A day of mixed activities, some work, some leisure and pleasure, started with the usual routine getting ready stuff, then a trip to the local Ferreteria to get a new gas bottle. There is no mains gas or sewage here. Gas comes in bottles that have to be lugged from the Ferreteria, Sewage is dealt with by a septic tank – one that cost us €5,000.00 to replace just a few years ago, which considering that we don’t own the house was a bit of a squeeze. Still, gave up hoping that my mother (who does own the property) would take any responsibility for it long ago.
New gas bottle acquired we bumped down to the local supermarket for essential breakfast supplies then bumped back to the house again. I say bumped because the gas bottle rolls around rather alarmingly in the boot every time I take a roundabout or brake. Every time we come we say that we ought to get wedges to stop this and every time we forget!
Breakfast is the only meal where I have to do any food preparation and even that is minimal. It consists of me making breakfast gloop, a puree of fruit from the garden, to put on gluten free cereal along with yogurt. We lunch out every day, supper, if we have any, is just shop bought charcuterie, cheese and crisps. The deal is that I do the washing up, Garrath does the drying and putting away, but this is so minimal that it takes only minutes. Bliss!
After putting everything away, closing the shutters and the like, we made our way down to Partida La Fossa and gently perambulated to the restaurant of our choice, La Terraza, a Ristorante, Arrozeria y Marisceria. Roughly translated (and my translation is very rough) it means that they specialise in rice dishes and seafood. The staff were helpful and seemed to understand my issues well so I ordered a house salad for starters, Garrath ordered Croquettes for starters, and we ordered a sharing rice dish with rabbit and artichokes. When starters came Garrath had eight croquettes, and my salad was gargantuan. Hmmm, I’ll order that as a main course next time.
When the rice dish came we were surprised and delighted. Somewhere between a soup and a stew, the stock in which it was cooked was utterly delicious, there were lovely vegetables and the rabbit was divine. Unsurprisingly we couldn’t finish it all and didn’t have room for a pud, though there were plenty on offer for me. Next time ……
On the next table there were two Spanish couples with their small children. The twin boys who were immediately next to us started to get restless and wanted to engage with us. They were told gently not to disturb us while we were eating but they persisted. What followed was exemplary parenting on the part of both their parents. Distraction was tried, when that failed boundaries were were firmly set and when they failed to respect them they were placed in their buggy and moved away, effectively excluded from interaction. There was no violence, no harsh words, just firm boundary setting and enforcement. Why can’t more parents in the UK do that? I for one get sick and tired of being expected to tolerate the unruly, often seriously intrusive behaviour of out of control brats, brats who turn into monsters who think they are entitled to everything and responsible for nothing.
After that very pleasant repast we went for a meander to the end of Partida La Fossa with me taking photographs of Lifesnapper’s beach babes along the way and calling into a couple more cafes for tea, coffee and water. During one of those stops I saw the silliest of silly hats thus far. I managed to capture that in a sketch that will become a painting to illustrate my verse tomorrow.
We had some amusing times with our Apple watches. At several points while we were sitting at the same table mine had me in Teulada while Garrath’s had him where we were in Calpe, Garrath’s iPhone had a good signal with Orange and mine had a poor signal with YOIGO.
We had expected to have a visit from Peter’s mate who wants to take Garrath’s beloved Honda but when we got back there was a message to say that they couldn’t make it this evening but would come tomorrow, so guess what – down to the local watering hole. There we met our team of gardeners who were on their way to our place to Pom Pom the Olive tree, do some strimming and tidying up.
So here we are again, writing blogs, enjoying a wonderful evening temperature of 24C at my side of the table, 23C at Garrath’s side (Apple watches again) blissfully cool after the hot air of the day (29C) referred to in the title, being eaten alive by those miniature marauders, snickety, snackety horrible bitey things and indulging in whatever drink takes our fancy.
Life is tough!