Brief Encounters .......

February 11th 2012

After the great weather we are now in a spell of clear blue skies and sunshine with extremely cold temperatures overnight or if the wind starts blowing as it is from the north. Last weekend saw some bitter winds and most of Europe including northern Spain was experiencing freezing conditions. Snow seemed to cover most places even down to La Manga but the wind was the killer. We went out a couple of times and the Gf ended up with sinus trouble and a cough ( of which there is a lot of around here) and took to her bed on Monday.She is still not 100% but was up and about by Tuesday, only missing out on the Buffet in the restaurant on monday which was jolly, even without her.

As well as whist which we still play on Thursdays, we have re-learnt Canasta with Harry & Joan, along with the sweetly named Shithead which is a fun card game much loved by students and the rules of which I had downloaded from the net but not played until we found The above couple who knew it from their children......harry was a surveyor and has renovated what sounds like a great house in the Vendee where they now live......not far from Don & Sandra who live in the Charente - Don being a mad scotsman who has lived in france for the last 15 years, mainly Normandy, having been a translator for estate agencies selling to brits.

The quiz on Wednesday......the winners scored a very creditable 50/50; we scored 47/50 and tied for 2nd and if the Gf had known that a pearl wedding was 30 years, not 35, we would have had a straight second place and €32.

Everybody knew we were going to lose the tie-break - 'what is the running time of the film Brief Encounters ? ' I wrote 90mins. & the other team wrote 90 mins so there should have been another tie-break question but the Gf over-ruled me at the last minute and wrote 100 mins. As the predictable answer was 86 mins we came 3rd and €15 and lost another tie break which is now the source of much amusement and comment.

On thursday we had a lads day out at the Jerez race track watching F1 pre-season testing courtesy of a lift from Roy the welshman next door. Very pleasant in the sunshine watching Hamilton,Vettel and Alonso blast round a racetrack that should still be in the championship. Alonso naturally plays to the spanish crowd, sopping to milk the cheers and burn rubber to get them excited.On the way back, Roy was so busy taking the piss out of his friend Will who had taken the wrong turning on this road and ended up in the back streets of Cadiz with his motorhome that he managed to take the wrong turning and we ended up in the back streets of Cadiz and took half an hour to get out of.This caused much hysteria, especially when his wife Joy heard about it on our return as Roy had been going on about Will's error for 2 weeks.

On friday we had a delightful walk through the back lanes, joining Paul & Marianne, John & Jean & Bryan & Cissy en route to a Venta near El Colarado for lunch. Had a cracking 3 course meal with drinks for a total of €64 for 8 people which seems remarkably good value and set us up for the hours walk home.The same crowd plus others are the lets-get-pissed-at-the-sports-bar

stalwarts so friday was a very pleasant interlude.

We've now been here for 4 weeks, don't know where the time has gone and its been a laugh a minute and now thinking of moving on......or not. We shall go to Olhao on March 1st but we may go to Tarifa for a few days and then Huelva and Isla Christina before heading to Portugal.......