For lewis

[happy daze john in oz]

Lewis in an earlier post you mentioned Calpe in Spain.

In March 1999 we spent ten days there, my sister and her husband had an apartment there at that time.

He took us to a new Fish Restaurant about a ten minute drive from there. The area was a mass of high rise apartment blocks.

We entered the restaurant and it sounded like the grave, full of very silent diners.
On the end of each table a pot looking very much like a tea pot with what looked like older married couples at each table.

The Swedish waitress was very friendly and brought the wine and beer I asked for.
The looks on the faces of the men was one of envy, the looks on the face of the females was ,'don't even think about it' when they saw the grog.

But then we had to go, so up to the counter to pay.

A real problem here.
It was before the Euro came in and all I had was Spanish Pesatas.

The lady behind the counter was confused, so was I when I looked at the menu board and saw all the prices in Pounds Stirling.

She found a calculator and eventually worked out how much I needed to pay.

On the way out one of the men, obviously not with his wife, told us that most of the customers there all lived in the high rise apartment blocks and were British ex pats living there permanently. They still liked to deal in English money.

Not so long after that my sister and husband moved back to UK.

[Tony Taylor]

I have done a few jobs in Dragados yard in Spain and stayed in Cadiz while there.
After dinner on an evening I would take a stroll along the magnificent promenade and would always be amazed at the lack of people and also struggled to find a bar on the promenade. Beautiful beach, populated mainly by a handful of old ladies who humped their deck chairs down there each night.
I mentioned this to one of the guys at the yard said that the local government were missing out on big revenue due to the lack of tourists; he said we dont want them, if I travel 50kms down the coast I cant get served unless I am German or English (his words).
That last trip was 2012 so it might have changed by now.

[happy daze john in oz]

Spent some very memorable holidays in the Canary islands but this was my one and only visit to Spain.

Not bad as things go.
We were late arriving at Madrid airport due to late departures from Singapore.
Had to take a later flight to where we were going .
All was fine until we had to go to the local travel agent on return to confirm our flight home.

Having looked at my papers the guy behind the counter said, 'you not here, how you get here'?

Obviously not aware of our late flight he could not find us on the paper work.

It took me over ten minutes convincing him that I am here, you can see me, and attempting to explain about the late flight.
Even when we fixed it all up he was still convinces I was not there.