Life on Jersey & Spain - July 2006

23rd June 2006 - Friday - 25th June 2006 - Sunday
We had a great time seeing the kids and I had fun cleaning the house as Teresa (our lovely neighbour and cleaner) hasn’t been this week. I didn’t mind as I am feeling much better today - totally back to normal (whatever normal is).
James and Emma are both working and so I can spend the morning catching up on things like cleaning the fish pond and mowing the grass back and front and mundane things like that.
Michael of course had to fly out early on Friday morning to Switzerland. A very early start for him. He got back from Switzerland about 8.30 p.m. I had cooked a huge roast dinner for Emma, Adam, myself and of course Michael but he had to eat his on his own later in the evening when he arrived back from Switzerland.
On Saturday we went to see Michael’s Mum and his Aunty who is on a visit from Wales to stay with his Mum. It was lovely to see his Aunty as we haven’t seen her for a long time. She doesn’t change - she certainly doesn’t look her age and in fact hasn’t aged since I first met her 100 years ago! She is very chatty and very bubbly despite losing her husband not so long ago.
It was lovely to catch up.
We went food shopping after and bought some Barbie food and salad for our evening entertainment… John, Teresa and Luke (over the road). Jessie couldn’t come as she was out ‘partying’ at the tender age of 11! They are a lovely family. Luke is so funny and cheeky (in a nice way) - he is lovely and always very entertaining.
We had a great barbecue thanks to James (our resident chef). His huge contraption of a barbecue is fantastic and John commented that it was the best barbecue he’d EVER had! James was really chuffed.
We had a lovely evening but sadly when Teresa went home she found her rabbit almost dead with heat exhaustion. (Sadly she died overnight). What a shame she was a really pretty rabbit.

SPAIN 25th June - 2nd July 2006
Sunday we had an early start at 3.15 a.m. We took James’s car to Haywards Heath station and caught the train to the airport. John over the road, very kindly, later drove James up to the station to pick his car back up! Thanks for helping us out James and John.
Well, we were on our way to Granada, flight on time, Monarch Airlines are the best. Never been late (don’t speak too soon) and always very efficient and even the airline food is good! We are very lucky because we can get a flight to 4 different Spanish airports - Granada, Malaga, Seville and Gibraltar Airports. We usually pick the cheapest and easiest - Granada. Granada is great and the flight time is 20 minutes shorter than to any of the other airports! We could go to Jerez which is even closer but flights are from Stansted - pointless when Gatwick is on our doorstep.
Picked up our hire car and made our one and a half hour journey (straight road) from Granada Airport to our beautiful Spanish house.
We stopped for lunch and had to hang around for a while in Campillos whilst the restaurant prepared to open. In the UK, restaurants open at the exact time they are due to open… in Spain it could be half and hour to an hour later than they are due to open - they don‘t care. They are just so relaxed and expect everyone to be patient - which, the Spanish are - Michael and I, however, are not! On this occasion it was three quarters of an hour late opening - despite them knowing we wanted to eat - be patient. You can’t get angry, you just have to ’go with the flow’! The food was good but as usual we ordered too much and actually lost interest in eating by the time it arrived anyway! The Spanish know how to make a good gazpacho - which Michael had and I had a great salad. In this area they do great salads with tuna fish - tinned tuna fish - but tinned tuna fish here is the BEST! We always enjoy our tuna salads here - they are HUGE too. We usually order one and share it. We both had a Spanish omelette for our main course which actually wasn’t the best we’ve had… quite ordinary actually but still it filled a hole. I think Michael enjoyed his more than I enjoyed mine.
Arrived at the house and it was looking great. It wasn’t too dirty and dusty either! Makes a change!
Turned on all the power and utilities… all working in good order. Great.
We soon got into the great Spanish tradition of ’siesta’… we’d had a very early start that day and needed one! We had a quick shower and went out to Bar Meson… one of our favourites in Olvera. We call the owner of the Bar Meson ’Dustin’ because he could quite easily be Dustin Hoffman’s identical twin! We like it in his restaurant and he knows us now as do all the bars and restaurants we frequent in Olvera!!! It’s nice that they do remember us because they treat us very differently now… at first they look at you as if you are an alien and don’t smile, nothing. Now, they smile and have a joke with us… we feel at home here. Michael even commented that he ‘could’ and ‘would’ love to live in Spain. Now he’s coming around to my way of thinking! We both relax totally when we are here and soon slip into the slower pace and relaxed atmosphere - it’s a different way of life completely.
Of course, we had forgotten about the dogs… they bark all night long as they live outside… it’s too hot indoors. Our friends Jane and Geoff who we are seeing on Thursday in Benarraba, have 3 gorgeous collie dogs, their dogs live inside the house. The Spanish think they’re mad!!! Anyway, Spanish dogs are very loud and they call each other all night in the village and into the campo (countryside)… surrounded by the sound of barking dogs, which then set off the donkey down the road and then the donkey sets off the chickens and cockerel!!! Aaarrgghhh!!! We put the fan on in our bedroom because it’s very hot and it does drown out the animal noises from outside. When I came with Emma last August, the house hadn’t got any windows in at the time (as we’d only just bought the house 3 weeks prior to that and the renovations hadn‘t been completed of course) and the noise was unbelievable. We came with Julie (sister in law) and her tribe and Emma had to sleep in my bed with me… it was so funny because I could hear Emma chuckling all night long at the different animal noises! At one point the mattress on the bed was going up and down where she was laughing quietly to herself because she thought I was asleep… she was trying not to laugh out loud and wake me up. That was such a funny night.
Monday in Spain
Today we decided to go to the coast in Marbella. We love strolling along the promenade and there is a restaurant we haven’t been to in a while that we like there. It’s Italian and the food is very good and fairly cheap for Marbella prices. We are both very tight now in Spain and eat in Ventas (these are places where you can eat for 7 euros (£4.70) for a 3 course meal with a glass of wine! Fantastic value and traditional Spanish food. We also eat a lot in Olvera as mentioned yesterday. Olvera is particularly cheap to eat at and always busy except when we go at around 8 pm. The locals don’t eat until about 10 pm. Once they start coming into the restaurants you know it! The Spanish don’t talk they just SHOUT AT THE TOP OF THEIR VOICES! They don’t know how to talk - sometimes it is so deafening we have to gobble our food and leave!We had a fabulous meal in the restaurant in Marbella and Michael had a plate of mussels to start. He also had a chicken in cream sauce and Spanish olive oil cooked fries and veggies. I had pizza.
We went to La Canada afterwards to do some shopping in the huge Mall there and into Leroy Merlin the massive DIY store. We bought some picture frames for some cat pictures I bought off of eBay ages ago. We also bought a mirror with lights for our upstairs bathroom in the Spanish house.
Bought lots of food and drinkies for the house in the big supermarket at La Canada which happens to be the Spanish version of the French supermarket chain ‘Auchan‘.
A long drive back up the mountainous roads and we were exhausted. We had a tuna salad (tinned again) at home that evening and early to bed.
Tuesday - Spain
Can’t remember about Tuesday - I am now writing this off the top of my head… I think we had a lazy day after yesterday’s manic drive up and down the mountains.
I think Michael put up the mirror in the bathroom and found that one of the lights was broken on it. It doesn’t hold onto the bulb very well and flickers but we’re not going back down the mountains to the coast to take it back - it will have to flicker!
We took two pictures that I bought again off of eBay to Olvera to a shop we know that frames pictures. These are a very awkward size and needed to have the frames made properly. They did a good job but cost 42 euros about £32 for the pair. Michael put them in the lounge.
We decided to drive on to Arcos de la Frontera to eat lunch at a restaurant we love there. Disaster - they were shut… this is the second time we have done the 40 minute journey and they have been closed - last visit and this. Bum! We were, to say the least, very disappointed. We have only eaten there once before and it was a lovely cheap Venta but the food was sensational! They were shut for the whole time we were there - they obviously don’t like us!
We went right into Arcos de la Frontera up the steep hill and into the old town. We didn’t fancy eating at any of the restaurants today there - nothing really appealed.
We decided to go to a shopping area we know just down the hill and pick up a hot chicken baguette with fries and a drink instead. Not very Spanish.
We went into Carrefour the supermarket there to pick up the bits and bobs we’d forgotten from yesterday and then back to Olvera to pick up the pictures we had earlier taken in to be framed.
Then drove on to our village and Michael put the pictures up in the house whilst I washed some salad for our evening in again.
Wednesday - Spain
Today we decided to drive to Ronda. We both love Ronda. We took a walk around and of course had to stop at a restaurant and eat. We decided to go somewhere different as we nearly always go to the same restaurant Dona Pepa. The food is really good there. Anyway, we went into a different one this time which had fantastic views over the gorge. It’s a shame the food wasn’t as fantastic. It was okay but nowhere near as good as Dona Pepa. We do like to try different places but the price was… well, shall we say, Ronda prices (expensive) and disappointing. Shame but at least we know we won’t be going back there.
Had a walk down to the bottom of the gorge to work our lunch off which didn’t take long in the heat!
Decided to go to the supermarket HiperSol on the industrial estate to see if we could get a mirror now for the downstairs bathroom. We picked up a cheapie for 22 euros (£16) with no lights.
Went home and Michael fitted the mirror and then we had a siesta - well actually we didn’t because neither of us were tired so we got up again!
Stayed home again because neither of us could be bothered to go out. Took a walk around our little village and bought some Anis in the local shop. I love Anis. It is so cheap in our tiny little village shop and they have a particular brand I like there - for a 1 litre bottle it is just 5.45 euros (£3)!!! It’s the best! The shop was waiting to shut but they know us in there and were patient whilst we picked out our booze. There were three old ladies in there (the old ladies look about 90 but are probably younger than us)! Anyway, they were chatting to the lady who runs the shop and I said to them (in Spanish of course) that the Anis was for me and then held it up to my mouth as though I was glugging it out of the bottle. They cracked up… not usual for Spanish women… they glare at you and grunt a hello at you very begrudgingly! They are friendly in our village and always say “hola” and wish you a good day (buenas dias, tardes o noches) but they do stare… particularly at me with my blonde hair and blue eyes. Michael looks Spanish and they grunt at him and he grunts back. They understand his Spanish too which is very annoying and they don’t understand mine and I bloody well speak it! Michael says it’s because I raise my voice higher instead of grunting! Well that’s fine - he can do all the talking!!! They don’t actually speak the Spanish I was taught (Castillian) in our Province of Andalucia they speak ‘Andaluz’ which is totally different and they don’t pronounce S’s and as mentioned words are grunted and have letters missing… not sure which letters half the time but we do get by amazingly well! Anyway, after disgracing myself in the village shop we went home and Michael joked that what I did in the shop will be all around the village by the morning! Oh bloody hell!
Our house is very well known in the village the locals all call it the ‘Buena Casa’ which means ‘the beautiful house’. It’s lovely to hear them say that about it - we think it is too. Sometimes they walk passed and we see them point and say “Buena Casa”. When we bought the house our Spanish Correador (the guy who liases with the Spanish) Antonio (who is also the ex-mayor of our village) said that our house is the best in the whole village. We have spent a lot of money on renovations and thanks, we agree Antonio!
Thursday - Spain
Today we are going to see our lovely friends Jane and Geoff in Benarraba. We always have a great day out with them and a laugh. We drove to their village which is about one and a half hours away from ours. We were going to see their new additions to their menagerie! Donkey’s - Rosie and Domingo - Domingo means Sunday in Spanish. Jane and Geoff have only had them a couple of weeks and I was dying to see them. Michael wasn’t so keen.
We arrived at their village about 20 minutes late because of the roadwork’s which seem to be taking forever on the road from Ronda to Benarraba. They are doing a marvellous job and do work extremely hard in this heat. It will be fantastic when they finish it… It’s taking so long because in places they are widening the mountain road and they have to build upwards with rock to secure and edge it. We can’t complain because they have drastically improved and continue to improve this windy narrow road - not only making it prettier but a hell of a lot safer too! Shame the Spanish are such crap drivers and still won’t be able to stick to their side of the road no matter how wide they make it!
Jane and Geoff were very welcoming and we went into their lovely casa (house) and had too much to drink and ate some of Jane’s cheese and Geoff gave Michael some of his black pig jamon (ham) with breadsticks. We sat and caught up on chatter for an hour or more and then Jane drove us into the Campo (countryside) to see Domingo and Rosie.
Firstly though, Geoff wanted us to see Juan’s new piglets (their neighbour) which are kept on Juan’s land behind Jane and Geoff’s house. Ahhh, they were so cute. We also saw their poor pet rabbit which doesn’t ever see daylight! We also saw Juan’s horse who is due to give birth any day… she has been for about 4 weeks now! She has milk leaking from her nipples now which is a sign that she is about to give birth but she still hasn’t. I will tell you when she does and send a picture of the baby. Beautiful horse indeed so the baby will be just gorgeous.
Rosie and Domingo ran up to greet us and tried to push their way out of the battered old fence gate. They are so cute and followed us into the campo for their dinner. I fed them both a carrot and then they had their seeds (sunflower mainly) in their respective buckets. Domingo is greedy and always apparently eats his fast and then tucks into Rosie’s. Today was no different! Domingo is a beautiful donkey and whilst he was nervous when they first got him… today he wasn’t quite so nervous! There is a ginger and white cat which is a campo cat (stray) that cries constantly at Jane and Geoff when they come up to feed the donkeys. Apparently someone does feed him but he still looks like a typical Spanish cat (thin). Domingo doesn’t like ‘ginger cat’ as he is now known as and chases him off nudging him with his nose! Rosie is extremely friendly and I’m sure Jane and Geoff won’t mind me saying… she’s a little tiny, wide, rather scruffy little burro (donkey)! A lot smaller, than the beautiful tall, slim looking burro Domingo. Rosie is gorgeous though and so gentle. Domingo was getting a little jealous every time he thought Rosie was getting more attention than him.
We stayed about three quarters of an hour with the donkeys and chatting and then decided to go back to Benarraba and have some tapas. We washed our hands in the spring as they were filthy from petting the donkeys. They are regularly showered and brushed but then they roll in the dust making themselves filthy again. Very lucky burro’s having Jane and Geoff as ‘parents’.
We went to my favourite tapas bar in Benarraba (Guaycan) which is also the newest bar. When we stayed with Geoff and Jane before we bought our house the bar was still being built. We hadn’t eaten in there before but had had drinks with Geoff and Jane when we’d visited Gibraltar earlier in the year - March actually.
The tapas was great and Michael particularly liked the pinchitos gambas which is skewered prawns. Mmmm they were delicious and so cheap too. We love tapas and the fact that it is so cheap. We also had some ice-cream.
My head was starting to ache and I think it was the sunshine and the fact that I hadn’t had much to drink today except alcohol!
We all went for a walk around Benarraba and then decided we’d better start our journey back to our village.
My head was really aching by now and death would have been preferable at that stage. Michael drove home as quick as he could in total silence because my head was aching really badly.
We arrived back home and Michael made me drink a gallon of water and gave me two headache tablets and put me to bed. He also went to bed for a late siesta. I actually fell asleep really quickly despite not being able to get my head to fit comfortably on my pillow even. It was just so painful. We slept for about 2 hours! It was 9 p.m. before we got out of bed but boy did I feel better! I was so pleased because I really thought I had something more serious wrong at the time, as it was that bad.
We had a small bowl of tuna salad and just sat in the lounge and listened to some music - quietly!
Friday - Spain
The summers are very hot in this part of Spain and today is no exception. I really feel back to normal today - thank goodness.
We decided we’d take a drive to El Gastor today. This is a pretty little village just a few kilometres from ours. We have driven through it before but not stopped. Today we will park the car and hope it’s not too hot to walk about.
We stopped partway to take some photographs from a different angle looking back towards Olvera. We have taken many a photograph of Olvera from the opposite side but never this side of it. It is a spectacular sight as Olvera is a white town on a huge hill with a castle and church on the top. It is so beautiful when approaching from any side. We love Olvera and originally were going to buy a house there but fell out with the agent and decided not to proceed. Our village is a lot smaller than Olvera but still a ‘white village‘ on the famous ‘white village route’. One day we will do the drive to all the white villages - we have covered quite a few now.
As we continued to El Gastor the phone rang it was Terry O’Loughlin. I could tell by his voice that not all was well as he was asking how was our holiday etc. He soon got around to telling us that Alan Poulter had sadly died. Sally his wife died in April and now poor Alan has followed. We were very upset and Terry felt bad at ringing us to tell us the bad news. I tried to make him feel better by telling him not to worry about ringing on holiday as we would rather know now than get back and find out. I hope he didn’t feel bad. It’s a shame Alan was such a nice bloke.
We soon arrived at El Gastor and parked the car near the top of the village as it was very hot and didn’t want to climb too many hills. We walked down a couple of the streets and had a wander around. It’s a very pretty village and we felt very comfortable there.
After wandering around El Gastor we drove on to Grazelema. We absolutely love it there and so did James when he came with us. No doubt he will be taking his ‘girls’ there next week. James is holidaying with his University friends Cheryl and Tanya at our lovely Spanish home. I know they will have a great time.
We took a route which is a short-cut to Grazelema ‘around’ the mountains - instead of ‘up’ the mountains. Michael likes driving down the mountain road from Grazelema to Zahara so we will do that on our return journey back to our Spanish house.
We wanted to try another restaurant in Grazelema. The Hotel Turistica, which we have, in fact stayed at, on a previous visit, serves great food but on this occasion we decided to try somewhere else. There is a lovely restaurant right in the middle of Grazelema which is very Spanish and we always say we’ll try it but never get there. So, today we will try it. It’s spotlessly clean and quite posh and for such a ‘touristy area’ reasonably priced. We ate very well there but if we were to compare it to the Hotel Turistica not a patch on it! Nothing wrong but the hotel serves exceptionally good food. We will stick to the hotel in future. I think we have done all the restaurants in Grazelema now apart from the one by the swimming pool at the top of the hill. Probably won’t ever do that one either - it’s pizza and full of swimming kiddies. Definitely a no, no.
We had a quick walk around and decided to drive back down the narrow mountainous road to Zahara. Zahara is another of our favourites with the beautiful turquoise lake at the bottom. It’s stunning and the colour of the lake is just unbelievable. If I took a photo and printed it off you wouldn’t believe that was the true colour of the lake… you’d think I’d ‘touched up’ the photo. You have to see it to believe it and it’s totally natural… the minerals in the lake turn the water a crystal clear turquoise colour. James will be amazed… when he came with us there in November last year and March of this year it was just plain boring blue but this time of year, when the sun is shining on it, it’s just the most amazing colour!
We parked at the top of Zahara - again because of the heat and walked to our favourite bar there ‘Los Naranjos’ (The Oranges). Outside it has beautiful orange trees with the tables being shaded by them from the sunlight. Michael had a cerveza (beer) and I spotted a frozen lemon desert on the table next to me and asked if I could have one of those instead of a drink. In Spain you can have whatever you like - I wouldn’t ask for just a desert in the UK. It was probably the nicest thing I have ever tasted. I wasn’t sure if I would like it because I am not keen on lemon deserts (or any other really) but it looked good. It was a whole fresh lemon with the middle scooped out and frozen with (we think) yoghurt and put back into the whole lemon. It was just gorgeous… I could’ve eaten 10 of them… oh okay 9! I will order that again when we go next time.
We were hot and needed a siesta so drove back to the village.
In the evening we wanted just a snack and as we hadn’t really got anything much left to eat at home we decided we’d go to another of our favourite haunts in Olvera called ‘Alfonso’. This is a pizza restaurant that serves really cheap pizza, pasta, baguettes, chicken and chips with egg and a whole flat fried pepper. All of which are delicious. Michael always laughs there because it’s kind of an Italian, Spanish restaurant with pictures of Paris around the walls! Very strange but we like the atmosphere in there and Alfonso himself is really nice. When we first went there it was strange because he never smiled or talked to us just took the order and nodded. Now he knows us he’s completely different and pleased to see us and probably our money too. Our bill never comes to more than £12 and that includes a bottle of wine!!! The wine there is one of the cheapest in Olvera and today’s bottle was the best we have had in there… the first bottle on the first visit ever was awful! It’s probably the cheapest restaurant we eat at in Olvera or anywhere else for that matter.
Home to bed exhausted.
Saturday - Spain
Today is our last day. I thought I’d better check our flight time for tomorrow. Yikes! It’s the morning flight and not the evening flight we usually get from Granada. Oh no, now that means we’ve lost a whole day. We were both really fed up and decided to get going and make the most of the day ahead.
We needed to go to Pruna to get the gas bottle changed in case it runs out when James is here next week. We do have 3 bottles but one is empty and one we are not sure how much is left and the other is in the gas fire, again not sure how much is in it. So, we will buy a new one they are only 12.46 euros (£8) and they last ages. Definitely worth getting one in.
Michael sorted out our ‘problem room’ as I call it, at the house, whilst I painted the stairway walls and upstairs landing. The walls just soak in the paint and they need at least 3 coats - this will need a fourth! The ‘problem room’ by the way is the room where the damp was allegedly getting in when we bought the house. Our Columbian Architect Anna said it was easy to fix and would cost around 10,000 euros with all the other work to be done on the house, included. It cost us, I guess around 8,000 £5,500) euros actually so we were happy with her over-estimate. Our fantastic team of Spanish builders run by Paco (also our bathroom man) sorted out the problem at the back of the house by hand-digging out the rock behind and laying a proper damp proof course and wall behind. This should sort out the problem. However, the room last time we came back still had a line of fungusy stuff on it. This we now think is lime mould growing out from the plaster. Michael fixed most of the problem by buying a solution I found in the DIY shop in Olvera. Nothing more had grown back except a small patch that Michael had forgotten to treat last time. The room stinks!!! I hate the smell of it and I hate the room too. We don’t need the room the house is massive and could quite easily shut the door on it and never go in it again! Michael assures me that he has now fixed the problem and he gave it a coat of paint. It is looking so much better and the smell is subsiding. We will see when we return in September. I hope it’s fixed and I might start loving the ‘problem room‘ as much as I love and adore the rest of our beautiful Spanish house.
I jumped in the shower and left Michael cleaning all the brushes and paint trays for me. Generous huh?
When I got out of the shower I heard Michael talking to our neighbour - we call him Mr Garaje (Mr Garage) as he owns the garage next door to our house. He was apparently telling Michael that the pipes at the side of our house need cutting off and sealing the hole that is in the wall or we will get rats and lizards and creatures going into our house.
Next thing I heard was Michael shouting “there’s water spurting out”. Oh, bloody hell. I was furious when he’d told me what he’d done. I couldn’t believe he’d actually listen to Mr Garaje and actually cut the pipes off! I don’t think our neighbour has anything else to do but give stupid advice and his opinions to us. NOOOOOooooooo! He’s a nice bloke, don’t get me wrong, very friendly but please… no more ‘advice’.
We drove quickly into Olvera making sure the water was shut off before we left. We went into the DIY shop to see what we could do. Michael decided it was too big a job for him and we went into a Bar, which is run by a Scottish couple, to look at their notice board. There is an English plumber living in Olvera and Michael phoned him urgently! The plumber was getting ready to watch the bloody England v Portugal game and as he had apparently already been drinking, couldn’t come out but promised he would come tomorrow. So, for now the water is shut off and we can only run it quickly to fill the toilets and wash up etc. I really feel like killing my husband at the moment.
Anyway, I have calmed down now the plumber is coming tomorrow but we will not be there so have drawn some euros out of the bank (hopefully enough to cover the bill) and left it at the Bar with directions for the plumber.
We were hungry for a change and decided to go to one of our favourite tapas bars, we call this one “Mr No Carne” (Mr. No meat). The reason being… when we were looking for property in Olvera we were taken there by an agent for lunch. We asked for no meat and the owner was horrified that we didn’t want to eat his jamon (ham) as according to Mr. No Carne, Spanish ham is the best in the world and he went on and on and on in a joking (meaning it really) sort of way. So, we now call him Mr No Carne. Don’t actually know his real name. He was very pleased to see us though and he knows we are greedy and always order loads. We spend a fortune in there… not! You can’t spend a fortune, it is just sooo cheap! We hadn’t eaten in there for a long time but the food was just the best!!!
Went to Pruna quickly to get the new gas bottle.
We drove home and put the gas bottle in our ‘problem room’ where all our junk is stored - paint, ladder etc.
We had a siesta after the day’s activities…. Grrrr!
Tonight we are going to eat in Olvera at the lovely Sierra y Cal Hotel restaurant. It is part of a chain of 6 Rural Turistica (self explanatory) hotels in the area. We have been to 3 of them including the one mentioned earlier in Grazelema. We stayed at Sierra y Cal (Wood and Saw - don’t know why it’s called that but it translates to Wood and Saw) when we were house hunting and when we were actually signing the contract on our house. We know them at the hotel and they know us. Again, frosty when they don’t know you but incredibly friendly when they do. Our usual ‘little fat waiter’ (don’t know his name) but this is what we call him - ‘little fat waiter’ was on duty tonight and England were playing Portugal… still. Longest game in history. ‘Little fat waiter’ asked who we wanted to win and was telling us they don’t like the Portuguese and wanted England to win. I think he was just saying that but he was disappointed when Portugal did win. We and he kept nipping into the bar to see how things were going and he would give us a progress report every now and then in the restaurant. Good fun! We used to know a waiter there called Luiz who has now gone to study English in… Ireland. Yes, Ireland. We liked Luiz, so it’s a shame he’s not there any more. He made us laugh by telling us a great story (I will shorten it)…
Apparently, some English people had come into the hotel asking what the rooms were like and he announced proudly in his best English… “fu**ing crap”. They said “I beg your pardon… you can’t say that”. He asked why he couldn’t say it and they replied because it’s incredibly rude! Apparently, he was learning English and someone (English of course) had told him that this had meant the rooms were really nice! Hee-hee! I hope Luiz will return to Sierra y Cal when he finishes his studies and perhaps he will know all the swear words… actually I taught him a few more!
We had a lovely meal despite England losing to Portugal. The food is always good in Sierra y Cal but I’m boring and always have the same thing! Michael is more adventurous than me and eats different fish etc. I’m not a fish lover and usually stick to chicken or vegetarian if I can.
In Sierra y Cal they make a great soup… which isn’t really a soup. It’s asparagus, lots of garlic (and I mean lots) and bread which is fried up in olive oil. It’s just the best! We didn’t have it tonight as it’s just sooo filling! We just had a main course, bottle of our favourite wine (£2.75 - yes in an hotel) and Michael had a pudding made from Almonds - the Spanish are famous for their almonds and I love them!
A very enjoyable last evening and great food as usual. See you soon ’little fat waiter’.
“Michael… shall I set the alarm“… “no he said I won’t sleep“….
Sunday - Spain back to the UK
We didn’t sleep… well I didn’t but Michael dropped of just before ‘the alarm’ that I didn’t set, went off! Just as well I was awake!!!
We turned the water on… humph… so that we could have a quick shower and flush the toilets before leaving for Granada.
Hopefully the plumber will come and fix the leaking pipe today. Meanwhile we have shut the water off.
We didn’t see Mr. Garaje after that - hmmm just as well!
We didn’t see our lovely neighbour Maria Jose either to say goodbye. She is fabulous and chatty. She had left two huge marrows on our door handle yesterday that she’d picked in the campo. Unfortunately, we couldn’t use them so we took them into the Bar last night and probably they will cook Sunday Lunch with them.
Maria helped me out enormously when I turned up with Emma, Julie and the kids on the first trip to stay in our new home. She contacted and shouted like a banshee at the water board because they’d turned the ‘illegal’ water connection ‘off’ from the previous owners. She’d told them I had six children and they needed bathing and they should be ashamed of themselves. (Spanish children are… hmmm… little darlings according to the Spanish). They are treasured here and it made the water man (Agua Sierra) turn up in 5 minutes and soon had connected us! Good old Maria. Now my husband has cut us off again! Grrrr… nope won’t mention it again.
Anyway, goodbye Maria Jose and you will be seeing James Bond (as she calls our lovely son James) next week!!! He won’t understand a word she is on about except when she calls him James Bond of course! Cheryl (one of James’s ‘girls’) speaks Spanish and she probably will understand some of what she says in Andaluz. I hope so, Maria Jose is a chatter box and such a lovely lady as is her sister Pepa who is totally poco loco (a little crazy) - in a nice way of course! Pepa lives in the house behind ours and is loud like the rest of the Spanish!
We drove to Granada and took the hire car back and queued to get checked-in for our flight home.
Great flight as far as flying goes - the food was good again - flight on time. Landed 20 minutes early - good old Monarch Airlines.
James came to pick us up from the airport with Emma and it was great to see them again.
We all went out and got some Barbie food for another one of James’s famous Barbies. Rob, James’s lovely friend was coming over and so was Adam, Emma’s equally lovely boyfriend.
We were tired and Michael and I had to get up early for our flight back to Jersey. James had to leave with us to take us to the station and then off to London to work. Emma and Adam also had to get up early because they were going to Thorpe Park for the day.




Gatwick to Jersey - Monday 3rd July 2006
James drove us to Haywards Heath station and we all got on the same train to Gatwick - James goes to Gatwick to get on the Gatwick Express which is quicker and has priority over other trains… it’s a little bit quicker changing for him.
We said a sad goodbye to James and then I went to check-in for my cheap Flybe flight to Jersey whilst Michael went over to North Terminal for his expensive flight on BA to Jersey!
Both were on time but I’m not sure why my flight, which was due to land the same time as Michael’s… got in on time but after his flight! How can they arrive at the same time - stupid! Why can’t they say 2 minutes apart… they can’t both have the same landing time! Anyway, he was there first which is just as well really because he had a suitcase to bring back and had to wait for it. I only had hand luggage because he drew the short straw! Well, he shouldn’t cut through water pipes then I might be generous enough take the suitcase…. Oops sorry… wasn’t going to mention it again!
Got in a taxi and straight back to our beautiful apartment. Michael unfortunately had to go into the office for the rest of the day.
I unpacked the suitcases and then drove to St. Clement to Marks and Spencer to stock up on food.
Had some lunch, watched TV, read the paper and cooked dinner. Not much doing today as I am shattered.
Michael came home from work and we had a glass (not a jug) of Pimm’s and then ate dinner.
We watched TV and then went to bed.

Tuesday - 4th July 2006 - Independence Day in America
We both slept like logs!!!
I feel better today after a good night’s sleep that’s for sure!
I got ready and walked into St. Helier… I was on a mission… fly swatters! Yes, fly swatters. I bought a great electronic one, you may remember in the £1 shop! Mentioned them to our friends Jane and Geoff in Spain and I now have an order to fulfil. Wasn’t sure if they’d have any left as they tend to ‘have things one day and not the next’. They did have, I bought 4! Two for Jane and Geoff as requested, one for our house in the UK and one for our house in Spain. I could go into business selling these - they are great!
Came back to the apartment and had a sandwich and then knuckled down to making a bride and a little doggie. I didn’t have time to make the groom (or the inclination) so I will make him tomorrow all being well.
Bride and doggie turned out well - pretty good - even if I do say so myself!
Time to cook dinner.
Michael came home and we had another glass of Pimm’s as it’s hot and muggy, swiftly followed by a glass of vino tinto - Ooops… not in Spain now… a glass of wine, oh and a half a glass to finish the bottle.
We went out for a walk along the road where our apartment is and down to First Tower and then back along the prom. At First Tower, I may have mentioned this before but here we go again… there is an old railway station there that has been turned into a Thai restaurant. It’s very plain and simple with chairs outside. It has only been open 5 weeks and as they haven’t got a drinks licence… it makes it very cheap as you have to bring your own beer or wine. We thought it might be a good place to go when Danny and Jean and/or when Terry and Margaret come over to stay. Weren’t sure what was on the menu and so we got chatting to the lady in the ‘station’ and she gave us a menu to take away. The prices are very good and we might ‘give it a go’ later this week. If it’s good we can take some beers and wine along when our guests are here and it’ll make a fun and cheap evening’s entertainment. Plus… I won’t have to cook! Method to my madness!!!
Michael watched a stupid Batman movie on DVD and I attempted a really hard Sudoku puzzle… yep attempted but definitely didn’t finish!
Bed.


Wednesday 5th July 2006
Up and about early today as the window cleaners are coming allegedly.
It’s not very pleasant today. It’s still muggy and looks like it’s going to rain… come to think about it I did hear thunder rumbling in the night but it didn’t come to anything.
Thought I’d better get showered and get myself up town before it does rain. Too late - raining! Oh well, I’m going anyway. Hope it doesn’t thunder and lightning or I’ll get blown up.
We had forgotten to bring the charger back from the UK mainland house for our electric toothbrush… dead… died last night whilst Michael was cleaning his teeth. This morning we used just the brush heads and gave them a quick slosh.
Went into Boots and bought a new electric toothbrush which was on offer - half price - great stuff!
Emma nicked me new sandals when I came back from Spain as she liked them. So, I need a new pair as the one’s I have on today have given me a blister from the thong between the toes! Bloody hell - they don’t hurt me in Spain… I had them on all week and they were so comfortable.
Actually Emma you pinched my other comfy pair too come to think about it. Leave my sandals alone!!! I’m going home barefoot next time.
The sales are on in all the shoe shops here… well I found a nice pair in Begins - Jones and Jones… oooh how posh… handmade shoes… never had handmade shoes before. They are so comfortable and so I wore them back to the apartment. Bit more than I wanted to pay but considering they were half price at £31 I couldn’t resist. Very comfortable - hands off Em!
Saw the window cleaners but they haven’t been this end of the apartments today so I guess as they are also booked in for tomorrow… tomorrow it will be. Makes no difference to me… except that I will have to get showered and dressed early or they will see a sight they wish they’d never have to experience again! My nightie has a hole in it! Say no more.
Ate too much lunch… I didn’t mean to but we have such a lot of goodies in the fridge at the moment… I have absolutely no willpower at all!
Made the groom to go with the bride and doggie I made yesterday… phew he even stands on his own. I hate making grooms in black - it is so messy! They usually end up with fingerprints all over the black as it shows up more and then stains your fingers which in turn covers the lovely white shirts with black and then their faces… ooooh I hate black! Well it’s turned out not too bad. He ain’t pretty but then again neither is the real groom - well… I’m just being honest!
Sat down to catch up on blog and now I have to cook my Hubby some dinner. Tonight we are having garlic chicken with some sort of potatoes, broccoli and carrots. No doubt a bottle of wine to wash it all down and no doubt chocolate after… no wonder we’re fat!!!

Thursday - 6th June 2006
This morning I drove to Checkers Supermarket at Red Houses. Not a very nice day again today. It’s dull and spitting lightly.
Found some wine in Checkers that we always buy when we go to Spain and It’s served in some restaurants out there too. One was slightly different but the same brand ’Paternina’ which was on offer - two bottles for £6! Bargain. I bought two bottles to try plus the exact one we buy in Spain which wasn’t on offer but still cheap at £3.99 a bottle. I bought one of those plus some French muck and two bottles of Californian all of which were on offer! I like offers and bargains! We will try a bottle of the other Paternina which we haven’t tried before tonight.
I struggled with the shopping from the car park to the lift as I’d bought too much as usual. Forgot to buy bottled water though… as mentioned before… the water out here tastes gross!
I had some lunch at the apartment and then watched TV put an advert on eBay to sell a bride and groom… which I think will be pointless because my research shows that nothing is selling… too late in the year now plus too many people are now copying my idea - even though theirs are crap! I will have to try and make some and sell in bridal shops on the island instead somehow.
I sat and caught up with lots of the Sudoku puzzles I tear each day out of the Sun newspaper. I love doing these and find that they do get easier - especially in the Sun. The one’s in my book are far harder and sometimes I get really angry because they are too hard. I have to come back and do them another day - sometimes this doesn’t work either!
Michael came home from work reasonably early… well late actually but I mean early for him!
We ate dinner… I cooked a tuna and prawn pasta which is one of Michael’s favourites and had garlic bread and of course our Paternina wine. We tried one of the bottles we hadn’t tasted before and it was scrummy!
Michael said we should go back up to Checkers and stock up… exactly what we did do!!! We bought about 12 bottles I think! Cleared the shelf anyway!
I also remembered to pick up the water and that was also on offer buy 2 (packs of 6) and get one (pack of 6) free. Bargain! Won’t have to bother buying water for a while at least - or wine!
We struggled back up to the apartment with the water and wine and then Michael watched a movie - absolute load of crap! He likes crap movies! Monsters chasing women who were potholing in a cave and killing them - yeah ok… now do you believe me? I talked to Emma on the internet whilst all this rubbish was going on. She’s so much more chatty when Adam isn’t there and she’s bored!
Emma has bought herself a digital camera which she wants to bring with her when she comes over on 22nd August. I can’t wait for her and Adam to come as I have so much planned to do with them or arrange for them to do alone.
They are going to have a great holiday if the damned weather improves!
Thank God that movie came to an end - it was absolutely awful!

7th July 2006 - Friday
I have a treat in store today… cleaning… oh bugger I hate cleaning. It takes a while despite being an apartment.
The windows are clean as the cleaners cleaned them yesterday so that at least is one thing off of my list of to do’s.
Polished, hovered, washed the kitchen and utility room floors, cleaned the patio ground as it gets thick dust on it and then washed the two bathrooms. Sweaty and gross now so I’m going in the shower to clean myself up a bit.
All clean!
I wanted to go up to the town today but it’s now started to rain - again!
Sat down with a cup of coffee and caught up on this blog and it’s now stopped raining so I might nip up the town. Michael will soon be grabbing a sandwich I might see if he wants to meet up. Bye for now…
Walked into town and the weather has improved drastically. The sun is struggling but at least the rain has stopped.
I really must get some printer cartridges to print some photographs and my blog off. It’s going to cost me £40 because I need both black cartridge and colour.
I went into Jessops to get the cartridges and spotted they had a sale on and thought I might get them cheaper. Nope, but I did spot brand new printers for less than it would cost me just to buy the cartridges - how stupid is that. I asked for assistance and the difference between the Samsung photo printer and the Sony photo printer… not much difference in price £36.99 for the Samsung and £55 for the Sony. The assistant said that there wasn’t a lot of difference except that possibly the Sony was slightly better and that it already comes with the print cartridge. Whereas the Samsung you have to buy on top which then takes the price up to £48.99. Not much difference and so went with the Sony one. £55 lighter I went up to the £1 shop to see if they had any bargains. Nope - not a lot really.
Walked back down towards Marks and Spencer when Michael phoned to say did I want to meet for lunch. Of course I did. He waited outside WH Smith opposite his office whilst I walked down to meet him.
We went to a coffee shop we’d never been to before. It was a little pricey but the baguettes and fillings were far superior to the usual cheapie cafes we go to. Delicious.
Michael was very impressed with my new printer and what a bargain it was too. Hope the quality is good.
Michael left me to pay the bill - as usual, as he had to get back to work for a meeting.
I walked back to the apartment and unpacked my new toy. It’s tiny! I hope the quality is good.
I tried to upload the software onto my computer… struggling… it won’t load the final section. I couldn’t fathom out what I was doing wrong. It was all plugged in and switched on and attached to my computer properly… as per instructions. It should be simple but I can’t work out why it won’t load the last bit of software. Eventually, I did work out why… you have to press the standby button twice to turn it on - not the once as I had done. Typical, I knew it had to be something simple.
Printed off a few photographs and the quality is fantastic! Far better than my Canon printer. This Sony one is designed to print photographs my Canon one is just a ‘printer’ as opposed to a photo printer. I am really pleased and can’t wait to show Michael when he gets home.
Tonight we are eating at a cheap Italian restaurant just down the road from here. We cycled passed it the other day and we can have any pasta or pizza and a glass of wine for a fiver! Sounds good.
Michael came home from work relieved that it was Friday and his weekend can start from now.
Showed him my photographs and printed one off for him whilst he watched. It’s funny because it prints a yellow colour first, then it comes out and goes back in and then prints the red on top of that, then comes out again and goes back in to print on an orange colour. Comes back out and goes back in and puts the blue colour on then it goes through again and dries the photograph. Hey presto - a perfect photograph! It sounds long winded but is actually quite quick - about 70 seconds. It’s fun! Michael was very impressed… I might let him have a go one day!
We went out to the restaurant as we have to be there before 7p.m. otherwise the price goes up. Horror! Bugger! They’ve taken the menu out of the restaurant window and now we are being dragged in by the Manager. I guess that menu is only for Monday - Thursday. Oh well we left there another £33 lighter instead of a tenner!!! It wasn’t that great either. We will have to put yet another restaurant ‘down to experience’. We probably won’t go back.
Went for a walk down to First Tower on the ‘top road’ - our road - La Route de St. Aubin and then down to the prom and walked back to the apartment. Nice walk and we do enjoy watching the dogs playing on the beach - they are so funny they chase the seagulls and splash about in the water. They all seem to either know each other or just enjoy playing with the other dogs on the beach. Best of all the owners pick up their sh*t! They are very good here and people do pick up behind their dogs - generally.
We went to bed fairly early as there was nothing on TV although Michael did watch some crappy movie. I, on the other hand, enjoy expanding my brain power by doing some Sudoku’s - yeah I know “what brain”! Ok you win!
Saturday 8th July 2006
We got up fairly early this morning. We can’t decide what to do. Although we do need to go into town.
Michael had a look through the Spanish cookbook I bought him a while ago - we bought it back to Jersey with us last week. He wants to cook today, so that’s nice. He loves cooking… I love his cooking… but can’t cope with the mess that goes with it!
We got ready and had a small breakfast as neither of us were hungry.
Walked into town and as usual it was quite busy but at least we don’t have to fight to find a car parking space! One of the joys of living in St. Helier.
We went into a couple of photographic shops to compare prices on the new printer cartridges. We found one shop particularly good and bought a pack of 80 sheets of 6 x 4 paper and cartridge for £16.99. The 40 sheets of 6 x 4 paper and cartridge was £10.99. We went for the 80 sheets. I‘m happy.
We had a wander around the shops and as usual we went to have a look at the fish market… smelly but has good fresh fish and shellfish etc. Michael loves it there and we were going to buy some prawns until we saw a bluebottle fly land on one of the fish… put us right off!
Went into Woolies and bought two photo frames to make a nice display of some of the photographs we have taken in Spain over the last year and also since we have been in Jersey. We will make this probably tomorrow.
The sales have started in some of the shops this week and I wanted to go to a shop that Michael loves to see if the sales had started in there. They have a pair of trainers (Lambretta) he would like for his birthday and I was hoping they’d have his size and that they’d be in the sale. Well, they had his size, as for price… nope still the same price. He tried a pair on in a size 9 and they were too small! Usually he takes between an 8 and 9 but the 9’s were too small. They had a 10 and they fitted him perfectly… so I decided to buy them for his birthday. It’s a shame he had to try them and find out that I was buying them but what can you do with shoes! He is really pleased as he has had his eye on them ever since we got to Jersey. I will have to buy the rest of his present when he is not around.
We then got a few bits and pieces of shopping in Grand Marche (co-op) and Julian Graves and got a loaf to make a sandwich back at the apartment.
We thawed some prawns out instead of buying at the fish market and I made a nice ‘thousand island dressing’ to go on it. We had a glass of Pimm’s each and sat on the terrace.
The weather is hot and sunny today but first thing it did rain.
We took a walk later in the afternoon along to the cinema we thought we might go and see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie ‘Dead Man’s Chest’. I don’t really like cinemas but Michael likes going. I can’t stand all the people - especially the brats who chuck stuff and think it’s funny to shout and make noises. I’d rather wait till movies come out on DVD. Not only can you decide when to watch them but also in peace and quiet and stop and start the thing when you need the loo or a cuppa!
It seems like the movie is on virtually every hour as it only came out a few days ago. We will see what the weather is like tomorrow and then decide.
Michael cooked a lovely meal but it was very garlicky!!! I cleared up the mess after - I got the raw end of the deal. It was a nice meal though with lots of spinach… oh no… garlic and spinach… my stomach will not be happy later.
We had a sit down and then decided to go for a bike ride. We haven’t been on them since returning from Spain and so thought we’d better get our money’s worth! We took them along the prom. It’s great cycling along there… almost completely flat and no cars!
We cycled about 2 miles each way perhaps a little less but we thought we wouldn’t go too mad as we hadn’t been on them for a couple of weeks.
We stopped at the halfway point as my stomach was starting to ache a bit from dinner!!! We watched the dogs playing on the beach and the owners picking up the poo behind them! Cycled back and glad we made the effort as we both enjoyed it and felt refreshed.
All I can say now it’s bed time is… garlic and spinach… say no more!

9th July - Sunday
Grim looking and grey. Almost as soon as we had got ourselves out of bed… then rain started. Oh bum!
We weren’t hungry at all this morning but thought we’d better have something at least. We both had a tiny bowl of cereal.
We got ourselves showered and dressed and it looks a little brighter outside now. Good, good, good.
James is off to Spain today so another night of worrying for me. I am the world’s worst worrier. I always think the worst… not only of people but for people. My kids especially. Natural I guess. We gave James directions on the internet last night… the short route and the very long route. I don’t think he stands a chance in hell of finding the short route. It’s hard enough when we do it without trying to give someone instructions who has never driven it before. I think he should take the long route, it’s a lot easier. Once you get out of Malaga Airport it’s very hard to drive and look at the road signs and make any sense of them. If you end up in Malaga City it’s a complete nightmare… believe me we’ve done it! I told him to go to Granada Airport! It’s so much easier and a straight road to the house on one dual carriageway and no mountains to negotiate! He did say it was expensive going to Granada this time for them.
I hope the girls don’t give him a hard time. He is outnumbered! Tanya and Cheryl are two of his University friends… lovely and very confident girls indeed. As mentioned the other day Cheryl speaks Spanish, although a different kind of Spanish than in our village but she should get by very well… better than me that’s for sure!
We took a drive to St. Clement to the Marks and Spencer there. Michael wants to cook again tonight - more mess! He wanted to get some plain chicken breasts to make another recipe out of the Spanish book.
Drove back to the apartment and made a hot chicken baguette for lunch. We were hungry and this was very filling.
We decided to print off some photographs for the frames we bought yesterday to make a nice display. When we leave Jersey we want to put these into our Spanish house.
Printed off the best of our pictures but not all of them ‘look right’ in the frames… so we printed off more that look good together.
We only managed to get one finished as it was time to go to the cinema.
Sat through about 40 minutes of crappy adverts which really wound me up! Another reason I hate cinemas!!! We took two big bags of sweeties in with us and virtually finished them before the film had even started! Wasn’t even hungry! Just bored of watching adverts and greed!
The film was slow and took a while to get going. There were some funny bits in. Lots of ugly monsters from the sea and I got quite scared… actually not scared but they looked so ugly and gross I found it a little sickening to watch. I only like nice movies - lovie dovie movies they are much more pleasant usually. What a stupid bloody ending… I won’t say any more as you may read this and be disappointed at me telling you what happens. If you go see it, I’m sure you’ll agree. Strange… can’t put my finger on it but didn’t enjoy it like the first one… that was brilliant and so funny! This was neither brilliant nor particularly funny. Michael agrees.
We walked back to the apartment and finished our printing of photo’s and Michael put the other frame along with pictures together. Very good. They look nice but now we don’t have anywhere really to display them! We have put them temporarily on the dining area cabinet. Not the best place but the only place we can really. Oh well.
Neither of us were hungry after pigging out in the cinema. We should eat something half decent but don’t want a big meal that’s for sure.
We decided to have a small bowl of salad. Not hungry still but need something with some nutritional content instead of the crap we’ve eaten all day. A tuna salad with no garlic or spinach!
We watched a Meg Ryan (love Meg Ryan) movie on the TV after - it was okay but not brilliant. Meg Ryan and Goldie Hawn are my favourite actresses and they are blonde and beautiful too. My favourite actors are Steve Martin and Kurt Russell (Goldie’s hubby or partner) and Johnny Depp. Loved John Candy too but sadly he died a number of years ago and of course seen everything he’s been in.
Phoned James to see where he was as I hadn’t heard whether he’d even got to Spain safely. He had and was driving the long route back to the house. He had arrived at Ronda and still had at least 40 minutes of driving to do. Fortunately he’d reached a point where he thought was going the right way and just wanted to check with us that it was the right way. It was and so I will lay awake in bed until he phones to say he’s at our Spanish house and the water pipe is not leaking!!!
He phoned to say he was there and that the water pipes were fine. Thank God on both scores. He was very tired and it was very late and so we are all off to bed… night night James, Cheryl and Tanya.
PRINTED OFF TO HERE & BLOGGED TO HERE!!!!

10th July 2006 - Monday
The people in the apartment above us clonked across the floor until 2 a.m. Not very happy, we think they have wooden floors. I think they have either got people staying with them or had people around for the evening. I hope they’ve gone now! They were walking up and down the floors and then flushing the toilet every five minutes! Bloody hell!
I didn’t get much sleep and I don’t think Michael did (between snores).
I suddenly ‘came too’ this morning and had a panic attack! I was worried about the boiler in the Spanish house and the gas bottle. What if they all got gassed in the night because the boiler hadn’t been lit and the gas was flowing! I woke Michael up (Ooops) and asked him would it be possible??? “No it’s fine” he grunted. Okay then I will go back to sleep. It was about 40 minutes before we needed to get up and upstairs were already up and clonking! Idiots!
I stayed up today, no point going back to bed after Michael leaves as they are clonking about and I will just get crosser and crosser.
Caught up on the blog anyway.
Phoned James this morning to see if they were alright and hadn’t actually been gassed. He didn’t answer - shit - I rang 3 times, before he did eventually pick up the phone! Phew! He was asleep and James is the heaviest sleeper I know… but for peace of mind (my mind) I was glad he answered that’s for sure!!! He sounded very sleepy but as James doesn’t really get cross… I knew he wouldn’t mind too much me waking him. He said after they’d settled they went to bed at 1.15 a.m. and he hasn’t slept all night. He finally dropped off at 5 a.m. I woke him at 8 a.m. - 9 p.m. their time. Sorry James!
He phoned me at quarter to 10 (our time) to say they were all up and ready and that the water pressure wasn’t very good (they have been replacing all the water pipes in the village) and I guess today was a day they are working on them. It was fine when we were there the week before last - thought they’d finished them actually. Anyway, he’d phoned to say that they wanted to go to a ‘decent’ supermarket to stock up. The best one is in a town called Campillos which is about 40 minutes drive. Straight forward drive and they should be able to get everything in there needed for their stay. Of course there are supermarkets a lot closer and they are very good but you can’t get things like fresh orange juice or the biggest selection of things and you have to have whatever they have in stock. So, I have told him to go there… he has been there before with Michael and I and so he remembers it and I am glad it is familiar and that he will ‘sort of’ know where he’s going.
I must go into town today and buy a black cartridge for the other printer so I can print this off today and send.
It is supposed to rain later so I’d better be quick. Doesn’t look like rain at the moment but Jersey changes as often as I swear - so, very often indeed!
Walked into town - no sign of rain fortunately. Went to Jessops first to check out the prices of cartridges. I found a bigger cartridge than I normally buy it was a £5 more expensive but had a lot more ink in it. Drew some money out and bought it. So now I can print off the blog when I get back to the apartment.
I had a quick look around the shops and then bought some bread on my way back for a sandwich.
Michael hadn’t phoned to meet for lunch… so I’m on my own. He phoned shortly after I got back to the apartment to say that he only had time today for a quick sandwich and back to 5 meetings this afternoon. Poor him!
I however, am still playing catch up on 6 bride and grooms that I have unfortunately already been paid for months ago. Now I have to make them. Today I am starting bride, groom and little boy. I won’t get all of them done but I hope to make 2 of them.
I managed to make a pretty bride and her little boy. They are very good! Tomorrow I will have to make the groom in his stupid Cardiff City Football Shirt! Pathetic! If that’s what they want… who am I to judge. This couple are a bit Gothy actually and I think I have made her too ‘pretty’. We’ll see.
I cooked Michael and I the Spanish chicken we were supposed to eat yesterday that we never got around to making because we pigged out at the cinema and ended up with a small salad instead. Anyway, it was very tasty and it didn’t even have any garlic in! Here’s what to do…
Recipe: Suitable for 2 people double for 4
2 Onions
2 Chicken Breasts
Half a Lemon
¼ Pint of White Wine
¼ Pint of Chicken or Vegetable Stock
Paprika or Hot Paprika (I used chilli powder)
Salt & Pepper.
Olive Oil
Put chicken in a bowl (non-metallic) - with half a lemon juiced and sprinkle chicken with the paprika or chilli powder. Cover with cling film and leave in fridge overnight. Pat chicken dry with kitchen paper before cooking.
Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan with lid and fry chicken skin side down for 5 minutes until browned on the outside. Take out and leave to one side (still raw). Fry onions in oil (you may need to add a little more oil) for 5 minutes until soft - not brown. Put chicken back in along with white wine, stock and salt and pepper. Cook for 20 minutes with a lid on. Take out chicken and then reduce the liquid left in pan until it is slightly thicker and half as much. Delicious and Easy!!!
Not much clearing up to do tonight as I cooked!
We are going for a walk now up to Fort Regent in St. Helier. It’s high up on a rock and overlooks the rest of St. Helier. It’s a huge entertainment complex and we used to take James and Emma up there when they were small. It used to be a very touristy attraction. We are not sure what to expect as there is never a mention of Fort Regent anymore as the tourist trade is not what it used to be on Jersey. It used to have daily shows for the kids which James particularly loved. They also had a ball pond (more Emma) and a small funfair just at the back of the Fort. A few little shops. I seem to remember a mineral rock shop… definitely Emma’s thing and of course the sports hall and swimming pool.
Michael had remembered that ‘Bjorn Again’ are there at the end of July. I wasn’t so keen because I’d seen a little snip on the TV a few weeks back which looked and sounded okayish I suppose but definitely not that good. I’d completely put it out of my mind but I think Michael is keen to go.
A very warm evening and a little muggy.
We walked along the prom and alongside the harbour and then went in the lift 10 floors to the top of Fort Regent. I’m not keen on lifts and this one smelt like a ‘London train’ Michael said. It did smell odd and I agreed… not that I’ve been on many London trains thank God!
We had a walk around and nothing looked any different. The ball pond was still there. Lots of posters advertising ‘what’s on’ including the Abba Tribute Band. Can’t book anyway because the booking office is only open daytime hours or by telephone.
We had a wander around and it really isn’t geared for tourists anymore. It is a giant sports complex with all different sporting activities going on. One was a weird noise sport… the people were standing in the room, making weird noises and banging on tambourines and little bongo type things. Now there’s a sport even I could cope with and do with ease! There used to be a cable car running down behind Fort Regent going down into the town. Wandering around town when we first moved here I realised the cable car was no longer running or even there. I thought perhaps we could climb down the steps and go back to the apartment the other way - through the town. The steps were all blocked off and so we left the same way we came in… down in the smelly lift.
Back at the apartment we were both exhausted from our long walk… not that far but we were both tired from our sleepless night the night before courtesy of noisy people above.
Michael fell asleep on the sofa and I did today’s Sun Sudoku puzzles and completed with ease I may add!
I sent James a text because I was wondering how he was getting on in Spain and just checking really to make sure he was ok. He text me straight back saying the girls obviously don’t like beautiful scenery like we all do. Oh dear. Sounds like they were bored and tired. I text him back saying they are probably just very tired from a sleepless night and will enjoy tomorrow more as he has planned to take them to the coast for the day. I am sure they will enjoy that. Poor James he will take it to heart.
Glass of water and off to bed.

11th July - Tuesday
Bright start to the day today. Hope it lasts.
Michael wants to meet for lunch today - fingers crossed.
I am going to post the blog at the post office and need to get back this afternoon to make the Cardiff City Football Groom - oh joy!
Walked into town to the post office to post the blog and photo’s. Drew some money out to pay for lunch with Michael.
Michael was late! Only by 5 minutes but I gave him a hard time anyway! Hee-hee. We walked to the top of the town and went into a little street café we know to buy a cup of tea and a baguette. I like it there but they always cover the food with salt!
I walked with Michael back to his office and then nipped back into WH Smith to get a newspaper and then to Grand Marche to get some rice for tonight’s dinner.
Walked back to the apartment and begrudgingly made the Cardiff City Football groom.
Varnished the bride and groom and dog I made the other day and telephoned the owner to see where to send it to. When the varnish is dry I will package it all up and post in the morning.
The weather is very nice today, sunny with a breeze. I took my cardigan with me earlier to town but didn’t really need it. The tide is just coming in and the dotto train is going backwards and forwards - usually mostly empty and dinging the bell.
We will probably go for a bike ride tonight.
Oooh it’s Pimm’s o’clock… Michael’s home from work!
We had a nice dinner again tonight of Jamaican pineapple chicken with rice. It was quite spicy but nice.
No bike ride after all… after the Pimm’s and a glass of wine I’m too squiffy!
Watched TV instead and tonight there is Location, Location, Location which I love. Also we like to watch the fat people straight after. Actually don’t know what it’s called but a very strange programme… a fat woman is made to look thin (they don’t) and then her nude picture is plastered on a building… yeah I know!!! Can’t even remember what was on after that… it must’ve been good.
James phoned to say he’d had a nice day with the girls today. They went to Marbella to the beach and then a wander and then to Picasso for something to eat. James apparently had moules (like Father, like Son) and the girls had pizza.
Apparently they went back to the Spanish house and cooked tapas for their evening meal. Sounds yummy - wish I was there! Tomorrow they are going to Ronda. If they don’t like scenery and walking (which they don’t) there won’t be much for them to do in the sweltering heat… perhaps there will be a bullfight in town (hope not) but it is bullfighting season so who knows. They wouldn’t go anyway thank goodness!
Off to bed.

12th July - Wednesday already
It’s a sunny start at least today. Michael set off at his usual time of 7.45 for his 15 minute walk and 9 a.m. start. Yes, I know it adds up to 8 a.m. I am just being facetious as it’s just so unfair on him.
I am not sure what I am going to do today… except for the fact that I really need to get on and make another bride or groom or both.
I might do that this morning instead of the afternoon. I might just go sit on the beach this afternoon. It’s high tide this morning and so this afternoon will be low tide. I’m not one to sit on beaches but I might do for something different. Bet I don’t and if I do it’ll be for about 10 minutes because I’ll be bored! We’ll see!
Just had a conversation with Emma… unfortunately she was taken very ill in the night and had the emergency doctor out who then sent her to hospital. Oh bloody hell. She has had a bladder infection which sort of cleared up but now it’s back and she can’t stop being sick. She can’t even keep water down. The doctor at the hospital was very nice apparently and when she tested Emma’s water she said “oh bloody hell” followed by “that’s the technical term”. They think she has a very serious bladder infection which could have spread to her kidneys. She had lots of tests at the hospital and the correct drugs given to her. She will probably have to have an ultrasound scan on her kidneys to see what’s going on but that will be in a week or two.
I am going nuts and she is insistent that I should not come home. Adam is there with her which makes me a little happier but she says not to come home.
I phoned Michael to see what he thinks and he said leave it until lunchtime and make a decision then.
I am not happy about being here and not being able to do anything… not that I could but Emma at lunchtime said “I think the drugs are kicking into gear”. So I am a little happier.
I have stayed in the apartment all day today trying to rush out some bride and grooms in case I need to go home at short notice. I am also here to receive phone calls and have left the computer connected to Messenger in case she comes on-line. Adam has instructions to tell me if things change.
Thank you for looking after our baby Adam.
Michael and I had dinner of fish, green beans, potatoes and mushroom sauce.
We decided to go for a walk as I haven’t been out of the house today except to post a couple of parcels (bride and grooms).
We walked up through the wooded area behind our apartment block as we’d never been there before. There are some lovely pine trees up there, huge things. They are gorgeous and the sky is a really beautiful deep blue colour. At the top there is a fantastic view of Elizabeth Castle. We haven’t bought the camera out with us and both agree that tomorrow night we will do this walk again and take some photographs. I hope the sky is as beautiful as it is tonight. We walked down again and then down ‘our road’ La Route de St. Aubin to First Tower and then back along the promenade to our apartment. It was a lovely walk and a beautiful evening.
I phoned Emma just before I went to bed to make sure she was still feeling a little better…. Nope. Not feeling well again and being sick.
There are no flights this evening and so can’t now get back! I will have a sleepless night and phone in the morning.
Phoned James to tell him about Emma and to give him instructions/directions for his trip tomorrow to Gibraltar. Michael told him the way and I gave him tips. I hope they have a lovely day. It will be a long day with scary roads!

13th July 2006 Thursday
I did sleep last night surprisingly. I didn’t think I would.
Michael left for work and I waited for a decent hour to phone Emma to see how she was doing.
She had to call the emergency doctor again last night as she is being sick again and now has diarrhoea. She feels quite rough this morning but still doesn’t want me to go home. I will phone Michael again and see what he thinks.
Michael says meet him for lunch and we’ll see what she’s like then.
Emma came back on-line on the computer and we spoke on Messenger for a good twenty minutes or half an hour. She seems quite perky again. She says she ‘thinks’ she feels hungry but is not sure whether it’s actually a sick feeling rather than hunger. The emergency doctor in the night told her not to eat until she can keep water down at least! Obviously with being sick her tablets aren’t actually getting into her system. At least she might be feeling hungry now. I am hoping she will improve as the day goes on. Very pleased I caught her on-line.
I met Michael for lunch and we went to Voisins Department Store. I had a lovely chicken and tarragon mayonnaise on brown bread and Michael had tuna with lemon mayonnaise on brown bread. Two teas!
Told him all about Emma and he agrees perhaps to see how she goes today… day 2 on antibiotics. She really should be improving by the end of the day. If she has to go for a scan I will definitely fly home.
I bought Emma a ‘get well’ card in WH Smith along with a ‘Well Done’ card for her end of year exam results. Which were brilliant!!! Well done Emma!!! Emma’s ‘Get Well’ card is great… it’s like a little kiddies one and when you open it right out onto 4 pages it’s a colouring card with animals on. It says to colour this in to take your mind off of feeling sick. I went to Woolies and bought her a huge pack of colouring pencils (99p Bargain)! Then went to the post office and bought a bubble bag to put it all in and posted off to her. She should get it tomorrow and hopefully it will make her smile at least. Either that or she’ll say “whatever”. We’ll see!
Walked back to the apartment and started to make yet another bride. I have to complete these quickly just in case. I have 2 grooms and one more bride to make now… not bad!!! This particular bride I am making this afternoon has to be made with one pack of white clay because I only have 2 packs of it left and two brides! Yikes! I skimped and skimped as best I could and she got bashed in about 5 times and re-started!!! However, now she is made and she does look really good. The bride as herself looks very pretty and very dainty and so I wanted to create her like that. I think I have achieved it actually despite the lack of clay!
Emma came on-line again and we chatted for a bit and then I posted a birthday card for Jodie but as I am typing this, I realise, I have now posted it a week bloody well early!!! How absolutely stupid!
Anyway, Emma is very chatty and is feeling about the same. No better but no worse.
She doesn’t want to talk now and is going to play some games on-line on the computer. I will catch her again later or telephone her tonight before bed and before Adam gets back.
Must do the detail on the bride’s dress before Michael gets home and at least she’ll be virtually finished.
Talking to Emma again and she’s feeling really fed up with being ill and says she’s depressed. I had a long chat with her and told her not to think about being ill but to look forward to getting better… in a round about way. Trying to make her laugh which is quite hard going. She is fed up also because Adam is still at work.
Michael has just walked in and getting changed. I am passing the computer over to him to see if he can cheer Emma up. He’s so much better at it than I am! I will cook dinner whilst he makes her laugh.
We are having tuna and prawn pasta with garlic bread. There’s a damned fly that keeps trying to land on the prawns and tuna… I’m batting the hell out of it with my fantastic electric fly swat but I am rubbish at swatting! He’s a clever little bugger. When I do hit him he’ll know it!
Michael had to say a quick goodbye for now to Emma.
We ate dinner on the terrace, well half of our dinner was eaten on the terrace… it’s far too hot and we are sweating! Came in and ate at the dining room table.
Damned fly is still in here.
Emma had signed out of Messenger on the computer and hopefully she will be feeling a little happier after talking to Daddy.
Got him - little bleeder. Electrocuted. I am very happy! I hate flies!
Cleared up dinner plates and went for a walk armed with Michael’s digital camera. We took the photo’s we wanted to take last night. The sky was actually a better colour last night. It’s still nice but not quite as deep a blue. Michael took quite a few and then I snatched it off of him to take some of him too! There are a lot of photo’s of me and not a lot of him!
We walked back to the apartment and watch David Walliams on swimming the English Channel. What an achievement and lots of money raised for charity. Good on him! Well done!
I phoned Emma again at 9 pm to see if she was feeling any better. She had just taken her tablet. I hope she keeps it down. She is still feeling grotty. Poor thing.
Apparently Emma is sleeping downstairs on the settee and has put the cushions on the floor. She said Felix our lovely, gentle boy cat, had fallen asleep on the big cushions she had piled up and he looks really cute. She took a photo on her phone to show me when we see her next. She said she’d take one on her new camera as she was going to the loo once we’d finished talking and will get it when she goes upstairs. I said goodbye and hope that she feels better tonight and definitely by the morning… please!!!
I sent James a text to see if he had a nice time in Gibraltar today. They were going on a boat trip dolphin hunting and then up the Rock to see the apes and caves at the top. I have sent him a text late every day because I like to know he’s back at the Spanish house safely… my crafty little trick… don’t think he has twigged yet.
Emma sent me a text to say that Adam had arrived and before she could take a photo Felix had moved off the cushions. I blame Adam. Felix adores Adam and I think Adam adores his Mr. Fe (the name he affectionately calls him). Very sweet.
James text me back to say they’d had a great day out in Gibraltar. The weather was not good though! Typical Gibraltar! It was windy and the cable cars were closed up to the Rock. Buses were laid on instead. He didn’t mention the dolphins. They have gone to TGI Friday’s this evening apparently so they must be in Puerto Banus. I don’t know of another one in the area. They want to compare the route we told them to go which is, we think shorter but it’s still a long way, to going along the coast to San Pedro de Alcantara and then up the mountain road through to Ronda. I think probably our way is about 25-35 minutes shorter but no doubt James will tell us different!
Now I will worry all night about him getting back safely damn it!
Michael has fallen asleep on the settee although he will say “I’m not asleep”. He is. He does this a lot and whilst I don’t mind… he leaves a load of old crap on the TV for me to watch!
Oh well, going to bed soon… after I’ve completed the Sudoku in the Sun of course!

Friday 14th July 2006
Woke up and made us both coffee as usual.
Went back to bed for half an hour as I was feeling sluggish. Didn’t sleep however! Nice to just rest though.
Emma was already on the computer and I was anxious to see how she was feeling today. I was going to phone her in about an hour or so because I thought she might still be in bed… but she was already on her computer. Not a good sign really.
I was right… she was feeling bad. I think a little tearful too. She said she was fed up of feeling ill. Not surprising really, poor thing, it’s horrible feeling ill for a couple of days but she has been feeling unwell for nearly a week.
Also, as she was feeling no better I said she really ought to ring the doctor again. She can’t go on like this.
She phoned and was told to go straight down. I am pleased that at least she will be looked at and assessed again.
I knew she would be quite a while at the surgery and so I decided to give the apartment a quick clean and then had a shower.
Connected back to the internet and Emma came on about five minutes later. Very quick at the doctors. She is a little apprehensive. The doctor has told her she is allergic to the drugs she is taking and to stop immediately. As she has only just taken one it’s going to take 12 hours for her to get them out of her system. She will have to sit and wait until Monday to see what’s going on and take a fresh urine sample in. Unfortunately, she can’t keep anything down and the doctor said not to eat until the sick feeling and diarrhoea has subsided.
Posted her some DVD’s but she won’t get them until Monday.
Met Michael for a sandwich. We had a baguette each and ordered a plate of chips. I don’t make chips at home they are banned!
Decided not to go into town but to walk home and see if Emma wants to chat on-line again. Adam will now be back from work.
She was on-line again and is obviously not wanting to move off of the settee. I don’t blame her! I hope she is better before the 18th July on Tuesday… she has had Red Hot Chilli Pepper concert tickets for months and has been counting down the days on her MSN Messenger list. I have been watching the days with her going down slowly. Please be better for the concert Emma!
We had another chat and she seems a little perkier at least.
I decided to make a groom. The ‘real’ groom is 6’ 2” tall and so decided to make him a little bigger than I usually do and he is very thin too with fairly long blonde hair. I am really pleased with my clay re-creation. He looks fabulous even if I do say so myself!
Michael came home from work and I made a lovely chicken with mushroom sauce dinner with green beans and roast potatoes. It was lovely.
Emma wasn’t on-line and so we decided to go for a walk and telephone later to see how she is doing. It was a beautiful evening.
Michael and I had booked tickets to go to St. Malo, France earlier in the week on the Condor Fast Ferry. We will see how Emma is and decide whether to go or not when we have spoken to her. We may just have to fly home instead. We’ll see.
After our walk I telephoned James in Spain, again quite late, to see how he was getting on. It’s his last evening in Spain and I know he’ll be sad. He was making use of our fabulous terrace… playing cards with the girls. I am so pleased they have made use of the house and have spent a lot of time there which I am surprised about. We have spent a lot of money finishing off the renovations and getting the damp sorted out in the ‘problem room’. Our brand new RED kitchen with black granite and silver appliances looks stunning! I would never choose a red kitchen in the UK but here it just looks perfect and our neighbour Maria Jose agrees.
James, Tanya and Cheryl are going to go Alfonso later to eat. Alfonso does great pizzas - I have mentioned this before on my blog. Great atmosphere too. They’ll have fun… take your earplugs!
Phoned Emma too - her 12 hours off of the drugs is now up. She said she’d eaten a small bowl of plain pasta but now felt really sick. Oh dear. Michael spoke to her and told her if she is still feeling sick in a few hours to ring the emergency doctor again. Although she felt sick Michael thinks she actually sounded a lot brighter than of late. We have told her to phone us if she does call the doctor out again and we will come back to the UK if she does call him. Otherwise we will go to St. Malo as planned.
We will see how she feels in the morning - I will send her a text before we leave the ferry terminal - just in case! Don’t want to get halfway to France and then she needs us at home!
Saturday - 15th July 2006
Last night we slept in the spare bedroom as we needed some sleep before we set off to France (possibly). Unfortunately although the spare room was much quieter than our bedroom… I still did not sleep. I don’t think Michael slept particularly well either but I did have to wake him up this morning at 10 to 7.
We had a quick shower and Michael made coffee for us both.
Walked to the ferry terminal which is just 10 minutes away.
Checked in and sat waiting… running about 20 minutes late. The sea is choppy as it’s quite windy today. The sun is shining and it’s very warm even this early in the morning.
Sent a text to Emma to ask how she was… she didn’t reply. I am hoping this is a good sign as she is perhaps asleep and hopefully that means she is feeling a little better. We will take the chance and get on the ferry… we could always fly back home from St. Malo!
Captain announced that because it’s windy the ferry is running late because it battled against the wind back to St. Helier from St. Malo this morning. Also the sea is a bit ‘choppy’. I don’t like ‘choppy’.
We went straight to the coffee shop and bought a croissant and coffee.
It was quite choppy and got worse as we were out to sea. I felt a bit urgghhh! We stood outside so we could see the horizon… Michael assures me that it is better if you can see the horizon… you apparently don’t feel as sick.
There are a few groups of people on board and they are drunk (yes, this early in the morning). They are also smoking outside as it’s not permitted inside. We can’t get away from cigarette smoke being blown into our faces. Sorry, but I am a real anti-smoker… I am also an asthmatic… cigarettes make me really wheezy.
The journey to St. Malo is one and a quarter hours. It did take us a little longer and I was so glad when we got off. Michael too felt a little queasy but not too bad. I dread to think what I’d be like if it were ‘rough’.
St. Malo looks very pretty. We weren’t sure what to expect. We have been to Brittany before but not St. Malo. Michael tells me we did try and get there once but it was so busy driving there we decided against it. Same with St. Michael’s Mount which is just around the bay. I have always wanted to go there… no doubt we will one day.
We decided to take a walk across the bridge and see if we could find a tourist information office.
We found it easily and as most trips involved getting on another boat or tour bus that we’d just walk into the beautiful walled city and just wander at our leisure. We have about 9 hours here after all!
We walked along the harbour and took some great photo’s of dead trees planted along the edge of the prom. Presumably as breakers? Not sure really what purpose they serve. We later found a postcard with mussels growing on them… could this be a business? Not sure… oh well this will remain a mystery unless of course you know better?
We walked back into the walled city which is incredibly beautiful and incredibly French.
Lots of restaurants serving seafood. Artists painting pictures and portraits. We strolled up and down the little cobbled streets looking in and at each restaurant menu. Michael is always hungry and I just have to eat with him!
We looked at about 30-40 different restaurant menu’s… one restaurant after another. Nothing but restaurants! Not very cheap restaurants either. I guess because it’s a tourist location they hike up the prices. They were all full and flip a coin I guess to see which one we go to.
Michael wanted to eat in the main square as it was nicer than the side streets and more open and not so shaded from the sun.
We ate at a lovely restaurant with the obligatory plastic chairs and paper table cloths. All of which I hate, it must e compulsory in both France and Spain!
Michael had the 22 Euro menu and I ate from the 30 Euro menu. The wine was not cheap… which winds me up. If France can produce bottles of wine for less than 1 Euro, why in these restaurants do they charge 20 Euros? Well they do and they can so we will pay. We ordered our meal along with our half a litre of house wine (begrudgingly) and a litre of Evian! I still felt a bit queasy and my head was starting to ache. I took two paracetamol and immediately started feeling better. Thank goodness. The queasy stomach dispersed once we started to eat our meal.
I phoned Emma to see how she was doing today as I hadn’t heard back from her. She said she felt a little better and sounded a lot better too. Thank goodness! She had eaten another small bowl of pasta and didn’t feel quite so sick. I am so relieved.
She had received the ‘Get Well’ card we sent the other day with the crayons inside and she had a little laugh about it. I asked her if Adam had managed to get her any DVD’s to watch and she said “no but I have my colouring in now to do“! I laughed and pleased we can now relax and enjoy the rest of the day.
The food was fantastic even if it was fish. I hate fish. Michael had Moules and said they were better than the Jersey Moules he’d eaten here and even better than the giant Spanish ones he’d had when we were there the week before last which were excellent! I had gambas (prawns) and langoustines in a red sauce. Michael then ate sole and I had prawns again. I quite like prawns… well if I ’have’ to eat any sort of fish. The meal came to 80 Euros. Very expensive for France but it was good and Michael loves fish so I was glad he was happy.
We wandered around the maize of little streets and walked up the Ramparts and down to the beach. When we arrived here it was high tide and now it’s low and we can get out to the smaller islands dotted around. We walked to one in the blistering heat and walked up the steep steps to the top. I am knackered! Michael took lots of photographs on his camera and fiddled around adjusting them. I was just hot and my hair looked a mess from the wind which wasn’t actually very cooling.
We walked back to the town and had a wander around the shops. At least the shops are all in the shaded narrow streets. Cooled down and then walked back to the pretty square where we ate lunch. We went for a drink and sat outside under the shade of an umbrella at a bar. Michael had a beer and I had a pot of tea.
We had a couple of hours left in St. Malo and decided to do something really touristy… dotto train! Hee-hee.
It took us around the town all of which we’d already walked around a hundred times! The guided tour was in French and then a little English. Apparently the town/city doesn’t have much luck. It burnt down once when the houses were made of wood in the 1700’s. Then was re-built in local granite stone. Then the English flattened it, then a couple of other countries battered it and then the Germans in the second world war bombed it and flattened it again! Hmmm not a good place to have a holiday home! Ha-ha.
After the tour we decided to walk back to the shops to see if we could find anything for James and Emma. There wasn’t anything… tourist tat! We didn’t actually buy anything!
We were getting peckish again and decided to buy a baguette to eat on the ferry or before we leave. Also a 2 litre bottle of water.
We walked back to the ferry terminal and were a little early to check in and so we went just around the back of the terminal where there was in fact a beach area. We ate our baguettes perched on a rock.
I sent James a text to see if he’d arrived at the airport safely. I got one straight back to say “yes, at the airport but the flight has an hour delay”. Oh not him too!
Checked ourselves in and the ferry is going to be about 20 minutes late.
It was extremely hot inside and so we sat for a while outside.
Eventually we were called to the departure lounge. We sat there for what seemed like an hour and probably was! It was so hot and being surrounded by a bunch of drunk people… not my idea of fun! The people were drunk on the ferry out this morning and are still drunk going back. Sad to say the least! I like a drink but know exactly when to stop! A combination of drink, heat and tempers… not a good mixture… a chap and a woman in the queue started to have a shouting match. Something about ‘pushing in’. Whatever! Just get us home and hurry up! We are now 1 hour late leaving.
The Captain apologised for the delay and said it was due to ‘technical problems’ - as these delays usually are! Technical Problems… just what the hell does that mean? No matter. Apparently the ferry is running on one engine and can’t get up to speed. So, we will limp home slowly.
Quite calm on the way back a gentle rock. Michael and I closed our eyes and swayed with the boat. Suddenly, it lurched and everyone screamed. Oh bugger it’s getting rough! Because of the slow speed the ‘fast ferry’ is taking a bit of a battering from the waves. On and off for the rest of the journey it got rough and then not so bad. Neither of us felt sick thank goodness! I was glad however when we eventually arrived back to Jersey.
We got off the ferry very quickly and walked back to the apartment. It was lovely to get back but had enjoyed most of the long, hot weary day.
We had more water and went to bed.
I hope James has a safe flight and journey home. I will worry until I speak to him in the morning. Also hoping Emma is feeling a lot better by now.

16th July 2006 - Sunday
We had a lie-in this morning. A much needed lie-in. We slept in the spare room again and it really is quiet in there… slept like a log!
Today we will go out in my car with the roof down! It’s a beautiful day and have decided to go to the North of the Island for a walk. I suggested Devil’s Hole. We have been there on a few visits when holidaying over the years. It’s a steep path down to Devil’s Hole and then an even steeper one going back up.
We got ourselves ready and I drove around the narrow lanes, which I don’t like doing. I am a nervous driver and an even nervous passenger around these ‘ere parts!
It doesn’t take long to get to anywhere on the island - being just 5 x 9 miles!
Michael took some photographs of the huge Devil Statue standing in his pond, at the top of the steep path.
We walked down to the actual ‘hole’. If you’ve never been there… it’s not that exciting… the steps that used to go right down to the sea have long since gone. There is no way of getting right down onto the beach anymore. If you could it would be a bit more spectacular as the rocks surround the ‘hole’ which has an archway to the sea… battered by years of rough seas, making a hole. I guess people have been trapped by the tide and get stuck… possibly why the steps are no longer!
We climbed back to the top and decided to have a snack lunch and drink at the top in the pub at the top. Unfortunately, a rather loud drunk bunch of charity walkers in all their garb had turned up and were in rather loud high spirits. We wanted peace and quiet. We decided to drive on.
Michael looked at the map and decided we should drive to Greve de Lecq. We arrived and there are several places to eat/drink there and it’s very pretty. We tried to park the car… more than once but it was packed. Sunday is a big, eating out day here. So, I guess we’d drive on again. Michael took over driving as this part of the island is narrower than I feel safe driving. Michael is a confident driver and I do trust his driving except when he says “look at that”. He does that a lot and today was no exception. We drove to a pub we’d not been to before at St. Brelade’s Bay. The car park was pretty full and the food on the ‘blackboard’ was not really ‘us’… burgers etc. So yet again we drove on. We decided to go to a Checkers store and buy a baguette instead and make a sandwich at the apartment and just chill out after a busy day yesterday.
Michael made us a lovely baguette and I made an even better Pimm’s with tons of fruit, ice and lemonade! Yummy!
We sat on the terrace and watched a marching band go passed. Michael also spotted a ‘tribe’ of vicars walking on the sand out to Elizabeth Castle. They were dressed in all their finery, followed by parishioners. The guns at the castle were firing… hope they missed the congregation!
We sat for a while just watching the world go by… so relaxing.
I sat on the computer for a little while chatting to Emma. She is feeling better again today, fingers crossed. Adam is due to finish work at 1 and will be back at our house about 1.30p.m. She wants to go out for a drive with him this afternoon for an hour or so. She had a bowl of cereal and will again have a bowl of pasta later this afternoon.
James is safely back from Spain and telephoned to tell Michael all about it. I am still on the internet chatting with Emma.
We were going to go for another drive but decided as the tide was now very low we’d go for a walk, paddling our way towards St. Aubyn.
It took ages to reach the sea edge… it’s a very low tide again today… the last two days have also been very low. Later in the week they will be back to ‘high low tides’. Oh I’m not going there again!
We walked and walked and walked paddling through the sea with the little tiny fish who were swimming frantically out of the way of our feet! James telephoned again. This time I answered and we chatted for ages. He told me all about his holiday and how much he enjoyed it. I am so pleased for him. He is back to work in London tomorrow and no doubt be really busy. Poor James… early starts and horrid trains and London. Not my cup of tea that’s for sure!
We walked virtually all the way to St. Aubyn which is 3 miles if you walk along the Prom. However when the tide is out, as it is… you can cut right across the bay. It’s still a long way but definitely at least a mile has been cut off the journey. We hadn’t bought any money with us and were extremely thirsty by now.
Decided to walk back… the tide was slowly coming back in.
We had enjoyed our walk and felt refreshed from splashing about in the sea albeit just ankles and feet!
We came back to the apartment and Michael started cooking whilst I started peeling!
We had a very spicy Spanish chicken with onions. I told him to use a teaspoon to sprinkle the chilli with… he said he did but obviously still put too much on. It was very hot but very tasty! Sloshed down with ¾’s of a bottle of Paternina Spanish wine. Yum yum!
Jason should be arriving in Jersey today. You may remember Michael worked with Jason at Canary Wharf. Michael thinks a lot of Jason and he is a hard worker and has now employed him to work in Jersey.
Jason should be on the plane by now - at last he is coming over to help Michael. Michael has 6 Managers working for him each with a team of 11 or 12 people. Jason as from tomorrow will be one of the Managers. Thank goodness, someone who can assist Michael and someone who he really can rely on, delegate duties and trust!
Jason sent a text to say his flight was delayed (so far we have been delayed on the ferry, James on his flight from Spain and now Jason arriving in Jersey). He will now go straight to the hotel when he arrives instead of out for a drink with us. Jason doesn’t have much luck with planes - you may remember my blog on the fog and Jason coming over for an interview etc?
Good luck… at least it’s not foggy today!
We sat on the balcony for quite a while tonight and watched the tide fully come in and the beautiful night sky draw in. I have enjoyed this weekend despite my moaning! I am good at that!
We went to bed still very full from Michael’s large dinner (shhh I shoved two of my potatoes onto his plate). I am not a potato lover. Veggies, yes, any sort and any amount welcome on my plate that‘s for sure!
Oooh my stomach is very full and I can’t sleep.
Monday 17th July 2006
Didn’t sleep a wink! Well not until Michael went into the shower and it was time to get up at least!
I didn’t bother going back to bed as the people above as usual were slamming doors and I would just get wound up anyway.
I had breakfast and caught up on my blog after the weekend. Not sure what I’ll be doing today.
Jason starts work today and we are taking him out for a meal tonight to settle him in a bit. Michael will phone me later to let me know which restaurant Jason fancies eating at… not that he knows any but it’s better to check with him what sort of food he wants to eat.
Waited for Emma to come on-line but there is no sign of her. She has to take her wee into the doctor’s today to be sent off for analysis. I don’t suppose she’ll get a result for a few days or so.
Well I’m off for a shower and then who knows what… watch this space…
Walked into town when I was ready. It is a very very very hot day today. I’m roasting.
I took a look in a couple of shops in the sweltering heat and then realised actually I couldn’t be bothered.
I decided to walk down to Marks and get some orange juice which we need. On the way down Michael phoned to say he’d been trying to phone me but got through to my voicemail each time. This time he did get through and he and Jason were at ‘our’ sandwich bar did I want to meet. Their sandwich’s had just arrived. I was only about 2 minutes away so I told him to order me a Coronation chicken baguette and a pot of tea. Got there just as my tea was arriving. Said hello to my husband (whom I thought had stood me up) and Jason.
Ate my baguette whilst we talked more food… tonight’s meal out together… Michael wants to go to Gorey to show Jason around and decided to go to Don’s Beach House restaurant. We went there with James and it’s now James’s favourite restaurant on Jersey.
Said my farewell’s to Michael and Jason as they had to get back to the office. Leaving me to pay the bill. I know the guy in the café and he said “I saw them walk off and leave you to pay the bill as usual”. I laughed and said “yes, as usual”. Funny how quickly people get to know you. I will tell ‘the boys’ later.
Walked back to the apartment slowly. It’s too hot to do anything quickly.
The tide is just going back out and if I wasn’t feeling so lethargic I would go over and take a paddle before the tide goes out too far. There are a few people in the water and there is a tiny little hovercraft (2 seater) just coming up onto the beach. Not seen that before. Noisy thing too.
I was watching a man out swimming this morning with his two dogs. One dog was really slow at swimming the other really fast. He was racing his owner and won hands down… then the man cheated and turned around whilst the dog was heading in the opposite direction. The dog noticed, turned around and then beat him again to the finishing line! Ha-ha.
Also found out from the news about yesterday’s religious ceremony out to Elizabeth Castle. Apparently, it was in celebration of St. Helier himself. He is buried out there and they were going to celebrate his life, lay a wreath and then they all had a picnic in the castle grounds. Very pleasant.
Just spent half an hour looking for the telephone number of Don’s Beach House - the restaurant we want to go to tonight. Can’t find it in the phone book nor the leaflets I have been collecting for our visitors. I must have a receipt in my purse for it… ah-ha yes I do. It’s not called Don’s Beach House it’s called The Beach House and it is listed in the phone book. Derrr! Not so stupid though as when I phoned… it answered as Don’s Beach House. It was a recorded message saying “we are closed on Monday’s”. Oh bugger after all that!
Back to square one… next choice Maxey’s in Gorey. Although, I want to phone Michael and see if he thought about taking Jason to Zanzibar in St. Brelade instead. Got through to Michael but he’s having a telephone meeting with his boss Ramin. Asked him to ring me when he’s finished.
Phoned Emma and she has been to Brighton today with Adam and called into Danny’s shop to buy a guitar pedal for their friend’s birthday. Danny got them a really good price for it and they are very happy. Thanks Danny.
Thank goodness she is at last feeling better and hopefully will be okay to go to The Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s concert tomorrow evening. She took her pee into the doctors and should get the results back from the hospital in a few days or so. Fingers, toes and everything else crossed!
Shall watch TV and do little more. Lazy!
I read through my early blog from April and May as I have opened a page on www.myspace.com/barmymarny and put all the blog on there. I can only upload 12 photographs in total on the page which is a shame. I will finish reading the rest of my blog this week and add it onto the myspace page too and then post out to people whom I think might be interested. I’m not sure anyone will but it’s there if they want to look.
I talked again to Emma on MSN and she really does seem a lot better. She is now talking positively and ‘doing things’ again.
Michael came home from work very late! They’d had a huge problem occur at work on Friday and he refused to sign it off and very rightly so. Not his office’s fault I might add. He thought Friday the matter was resolved but it reared it’s ugly head again today and he is still refusing to put his signature on the dotted line! Good!
I asked him where he wanted to eat tonight as on Monday nights a lot of the restaurants are closed. He chose The Salty Dog in St. Aubyn. Yes, stupid name I know but excellent food. We’d eaten there once before you may remember… our very first bike ride here… not we won’t mention the bike ride again. I call this restaurant The Snotty Dog - because I am too stupid to remember the proper name!
Our landlady had left a new bedside cabinet outside our apartment door at the weekend. We have had a tatty one in our bedroom since we have been here because they hadn’t delivered the one that matches the rest of the furniture. It was nice to have the ‘proper’ one and finishes off our bedroom nicely. She called on the intercom this evening to say could she take the old one away for us. Michael took it down to her and I jumped in a cool bath. Michael was chatting with her for ages.
When he came back up he told me that we had, as we suspected, famous neighbours. Very famous neighbours. I will not say who they are as that would be wrong and unfair - ask Danny or Terry if you’re interested. Anyway, our landlady had said that he and his wife are very nice and they will invite us around for a drink and to show us all his photographs. She said they are a very interesting and nice couple. I can’t wait to be nosey now! He is apparently in his 80’s. He doesn’t look it actually and his wife is very attractive and possibly the same sort of age but hard to tell as they are both young looking.
I enjoyed my cool bath and I felt much better and got myself ready to go out.
We walked along to the Pomme d’Or where Jason is now staying (you may remember we stayed there when we first moved here). He was already in the bar drinking… no surprise there! We all had a drink together and then got in a taxi to take us to The Snotty Dog… oops!
Jason hasn’t seen much of the island as he only arrived yesterday evening and then straight to work. He is really excited about being here and we are taking him under our wings and will help him out in any way we can.
We had a fantastic meal at The S……. Dog and sat outside. It’s lovely and shaded in the evening as the sun disappears around to the next bay.
Jason told us all about his weekend at the wedding of a friend and what a rush it all was getting back to the airport with a hangover!
I think we chose the right restaurant tonight as they have mostly Asian/Fusion food on the menu and as Jason has travelled the world and eaten some of the finest food… he thoroughly enjoyed every mouthful. I am so pleased. He said it was one of the best meals he’s ever had and he had a fabulous evening, as did we.
We took a taxi back to our apartment and Jason carried on back to the hotel. We were all very tired.

18th July 2006 - Tuesday
It’s going to be another scorcher! Between 34-36 degrees are forecast.
Took myself off out to Checkers the big one at Red Houses. Took the slightly longer route there passed the airport. Two planes took off whilst I drove passed - within 1 minute of each other. There are road works on the road to the airport… I won’t come back that way.
I wanted to pick up some salad bits for dinner tonight. We have also got breaded chicken from Marks to go with it. I also bought a lovely olive loaf for both our dinner tonight and my lunch today.
I spent far too much money considering I was only going in for salad bits… £60 but couldn’t resist their wine offers again! We now have a fully stocked cupboard in the dining area. I also bought Michael some Leffe beers which were also on offer buy 3 at £1.19 and get the 4th bottle free. Oooh lovely - we’ll have fun when Jason comes around and of course, our guests from the UK.
Struggled back up to the apartment with three huge bags full of goodies.
My mobile rang halfway through and it was James to say that Emma was not well again today. Oh no and it’s her Red Hot Chilli Pepper’s Concert! She had apparently phoned the doctor but can’t been seen until 5pm. James gave her lots of alternatives and hopefully she will do the sensible thing and see the doctor. Thanks for letting me know James.
I phoned Emma and she was a little quiet. She has not made the 5pm appointment but telephoned NHS Direct to see what she should now do. They have told her to take some sachets of antacid stuff to neutralise the acid in her wee and paracetamol for the pain. She will have to wait for her wee sample results from the hospital - hopefully tomorrow! God I hope she’s better soon.
Unpacked the rest of the shopping at last and then Michael phoned. I have been totally dumped by my Husband for Jason! Boo-hoo! Charming! Actually, no, I don’t want to walk into town today as it’s too hot. It was lovely going out of St. Helier in my car with the roof down. As long as I get out once a day I’m happy. I did think about going to the zoo on my own this afternoon but I cant be bothered now.
I made an open sandwich with some of the olive bread I’d bought at Checkers and had some cheese and raw onion on it - yummy! My stomach will ache later - I might even need some of Emma‘s antacid! I also ate two beautiful Jersey tomatoes. Jersey tomatoes and Spanish tomatoes are just the best… none of this English and Dutch rubbish here thank you!!!
I sat down on the terrace and read the newspaper with my cup of tea and came over really sleepy. I laid down on the settee and closed my eyes. The chap underneath us is, I think, having his doors changed. Some of them are faulty and we also have one that needs changing. I think it’s his turn today. Anyway, what I am getting to is that the guy doing the work is sawing and drilling and banging etc. so can’t doze - just shut my eyes for 10 minutes instead. That did the trick… not.
I was also toying with the idea of going for a paddle, there are a few bodies on the beach and in the sea at the moment and the tide is just starting to go out which is perfect for a paddle. I’m not going to go though because tonight, Michael and I might take a drive to Beauport Bay for a paddle instead. Michael has still not seen it there properly at low tide. The last time I went there was with James about a month ago and he thought it was a great place. It’s a tiny bay with huge red stones… these must have been put there because they are just so different from the stones on the beaches around the rest of the island. Anyway, when the tide goes out it uncovers a beautiful sandy beach. We’ll see what state our sobriety is as to whether we actually make Beauport Bay or not! I will try hard to stay sober and drive us there… hmmm.
It’s a shame we don’t have a 4 seater car otherwise I’d invite Jason along… he’s not even going to bother with a car here as he cycles everywhere. I offered him the use of our bikes until he gets his own across to Jersey. I suspect ours are not quite the standard of his but they are there if he wants to use one of them.
I think Michael is going to invite Jason for dinner here on Friday night and then out to Sunday lunch with us… might see if Greenhills have got any tables this weekend. Greenhills is lovely, in a beautiful setting and whilst we have eaten dinner there before when we came with our friends Tom and Lindy, we haven’t managed to do Sunday lunch there yet. They are always full! Good sign I guess. Chateau la Chaire would be nice but it’s that much further out on the north east coast of the island, whereas Greenhills is in the middle of the island… I’m thinking of taxi fares getting there and back. Perhaps I should make Jason cycle there! Oooh hard!
Well I am going to watch Deal or No Deal now - sad person and then make a bowl of salad and cut up some fruit for a Pimm’s… later on of course when Michael’s home! I don’t drink alone… I haven’t got to that stage yet!
I might have to put the air-conditioning on in a moment - it’s bloody hot!
I sat on the terrace this afternoon and did a couple of Sudoku puzzles but it was too hot to sit for long.
Came inside again and fiddled around on the computer, watched TV did some more Sudoku puzzles and then it was time for Michael to come home from work.
Breaded chicken and salad was lovely as was the olive bread.
It was good on TV tonight and two things were on at the same time. We have a DVD player built into the TV here but it doesn’t record - never mind.
We couldn’t decide whether or not to go out and left it a bit late really to go to Beauport Bay and back in time for, probably the only good evening on the TV.
We opened a bottle of wine and ate some nibbly bits we keep in the cupboard instead and watched TV all evening. This is rare for me - to watch TV that is - I always have the TV on but don’t really watch much of it. I guess I stick it on (a). out of habit and (b). for company.
Location, Location, Location
How to Look Good Naked (hhhmmmm)
Bad Lads Army: Extreme & Excuse My French - we watched both by flicking channels!
Grumpy Old Holidays - We love Grumpy Old Men and Grumpy Old Women - we really laughed at this one. It sounds just like us!
Bed

PRINTED OFF TO HERE!!!

19th July 2006 - Wednesday
Another sunny, hot day.
I am going to walk into town this morning. Michael said he will meet me for lunch… only because I ribbed him yesterday about ditching me for Jason. I will see if my itinery allows… ha-ha.
It has clouded over a little at the moment and Michael said thunderstorms are predicted for the South West of England… maybe they will come over here too? Hope not.
I phoned Emma before I walked into town and she is still in pain but not too bad. She phoned the doctor this morning to get her results which were in yesterday. Nobody told her when she phoned yesterday! Anyway, her results are fine… there is no infection present now. She asked the doctor why she was still in pain and he said he didn’t know but if she is still in pain in a week’s time to phone and they will do her scan and investigate further. I hope the pain will diminish and go away. It sounds to me like she has a kidney stone stuck - possibly in her bladder. I am not a doctor but amaze myself sometimes with diagnosing other people’s illnesses. However, when I diagnose myself it’s always very serious and I am going to die very soon of something incurable! Let’s hope I’m wrong in that respect!
Emma went to the, long awaited Chilli’s concert and wasn’t very impressed. Perhaps it’s because she isn’t feeling too good.
Walked into town and had a look around for birthday presents for the birthday boy on 2nd August - for those of you who don’t know who I mean - Michael. He is going to catch up with me again. He won’t be my toy boy any longer - he’ll be the same age… thank goodness… I hate those 3 months in between my birthday and his. After 30 odd years together he still gives me stick for being 3 pathetic months older.
I didn’t buy anything but have my eye on several different things. He has seen a shirt, tie and solid silver cufflinks all matching (well the shirt and tie aren’t solid silver obviously) but the pattern matches.
I saw a nice t-shirt in Monsoon and a shirt in Top Man - I might get them another day if I don’t find anything else. He wants and needs work shirts… they’re boring but I might get him a couple if he really wants them.
Met Michael and Jason again for lunch. We went to Voisins department store and had a baguette and a cup of tea. We all chatted and Jason is going to look at a little cottage to rent in Trinity. It’s a work colleagues father’s cottage and he has just finished doing it up. Michael says he’s a carpenter or builder and so I expect it will be nice. Michael or I will drive Jason to see it when he makes an appointment. He could be in it very quickly as he doesn’t have to wait for all the licences that we had to wait for! Won’t go into licences with Jersey States it’s far too complicated an issue and far too boring to put into words!
Michael and Jason walked back to work and I looked in a couple more shops before walking back to the apartment in the rain… well it was a kind of spit really.
Listened to Will Young whilst I printed off my blog and photographs for Michael’s Mum and I shall post this in the morning. Boxed up a bride and groom to post also. Gets rid of another one.
Watched Deal or No Deal and I suppose I will have to start preparing dinner soon. I have in my mind tuna pasta… but I really don’t fancy it. I don’t know what else to do though.
Vegetarian sausages, onion, mash, beans and carrots and a bucket of gravy instead of tuna pasta tonight.
Michael and I decided to walk around to the theatre and book some tickets for Blood Brothers. It has been on here for a couple of weeks now and next week is the last week. It finishes the day before Danny and Jean arrive, which is a shame, as we have heard such good reports. Michael phoned Jason to see if he would like to come but he didn’t answer. We presume he was having dinner out somewhere or in the shower. Michael will ask him at work tomorrow and then I will go around to the theatre and book.
We had a walk along the arm of the pier and back to the apartment again it’s pretty good on TV. Property Ladder 8-9p.m. and then two programmes again on at the same time! We switched channels between Jane Hall and The Thieving Headmistress - hard watching both at the same time. Then we watched Room 101 with Phil Collins. He was quite funny and entertaining.

Thursday 20th July 2006
Michael got up, usual time and I couldn’t wake up. I slept quite well but fell into a deep sleep again whilst Michael was taking a shower. Then he woke me up again and I couldn’t even manage to open my eyes. Fell out of bed - literally - I didn’t realise I was that close to the edge of the bed. I do this when I’m too hot - kinda balance on the very edge with my legs and arms hanging down towards the floor. Very strange, I know but I am strange! Anyway, fell out, no damage that’s the main thing - but at least I was now awake!
Michael was wearing a particularly thick blue shirt and as it’s boiling outside I made him change into another blue shirt. It was on the ironing pile which wasn’t really a pile (3 shirts). I decided I might as well iron all 3 and then found a few more items that were drying in the airing cupboard and ironed those too. Stayed up and did the ironing all by 8 a.m. Not like me!
Not really sure what I want to do today. I have got to get a few items of shopping although I will probably leave that for tomorrow.
Jason is coming to dinner tomorrow evening and I want to plan a two course dinner. I will probably cook my Spanish Lemon Chicken for the main course and if I can find my recipe on the web for gooey mint chocolate puddings, I will make those. I shall look in a mo. If not, I don’t know what we will have for desert. I hate making deserts… especially as I don’t eat them!
I had a salad for my lunch at the apartment. I thought I would leave Michael and Jason to lunch alone. They are far too boring! Ha-ha.
I walked along the promenade this afternoon to the town. A little longer but there were people enjoying the hot sunshine on the beach, despite it being high tide. The sand on the beach is very soft, light and fluffy at the very top of St. Helier beach and at high tide, people lay on the beach up against the prom wall. It’s a beautiful day and if I wasn’t alone I would enjoy a little paddle and sit on the beach. In my head I think that’s what I would like but in practice I would get very bored, very quickly!
I noticed Marks and Spencer had a sale on today and so went straight in. I picked up a pair of leather sandals for £5! They have leather soles and leather uppers! I don’t need them but I bought them anyway! I also bought a black bra (too much information). I wanted to buy Michael some new work shirts but the one’s in the sale were horrible! Stripy! Michael doesn’t like stripes nor pink! Pink I was told yesterday is in fashion but I told the assistant my husband is ‘old’ and doesn’t wear pink! He also likes double cuff shirts so he can wear his huge collection of cufflinks.
There were a couple of nice Italian pure cotton shirts in there but at full price - I will take a look in British Home Stores tomorrow.
I then went back downstairs into the food hall. I thought I might as well get as much in for tomorrow night (when Jason comes to dinner) as I can carry. I bought loads of food and I think I may just have got everything needed.
As I couldn’t find ’my’ recipe for gooey chocolate mint puddings, I bought a desert in Marks. It’s too hot to cook anyway. Good excuse.
I walked back to the apartment, after picking up my newspaper of course, wishing I hadn’t bought quite as much food as I had done. My arms were killing me.
Back at the apartment I sat down with a glass of orange juice and a cup of tea. Read the paper, computed a little and then watched Deal or No Deal. Twiddled my thumbs a little… then bored!
The tide was going out but as I was already very hot I decided not to go over to the beach as I would get ‘mucky’ with sand… wimp!
I sloshed the terrace over with a bucket of water and polished to apartment instead. Less to do tomorrow.
Michael came home late! I was already getting fed up because I was bored. Anyway, cooked tuna and prawn pasta and had garlic bread with it. Small glass of wine because we are going out as I have been very bored today (have I already mentioned that)!
Emma phoned to say she was going down to Jodie’s this evening with James and Adam as it’s Jodie’s birthday (their cousin). Happy Birthday Jodie.
Emma is still in a bit of pain and can’t quench her thirst today. I still think she has a kidney stone. Michael has had a kidney stone and says it sounds like she has one too. Very similar sounding symptoms to Michael’s. Watch this space!
Took my car up to the car park at the top of the cliffs at Beauport Bay. I think I may have burnt the clutch out trying to get up a very steep hill. I sort of put it in the wrong gear and the clutch then stank all the way to Beauport! Ooops!
We parked the car and my car was still smelling bad of burning. I hope I haven’t done any permanent damage!
There were a group of youngsters on the beach enjoying a barbecue and just generally having fun. Youngsters here are loud but generally well behaved… thank goodness. Of course there are a few idiots about but nowhere near as many as on the mainland. Jersey is a very safe place with hardly any trouble.
We decided not to walk down to the beach but to walk along the coastal path which we hadn’t done before. It was beautiful! The rocks are stunning and precariously balanced on top of each other. The path is quite narrow with shear drops. I chose not to look over the edge in places and hoped neither of us would trip up!
We walked as far as we wanted to go and stopped and admired the views… we forgot the camera! Never mind, good excuse to go back again.
We heard the Condor fast ferry coming around the bay. We always hear it before we see it. It’s loud. Soon it came around the corner and if we’d remembered the camera, we could have taken some amazing photo’s! Typical!
We drove back to the apartment. The clutch was still smelly when we parked at the apartment. Now I am having a panic attack, thinking I have done some permanent damage. I bloody well hope not!
Had an early night… nothing on TV and we are both very tired.

21st July 2006 - Friday
I really don’t know where this month is going!
Woke up before it was time to get up this morning and I am not in the least bit tired… for a change. I think I am at last getting used to getting up early. I don’t like it but I do it… not through choice.
I cleaned the bathrooms and put some washing on. Vacuumed the apartment and made the beds. I like to get it all done before the weekend.. Then I don’t do anything at the weekend.
I have remembered something I needed to get yesterday to put in tonight’s dinner. I will walk up the town when I am showered and get that out of the way.
Jason is coming for dinner tonight… which reminds me that I need to buy theatre tickets for Blood Brothers. Jason wants to come with us and see it.
Must remember.
Walked up to the town and bought Michael’s birthday present - the matching tie, shirt and cufflinks he has had his beady little eyes on! Hee-hee. I have as mentioned bought him the trainers he likes too but I will get other ‘little bits’ to go with that.
I hung around town looking in the shops for a while and then strolled back to the apartment with a bagful of beer, cheese and biscuits for tonight and some odd bits from the Checkers supermarket at the north of St. Helier. Jason loves cheese and so do I. In this supermarket they sell cheese in tiny weenie portions, sealed and priced all at around 50p. I bought a pack of 6 ‘milder’ cheese (because I hate strong cheese). Jason likes any cheese, so gets what he‘s given! Michael as you know hates cheese, even the smell of it makes him throw up! Good job I only buy mild ones!
It is a glorious day and I would like to go to the beach this afternoon. This afternoon I will make it over there. I keep threatening to go but am a little self-conscious of going over alone.
I had a salad with no bread again for my lunch. I am trying to lose some weight about 4 lbs would be nice. I shall get tougher on myself! Cheese won’t help tonight!
Walked over to the beach fully clothed. Didn’t put my nice new swimming costume on (it hasn’t seen daylight since I bought it months ago)! I thought I’d take the newspaper over and read it whilst sitting in the sun. The tide was ‘in’ but just across the road from our apartment, the tide doesn’t come right up to the wall. There is a beautiful sandy stretch, lovely white powdery sand. I sat on the breakers just above the sand as did many other people. There were quite a few holiday makers there and quite a few of us ‘locals’ ha-ha. It was lovely and peaceful watching the world go by and reading the paper. I wished I had put on my swimming costume - I felt even more self-conscious, with my skirt and top on, than I would have done in my swimsuit!
I sent James and Emma a text and then went for a paddle and walked back to the apartment, with half the beach stuck to my feet.
I had a shower and dried my hair, put my make-up on all of which takes an age.
Decided to get tonight’s dinner organised and vegetables ready. Not much to do with the chicken as this has been marinating in lemon juice etc. overnight. It should be very lemony by now.
Michael came home from work and we sat and watched the world go by until Jason arrived at 7.30.
He hasn’t been to our apartment yet as he’s only been here 5 days… his first week of work over! He said he was tired as he’d never worked so hard! Not bad though, he has had one person leave and another threatening to… he hasn’t even asked Michael to sack any of his team yet. He is a little smitten with a girl who works there too. I teased him a little about her and who knows we may even marry him off… watch this space!
Michael and Jason had drinks on the terrace and I started cooking the dinner.
It was lovely - even if I do say so myself. The ‘boys’ had a desert of rhubarb and strawberry pie with custard to follow (Marks and Spencer). I couldn’t be bothered to make a desert as it has been too hot to cook. I have had the air conditioning on for about 2 hours this afternoon as the apartment has been particularly hot and it has cooled it down nicely.
Cheese to follow and Jason and I almost finished 6 small portions of cheese between us… not quite though.
We had a lovely evening and Jason left about 11.30. Tomorrow night one of his staff has asked him around for dinner. That’s great as we were a little worried that he might get bored alone here. He says he enjoys his own company but he does have a lot of friends in the UK and so hope he doesn’t get bored here on Jersey.
Sunday we are all going out for lunch somewhere - haven’t quite decided where yet… watch this space.

Saturday 22nd July 2006
Dull and misty this morning. What a shame after yesterday. Got up at 10 to 10! How lazy. Made us both a cup of coffee and took it back to bed. I can hear thunder and it is spitting. It’s also quite breezy and no sooner had I looked out of the window… in true Jersey style… the clouds were blowing away and it is now brightening up.
We are going to walk into town as Michael wants me to buy some clippers to cut his hair. We forgot to bring them over with us last time but I shall get some new ones today as it will be cheaper than a haircut in Toni and Guys. Also with Michael not having much hair it doesn’t take very long to cut it myself!
We walked into St. Helier and first stop was the theatre. Apparently there weren’t many seats left for the show ‘Blood Brothers’. It has been so popular… Michael says people from work are going to see it again as it was so good. We managed to get seats for next Friday. We are sitting in the ‘posh seats’ as it’s only £2 more! The guy who served us was really nice and very helpful, as most Jersey people are.
We walked on into town and took Michael’s new glasses into ‘Spec Savers’. The rubber bit that clips the nose clip and lenses together, has perished on one side and it needs replacing. We left them with the very friendly, bubbly girl there and we will return in about 15 minutes. People on Jersey are so very friendly, kind and polite! We are not used to this! It’s great!
We bought a huge French loaf in the market and then I took Michael to the shop where I bought his birthday present yesterday. They have some lovely Prada shoes in there and I wanted to show Michael them because he is still wearing his winter boots to work! I knew he’d like them and they have extra padding in the soles. The sales assistant who served me yesterday was wearing a pair and said they were the most comfortable pair of shoes he’d ever bought. Michael has trouble finding shoes to fit ‘properly’. He has quite wide feet and finds it difficult to find well fitting shoes. He bought them, along with some Yves St. Laurent socks. Sold!
Went into Julian Graves (health food shop) and bought some ‘naughty nibbles’ including yogurty drops with raisins in… I am addicted to them. Michael is addicted to Japanese crackers… we bought both!
Came back to the apartment and had some lunch with our fresh French bread. Delicious.
We sat down for a while and I talked to Emma on the computer for ages, which was great. She’d had another bad day at work and is fed up working in the village post office. Also, she had bought James’s birthday present off of eBay and it has arrived but it doesn’t fit. She does feel slightly better though… which I am more interested in. The pain in her back is subsiding slowly. I still think it’s a kidney stone. Hurry up and get back to normal.
We drove out to B&Q to buy a new plant for our terrace. When we went on holiday to Spain we forgot to water our other plant. However, it being a Canary Island Palm, we thought it didn’t need much water anyway. It did and it’s very scorched. Maybe it’s because it’s behind a glass fronted balcony. Not sure… it’s not completely dead but looking a bit smaller as I have had to give it the ‘chop’. We opted for an olive tree! Not only will it remind us of Spain but it doesn’t take much water either! Does look slightly out of place on a Jersey seafront balcony, however. Hopefully, we will not kill it but as we are not very good at tending plants… it probably won’t last long.
We must have looked odd driving back as… we had the car roof down, with Michael perched in his seat with an olive tree between his legs. This in turn was blowing all across his face, so he couldn’t see and I, certainly couldn’t see a thing whilst driving!
We drove up to Fort Regent as there is a show Michael would like to see on, as previously mentioned, Bjorn Again, tribute band. It’s on Monday night. We may go… or we may not. Watch this space.
Unloaded the olive tree back at the apartment. Put it on the terrace. Had a drink of water and then off out again to Gorey.
We wanted to book a table for tomorrow lunchtime at Don’s Beach House. James’s favourite on the island. Sorry James, you’re not here and so we are taking Jason, our newly adopted Son. We will go on the bus tomorrow instead of forking out for a taxi.
We had a wander around Gorey and then drove back to the apartment… again.
Not a very good day driving today… on the way to B&Q a car wandered over my side of the road and I narrowly avoided it. Also, on the way back from Gorey another car wandered over my side of the road and I really, really, really don’t know how I avoided it. There was a stone wall on the other side and I thought I’m not going to drive my car into the wall! If he clipped me, he could pay for my car to be mended. I think if I hit the wall, I would’ve been responsible for the excess damage on my car. Not sure but I wasn’t going to drive my car into a wall! Idiots!!!
We prepared a salad for dinner tonight with breaded chicken breast in some of the French bread we’d bought earlier from the market.
We were very good tonight… we didn’t open a bottle of wine!!!
Okay, I confess, we did have a jug of Pimm’s instead! Hee-hee.
Spoke briefly again to Emma on the internet whilst the chicken was cooking and she seems quite a lot happier.
We sat on the terrace with our salad. For some reason, there is a Condor Ferry anchored in the bay opposite. Not sure why it’s there and the tide is going out. Wondering if it’s broken down.
Today, there have been caravans and fairground equipment arriving in West Park to the side and sort of behind our apartments. Whilst we can’t see it from the back or front of the apartment… not happy it’s there. It is there from today and until after the famous ‘Battle of Flowers’ parade in August. Hope it’s not going to be noisy! When there was a fair at the end of May / beginning of June on the Waterfront, it did in fact close at 10 pm. Hoping the same will happen here. I will no doubt let you know.
I am going to bed early tonight, I am tired.

Sunday 23rd July 2006
Today we are meeting up with Jason and going to Gorey on the bus.
Another beautiful day.
Spoke to Emma on the internet and Michael phoned James. Emma had told me last night that power shower pump (housed in the airing cupboard) has apparently broken and is leaking. James took a look and has sort of fixed it although it has had a ‘slight’ leak for years. I did get it ‘fixed’ once but the plumber fitted the wrong seal and said he’d order a new one and be back. Never to be seen again!
We walked along to meet Jason at the Pomme d’Or hotel and then to the bus station across the road.
The bus to Gorey was packed! Buses are very popular on Jersey and used by regulars and tourists alike. The journey (anywhere on the island) is £1.60 single. After 7 pm the price goes down to £1 as Jason found out on our return journey.
Mont Orgueil Castle is always a spectacular sight when arriving at Gorey.
We walked along to the end of the wall to show Jason Mont Orgueil Castle from the rear view looking up. I took a couple of photo’s.
We walked along the harbour to Don’s Beach House Restaurant. We had booked a table right by the window… which is a long sliding one… so we appeared to be sitting outside but in the shade also. Perfect!
We had a lovely meal. Starting with chicken skewers for me, Michael had scallops and prawns and Jason had a macadamia nut with mango and prawn salad. All of which were delicious.
My main course was linguine with mushrooms and Michael had Moules (of course) and Jason had sea bream.
We were too full to have desert and joked that we should have desert after going up Mont Orgueil Castle and work backwards through the menu. We had two bottles of wine between us and I just about managed to stagger up to the Castle.
We were a little late going in and they offered free return tickets to us. Which we accepted, of course. Jason got a separate ticket and the kind lady gave us 3 more! I wanted to come here with Emma and Adam when they visit - perfect!
They were preparing for a big party inside the castle grounds. We joked that we should just stay behind and mingle in.
Took loads of lovely photographs of the beautiful castle with it’s glorious views and having a beautiful blue sky to frame it all these should be good.
At the top of the castle, which has recently been renovated to the tune of £4million… they have installed sophisticated giant binocular thingies. Jason and Michael hogged them! We could see France very easily today and being only 14 miles away, Jason picked up on a big town through the binoculars with tower blocks in the distance. We could see them really clearly. Michael saw, from another direction the Condor Fast Ferry leaving France. You couldn’t see it with the naked eye but very clearly through the binoculars.
By the time we had worked our way down to the bottom of the castle, the guests were arriving for the big bash tonight. We could easily have mingled in… Jason and Michael weren’t so keen… especially when they saw that we would have to pay for our drinks!
Lots of people around in medieval costume and the ‘soldiers’ from Elizabeth Castle arrived, marching into the Castle with their guns and bayonets attached. A fantastic sight but missed a great photo opportunity as they were too quick!
We walked back down to Gorey Harbour and went into Maxey… Jason and Michael wanted a desert and were determined not to miss out! They had a bottle of cider each and Michael had a St. Clements Pie and Jason had a Tart Tartin… I was good and had a bottle of water… oh and a glass of wine... Not so good then!
As mentioned, they were going to work the menu backwards, just to see the look on the waitresses faces! I had to stop them - greedy buggers!
We walked back to the bus stop and waited for the bus back into St. Helier.
As mentioned, the bus ride back after 7pm is only £1 each. Jason fell asleep!
We all took a walk to the Waterfront Entertainment area and Jason noticed a band were about to play on the green area there. A poster announced they were an Irish band. We decided to go to ‘The Bar’ as it’s called and watch from above.
Michael and Jason had another cider but a Magners I think it’s called which is a huge bottle of Irish Cider (probably contains about 2-3 normal sized bottles in). Funny colour and funny smell… I hate cider. I tasted it and whilst it’s not quite as bad as ‘ordinary’ cider… still not my cup of tea (or should I say bottle of cider). Yeuch, sweet and disgusting! I had another bottle of water… no, I didn’t have a glass of wine too!
The Irish Band started to play. The sun was going down fast and I started to feel a bit chilly. We couldn’t hear the band very well, surprisingly and as we were all getting a bit chilly by then, decided to walk back to our apartment. Michael and Jason were also getting peckish (no, not really I think they are just really greedy) they had decided to stop off and pick up pizzas at one of the restaurants in Kensington Place, up the side of the Grand Hotel. The Grand being next to (well across the park) from our apartment. Anyway, close enough to bring it back to the apartment and eat.
I went back to the apartment to get some drinks ready and some plates warmed.
Michael chose a fungi pizza (no cheese - he hates it)! Jason chose a spicy pizza with avocado! Weird or what? It was nice though, I just had to try it!
Michael and Jason washed this down with a gin and tonic and apparently I made it too strong… what would they know!
We listened to some music… Danny’s music actually… Sun, The Diablos and The Haddocks! Jason likes live music and hopefully when Danny comes over next week we can all go out to one of the bars (probably The Blue Note Bar) and maybe Danny will get up and play?
I found my bottle (litre) of Anis in the cupboard (bought it back from Spain a couple of weeks ago)… unopened still (only because I‘d forgotten about it and the fact that it was in the back of the ‘drinks‘ cupboard)… didn’t stay unopened for long after that! We gave Jason a taster and he loved it… followed by another and another! I can see I will have to hide it when he comes around! I’d forgotten we’d bought that!!!
Jason left, it had been a very long but lovely day.
We went straight to bed and hoped we’d sleep well after all our activities and alcohol! We didn’t!

Monday 24th July 2006
Another beautiful day!!! Hoorayyy!!!
I am going to go into town I think to buy some plastic bits - plates, cutlery and glasses etc. We are going to go down to the beach tomorrow night for a barbecue. We have been promising to do this for ages and Jason seems keen to join us. I have strict instructions to buy some of that dreadful cider they drank last night to take to the beach with us.
I walked into town and searched for picnic type sets. I haven’t seen any - even in Woolies. They have a few plastic bowls and tall tumbler type plasticy bits but no plates and no wine glasses.
I went on to Le Lievre, this is a kitchen store here selling everything imaginable. They had plastic white wine, red wine and champagne glasses (plastic) but they were £3.50 each but if you bought 2 you got the 3rd free. Didn’t sound much of a bargain to me! I did buy some serviettes and some skewers in there.
They also had some lovely picnic hampers and picnic ‘backpacks’ but only contained 2 of everything.
I decided to go back to Woolies and search further. They also had the ‘backpacks’ which I think are great. I decided to buy one (£7.99 in Woolies - £14.99 in Le Lievre). I also bought two more stainless steel sets of cutlery and two plates (not plastic) but cheap enough not to worry should these get broken on the beach. I have 3 odd wine glasses that I bought ages ago from the £1 shop (£1 for 3 glasses) and really don’t mind if they get broken.
As we have lots of visitors coming in August this will come in handy for them to take on picnics/barbecues and Michael and I too will use these at weekends.
I also bought a throw away barbecue from Woolworth’s for tomorrow night’s barbecue on the beach.
Tomorrow I will have to go shopping and buy all the food - I will probably go to the big Checkers at Red Houses. They have a fresh fish department there and I will get some uncooked, fresh prawns to skewer. Mmmm. I will get Jason a ‘proper’ beef burger in there and also some chicken for all of us - I will skewer these also and marinate. We will have salad also and the ‘boys’ want a desert of some kind. Not forgetting of course their special cider!
I walked back to the apartment and had some lunch. I bought a baguette from the French bakers and have frozen the other half to have tomorrow or another day.
I printed off the photographs from the weekend in preparation for posting later in the week to Michael’s Mum. I have also printed a few off of Jason for his Mum and Dad who are away at the moment camping! Best of luck!
I went for a walk over the beach, paddled as I walked along. It was a bit ‘gunky’ today… very fine bits of seaweed - which made me nervous. I walked along to First Tower and then walked back along the sand to our apartment.
Emma briefly phoned this morning to say she found a flea on her bed this morning. Yeuch! My cats haven’t been de-flea’d since I left… sorry Felix and Mindy… Emma will be buying Frontline today for you! Felix doesn’t care as it’s only a few drops on the back of the neck… Mindy is a different story. It takes 2 to hold her down and then she screams and turns herself inside out and then screams… anyone would think she’s being murdered!!! I don’t know why she hates it so much but she does! It’s only two bloody drops of stuff on the back of the neck - stupid cat!
Emma came on-line briefly after my walk down the beach, to say that she has bought the Frontline and Mindy was fine! Typical… she did trick her however by pretending to give her a treat and then squirted it on the neck area! I hope she did in fact get her treat after!
I am happy in the knowledge that the fleas will now be dead anyway. Ewww my cats never get fleas… they probably got them from Emma! Hee-hee!
Michael will be late in this evening… can’t remember why… I think he has to interview someone for a job there.
Cooking chicken marinated in honey and mustard seeds tonight. Hope it’s nice. I am roasting some new potatoes, skin on and we will have baby corn, beans and broccoli. My husband will have Friday’s leftovers for desert… strawberry and rhubarb pie with custard. Just what he needs for a hot summer’s day!
He won’t complain though!!!
We went for a walk to First Tower Checkers because Michael’s feet hurt in his lovely new Prada shoes! Grrrr. So we are going to buy some plasters for his heels!
We walked back along the prom and saw a colleague of Michael’s and stopped and chatted for a while.
We went to bed early as we are both very tired.

25th July 2006 Tuesday
Ooh another bright and sunny day.
Michael snored all night and I laid awake all night! Typical!
I have to go to Checkers in Red Houses (the big Checkers) this morning to buy some barbecue food.
Took the roof off of my car and drove to Red Houses. I parked at Checkers in the underground car park to keep my car cool.
I walked up to the shops at Red Houses first to get a vase as the one in the lounge has broken. It fell over the other day and cracked. It’s useable but knowing my luck I’ll cut myself on it.
Couldn’t get a vase anywhere.
Bought £70 worth of shopping!!! Arrrghhh!!! Only 4 bottles of wine too! I forgot to get Michael and Jason’s cider stuff - oh well they’ll have to go without.
Came back unpacked it all and started skewering up chicken and making salad for our barbecue on the beach tonight.
I also made another bride and she is totally crap! So made her again and she’s even crappier! Never mind she’ll have to do as I have now run out of white clay. I will dress her up a bit in glittery stuff… us girlies like glittery stuff!
I also made a black cat that someone wants to go with their bride and groom which is cute and so is the clay one. Also put some hair on another bride who has been umming and arrring about what she wants to do with her hair on her wedding day. All done. Just got to beautify the crap one up tomorrow and hopefully varnish and post them all! That will be the end of my bride and groom’s this year! Hooorrrrayyyyy!!!!
It’s gone a bit dark outside. I don’t like the look of that. I was going to go over the beach about 4pm but it’s clouded over and I think I can hear rumbling. Bugger it!
Yes, rumbles, no lightning, just rumbles.
It’s now 5.35 and it’s raining! No barbecue on the beach then.
Oh no - Jason is coming over to bring his washing and put in the machine whilst we are out on the beach, barbecuing. Hmmm. I haven’t got anything else for us to eat. Not sure what we’ll do now! Typical!
Michael walked home from work in the rain! He didn’t look very wet though and his umbrella only had a couple of spots of rain on it. Maybe it’s clearing up.
It has stopped raining and didn’t last long but it is grey still. Think it might be too wet still to have a barbecue.
Jason arrived at 7.30 with his bag of washing… I am his new laundry lady and he has employed me to search for a house or apartment for him. The bank will pay for his accommodation here but his budget is quite literally half the size of ours, so may struggle. However, he is not here on a ‘J’ category licence like Michael, which also means no waiting around for licences like we had to. Also, this means that I can look for ‘non-qualified’ housing for him. I don’t know quite why I’m explaining this it’s all gobbledegook to anyone who doesn’t know Jersey States Laws. In short, he can live anywhere he wants on as an unqualified tenant. I will be on the case tomorrow. I think I will take a walk up to see Jenny at Le Galais… she will advise me what’s best to look for and where. He seems pretty keen to live in St. Aubin as he cycles and it would be great for him to cycle along the prom to work.
We decided not to have a barbecue because the clouds were hanging over St. Helier still but not raining and also looking brighter over the bay. All my hard work for nothing!
We have decided we will try a restaurant none of us have been to before ‘The Mandarin Room’ in St. Helier. Malaysian Food.
It’s a lovely restaurant and the food was very good and the wine very cheap and very nice. I think this would be a good place to bring Emma and Adam when they visit, as there is a huge selection of vegetarian food. Very enjoyable.
We are going to try again tomorrow for our barbecue. Jason is pleased because he will have company again tomorrow evening. Well that’s what he says, anyway!

26th July 2006 - Wednesday
Barbecue day again! Hmmm - weather is sunny at the moment but there is a mist over Elizabeth Castle. The food will have to be cooked today whether it be under the grill or on the barbecue on the beach! So, we’ll see!
Did both Jason’s ironing and our own.
I walked into town this morning and called into most of the estate agents in St. Helier. Not a lot about and what there is, is snapped up quickly. I left my name at a number of agents. I called into one and knew the guy in there. His name is Richard. I first met him when he painted one of the apartments we had stayed in and he was very chatty. I sort of stared at him for a bit and he stared back and then I said “do you paint too” and he laughed and said “I knew I’d seen you before”. We both laughed. I am pleased he remembered me and that now he might look around and ring when he has something suitable for Jason to rent. Hopefully, he will give him priority too!
I also called in at Jenny’s agency to see what she had. She did have an apartment but someone else is haggling over the price at the moment and also works for the same bank! Best avoided. She will definitely keep an eye out for me. Nice lady, we had a long chat and she was asking how we are settling in etc.
Wandered around town and then walked back to the apartment.
Had some lunch.
Sat down, watched TV, read the Sun and did the Sudoku’s in that paper and one that I’d torn out the other day.
Very bored this afternoon.
Michael was very late home again and I wasn’t very nice! I was bored and having spent 11 hours on my own… thought that was more than long enough! 11 hours at work… huh! I aired my grievances and got the barbecue stuff ready for tonight.
Michael sifted through the mound of post Emma had sent over to us from the UK. Loads of junk plus some bills - all wrong of course. Electricity bill for £483 estimated. Michael read the meter last time we were in the UK and sent the reading off and it should be about £230 but they want to charge the full amount. Idiots!
Tax bloody bill too! Arseholes! Excuse my language but I am in a filthy mood.
I will have to snap out of this mood before Jason arrives otherwise the evening will be totally spoiled. Snap! Ping! Ok I’m feeling better now - not!
Jason arrived and we looked out over the sea from our balcony and up towards the sky… dare we look… hmmm. “What is it going to do - rain, thunder, lightning or what“?
We decided to go ahead and do our beach barbecue as we’d all been looking forward to it.
We walked along to First Tower and onto the arm on the beach. There were millions of flies there - so, decided to walk a little further. It was weird because the flies seems to be flying in front of us with every step.
Jason decided to walk up to the top of the beach and said there were no flies at all up there. I reminded him that we have to do barbecues on the beach below the high tide water line. He said “but we’re tourists… we’ll plead ignorance”. Ok fair enough.
We sat on a really soft white sandy part of the beach near the top of the prom and lit the barbecue. It seemed to take ages heating up and we were starving.
Jason announced that we should put some prawn skewers on to start and so we did… uh oh… thunder!
Dark clouds overhead and then lightning! Bang! We couldn’t believe our luck!
However, it didn’t rain and Michael and Jason assured me that it was a long way away. I think they were just hungry and willing to risk life and limb just to fill their stomachs.
The prawns didn’t take long to cook and I quickly shoved on the chicken skewers and Jason‘s sausages.
It got darker and darker and the rumbling louder and more lightning. I was facing the lightning and Jason thought I should sit the other way around, like him and Michael and then I wouldn’t see it. Derrrrrr! The ’boys’ couldn’t have cared less! I was really scared and the people walking or should I say, running from the beach thought we were mental! I on the other hand, KNOW we are mental!!!
I drank almost a bottle of wine to myself… I thought if I was going to get hit by lightning I might as well be drunk and hit! Michael and Jason had 2 beers each and begrudged me every mouthful of my wine… but only when they’d realised most of it had already gone! Hee-hee! I needed a drink!
Ever the positive ‘boys’ were right, we didn’t get hit and by the time we’d left the beach, the sky was clear again.
Jason marched us back to our apartment at warp lightning speed and my little legs were going one hundred to the dozen. Every time I told him to slow down… he did… but then sped up again within 30 seconds!
Back at the apartment I gave the boys desert - it was either apple or pear tart… not sure really and they never did comment on what it was.
Michael and Jason had gin and tonics and I sobered up with water… oh and the dregs of a bottle of wine from the night before… and I mean dregs!
Jason left with his bag of clean clothes all washed and ironed.
Michael and I went to bed.

27th July 2006 - Thursday
Lots of e-mails this bright and sunny morning.
One from Danny and Jean saying they were coming over on Monday not Sunday. I hadn’t realised but that’s ok. Shame it’s not for longer.
Dunjica my Slovenian friend was on-line chatting for about an hour and sending me hundreds of photo’s of her wedding. She did look gorgeous and so did the bride and groom I made for her cake! My head is swollen - must be the wine.
Jenny phoned to say that she has a possible house for Jason in Grouville. Just up the hill behind Longueville Manor. Sounds promising but she wants to view it first to see what sort of condition it’s in. She will get back to me. Perfect, right sort of distance from St. Helier and the price is spot on.
Walked into town to see about viewing one of the properties with Richard the agent but I didn’t realise the house only had one bedroom and so cancelled the appointment.
Walked back to the apartment and phoned Michael on my mobile whilst I was walking along to tell him about the house Jenny may have for Jason. Michael asked if I was staying in town and if I wanted to meet for lunch. He feels bad about my nagging yesterday about not seeing him for 11 hours I think! Ooops. I didn’t want to stay in town all morning so came back to the apartment and said I’d meet him at lunchtime… walking back up to town again.
I had a drink of water and looked at a few websites. I’d found several houses for Jason on-line but probably when I phone they won’t be available. One is particularly interesting.
Met Michael and Jason for lunch. We were going to the Greek restaurant near the law courts but on arrival, all the tables were reserved.
Behind the law courts Michael remembered a little Italian restaurant we had been to before, serving either a pasta or pizza and a glass of wine or beer for £4.95.
Showed Jason the properties I’d printed off earlier which I thought would be suitable. He likes the one I like too. It’s in St. Brelade and is a big house converted into two apartments.
We had a nice meal and Michael ate moules again! He said they were nice.
Walked the ‘boys’ back to their office and I walked into town to pick up a copy of the ‘Jersey Evening Post’. Perhaps there’d be something in there for him to rent.
Came back to the apartment and ironed, yet again.
Sat down with a cup of tea and browsed through the Jersey Evening Post. There is a ’possible’ in there. After ringing it has become an ’impossible’ as it’s too expensive. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Phoned even more agents… there aren’t many rentals left at any price without housing qualifications.
One of the properties which Jason was particularly interested in, the one in St. Brelade is now only being rented for 6 months… not a lot of use. Shame.
Another agent phoned to say that there is a property in St. Helier and it’s gorgeous and I have arranged for Jason to visit Tuesday at 11 a.m. I don’t think he’s too keen but at this stage, choice is very limited and I really think he should view it… just to see what he could get for his money.
A knock at my door and it’s our neighbours - NO NAMES. They knock regularly to check that we’re ok. For some reason if they don’t hear us out and about they knock to check that we’re still alive. Very sweet of them actually. I will now start doing the same as it seems to be what they want. They are very pleasant and are now in the 80’s! They look great!
They invited me into their apartment and showed me some of their memorabilia. They have some lovely photographs both passed and present, showing themselves with so many famous people, too many to list but here’s a few… ok where shall I start… Benny Hill, Anita Harris, The cast of Eastenders… oh ok they are the minor celebrities… how about… The Queen, Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Princess Margaret, Ursula Andres oh and I nearly forgot ELVIS PRESLEY just to name a few!!! They have obviously enjoyed their lives and have homes all over the world and visit regularly. They have asked if I will look after their apartment whilst they are away and forward their post to them. They gave me their Book to take away with me and show Michael. I am hoping I won’t have to return it but I’d better ask first. I would like to show Danny and Jean it next week when they visit. I’m sure they’d be fascinated to see it.
Michael came back from work as I was leaving next door. We ate dinner and then I spoke to Emma on the internet. She is by the way feeling a lot better.
When we were out having our barbecue on the beach with Jason last night we saw lots of boats in the bay around St. Aubyn. Michael learned today at work that there is a pod of dolphins living in the bay and another pod living in Greve de Lecq on the North of the Island. The dolphins last night, were apparently jumping in and out of the water, following the boats in their wake. That’s it… we’re going boating in St. Aubyn’s Bay this weekend! I love dolphins!
We took a drive out to St. Brelade because Michael wanted to find the house for rent for 6 months for Jason. The details said it overlooks the bay and Michael was for some reason intrigued as to where exactly it was. We didn’t find it but it could be one of many. We took a walk up a ‘green lane’ (15mph narrow road) and it was very pretty.
We stopped at St. Aubin on the way home as Michael had been nagging for a bag of Maltesers since he got home from work!
Came back to the apartment ate the maltesers with a glass of water and went to bed soon after. Gonna be sick!
PRINTED OFF TO HERE!!



28th July 2006 - Friday
Quite a good night’s sleep last night - hooray! Which probably means Michael didn’t sleep because I didn’t hear him snoring!
It’s a beautiful day today (fingers crossed). I’m not sure what I will do apart from vacuuming the apartment through and boring stuff like that.
I haven’t quite decided.
Tonight we are going to see ‘Blood Brothers’ with our adopted son ‘Jason’ - ha-ha.
That’s what I’ve got to do today… book a restaurant for tonight. For some reason the show isn’t on until 9p.m. tonight - so we will go out to eat first. I am in charge of where we eat and so I’d better pick carefully.
I decided to have lunch before going out to book the restaurant.
As I was leaving our famous neighbour was also leaving his apartment. We had a chat and then I asked if I could keep the brochure to show Michael’s brother and wife next week. He said I can keep the brochure and if I would like any more he has plenty of them! I will in fact ask for a few to send out to James and Emma and Michael’s Mum… I’m sure they’ll be interested for sure.
I walked down to ‘The Green Olive’ a restaurant we keep threatening to go to but never do. I picked up a business card from them in case we want to book tonight.
I also walked around the block to another ‘possible’ but I didn’t like the pre-theatre menu - it was a bit too ‘pub like’ for us.
Then walked passed the theatre to ‘Prego’ an Italian restaurant - haven’t been there before either. Another one we keep saying we’ll go to and don’t… there are just so many fantastic restaurants on Jersey. I’m sure one day we will go to them all! I’m not sure if I fancy Italian tonight. I’m not going to book any for now.
Came back to the apartment and had a quick change of clothes… into my ‘cossie’. Beach time! I sat in the same place as earlier in the week on the steps which double up as breakers. Lots of people sunbathe on this massive stretch. It was lovely and peaceful until a playgroup and it’s 3 nursery nurses decided to sit right in front of me! Bugger!
The little 2-3 year olds were brilliant… however, the 3 stupid women with them weren’t! They were shouting at the kids for doing absolutely nothing wrong! I actually felt sorry for them! They were so well behaved.
Then another lady came along with her child then another with 2 and I gave up. I noticed a chap, sitting not too far from me, get up and leave when the playgroup arrived… thought at the time “don’t blame you mate”.
I did stay for about 2 hours there and then walked across the road back to the apartment and had a bath and washed my hair.
Oooh lovely, I do feel so refreshed now. It has been a glorious day and it was like being on holiday. Then again, every day is a holiday for someone lucky enough to live on Jersey!
I gave my fringe a trim because it’s getting on my nerves today and I can’t be bothered to walk up to town and get Shaun to do it for me. He will tell me off next time I go in for a haircut! I might pretend he cut it cockeyed!
Put my make-up on ready for this evening and now I am waiting for Michael to come home which will be in about 40 minutes - hmmm… possibly!
I tried to phone ’The Green Olive’ but got their answer machine and left my telephone number. Two minutes later… they returned my call. They have got a table for tonight but only in smoking… “yeuch no thanks“!
Michael finished work really, really late tonight and didn’t get back to the apartment until about 7.15! Major problems and he was on the phone to the lawyer to see if he could get things sorted. No, unfortunately, he’ll have to wait until Monday. He is very stressed. Not his fault but still a big problem.
He came home and had a quick change of clothes and I poured him a glass of wine. We sat on the terrace briefly and then Jason phoned to say he was across the park at the Grand and he could see us on our balcony.
Jason is going back to the UK tomorrow and has to be out of the Pomme d’Or Hotel and move into the Grand. He took his ‘stuff’ along in a taxi and has left it there until he returns on Monday evening. They have kindly offered to look after it all for him until he returns (he could’ve left it here but I think he was a little embarrassed to ask) - silly boy!
Michael had just opened a new bottle of wine and drank that glass down too before leaving to meet Jason at the Grand.
We took the 2 minute walk to the Grand! Jason had already got the drinks in… red wine for me and a gin and tonic for Michael. Blimey!
We sat on the terrace at the front of the Grand Hotel and ordered some food. It was lovely and warm on the terrace and we had a great meal whilst Michael and Jason discussed today’s problems at work.
Jason told me that he has 3 women after him at work! Hee-hee. He also told me that two of them were really fat and ugly and the only way he’d even consider going out with them is if they lost more than half their body weight and both had face lifts! Charming Jason! The third he has yet to find out who it is… he did send a text to the girl who had told him that he had an admirer to ask who it was! She didn’t text back. Oooh we could marry him off soon without any intervention!
We walked to the theatre to see ‘Blood Brothers’. We just got there on time.
We sat right at the top of the theatre where the tickets are slightly (£2) more expensive but we didn’t like them as much as ‘the cheap seats’. Never mind, we know for next time.
Linda Nolan is in the show but not sure I know anyone else in it.
The first half was really good and very funny.
We were first at the bar for drinks… double gin and tonics for the ‘boys’ and I had an orange and passion fruit J2o.
We took our seats for the second half of the show.
The second half was still very good but a little depressing. I thoroughly enjoyed the show but was disappointed that it was so different from the first half. A lot more serious.
At the end - a very sad emotional end… Linda Nolan was crying… I think the performance was so emotional and she really ‘got into’ the part… guess it was just too much for her. Very unexpected actually.
There were plenty of ladies weeping and wiping away tears coming out of the theatre too!
We said our goodbye’s to Jason as he’s off to the airport at the crack of dawn. He said he’d get the taxi driver to ‘toot’ as he went passed our apartment… hmmm.
Michael and I went straight to bed as it was now 12.15 - Saturday already!

29th July 2006 - Saturday
Didn’t sleep too well. That’s the trouble when you have had an evening out and go straight to bed. I was singing the very long song in my head about Marilyn Monroe all night and thinking how sad a show it had been in the second half. Michael didn’t sleep too well either but I expect he had different things (work) buzzing around his head.
It was a sunny start today but clouded over and had a light rain/spit as we were going out.
We went to Checkers at Red Houses to pick up a few bits and pieces for the weekend and some bread and milk.
We came back to the apartment and packed away the shopping and had a ‘proper’ French baguette. Saturdays at Checkers they have a selection of goodies brought over from France… including great bread, vegetables and fresh seasonal produce.
I still haven’t got a new vase since the one in the lounge broke, falling over in the wind and so decided to go to ’The Snow Goose’ in St. Ouen’s Village. The Snow Goose is a tea room also selling nick-knacks for the home.
We didn’t find a vase again! One day I will find one I like that’s just the right height and size for my lovely bamboo shoots.
We took a drive out to Greve de Lecq. We went to Greve de Lecq last Sunday, to try and get some lunch but we couldn’t find anywhere to park. Today was different and we parked with ease.
We took a walk along the bay and it was lovely. The tide was out and there were people swimming in the water despite it being overcast and quite breezy.
We took a look around some of the restaurants there and the little café selling the most beautiful cakes… we resisted! They also had a little gift shop but the vases again were the wrong size.
We drove back to the apartment and watched the whole weeks worth of ‘Celebrity Come Dine With Me’ that I’d recorded everyday for us to watch.
Then we cooked dinner. I made some of my home made spicy wedges (which weren’t very spicy). Michael made a bowl of salad and we had breaded chicken with it too. A bottle of wine went down well with it!
Michael watched a stupid Batman movie on the TV. I cleared up.
We went for a walk around the fairground which arrived earlier in the week. Being that it’s Saturday night… it’s very quiet! It’s a big fair with some big rides but not many people!
Walked the 2 minute walk back to our apartment and watched ‘The Story of Light Entertainment’ about all-round entertainers and game show presenters etc. from the 1950’s to the present day. Quite interesting and very good. The fair has packed up for tonight although it’s here until after ‘Battle of the Flowers’ which is 10th and 11th August. The fair leaves on the 13th August.
We are tired and going to bed now… night.

Sunday 30th July 2006
A good night’s sleep and the weather is beautiful, sunny and hot.
We might have a barbecue if the weather holds out.
We got ourselves ready and I had a chat with Emma on the internet. She is very much better now and I am hoping it stays that way! I will be glad when she and Adam come over for a much needed holiday.
I washed and cut up some salad bits and Michael wrapped some chicken in bacon ready for our barbecue later. If not a barbecue, at least dinner will be ready to go!
We packed up all the picnic ware and took the car firstly up to B&Q to get a throw-away barbecue.
Michael reminded me that it was their 50th Anniversary celebrations today… not only were there hundreds of people but B&Q itself was closed!
We drove on to Sion through the middle of the island up to the North of the island.
At Sion we stopped at the ’big’ Spar there to pick up a baguette and a portable barbecue. We asked the girl behind the counter if she would cut the baguette into 4 pieces. I think she thought we were nuts but c’est la vie.
We couldn’t decide which of the many small bays on Jersey we were actually going to go to. The North of the island is mainly rocky and probably not a good idea. The tide was only just going out and we wanted to go somewhere sandy and quiet. Definitely ruled out St. Ouen’s Bay… this is a surfers paradise on the west of the island. It’s a beautiful bay and it’s known locally as ‘5 mile bay/beach’. Not sure why as it’s only 3 miles long really… perhaps Jersey people exaggerate.
We drove to the East of the island, stopping at St. Catherine’s Bay. There were a few parking spaces left there and so decided to park and walk along to Archirondel Bay.
We walked along the stony beach and passed the Martello Tower between the beaches of St. Catherine’s Bay and onto Archirondel Beach. The tide is going out and the sand is now exposed which is perfect. The stony side of the beach is fairly busy as is the large café.
We walked to the other side of the beach where there are lots of larger rocks and no people.
We set up ‘camp’ and lit the barbecue. Perfect.
It was really hot and sunny and had to apply more sun cream as soon as we arrived there as our feet were burning!
We put on some veggie sausages and veggie burgers and our chicken wrapped in bacon.
Poured ourselves out a glass of wine and Michael also had a beer. A wasp fancied my wine and decided to drown itself in it with a little encouragement from my husband!
The food was perfectly cooked and very tasty indeed.
The advantage of having a barbecue on the beach is… that nobody wants to sit near you! Great stuff!
As we were sat amongst the rocks and rock pools… we even managed to wash-up the plates, cutlery and drown the barbecue making it safe.
We left our belongings on the rocks and went out to a larger rock which was now visible from the lack of sea.
Some beautiful rock pools on the very sharp stones and we clambered right over the rock to the other side by the sea.
Michael spotted one of the two pods of dolphins that swim around the island. We could just make out their shapes but weren’t totally clear. They had followed a speedboat into the bay. They weren’t jumping in and out of the water but were swimming serenely just showing their backs and dorsal fins. Unfortunately they didn’t stay long enough for a photograph… nor do I think it would’ve been close enough or good enough to print. Shame. Perhaps another time.
We walked back to the beach and gathered our belongings and walked back to the car.
We took a very slow drive back to the apartment. Not that we had a lot of choice. We followed a ‘local’ an old man who couldn’t drive. He was driving at 21mph all the way! Eventually, I did overtake but not long before we got back to St. Helier. Pain in the bum!
We unloaded the car and walked back up to the apartment. We saw our famous neighbours who are going over to the beach. They were hoping we were going too but we weren’t… we needed a rest!
We had a drink and a sit down at the apartment. We were going to go straight back out but we laid down on the settee and fell asleep!
We decided to eat a ‘Gu’ pudding that Michael bought yesterday in Checkers. It was really yucky and gunky and horribly sickly… then again, Michael enjoyed his with a ton of ice cream… just to finish the tub, of course.
We watched a programme on sharks with one of my favourite presenters Steve Leonard. Vets in Practice fame. It was really interesting.
We were going to go for a paddle on the beach but Michael decided to put on a film we bought ages ago… but haven’t watched it yet. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp. He looks gross in the film and acts even weirder than he does in Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a crap movie anyway, very strange! I liked the first one with Gene Wilder… then again “they don’t make them like they used to”. Ha-ha. Emma it’s on it’s way over to you - it’s yours!!!
At 10.30, after the music from the Fairground behind subsided, we went t bed.

Monday 31st July 2006
A dull start today but the sky is getting bluer and the forecast for this afternoon is sunshine. Good!
I am a little nervous today for Michael, as he has to sort out the dreadful mess that was left behind on Friday. Also, Jason is still on the mainland and won’t be there to help out. I hope it all works out… please!!!
Danny and Jean arrive later today. Danny phoned last night to say they have now hired a car for the duration. I am pleased, Michael has taken Wednesday off for his birthday! Great! We can all go out together in one car. Not sure what we are doing for his birthday yet… we want to see what Danny and Jean want to do because, after all, it’s their holiday too.
I will give the apartment a bit of a clean and make up the spare room bed and clean both bathrooms.
I want to go into town and get some wrapping paper and the last of Michael’s birthday presents today. Busy, busy, busy!
I walked into town and had a good look around but couldn’t really find anything for Michael’s birthday. I will try again tomorrow.
Michael phoned as I was in Grand Marche (food shopping) to ask if I wanted to meet for lunch.
We ate at one of our favourite café’s and it was very busy and the food took ages to arrive.
Michael left me to pay the bill as usual!
Walked back to apartment… more cleaning… this time the terrace and tables and chairs also did some boring ironing.
Read the Sun and did the Sudoku’s.
Michael came home and I cooked us a dinner before we had to leave for the airport.
Had to get petrol on way and then we were just in time to hear the roar of Danny and Jean’s plane landing.
Whilst we were waiting we saw Michael’s boss coming out of the airport. He didn’t see us.
Then Danny and Jean came through the doors with their luggage. It was really nice to see them and they looked really well.
Jason was also on their flight and so, as Danny and Jean had hired a car I asked if they minded giving Jason a lift back to our apartment. He, as mentioned, is staying this week at The Grand… next door to our hotel.
I drove Jean back to the apartment whilst the 3 ‘boys’ went to collect the hire car.
We arrived a few minutes earlier and had to wait by the electric gate to let them in.
We all went upstairs, Jason included. We had a few drinks and showed Danny and Jean around the apartment. They loved it.
Ordered some take-away pizza for Danny and Jean because they’d not eaten yet. Michael and Danny went to collect those and Jason walked next door to his new home The Grand Hotel.
Jean and I sat chatting and drinking.
Had a few slices of their pizza, which I didn’t need but ate anyway. Few more drinks to follow and then we all went to bed. July 2006 has come to a nice end.