The Adventures of Melvyn and Lesley
Having retired we are busy pursuing the things we enjoy
Time for a coffee. As usual we had our Spanish lesson this morning and of course while we were there the wind was blowing and the windsurfers were having a great time. By the time I got to the beach at 12:00 the wind had dropped off. I did an hour but nothing very exciting.
We decided to go to Los Belones for a coffee. Pictures show a view of Fuente and a mural of Los Belones (painted on the gable end of a building from the same street).
We went to Cartagena this morning to collect our numbers for The Cross of Artillery race. There are four distances, 1/4m, 1m, 6km and just over 14km (1/3 marathon). We have entered the 14km to the lighthouse and back.
Another Oompah evening. The dutch certainly like their barrel organ style music. It was a good evening and Trevor and Sue joined us which was nice. Research shows that one of their (the Dutch) favorite songs, “The Red Rose Cafe”, (Het kleine café aan de haven) is actually a Dutch song written in 1975 by Pierre Kartner, also known as Vader (Father) Abraham. He’s also known for the Smurf song. I have to admit I much prefer the version by the Fureys.
It had been suggested we should go along the weekly quiz organised by the Camping and Caravanning club. Julie whose idea it was obviously didn’t realise how inexperienced and weak we are at this sort of thing. In preparation I watched Pointless much more carefully in the hope that some of the answers might be useful in the quiz. Alas, it didn’t work. In spite of help from Derek and Anne we came last, but I think we all enjoyed the evening and at the moment it looks likely that we will have another go next week. Brian (Julie’s husband) says that the questions all get repeated over a period of time and the longer you go the better you get. The winning team got about 56/7 compared to our lowly 39. In our defence I would add that we only had 4 in our team compared to 6 in the others.
Well we’ve done it. Entered two races. November 23 a 14K, (website) and December 14 a half marathon, (website).
We tried last year, searching the web and seeking out help from the local “Oficina de Tourismo” but drew a blank. This year we managed to find some races on the web, but with our weak Spanish, trying to enter them online was a nightmare, (it’s quite a different system to the one we’re used to back in the UK). Our new friend from the Tourist Information Centre (and also a bit of a runner), entered us for one of our races online and explained all the difficult bits. She also explained how we have to pay at the Cajamar, so now we’re set and have a purpose to our training. Watch this space.
Once a month the Dutch organise “Dirk’s Do”. Starting at 7:00pm we indulge in a 3 course meal, drinks and a large selection of music played by Dirk on his keyboard. The whole evening is a very jolly affair with about 140 people, mostly regulars and mostly Dutch and German. We have a table of friends, most of whom we only meet on these evenings, so a good opportunity to catch up.
There is a definite style to the music and dancing which we describe as “Dutch/German”. I’m told that the dance most do is something called a disco fox. Based on the foxtrot but with additional oompah.
Some of the men seem to think of it as more of a sport than a dance and sometimes the pace of the occasional couple wouldn’t be out of place on a rugby pitch. This isn’t meant as a criticism, merely an observation, Lesley and I always wish we could learn to trip the light fantastic in the ballroom. All in all an enjoyable evening with good food, company and entertainment.
In September, before we left the UK, we booked a hire car (website) on the internet. After doing some research we managed to get a good price for three months hire (300 Euros) but we also decided to purchase ‘collision waver damage’ insurance in the UK as Martin Lewis advised (£180) so we wouldn’t have to buy it when we picked up the car (website)
On Saturday 1st November our friend John (Dixon), very kindly took us to San Janvier airport (about 35 minutes drive away) to pick the car up. It was completely straight forward and we drove away in a 4-door Opel Corsa with only 8000Km on the clock, a very nice clean car. We did a small detour on our way back to La Manga to explore the town of Torre Pacheco where we will be doing a half marathon race on December 14th. After some shopping in the Mercadona and Aldi supermarkets we drove back to the campsite.
Our first trip out was on the following Tuesday when it rained heavily all morning after a windy night. Derek and Anne came with us to the Parc Mediterraneo in Cartegena where we did some shopping and browsing around the shops there – Decathlon, Leroy Merlin and Carrefour etc. We bought a vacuum cleaner for the motor home!
It is very handy having the car to go shopping or to visit new places we haven’t been to before. Also it has enabled us to enter a couple of races, the half marathon in Torre Pacheco as mentioned before and a 14Km race in Cartegena on Sunday 23rd November. Derek and Anne have also been able to do some shopping with us so that they don’t have to carry it all on their motor bike, like we have done in previous years.
On Sunday 16th November we went out for lunch to a restaurant called Meson Galindo, which a friend recommended to us. It is in a village called La Puebla about 20 minutes away. We hadn’t booked a table but they fitted us in at the back as we had arrived early enough but very soon the whole place filled up with mainly Spanish people. The food was very nice and reasonably priced, 10 Euros, 12 Euros or 15 Euros for a very substantial meal. (website). We hopefully will be going there again.
