Playa de la Arena - onto the beach - Holiday Tuesday

So, after another infinite orange juice, buffet-style breakfast in the hotel we decided that today was the day to go and lay in the warm volcanic sands on the Playa itself...

...the coastline is rocky, but the sand is wonderfully smooth and warm (being black it absorbs so much more sunlight than white sand, must be a nightmare in the height of summer!), what the photographs don't show is the way it glittered, and it glittered like every ounce of sand was rich with tiny flecks of gold and diamonds -

- and the shore was peppered with rocks thrown out during the islands violent volcanic birth (they looked like they belonged on the moon!) -

In the evening we ended up in Los Gigantes after a long walk (which terminated with us giving up and hailing a cab) -

- where we wandered the alleyways until we found a nice looking place on the corner of the square by the church...Flyingpops and I shared garlic king prawns for our starter, which were jolly good (must try and replicate this at home) -

- and I had a "so-so" bit of steak for my main (which was a disapointment, as it looked absolutely fantastic(!) -

After dinner we wandered around the shops, found an amazing supermarket, which was extremely small - spead over two floors, the lower ground floor was almost entirely cigarettes and the ground floor had a bigger selection of alcohol than a Threshers megastore...

I imagine, had I looked really hard, I might even have found some food around there somewhere... ;)

J and J Bags - Redhill market, Surrey

Oh, I almost forgot to mention (and this is a cautionary tale), on Saturday we had the pleasure of returning to the undisputed masters of customer service at "J&J Bags" in Redhill market, Surrey (to be found under the leaky green awnings just next to the entrance to Lloyds bank in the Warwick Quadrant on a Saturday)...I haven't got this far yet with my "holiday updates" but when we picked up the luggage at Gatwick the nice purple suitcase we had bought there a few weeks ago had burst it's zip...not too badly, but it had run a little way and was in danger of spreading and loosing it's contents...not good for a brand new suitcase on it's 2nd ever flight... >:(

The Saturday after we got back we popped back to the stall, their hype and slimy chumminess while trying to sell the blooming thing - "Yeah, lifetime guarantee on those and them wheels are indestructable, any problems just bring it back", turned into ambivalent indifference - "Oh, well, give it 'ere and we'll 'ave a chat to the suppliers and see what they can do..." (Hang on? Who was our (albeit verbal) contract with?), he only gave me a receipt when I asked (giving a very generous benefit of the doubt) "Can I at least have *something* on paper?" (in exchange for our "unfit for purpose for which they were sold" goods)...so when we turned up again this week (I think they had thought we had given up) two faces like thunder greeted us once again...Our pie-loving friend was on his mobile phone, lurking behind the "quality" leather goods on his stall, so I greeted the old lady (of the curiously coloured hair) with a sunny "Hello, my dear, any news?", she obviously recognised me, and shrugging, pointed to Mr Smiler saying "E'll 'ave to tell you about it"...which didn't sound good...

When he got off the phone, still seated he said "'fraid you'll 'ave to wait a week for a replacement", to which Flyingpops (fairly) said "Well, I'm not really happy with that, I've kind of lost faith in the product now", he took a deep breath, steeled his jaw and then stood up to his full height (which was about an inch shorter than me), gave a slight nervous flicker of the eyes towards my unimpressed gaze and sank a little...(it's nice being tall... ;)

Suffice it to say a refund was *still* (and "I'm 'fraid") "aginst' the rools" (quite what rules I couldn't be arsed to query, but I imagine him even saying so was against the law) but rather than argue the point with a monkey we settled for picking some other goods from the stall...and we took our own sweet time, checking very carefully for quality this time and settled on a reasonably nice leather season ticket holder for Flyingpops and I found an excellent Jap import laptop bag that had a better look and feel than anything I have seen worth ten times what he was charging(!) (how this guy got hold of something of that calibre I'll never know) and, amazingly, he relented in the end and even agreed to refund the odd £2 in cash (I'll bet that doesn't happen very often)... ;)

Just to put the cherry on the cake, as we walked back to the car park we saw the old dear taking her small dog to shit in the car park behind the fish and chip shop...nice...a real class act...

Still, our fortunate ending aside (no idea what would have happened if we hadn't found things we *were* happy with in exchange), if I were you I would steer well clear of them (especially as the minute we had finished carefully picking our compensatory items *another* couple turned up attempting to return a duff umbrella and rucksack, the poor fellow looked most put out as he had only just managed to slump back into his chair but was definitely assuming a "nuffink wrong with that" stance), not very impressive, service least of all, it's just embarrasing to deal with such a pair of muppets (who obviously know they are breaking the law but are so thick they think their bullish, toilet-brained spiel will fool anyone, it's almost common assault - threaten people into silence...great business model)...I'm in half a mind to report them to trading standards/write to the local paper/(or) something...

Anyway, it's just another good reason to keep "You get what you pay for" firmly in mind when shopping...especially at Redhill market...where the biggest, fattest monkey makes up the rules...

There's just no such thing as a bargain at J & J's Bags...the arse end of market trading, courtesy of Redhill, Surrey...oh the shame...

Volksworld Show 2006

Well, that's brought it home, I actually blogged about going to this show last year, so I won't bore you with the details, I've upped all the decent pics I took to the flickr stream (if you are interested in seeing more) but here are a couple of the more interesting sights from Volksworld this year (back to the holiday later btw, hopefully before the memories fade too much!) -

- a rather good trailer, people normally convert the back, or engine bit of beetles into trailers, so this actually makes more sense (being the normal "boot" end of a bug), could give you quite a shock coming round a sharp bend though and seeing the front of a beetle before you! ;)

Looks like they had a bit of rain on Saturday, still, plenty of beach buggies to help pull the bugs out of the mud if needs be...

The mystery machine was on hand too, just in case of any hauntings during the proceedings... ;) Inside, the usual excellent show and shine -



- oh and the Matrix Bus was there again, so I took some closeups of the details -



- very cool...

The Cornish Pasty company have invested in a huge great custom campervan/stall which looked fantastic, but the illusion was ruined by total lack of number plate, so it looks like it don't go... :( It's bound to fire someone's imagination though... ;)

A roof rack put to good use... ;) And I loved the lithos on this bug -

Oh and just a few of the "for sale" vehicles this year -

...in a bit of a state, broken windscreen, rust everywhere, just £750 to you...(a serious project piece)...or perhaps this one?

£7950...or this? Your change from ten grand?

FIVE quid... :0

Anyway, I zoomed off from the show at about ten past twelve in order to get back for the Grand Prix...blooming glad I did, poor old Button, although it was heart breaking to see what happened to him, it was "one of those days" where absolutely nothing went right for him, battling to hold, but each time loosing a place when the safety car came out (five times in the end I think), unmissable drama, all topped off (still just desparately hanging onto some points) by his engine blowing up just yards from the finish line on the final lap...so from POLE to ZERO...how much would that suck? Better luck in the next race, mate...

First Capital Connect

Well, thats nice, Thameslink have merged with Greater Northern trains and they have changed their name to "First Capital Connect", which I suppose means that they will now waste loads of cash on changing the livery on all the rolling stock and stations...anyway, to celebrate they were giving away "goodie bags" to all the commuters, which consisted of a new season ticket holder, 2 leaflets (which talk a lot about "Deep cleaning"), a fold-out business card sized rail map, a KitKat and a Kellogs Nutri-Grain bar (Strawberry)...how thoughtful...

Off to Los Gigantes - Monday

So, Monday we ate breakfast in the hotel resturant again, being lazy, but actually, the use of an infinite orange juice machine is well worth 5 Euros (alone) in my opinion...and the rest of the spread wasn't too bad (a bit of poking around would net you eggs and bacon that weren't *too* chewy)...so after a leasurely feed we drifted back to the pool, I took a few shots around the resorts cactus garden, which was pretty amazing (but I really think it could have done with being a little further back from the path, and a fence - toppling into that little lot late at night and worse for wear would have been all too easy...*shudder*)

Spent the bulk of the day by the pool...(feeding the doves and sparrows)...

...and played PSP in apartment (as usual) for an hour or two in the afternoon (while Flyingpops napped on the balcony). I got a tip for a good resturant to go to for quality grub in Los Gigantes from the girl behind reception, where I enjoyed a thoroughly superb leg of lamb with mint and gravy (yum) and some Sangrea (which might not have been the best idea, as I had been on the beers during the afternoon) -

- after dinner we found yet *another* (different) "Highland Paddy" pub where they were offering some entertainment - they had an old guy that sang old Beatles numbers (and played along with his guitar) come on just as we arrived which obviously wasn't quite my cup of tea, as I am told that after a few songs I drifted off into a doze (must be getting old) much to the amusement of the stand up comedian that came on after him, apparently he quipped "Well, that's a first, normally I have to tell some jokes before I start to send you lot to sleep!"...the laughing roused me from my petit slumber and I decided I needed to go to the bathroom and wake myself up a bit, so I stood up to cross the bar...to this he said "Oh bloody hell, I take that back, if it all kicks off in here tonight, I'm on his side, alright?"...hehe... ;)

(If you don't know me, I'm quite tall btw)... ;)

An evening in Peurto de Santiago - Sunday

Sunday was a sleepy day, breakfast in the hotel resturant ("desayuno dos por los días uno, por favor"), snoozing by the pool watching the red faced energetic contortions of those inclined to participate in the "aerobic activities" being run by "Don't be Laaaayzee Engleesh!" rep Federika, through half closed eyes...

A cheap lunch of a self-catering variety was sourced (didn't fancy eating the below pictured bread found in the resort supermarket though (I normally adhere to my self imposed guideline to steer clear of "Familiar Bimbo sandwiches" ;) after we had moved to a less breezy location by pool 1 (the sunshades by pool 3 kept on threatening to blow away)...

...spent a few hours playing GTA-LCS sat in the shade by the balcony during the afternoon and then found a great little resturant in Puerto de Santiago (about half way between Playa de la Arena and Los Gigantes) that served Pimentos al Padron, which is a very naughty little dish indeed, basically take about 30 small (hot) green chilli peppers, throw them into hot fat for a couple of minutes, then drain and serve with a small mountain of rock salt...(absolutely wonderful)...

...followed by "Grill Mixto" which when it arrived consisted of lamb chop, beef steak, veal sliver, chicken breast and a spicy pork sausage (10 Euros), a bit bland for me, but much improved with a good dose of "Salsa Mojo" (a chilli/garlic/tomato concoction unique to the islands)...

I could mention here that Tom had a bit of a tummy upset and decided (perhaps inadvisedly) that the only thing he wanted to have to eat was a prawn salad (which wasn't on the menu) and was a little dissapointed with the effort that the kitchen went to in order to accomodate him...so not a brilliantly successful meal (apart from my starter of course)... ;)
From there we went on to the "Highland Paddy" back in Playa de la Arena where a totally mad (German?) guy kept on trying to get us all up to dance to a fairly average karaoke performance, but we were too full (and not quite drunk enough) to join in... ;)

Playa de la Arena - Barcelo Veradero - Holiday update

So, Saturday morning we wake up, turn off the aircon (brr!), throw open the curtains to reveal a blinding sunrise (for some odd reason I was expecting clouds and rain) slid back the balcony doors (in order to let a little heat in), showered, dressed and slapped on the suncream (hate sunburn)...

...we nipped in to listen to the (Italian) rep and a (fat British) timeshare guy try and tempt everyone to book onto one of their massively overpriced excursions (which we resisted with little difficulty, sipping our complimentary orange juice with nonchalent indifference) and then headed out down the cliff road to find some breakfast...we settled in "The Pilgrim" a sort of English pub with only one wall (the rest was covered balcony, meaning that smoking was still allowed, the Spanish government seems to have largely banned it in public places since our last visit). It basked in this stunning view over the beach and commercial centre (not forgetting the awesome Los Gigantes in the background), however, the food didn't quite match the quality of the vista (being a bit cold and not exactly on the generous side), but it was *really* only a pub I suppose, it wasn't pretending to be a posh resturant... ;) -

On the way back up to the apartamentos we decided to stop off at the big supermarcardo to get some supplies, we had been tipped off (usefully) by the rep during the induction meeting that the two closest to the hotel were rather costly, comparitively, but the one all the locals used was only about 5 minutes further on down the road (we had actually spotted it on the way to dinner on Friday evening)...walking through the automatic doors into the cool (and slightly malodorous) interior was a real eye opener (and nose pincher)...When Flyingpops went to pick up one of the baskets we noticed the handles were different colours and totally different lengths, she looked up at me and with a bit of a frown said "Am I missing something here?", I seem to recall muttering something about it being jolly peculiar (a picture in my head of holding the basket normally and it being tipped at 45 degrees) then taking hold of it to try and understand when I saw someone zip passed us pulling the basket along on the floor with the longer handle...spinning it over revealed several tiny metal casters set into the bottom, so they were mini trolley/baskets! Astonishingly simple, I really have no idea why we don't we have them in England!

Walking around the store revealed a number of quite unfamiliar sights and smells, the meat section for example (I toyed with the idea of sneaking one back in my hand luggage, but I think the trotter sticking out the top of my rucksack might have given it away to customs) -

- and the fish(!), that monk fish was so large it would have comfortably covered my torso, and could have swallowed my arm (if it had been a) not dead, b) hungry and c) fancying a wild dietary change) -

- and heaps of octopus and squid(!) which members of staff were spraying incautiously with a hose to keep moist (they hit me also - to much blushing and gushing of apologetic sounding Spanish) -

Beer was super cheap too, between 60-80 cents per can, so we stocked up with a mixture of local and imported varieties and a few bottles of wine, plus some Sangrea (which came home with us in the suitcase, undrunk)...plus some sliced spicy chorizo, cheese, bread, cakes and sweets...and then the rest of the day was spent by/in the pool (which was to set the pattern for much of the rest of our time away) -

- the afternoon was only punctuated by an extremely vigorous game of water polo which Flyingpops, her dad and a stranger (young lass) lost to three large Finnish males, which wasn't really an even match (but was more than compensated for when Tom falsely extorted a winners certificate and bottle of champagne from a different member of staff 2 days later! Hehehe... ;)

In the evening we decided to get a cab to the yacht marina (down in Los Gigantes) which cost about 4 Euros, we got totally lost trying to follow the ludicrously detail-light resort map the rep had given us, but thankfully the dead end down which we found ourselves was also home to the police station, and some helpful officers not only pointed us in the right direction but actually recommended their favorite resturant, so a rather fortunate navigational stumble... ;) I had grilled lamb chops (which were exquisite) not sure about the single onion ring though, bit stingy... ;)

When we got back to the apartments we had a quick drink in the bar (watching the tail end of the evening's entertainment) and then retired to Flyingpop's folks room for a nightcap (some absolutely apalling (purportedly 10 year old) Whiskey Flyingpops' dad had grabbed excitedly in the supermarket when he saw the 6 Euro price tag)...and then to bed...

Just Media...

...Ooo, check it out, some of my shots of London have been used professionally...(in the vertical bars on the left of the various pages (apart from the "home" page)...guess I have the beginnings of a portfolio there then... ;)

Btw, I did get some rather nice bottles of wine in exchange for the cold early morning spent running around Bankside snapping them (before work), so it was definitely worth my bus fare... ;)

Playa de la Arena - Barcelo Veradero - Holiday report - Day 1

So...set the wayback machine to last Friday - we were zipped by my folks to Gatwick's North Terminal (thanks!) for a bit of shopping (got an external battery for the PSP for a tenner, bonus!), a full English breakfast and then the long walk to the gate (the furthest one away, of course)...The flight was really bumpy and slow because of some seriously strong wind going in quite the wrong direction, and for quite a lot of the journey the pilot was pinging the seatbelt sign on and off (much to the annoyance of a mother and child in front of us who didn't seem to want to sit in their seat at all)...

We landed to 21 degrees, bright blue skies and (unfortunately) 35mph wind! Grabbed our luggage (which came out nice and quickly) and swept out into the car park, luckily our coach was the first one in the rank... ;) Unluckily there was a closed road in the direction we needed to travel, so the (should have been) 50 minute transfer actually took over 2 hours...bah... :(

When we eventually got to the resort there was a bit of confusion to deal with, somewhere along the line they had mucked up our booking and only had one room ready for the four of us, but with the appropriate paperwork dug from bottom of bag that was quickly sorted (or so we thought)...We dragged the luggage upstairs, collapsed in exhaustion for a while (doing some gentle unpacking type things and popping down to the resorts mini-supermarket) when Flyingpops' folks came ringing at our door saying that all was *not* well! When they had opened the door to their room they discovered another families stuff all over the place! Thinking themselves rather lucky that the occupants weren't present, they had hurried back down to reception and a red faced clerk had issued *another* room key (this one unnoccupied) only to discover that in this apartment the door wouldn't shut properly and the safe didn't work!

Anyway, once all that nonsense was sorted out we dived out for dinner, I had serloin steak with Roquefort (jolly nice too)...in the Neptune Resturant right on the Playa de la Arena...

Then, as it was St Particks day we had a few suitably coloured drinks in the local Irish bar (listening to a one woman Irish karaoke) down by the beach...returning quite early to bed as exhausted by the days long journey, but full and warm and happy...then for some odd reason I left the aircon on all night and we woke up at about 4am absolutely freezing...whoops!

Back to work...

(if I close my eyes though I can still see the view)...

Got some of the holiday photos up on Flickr on Saturday morning, but it's a hell of a job...proper summary will come when I find some time, but in the meantime check them out over there if you like...

Weekend was pretty good, apart from completely forgetting that the clocks went back - I was still dozing in bed when my dad was downstairs hammering on the door to pick me up, I had agreed to cook my tagine dish for the whole family as a special treat (it had to be, grating onions is torture) for lunch on Mothering Sunday! Anyway, despite that little hiccup it all went pretty well, I did an experimental veggie version (sweet potato, turnip and carrot) as well as the more traditional lamb variety and they both came out pretty well! ;)

Oh and the weather in England sucks...but then you didn't need me to tell you that... ;)

175 emails in my inbox (and counting)...not too bad considering! ;)

Okay, I admit...

...I'm too tired to blog now, more tomorrow if I find some time...already sorted through the pics, 144 ones I'm really happy with out of the 600-odd that I took, the creme-de-la-creme I will Flickr for our mutual amusement... ;)

Been a long day though...so nite nite...

Home!

More later... ;)