Christmas Prep

While I was in Ikea on the way back from Alicante I picked up a Christmas tree. Also, some friends dropped off a bag of fruit at the weekend. So, now we have a tree and an Orange to put under it for Santa’s refreshment on his journey.

Small tree or large orange – or both?

The weather is mixed at the moment. It’s a challenge to keep the battery charged. I can still get over a 1KW from the panels when the sun is fully out. Most of the day, with cloud cover, there’s nothing coming from the panels.

When the wind picks up, I have to dismount the side panels. These I added as the panels on the roof don’t collect enough on account of the angle of the sun with it being so low in the sky. With them on the side of Lorenzo they pick up more than the ones on the roof.

All the solar panels on Lorenzo (Lorry for short)

Like always, so much to have done, so little done. We’ve been here over two months and departure is bearing down on us.

Second meal out.

Last Monday we took “menu of the day” at a local restaurant. Chris kindly drove with Gary riding shotgun and poor Lynn sandwiched between Adrian and I in the back.

Rather than being a set menu as is common in France, there was quite a choice. I’m sorry to say I didn’t take any photos but my meal cost €20 for half a bottle of red, scrambled egg with jamón and mushrooms as a starter, main was the Spanish equivalent of a fry up, with black pudding (morcilla), two different spicy sausages, a fried egg and chips. Dessert was a sort of cheesecake flan. The filing was similar but there was no biscuit base.

All in all, an excellent meal.

After the restaurant we headed home stopping at a bar in Ragol.

It was one of those modern looking buildings. Very spacious inside with a large TV blasting out 80’s and 90’s Spanish pop music. For a Monday afternoon, there were a surprising number of patrons. It also looked like a good proportion had been there for some time.

There another 4 large glasses of red were imbibed. No thought was given to the fact that we had to cycle back from the village to the finca.

Finca in Spanish refers to the property that I think would be best described as a small holding. The direct translation seems to be “estate”. Adrian and Steven call theirs the “Kabilas” which judging by a map I’ve seen, refers to the area around where they are. I’m not sure, but am guessing Spanish might be a language where “C” and “K” are used interchangeably. Corrections in the comments if you wish.

It was dark and after donning his cycling apparel Adrian realised he hadn’t charged the battery for his front light. So, we had about 3km to go on mostly tracks, in the dark with one front light and red wine powered brain power for co-ordination, navigation and perambulation.

It turned out as you might expect!

On taking the turn onto the tracks I might have been too far in front and at the turning, my colleague behind, devoid of light, proceeded to hit something, fall off his bike and sustain a major puncture on the process. Only 2.3Km to go and my pump wouldn’t fit his valve so no way to inflate the tyre after replacing the tube.

I cycled on ahead, collected the dogs and another pump and then the “pack” returned to assist Adrian. No one left behind.