The month began with quite cool weather and as Timmy has now acclimatised to the warmer temperatures here Kathie decided to buy him a coat. Have you ever seen a dog looking embarrassed?
Kathie took part in the annual procession around Torrevieja called the Patronal procession which is in honour of the town's patron. A good turnout from our U3A (if you call 15 from 500 a good number) but everybody was well received by the Spanish both in the crowds and the procession itself. A decision was taken at this event that instead of spending over €100 on flowers we would in future buy one lovely presentation then give the balance of the money to one of our supported charities who provide food the poor and needy of the town. Our own Patchwork and Sewing Group will design and make us a banner so that our group may be identified during the walk.
On Christmas Day we decided to eat out for a change and our friends Martin and Christine booked us into El Prado, a family run Spanish restaurant in the local town of San Miguel.
In order that we could all have a drink we enlisted the help of our friend Graham who would otherwise have gone hungry. We left him a Christmas lunch and he drove us to the restaurant in our car so that he would know the way when he came for us. The arrangement was that he would collect us and we would phone him twenty minutes or so before we were ready. Now San Miguel is a town with only one set of traffic lights and to get to our restaurant one had only to turn left at these lights and follow the road around to the destination. One turn at the only lights in town and directly on the route from home.
Graham used to be a car valeter and deliverer for one of the main dealerships in Manchester and had to deliver or collect new and used cars from all over the Greater Manchester and Cheshire areas. In the past couple of years we have had him visit various garages and ITV (Spanish MOT) stations in the area for us. He always manages to get lost even though we provide him with maps or sat-nav etc. He tends to overcomplicate matters instead of following instructions with results such as a garage 40 minutes away took him four and a half hours to find.
When it was time for me to phone him he answered his mobile to say that he was already in San Miguel (he wanted to get there in the light) but he could not find the restaurant. He said give him another twenty minutes and he would "drive around" until he found it. This was highly unlikely as the town is a maze of one-way street when you leave the main roads. Worse still he did not actually know where he was so it was impossible to give him directions to get to us. I gave him his twenty minutes and phoned again. "I still cannot find you but I am in a Repsol petrol station - does that help". Yes it did, we knew where he was. "Turn right out of the garage on the main road and stop at the next roundabout and we will meet you there". He answered that he could not tell which was the main road! As the garage was on the Ring Road (which he had just left to get into it) and the only other road out of it was 10 yards long and ended with a fence around a field we could not understand his difficulty but as it was Christmas we were kind and told him to wait where he was and we would walk to him. The ladies were in their finery with high heeled shoes and no coats, and Martin and I were not equipped for the cold and rain but we pressed on with the fifteen minute walk to where he was. How he managed in Manchester we cannot imagine!
He has now been dropped from our list of nominated drivers unless he already knows the way to his destination. On a happy note we had a sumptuous seven course lunch with unlimited wine for only €30 each.
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