Previous Week |
Index |
Next Week |
There are lots of pretty girls dressed as sailors and police operatives and it is all extremely good natured and cheerful.
Eventually we wander home and get to bed at about 3.00am
The next day we are up bright and early and climb the Rock - this time we do the Mediterranean Steps in 13min 30secs
without really trying so we feel annoyingly virtuous and smug. On the way up there are various flowers blooming and
interesting ships - including the
Royal Fleet Auxilliary RFA Mounts Bay
and the remains of
Fedra,
which is currently being dismantled, having run aground here last October.
There are still an awful lot of ships in the bay not doing very much - including the
Celestine River
which hangs around here like a teenager on a street corner.
Having said that, we are not exactly hives of industry. We take a trip to the border to sort out a car problem and then
get the Number 10 bus back to our door. I just love sitting upstairs at the front and since we are first on the bus we do
just that.
The FTSE100 closes at 3625 which is over 5% down on the day. Later in the evening Wall Street is down a similar amount -
things do not look good.
In the morning we finally dismantle our Christmas Tree which has given us such good service over all these months.
In the afternoon my girlfriend spots a flyer in a shop window for a Craft Club that meets this very evening. I want to
watch Miss Marple on the TV but we set off anyway. To quite where we are not sure but it is evidently next to a bar
and we have a street name. Eventually we give up and stop at the police station and a charming lady gives us directions
to The Royal Gibraltar Police Social Club. After a few laps we find it. The bar, it turns out, is down the corridor,
not next door but drinks are unbelievably cheap and the ladies there are very charming.
We chat about crafts and this and that and my girlfriend produces some gloves she is knitting to great admiration - they
have fingers which is pretty cool. No thumbs but Rome was not built in a day.
I promise to produce a map and then we go home having met some nice people.
Gibraltar is on the edge of both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and sometimes the weather cannot make up it's mind how
to behave. Today, however, it is in no doubt - it is freezing cold and blowing a gale.
We dash over the road to the
Timeout Cafe
for a meal and then finish off with something sweet and stodgy.
For years I have been lecturing people on how overwatering is the main cause of indoor plants dying - the leaves turn
brown and people then add yet more water in a vicious circle and the plant dies. Most plants can survive happily with no
water for weeks on end. Having said that our
poinsettia
has been traumatised by our two weeks away (most of the leaves fell off) and it is looking very sorry for itself.
We are also feeling a bit sorry for ourselves as the weather is still very cold and windy.
In the morning it is very sunny and the police go for a nice chug around the bay - well, you would, wouldn't you.
Later it clouds over and we might as well have been in Manchester as the Mediterraean. We walk into town to see a woman
who fails to turn up. Normally I would ring her office but it is not that simple - my mobile phone is on Orange and when
in Gibraltar it calls via Gibtel, Amena or Movistar (no "e"). In the location we have agreed to meet I can only
pick up Gibtel so I cannot make phone calls. So, I send a couple of text messages (which Gibtel will send and
receive) but she does not reply. Later I find she has totally forgotten, which makes me feel a lot better as I do that
quite frequently and it is nice to know I am not the only one.
In the evening we watch
Overboard
with Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell - made 22 years ago. It is not great art but very funny and we go to bed laughing.
My girlfriend has decided that she really loves black pudding and so we eat two giant breakfasts in the Square Cafe and
do a bacon for black pudding swap. Actually the cafe is not square it is sort of rectangular - it is called the Square
Cafe because it is in Casemates Square.
Later we go to a birthday party in La Linea.
Previous Week |
Index |
Next Week |