Just returned from a very lazy week in sunny Tenerife and even I can’t do a daily blog of my holiday when the most it would involve would be “get up…have breakfast….have a bit more breakfast…grab a sunbed….lie in the sun….turn over….turn over again….have lunch….lie down again….dip toe in pool….remove toe as pool freezing…lie down again….shower….dinner….lie down again”
Having said that, there are some moments that might be worth sharing so I’ll start typing and just see where it goes!
Peter Kay on the plane.
Well not really but the spitting image of his creation, Geraldine McQueen, the Irish winner of his spoof “Britain’s Got the Pop Factor”…., along with her parents and grandparents.
“There’s not much leg-room” they complain, when unfortunately it wasn’t the length of their legs that made sitting in the tiny seats somewhat problematic. But I have to smile when the stewardess announces there are some Mars Bar ice creams available for purchase but in short supply. Oblivious to the hordes of little children waiting expectantly in the rows behind, the whole McQueen family help themselves and slurp away, loosening their belts a tad more.
Arrival at hotel
Hotel La Plantacion del Sur, in the resort of Costa Adeje, is one hell of a classy place so I have to pretend like I belong. Very nice receptionist cheers our son up when she announces that the hotel has an internet room with free access. Of German nationality, she struggles a little with her English, but says to our teenager that he shouldn’t spend all day in the room, but should get some sun as he has “a cheesy face”. Surprisingly our son finds this very funny but the poor girl realises her error and we try to think what the English equivalent must be for a pale complexion…pasty maybe, though he does look a little like a wedge of Wensleydale I have to admit. So Cheesy Boy it is for the rest of the week, though he came home looking rather more of a mild cheddar with Babybel cheeks.
Once a Scotsman…
Lovely room but no tea and coffee making facilities and therefore no complimentary biscuits. The packet of Pringles is half the price of the ones in our hotel in Nice, however, but still not cheap enough to tempt us. There is, however, a free bottle of wine in the room which we naturally drink before going down to dinner so that we can get by with only ordering a bottle of water during the evening meal. But even my Edinburgh-born husband is highly amused by the Scottish couple at the next table who ask if they could order water by the glass!
The next morning, Hubby does his hunter-gatherer thing again and, counting the pennies too, decides to get up early to hike a mile to the nearest Netto to get provisions for lunch. Returning heavy-laden with bread, ham and butter he gamely chucks stuff out of the mini-bar to make room for our frugal lunch. He is absolutely exhausted as the hotel is on the top of a steep hill, but his little face at lunch-time, providing for his family by trying to butter a baguette with an attachment from his Swiss Army knife, well it’s quite touching really….Later that evening, San Miguel beer in hand, we talk on the balcony about holidays in the past and some of the flea-pits we’d been in when we were hard-up.
“Do you remember that place in Majorca?”, Hubby reminisces, “we used to get stuff from the local supermarket and I had to slice the baguettes open with my pen-knife………….. !
Plus ca change…
April 2009
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