been promoting this year's 'Walk for Life' in my newsletter and here are some of the volunteers just before they set off on Sunday morning. Thanks to Eve and her tireless campain for breast cancer awareness, they raised a thousand Euros which was a tenth of the the total amount from the whole island. Well done Eve and thanks for the photograph.

Kevin and Joan eventually came up with the correct answer to my conundrum......a key! This week's puzzle is:-

Who makes it, has no use for it,

Who buys it, has no use for it,

Who uses it, can neither see nor feel it.........What is it?

Something to ponder on!

Mended or Not?

I'm one of those people who hates to make a fuss and will put up with poor service to avoid any hassle. After more than two weeks and to be honest probably two years in total, I finally got angry enough to react. I find it easier to communicate in writing and sent a carefully worded email to Direct Telecom demanding an immediate solution to our problem. I also stated that I wasn't expecting to be billed this month but did expect a couple of 'freebies' to be thrown in for customer loyalty.

Well I never!! I received a reply earlier today regretting my lack of a connection but promising that my next monthly account will be paid by them, I get my speed increased and they will waive a forty euro fee for their latest offer.

That one is worth having because they give me a 0844 number and my family can ring me at any time without worrying about the cost. 300 minutes per month are completely free and anything above that will be around two cents per minute. Pretty cool!!

To top it all, I've been online for around eight hours now with only one minor blip. Not that I'm getting too complacent yet but happen it pays to complain!

Bits and Bats

A little bit of a catch up tonight. Dave is still in hospital awaiting further tests on Monday morning. Caron tells us that he's cheerful enough but bored out of his brain. He's reading, eating and sleeping but really wants to go home. Happen it won't be too long now.

Still on a similar theme, I spent a couple of hours with Sue on Saturday afternoon. I was chief minder and went along to the supermarket with her to carry the bags. She's looking quite well but does tire easily. Hopefully, she'll be well enough to have a bit of a holiday in England before Christmas.

We had a walk to Bar Manu this afternoon for the Meat Raffle and Whiskey Raffle. Brian often jokes that if he had the only ticket he'd never win but we walked away with a huge bag of lamb chops and a bottle of Johnny Walker Red! I hate whiskey but it's lamb chops for tea tomorrow.

I'm still struggling with this on/off internet thing. We have been ringing Direct Telecom for two weeks now and I've never seen such a useless bunch of idiots in all my life. This Hager bloke promised to contact us on Friday............he did, via an email. By the time I managed to have a connection long enough to view it the office was closed. We are on the old exchange in the village and I've asked and asked them to do something about it but it appears they know best. Brian is off to collect a new router tomorrow so fingers crossed yet again.

Not long before my England trip. My twelve-year old Grandson will be in Sheffield that week for an operation on his arm. I haven't driven a car for years but I'd love to go and see him. Happen I'll give a hire car a go! I'm also willing Katie on to have her baby before I get there. I'm clinging on to my mobile at all times waiting for the call. They say castor oil helps!!!

Well Funny

I started adding a conundrum to my newsletter a couple of weeks ago. It's proving quite popular and folk are stopping me in the street begging for the answer.

They all have to wait until the next issue but I do give credit to the first person who answers it correctly.

This week's is 'I turn around once. What is out will not get in. I turn around again. What is in will not get out. What am I?'

Kevin is really making me chuckle as he's phoned a couple of times tonight with various guesses. He's threatening to phone me at five in the morning if I won't tell him!

Sheesh!

Caron's Dave, Charlotte's Daddy has been in hospital for almost a week undergoing tests. Nothing has really shown up yet and Caron has been busy juggling work, hospital visits and Charlotte's child care.

Clio and I volunteered to collect Charlotte from nursery at five o'clock today and arranged to meet Mum at the local bar around an hour later. All was fine until this flippin' idiot, Ian, turned up.

He's one of those who has millions in the bank, has done everything, had every operation under the sun and, to be honest, has and knows nowt! He can wind me up at the best of times but after listening to him discussing medical treatments in front of Charlotte and watching him annoying my puppy, who was sitting quietly by my feet, I lost my rag!

He got it from both barrels but was thick skinned enough to hang around for another fifteen minutes whilst I tried to keep my cool.

Hopefully, Dave will be home again at the weekend depending on another set of tests due on Friday. Good luck, lad x

Money!

I don't think I'm stupid but I can't seem to get to grips with this Exchange Rate. I even tried Googling it earlier but it's still a bit vague. If the value of the British Pound goes down does that mean the Euro goes up? Could it be the other way around? Do I have to take into account the value of the American Dollar or the German Euro?

I've been watching the BBC News over the past few weeks in the hope someone will explain it. Hopefully, all will become clear in the course of time!

Absolutely Brilliant

I enjoyed the last series but this year's has really hit the spot. I am always gutted when it finishes as I feel that it was only on for ten minutes! The acting is superb, especially from Ann Boleyn.

Oh well, they say that the new one will be out next year. Such a long time to wait for your favourite programme.

Painful!

I knew that playing six games was going to prove painful but I expected to feel stiff and sore tomorrow morning, not tonight.

It was tiring and I noticed that my back was starting to hurt during the fourth game but carried on playing. Worse on the fifth and by the sixth I was struggling. How I managed a score of 151 I know not!

Well, I'm still suffering even after painkillers but with a little luck it might settle down before morning.

Bits and Bats

Sue is now home from hospital and looked really well when I went to see her last Thursday. No running around for a while yet and she has a cartload of tablets to take every day but there's nothing better than your own bed. I'll be popping in again tomorrow to keep her up to date with the local gossip unless someone beats me to it!

I have new shiny taps in my bathroom. Brian ended up doing it and it was done and dusted within four days. Quite a record for him and NO swearing! The shower is brilliant. Shona will be impressed!

Thanks to Mark for his explanation of my funny MSN thing. I did a scan and changed my password and after changing my antivirus from Nod32 to AVG all seems to be well so far. What is the point of starting these virus things?

About a month ago I was asked to write a weekly newsletter for the new bar and it's becoming quite popular. It's just local news and a few adverts but I'm now finding that people are asking for items to be included. I'm enjoying doing it and it does give me a bit of a buzz when I see folk reading and discussing it.

Ros and I have two matches to play at the bowling on Monday. She went off to England a couple of weeks ago to see her daughter married which has left us behind. Playing six games after a four week break could hurt!

Flights

I was talking to a Thomson rep today who is currently working sixteen hour days at Tenerife Sur Airport. He reckons that it will take at least ten more days before all the stranded passengers are returned to the UK. It's costing more than 700 Euros for a single flight at the moment.

Around six years ago I booked return flights to Manchester through a travel agent and ended up on Loco Airways. The whole thing was abysmal. I seem to recall that the plane was a DC10 with over five hundred folk on board. Water was dripping from the ceiling and running down the walls. We were packed in so tightly that we couldn't even read a book. Loco means 'mad' in Spanish which explains a lot!

Since then I've only used reputable airlines, mainly First Choice. I'm such a scaredy cat but for some reason I feel safer with them. Thank goodness I didn't feel tempted to book elsewhere this time and lose out on my money and my holiday.

Taps

I was lounging on the sofa this morning playing an old PS2 game when Brian came out of the bathroom moaning that the top of the washbasin tap had snapped off. His cunning plan was to find a jug and fill it from the bath tap. Back to peace and the PS2.

Not for long though. Two minutes later and he was back clutching his empty jug. It seems that the bath tap came off in his hand too!!

As it incorporates the shower we are in a bit of a pickle until the mending man turns up. It is far too hot to become one of the great unwashed.

I'm still finding it really funny although the prospect of washing my hair in the bidet tomorrow could stop my giggles.

Sue

We went to visit Sue this afternoon in the Green Clinic. I was half expecting to see her lying with tubes and stuff as she didn't leave Intensive Care until Thursday. I'm obviously watching too many hospital dramas!

She does have a couple of bleeping machines and a couple of drips but on the whole she looked really good in the circumstances. Part of her lung had to be removed because of an infection which interfered with her epiglottis so she's only allowed soup and yogurt until her stitches heal. A bit basic but I'm not up on all the technical terms. They brought her some camomile tea whilst we were there.............poor girl was dying for a decent brew!

Neither Brian, nor I are comfortable with hospitals but we enjoyed the natter until the nebuliser turned up. Exit stage left!

So Strange

A few of my Messenger contacts have asked me about messages which I'm supposed to have sent to them. One mate insisted that she'd had one from me whilst my computer was in the repair shop!

I also had an email from MSN yesterday saying that I'd requested a password change. I deleted it immediately but it's all really weird.

As soon as my recent virus struck I stopped opening emails and shut down Messenger so I'm sure it can't be that. Someone please enlighten me.

Bits and Bats

We have a new bar in the village...........just what we needed to join the other forty plus bars we already have!! To be honest, it's really nice. The blokes can sit downstairs and watch the footie whilst us women are able to natter all we want in the upstairs bar.

Ros and I are doing really well at the bowling this season. We've won the last three games and are near to the top of the league. It won't last when we start playing the big boys but we are enjoying it while we can.

My grandson, Martin and nephew Bradley both started at senior school this week. Bradley said it was fine and according to my daughter, Martin went off terrified and returned home with the biggest grin! Jamie has started her third year so it's serious stuff from now on.

Sue goes into hospital on Monday for her major operation. We'll all be thinking of her and I'll go to see her as soon as I'm allowed in.

Look out for a Clio blog as she has a big confession to make!

The End of Summer

In just short of a week the Canarian children will be going back to school after their three month break. The people who are lucky enough to own an apartment in the South and a home in the North are packing up and moving out. The onset of winter looms......such as it is!

We have also noticed that the 'Swallows' are returning. Those folk who live in England and Germany during the summer are coming back to their second homes in Tenerife. It's amazing how things can change so much in a small village.

Not that it bothers us and it's so interesting to watch!

Really Bad

I have no idea what I did but my computer was invaded by a really wicked virus recently. Having tried a system restore and also trying to start again in safe mode I realised that it was completely beyond me and off to the shop it went.

As usual we were on 'Tenerife Time' and I've been without it for around ten days. I think that matey felt a little sorry for me as he's installed a couple of goodies. Microsoft Word 2007 and I now have Messenger in English. He's also set up my system for an English keyboard which would have been great should I have one!

My Money Factory

Brian has a dish in the kitchen where he shoves his loose change into along with his house keys and other sundry items. You wouldn´t believe how much I can collect over a couple of months for my money factory.

The bronze stuff is shared between Charlotte´s money box and Doreen´s charity, the Music and the Deaf, but I take the gold for whatever I´m saving for at the time.

I´m hankering after one of those mini laptops at the moment as I´m dreading being without internet access whilst I´m in England in October. Seventy Euros so far and counting!

Lucky Me!

I´ve just booked a flight to Manchester in October and I really can´t wait to get off this island for a week. It´s a good place to be but after eight months or so without a break from the sun, I fancy a good downpour!

Not just that. I miss my family so much. I´m staying with my brother and his wife, Alison, and their two boys, Dean and Bradley. I´ll also be able to meet up with my son and his family. Katie is due to give birth to my new grandson just before I arrive. Let´s hope that he turns up on time so I can give him a big cuddle. I haven´t seen Tully for so long and want to give her a big hug too!

When I first came here, seven years ago, I hoped that we would all visit each other but the price of flights put paid to that and I rarely see them.

Not to worry, I got a really good deal............212 Euros return with First Choice. Roll on October!