Biking & Baking in Las Alpujarras

So...the world did not end on 21/12, it rained on Christmas Day...and 2013 is looming...how to celebrate  Old Year's Night and New Year's Day is the question.  Earlier this week we took a VFR bike ride down from Granada (Suspiro del Moro) to Otivar and Almuñecar which was just fabulous, and having looked across at the mountains there, we hope to be sleeping under the stars somewhere between Frigiliana and Competa tomorrow night and Tuesday to.  A bit less sparkly than the usual all-night village festivities, but the delicious instant soup and pot noodles should be a compensation :). 

I have had some fun with an Amazon parcel that had gone missing...it turned out to have been delivered to, and signed for by, someone called Julio Garcia on 12 December...but who was he, where was the parcel and why did I know nothing about it?  In fact, Amazon were great and instantly credited me for all my costs, then we went to the Lanjaron office of MRW who informed us that the parcel had been left at a local hotel.  'Why had they not bothered to let me know?'  Well, the driver must have tried to ring me and then given up.  Interesting!  Went to the hotel and there was my parcel, propped up in the bar, as it had been for 2 weeks...and graciously handed over by Julio Garcia, who actually lives 10 minutes away and could have dropped it in to me himself.  I just love the Spanish 'insouciance' when it comes to this sort of thing.  Of course you will get your parcel, of course everyone is honest, of course it is around here somewhere...And now, of course, Amazon has to re-charge me all over again as I finally have the goods.  It's Christmas!!!

Right, time to go and pack my rucksack...2 nights, jolly cool after sundown, no more than 5kg weight if possible, mustn't forget the TBags...Happy New Year everyone and make sure your Resolution includes LAUGHING a lot.  Very beneficial!

 We put the thermometer out early afternoon yesterday and got +38C in the sun, +22C in the shade, and then at 18.30 hrs about +12C.  Not bad for 19 December! That's at over 1100m above sea level too.  Today was a bit cooler but that didn't stop me from going riding with a friend, Steve chain-sawing the dead chestnut, an eagle from flying low overhead and several of us having a pre-Chistmas drink in the bar later on.  Two of our cycling neighbours, both strong youngish men, returned from a spin around the Trevelez area clad in the blue and gold of their cycling club, and we all agreed that the world WILL NOT END tomorrow!  Not least because we all have some festive eating to do next week and we'd rather wait until the sun burns up the earth in 6 billion years' time.

Enjoy your festive celebrations everyone!  I may well post again before 25th but if not, HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!

 It was Steve's birthday on Tues 4th and it's mine today, 6th plus 3 friends in the tango group this week...so many Sagittarians, so many kind people, so much fun!  We have been given a Kumquat in a pot, some delicious French toffees, had a phone call from Crete, emails from UK...and 5 friends came round last night for roast beef, Yorkshire pud, fine wine...we got to bed about 2.30 in the morning.  

We'll probably spend the day down on the land and then make a long walk tomorrow.  My medical outcome is good on the cancer front (final tumour still reducing) but the old bones have lost, or are losing, some of their density, so injected infusions of Zometa are on the cards as of next week.  More spinach, more walking, more dancing...oh dear!!