Tuesday 2nd March 2010, Roquetas and not a lot happening.

Yep, most days start off dull and then brighten up, sometimes getting up to 25°C and if the wind is light it is very hot. So it's been a case of cycling along the beach or into Roquetas, coffee and then back to the MS for a lie down and read.



Saw an unusual sight the other day on the beach. As you can see from the picture, it looks like a caravan being transported by a flat bed lorry. Nope, the thing is actually welded together and is a kind of motorhome?

Been using Skype a lot and out of idleness search for people who had the same surname. Came up with my brother who lives in Crook near Durham. Now that might not seem particularly interesting but it was because I haven't actually talked to him in about 10 years, don't know why he just stopped returning calls.



So I decided to press the button, and there he was!

Well it was a little strange at first and then we were talking as if we had been down the pub together the other day. I had known that he had been ill, from my other brother, I'm the eldest of four brothers, both parents now dead. It turns out he has slight Parkinson's disease and in the last 6 months both kidneys failed and he is now on dialysis (manual) four times a day. Good grief! After six months on the sick he has lost his job as a Chief Engineer (marine) with an oriental tanker company and now has to sign on, bloody hell's teeth!

Could be I've got a brother back.



Alan and Pat Swan, our ex motorcycling partners, are planning to come over for a short visit at the end of March. Weather should be OK but we will need extra chairs, duvet's and pillow, so now SWMBO has some real shopping to do. Not going to be cheap though, the €25 per person each way are now more like €90 because it's so close to Easter.



Yesterday was a holiday here, we didn't find out why because there was nothing in the calendar that suggested it should be, it turns out that it's “Andalusia” day which, for some obscure reason known only to the Spanish, was moved from 20th February to 1st March?



Heather, second born, now moved out of house to a flat, about 10 miles away, with her boyfriend, Olly. Seems to take about 30 minutes off her journey into London, so that's a plus. Her bedroom may now be taken over by Mark, another friend of Adam's.



Been planning where to stay May-June when the Leadbetter's, Jean and Derek, arrive from P&O ferry in their caravan. Looks like somewhere close to Pamplona which is a cracking place. We stayed there last year during the time of the “Bull run” and it's quite a city.



The camp site is slowly emptying, as was projected, and by the end of this month we will be Jonny no mates, still no queuing for the showers then?



Finally! SWMBO talked me into playing Ludo, mainly because there is very little skill (wrong!) so that with some luck she will finally win something. She was and she did, blast, the we drew(?) at draughts.



Tuesday afternoon and it's been raining all day so off to the shopping Mall in Almeria. SWMBO managed to buy a “summer dress”,(summer ha!) “that will go with everything”, usual story. I went into Alcamp and they had a “reduced €” isle, got a new saw, ponchos and bicycle clips, a screw driver that goes round corners and new saddle bags for my bike, all for less than she paid for the dress!

This weather's in for a while so by tomorrow I'll be Ludo'd out unless I can convince her to play chess, a real proper man's game, I think not.



She's ironing at the moment and likes the idea of looking out of one window, then turning the ironing board round for a view out of the other window, can it get better than that?



It's also a record that we have not blown the 10Amp trip for 2 days running. I was trying to get her to understand what watts and amps are and their relationship to not blowing the trip. “Right Pet, divide the number of watts by, lets make it easy and call it 250 volts”. “OK?” “Right, the kettle says it takes 2kw”. “You did not tell me about those!” “OK, OK, a Kw is 1,000 watts”. “What is?”

“A bloody Kw!” “Let's start again, if you have 1,000 watts that's the same as a Kw, so 2 Kw is 2,000 watts, OK.” “So where do the volts come in then?”

“They come in from the socket on the wall”, “A what socket?” “No, it's a volt socket, well and a watt socket as well, they also come out of there”. “Make up your mind.”

“It's the 230 v mains socket, that the kettle plugs into.” “I thought you said it was 250 v?” “I was just trying to keep it simple”.

“Well it's not bloody simple to me!”

“Right, the kettle takes 2,000 watts, how many amps does that make?” “80?” “Er, close but no cigar, it would blow the MS up at 80 amps, it's nearer 8. OK?”

“See that electric iron in your hand, that's also 2 Kws.” “Don't be silly you can't make the tea with an iron, anyway why don't we just plug it into 12 v then, that sounds like it would be less.”

“It's a mains kettle, does not work on 12 v.” “So what happens if there's no mains?” “We would use gas for everything, the gas kettle, the fridge, heating etc.”

“Will that not trip the thingy then?” “Well no, because that's electric and you're talking about gas”

“So gas isn't Kw's then?”

“Well yes it's measured in Kw's now, but it used to be BTU's.”

“What's a BTU?”

Gun to my head, bang!