Hello again Dear Reader ! Well, where does the time go ? I heard two weeks ago, some clever so and so telling me there were only 19 Fridays to Christmas ! WHAT? I’ve ( well in truth, we) only just polished off the turkey from last year …. I don’t need to be reminded that I’ve blinked and missed 9 months of my life … thank you all the same!
I have certainly had a busy August ……apart from anything else, I turned a year older . Still sixty something so no need to change the blurb in the introduction to this blog just yet!!! We have just had approximately two weeks of grandchildren staying with us …and there has never been a dull moment right from Day 1…….
Now that was an amazing experience. I had never been down a mine and had always wanted to go …so a great opportunity when these two came to visit! The conditions that miners had to work in are really quite unbelievable .Russ, our guide and retired miner, was superb and so enthusiastic to tell us all about the workings of the mine through the years . I loved it !
Now that was another enlightening experience ……it appears that alpacas choose to toilet together ! Whoever knew? When one starts they all go …and they have significant bladder capacity too which in turn takes considerable time to empty! Patience is required, along with some agility for jumping out of the way!!!
We went to playgrounds, farms, Ninja worlds, and a Lego cafe … made pancakes and pizzas …..and even had our own beauty spa …!! but overall, had a genuinely lovely, if not slightly hectic, time !
Then on the day before Indy and Otis went home, we were joined by our two eldest grandchildren and their Dad for the day on Saturday….and a crazy, but genuinely good time, was had by all!
Oh and did I mention ice cream? No…..well we had quite a lot of ice cream!
So now the children have all gone I have been left in charge of these little beauties who live next door ………
I use the plural because there are in fact eight Guinea pigs in total . I am not a total novice to this …..as a young child I longed for guinea pigs as pets . I may have told you my parents’ efforts with small animals for me, weren’t entirely successful. The little white rabbit purchased for my tonsils having been removed, died two days after I came home, and his replacement turned out to be a hare – these creatures are not domestic animals and he was particularly aggressive. The pet shop owner had clearly been sold duff baby rabbits !!! He eventually burst the cage door open and disappeared into the countryside without a backward glance! No wonder!!
My own foray into small animal husbandry was also not particularly successful. I was desperate to have guinea pigs and, aged fifteen bought a female and her two babies ( sex unknown at the time of purchase) because they were too young to be separated from Mum . Well clearly not too young to procreate 🙄🙄🙄 because within days, the mother developed into a square, and before I knew it we had another six guinea pigs …..after their birth, and within days , Mum once more bloomed into a square shape ……and so on !
Anyway the least said about that period in my life , the better! My charges next door are all female…… and give me my guinea pig fix !!!
I’m just grateful they don’t have a tropical fish tank …..I would worry about looking after those sort of fish ! It’s not that I haven’t looked after goldfish before…if one is found floating on the surface of the water, it is relatively easy ( and dare I say, inexpensive) to replace . However, I went to a garden centre the other day that sells tropical fish …I couldn’t believe my eyes…..
No …..I find it hard to believe too but there you go ! You could hardly replace him in a hurry could you …and you wouldn’t want to flush that amount of money down the toilet either !!!
Well, you’re up to speed now with the goings on here …though what I haven’t told you is, amongst other things, I have been in training for my next Camino which starts this Saturday . Following our last Camino from Santiago de Compostella to Finistère and Muxia on the coast , both Kathleen and I decided we had to do some serious training for this next one . I think I may have told you, that last one was very tough and led to Kathleen asking me at one point “ Where did you get the idea this stretch was flat and we’d be walking 10 miles a day?” “No idea” was my reply, “but since that time someone has put a great big mountain range in our way !!!”
We’ve just completed our final training walk and on Friday we leave for Bilbao in Spain to travel to Saint Jean Pied de Port in France from where we start the first section of the Camino Frances. I won’t spoil your excitement by giving too many details …but this is our itinerary…
As in previous times I’ll be blogging at the end of each day…..and no, for those of you wondering, there will be no Albariño this trip. “What?” I hear you cry , “no wine ??” I will not disappoint Dear Reader …. of course there will be wine!!! but it will be a white Rioja rather than Albariño. I will be sure to keep you posted anyway😉😉 – as you know we only ever imbibe anyway for the purposes of your education !
So until Friday Dear Reader, though I have one more thing to tell you . It involves the Dearly Beloved ( or the DB as you’ve all come to know him!). He recently visited a famous spectacle establishment – well it’s well known here in the United Kingdom. Anyway, impressed with their eye examination, he decided to have his hearing assessed ….and he clearly has some deficit . Following the assessment , he was fitted with hearing aids specially focussed on his deficits, and told to go and walk about outside amongst the general public for ten minutes. This he did, and couldn’t believe how much more he could hear .
“ Brilliant” I said when he arrived home “ so what were your particular deficits?” “ Oh” he said cheerfully “ the frequency of the female voice is one of my problems!! I told the bloke that explained a lot . So many times you tell me that you’ve told me something before and I dispute that …….well, I’m not being difficult, clearly I haven’t heard you, you see!”
You couldn’t make it up, could you !!!!!
Anyway, with that I’ll leave you with this, which made me chuckle …
Camino Romero 