Have finally got around to uploading some of my holiday pictures to Flickr, and they can all be viewed here.

I now need to sort out the small videos I have of the clown guy.

Hop on over to Gerald’s place, to see some great pictures.

But - not only can you “Ooh” and “Aah” over them online, you can now buy Gerald’s photographs in the form of either greeting cards, or limited prints.

Bargainous!

Well, first there was the unexpected course. Then I got into work Wednesday to an email from Krazy K - I am not in the office today, so I will meet you in the theatre foyer at 7.15, and if you haven’t arrived by 7.30 I will leave your ticket at the ticket office.

Bugger. I had forgotten I was going to the theatre. Oh well, not a big problem, it shouldn’t finish *too* late.

And it wouldn’t have done either, if the fire alarm hadn’t gone off just as the second half was about to begin, and we spent 45 minutes standing outside waiting for the firemen to give us the all clear.

Last night I actually was home, but I watched a bit of telly for a change.

Tonight, as I was leaving work I noticed L, my PA friend had two bags of lavender. “Where did you get those?” “Oh, there’s that food and drink fair on, there is a man selling garden plants, I bought them there.” Damn, had forgotten about this fair too, and I wanted to go see it. “Come on,” says L, “Let’s go over there now and have another look.”

It’s not exactly the BBC Good Food show at the NEC, but it was similar on a much smaller scale. Lots of cheese for tasting, and also some wines and spirits. Some pretty good food for sale too. While L and I were wandering I texted LELI. “Food and drink festival right now, free food and drink, want to come?” I knew he’d enjoy it - and also give me the chance to point out that actually, Britain does have good food, it’s just that most places now don’t sell it.

L left, and then I met up with LELI.

Now, LELI had been telling me earlier how he was going to be very busy this weekend, he’d go home straight from work and study the whole weekend. And nothing was going to change that, he had so much to do, blah blah blah.

I just left him! We spent the whole evening there - and it also shows what a small city it is, because we both saw loads of people we knew - because there’s not much else (new) going on, so everyone is there for the novelty factor.

When it finished at 10, I offered him a lift home, and he declared it was far too early, and we should go for a drink. So we did.

Tomorrow I really need to tidy and clean the house. My suitcase is still lying on the floor in the hall downstairs, I just haven’t got around to emptying it and bringing it upstairs.

Got into work around 10 o’clock yesterday morning, after picking cats up from cattery (the cattery lady went off to fetch the cats - they don’t usually let you go and see them yourself - and I suddenly heard, “Hello? Can you come and help me? One of them doesn’t want to go in their box…..” I pick my way over, gingerly open the door, and there she is with Mister in her arms. He turns at the sound of my voice, and I see his eyes go wide. “Hello darling, what’s the matter, eh?” I take him from the lady, give him a little stroke, and nice as you like he slides straight in his box. “I knew he’d know his Mum,” says the lady. Made me feel all warm inside. Mind you, they both yowled their heads off all the way home in the car, and the way they spent 10 minutes troughing at their bowls - 2 bowls of food each - I am not sure they have eaten at all while I’ve been away. Not that they look like they have lost weight or anything, maybe I just got there before breakfast was served.)

Where was I? Oh yes, work.

First words of ONB were, “Hi, Woman, have a nice holiday. Have you brought your stuff in?” Huh? Stuff? I looked at him like he was a loony. “Ah,” he says, “I thought you might forget we are off on a course tonight.”

Shit.

So, yesterday I spent most of it going through my emails, then going through the outstanding work with ONB (between us we have 15 days worth of work to get done in 5 days). Then off we pootled to Oxfordshire.

And bugger me, there was me thinking I was an expert in what I do (although, to be fair, there is only possibly one other person who knows more about this in our part of the company, so, in my little world I am an expert), but the course today was excellent.

But now I am knackered.

Holiday pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.

All tanned and brown (ish, anyway), with not too many insect bites.

My holiday can be summed up thus -

- breakfast (2 slices melon, crusty bread, ham, cheese, orange juice) at 8 am
- covered in sun cream and insect repellant, head to the pool, where there is just me and some lonely towels - 8.45 am
- sit in shade of tree/big umbrella, moving sunbed every 30 minutes or so to ensure total coverage of shade, reading a little, listening to music on new mp3 player, just not doing very much - until anytime between11 am and 12.30 pm
- jump into pool (time dependent on how many kids with balls were playing in said pool at that time) and swim a few lengths
- sit back on sunbed (after more suitable lathering of sun cream and insect repellant) until swimsuit dry
- head back to room. Dependent on just how hot I am - if it’s too damn hot, switch on air-con and fall asleep (it’s hard work, all this sunbathing), if I am not too hot, then put on ‘normal’ clothes (ie, take off swimsuit, put on underwear)
- when awake/dressed, walk into the town (for walk, read amble)
- wander the streets a little, then head to Tavira Romana, a little cafe at one end of the Roman Bridge, where all the locals seem to hang out
- walk past all the lovely ice-creams on display, head to back of cafe and pantomime to woman behind counter just which one of the hundreds of cakes on display I would like. Ask for a Coke Light to go with it. She pantomimes back I am to go and sit down, she will bring it out.
- I sit in one of the chairs outside, and get my book out of my bag. I place book on table.
- cake appears, along with diet Coke, and also another cake, along the lines of a petit fours, only there is nothing ‘petit’ about it. I never figured out if I got this free for ordering the cake or the drink.
- I eat two cakes, sip diet Coke, watch the world go by for at least an hour.
- pay for cake and drink (5 euros)
- put book (unopened) back in bag
- wander streets a little more
- head back to hotel
- put swimsuit back on, go sit by the pool again
- back to room, get dressed
- head back into town
- eat some fresh fish
- drink some beer/wine
- go back to hotel
- go to bed

There were some slight variations to this - there was a ‘fair’ of some sorts on in the town, some of which was held in the amphitheatre by the Roman Bridge. The sign on the stage implied it began at 9 o’clock, but for two nights I hung around there until 9.30, and there was no sign of anything happening. Then I found a leaflet in the hotel about it, and it seems things don’t start until 10.30. So one night I hung around there to see what happened, and saw this great show of some ‘entertainer’, who juggled fire and did some ball balancing stuff, but whose best feature was the interaction with the audience, and managing to overcome the language barriers - it’s not hard to understand his meaning when he cries out “Papa Noel”, and hugs this guy from the audience with a big white beard several times throughout the show!

Pictures will follow once I’ve done some washing.