I was sunbathing yesterday afternoon and in-between Cafe Del Mar volume 4 and the Buddah Bar volume 2, I had a quick shifty to see if I'd anything on video. There it was, BrokeBack Mountain.
I don't watch telly much at home. That didn't stop me from getting a 55inch 3D fuck off smart telly though. Do you know, if you hold an iPod against the end of your nose, the perspective is exactly the same as sitting on the sofa watching a 55 inch. You obviously don't get the 3D and 'smart' functionality but to be fair, I don't use that much anyway. Channel 4 news and the odd NatGeo programme are about as much as I watch.
It's was a busy Monday morning, washing clothes, pots, pans and generally giving the place a much needed spruce up. Monday is now officially laundry day. Ive spent all morning down by the river, beating my smalls against a rock.
I jest, although I did hand wash. Monday is the 'day off' for the Camp Cabopino staff so there was no one around to take my 5 Euros in exchange for a washing washing token. I'm not new to hand washing, I used to do it quite regularly when travelling. I started off using head and shoulders but in occurred to me that this was a tad expensive so I've progressed to proper, non bio washing liquid. I'm pretty sure that the clothes will end up useless at the end of the trip. Again, I'm used to that too. I've left many a country with the clothes I was wearing, my ipad, teaching books, passport and toothbrush.
After pot washing, laundry washing and hanging, I headed for a shower and a shave. I was beginning to look a bit like a hobo.
Note to self, don't get shampoo in your gash, it hurts like hell. Forgetting yesterday's injury I liberally poured a load of Aussie 'Miracle Moist' shampoo into my hands and then started to massage my heed. Not something I will be repeating in a hurry, for sure.
After a trek to the supermarket I found out that Monday was, fact a Bank holiday in Spain and the local Lidl was shut, apart from a wasted walk it means a wine free night, don't suppose it will hurt.
The holiday is to celebrate "Los Tres Reyes Magos" which literally means "The Three King Wizards", but is usually interpreted to mean "The Three Wise Men" or "The Three Kings". Their celebration day (January 6th) is refered to as "Three Kings Day" or just "The Day of the Kings".
The Three Kings, Balthasar , Gaspar and Melchior arrived twelve days after the birth of Jesus, bearing their famous gifts of gold, and frankincense and myrrh. A tad better than the gifts supplied by iTunes! In Spain, this is the day that people give and receive gifts, as children in the U.K and other countries might wait with great anticipation the arrival of Santa Claus, in Spain the children await the arrival of the Three Kings.
On January 5th in most Spanish towns is the "la cabalgata" (the calvacade) which is a parade marking the arrival of the Three Kings. The Three Kings ride on floats throwing candy to the children. In the Canary and Balaeric Islands the Three Kings arrive by ship!
After the parade the children return to their homes to prepare for the arrival of the Three Kings. They place their shoes on the windowsills and fill them with straw, carrots and barley for the donkeys of the Three Kings. Sometimes they might also leave some food for the Three Kings. I really don't think the donkey would touch anything that had been near, never mind in one of my shoes!
The next morning the children wake up early to open their presents. Although the children like all of the Three Kings, their favorite is Baltasar because he is the one who it is believed actually leaves the gifts. Greedy bastards!
The chap that drops by for a cup of tea introduced me to his mate yesterday. Jim happens to live not far from my sister in Banchory, Aberdeenshire. He wandered over later in the afternoon to have a look at my van as he is thinking he might get one. We got chatting and he asked why I have to run the engine a couple of times a day. I told him about the battery charging unit packing in. He has very kindly lent me a battery charger. Thus saving me the hassle of starting the engine and the resultant waste of fuel.
He's also invited me on a night out on Wednesday. To play darts with him and his mates. What is my life coming to when I'm going playing darts with a group of 70 year olds. I should be going disco dancing in Marbella !
After yesterday's disappointing trip to the supermarket, a weekly shop was definitely needed. Not least to replenish the wine stock. I usually walk but given I had quite a lot to get, and wine is quite heavy, I decided to take the van, despite the fact that it means going on the busy A7. Once you're on it, it's fine but, although it's a motorway you have to stop at the end of the slip road and wait for a gap, this is the hairy bit because, of course you are in a RHD vehicle . I negotiated this 'cannonball run' challenge OK but as I'm travelling down the A7 I notice that there is a considerable amount of shit coming out of the exhaust, also, the engine light has stayed on. Bollocks, not another problem. Eventually the smog cleared, if you hear of flights being cancelled into and out of Malaga on the news, it moi!
I put it on my (short!) list of 'things to do today'. Parking up in the Lidl car park I got my trolly and set about filling it with goodies. Not before doing my normal charitable deed of filling the Romanian begging ladies' Macdonalds cup with all my coppers. I seems every Lidl in Spain comes with a Romanian begging lady!
Trolly full of goodies I headed back to Camp Cabopino. Reading my Fiat manual it appears that the 'engine' light that won't go out means that I have an injection system failure (?). It could cause high emissions from the exhaust ( yep ) and possible lack of performance, poor handling and high consumption levels.... Oh dear!
It does however say it's ok to carry on driving but take it a fiat dealer ASAP. When it says OK to carry on driving, all the 1500 miles home?
Well..... That's OK then ;-0
I don't dislike cats! Apart from the one eyed Tom that keeps pissing up my front tyre.
Is it OK, to have a cat as a pet in a motorhome? To have a harness on it and take it for a walk ( nay drag it, because it clearly wasn't happy! ) I think that is Not OK. It was a lovely cat, Burmese blue I think. You could almost hear the ferrel cats sniggering as it was dragged past them. I'm sure I heard one of the say, in Spanish. 'Look at that fucking pussy!'
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Location:Artola,Spain
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