I achieved three significant things this week.
I went to get my hair cut after Tuesday’s Spanish lesson. As with the corner shops and local bars I hoped to get some conversation. I pretty well only got “si” or “no” to any comment I made. I left with what amounts to a short back and sides. The last time I had one of those was probably 1967 and then it was plastered down with Brylcreem. This time it was sprayed with something........ well something. After 1967 I think the next time I had my hair cut was after 'A' levels in 1971......................... Maybe I'll wait now to 2015..............
I took the car to a workshop in Alhaurin el Grande on Thursday to have the engine management issue diagnosed. The drive there and back around 50 miles each way, was through some stunning mountainous countryside. Difficult on the way down as the sun was still low and although the route is one of the main roads to Malaga it was only just two vehicles wide in places. Apparantly Rick Parfitt of Status Quo fame lives there. I did not see him. The problem turned out not to be serious but could at some point make starting difficult. The parts are on order and I will return in the New Year.
Although I had a broadband internet connection put in a couple of weeks ago I have been having to connect directly through the modem as I have been unable to get the wireless router to work. I had sent notes on the configuration I had set to a friend from the Gospel Choir in Peterborough of which I am a member –and who is a Yoda on these matters. On Friday, talking with him via Skype, we got the router working.
On Saturday I went to a bar in the old part of town. Having ordered my cerveza, there was a vibe about the other customers. They were all male, 30-early 40 somethings. I may have been wrong and as the bar was among the better of those I have been in and the cerveza was good I will go again. Of course, young men of that age group and possible persuasion aren’t going to be interested in a curmudgeonly old geezer like me (thankfully) any more than similarly aged young ladies (regrettably) in other taverns I have frequented but it may not be the sort of bar I want to become known as a regular in.
On Sunday afternoon with it being bright and sunny I walked over the Algeciras Road into the hills. It is something of a maze and tarmac road stops after a while. I have tried various spurs but after a while every one comes to someone’s gate. I thought I had succeeded in keeping on the public track today and had walked nearly an hour and a half before being unable to go further. One then always has to get back - and flat like Peterborough it ain’t. I think I’m getting fitter though. I passed various olive groves where owners were shaking the branches and catching the olives in nets and rotovating between the trees. Very rustic. I have just started reading Thomas Hardy’s “Far From The Madding Crowd” , yet again. Not quite the same rusticity but there are similarities.
The Gospel Choir were singing at the Thorpe Hall Lights of Love event on Sunday evening. The first time I have not been there for 8 years and I sang there with the choir last year. I was sure I had brought a couple of the CD’s with me but looked last night and cannot find them. Instead I found a copy of Brit Floyd’s UK Live 2011 promotion CD. I played that and although they were appearing at such venues as Birmingham Town Hall and the London O2 Arena, I reckon Peterborough’s own Echoes of Floyd are at least as authentic musically – although Brit Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” I must confess was very good.
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