A WEEK IN CONIL

Saturday 22nd.Jan

A week of sunny warm weather has been replaced by cloudy with strong wind. THe evenings have been a bit chilly, sometimes requiring heating but never cold enough to need overnight heating. Had a very pleasant Buffet night in the restaurant on Monday (8€) but they have dispensed with the services of Jose the cuban who has been so entertaining in previous years with his interpretation of Bingo, Salsa lessons and Club 18-30 games for 60-somethings which have been great fun. Now we have a disco which precludes conversation and empties the restaurant fairly quickly. Shared a table with Stuart and Thelma who are between motorhomes, being unable to agree on the specification for their next one, so have flown out to stay in one of the chalets for a month before heading over to Olhao in Portugal for another month......nearly everybody seems to heading to Olhao this year and all start the conversation with "you either love it or hate it but....". We have no strong feelings either way but wouldn't go there for a month as parking in the roadways is not very comfortable and once you've done Faro there's not much else (see last year). The other couple we shared with were Dave and Jackie who have a house in Pembroke,a house in France(Aveyron),a motorhome,a caravan,a trailer tent and a tent. At one stage as Jackie was explaining their very complicated lifestyle arrangements, Dave looked up and said "I just go where I'm told and most of the time I don't know where that is" which must just about sum it up.
The local Romeiro festival is on Sunday 23rd this year and the restaurant put on a free lunch on Wednesday which was another fairly alcoholic affair well attended.
The electric bikes have been given a good outing everday and are proving excellent fun...and a great conversation point. Accosted on the prom whilst having coffee by an Austrian motorhomer who had to have full chapter and verse on them. But we see a lot of them around.
Prices at Mercadona, the local supermarket, seem less than less year, and the wine I was paying 2€50 last year is 1€80 this year and still as drinkable. 12 cans of San Miguel 33cl. and 5.4% was 5€34 which I am sure is cheaper...and certainly was cheaper than the local CruzCampo brew which I usually drink. Might have been on offer. Shopping has proven no problem on the bikes so far, and we were told about a local fruit & veg farm up the coast near Roche where 3€60 bought 6 oranges the size of grapefruits, a kilo of clementines, a lettuce,kilo of tomatoes and a bunch of bananas. Not bad for £3.10 so we shall return as we run out of east anglia's finest veg.
Site is still much emptier than previous years, Nick & Barbera have broken down for the 5th time and are now at Fiat Girona awaiting something to happen next Monday and I assume Dave and Geraldine are still with them........text message today said last night temp was -3.5 but at least they are in a hotel.
On the malfunctioning front, setting off the alarm by opening the door before disarming revealed that the tracking device is not working as the alarm did not trigger the usual phone call to check we are ok. When I phoned to see why they had not responded they say they had not received an alert. When they ran a check it seemed they were not receiving a signal fron the vodaphone simcard in the device that communicates with them. They checked with vodaphone to confirm the card was authorised for roaming..which it is and has been in the past..and now say that the device....which is hidden deep in the bowels of the dashboard needs resetting to kickstart the simcard into european life. I have no idea how to dismantle the dashboard & although I have a vague idea of where the tracker may be hidden I am not happy. They have also suggested forcing a reset by setting the alarm off 30 times in succession for more than 5 secs each time........that'll makes us popular round here !