Raining cats and dogs
Trip Start
Jul 07, 2008
1
54
219
Trip End
May 27, 2010
Torre del Mar,
Andalusia,
Spain and Canary Islands
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Rose & Chris's apt in Torre del mar, Spain
Persistent rain
Thank goodness that Rose & Chris hadn't promised the apartment to anyone else for the week because I would NOT want to be camping in this weather. What a contrast to the last few days where the sun has shone, the sea has been the bluest of blues and the horizon and mountains as clear as I've seen them in a long time. The photos here were taken yesterday in glorious sunshine on the roof of the apartment. The air temperature is noticeably cooler this week than last, but then I suppose it is nearly November. On the other hand we could be in the UK where it's been snowing! No, curling up on the sofa with a good book for the day doesn't seem too much like hard work.
The knife sharpener with the pan pipes has been around this week. We think the pipes are the kind that shepherds use but for sure the noise carries a long way. We're on the 8th floor and we can hear them as clearly as if he was just outside the door. He travels around on his little motorbike (he's obviously gone up in the world because he used to use a bicycle) playing a little tune on his pipes and if you want your knives, scissors or anything else sharpened you take them down to him. The other regular noise from the street is the car horn of the bread man, signalling he has fresh bread for sale.
There is a cafe/bar across the road where I can pick up an open wifi signal so most days I pop over there for coffee and do what I need to do. There are supermarkets very close by, plus a pescaderia (fresh fish) and carneceria (fresh meat) so we won't starve!
The hifi in the apartment has a usb plug so we can listen to the iPod, it also has a washing machine, fridge freezer and all modern conveniences. I make a point of saying this because we have spent the last 4 months with very few modern conveniences at our fingertips (our choice, not complaining) and we were pondering last night how very easy it is to become complacent about things which might be considered luxuries by some people. I remember when my parents bought their first fridge, I was 9 and it was 1966 - we were so excited. It was 1969 before we (6 of us) moved out of our 3 roomed flat in London to our 3 bedroomed house in Burnt Oak. The flat had an outside toilet, which we shared with others, and no bathroom. I left home when I was 19 and my mum still didn't own a washing machine, that was purchased sometime the following year.
At a time when we can make phone calls for free on the internet using VOIP or sign up to an integrated deal with your TV, broadband and telephone all thrown in for £15 a month it's hard to imagine a time when making phone calls was expensive. An abiding memory of my teenage years is my dad hovering around in the hall while I telephoned friends, hissing and whispering at me when he thought I'd been on the phone long enough, usually about 3 minutes. 'You were lucky ........' I hear you all say!
2nd November 2008
Today the sun has decided to show itself (sort of) after 2 days of persistent rain. The rain fell as snow on the mountain behind the apartment, the first of the season. The forecast for tomorrow is sunny all day so we're going to go for a cycle to blow away the cobwebs. We're both getting a bit stir crazy, being indoors and not moving on and we really could have done with being back in the UK a bit longer, but we're not prepared to pay to change our flights so that's that, we're staying put.
We've discovered that National Express do an airport shuttle service from Heathrow to Luton which is only 10 minutes up the road from Rose & Chris's in Harpenden, so we've solved the problem of getting to Harpenden.
Yesterday I gave Dave his first haircut in 4 months, so his sun-bleached locks are now in the bin and there'll be no more dreadlocks!
Laters
