Thursday, June 19, 2008
Trekking to morocco
The first holiday, which has no hiking and is therefore ideal for someone like us, is a ten day tour of Marrakech and the Sahara desert. As well as visiting Kasbahs (which I always though were arab markets but turn out to be Berber castles), you also get to visit the famous Todhra gorge and spent a few nights in the desert along with Berber tribes people. You get to ride on a camel amongst the sand dunes, and learn about their ways (the Berber people, not the camels!) which has remained the same for centuries. The all inclusive price for this is just 600 euros.
The second and third holidays involves a bit of hiking, and are intended for the fitter amongst us! One holiday involves hiking through the Atlas mountains for nine days and living amongst Berber tribes people, enjoying their food, music and culture. The other involves 10 days hiking around the mountains of Marrakech, visiting the 100 foot high waterfalls at Ouzoud, and once again enjoying the culture of the Berber tribes people. Both of these trips are around 450 euros each and include everything but your flight from the UK and your own travel insurance. Dave's contact details are on his web site - www.granada-hiking.com
If you do get in touch, tell him Dave and Jeni sent you.
Two falls, two submissions and a knockout!
When Lucky Dave* and his big dog Luma came round the other night, we thought that she'd meet her match and be a little more reserved. Not a bit of it though! Straight in with the shoulder barging and trying to get him on the floor for three submissions and a knockout!
You can see the other photos I managed to take of their second encounter on our Flickr site - www.Flickr.com/photos/rollingfruitbats
*Lucky Dave, as opposed to Dave the Plumber, Dave the language, Dave the fruitbat, Dave the chippy, Dave the ... you get the idea!
Climb every mountain
Admittedly they'd gone up this time with several grown ups (allegedly), and the plan was to take a slow pace and stop overnight in the climbing hostel. But those of us left in base camp Tijola couldn't really rest easy until they made it back in one piece. Not only did they manage to do this, but Chris also came back with some photos of this amazingly high place. Have a look for yourselves on their Flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/two_musketeers (you might also like to make some comments - we couldn't resist it on some of the pictures!).
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Re-matriculation
Give them the doggie Mabel
It all kicks off when she comes to visit on Saturday. It will be interesting to see how the other two little chaps view this interloper as they've not been too happy whenever other dogs have come to stay (Chip's nose gets put right out of joint whenever little Scrumpy visits and Scrumpy and Luca get into a male pissing contest - literally!)!). However, perhaps because she's a little senorita it will be different for them. She's been neutered so leg-over Luca shouldn't be too interested in that department?! ... we'll keep you posted!
A shaggy tooth story
Dave found himself in a modern, squeaky clean surgery along with a dentist who looked to be about 14 years old (however, the dental nurse was a few years older, so he was reassured to some degree). With Dave's limited Spanish and the dentists limited English it took a series of mimes and some sketches on a piece of paper to explain what the problem was. 'Ah, hot and cold. No problem' said the dentist, and soon located the offending molar by using something hot and something cold (works every time!). When Dave had climbed down from the top of the equipment rack, the dentist settled him back in the chair and began examining the tooth.
Obviously recently trained in all of the latest techniques, the young man donned a pair of safety goggles, a mask, two pairs of rubber gloves and what appeared to be one of those head set devices worn on television by doctors who examine pregnant women. Having noticed a sign on the surgery wall that advised patients to tell the dentist if they were pregnant, Dave didn't like the direction his mind was going! He felt decidedly relieved when the dentist suddenly removed the head set and put it back into its drawer, evidentially deciding that it wouldn't be needed.
'Mmmmm' (prod, poke, prod) ' Molesta?' asks the dentist. 'Mmmmumble' responds Dave, and they both stop and look at each other. 'This hurt?' explains the dentist. 'Ah si' responds Dave in his unique Japanese Spanish. This continued with the dentist tapping his way around all of the teeth inside of Dave's mouth, rather like the wheel tappers used to do on the railways looking for loose wheels, thought Dave as his mind began to drift again. Having established that just one tooth was the cause of the pain, our young dentist settles down to work in earnest, being handed what felt like to Dave about twenty different pieces of equipment by his nurse, and placing them into his mouth.
After much scraping and prodding, and much grunting and clenching of buttocks by Dave as the dentist cleaned up the area around the source of the trouble, it was decided that an X-ray would throw a bit more light on the situation. This was quickly done with some very futuristic looking equipment and within minutes they were both looking at a picture of a tooth that had a very visible fracture across the top of the roots. Source of problem; source of pain. Best course of action was to remove the tooth as it was beyond repair. 'No problem' says our young professional, rubbing his gloved hands together.
Anorak alert - The dentist went on to explain to Dave (using some very ably drawn sketches of teeth and gums) that the reason the tooth had fractured was because it hadn't had another tooth to press up against. Because Dave had a gap where the opposing tooth was meant to be, the damaged tooth had gradually travelled outward, until it had exposed the weaker root area. Normal usage had then placed too much pressure on the vulnerable tooth and it had fractured.
Having sat down in the dentists chair at 10.30am, the time now being 12.00pm, Dave anticipated another half-hour at the most and settled down for the extraction. Whilst not exactly looking forward to it, at least it would mean the end of the pain. Jeni arrives at this time and the dentist goes through everything with her just in case Dave hasn't understood. Time now 12.30pm and two hours of treatment having elapsed.
So, first set of injections ... 'Feeling numb?' 'Er, no.' Second set of injections ... Feeling numb?' 'Er, a little.' 'OK, we go for it.' 'Aaaaargh!'. 'Mmmmm, very strange, you shouldn't be feeling anything.' (this translated by Jeni). The tooth now going throb, throb ... 'Maybe a bit more anesthetic?' This continues for the next hour and a half, with increasing amounts of the anesthetic having no effect on the tooth at all! The whole area around the tooth; the whole of the right hand side of Dave's face; his tongue and the sides of his nose are completely dead, whereas the tooth is still happily throbbing away. Jeni points out that Dave usually has to have double doses of any medication due to his body mass, so in with the needle again. Partial success and the dentist quickly gets to work loosening the tooth before the anesthetic wears off!
1pm comes and goes, 1.30pm, 2pm, and the anesthetic has completely worn off and the tooth hasn't budged. The dentist decides that he's going to hit Dave with the extra strong anesthetic but needs him to have some blood sugar in his system before he does. Jeni volunteers to pop up to the bar on the next corner and returns with bottles of peach juice which Dave is encouraged to drink. The tooth is very angry at this stage and the cold drink doesn't help the situation at all (remember the 'hot/cold' symptoms?!). Dave's now been in the chair for three and a half hours and no real progress has been made. The dentist decides that after administering the extra strong anesthetic he's going to cut the tooth into sections and try and remove it bit by bit.
Jeni later admits that, as well as feeling anxious for her marido carido (dear husband) she's also having a vegetable anxiety at this stage, due to the fact that she's still not done her weekly shopping! But duty over-rides and she sticks by Dave and pushes the thoughts of carrots and runner beans to the back of her mind (not an easy thing for Jeni as those who know her will appreciate!).
So, anesthetic working and Dave gripping the arms of the chair, the dentist starts to dissect the tooth (sorry about the imagery here for those of you with a sensitive disposition). It takes him another hour to do this, along with another injection and the comment - 'I've never had to give this much to anyone else before!' Four and a half hours comes and goes; five hours, and the dentist is still heaving away on the tooth. A final injection (with the dentist muttering under his breath about the doses being big enough for a horse!) and after five and a half hours the last piece of root is dropped into the tray. There is suddenly a festive feeling in the room and the nurse, the dentist and Jeni are all beaming at each other and examining the bits of tooth. Dave slowly sinks deeper into the chair with a groan, thankful that it's all over.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Stranded!
Looks like we might be staying put in the village for a while - or just tootling between home and the town occasionally - since we can't get any diesel for the car at the local petrol stations due to the lorry strike and we've only got a quarter of a tank of fuel! At the moment the supply of petrol seems to be okay, but not diesel. Never mind, we won't starve down here in the valley and, as usual as you can imagine, there's enough food in the house for a three month seige anyway! Jeni never fails to return from her walks with the dogs without at least two cabbages, a bunch of carrots, potatoes, spinach, lettuce, eggs, etc., all donated by our lovely nieghbours!
Drop your Pie!
After a joke that goes 'how do you know when a
Pin up?!
Dave has taken up nude male modeling; really! Well ... a one-off maybe! There's a woman who runs an arts centre near to us and she's getting some pictures together for a photographic exhibition called Naked Alpujarra. She's aiming for about 40 'models' and has already got Chris Stewart (of Driving Over Lemons etc. fame) snapped. Dave volunteered that he was having acupuncture - lying naked on his front with 60 tiny needles in his back - and said he'd be prepared to be photographed like that .... so there we go. Famous - or infamous? - buttocks as well as cartoons! The exhibition will be on at the arts centre here around the end of September, then she has venues in
Squashed Sausage!
Swallows and Pipistrelles
The bats (the real ones this time! mostly pipistrelles) swoop around right below our balcony where there is a light, thus many insects, at night, so we see their aerial acrobatics at incredibly close quarters. They also like to rest and hang right outside our bedroom window on one of the beams, so often we get an amazing free show of them squirming around digesting that last big moth or stopping to clean themselves before they head off again, feeding and foraging; magic.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Since moving the caravan, we don’t seem to have stopped. Dave has been rehearsing and playing with his new band ‘adisabas’, we’ve managed to find a more accessible place to live (more later), helped our friend Annette set up her new bread shop, and we’ve had a visit from our old mate Kit.
‘Violin, sitar, guitar, recorder and percussion combine to create an exciting and dynamic blend of distinctive world music. The music itself is best described as eclectic, covering traditional rhythmic styles as diverse as those of
See what we mean?!
So far they’ve brought the house down at the venues they’ve played. The last one was the Bar Jyoti, which is over the river in Tablones. Their next gig, in between recording a demo CD, is at Benita’s leaving party on the 21st June (Benita is a friend who’s been here about 12 years and is returning to
The new place is about another two kilometers towards Chris and Anna’s valley and is beautifully situated in an olive grove high on the side of a hill. The distinct advantage is that it’s level throughout, except for a couple of steps up to the entrance, and you can drive right up to the front door (we currently have to get help lugging our shopping, gas, musical instruments, etc., up and down a 100 meter steep track from the house to the road). The guy who’s building it is also putting a long, easy ramp up to the front door as an alternative to the couple of steps. It’s all brand new along with a glass fronted wood fire, a modern fully fitted kitchen, double glazing, two bathrooms and two bedrooms.
I’ve saved the visit of Kit until last, as many of you won’t know him. Sadly Kit’s wife Sally died of cancer about four months ago, having been ill for a long time. We invited him down to stop with us for a bit of a break. He’s proved to be the washing-up fairy, the cooking fairy and the taking us out for meals fairy all rolled up into one (‘who you calling a big fairy?’ might well be his response to this).
Kit and Dave go back a long way, Kit having once been Dave's editor on an Arts magazine some 20 years ago! He’s decided that he loves it down here and plans to go back to ‘oop North’ and sell his property as soon as he can. The plan is then to eventually buy something down here and spend the rest of his retirement in the sun!