Week 96 of Gibraltar Diary

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Sunday 10th January 2009

Well, this time the flight is not cancelled and at 8.00pm local time we come in to land in Gibraltar. Suddenly, the pilot applies full throttle and we climb very steeply for a long time. Frankly, I am terrified but the pilot explains that there was a cloud making visibility difficult and he will have another go. Right.

This time he manages a perfect landing and we all start clapping - those of us who weren't crying, that is.



When I get off the plane I see something I have never seen before - a portable cabin is lifted up to a separate entrance on the right hand side of the plane - probably an emergency underwear changing facility for the crew.

Monday 1th January 2009

Not a lot happens - rain, more rain and cakes in Sacarello on Irish Town (a street, not an area), where we are served by our favourite waitress who is always so cheerful and friendly - quite a strain when you are on your feet for hours on end.

Tuesday 12th January 2009

Did I mention the rain? The photo above is the essence of Gibraltar - scooters, monuments and palm trees. Without the sunshine it does not have a lot going for it.

Wednesday 13th January 2009

Here in Gibraltar the excitement is mounting - what are they doing to the front of Morrison's supermarket? Watch this space.

Thursday 14th January 2009

And this is the Saga Rose which by any other name would still smell about the same I guess.

After La Linea we end up eating pizzas at La Canada shopping centre. Is there no end to the excitement?

Friday 15th January 2009

The last time we looked at the Rock Hotel they had a hole in the canopy. This time they have repaired the hole but they now have a big hole in the ground right under it with a burst pipe.

Later, when we come back there is a river of water coming down the road. Naturally, we assume it is from the hole in front of the hotel but it turns out to be from further up the road. Life is like that - an endless series of cock ups and coincidences.

Saturday 16th January 2009

We have not been to Tarifa for a long time but since the sun has finally come out of hiding, we set off. Amazingly we find somewhere to park in the middle and sit down in the Central Cafe and wait for some service. And wait and wait. Eventually I get my bacon and eggs and it is all right but nothing special.



Tarifa is always windy and today there is some quite nice surf - at least it looks nice from where we are standing. We drive home and I spend the evening trying to use a movie editor, Adobe Premiere Elements 2.0, which seems to be on my laptop for some reason. The only reason I know it is there is because I am running out of space and check what files I have and find this huge file (850Mb) on my C: drive. It seems thet the latest version is Adobe Premiere Elements 8.0 but my version seems to work pretty well and unlike Windows Movie Maker (free with Windows operating systems), it will import ".mov" files which come from most cameras (at least, most cameras that we have).

Incidentally, the best way of checking what garbage you have accumulated on a PC is "Start --> Search --> Look for files called *.* --> Sort in order of size. Then you can delete any you don't need. Generally, you can get rid of any old file ending ".tmp" and picture and video files.

In the legal profession they say that an examining lawyer should never ask a witness a question to which the lawyer doesn't already know the answer - otherwise he may get a nasty surprise. Deleting files is like that - never delete a file unless you know what it is. And if you do delete files don't empty the Recycle Bin for a day or so - that way you can get the file back if need be.

In practice, of course, there is a problem with this. The reason you are deleting files is that your PC has no space left and has slowed to a crawl. But when you delete files they are still there - in the Recycle Bin so you have not yet saved any space. To create space you need to delete them permanently from the Recycle Bin. A tricky problem. What you should do is ensure you never get low on space in the first place but that is liking telling a man with a puncture that he should check his tyres regularly - very irritating.


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