5 September 2014

Canaries

We have never been to Spain's Canary Islands before but tomorrow afternoon, all being well, we will be on our way there from Birmingham Airport. Specifically we are headed for Gran Canaria - to the very south of the island where the sand dunes shown above are located. They are, we believe,  a stone's throw from our two bedroom apartment.

I have so far used the third person plural "we" deliberately because I shall be visiting Gran Canaria not only with my lovely wife but also our "children" - Ian being thirty years old and Frances twenty five. At first it was just going to be me and Shirley but Frances said she had a spare week's holiday in September and no plans for how to use it so we asked her if she'd like to come along. Then I suggested we also ask Ian whose life in London - with rent, transport and everything means there's very little left over for such niceties as holidays. Of course he said yes. So having imagined that family holidays were over forever, we now find we have got another one on our hands and we are very much looking forward to it as the first signs of autumn are appearing in Merry Olde England.

When we get back to Birmingham we are planning to stay in Frances's new flat in The Jewellery Quarter. I helped to move her in yesterday, returning to Big Yellow Storage for the belongings we had placed there last Sunday. What a brilliant service Big Yellow Storage provide! Clean, professional and transparent and the little unit we reserved was just the job in the labyrinthine corridors of yellow doored units - it was like being in a modern day version of "Alice in Wonderland".

Now if you'll excuse me. Instead of sitting here tapping away I should be up and about, buying euros, packing suitcases, removing the dead rat from the middle of our lawn,  ironing clothes and tidying the garden. I am not sure when or if I will have chance to blog in Gran Canaria so there may be a little gap in this never ending avalanche of words and pictures.

HOUSEMAID'S KNEE UPDATE Thanks for all the cards, gifts and messages of goodwill I have received from bloggers and physicians around the world. I am truly touched but as there have been so many I cannot send out individual messages of gratitude. To Adrian - thanks for the baby osprey - so cute and fluffy but I have had to pass it to the RSPB so that it can be returned to its nest and to Meike thanks for the family sized tub of sauerkraut - very thoughtful. To Bob Brague in Georgia thanks for "Ku Klux Klan - Members Guide" - I shall read it on the beach. The knee is feeling a whole lot better now but I still have a slight involuntary limp and I am nervous about putting weight on it when I go up or down stairs but two weeks in to my physical torment the agony has certainly receded and I hope that before too long I will again be able to plod for miles. I have been missing those long walks and it has been impossible to burn off calories in my usual way so I am feeling rather bloated. Looking forward to plenty of swimming on holiday.
 

21 comments:

  1. You have a great holiday. Hire a car and look at the cave houses. Drive up to Tonto or whatever the big mountain is called. It's a stunning island away from the coast. Save the beach for a swim at night. Las Palmas is a grand city. I have spent lots of time on Gran Canaria as the firm I worked for used to use it for re-fits.
    Four miles from the coast and it is unspoilt. Don't use buses unless you speak very old Spanish. I got stranded by taking a bus and missing it returning. I had to stop for two days in a wee village with only one bar. I can tell you now, I was on my best behaviour.

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    1. Thanks for the tip about the caves Adrian. I shall certainly try to get there if I can find a car rental company that isn't run by crooks and spivs whose sole aim is to bleed tourists dry. I bet you looked sexy in your budgie smugglers down on the beaches of Gran Canaria all those years ago when the world was in black and white.

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  2. You have endeared yourself to me for ever by putting the apostrophe in the right place with "Frances's"! I get really fed up with being the pleural of
    France.

    Have a lovely holiday.

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    1. Forget IS (Islamic State), Vladimir Putin or David Cameron - what we must fight for is the defenceless apostrophe whose widespread abuse is reminiscent of events in Rotherham.

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  3. I love, love, love whole family vacations with my adult children and their mates. We plan them well in advance of a big event (such as somebody's 40th birthday, a graduation from vet school) and whomever is the one the celebration is about gets to pick the place and time. Whether it be Hawaii, Boston, Orca Island..... wherever. We rent a house for all of us well in advance and have a few days of fun, laughter and reunion of the family unit.

    Have a wonderful time, Mr. Pudding and Shirley. Take care of that gimpy appendage.

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    1. This doesn't read right. I was referring to your leg as the gimpy appendage.....not the lovely Shirley!!

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    2. Phew! That's a relief Mama Thyme! I thought you were referring to a third appendage! Thanks for your good wishes and I hope you are feeling better after your health event.

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  4. Excellent news ~ enjoy Family!

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    1. Yeah - Family! They were a great band Carol! Check em out on YouTube.

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  5. I must be psychic - having gotten you a family-size tub of Sauerkraut before the official news of your family holiday appeared here! That will be very tasty to eat on the beach and make for that extra propelling when you go for a swim.

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    1. Extra propelling? Oh I see what you mean Miss Arian! Thwaaaaaaaaaarp! Like a human speedboat!

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  6. Wooohoooo!! Have a fantastic time YP. I will miss you madly.

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    1. I will bring you a large straw donkey back. You can call him Pedro. Pedro? Roberto? Who will win your favour?

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  7. And don't kiss the natives

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  8. Pedro. Definitely Pedro. (Whether you apply this to Molly's or Earl Gray's comment is entirely up to you.)

    By the by, your little joke about the KKK Members Guide (shouldn't that be either KKK Member's Guide or KKK Members' Guide? Frances is watching) is clever, but Internet readers (and especially our U.S. National Security Administration -- who read EVERYTHING -- cannot catch the twinkle in your eye. Please assure our unseen friends in the intelligence community that you are joking. You were joking weren't you? Pudding? Pudding?

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  9. Have a great time with your family.

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  10. I'm sure you will all have a lovely time.

    I hope you enjoyed the basket of tropical fruit I sent you! ;)

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  11. Did canaries originate on that island? If so, do they fly loose there like sparrows at Disneyland?

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  12. We went away at the same time so now that we are back home I'm catching up.

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Mr Pudding welcomes all genuine comments - even those with which he disagrees. However, puerile or abusive comments from anonymous contributors will continue to be given the short shrift they deserve. Any spam comments that get through Google/Blogger defences will also be quickly deleted.

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