You know what? It's not grim oop North!

Yes, it's been ages since I've blogged! No, I don't have an excuse!

I'm going to sneak an announcement in here so that I don't have to do a whole separate blog about it - my plans to return to Spain are all on hold. I'm not going back in January. There are a lot of reasons, which I won't go into here, but the upshot is I'm staying put for the time being. So that's that done - on to the proper blog post.

Having the loan of a car again thanks to Cathy and Sid's little jaunt to the Orient, I finally managed to organise a few days away. I'd been meaning to get together with Hannah for ages - I met her in Spain in February 2008 and we'd then become really good mates in Madrid. She came back to the UK in October 2009 and we hadn't seen each other since. So the delights of the M25 and M40 delivered me (thanks to Cathy's Sat Nav and Sid's dinky little Citroen) to Madeley, to a little village in Staffordshire where Hannah's boyfriend's parents have a house that they built from scratch 30 years ago while they lived in a caravan in the garden with a newborn baby (Steve!)

Hannah and I spent the afternoon trying to find the ruins of a local manor house but, despite having fairly clear instructions, all we found was a muddy path, horses, a fallen tree for me to trip over and a fence which was inexplicably completely inoffensive when I grabbed it, but remarkably electrified when Hannah stuck her hand on it 10 minutes later. After a yummy dinner, the three of us struck out in the pitch dark to the local pub (local = a mile away). We'd planned to get there cross-country but having discovered quite how muddy it was, that looked like a bad idea. Instead, we walked on the pavement-less, streetlight-less road under an amazingly starry sky. I relied on night vision, Steve had a great, retro, heavy 80s torch which gave off about as much light as a glow worm, and Hannah attached her wind-up torch to her head. Between us, we managed to fend off the onslaught of oncoming traffic and made it in one piece to the pub. We duly took over the pool table (no mention will be made of the results) and the quiz machine, and sampled their finest brews. Soon it was time to take our lives in our hands and return to the house via the same dark road which had now turned into the equivalent of Brands Hatch due to the number of people now leaving the pub (why they didn't have the sense to walk there, I don't know!)

Sunday dawned and Hannah and I decided to get out from under Steve's feet by heading to a local car boot sale. Hannah invested in a pair of rather startled-looking wooden cats and two candlesticks for her fireplace. I bought fake Rolos and a packet of fig rolls (am I the only person that thinks they're the most nostalgic biscuits in the world?) Having deposited the cats at Hannah's place, we went to an Arts and Crafts Centre based at a farm - so twee that Hannah had never managed to drag Steve to it. Giving in to the hunger brought on by the car boot sale, I dived into a very tasty bowl of pumpkin and apple soup (it was Hallowe'en after all). We wandered round the farm part, oohed and aahed over tiny chicks, huge pigs, cute ponies and slightly smelly goats. Hannah cooed over the shop's Christmas decorations. I commented on the fact that it was "still bloody October!" We headed back to the house, took the dog on rather muddy walk then drove across town in a proper workman's white van to collect a table and chairs Hannah had bought for their conservatory. The area we picked it up from was clearly going for Hallowe'en in a big way - most of the houses were decked out with glowing pumpkins, cobwebs, skeletons and were expecting a deluge of scarily-clad children (and probably adults). Having delivered the furniture to its new home, we headed back for a scrumptious roast dinner before Steve went off for an evening's table tennis. That left Hannah and me to drink our way through the evening, generally putting the world to rights and catching up with nearly a year's random chat. An early night beckoned as they both had to get up for work the next morning and obviously I had to leave when they did.

It was a very chilled weekend in a lovely part of the country and it was definitely worth the wait to catch up with Hannah.

Enough? Thought so! The rest of the trip is for the next blog...

Distractions

So since the tearful goodbye at the airport on Thursday morning, I've been in serious need of distraction from heartbreak, not to mention sleep.

Thursday at least involved lots of sleep, eventually. Though first I finally sorted out my Social Security number and went for a chat and a drink in a tiny weird Ecuadorian coffee shop with Debbie.

Yesterday turned into a packed day. First I had what appears to have been a pretty successful job interview. Then I met the lovely Richi for a chat and a drink and dog-walking. Then, and try not to be too jealous, I hit Ikea with Richi and Julie! OK, so I don't actually have a property to furnish or anything but since when did that stop anyone wandering round the Marketplace? In very restrained, and broke, fashion I managed to spend just under €15. I'm now the proud owner of a small lime green stool/table to rest my drinks on in the living room, a strange silicon ice cube tray, vanilla ice cream tea lights and....there must be something else. Other than a big Ikea paper bag!

Amusingly, I spent the trip feeling like a kid in a big shop with their parents. Julie's 6ft 2 and Richi's about 6ft 4. Consequently, I felt like a midget trailing round between them!

Excitement of the visit came when Richi dumped an entire cup of coffee over me and, more importantly, my mobile phone! Cue panic, swearing and much crossing of fingers. Seems to have survived the experience though it now smells funny!

Then I had a fleeting meetup with the lovely Lizzie from my recent Pueblo experience. She was on her way to Dublin. I was lending her a pair of shoes. Random.

Knackered, I then headed home via Hannah's for a "quick drink". That was at 8.3o. I got home at 2.30 am. Time warp. Again.

So thanks to my friends for doing their very best to distract me and keep me sane for the last 48 hours. Has it really only been 48 hours since the airport? I guess so. Feels like a lifetime.

An evening in Segovia.....

Weeks ago, Jorge invited us for an evening in Segovia, the capital of his home province. He comes from a village a few kilometres away, but clearly spent lots of time in Segovia and wanted to share it. We finally got around to it last Thursday evening!


Things didn't quite go to plan immediately - we set off rather later than intended, then had to turn back halfway due to a fire, and find a different route. We arrived in the city at 9.45pm (on a school night!! :-). On the way, we'd been impressed by flashing lights on sharp bend signs (yes, we're easily pleased!), our ears had popped several times and we'd burst Jorge's eardrums singing along with the radio!



As we were driving in, we'd seen some hot air balloons in the distance. Just as we walked from the car, they floated directly overhead!!

We marvelled at the aqueduct, then strolled up to the cathedral which is beautiful at night when it's all lit up, and then further on to the castle. Given that the gates were locked at that time of night, the only way we could get a glimpse of the fairy-tale towers, was by standing up on the city walls. Which are rather high!! Jorge had a bit of a moment, when Eve stood a tad too close to the part with a 200 foot drop on the other side but otherwise we survived the acrobatics!

Obviously by this point, we'd stopped for a couple of drinks, the first in a great old traditional bar, with stacks of stuff hanging all over the place. Very tasty patatas ali oli tapas too. The next was in a surprisingly busy place. Having been walking round all evening, barely seeing another soul, it was a shock to find a street that wouldn't have been out of place in Madrid. Hordes of people in the street, chatting, drinking, spilling out of various bars. It was like being in a different city!



During the evening, Jorge had been really interesting and informative about the city. I'm constantly amazed at how much Spaniards know about their towns, country and history. Now I realise that probably sounds slightly patronising, but find me many Brits who could take you round their town and just know all kind of fascinating facts, figures and dates. I know for a fact that my knowledge of Brighton doesn't run to even knowing when the Royal Pavilion was built!! It makes such a change for someone to be interested in, and knowledgable about their town.

We headed back for the car as various people had work the next morning, but were diverted by the bright lights of TelePizza! Fancying just a slice each turned into ordering 2 big pizzas between the 4 of us. Despite being damned hungry, not helped by the tempting smell from the boxes, we hopped back in the car and found a quiet park (OK, it was more a patch of grass by a convent!) to eat it! Something about it felt quite naughty, a bit like when you were a kid drinking Merrydown Cider in the graveyard. Somehow the conversation turned to the aurora borealis and I said I'd seen them in Iceland. Hannah accused me of name-dropping so I told her I'd meant the freezer shop. Not that funny, I'm sure you'd agree but for some reason this set her off laughing, crying and snorting for an alarmingly long time!



The journey back was much faster, though we had time to stop off and top up our water bottles from a water tap hidden in a pitch-dark layby, wonder at the stars, and play silly games. How is it possible that I Spy can still be entertaining when the combined age of the people in the car is somwhere around 130? It helps when you have Eve guessing "Jorge" when the letter was H. A rather feeble attempt at "I am not Nebuchednezzar but I am......." (or as Hannah called it, I'm not Xaphod Beeblebrox.....) proved that it was amazingly difficult to think of a famous person that all 4 people in the car had heard of.



All in all, it was a lovely evening - Segovia at night is a very different place to the city I saw a couple of weeks ago with Sid. Thanks to Jorge for driving (and of course putting up with alcohol free beer all evening) and to everyone for their company!