Lazy Days & Holidays

I went away for a few days last week to stay with a friend at his dad's flat in Alicante so flew out at the unearthly hour of 6.30am on Monday morning. In my wisdom, I decided to go to the airport on Sunday but arrived there at around 6pm and headed straight into Smiths to buy some books (4 for the price of 3) and set about reading one of them whilst playing musical chairs. Around about 8pm that night I found myself sitting on an even comfier bench seat in a coffee bar (having sat on all their hard chairs) having a cup of coffee and a raspberry and white chocolate muffin - still with book in hand. This chap came to sit close to me and started talking to me - normally I wouldn't bother answering but decided to chat to him as it passed the time. This man turned out to be Ron Clarke who spends his life photographing the World Superbike Championships, the Manx Race and the TT - a jolly interesting man so I told him about my uncle who became the fastest privateer (7th) on a BSA back in 1953 - he went on to ride for Aermacchi and MV Augusta. We talked about my own interest in motorbikes which stemmed from my dad as he used to ride a Ducati and so Ron decided to show me some photographs that he had taken and offered me a photograph but I said that I preferred another photo of a bike with sidecar as it showed the speed - he gave it to me and gave me another two photographs too to give to my dad. Soon it was time for Ron to leave as he had to get the airport bus to Luton to get a flight to Romania as he was doing some charity work out there and so I was left on my own.

I went for a walk around Terminal 1 Departures area and went to sit on the comfy seat only to find that chairs were stacked upon it so I ended up sitting on a hard chair again until the assistant pointed me in the direction of the massage chairs which are not too bad to sit in if you can bend your back around the knobbly bits that are there to massage your back..there I sat til 11pm when this gorgeous chap called Steve appeared - he had travelled on the train from Cambridgeshire and he explained that he was off to Corfu. Steve came and sat next to me and so started a night of chit chat and amusement especially when a chap called Joe came to join us - he had left his wife at home and was flying off to America for a couple of weeks' holiday. I know you are not supposed to leave your bags with strangers but we built up such a rapport that we were wandering to the loo and in Steve's case off to see if the information desk was open so that he could pick up his tickets that we left our bags with each other to keep an eye on.

Soon it was time for Steve and myself to check in and then go through security - both of our flights were at 6.30am, we went mooching in duty free and went to the pub for breakfast and then sat waiting to be called to our respective gates - we exchanged details too and were pleased to see that our gates were next to each other. I guess you could say that we clicked - something must have happened because I spent my holiday thinking about him (as you do LOL). He flew back to Birmingham yesterday and who was there to meet him...you've guessed it - little ol' me - he came home with his mum who had been staying out in Corfu too and he was pleased that I had bothered to turn up to meet him...we are staying in touch..so watch this space.

The holiday itself wasn't too bad - the weather was hot and after a nap on Monday, it was off to the beach for a spot of reading (I hadn't taken a swimming cossie), in fact we went to the beach every afternoon bar Thursday and Friday. We went shopping mainly in the chinese tat shops and we went to Plaza Mar which is a huge shopping complex - I went to C&A and bought some socks and a lovely jumper. We didnt do the beach on Thursday as some workmen were coming to repair the flat - the upstairs neighbours had had a sewage leak from their toilet and it had leached through the bathroom ceiling of the flat - this must have happened between April when it was last visited and October - the whole bathroom stinks of mould amongst other things. As the friend's dad hadn't been notified that I would be staying - I was asked to leave whilst his dad's friend came over (he seems to be an introducer) so I mooched around the market. I had coffee and cake at a nice shop and then headed back to the square where I knew that I could sit and read a book in peace. No peace for me as a bunch of hoodlums (apparently there is a bail hostel on the square which is newly opened and full to the gunnels of all sorts of nasty types) decided to have a fight - one chap was pushed over and a gun came skittering out of his pocket across the floor and landed quite close to me. I decided then that it was time I left - so I took off my reading glasses and put my normal ones on, stared at the gun for a while and then left - I tried to find the policeman I had seen in the market but he was nowhere to be found. Eventually, I went back to the square where I sat on the other side in the sunshine until I was collected.

Friday - it lashed down with rain all day and although we went out I got absolutely soaked. Saturday I flew home.