Week nine journal notes
Wednesday 20/06/12 - Craig's 40th!
The last of the events today, Craig's 40 th! Ellie dished out he last of the home made cards and Craig celebrated over pressies and eggs before heading to sineu market. Charlotte seemed t get a spring into her step and we all went our separate ways and looked around. We sat down with Craig and he had his first birthday beer whilst mum and Charlotte finished off their shopping. Jim and I shared an amazing German hot dog which has left the roof of my mouth with first degree burns!
We came home, the kids had a couple of good naps and we had a well deserved rest next to and inside the pool. I finished my latest book which I'm really pleased with as I can now officially play with my new kindle!
For dinner we went up to meat on the hill as we call it, the restaurant we took the balls to on top of Santa Magdalena that serves great big roasts. We had a lovely meal and jim ensures all were filled up with herbas at the end... A strong local liqueur eaten at the end of meals.
Thursday 21/06/2012 - longest day - already...
Charlotte needed to get some heat pads for her back today as she's on the last one so I suggested inca as it's also market day. However, I couldn't wake myself up today and felt a bit useless so myself, jim and Ellie stayed home and relaxed in the cool, watched some Toy Story (!) and looked into the many suggestions for campsites from Mrs B (always my saviour at work and now on holiday!)
It was 34 degrees today and I just wasn't dealing with it so hid next to a fan for the rest of the afternoon until about 6 when Ellie and I ventured out for a swim with everyone else. It was Charlotte and Craig's last night tonight so for the last time, we put the kids to bed ridiculously late, started the bar b q late and got eating around 9:30, we tried to figure out which birds were making a noise in the nearby trees - owls of sorts, and Jim showed Charlotte the moon (the ball moon) no doubt that will appear on Facebook for all of his prospective employers to see when we come out of retirement!
Friday 22/06/12
Last morning with "will' wind" around so we made the most of them all until they had to set off at 3:30 for their flight back, luckily Charlotte's back was more comfortable today which bodes well for the journey. The Taylor's will be greatly missed :(
We ran out of water- again, but was sorted by six which meant we could get showered before going out for dinner. We met Mark and Ellen in Sineu with mum and dad and inadvertently ended up in a German restaurant during Germany v Greece! Thankfully, in this one instance, Germany won, as we were the only. On Germans there! They served the best steaks yet!
Saturday 23/06/12 - our seven year anniversary!
Today we went to the beach, it was very odd going in the day time, but we enjoyed it, doing the usual sandcastle build and destroy sequence as usual! We had a lovely lunch at Floridita, the beach bar we go to (I had a bacon and egg roll, omg it was Amazeballs!) we then made our way back with the intention of a. Doing a shop on the way (we didn't) b. Ellie not sleeping so we could put her to bed early (she fell asleep in the car and then for another two hours at home) oh well.
We were heading out and mum and dad babysitting so the idea was we'd put her to bed at 8 and head straight out, however,her afternoon sleep was a plot ruiner so we ended up sneaking out of the house at 8:30 while she was watching Tom and jerry and filling up on milk, mum said she was fine though.
We went to a lovely restaurant which jim spotted on trip advisor called s'arc in the old town area of alcudia and the meal was great. We were in a tiny little ornate courtyard of a hotel, the food was phenomenal and we had a wonderful Sauvignon blanc from Valencia (not well know for sauvignon blanc), tonight was the Spain v France gain and we again lucked out with a win in the right direction! We had a really lovely night, talked through our plans as we STILL have none and have 7 sleeps to go :(
Sunday 24/06/12
Mum and dad go today, after an early morning stealth cleaning extravaganza by mum we woke up to a lovely clean house! We sorted the bags as we were off to mellan's for the day and headed off for the airport.
Mum and dad safely delivered to the curb outside arrivals and all of our byes said, we headed off to "Sunday eroski" the supermarket (the one we know is open On a Sunday near the airport) unfortunately, me and jim had different ideas on which one we were going to for a while so it took some time to get there! we did get there though, picked up some treats and headed over to Mellan's to watch the grand prix and have some lunch. The grand pix was full of highs - vettel's car just stopped, so did grosjean's - massive whoop! The Maldonado T boned Lewis - massive booooo, what a kn@b, enough. Ellen had made a wonderful quiche, salad and banofe pie on a horrendous hangover, the girl did good! Ellie played in and out of their pool and loved it, it was a generally nice, but hot (35 in the shade) day.
Monday 25/06/12
We headed into Palma in the morning and had a great time, then went shopping in alcampo, the big supermarket just outside of Palma for some bits and bought a tennis racket to replace the one we've broken, also eyed some up to get for next summer when we play back home. Once we got home, we spent the afternoon relaxing, swimming, playing tennis etc, we leave the house on Saturday so need to make the most. Ellie had some spots start to comeup Friday and they're getting a lot worse today look like potential chicken pox but not blistering.
Tuesday 26/06/12
Today we went to llubi market for the first time since we got here 8 weeks ago! It was pretty rubbish, but spotty Ellie (still with no blisters) had a nice little play in the park. Her spots other face look like they've been drawn onto just her cheeks with a red pen! So she got some looks of the Spanish kids when her white blonde curls, pink dress, yellow sunglasses (worn upside down of course) and red spots marched up to the slide!
Before she went to bed I tried calamine on her cheeks, I left her with a fan on and when she got up she was nice and cool and the spots seemed a little less angry. We stayed inside in front o a fan as much as we could through the afternoon and didn't go swimming until after 6 and showered straight away. We covered her again with calamine tonight, she has two blisters on spots on her left elbow so we'll see how she wakes up tomorrow.
Have spent our time since she went to bed looking at villas to move to on Saturday, I knew this would happen! I think we're just going to stay a week so I'll be in the same situation next week,thinking, ooh, another week in Mallorca or ferry to Barcelona? Then where? I'm sure we'll get on top of it soon!
Week ten journal notes
Wednesday 27/06/12
Three sleeps til we leave and still nothing sorted - but close! We've been offered discounts on a few places, so just deciding between a couple. Neither have wifi so have now realised we need to book the next part of the trip in the next few days also! Ellie's spots are still around, a growing number of people are suffering too, including dad so he was booked in at the doctors and it turns out they all appear to have hot tub foliculitis! Good that it's not chickenpox.
We went to Porto colom this evening (via a quick half hour stint at the beach there, 6:30 at night, packed and boiling!)to go and meet Aunty Angie and sailor bill. We had a lovely evening, always great to see Angie, who treated us to a lovely meal by the port and Ellie was a very good girl. We brought them home as they were staying at ours the night, had a few drinks and hit the sack at one... Hopefully Ellie will lie in!
Thursday 28/06/12
We have agreed / confirmed a villa in manabore as previously named (actually called Manacor), well 8km outside, it's smaller but cosier, we kept in budget! Mainly guided by me! Imagine, I now appear to have become the sensible one with money!
We spent the morning around the pool with Angie and Bill had some lunch and then jim took them back to the boat whilst ellie had a sleep and I started to pack. It later turned out that poor old jim having to drive all that way managed to get on board their boat, moored in 8 degrees less heat and had a lovely drink with them. Grrrrrrrr..
We had a swim when "poor" jim got back, I had left the pool thermometer on the side earlier in a bid to see how hot today is..... Wait for it...... 38/100 degrees! Phew! A little warm, after the pool we made a hasty retreat back to the house and for the first time put the generator on and ran the air conditioning for an hour! And then another hour... It's our last night on our own at the villa so we all made the most of it and had a lovely meal, once it had turned dark so we could sit outside!
Friday 29/06/12
Another stinking hot day and we spent the larger part of it inside, packing with the air con on. The odd dip in the pool, we did a shop which was nice on ewe got there due to air con!
Mark and Ellen came over in the evening and we had steaks, corn on cob and bruschetta, it was lovely, again, once it had turned dark, we spent the greater part leading up to that in the pool, just too hot - the heat is as frustrating as a rainy day in England as you just can't get out to do anthony. So in the nice cool evening we sat and had some food choc puddings (becoming tradition) and drinks and had a great last evening. I gave up at 12:30 and went to bed knowing how much we had on the next day, at 4 I was woken by the door knocker with them coming back in the house, laughing, a glass breaking, more laughing and general loudness, the only thing that didn't stop me going down stairs to give them a massive bollocking was that I didn't want to scare Ellen!
Saturday 30/06/12
I got up with Ellie at 9:15, walked downstairs with Ellen sat on the sofa already playing with her new iPad, my first instinct was that she'd spent the night there but she said she'd been up an hour! "how?" I asked, apparently she'd come to bed 10 mins after me! So it turned out the gruesome twosome could have faced a bollocking! I cleared up the glass properly and started the day. Jim did well to get up about 9:30 to go speak to Miguel about what time we were leaving and then sat for a couple of hours looking a bit giddy! I went into llubi and picked up some red doctor (coke) for the boys and bread for lunch and Jim put together rolls and crisps for us all for lunch.
After that was major mission / clean up / box up / move into car... It was no small feat, so in between dipping in and out of the pool it was accomplished, it was quite sad closing the shutters and leaving, I couldn't believe we were at the end of that phase, eight whole weeks in a villa relaxing and now we were moving on.
We met xisca at Lidl car park in manabore and she drove us up to our new house, over the bridge of a fairly main road and immediately right. At which point we agreed that this wasn't shown on a map as we usually go over google earth with a fine tooth comb for such issues! Never mind, they are what're planes were at the old house! We pulled into the little tiny drive the length of our car (our last one took about 30 seconds to drive up it!) and we had the cutest little front door and house. We are no longer in our five bedroom, four bathroom house with tennis court, huge gardens and decent length pool, we have a little two bedroom, one bathroom, no bar b q, tiny pool and terraces over looking the MA15 road! But all of it is much more what we're used to, the house is lovely, it's on mains electric so can use the oven, dishwasher, washing machine whenever we want! The pool is really nicely shadowed In the heat of the day and the sun loungers are nicer. Except for the fact that the tv channels are worse than before (when we only had CNN and BBC world), we now only have CNN and there's no wifi the place is absolutely great. To celebrate having the oven back jim mad a cottage pie!
Sunday 01/07/12
July already! We were close to running out of water so took a trip to manabore to go and search for an open shop, we found spa, got water and made our way straight back! With Ellie insisting the whole time, "Ellie's winding down!" her window, she's never said it properly! Jim made us Ellie's latest total favourite and luckily, very healthy meal! Chicken soup boiled rice and potatoes in, she gets it downer like she hasn't been fed in a year.
Jim and Ellie both went and had naps after lunch whilst I had a bit of quiet time catching up with this and reading my book/ kindle, which I'm still loving, but uploaded a series of books knowing we were going to be out of wifi area by the same author I usually read, I then read the reviews which slated his usual series and thought, oh bugger, should have checked first! Oh well, I can decide for myself, it's better than nothing! For me and for jim, as I'd drive him nuts with no book!
In the afternoon the guy who cleans the pool came, jim got speaking to him, turns out he's an organic veg grower and left us with a load of fruit and vegetable, jim and I have decided he won't tell me what he uses to help it grow! We then headed off to a beach called sa coma, which I can only imagine was stunning before tourism, you could see at one end loads of lovely trees and imagine how it was, at the other end was a burger king and a lot of large white hotels, a pity, but if tourism wasn't here, there'd be no economy - a tough one... The black clouds kept appearing, then disappearing and eventually as we got to the car, you could feel it all about to let go, we drove up the road and leaves were being swirled around in circles, people were running with their prams knowing they were just about to hit trouble. Then suddenly, nothing! We were driving to Porto cristo for dinner, the black clouds came back as we were driving and eventually got us as we were finding a parking space. We parked on a hill and watched a Kia Sportage get up the hill, he was either driving with slick tyres or Kias are getting worse, he just couldn't get it to stick and get to the top, or anywhere for that matter.
When we got out of the car, the rain had gone and it had turned cold! Well, compared to the 40 degrees of the passed few days, it was suddenly early 20 s and felt horrible! Ellie wore her waterproof that's kept in the car, much to jim's shock I had nothing to keep me warm, but I think after the temperatures of the last few days, it was a fair enough call to not think i'd need a cardi in 35-40 degrees. As we were walking along the front, I spotted a couple of lads eating a kebab on a bench, looked over the road and saw a kebab shop, decision made! It was lovely! I had chicken meat and salad (maybe with a few chips) Ellie for once had a cheese tortilla that didn't come with chips or pasta! And jim had a lamb kebab. We all left pretty damn satisfied, if not a little cold. In Ellie's new word - fantastic!
On the way back we stopped at the fuel station and got beers and a magnum ice cream and watched the Eurofinal between Spain and Italy, being a dweller of Spain cuurrently, we were supporting Spain, and what a final - 4-0! A pit we couldn't find the channels to watch it on at the old house. We switched the satellite box off and watched it on Spanish tv, the commentary was amazing! They're nuts! Ellie stayed up until half time, I wanted her to be able to say she'd watched a Euro final but she was tired... I had a crap night's sleep as a foot note, as I put my bop /kindle down, I saw something large and black scurry under my bedside table which freaked me out all night, then I went to the loo and saw a cockroach! Damn rain, brought all the bugs in. Then all the cockerels ina one mile area kicked off just before dawn... Grrrrrr.. Another point to check when booking a villa, apart from getting an exact map point so you can check google earth for roads, if they say you can collect your own eggs daily from the Chickens, avoid it as they are noisy and they stink when you're lying by your nice pool!
Monday 02/07/12
Jim spent a lot of this morning fixing the pool up after the rain the night before, it was full of leaves but he did a great job. The owners have left lots of white fluffy towels here which is lovely after the cardboard ones at the old place but they don't mix well with Ellie! Plus we took them to the beach! So I put them through the wash (ooh the glamour!) and thankfully they am out fine.
We went into Manacor / manabore and found a really nice park for Ellie, it had loads of different things to do, she was exhausted as we left, we made a quick stop at the supermarket then went home and made lunch. She was so miserable, genuinely upset with everything poor girl, all she wanted to do was watch peppa pig, so when i took her outside for lunch she broke her heart, tears and everything. Jim asked if she wanted to go to bed "yes please daddy" through the tears :( on a bonus point, we got to eat her sandwich! We did make one later though once she got up.
I think we were all a bit off today, Ellie only slept for an hour and wasn't too much better when she got up, jim slept outside whilst she was asleep and when she got up, went to bed for a hour or so, then later I started to feel really sick and tired - just one of those days. We achieved nothing in the afternoon, jim cooked a lovely carbonara which Ellie wolfed down, the first time she's eaten properly today, then she went to be at a reasonable hour (ish) for once and we spent the evening very quietly and watched a movie after jim had taken some pictures of the garden, I think he would like to pinch some garden tips from here, it's very nicely laid out with predominantly green plants and the few flowers are very bold in colour, it looks like something you'd see in Thailand. I also looked at Liz's (aunty Olive to Ellie) Olympic flame carrying pictures which are great, would have been a great thing to see, I hope she's proud of herself, she should be.
Tuesday 03/7/12
This morning we want to Cala aguila which is a lovely beach east ish coast, it was lovely and quiet, well, as quiet as we've found recently, I think we've decided morning trips to the beach are the way forward, by the time we left, there was a steady stream of carson their way in. We were there about two hours, we struggle to get in gear and out of the house before 10:30 and Ellie starts getting upset and needing a nap by 12:30 so as she's such a good sleeper, it's best to bring her home to sleep for a couple of hours while we chill by the pool.
For the rest of the day, we stayed in, hung out. Played in the pool etc. jim hoovered the car out for the first time since he left when he popped to the shop, it's such a treat to have a clean car again. In the evening, we watched, what seemed to be a whole series of mtv's version you've been framed, which entertained jim no end, it's his favourite show in the uk!
Week eleven journal notes
Wednesday 04/07/12
We are a week away from yet again, running out of time! So we headed into Manacor for some Internet access and sat in a not too bad cafe for an hour and a half, much to Ellie's amusement - not! We did manage to book a ferry, we are definitely leaving Mallorca next Wednesday! And jim has booked an apartment, or aparthotel, not sure, it was in budget, didn't appear to have any windows, can't really remember - at this point Ellie had stripped all clothes off and was face down on the cafe floor screaming, so when Jim asked if he should book it - YUP! So god knows where we'll end up. But it's just for a couple of nights.
Mark, Ellen, Addy and john came over in the afternoon for a couple of hours as the girls are sailing off on the boat they work on tonight for at least three weeks so we won't see them again before we leave, probably will be in the UK!
We were all going to go to the Japanese buffet in town for dinner but as the girls were having to leave tonight, plans changed so it was just me, jim and Ellie. We had a fab time, we arrived at 7:30 but it didn't open until 8 so we went to the park for half an hour. When we were at the park jim said to Ellie "do you want to come over here on the slide?" Ellie was on the swings at the time opposite the rocket ship with a couple of young lads on and responded "no! Ellie watch boys, look me boys!" the restaurant was great, absolute bargain, you sat alongside a revolving belt which sailed past constantly filled with salads, meats, dumplings, sushi, chicken dishes, frogs legs, rice, noodles, fruit, crem caramel - it was just great! Absolutely filled ourselves, had 5 drinks and cost us €28!
We tried to calm Ellie a little once we got home, after jim opened the door onto her foot, she put her own peppa pig plaster on, faked a limp for a couple of minutes and recovered nicely. We sat on the terrace for a shirt while looking at the giant orange moon that had just risen, Ellie was making us pretend to fall asleep, covering us up with blankets and the screaming "WAKE" to wake us up. She pretended to sleep for a couple of seconds, woke herself up, stood up hi and did a massive stretch up to the stars very theatrically / in the style of some sort of yoga move, it was hilarious! I've never seen her do it before, I'm not sure where she's picked it up from...? We have some English speaking MTV so watching a lot of that at the moment as it's a right treat, watched a few episodes of punked, it's so mean!
Thursday 05/07/12
We woke up this morning after another horrendous night's sleep, they're getting worse. Our bed is rock hard and I mean ROCk, by the day I'm getting achier! It's painful to move around, I would have moved onto the sofas (which are in the style of caravans, you take the back cushions off and you have a single bed) but the shutters were open and so I knew that would annoy me waking up at dawn, I stuck with it, eventually fell asleep, came to and it was 9:47! Oops! I went into Ellie and as always she didn't seem bothered, I'm never sure if she's been awake for hours and happy dosing and staying in bed not being made to do stuff and nagged constantly or if she's woken up when she's heard me. So that was the morning screwed! We were meant to leave at ten to got to the beach so we went to the supermarket. And being as I felt rough as from a bad night's sleep, it was a very reserved shop. I didn't even get chocolate milkshake, which for some reason, when on holiday - where ever we are, I MUST have one per day.
After lunch and naps jim taught Ellie to jump in the pool herself (but wearing a rubber ring) that's it now, we spent about twenty trying to get her out so we could go tithe beach and every time she got out, she just ran back in again, hooked from the first jump! As we were heading off we lost the car / house / gate keys, it took about half an hour to find them, eventually, when jim said "I walked in the house with the bags, you had the water, I must have put them on the table as I always do, then I went to the bathroom to try the fire water" (his new toy, extreme cleaning, it scares me) I removed the etchersketcher from the table and hey presto, the keys were underneath!
We headed off to the beach and eventually found an incredibly stoney rubble path, it was a real car breaker, as we head down it gets more and more narrow, we were told it was a five minute walk to the beach and as we got further down this tiny rubbly lane with huge craters there were more and more cars so we headed as far down as possible, manoeuvred in and out of hedges To let other cars come out and kept heading down the lane. Eventually we thought we saw the end up ahead and there was a car coming towards us, we ended up having to reverse with the wing mirrors in about 20 meters and eventually came to a drive way so we took the opportunity and did a three million point turn as this car was making it's way up and ever so slightly knocked the front bumper of the car parked along the edge - it looked fine from a distance and looked like it had many, many knocks I the past. We moved up the lane, found ourselves a spot, left the rest of the traffic fight past each other and took a look at the large dent in our door! As we walked past the car it was fine so luckily, I guess, ours took the impact.
We started walking down the lane, and got to a huge graffitied steel gate that was wedges open with breeze blocks, looked a bit dodge, but there were enough cars there to convince me. So I expected the beach to be just the other side, but it wasn't... Probably about a twenty minute down hill hike (with our two year old and her baby who she's teaching to walk!) it was tree roots, red sandy dust, rocks, as in, walk down the rocks sideways to you don't fall straight down, it was unbelievable! When we got down there we were greeted with a lovely cove, Boo would have loved it, it was full of hippies - tightropes hooked up to trees, dred locks everywhere, signs offering massages. For once, we'd convinced Ellie into a swimming costume so she wouldn't look so vagrant and she looked really smart in her speedo swimmer, so we took it off again! I spent the whole time thinking, oh no, we have to get back up. And being as it took soloing to get down, it was now 7:10 so we needed to start to get back and get the girl fed and in bed so after about 45 mins there, we headed back up the hill, jim was a real hero and carried her up the whole way on his shoulders! It was still about 28 degrees and a hell of a rough hill to walk up! He'd done well the whole trip with the evil car trip / parking, carrying Ellie etc. we finally got to the top at just before 8 and headed straight home to a delicious chile con carne jim had made earlier.
After dinner I was putting some washing on and heard a splash, my heart in my mouth I looked out and it was Ellie, but she had a rubber ringing and jim was watching. The little blogger had said "swim?" to jim, he didn't say anything, just watch her, and she ran straight for her rubber ring and the pool and jumped! She is getting way too much confidence!
Friday 06/07/12
Today we went to Palma, we got the at a reasonable time for us - lunch time, so headed straight for McDonald's (I know it's bad but, unfortunately, I do love their mcchicken sandwiches and they serve yogurts and stuff, stuff meaning chips, for kids) we pushed on and picked up most of the bits on the shopping list, with the exception of my watch, two have now "broken" on me since we've got here, I'm lost without one!
Mysteriously, Rumbumbo happened to call while we were in town, being the town where he works, when he finishes early on a Friday and the one his Mrs isn't in as she's gone away for three weeks on a sailing job - I can see my weekend panning out in front of my eyes! Needless to say, within 30 minutes we were sat down with beers and the lovely Mark and planning for food and drinks at ours that night.
We got home after picking up supplies, jim got a bottle of wine each - plenty, and we jumped into the pool to cool down. Mark was round in half an hour and we all watched Ellie jumping in and out of the pool, over and over. Jim and Mark fixed the car from yesterday's incident and. It's now perfect and we sat down and ate. Miraculously, by the end of the meal we'd run out of wine, some how, mark and jim being the pair they are didn't let this stop them and they found some dodgy Mahon gin in a cupboard here which god knows what is actually in the bottle and how long it's been there.it's now 12:30, I've dished out warnings after witnessing a couple of slaps to each other and a near falling out as neither really understands what the other does for a living, I'm going to start to watch a film I think, instead of reading.
Saturday 07/07/12
I got up at 9:15, grabbed Ellie and cleared a space in her room for Rumbumbo to go have a sleep in there as he was asleep on the sofa. The hero he was ,he managed a good effort at being lively, had a nice cuddle with Ellie and coped with us! Jim got up twenty minutes or so later, managed water and a cake and went back to bed. So before heading off mark came and had a swim with Ellie and I, more jumping in and now, holding onto the side of the pool with her hands and moving all around the edge and then headed off.
Once jim got up I made him and Ellie ham and eggs on toast for lunch in an attempt to resemble bacon and eggs, it didn't really come close! We headed over to Mark's for qualifying as it's the British grand pix this weekend and it was red flagged! :( we'll see what tomorrow brings, with Jensen in 18th and Lewis down the rankings, it could be exciting, it could be gutting! Ellie didn't have the sleep we'd hoped for until 5, which didn't really work as the bar b q was ready at about quarter past! None of Ellen's lovely extras she walkways makes but it was a lovely meat and spud salad barb q, perfect!
We got home for 9ish (another late night for the girl), she had a swim, shower, peppa pig, hot milk and put down for the night, she really didn't want to but as soon as she got into her room she relaxed... I'm currently watching bad Spanish tv about what seems to be local festivals,not the nice traditional ones you see in guide books, these are chavs wrestling bulls, when drunk, chavs climbing telegraph poles over each other, when drunk , riding horses through towns, when drunk, it's a bit like big fat gypsy festivals! Saying that, as I watch it's getting more traditional watching, girls walking through town in long white dresses with a white box covered in lace placed over their head, on this box is a slice of tortilla / omelette, wish I could understand what they are saying! Jim has gone for an early ish night. Last night, is started to watch the film, finished watching the film and listened outside the bedroom door and they'd fallen asleep on the sofas snoring their heads off! I was wide awake from watching the film (the edge of love - not bad) I couldn't get to sleep! When I finally did jim must have woken up, gained 20 stone by the way he fell into bed and woke me up again! Hey ho, it's been lovely being able to spend so much time with mark.
Sunday 08/07/12
We woke up pretty groggy today, a long weekend and not enough good quality sleep! As we sat organising the mammoth task of breakfast (we switched Ellie to toast today in a bid to get more food inside her in the morning) and I said to jim, "so what's the plan today with Mark?" turned out, we needed to to be twenty minutes away at his house for 11:30 and it was now 10:50 (late breakfast I know!) good grief, I wish they'd let me into their plans from time to time! Also, we were going to John's to watch the grand prix but know one knew if there was food, what the plan was, or anything! I wish the girls hadn't gone away before we left and left me with them! So I got on the mission to cover Ellie's food for the rest of the day and potentially the night just in case - it's Wimbledon final too!
We got to Mark's, Ellie stripped naked straight away as she wanted to get in the pool, so we dressed her again and headed off for john and Addy's minus Addy but plus John's parents Susan and John who I've never properly met before and were lovely. We tried to settle Ellie as we usually do before the GP but she was not buying it today! We took it in turns to walk around and go in and out with her which made it hard to keep any real idea of what was happening. In the end Susan suggested if we had a pram she'd push her around, not wanting to put her out I declined the offer, however, up to that point I had not thought offsetting the pram out, if nothing else, it was her chair that she's used to so I got it, she sat in it fine for a while watching peppa pig, then started to dose and Susan very kindly rocked her back and fourth for the remains of the race, she said it would be a nice reminder of when she used to push John around, I hope it was and I wasn't just looking at my wits end and she felt bad for me! The race wasn't the best, no podiums for Maclaren but webber won so next best thing. John laid on an amazing bar b q (he's a chef, chef's bar b qs are amazing) and we floated in and out watching the men's Wimbledon. It was the first time we'd had a Brit in the final since the 1930s,all hopes were on Murray against Federer, the guy really gave him an amazing run for is money, it was really impressive to watch, have never really watched Andy Murray before. Unfortunately the rain came in, the cover went over centre court and changed the game completely into Federer's favour, unfortunately Federer took the title but I can see Murray up there one of these days for sure, just as soon as Federer retires!
We headed home around 8 via Rumbumbo's dropping him off and ended up home around 9, of course, a quick swim was in order and then another late night with minimum nap for Ellie! Poor girl, she does catch up with her lie ins though...
Monday 09/07/12
Today we were tired from three days of being out and about all day without getting Ellie's proper naps in so we were keen to ensure she got her nap today as we're worried she / we'll lose it, I think it's quite rare to get a two and a half year old that will sleep 12 hours through the night and then two, sometimes three hours in the day, I think a lot of it is her resting and just lying there. In the morning I cleaned through the house which had fallen to student style mess everywhere after a busy weekend. Needless to say, using up all contents of the fridge over the next couple of days we had lunch at home and put Ellie to bed, she had nearly two hours so hopefully she'll slot back into it! We just played in and out of the pool, making the most of a quiet day.
For dinner, we picked up Mark and went to Sineu and had our last amazing German steak, the sauce was very different tonight, incredibly garlicky! But it was lovely. We then took Ellie to the park where she just stood by the local kids watching them and them watching her... Poor girl! Lucky for her jim and Mark are fairly childlike together so they kept her very entertained. We headed back via Mark's for a drink, Ellie's clothes were straight off, to be fair it was 28degrees so who can blame her, she found the war squirter they use on cats so Ellie ran round and round in circles chasing Mark and jim with is, it was so cute, her running is amazing. After a pretty sad fair well, see you in six months great mate, we headed off, back to our little villa by the main road, back ready to spend one last day in Mallorca before we set off to Barcelona and then Ferry straight to Italy. Jim's finding it quite hard, he'll only see it. Starting the journey home, which in one way is true but we're only about half way, plenty left to do. He's dreading working again, I think next time I get on wifi I may set up a weekly lottery ticket, just in case!
Tuesday 10/07/12
I woke up sneezing today and nose streaming, I do some days and don't others but felt rubbish all morning, like my nose was swelling by the second, pretty rubbish but nothing that's going to ruin the day. Ellie has woken up refusing to listen to reason and having a lack of understanding of the word "no" now that could ruin the day! We chucked her in and out of the pool which cheered her up a little.
After a quiet morning, we had lunch, Ellie slept, we made the most of it, usual stuff... Once she got up we headed to the beach we went to the other day, Cala Anguila, found a lovely shaded corner which was promising for sandcastles and had a fab time. It was very choppy today so we didn't swim with Ellie but did a lot of paddling, kicking etc. once home I cracked on with packing and jim with what was an amazing carbonara. Ellie started her first ever impromptu game of hide and seek. Jim walked into the sitting room and she was counting, jim asked "what are you doing?" ellie looked at him and just said "counting..." then "1, 2,3,4,5 hide and seek..." her first ever game, she can't quite get it, as when you count and look for her, she starts counting too! We have about 4 nights of deserts in the fridge, so jim went for chocolate mousse, I opted for a magnum mini, unfortunately Ellie found her sharing side and kept saying "sharing, share lolly, come on daddy, have lolly" and put me in the position where I pretty much had to give the magnum up so enforce my "it's good to share" policy, damn that child is smart! Dinner finished, we got back to packing, it is such unbelievable hard work, i thought I'd been reserved in what we packed, there were three suitcases untouched after some careful planning leaving the last place and the kitchen box was relatively full but oh my god, it's leaking from somewhere! Oh well, just have to keep getting better. After Ellie threw her pool toys that had been drying back in the pool following a tantrum, she had an impromptu early night (well, by her standards) and jim and I sat out in slightly cool air, probably mid to late twenties, with a bar of milka and some cold water trying to wind down. Followed by a stint inside under the air con watching more bad Spanish tv. Tomorrow morning should be interesting, I can't get hold of the rental agent so I guess we find ourselves an obvious brick and leave the keys. Our last night in Mallorca, we only head north now...
Week twelve journal notes
Wednesday 11/07/12
We woke up on time... Packed the car without to much stress and made our way for Palma. I couldn't quite wrap my head around it, how far we've travelled, how much stuff we've seen and how quickly it's gone by.... On the way into Palma, we looked at ferry times and realised it was actually half an hour later that we thought so we parked up at the cathedral parking spot and started to make our way to the big park we have always eyed up on the way in but never made it into. Walking there, Ellie went all cuddly and lovely, right up tight, leaning on my shoulder and I was thinking what a nice end to Palma, the she threw up everywhere, but predominantly into my one and only handbag! OMG!! I think she'd had a duff bottle, or something building... God knows, poor little thing. 2 hours off our 7 hour ferry journey my mind was running circles, myself and Ellie are both covered, we can't go anywhere from where we were to wash, we couldn't go home and wash, I have no handbag now..... Aaaaaah...
We baby wiped off what we could, luckily they are very string smelling out here, fabreezed us a little bit here and there. Threw away the collateral damages, which ironically included my sickness armbands Charlottle had given me and sickness tablets for the journey! Realised the time - our spare half an hour and gone! One of those days brewing! Having found parking payment, we drove to the port, luckily, Rumbumbo told us it's a different area completely from the boat we came in on. Got to the port, showed the nice jobs worth (who was smoking on the job I might add!) our e ticket, but oh no... We had to drive back to Porto pi about to miles away into the centre of Palma to go and get boarding passes and then come back! Luckily there was an English guy behind us who'd been through the exact same so he tried to pass us a map - the jobs worth police lady tried to stop him, but she put out her fag and had nothing to do with her right hand, so in the end she took it off him and passed it over, obviously seeing the lack in terrorist attack levels between the two of us.. (rant over) we drove, got the boarding cards, drove back, cow didn't even look at them and we drove into the port having to guess the directions. Eventually, through the guidance of lorry drivers honking their horns and pointing, we found out queue and the very nice man who gave us the map. Without him, we would have never found the offices. Then we sat there, in 31 degree heat, in our car who's ac only works when it's moving and a potential puker getting more and more hot in the back seat, oh the stress... We were there for about 45 mins or so.
Eventually we got on board to our "reserved seating" which were like really small airplane seats, very very smelly people who had obviously also been queuing in their cars with no ac, all of whom just wanted to fall asleep and also our just a little too bubbly two and a half year old! Oh the panic. I didn't mind the smell as I thought, well no one will notice Ellie and I stinking! I sent jim for a reccie and we decided it was best to base ourselves in the cafe, we could sit there instead for 7 hours but at least Ellie could make a noise. We got ourselves a nice beef stew and Ellie some roast chicken. We then moved slowly to the cafe area and there we spent the rest of the afternoon / evening. They had a tv on the wall showing friends in Spanish which was enough to entertain me. Slowly but surely we resisted the opportunity to spend €150 on a cabin, took Ellie on various walks, nearly lost one of her flip flops overboard and made it to Barcelona an hour and a Half late...
We were one of the first off the ferry, luckily our sat nav acquired satellites pretty quickly and we made it to our apartment about 9 ish. So we ditched everything and went for a walk around the block, found "bar londres" that Malcolm, our very helpful apartment guy told us about and had some great calamari and salad - yum yum, my new favourite meal, washed down with a refreshing canja ( small lager, not sure how you spell it)
Bed time... We'd decided to see how ellie copes in big beds as it's a pain dragging up her travel cot and the mattress, of which I bought the best one available a couple of years ago for comfort and it ain't exactly one for traveling with! So her room was a twin, we joined the beds together for health and safety and spent a very sleepless night worrying about her falling out as she tried to get out, being scared wandering around the apartment wondering where she was, all sorts, I was really scared for her...
Thursday 12/07/12
After a horrendous night's sleep worrying and constantly turning around to face the door so she could see me if she walked in, Ellie woke up shouting for me at 8, I ran in there screaming "it's ok!" very dramatically and she was just sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes, when I asked her how she slept, as always her response was "good" and a thumbs up! My kid's ace! All of my nct friends are having problems with their kids sleeping at the mo and getting into their beds and Ellie is just so chilled, she rocks!
Jim went to one of the local artisan patisseries and got us coffee and gorgeous croissants ( god I love being in town again!) and we made plans to try out the metro and go to the zoo this morning. Naturally we got confused so got off at the first change and walked the rest through the beautiful park, the people of Barcelona are very lucky. We had a lovely time at the zoo, there is a large variety of animals there although I'm sure we missed some areas. At one of the areas, i think it was monkeys of sorts, we were right in front if the glass, ellie was loving looking in and some git pretty much straddled over the front of the pram and stayed there to take photos, couldn't believe it, I think his photos should have a few what we call "cheeky Vs" in the reflection. Zoo trips also make you question what's right, the jaguars, cheetahs and leopards kept in fairly small enclosures, to me, it seemed not enough space, I assume they should be able to run... Who knows... Ellie fell asleep in her pram so naturally, we wake her up by putting in a taxi and taking her home for a sleep, naturally she didn't and all we wanted to do was sleep as I'd had such a bad night the night before and a killer throat thanks to the air con I assume. After a while, we cut our losses and went to visit the amazing Gaudi Cathedral, sagrada familia, it's beautiful formally angles, there is a nice park next to it so Ellie played on the swings while we looked on, we have a couple of pics of her flying through the air with the cathedral in the background. After going the whole block round, we took a cab (deciding with three of us, it's more economical!) to las ramblas Ellie finally fell asleep as we got there and we had a strole along all of the restaurants , they all looked amazing. We ended up on a place I the centre served by waiters with the worst manners ever! They seemed ok to us but some customers got some rough treatment! Our pizzas were nice and we woke Ellie up to eat and she loved her dindins. Unfortunately, we needed to get her back at a sensible time, so we couldn't continue down las ramblas, so walked through a square and along a couple of lanes thinking what a giant cock up we made just giving ourselves such a short amount of time, we don't head back in this direction according to the current plan (mind you, one of the plans had us flying around the world leaving today so you never know! we're not exactly predictable ) .
When we got back, naturally, she was wide awake, for the first time she insisted I went with her to her grown up bed to fall asleep, I'm concerned this could be regular. We lay there, switched off the lights and relaxed. I was nearly asleep and she threw her orange plastic dinosaur at my nose.. Never mind.. Close to drifting off again and she just pushed my face away and said "move" so I didn't argue!!
Friday 13/07/12 - oh god, Friday 13th!
I had the best night sleep I've had in ages, ellie woke me at 8 shouting for me, bless her, just sat there other bed waiting, the girl's a charm. I was determined to make this morning go as smoothly as possible, moving days can be a tad stressful, tempers can be frayed, jim went and got us coffee and croissants again, gurt lush, it's all I can think about now, we had those, I washed up, packed up what I hadn't already, checked the emails as advised to do so, apparently I didn't have everything quite as well prepped as been expected but I took it on the chin, needless to say, I finished, made the sandwiches bought from the supermarket for our lunch ( how very parenty! I thought we'd be rebel parents and get savoury pastries!) we left in the end with twenty mins to do a ten min journey, on a better stress level than we have previously, getting better at this!
We got to the ferry with minimal fuss, found where to queue with minimal fuss and got on the boat with minimal fuss. All fine, we have a room that's a little bigger than the night ferry that we went on to Palma so not too bad, it's just all so dated and grubby, I'm sat on a blanket on the bed writing this and all I can smell is old feet. It's also not the demographic I thought would be on a Barcelona to Genova boat. "westoners" are the total minority, I think maybe the boat picked up in Tangiers and is traveling via Barcelona and onwards. Glad I picked out shortish shorts and a vest then! It's all very segregated, the men all together drinking strong black coffee, smoking Marlboro reds and playing cards, women in full Muslim dress roaming the halls, the kids running riot! One ran up to Ellie, "roared" in her face and ran off, little shit. Not what I expected at all. The staff are all stood in groups on a social wearing tired I'll fitting uniform, it's really quite a depressing place to be. I wonder if they think about the fact that this is people's view into Italy and expectations will be set for the moment they get onto this Italian boat, "grandi navi veloci"
We managed, or so I thought, to get Ellie down, jim was going off on deck for a bit, I faked leaving the cabin by opening and closing the bathroom door when she closed her eyes, then lept onto top bunk above her, failing to initially notice the mirror that you could look at in front of the bunk! Once I did I moved back out of eye site but within a few minutes she appeared in my eye line "Ellie wake up!" so I spent twenty minutes changing her bed round, closing curtains, and convincing her to go off to sleep, she eventually did for an hour. When she woke up we went and found jim on the back of the boat and went for a little walk around. At first we walked into a huge lounge room which had a band on blaring moroccan / northern African music, not quite what I was expecting! Families sat around in the freezing cold air conditioned room drinking coffee, kids running riot! Her temper / behaviour is not at it's finest currently, so there were several tantrums where we wouldn't take our shoes off or race her which resulted In a face on the floor tantrums. She turned a lot of heads, they seem intrigued. A girl of about 14 came up to us talking Arabic, then tried Italian, then French and finally got to English (she was incredibly impressive) and said "she's so beautiful, can I kiss her?" me and jim just stood there jaws on the floor - what do you say? Where we're from that's just plain odd, maybe the norm from where she's from. I was weary, I think maybe I'm on about my tenth crime novel and so think everyone is a drug dealing "gangbanger" with an aim to kill, but we just stood there and the girl just kissed her on her cheek, very sweet, Ellie quite liked the attention i think!
For dinner we'd been eyeing up the "American cafeteria" which I was imagining, from the signage, would be like TGI Fridays inside, I was really quite looking forward to a good meal and a milkshake. So we got in there when it opened and it was just a buffer. There were fish salads, squid and octopus, I just can't do the tentacles, the vegetable lasagne i'd been eyeing up finished with the guy in front there were three versions of tomato pasta and a breaded fish fillet and some chips, I went for "fish and chips" and the whole meal was rubbish, I hate having a bad dinner as that's your last chance to eat that day! The hi light was the bottle of wine, all be it a small one, was cheaper that the portion of chips!
Jim swung Ellie around on deck after as we watched the sun go down and entertained the other passengers, then we headed off to bed, making sure to get packed ready to get straight off in the morning as the ship is due to get in at 7, jim wants to leave the curtains open and let's in rise wake us but am setting the alarm...
Saturday 14/07/12
The alarm (not daylight) woke us at 6:20, at 6:45 we got an alert over the loud speaker that the boat was docking at 7:45 so we were hounded out of our room by 7:15 and stuck by the horrible former pool that's prodominently inside and everyone smokes in, we found a non smoking side room where a large family was and as soon as we sat down, jim and Ellie ran off and I sat there looking like a right plum guarding the luggage, being stared at by the kids, wearing shorts and flip flops when yes, it was pouring down with rain outside! Jim got me a coffee on one of his walks, I looked at it, said "white?" and he said yes, that's the cappuccino I'm afraid, odd, since I drink black coffee! Think he was having a blip!! We were finally told we could go to the garage at 8:30, oh my god, I have never been in such a frantic chaos. There were probably 30 rows of 10 wide parked cars, each parked in such a manner that you could only just squeeze out of the car doors (luggage was got out very quickly when we got on, before the next car parked behind), between the Italians trying to control the situation and the very impatient mainly Arab passengers it turned to chaos, the passengers took over! No one could get back to their cars until the front cars were moved, when they were close to being able to move, they'd rev the car at what must have been 5k rpm and try and jolt forward at the vehicle in front, even if that was a motorbike! It was such a scary situation, we just tried to move as safely as possible around the cars and get into ours. We didn't even put Ellie in her car seat, it was safer to just get her in and on my lap! We had. Man leaning against the back of our car, a man screaming through the window to move (we could only go backwards), luckily, the car in front got a space and did a u turn and made for the exit, we tried for the same but had to do a three point turn due tithe size of our car, which set the horns off!
We queued through customs to get out I one of two lanes, it was very slow, they were randomly spot checking cars so we weren't moving most of the time. At the last minute a passatt appeared to our left, we stood firm, he could bugger off and get in the queue, he was beeping, I was saying no, he literally drove AT us in the end giving us no option unless we wanted a dented car, all I wanted to do was go back to Mallorca!
As we drove along the italian coast road it looked beautiful, the rain cleared, sun came out and we felt much happier about it! We got to the bar in bandalucco where we were picking the keys up from (owner's sister's, she's from north wales) and we were told it wouldn't be ready until 4! We were in a tiny little town and couldn't kill that much time so parked in a car park, Ellie slept for a while, I read my kindle and jim went for a walk around town, the breeze flowed through the car and I quite enjoyed my time reading on my own! At three ish we went back tot hear to get a drink and a light bite. At four we were told it was ready, but we wouldn't be able to get our car to it as the roads were too narrow, this wasn't mentioned in the ad, the possibility of poor parking was, but not that we couldn't even drop stuff off, we have around 12 boxes, bags and suitcases, plus the cot, mattress and pram in that car. We, or rather jim, went for it. He reversed up the first part of the road, there's then a tiny hairpin bend, drove up that and then reversed up the last section of hill folding wing mirrors in a times. - he did an amazing job, although the clutch stank, we will have to take everything back down by hand, and it's a five minute walk to the car. Really not Impressed but at least it's down hill! The view is amazing, it over looks the town and river below and mountains opposite, does russet in us losing the sun at 4:30 which isn't too much of an issue.
Inside the house it's a kitchen/diner/sitting room with a very garish red leather sofa, white walls and black surfaces! Furnishings are all the worst next has to offer, even some red peppers in a jar with a next label on! The next issue we come across is the spiral staircase to get upstairs! Less than shoulder width and very steep but not too much of an issue, but we can't get the suitcases up so everything is downstairs, in a suitcases, constantly being unpacked by ellie! the bedrooms are nice and comfortable. We've put Ellie in a double bed.
For dinner we went to the restaurant owned by and next door to the bar we picked the keys up from. We walked from the road side seating, into the restaurant, down some stairs, round a couple of corners and they had a lovely terrace where you can sit out and enjoy the river and the evening. It was lovely, Ellie made friends with a couple of local girls and ran up and down the path racing them, she had a lovely time. We walked along the river back to the house, it's such a pretty little town. We all went straight to bed - exhausted.
Sunday 15/07/12
It's charlotte's birthday today, so we gave her a call, Ellie went all quiet so didn't talk to her. We were all useless today, jim felt ill and we'd got very little food and probably not enough water. So I spotted the umbrellas up at a bar below so headed down on my own feeling all brave, usually I send jim first to scope things! The guy in front ought the last five loaves of bread (!) just in case I guess, so I got Melba toast and philadelphia for our lunch, not ideal. Ut it did a job! I also found fresh milk for Ellie (she's been on UHTfor a couple of days, but likes it) so I hauled it all up the long steep hill we can't drive up!
Ellie wouldn't go to bed for her nap but eventually gave up and slept on the sofa and we had a team meeting. We 've decided to definitely go on to Tuscany from here (yay, Florence day trip) and then will probably head up to maybe Venice, if not, Verona direction. We've also been noticing that we think Ellie's missing other kids more and more so going to try and book a couple of eurocamps and that she needs a couple of hours of "playtime" a day. Jim spent a lot of today cleaning, the floors inside and out were filthy and he's swept both and hosed / moped, he has now developed OCD over the tiles round the pool, they're cream (and incredibley slippery when wet) and I'm now to allowed shoes on I the pool area and Ellie and I are constantly being nagged over the cleanliness of our feet. Me and Ellie walk around all day in flip flops at most and attract dirt to our feet, jim seems to have special feet that always look like peaches and cream so he can't understand us!
We went for a walk into town via these tiny little old roads, it's amazing, because we're on the side of the mountain and they are up to five stories high in streets you can only walk up and down and not drive, it's kind of how I imagine London to be before the great fire! it's also quite damp smelling, very charming to walk around, a piece of real Italy. There was a market, the first the town has held, along the river front which we walked along, I was hoping it would be food as we are low on stocks and would like some fruit, veg, cheese, meat but it was hippies, tie dye t shirts and wooden jewellery on the whole. There was some interesting olive oils and items preserved in oils but due to the nature of this current house and the removal nightmare that is ahead, we're keen not to add weight! We got back, had dinner and watched a film we found at the house, Hunted with tommy lee jones, I usually like him but it was shite! I enjoyed sitting there, nice and still for an hour and a half!
Monday 16/07/12
We woke up to a lovely sunny day, walking to the car was lovely as the temperature was about 26 so not too hot not too cold. We went to armia di tiaggio which is the most local beach at about 15 minutes away. Italian coast lines appear to be very different, very built up with bits of building, funfair rides, almost a bit Blackpool, I'm not sure what I think yet... The beaches, in this town, are predominantly private, the amount you pay varies as to how nice you want your sunbedetc to be, I assume the more expensive places are less crowded and have waiter service. I think they'd be worth paying for to be looked after, similar to when we were in Dubai, they also had individual changing rooms / showers, so you saw no one walking through town with bikini wet patches and sand everywhere like we have done previously! We got some lunch - pizza, at a very reasonable price.
we then headed to Carrefour which we were pleased about having one so close. However, the prices are horrifically expensive, I've never been in the situation where you'd really notice big price differences and they'd potentially affect us. We spent €67 on what we'd spend €35 on in Mallorca. We're going to have to change our habits! We did buy some new Colgate and the flavour is "sexy menthol!" only in italy...
At home jim and Ellie did some playing in the pool (it's too cold for me, especially when the shade comes), jim spent some time playing with Ellie, I actually caught him teaching her how to start a fire using a dead leaf and a peppa pig magnifying glass! He then took her on a little walk up the hill by the house. She hadn't had a nap so by now she was quite hard to console so I took her for another walk down the hill. On the way back there was a lady walking her little girl up the hill, she's probably six months younger and they were both as confident as each other, after a minute there was Italian mummy, Italian toddler, Ellie and me all walking up the hill in a row holding hands!!
Jim cooked us a yum pasta with steak, it was so great, during the meal, the guy who was looking after the garden area for the owner kept popping his head up and down, Ellie got two bunches of flowers and a plant pot full of plums! I put the flowers in water but she took them out of the glass and tried to drink the water so I had to put them back in with no water. The plums we're planning to stew and have with some ice cream tomorrow, I already can't wait! I vaguely healthy pudding for us! After Ellie went to bed, which was by 9 I might add, a minor miracle these days, we watched the Bourne identity, we're planning on spending the next two nights watching the next two!
Tuesday 17/07/12
It took us an age to get going today, jim and Ellie prepared and started to stew the plums, which smell amazing! We left the house after a lot of faffing at 12! We headed up the Argentina valley where Bandalucco is, further into the mountains, the plan was to stop in Triora for lunch, but as we were getting there Ellie fell asleep so we kept plodding on, we were aiming for the highest peak. We kept on, through beautiful scenery, until, unfortunately, the road ran out. It continues, but was a rubble road and not Tarmac and we had about 15 km to go! We couldn't risk the damage to the tyres, or the clutch after the move day so we had to turn around.
The road was so uneven it woke Ellie up, so we turned around and parked up for a short while as the road had no traffic, it was lovely to see such amazing views and nice fresh slightly cool air. Then headed back to Triora and had some lunch / antipasti. We're discovering torte Verdi which is slice of very thin pastry base and topping and inside rice, leaks, spinach and some stuff all packed together, like a very fancy square sandwich! It's delicious. We decided it probably costs us anout the same to eat out as shopping in the supermarket. A lot of the packets of baby wipes were up to €4, butter was €3, packs of 2 choc yog / desert things were over €2 yesterday. We spent some town in the lovely park, Ellie really enjoyed it. Then we took about a two hour road trip home through the mountains, poor jim was exhausted. Not surprisingly, as we pulled up at the bottom of the hill where the house is, jim said he was going to pop along to the shop and pick up some icecream, so Ellie and I and the bags started the walk up and not surprisingly, and very deservedly, jim appeared an hour later after having been to Bar Columbo for a drink! Also, he picked up our tax disc from there which john had posted which was fantastic. Ellie and I played chalking on the patio. At one point she laid face down asking us to draw around her eyes! She then started to throw them over the terrace onto the road below, to which we ignored and went, oh well, no more chalk. She stormed off through the house, throwing her dummy away, putting flip flops on the correct foot, it a right old mission. In the end, daddy gave in and helped her, while I was wondering if I had enough time to get to the freezer and tuck into a quick mouthful of icecream and stewed plums! I didn't, jim's reading. "the ockanawa way" about some Japanese people who are super healthy and live for a long time, never get Ill, living their lives full of vitality and certainly not full of icecream and nice tasty treats such as the €2 red wine we discovered, all day he's been saying no to nicer bits of food so I didn't give in, can't have him getting all skinny and me all fat!
For dinner we went to a local pizzeria, the pizzas were lovely, I forget how thin the bases should be, thin enough to almost just eat with a fork, and not spend ages sawing at it with a knife! We sat next to a lovely German factory and by the end of the meal, Ellie and their two girls were playing away, they had a lovely time. The parents were really kind, they gave us their address in Germany and told us to look them up on the way through we watched the second bourne when we got home, I don't know what we'll do after tomorrow! I ate plums and icecream... Lurvely!
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