Swins 2010 2011 tour, where are we now?: Saturday 14th May 2011, BP and an early start.

(pics at end as usual)
Tricia went to bed early dispirited, disconsolate and depressed at being drubbed at both boules and cribbage and her constant sobbing fair nearly put me off reading my book.

On the way back from the cycle ride yesterday, I told her that I was popping into the supermarket to get some wine and she asked if I was going to drink a whole bottle again! “No” I replied, minutes later clutching a €2 plastic 2.5 litre bottle of Mercadona's best vino, “I'll only drink half”. Sampling such I tried watching a DVD, when she had gone to bed, now get this, it's called “The men who stare at goats”, no, no, a true title and what's more it's full of movie stars, see picture.

SWMBO as declared a new fitness scheme, 8 lengths of the pool every day, it lasted about the same as every single scheme she has started, one day!

Well slept kinda properly last night, but up at 6'ish and did my PC stuff, then about 8 am made the tragic mistake of SSS. At that time the shower block is quite busy. So I start with the usual and I'm sitting there, not in my normal stall but the one on the end. I hear a “pssst?”, eh! what! For one, who the hell is saying that and two, I'm not anyway, too bloody early. Then again, “pssst?”, is it someone trying to sell me things, you know “dubious things” while I'm ensconced on the toilet? Turns out they have fitted, either a anti mossie thing or air freshener injector thing that goes “pssst” whenever it makes up it's little electronic mind, to try and change the smell in the toilet, if one was fitted back in Roquetas when the big Germans were about it would be “psssting” non stop!

So do teeth with one of my three toothbrushes which I happen to find in my bag first, if it's the electric one I feel as if I've had my first treat of the day but I must take care not to mix up the preparation H, tube with my toothpaste tube, again. Then into the shower. Now because it's so busy it's just pointless trying to set the temperature and stand there, freezing or getting scolded. You just have to keep nipping in and out and hope you catch it at a benign oscillation in it's temperature transients. Since I had already decided to bring my cycling shorts with me to give the gusset a good rub through, I was in there longer than normal and anyone listening must have thought I was rehearsing for the camp's Morris dancing troupe.

I was emptying the wastehog the other day at the motorhome “dump” at the top of the site, it was full of washing machine water as SWMBO had just been doing her thing. So I'm next to the boules courts and the lot from the CC are there and one of the guys come over and pointedly stares at what I'm dumping, as if it might be “black” water, cheeky and nosey bastid that he is. I must admit it took me all my strength not to tell him to “go forth and multiply”, but I held back the urge.
Washing the whites she is so I'm filling and dumping again, love it!

Well it's 12:30 pm and the FA Cup between Chelsea and Stoke starts over here at 4pm, hope it's on in reception or perhaps at some coffee shop in the town, been invited to a few Brit caravans to watch it there, but not for me I'm afraid.

So we are arguing, well talking louder than we should, about a cycle ride or a walk and I, not like me at all, am favouring the walk. “So we can do some shopping on the way back, good!” We only really need bananas and milk but when we'd finished there were 15 items on the list and we would need our bikes after all, or walk back down again with my rucksack.

David and Elaine are coming up from Roquetas today and will be stopping here for one night on their way up through France and on to the UK, so we have been practising our boules like mad and intend to give them a good seeing to, helps that the boules pitches here are nothing like the ones at Roquetas.
Did not get to see the game, nobody had it on in reception or in any of the bars in town.
Sunderland got beat by Wolves 3 - 1, funny thing was it was the first time their manager, Mick McCarthy, had won at the Stadium of Light, Sunderland's home pitch, and he was manager there for three years! Manchester United won the Premiership again but it's going to be a rare old scrap for who goes down.

D&E arrived at about 4 pm and parked their caravan about three pitches away from us, they are off first thing tomorrow to France. On arrival, I fixed his GPS, re-wired his power cable hook up, Tricia made them tea and biscuits and when we went shopping bought them some bread. Can't afford for them to arrive every day! Pity it's peeing down as we will have to give the boules match a miss.
Rain stopped long enough for them to beat us 2 – 0. damn!

Some chicken and peppers, doms, me 3 – 0 and then what was left of “Blazing Saddles”, then bed.

Sunday 15th May 2011, made scrambled eggs, smoked salmon, tea and toast with marmalade for us both.

Nice start to the day, plan a walk along the beach and back through the town after another cup of coffee and the washing up. Beach was crowded and so is the camp site, I think there's some sort of Spanish holiday as there are a lot of kids and young people around.

Walk was about three miles including a stop for a coffee and then back to the MS to lie in the sun and read. Quick game of boules, her 2 – 1, blast! Tonight it's chicken curry and chips, real English food and then another one of Mel Brooks' films, either “The Producers” or “To be or not to be”, both great and very funny.

Monday 16th May 2011, BP and a bit of a cycle ride.

Decided to head to Castellon and see how far we could manage, 4 bottles of water, two coffees and 26 miles later we got back, knackered, the planned trip to Valencia tomorrow is definitely off and I am presently kneeling down on all fours with my cojones resting and recovering in tepid olive oil, in a bowl we normally use to keep the pickled onions in.
No boules and we bareley managed to move the doms around at all, BTW, her 3 – 2. Then the last Mel Brooks' film and glorious bed.

Tuesday 17th May 2011, BP and also our wedding anniversary (36 years, sounds more like a sentence!)

Messages from home:-
Adam had reported that the Porsche had developed yet another fault, the exhaust down pipe had sheared, so that was another £220 on top of the starter motor £330 fix, we should have kept the Yaris as it would have only cost £450 for a new gearbox, ho hum. Heather is off to Gozo (Malta) for a few days visiting some old friends, then off to Wentworth with the PGA types. Richard has moved out into his new place his Dad bought him, in Crawley. Ash is still there and we could do with another lodger to replace Richard.

With the Valencia thing postponed, the next best thing (for her) is a walk along the beach to Oropesa and a picnic, it was OK and tonight it's to be a pizza on the beach at sunset accompanied with a cold bottle of fizz, can't wait it's so romantic.

The place where we chose to have our picnic of egg and tomato baguettes and tea tasting of the new vacuum flask was OK and was close, but not close enough to see any detail of an all male nudist beach.

The romantic pizza and fizz thing didn't happen because after a couple of hours in the sun when we got back, she didn't want to do anything and anyway it was “too cold” (19°C at 9 pm as a matter of fact). So we went to the camp restaurant and had a great three course meal, liver, bacon and onions, (no that's not the three courses, silly) including a bottle of vino for €19.80! Got back around 10 pm, no doms, no cribbage, no film, just a bee line for her to bed. I'm going to watch the rest of “The men who stare at goats”.

Wednesday 18th May 2011, BP, a bit of washing and then back on the bikes.

Planning a run to Carrefour to get some odd items that only they sell around here, should be about a 20 miler. Just got back, 20.003 miles exactly and I can't feel my bum anymore, I mean it's a numb bum, I can still actually reach it, just not feel it if you know what I mean, I'm stopping this now.
Boules, me 2 – 0, doms me 3 -1, her, pissed off and not talking anymore. Chicken stir fry and then two episodes of Murphy's Law that were actually very good, looks like the writers have finally got it together and the actors know their stuff.

Finished off a Patricia Cornwell novel, female forensic doctor on murder hunts, not my style and will never read another, give me a proper SAS type thriller every time. Then bed.
Thursday 19th May 2011, BP and oh the pain!

Both awoke in mutual agony this morning, nearly 50 miles cycling in three days is, I guess at our age, just too much too soon, must try to make the next one a little shorter. Well we may have woken up but I was the only one to actually get up, I mean it was only 7 am and there is no way in hell she's going to get up then. So it's 9:30 am and I start frying some lovely Spanish bacon to go into a fresh half baguette and she magically appears at my elbow before it dawns on her that her “new” diet begins today. After calling me some names even I won't repeat she remains stony faced for the rest of the morning for “getting me up so early with that bloody smell”, and only brightens up when she realises that it's market day today.

Unfortunately one thing that isn't bright today is the weather, overcast with the threat of some rain, mind you the temperature is 20°C and I don't particularly mind warm rain. So after the market it will probably be a stay in and “dee things” kind of day. Looking at the size of some of the satellite dishes around the site, I might have a go with my “Roadpro”, small but thinking big, dish. As it's the last MoTD this week end I might be able to catch it on Sunday morning. Need to trail my 50 m of hose to one of the adjoining pitches to top up the fresh water tank as we are pretty low.

SWMBO is planning on some really interesting ironing and a few people have asked for a quick tour of the MS. This probably because of our position on the site, right at the top on the corner plot which is apparently part of the evening “walk round the camp” many people do in the, well the evening I guess. It's funny really because as we have tinted double glazed windows they cannot see if we are in but out of curiosity still walk right up to the MS for a close inspection, practically gurning in the windows while we are laughing our socks off inside.

Yesterday I had washed the car to get most of the bird shit off which usually guarantees it will rain and your already ahead of me, it rained just enough this morning to bring back a hint of the “brown stain”, damn!

Up to the market and bought all the fruit and vegetables for the next week including two huge lettuce which would have cost about £1.50 each back in Sainsburys in the UK. Also included 6 Kg of fresh oranges, some of which were converted into 1 litre of FSOJ when I got back.

Keep on dropping the internet and you have to wait an hour each time to get back in, doing my head in it is, as is the bloody row the CC members are making on the boules pitch, one woman actually cackles like an old witch. SWMBO is constantly preventing me from shouting over “STFU!” to get them to tone it down a bit, like a bunch of 5 year olds.