The Valentine’s do last night, was very good actually but spoiled somewhat by the fact that it was also bingo night, which was not postponed for a special night like this. Thing is we are surrounded by red hearts, ribbons etc. and in the background everybody inc. the barmen and waitresses are playing bingo! The caller was a Spanish lady who announced the numbers first in Spanish and then English. So we both now know how to say “two fat ladies” and “legs 11” in Spanish, must come in handy some day?
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| My card |
Meal was cannelloni followed by a steak for me, eggplant and hake for Tricia plus a very nice bottle of Rioja, the pudding was a heart shaped cake which she ate most of. So a three course meal with wine and a free Spanish lesson thrown in, all for €33, can't be bad.
Rolled back very full, and watched one episode of BG and went to bed disappointed, it's really crap and we will start “The Wire” very soon.
We were going to go with Mike and Irene to the local Chinese to get an “all you can eat” lunch for €9/head but although not quite raining yet, it looks like the rain is going to come real soon so I thought I better cycle up to their caravan and arrange another day. Cycled onto their pitch at a bit of a pace, front wheel digs into the gravel, bike stops and I fly over the handlebars and splat on my back. Irene, who had been sitting by her window, comes running out, “All I could see was a body flying through the air, are you all right?” The bike was undamaged and I had broken nothing else but my pride was a bit bruised.
The rain came for the next few days and the thunder and the lightning so a lot of reading was done.
For some reason Mrs Heinz, just before the rain started, hung her undergarments on the line. There are 6 of them and they probably won't be dried out until Friday when the rain is expected to stop. So if she wears one pair a day and has seven, stands to reason or there'll be more on the line, so the pair of knickers she has on won't see the light of day until Friday as well?
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| 6 pairs of knickers in the rain |
Wednesday 16th February, still raining.
The gas finally ran out on the butane bottle, so that's four weeks as against the two we get with propane. So we cook quicker, the heating is hotter and it costs half the price, why do I keep thinking that this is all too good to be true?
My job for the day was to find the distilled water and then I checked the leisure batteries and they all needed some but were OK.
Thursday dawned and the rain had eased off so Tricia give the Truck a good “Mam” clean for the up and coming 130 mile trip to Malaga to pick up Adam and new girlfriend. We then went to Almeria to check out the bus timetables for the flight back, a taxi cost €40+, by the way, so bus it's going to be. Then shopping at Mercadona and fill up the Truck at €1.24/litre, coffee in the plaza and back to MS.
Friday 18th February 2011.
Set the alarm for the unearthly hour of 7:30 am and managed to get up, SSS and we were on our way by 8:45 am. I had forgotten that most of the journey after Adra was single carriageway so bowling along at 70 mph was a no no.
Got to the airport as their plane was landing and parked as far away from arrivals as you can while still remaining in Spain, as we couldn't figure out how to drive right up to arrivals.
Adam and Sammy arrived just after we got there so everything was A OK. Then we couldn't find the car, went to wrong level and as Tricia had already paid the ticket wondered if we still had enough time on it to get out, thank God it worked!
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| Hi Ads! |
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| Lunch is served |
Then the drive back stopping to drop them off at Almuneca, a resort 30 miles this side of Malaga, where Sammy's friends had a flat. Had lunch at a restaurant on the sea front in Almuneca, said goodbye at their friend's place and then the long drive back. Both of them looked a little tired and probably planned some shut eye asap.
Forgot that the camp sites we planned to look at were between Almuneca and Malaga, so we didn't, maybe next time, probably when we go to see the caves at Nerja. Took some photos on the way back as the coastline is very pretty and arrived at the MS about 5'ish. Both were knackered but not hungry so it was cribbage, Doms, “The Wire”, which is very good except every other word begins with F.
Saturday 19th February and guess what? It's washing day.
The usual stuff involving water and waste water. We were going for a cycle ride but it came over all cloudy and cool. Tricia decided to walk up to Mercadona to get some mushrooms for tonight’s steaks, I did not go as my toes would not stand a two mile walk yet. I stayed in and retyped this.
Evening meal was the best fillet steak on earth with chips, battered onion rings, fried tomatoes, grilled mushrooms and a nice bottle of Rioja (€2.45). Then we tried to watch “Stir Crazy” with Gene Wilder, no silly he was in it, but SWMBO fell asleep half way through.
Sunday 20th February 2011, the usual breakfast for her except last week I made the tragic error of making her extra toast so she can have marmalade on it. So it was two eggs and soldiers, freshly squeezed orange juice, toast and marmalade and a cup of tea, all of course, served in bed.
I had a cup of coffee!
It's another washing day! Dark colours this time, yesterday it was whites, I'm a bloke why not just do them all together? Waste of time having two washing days, she'll be hoovering next, hang on, she is!
Heinz next door has just received his regular very large basket of oranges from the back of a car, it's long and black with two inverted “Vs” on the grill. This is driven by another Erick who disappears about 10 o'clock every Sunday morning and reappears with a car full of oranges 45 minutes later, where he goes to get them from I don't know but one day I'm going to follow him.
Heinz (AKA The Baron) then sub divides them into small bundles and sells them to the other local Ericks. I mean it's like drug dealing in New York. Guy strolls up, palms a €5 note into Heinz's hand, he disappears into his awning and comes out with a bag of “the stuff”. He even has the audacity to show “the goods” in hanging baskets on his pitch.
Of course you see the Ericks double checking them as he has been known to “cut” them with some lemons or worst still a pomegranate from Mercadona.
He uses leather clad lockouts placed strategically around his pitch which can be unnerving as they sometimes can be heard muttering about “Crystal night”, “lampshade time” and that this Normally Addictive Zest Ingredient will last for a thousand years!
Of course this is a serious (and profitable) business, the guy who actually picks them probably only gets 20 cents a kilo, street prices however are huge, if rendered down to it's liquid form even more so. Of course you need the correct sterile equipment to do this.
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| The Baron doing a deal |
FSOJ as it's known, is highly addictive and you sometimes see Ericks wandering around going “cold turkey” and being weaned off the stuff with a sherbet dip or fruit drops.
At least 2 oranges are needed for one “shot”, some people pour it on their corn flakes but the more serious users “mainline” it straight into their stomachs from where it spreads rapidly into the system. When it does, chemical alarms sound immediately and a number blood cells and plasma enzymes recognise the orange molecules as being part of a family of compounds call alkaloids. In a desperate but vain effort to protect the body from this sudden invasion, plasma enzymes called cholesterases attack the OJ splitting some of the foreign molecules into physiologically inert fragments.
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| FSOJ apparatus |
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| A "line" |
Within seconds however the remaining OJ is streaking through the body and heading for the brain, crossing the blood brain barrier and pooling in spaces called synapses across which the nerve cells communicate. Then the OJ transmutes itself and impersonates neurotransmitters such as epinephrine, nor-epinephrine or dopamine. As the dopamine level increases, the pleasure centres deeply embedded below the cerebral cortex in the brain become over active. Circuits of nerve cells divinely wired to ensure the survival of the German species ring with excitement and fill different pathways running up to the cortex with ecstatic messages.
The Erick then begins to do things not normally found in the German physic, smile, laugh, act joyously and not invade any country bordering to the east.
Too much misuse of the body has it's consequences and groups of Ericks can sometimes be found aimlessly meandering the calles, but also being at the shower block at 8 o'clock sharp with their towels, some things not even OJ can change.
Heinz, the orange man, has a lot to answer for.
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| It works! |
7pm and it was, a very nice BBQ with a bottle of fizz thrown in. Couple of episodes of TW and it's time for bed.
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| All ready inc. "Fizz" |
Monday 21st February 2011, where the hell is the time going!
Had to get up relatively early this morning, 7am, as SWMBO was having one of “those” nights, hot flushes, so the duvet gets chucked to hell and back. Then “cold” versions of the same thing only I end up with a tiny corner of the duvet as she commanders the rest of it. Numerous jumping up and going to the loo accompanied by excessive snoring is enough for me to call it a day, or more correctly a night, and get up.
So I end up as usual, typing this after stating three days ago that I wouldn't replace what was lost. Actually I didn't, this is all made up new stuff!
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