Miserable weather so it's driving to various plazas and a trip to Almeria to see the castle and the cathedral. Then SWMBO finally got into the very typical Spanish restaurant at the top of the town, that she had been asking to visit for the last two years, very nice and €10/head. Evening we played cribbage, we won, a few bevies and then bed, us into our sleeping bags.
When SWMBO is in the company of other women and shops are at hand, she usually goes into “buying” mode.
Today she bought a blouse.
Alan went for a cycle ride on my recently SWMBO cleaned bike, brought it back full of mud but his only complaint was that he got some dirt on his shoes.
Friday 11th March 2011
Still not good weather so we went for a 80 miles drive to Cabo De Gata and to take in a few camp sites, which turned out too small. Had a fantastic shellfish soup in a small fishing village called San Jose, they had a mixed paella.
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| San Jose |
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| Cabo De Gato |
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| Info office, natural parque |
Evening, couple of beers in the restaurant with Alan, games of cards after, carne con tomatoes, calamari and deep fried onion rings in batter.
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| Cabo De Gata NP |
Saturday 12th March 2011.
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| San Jose for lunch |
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| The Swans at lunch |
Back to the MS and start the clean up, putting things back where they belonged, airing the sleeping bags and generally washing sheets etc.
So normal washing, filling and emptying. No more shopping as we want to use up everything as we will be leaving the MS with no gas of electric.
Weather brightening up, what a surprise. Played Doms, watched a film with Bruce Willis, no he was in it silly, then back in our bed again, comfy.
Today she bought a shirt.
Sunday 13th March 2011.
The shops were closed, Mrs Swan had gone, she bought nothing.
The cleaning of the car, bikes and MS didn't happen because it's now wall to wall blue sky and sun, 22°C and rising and we both just cannot be bothered. I'm going to cycle to the Spinnaker pub to watch the 6 nations England v Scotland rugby match at 4pm, SWMBO's staying with the MS as she can't be arsed and anyway finds it boring watching rugby while I try to tell her the rules and what's actually happening. Good grief! Didn't Italy just go and beat the bloody French 22 – 21, barely bears thinking about if you're French. If England win they only have the Irish to beat next week and the will have won “The Grand Slam”.
At 3:30 pm I peddled off to the Spinnaker, alone because she decided to stay and shower and clean a bit, England won 22 – 16 and a very good match it was too, couple of beers (€7!) and cycled back OK, the beach was quite busy.
Doms and I was beaten badly, pizza, a single episode of TW, then early to bed.
We will be hosting that match back in Forest Row, flying out on Tuesday. Lift from Dave here at RDM and good old reliable Claudio is picking us up from Gatwick. Can't wait to get my hair cut.
Monday 14th March 2011 and ready for the off.
Up early and by the cringe did it rain most of the night, not hard but constant and luckily by this morning it had stopped and was now sunny and drying out. Thank God I didn't wash the car as I promised SWMBO as even more brown rain fell and all the Ericks have been up early to wash their cars for the 3rd day running.
There have been a lot of people leaving and the empty pitches continue to grow in area and judging by the Ericks around us we may on our own when we get back in a weeks time.
They take about 4-6 days in the process of leaving, cleaning awnings and green pitch coverings and the day before they leave they are parked in the calle so they just drive off the next morning,
We have decided to disconnect both gas and electric, why pay for something when you're not using it? OK we are still paying for the pitch but at €8/night for a secure pitch is fine by me.
So we have to eat every in the fridge and freezer. We started yesterday and that was OK because there was lots to chose from and we managed to have nice meals. Today we have to get through, 1Kg Chilli con Carne, chunk of cheddar cheese, 2 pizzas, crab sticks, 2 large baguettes, a pan of vegetable soup, a cabbage, frozen peas, a cuddly toy, 4 pints of fresh milk, 2 ice cream chocolate lollies, 2 pints of ice cream, 4 carrots, 3 large potatoes, I pack of corned beef, 1 pack of ham, some large mushrooms, a whole salami and a part eaten jar of mayonnaise. There's also an avocado and some red and green things in the bottom of the fridge that could be left over peppers. I also have to squeeze 12 oranges.
We do not intend to purposefully leave anything, the diet is out of the window!
Oh and there's a bottle of Fizz, 2 pints of red fighting wine and innumerable cans of Steinberg, at 5% and 6%, but that's a standard BAWD anyway so no problems there then.
Made up some corned beef sandwiches for the plane, hers with Branston pickle, mine with Branston and English mustard.
Tuesday March 15th 2011.
Got up, got ready and Dave and Elaine turned up at our door and exactly 8:30 am as promised. 30 minutes later and we were at Almeria airport, through customs and hustling and fighting everybody to get first in the queue. Plane was very nearly full but we had a spare seat, well up until 3 minutes from doors closed and a guy hurries in sits down and sleeps for the whole journey, must have been having a last desperate fag because he stunk of cigarette smoke.
After about 30 minutes flying, “Where's my sandwich?” “Er...I don't know, I've got mine”.
I have explained before but just to reiterate. When SWMBO travels, she eats. Some switch gets pushed inside her and she must eat, pies are her staple but anything in bread or a crust round it will suffice, if she doesn’t get fed,................. well it hasn't actually happened yet, because I'm still alive, but it would not be a good thing, a very, very bad thing, blood, guts and general mayhem would occur I can assure you. So imagine the seen; I'm sitting there (within her reach) and I've got a corned beef half baguette (with mustard) and she's got nothing, bugger all. A small but very violent scuffle took place. “I thought you didn't like mustard?” Her reply? “Mmmmmmph.”, but she was content, I sucked a mint.
Landed 30 minutes early and Claudio was there waiting in his cramped four seater Porsche, I asked if he could bring a better car next time.
Dropped us at our home in Forest Row and the first person we meet is our new lodger Ashleigh or “Ash” to his friends. Tall, dark, slim and young and within seconds SWMBO had worn out her drool gland. House was remarkably clean and tidy, mainly because everything had been either chucked in the garage or our bedroom. Cleared the bedroom but there was no hope for the garage and it will have to wait for July when we get back for summer.
SWMBO started to get the house “Mum” clean and I fought with the mountain of mail. Since I still have not got round to having my dividends paid directly into the bank, there were some very nice surprises which will top up our savings no end.
Heather and Adam turned up and so we all trooped off to the Khans Indian and had a curry, both “kids” earn more than me but guess who paid?
Bed no TW.
Wednesday 16th March 2011, Forest Row, UK.
Dropped Adam off at East Grinstead train station and his Yaris is sounding like a bag of hammers, the gearbox is definitely shot. Took it round to our local garage and after a test drive, Paul the owner said, “Don't get in that again, mate!” Reconditioned gearbox is about £450 fitted, but as the car has actually done 155,000 miles, don't think it will be worth it somehow. Back in the day, a 1.3 litre engine managing over 100,000 miles was unheard of.
So when Adam got back we ended up having a mild argument about him getting our Porsche 924 and finding a blind and deaf person to buy the Yaris. Apparently as it had a long MOT it could be worth £400 - £500 on Ebay. Ash was listening and was bemused that Adam wanted to keep his POS instead of riding around in a Porsche?
Adam said he would think about it.
Dentist for SWMBO and haircut for me.
Thursday 17th March 2011.
SWMBO had a haircut and we both went shopping for the Ireland v England, expected English Grand Slam victory dinner with the usual suspects on Saturday.
Friday 18th March 2011.
SWMBO to “Sanctuary” with Heather. This was a Christmas present to Heather and guess what? SWMBO gets to go with her! Heather also bought SWMBO tea and cake at The Ritz and guess who went with her? I'm going to get Adam a Karting race next Christmas.
Fixed Dyson cleaner that had had it's power cord ripped out, don't ask. I had to take the whole thing to pieces and it was fitted together using “Torx” headed screws, which is not either Philips or blade shaped screws. Trouble was that they were set “deep” and my Torx screwdrivers could not reach them. So I thought I'd ring Alan Swan, Director of Air Engineering and ex-engineer (not) himself.
“Hi, Al, didn't really want you, I wanted to speak with and engineer”. “Ha Ha, OK what do you want?” Went on to explain the situation, “Must be a clever bit of a vacuum cleaner that if you need a torque screwdriver!” “It's not a torque screwdriver Al, it's a Torx screwdriver”, and I explained the difference. “Never heard of them!” As I said, engineer! Hah! So he went and got somebody who knew about these things but it turned out they couldn't help and eventually sorted it by using a combination of Allen keys and mole grips. It now works, saving £200 and I now know everything about Dyson vacuums!
Stayed in sober in the evening waiting to pick up SWMBO and Heather brought her home instead, I'd lost 3 hours precious supping time!
Saturday 19th March 2011, Six Nations Rugby.
Spent the day preparing food, Irish beef and New Zealand lamb that had been looked after by an Irish Shepard (as Tricia made out anyway), and making sure there was enough booze for the celebrations to come.
BUT.
We lost badly to a much better Irish team which put a dampener on the whole evening. Went round the pub with the guys and we all just stood there, beers in hand, saying nothing and just staring into space. Meal was good though and everybody left fairly early.
Sunday 20th March 2011.
Sunday Times and coffee in the conservatory, marvellous!
Then family Sunday roast with Heather and Olly.
Down the pub to play pool with Adam, couple of beers then bed.
Monday 21st March 2011.
Made an attempt to clean some of the garage by taking all the bottles and cans and general crap that has built up since Christmas, to the local tip, but I still could not see the garage floor.
Evening, down pub to play pool with Adam again and he, for the first time actually won. Mind his MO is just to hit the balls as hard as possible and working on the fact that there are six pockets, they might eventually go in!
Tuesday 22nd March 2011, 4am alarm to fly back to RDM and home!
Adam gave us a lift in the Yaris to Gatwick, which incidentally Olly is going to take off our hands for £400, so Adam has reconciled to drive the Porsche.
Left England in warm balmy sunshine and it's overcast and bleeding freezing here!
Mercadona for a “big” shop as the fridge, being left off, was completely empty.
Game of Doms, I lost, fish and vegetables, G&N for memswabe, B&W for me as it was an artificial BAWD, everything back to normal regime tomorrow. She fell asleep half way through Avatar, early to bed for both of us.
Wednesday 23rd 2011, back in sunny Roquetas, no hold that, make it windy and pissing down with rain, instead. What's that all about then, bloody warmer and generally nicer in the UK and it's March for heavens sake!
Managed a short walk to get the things we had forgotten on Tuesday and SWMBO went for a cycle ride in the afternoon while I stayed and did “important” things on the PC.
More rain and wind.
She managed to fall asleep again half way through “The Bourne Identity”, with Matt Damon, no silly he was in it. Mind I had beaten her rather badly at Doms 3 S, and a large meal of liver and onions did not help either.
Thursday 24th March 2011 and guess what? Yep, raining all night and hanging on in there this morning, so our cycle ride to the “Tat” market may wait until next Thursday. Ho hum.
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| Day out in Almeria |
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| Finally, lunch in Almeria |
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| Almeria meets the Swans |
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| They shop! |
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