What a day (Saturday)! It’s nearly 4pm and I’m on the terrace in a T-shirt and sandals IN THE SHADE! Must be 20 degrees or thereabouts. A heavenly day. Our little almond trees are all in bloom, the bees are a-buzzing and somewhere in the village a group of youngsters are playing some very competent drum music. I am making a carrot and coriander soup for supper at a friend’s house tonight, so busy chopping veg out-of-doors. Bliss.
Steve has gone to Sevilla to a motorbike show (left at 5am) but I find the Suzuki too wearing on the knees so I opted out. The VFR is awaiting a new battery before we can use that - then I’m very comfortable. And we have got our tickets for IoM ferries, our lovely friends Stevie & Lynne coming to house-sit, and some very old friends who live on the Island offering us a tenting paradise plus beds if the weather plays foul. We will travel overland on the VFR and hope to do the race circuit on ‘Mad Sunday’ if we can.
Last night Mike gave a small party and lit all the steps up to his house with tiny candles. Fran did the music so we had an eclectic mix of the Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, House music and eventually some Garage stuff. The age range was 4 months to 60+ and I swear that the pizza had been doctored with something illicit…but who can say. Because of Steve’s trip today, we didn’t ‘tie one on’ and left fairly early.
On Thurs we had a sudden power cut at 9pm, so out came all the candles. Thank goodness for gas bottles and a woodburner! It turns out that the main village connection point is a complete shambles of wires, metal poles and various antique additions, some of which lost their grip at that particular moment in time, so we now have a smart new cable straight to the house and have said goodbye to the interesting and surreal arrangement that previously adorned the corner of the building. A shame in some ways, as we like the artistry involved in taking cables around vine stems or down- pipes, or at strange angles to any other device.
Our little granero is taking shape at last with internal plastering in sight, a staircase and soon some bathroom and kitchen fittings. Just ‘bueno, bonito y barrato’ as they say (good, attractive and cheap). Emilio has been suffering from a local stomach virus but he and the electrician did some sterling work this morning. I tried some Dr Collis Brown’s Mixture on him yesterday but it does not seem to have made much difference. Several people have got it so let’s hope we’re not next…
Hasta luego
PS It snowed again last night…J
XXX