Category: A Walk

Sunbathing and Paella – 22 February 2023

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We sunbathed all morning and I finished my book about a murder set in Kinlochleven 30 years in the future in a snowstorm. Not at all like Tenerife.

In the afternoon we watched part of the animacion team and one chef making an enormous paella. Unfortunately there were loads of clams and mussels in it, so no use for me. We walked down to the front and eventually found the restaurant of a wee man we’d passed on Friday. He was trying desperately to get us to buy a drink in his restaurant, but we were on a mission that day and promised we’d come back. Eventually we found him and we had that drink. Mine was a Mojito and Scamp found a new kind of Rum. Captain Morgan’s Black Rum is now her best favourite. It’s got an old fashioned caramel or treacle flavour to it. Her Rum & Coke looked and tasted better than my Mojito. We kept ourselves entertained by the antics of the wee owner.

Back at the hotel there was some music we danced to for a while, spoke to a few people we’d nodded to in passing and went back to the room to finish the packing we’d started in the morning.

PoD was a photo of the paella cooking class.

Sat on the balcony later and had a fairly strong G ’n’ T and went to bed.

Homeward bound tomorrow.

The Pianist – 21 February 2023

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Sunbathing in the morning, all morning.

Walked down to the front after lunch and turned right.

Walked almost out to the paragliders landing area because Scamp’s ankle is improving and it’s a good level path for most of the way.

Just to contradict what I said about the weather here, this afternoon was lovely with white clouds in a blue sky and sunshine. We sat for a while watching the waves crashing and I managed some moody landscape shots. I also got a PoD which was an almost silhouetted group of folk walking along the path between palm trees.

In the evening the entertainment was a pianist and we feared the worst, the return of the disinterested woman. However we were pleasantly surprised to see a well dressed man, Rafael Montalvo who started with Einaudi and continued through the Beatles and Queen and had me in tears with his version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah. When he was finished, Scamp went and told to him how much we had enjoyed his recital.

Another evening discussing the day on the balcony with another G&T

 

Swimming – 20 February 2023

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Today I was going swimming in the cool upstairs pool.

Not cool as in fashionable, but cool as in not very warm. The upstairs pool on level 5 of the hotel is a long narrow strip of unheated water. The last time we were at the Jacaranda an Italian man told me to take a cold shower before entering the pool because I wouldn’t feel the water so cold then. I remember that it worked. Today I was ready for the shock of the cold water from the shower, but the water in the pool was still a shock to my system. Two lengths of the channel was quite enough for me. It was refreshing, but I was glad to warm up on the sun bed, in the sun.

After lunch we walked down to the front and photographed some flowers. We stopped in at The Pantry for a Barraquito on the way back

There is s definite weather theme on Tenerife:
Clear sky and sun in the morning.
Cloudy just after midday and that cloud doesn’t clear until around 6pm.
Around 6pm the cloud clears and the sun shines for an hour or so.

In the evening in the Piano Bar we sat listening to a guy singing. Quite a decent singer, just nothing we could dance to. Watched a family group of four playing chess. They played every night, rotating round so eveyone got a game.

Eventually we retired to the balcony with G&Ts to keep us company.

PoD was a Hibiscus flower.

Walking with the crowds – 18 February 2023

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After sitting in the sun in the morning we walked down steps to the coastal walk and went left.

It was a bit dull today as the PoD shows. It seems that in the morning the sky is clear and the sun shines, but in the afternoon the clouds roll down from the mountains and it all gets a bit tricky. Later in the afternoon, as the sun is sinking, the clouds clear away again. That’s been the general run of weather so far.

We walked, with everyone else it seemed, as far as Puerto Colon which probably sounds good in Spanish, but has a different meaning in English! We were looking for somewhere to have a quiet lunch with no football on a giant tv. We both agreed on a pizza for lunch. Lots of restaurants and cafes with photos of pizzas, but were any of them capable of making a decent one? Eventually we found what looked like an authentic Italian restaurant called Amalfi which had a sea view but no TV, and we both had a pizza. Scamp had margarita and I had anchovy and olive. Scamp said her pizza had too much cheese, but mine was perfect with a good base and plenty of salty anchovies. We took our time walking back to relieve the pressure on Scamp’s knee and also just to enjoy the place.

We danced tonight to brilliant singer, Beatriz Lopez, who brought along her fan club. Where we’d been dancing with about three or four couples for the past few days, tonight there were about three times that, mostly women, but some men too. I could understand why, because she was charismatic and could follow the mood of the room and work with that. Unlike yesterday’s ‘entertainer’

 

 

Fifty years – 17 February 2023

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Fifty years ago we got married in a wee church in Shettleston in the east end of Glasgow. After the service we went back to Scamp’s mum and dad’s with a few friends and relatives for a Co-op purvey.

I hope you’re sitting comfortably because this is a long blog post!

Today we were blessed with sunshine. After we opened the cards we’d brought with us and had breakfast, we went for a walk. We walked down the slope to the coastal path and turned right. This would take us away from the commercial areas and out to pastures new, an area we hadn’t walked to before.

Scamp was feeling the after effects of yesterday’s longer than required stroll in the other direction and her knee was beginning to give her gyp, so we took it easy on today’s walk. Thankfully I was better dressed today with my baseball cap to protect my head and I’d remembered to put sun cream on before we left the hotel.

We walked for a fair distance out past the viewpoint for the blowhole where, if the tide is right, the incoming waves fill a hole in the rocks and blow up out of a fissure above. Quite impressive if you’re there at the right time. The tide wasn’t far enough in today, unfortunately. Further on we crossed a dried up river bed that’s now home to a host of balancing stone monuments, thousands of them. Then we found a viewpoint near the beach where the paraglider come in to land. That’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s a five frame panorama built in Lightroom to give a really wide view of the mountains and the hotels around here.

We decided to walk back and found a cafe that had some shade and a young bloke took about half an hour to make us a jug of sangria. He was working alone and was having a hard time keeping everybody refilled. The sangria was really good. Freshly made and full of fruit.

Then we met The Man from Salzburg. Scamp wanted to have lunch at a wee restaurant we’d eaten at the last time we were here, and was partly the reason for our walk today. There was queue and we waited patiently (impatiently for me) for a table to become free. Eventually one of the waiters pointed to a table and told us to go there. But there weren’t any empty tables where he pointed. Then the bloke who was smiling at us from a table waved us over. It seems that he was happy to have someone else to talk to while he finished his Barraquito (like a Cortado, but with added condensed milk and Liquor 43). He seemed a happy bloke and when we told him we were from Scotland he explained that he’d travelled all over Scotland on holiday. The only thing he didn’t seem to like was haggis after someone had told him what was in it! He said that he was from Saltzburg in Austria and was on holiday in Tenerife for four weeks. He scoffed at our one week and said “That’s not enough!” After a while he said he had to go and left us to our lunch which was a Chicken Milanese for Scamp and Thai Chicken Curry for me. Service was slow at this restaurant too, but we weren’t in a hurry. When we left we passed the table over to another man, German this time. It’s a strange way to run a cafe.

We were walking back towards the hotel when we noticed the paraglider were all coming off the mountain and we turned round and found a place to watch them land. Some of the landings were a bit clumsy and some were downright scary. Then there were the tandems where the poor person in front had to bicycle his or her legs to keep from falling when they landed on the rough sand of the beach. £100 for a flight!

Back at the hotel, it was ’School Dinners Food’. Not one of their best days. But we did have our photos taken by the one of the hotel resident photographers who would have taken more photos today if we’d let her, than we had taken at our wedding, fifty years ago! We chose a small selection from the ones she took.

We listened to the worst singer ever in the Piano Bar. He was playing guitar and ‘singing’. However, it was when he attempted to ‘sing’ What A Wonderful World while mimicking Louis Armstrong. That was creepily awful and, that’s when we left. I think he went to the Billy Connolly school of music where he lampooned country and western singers. The difference was this bloke was serious. We played Rummikub in a different area of the piano bar.

We’re sitting on the balcony of the room now drinking G&Ts and reviewing the day.

My Fitbit says 17,900 steps, 8.05 miles, 153 floors.

 

5.05am wake up call – 16 February 2023

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Today it was a quick cup of tea and then off.

The bags were packed yesterday which only left a morning drive to Glasgow Airport and the usual nail biting passage through security, although this time an organised approach and copious amounts of Tesco’s finest clear resealable plastic bags made light work of getting through unscathed.

The usual overpriced breakfast in Frankie and Benny’s and it was almost time to fly through the air in an armchair in an aluminium tube for four hours, listening to three tubes in front of us on their way to a 60th party bash. Thankfully they weren’t going to our hotel.

After we landed we had the mile long walk through the labyrinth to be inspected by the polis and have our passport stamped then the interminable wait for bags before we walked out into the sunshine and the heat. Clever Scamp had organised a personal transfer to the hotel rather than sitting in a bus that took another hour or so to drop off passengers at their hotels. Been there, did that, didn’t enjoy it one little bit. Paying the extra was worth every penny. Our driver came from Cuba and was happy to recommend the best Salsa club to go to in Tenerife. He seemed a genuinely nice bloke and reminded me of the constable in Death in Paradise. Must have been the accent.
Booked in at the hotel, but our room wouldn’t be ready for another half and hour, so we had lunch and our first Holiday Beer.

Once we got rid of the cases and got changed into tee shirt and shorts we went for a walk in the sunshine. We walked down to the front and turned left past all the cafes and restaurants. It looked fairly familiar, although bits of it had changed and there was a lot of new accommodation everywhere. We walked for miles and I foolishly hadn’t brought a hat. A lesson learned.

After dinner we went to see what entertainment was available. We danced an embarrassingly bad salsa. Don’t drink and dance – it’s not a good image. We quickly decided to stick to soft drinks for a while and sobered up enough to dance much better, later. The girl singer was good and there were quite a few people dancing.

What they call ‘local spirits’ in the hotel are free to all inclusive guests , but are just not worth drinking. We agreed we’d buy a bottle for the room tomorrow.

PoD was a shot of Adeje, looking back from Puerto Colon.

Fairly early bed, after a long day.

Busy, busy, busy – 15 February 2023

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Today was just BUSY. It wasn’t the brightest day we’ve had, but there was a lot to do in the house.

Scamp was out in the morning to get her meds and I was busy putting the list of clothes into the big bag and the list of tech in the slightly smaller bag. By lunchtime it was almost done and we settled down to hear what Nick the Chick had to say about SNP and Resignation.

I truly wasn’t expecting that. Neither was Fred, I think. Not one WhatsApp message, photo or dodgy video making fun of her. Nothing. It was that kind of shock. Probably months down the line there will come a revelation that will partly explain the machinations behind her decision to step down as First Minister. For all her faults, she saw the country through two years of Covid and I have to commend her for that. At times we thought she was being too cautious, but better safe than sorry. So, who’s going to take her place? There doesn’t seem to be a rush to pick up that poisoned chalice!

In the afternoon I took a walk in St Mo’s, partly to clear my head and partly to see if the big digger that had been parked there (not in my head) had done anything useful. Well, it had … sort of. Two ponds that act as overspill areas for the main pond had been partly cleared of weed and some of the verges of the main pond had been cleared. Other than that, not a lot. Was that it, or was that just the groundwork for something more major coming soon? Who knows with NLC.

I took a few photos, but nothing interesting, however, on the way home I got today’s PoD which is a trio of swings in the playpark. I think it was one of the photos Alex took at Culross that sparked my imagination. My shot wasn’t quite as good as his, but it was a reasonable PoD.

Finished this morning’s good work and I think everything is where it should be now. No time for a sketch today, but I’ll try to catch up in the coming week.

Early rise tomorrow.

 

Still recovering from yesterday – 12 February 2023

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It’s Sunday. It’s ok to lounge about on a Sunday.

Basically that’s what we did. We lounged about the living room. We watched Laura Kuenssberg savage another politician and when they’d dragged his bleeding body away, it was lunch time. We had two rolls left over from yesterday’s lunch, so that’s what we had. Scamp had an Omelette on a roll and I had Bacon ’n’ Egg on a roll. Neither of them looked very appetising, but that’s not the point. The point is to use up what’s in the fridge and that’s what we did. Actually mine was really good and I didn’t hear any complaints from Scamp.

In the afternoon Scamp walked down to the shops to get some bits and pieces for tonight’s dinner which was to be Fennel with Cod and Prawns. Another case of using up what’s in the fridge and freezer. Fennel from the fridge, Cod and Prawns from the freezer. Every little helps.

When she came back, I went out for a walk in St Mo’s. It was lighter than I thought outside and the reason was the clouds ,that seem always to be there these days, were just that little bit higher. High pressure is in charge according to the weather fairies. Buds were bursting in the trees and I did photograph some, but it was a splash of bright yellow lichen on a park bench that got Pod. In case you’re interested, it was a Xanthoria parietina. The strange thing about it was that the park bench was made entirely from recycled plastic. I wonder where the lichen gets its nutrients from. I know that some lichen have been known to digest plastic, but not this common and garden variety. Unless it’s learning! Thoughts of “The Trouble With Lichen (John Wyndham) spring to mind. Anyway, that was a bright splash of colour that got PoD.

Spoke to Jamie later had heard that Simonne is halfway on her trip to Japan. Stopover in Kuwait and onward and eastward tomorrow. We talked a while about meet-ups in the spring. Where and when are not agreed yet and will need all three parts of the family to agree on dates and place. I meant to tell you Jamie that I’ve signed myself up to Audible today. Two free books for the first month. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Today’s prompt was The Graduate. The Graduate is one of the films I have seen a few times. I liked the music and I liked his sports car. I wasn’t enthralled by the story, but everyone said you had to go and watch it because of ‘the scenes’. I preferred to watch ‘the scenes’ of Dustin Hoffman driving that red Alfa Spider across the bridge and thinking “one day, maybe …”

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to see Andrew in Falkirk, but we’ll be going in a blue car.

 

Dancin’ workout – 11 February 2023

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Today was a dancin’ day and no mistake. No respite either!

The warmup today was a the Cameron Quickstep. That’s almost half a circuit of the floor, even before the teachers begin to make additions. Apparently it’s really a sequence dance! I can’t see many Tea Dancers doing this one without a defibrillator nearby. We tried it slow – a walk through and it was achievable. Then the teachers turned the music on and it was chaos. What comes next?? Is it the Zig Zag or is it the Chair? Nobody seemed to know or care. It was that old joke, all the moves were there, just not in the right order. Eventually, and I mean eventually we worked out where we were, what comes next and where we were meant to be. After half an hour we were exhausted, well, at least I was. I had to have a wee sit down to get my breathing back to normal.

We left the quickstep behind and did a wee relaxing Bossa Nova to cool us down before we entered the next 30min class on Foxtrot. I thought we had this in the bag, but it was in the wrong bag, not the one I’d brought. After some corrections from Jane and then Stewart, we began to find the dance we’d practised for a couple of turns round the living room. The living room Foxtrot bore some resemblance to the Brookfield (big hall) version, but only an expert could see it. Again, eventually, we managed to put all the pieces together and it began to sort of flow.

Another break and it was time for the third half hour which would be Tango. We can do a fairly representative tango, but then the teachers decided to add in another part that was new to us. It wasn’t difficult, in fact it was similar to another part of the routine and that’s what made it difficult. It was similar, but not the same, possibly too similar. In time we’ll either work it in properly or erase it from our memory – probably the latter.

Just to keep our heart rate up it was a couple of Midnight Jives to finish. I’m not sure whether that was a dance class or a workout. It was good and we learned a lot, but I was exhausted by the time we were walking out into the drizzly rain.

Drove home again via the M8/M74 route and stopped for rolls and a Danish pastry at the shops on the way home. I was so knackered, I went for a 45min snooze in the afternoon. By then it was dinner time and we’d agreed on a fish supper each for dinner. I walked to Condorrat and was back in about 15 mins. Record time. On the way there in the gathering gloom I got today’s PoD which was taken in the Adventure Playground in the park on the path to Condorrat. Lurking around in a kids playpark after dark! That sounds dodgy, but I love these rough cut balancing toys they look so graphic.

Today’s prompt was The Big Blue. Not only had I not seen this film, I’d never even heard of it. The only Big Blue I was aware of was IBM! However, I went with the flow (no pun intended) and watched the previews on YouTube. Still it meant very little to me.
The deepest I’ve dived, personally, was 2m in the swimming pool at Butlins, or was it Pontins? I can’t remember. But I do remember it didn’t give me the urge to go any deeper. However, I do remember you needed flippers, and a mask better than the ones you got in Woolworths, so that’s what I’ve sketched and painted today. I like the mask. It’s quite manic looking. Like a Japanese Daruma with both eyes painted in!

Tomorrow we may be resting our weary limbs. We might walk to the shops if we can summon the energy!

Good Dancin’ – 9 February 2023

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We drove to Glenburn today to get some dancin’ done.

We were driving in bright sunshine today. I could have been photographing things instead of driving through roadworks to get to two hours of dancing, but hopefully there would be sunshine when we got home, providing we got back before sunset!

We were a bit late getting to the hall, but we weren’t the only ones. Actually we danced well today. Quickstep was our star turn. We managed to finish one full set and continue on to the next which is a bit step forward for me. Scamp was guiding, of course, gently reminding me what was coming next and it helped build the picture of the routine in my head. That may sound strange, probably it is, but it’s the way my brain works. We’d practised the Waltz in the morning. Just a short dance round the living room, but very useful for keeping the steps alive for me.

As usual we left the hall early in the hopes that we’d be able to avoid the crowds of school kids and also the inevitable roadworks, but for once there were no gangs of school weans and even more surprising, we seemed to avoid the roadworks. We went with the M77/M74 route and it worked a treat. Yes!, we did get back before sunset and Yes!, there was still sunshine. Not a lot, I grant you, but enough photons were flying about to allow me to capture them on whatever magic flypaper is in the back of the A6000. Today’s PoD was a couple of catkins hanging from a tree in St Mo’s.

Today’s prompt was White Nights. I watched a bit of the film, couldn’t make head nor tail of any of it, so did a bit of alphabetical “jiggery pokery”. That’s a technical term that would take too long to explain.
Basically, I took the trailing ‘s’ from the title, then found an almost brand new ‘K’ in my pocket, so I added it to the start. “Fair exchange is no robbery”, they say. So here I present to you my interpretation of White Knight. Simples!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to her FitSteps class and I’m hoping put some ‘scintillating stitches’ in my jeans to prevent a little tear becoming a big rip!