Week 8

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Geo: 42.0534, 3.19767








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21/05/11 Very
Hot & Sunny 24oC

Came back from a morning stroll to that all familiar smell
of bacon cooking, yes you've got it in one Les is having a fry up, he's really
making the most of his missing missus. Our German friends are leaving in the
morning taking a leisurely drive back over the following week so we all said
our goodbyes, apparently they love the site so we may bump into them another
year , who knows?

22/5/11 Very
Hot & Sunny 24oC

We had to leave the car at reception last night as the
barrier is down until 08:00 in the morning, so it was a quite trundle down the
site to reception with the suitcases in the cold and damp. We arrived at Girona
airport in good time and managed to get the luggage dropped off before the
coaches emptied their hoards of holiday makers out into the arrival lounge.
After a reasonably priced breakfast it was time to say our goodbyes and make
our way back to the site.

The afternoon was spent reorganising the van back to normal,
an afternoon siesta followed by and early night, tomorrow's another day.

23/5/11 Hot
& Sunny 22oC

A relaxing day spent doing very little until I decided to
get a drink out of the fridge, I heard this unusual sound which although
difficult to describe was something like pat, pat, pat, it sounded quite near
and loud, I looked out of the van windows and could see nothing so continued
pouring my drink, when I entered the awning all was to plain to see we'd
suffered a high altitude aerial bombardment which would have done credit to the
RAF. It wasn't pat, pat, pat, it was
splat, splat, splat; there was a line of s**t starting from the front of the
awning, across the roof and part way across the caravan, not your usual small
splats oh now, the Herring gulls perch just behind the site and one of these
blighters was responsible for the mobile phone sized deposits now covering the
awning and van. So the next 45 mins was spent washing down the awning, it was
too hot to do the van so reluctantly I'll have to do it another day.

We had invited our new Belgian friends Paul & Tia round
for aperitifs' and a pleasant evening was spent put the world to rights.



24/5/11 Very
Hot & Sunny 25oC

The pitch at the side of where our German friend were has
now been occupied by another German couple and their caravan, it was
fascinating watching them pitch up even though they had a caravan mover, you
could tell who was in charge and it wasn't him! We've nicknamed them Hansel
& Gretel and then there's the dog called Hector and yes he's a silly old
Hector who just happens to be ( you've guessed it) an overweight Dachshund.

After an hour or so out came the entertainment aka orientating
the satellite dish, it's do hilarious that it's now my number one source of
free entertainment, anyway the dish had been jammed into the front caravan
locker, after pulling and heaving he still couldn't get it out (I could imagine
him saying I got it in so I'll bloody well get it out) eventually he had to
remove some other items and with much aplomb out it came followed by the tripod
and other items. I'm thinking I wonder if it'll work ok remembering that the
disk is a fairly delicate piece of electrical equipment not designed to be
bashed and bent this way and that, so it was back into the van quickly to grab
another beer as I didn't want to miss the next instalment of “How to set up
your satellite system for beginners”.

Suitably refreshed I sat back whilst he set the system up, after
15 mins of turning it this way and that with directions from Gretel all was
well, oh well there goes this afternoon's entertainment. With that I settled
down to continue the book I was reading.

Whilst preparing evening dinner I could hear a commotion
nearby but ignored it as I was chopping onions at the time and I had a drink so
care was the main concern, after a couple of minutes I could hear banging and
things being thrown around, at least that's what it sounded like and then Linda
entered then van hardly able to contain her laughter, the commotion had been
caused by Hansel reloading the things back into the vans front locker, try as
he might he couldn't get them all to fit back in, having resorted to violence
and throwing the things on the floor he stormed off, Linda was in hysterics
relating the incident to me, bugger I thought I missed the fun, oh well it
sounds like there'll be more to follow at some point.

Later that evening Hansel took out some of the poles (not as
in Polish) remaining in the front locker and erected a frame which I suspected
was for hanging wetsuits from, having done this the remaining items all fitted into the van locker with no
problem. I've just got to make sure I'm around when they pack up.

Now I know that as you read this you'll probably think I'm a
mercenary uncaring sort of a guy but in truth I'm not, I'm always the first to
offer assistance to anyone who needs it sometimes to my own detriment, but
there's a very fine line to be drawn. If you offer assistance to a guy younger
than yourself he'll often dismiss you out of hand as it makes him look stupid
and inferior, if they're older than you your mister bloody wise guy, for that
reason I always make sure they're really struggling before I go to assist (and NO
it's not that I don't want to miss out on potential entertainment, no really)

25/5/11 Very
Hot & Sunny 25oC

It's a blistering hot day today too hot to sit out in the
sun on site so we went to the beach where the cooling breeze coming off the Med
would be most welcome. After 2 hours the wind got up and started whipping the
sand up at low level, I was fine sat reading my computer magazine but Linda was
laying on a towel and looked like a sheet of sandpaper, having just covered
herself with sun cream she now had a topcoat of fine sand, so it was back to
the site so she could shower and we would then sit in the shade whilst enjoying
a afternoon aperitif. I noted on returning to the van that the electronic
interior/exterior thermometer had given up the ghost and now it only displays
the interior temperature, oh well manyana


During our aperitif 2 Belgian campers turned into our avenue
and took up pitches opposite our Belgian friends at the top of the avenue they
positioned themselves one behind the other and started to set up. The woman in
the lead camper was busy inside and I
could tell from the spinning satellite dish that he was busy as well, I said to
Linda I'm having another drink this'll be interesting as they'll never get a
picture there and off I went to refill the glasses.

When I returned he was outside looking at the disk and then
it dawned on him he was under the trees and they completed obliterated his line
of sight, doh why didn't I think of that before. By this time the second camper
had sorted themselves out they'd got the water wound out the sun canopy, pegged
out the groundsheet and pegged everything down, the table and chairs were out
ready for that relaxing end of journey drink.
She was sat down shouting something to her husband inside and the
exchange went on for a little while with no appearance from the husband and
then it happened the dish went up and started rotating, it was all I could do
to stop laughing, after 5 minutes he appeared looked at the trees and shrugged
his shoulders (I thought to myself why the hell didn't the first guy tell the
second about the trees) anyway with that the sun canopy was wound back in, and
all the items outside were moved down a bit.

The camper was then reversed (I think to take advantage of a
gap in the trees so he could set the dish up) there was a shout from his wife,
too late, there was resounding crunch as the camper crashed into a low branch
of the tree oh ********* I think he said.

After a somewhat aggravated discussion with his wife the
camper drove off leaving his wife sat on her chair, not a good way to start a
holiday I thought, however all was not lost, he turned around at the top and
then drove back to take up position on the opposite side, they then set about
moving all the equipment from one side to the other, up went the dish and 5
minutes later all was done. I thought to myself these satellite systems have a
lot to answer for, I wonder how many holidays and or marriages have been ruined
simply by the setting up of the system?

26/5/11 Hot
but overcast 21oC according to the display in town

By the time we'd got back from the market the sky had
changed to a steely dark blue and the wind had got up so it looked like a
storms on the way.

There are a number of feral cats on site there always has
been and both the owners and numerous campers feed them, whilst I consider them
a nuisance as long as everyone else continues to feed them I don't mind because
they don't start prowling around the site looking for other sources of food, in
previous years I've barbecued whilst an audience of cats looked on. It's often the
case that you see the cats being chased from their food bowls by Herring gulls
or alternatively the gulls waiting behind the cats for their turn to be fed,
I'm just glad they're nowhere near us. The Herring gulls aren't really a
problem although they can be quite intimidating when the walk up to your awning
whilst having breakfast.

The Belgian women in the campers are loud shouting across
from one side to the other and one of them has a shrill voice, added to which
for some unknown reason they keep looking down the avenue to where we sited and
pointing, I assumed firstly they were admiring my Adonis like figure but Linda
told me to stop dreaming and pour another drink, oh well not a happy bunny but
mustn't prejudge.

The storm seems to have stalled at present and the suns
returned albeit it's a lot cooler than what were used to. Whilst having dinner two
pigeons landed in front of our awning and started courting, no sooner had the
male jumped onto the back of the female, than a pair of Magpies swooped out of
nowhere and attacked the Pigeons there were feathers everywhere, the magpies
started to collect the feathers when a loan Herring Gull repeated the process
landing on top of the Magpies and once again there were feathers all over the
place, the gull did no more than collect a mouth full of the pigeon downy
feathers an flew off, all of this happen in the space of less than a minute.

Twice now this week at night I've heard what can only be
described as muffled explosions in the distance, and then I realised it was the
thunderstorms predicted on the weather forecast, they seem to be particularly
violent, fortunately they're not affecting us other than keeping me awake at
night.

27/5/11 Overcast
and gloomy with small intermittent showers 19oC

Has an awful night's sleep what with the dustcart which
comes every night at 23:00 to the apartments at the back of us (usually I'm
either not in bed or fast asleep so it's not the problem it seems) intermittent
rain on the roof and for some damned reason the guls have decided to use the
caravan roof for bumps and circuits whereby they land on the roof walk along to
the other end and then run and take off! I had this from 03:00-05:15 argh, let
me sleep!!!!

Didn't risk this morning's bike ride so took a stroll to
collect my croissants' by the time I'd returned the day was looking brighter so
we decided to go to the beach as it's not too far and I can have a siesta by
the sea.

When we came back our Belgian friends stopped us to ask what
we thought about the Belgians in the campers as they thought they were OTT then
they went on to tell us that a) they're here for a month and b) they've got two
additional friends on route who have got adjacent pitches. Now I know what the
staring and figure pointing was their going to struggle to get in with my car
covered up on the vacant pitch adjacent to me. I suspect they'll need the extra
room to manoeuvre the camper into place if it's a bigun, but we'll see if, they
can't get it in with me there I wonder how they would go on if the pitch was occupied?

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