Arrival in Palma

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Well, I’ve been here for a month now and what have I got to show for it?

Job - zilch
Apartment - check
Spanish girl to marry (so they don’t throw me out of the country) - zilch
tan - getting there!

Like I was saying in my last post sometimes I feel like my life is a series of funny events, meant for the enjoyment of others. Like an American sitcom or teen movie where anything that can go wrong, does.

So I’ll start this post from when I arrived in Palma a month ago yesterday. The day after I arrived I had an interview with a captain I had been referred to from one of the crew agents. We had a pretty relaxed chat over a cup of coffee, he was looking for a deckhand with a yachtmaster, 30m power boat, sounds great, salary was correct… then came the bad news, the boats leaving at the end of the month to spend the summer in the south of France between St Tropez and Monaco, then the winter in Turkey or Greece. Although the idea of working on another motor yacht was not getting me that excited, its still something that I would be willing to do, but the idea of spending another season with the egos of the southern France yachting fraternity just wasn’t sitting right and the idea of spending a winter in isolation in Turkey or Greece wasn’t really getting me real excited either. So I said no. And besides I’d only been in Palma for a day and hadn’t really scoped the place out.

So the first week went by without incident, I spent most days walking the docks, looking for work, still too cold to go to the beach. I was tossing up my accommodation options as I was pretty keen to get out of the hostel where I was staying. I still wasn’t sure about renting an apartment out for the summer especially signing on for 6 months but I thought, what they hell, I’ll go have a look at a couple and see what happens. Wow, I get blown away by the first place I see, huge rooftop terrace, the place is right near where all the boats/bars/clubs are, 3 bedrooms so I can rent out the other two, perfect! As with many of Mr Lambkins decisions, questions like; Do you actually want to live so close to all the bars/clubs? Do you actually want the complications that come with renting an apartment? Have you thoroughly checked out the area to make sure its suitable? Were never asked. So the first week goes by and I’m in the apartment, waiting for a couple fo guys to come in to the other rooms, to share the cost and create a bit of atmosphere in the place. I wasn’t really feeling like heading out on the Friday night so I thought I’d just stay in and watch a bit of telly. I crash out on the couch and wake up at about 1230am and make my way to the bedroom, and then I start to notice the music, bmmm! Bmmm! bmmm! bmmmm! Ba bmmm! Bmmm! Bmmm! Bmmm! What the?

I’d noticed there was a roller door next to ours which I didn’t know what it was, I also thought it was next door to our building not directly underneath. I try to get to sleep for a few hours but its impossible, the whole room is shaking from the bass. I throw some clothes on and take a walk downstairs and in the stair well the level of the music is immense, and there’s even cigarette smoke emanating from under an exit door they have which comes into our stairwell, unbelievable! Knowing full well that there was only going to one sort of clientele in the club where the music was coming from after seeing the landlord and partner who’re both as camp as bloody Ray’s outdoor I decide to go in and check the place out. (A decision which I make hesitantly after a particular incident involving a neighbor of mine when we were living in Glebe who liked to throw parties for small groups of very very very close friends). So I head through the door and sure enough between a few groups of 7 foot tall trannies dressed in nurses outfits are the landlord and his partner dancing away in their choreographed moves to a latino classic. For the purpose of the story you can imagine a room full of gay guys (including a few girls, I’ll admit) dancing in time to La Macarena. They were nice enough to get me a drink of course, so sweet of them, so I stayed 10 minutes or though, more in shock of how the hell I was going to get out of this situation than enjoying the atmosphere. I did stay long enough though to have one of the 7 foot trannies come up to me and squirt a syringe full of some shot into my mouth, hey, that doesn’t happen every day. I left the club and went to a few other bars/clubs, trying to convince myself that I would just have to go out every weekend and it wouldn’t be a problem, fine. But my initial thoughts were confirmed when someone moved in to the other room and said exactly the same thing, impossible.

To the landlords credit they were very understanding when I spoke to them on the Monday afterwards and they were happy for me to move out at the end of the month returning all of the deposit. Phheewww, as it turned out it was a blessing in disguise as aside from the music from the club we worked out the noise from the street, cars/buses/drunkards was pretty unbearable too. Taking on a whole apartment as well did have other consequences, like when I got a call from a captain on a 80 foot oyster sailing yacht the day after I signed the lease, and I had to say no. You know what I was doing at the time, shopping for sheet sets for the flat. Sailing a 80 foot oyster round the med all summer, or picking out sheet sets, tough choice. But I decided I wanted to be on a boat that at least spends some of the time around las Baleares long enough to check them out properly so I was not completely despondent with my decision. Although, even now, I wonder whether I made the right decision.

Other exciting events in the last month were a trip to Stockholm to take my mum out for dinner for her birthday at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the city (thanks Cecilia for the recommendation). O also just spent a great weekend visiting a friend in Switzerland, which wasn’t entirely in the spirit of being conservative with money until I find work but I wanted to take the opportunity while I could to do it before I get work and don’t have time. It’s amazing how you can justify these things in your mind. But it was good to get out of Palma for the weekend anyway. The other advantage was that I spent the weekend speaking French and while I was there I had a follow up call from an owner about a job, working as a sole deckhand on a 20m motor yacht, and as the owner was Algerian, he ideally wanted someone who spoke French so I had no trouble on the phone. I’ll be meeting up with the owner again around the 14th of May with a start date set for the 1st of June so although I don’t want to get too excited it could be a great job for the season, cruising between here, Ibiza, Alicante and spending some time off the coast of Algeria, asi me gusta!


Well folks, I hope you enjoy the photos I’ve taken from around Palma, lots of love to you all and feel free to let me know what’s going on in your world!


Ciao ciao


Phil

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Photos

Al Miqrab
You might not realise it but the white boat on the right is actually the tender for the blue boat on the left