Our last week in Albir

Brandy Update

No not an earlier sighting, although the Italian man refitting his pizza bar who Iain calls Super Mario apparently drinks it for breakfast – not yet witnessed.  However only in Spain would their most popular brandy be called – Soberano – and here’s the proof.  Talking of proof, it’s only 30% - so that makes it alright – doesn’t it?

Is your bottle half full or half empty?  Ours is definitely half full!

Fruit

Can anyone help me with this fruit which is growing freely on the campsite.  It’s about the size of an apricot and has a similar taste to the cape gooseberry – it’s definitely not an apricot.

Getting ready for the off

We’ve now only two days left in Albir and although we don’t take anywhere near as much time as caravanners to pack up we do have some chores to do.  But there is still some time to enjoy our last few days here.

Tuesday last week Martin and Jean from (near) Leeds arrived as our new neighbours.  We of course initiated them quickly about all the places to go and as they were only to be here 8 days they had quite a lot to pack in.  We strongly advised that a visit to El Cisne was a must and as it was our last Saturday here we also decided to go along, just for the Flamenco dancing.  Joy – this one’s for you – we not only kept up the support for El Cisne but I even got up and danced with them at the end.  Now I’m not normally a one for making a fool of myself in public (I can manage that well enough in private) but I just couldn’t resist.  Iain is terrible at taking photos as he struggles to see the screen in bright light but at least he did have a go at it – so here’s the evidence – top of my head job again, but oh well at least I have a photo. I absolutely loved it, even though I’ve never done it before and I couldn’t believe how tiring it was. Didn’t do much “tapping” though. 

There is one thing to mention though, every time I go to see the flamenco dancing it reminds me of when Iain and I hadn’t been together very long and I was trying to impress him and to pretend that I was cultured, so I organised a little treat for him.  Well he likes the opera and although I’d never been before, Carmen was being performed at Woking theatre.  I thought – mmm that’s a nice easy one to start with so I bought a couple of tickets and on the appropriate night we trotted off to Woking.  Well I thought we were going to the opera when in fact we were there to enjoy (as billed) a “Tap dancing extravaganza” – I remember those words well – we saw them on the posters as we were leaving the theatre.  It was nearly two hours of tap dancing to something remotely resembling the music of Carmen and the only bit that we actually recognised was some old women dressed in black, wailing in the background. But at least they did have a real dancing horse on the stage.  I think most of the rest of the audience was as stunned as we were.  It was actually pretty good but we certainly wouldn’t have gone if we’d known what we were letting ourselves in for.  I let Mr Always Right pick the operas after that – at least I tried.

The proper dancing was fantastic again and this was the third different routine they had put on in the four visits we had made.  As I said to Ronnie the other week, this is not what you would expect at an English village fete – these people are real professionals.

On Sunday (well it was our last one in Albir) we decided to have lunch with Jo and James who having come here for two weeks will be leaving on Friday the same day as us – and they have been here 6 months. So we invited Martin and Jean to join us.  This of course turned out to be yet another short day!!!!!!! I think it was dark when we got back!!!!! Now Martin and Jean are not big drinkers and we had to pop around the next day to see if we needed to apologise for anything –they said we didn’t so that was ok.  Feeling a little jaded on Monday so had an alcohol-free day and felt great by yesterday. 

We both said that we were NOT going to make it a week of – well it’s our last Sunday, Monday, Tuesday – get the picture.  I’m definitely not drinking (well not much) for the rest of the week as I want to be clear headed (and completely sober) on Friday for the move.  I’ve been good so far.

So this week it’s jobs to be done, yesterday we cleaned the outside of the van and it’s absolutely gleaming.

Retro look or what? All that chrome.

Look at that reflections - gleaming

Stand by your van.

Then as we were messing about with water I decided to give the dog a bit of a spring clean as well.

On the campsite there are very long hoses all over the place so I thought that I’d wait until the heat of the day had warmed up the water in the hose and use it to bath the dog.  Actually the water was VERY hot when I started.  It was a nice warm day and I also thought that it might help to cool her off.

Nicely scrubbed up I left Connie to dry but then a bit of cloud came over and it cooled considerably.  I checked on Connie and she was freezing – you could hear her teeth chattering – which despite feeling mean is actually quite funny to hear.  So I wrapped her up in a towel to keep the breeze off her.  As soon as I walked away the teeth chattering stopped – now was she really cold or just trying to make me feel bad?

While I’m talking about the dog, she’s getting on a bit and has been having some trouble with her water-works.  Poor thing, it’s only when she’s asleep or very relaxed.  I first noticed it a few weeks ago when she was sitting on my lap and suddenly I felt this warm sensation running down my leg and then a few days later when there was a small puddle at the back end after she’d been lying down for a while.  I knew that she didn’t know as she’s a very clean dog and I’m sure she would be mortified if she knew what was happening.  She’s now 12 or 13 and is very fit for her age and we’re not going to put her on the scrap heap for hopefully many years, so I got onto the internet to see if I can find out more. I did wonder if I could get some doggy nappy or something for night-time.  Apparently this is quite common in older spayed bitches and something that would have just been “one of those things” in the past, these days does have a treatment for it – what it is? Wait for it – HRT!!!!!! Now there’s a thing.  Who ever heard of HRT for dogs?  So as soon as we get back to the UK we will be making a visit to the vet.  Iain’s comment was something like – oh no – not two hormonal women to live with.

Today I have an appointment with the washing machine at 10 and we’ve to sort out the inside ready for the off on Friday.  Tonight we’re taking Liz, Gill and Mike out for a Chinese (last of the big spenders) and then it’s quiz – but I’m not going to have a hang-over tomorrow!!!!

Better go or I will be late for my washing machine.