Let’s Get The Holiday Snaps Over With

I think I mentioned we were off on our holidays and, as I signed off with ‘hasta la vista’, most of you realised we were going to Spain – unless your Spanish is even worse than mine.

If you’ve managed to get this far after seeing the words ‘holiday snaps’ in the title, well done and thank you for persevering especially as, although I did take my iPad and tried to read my emails occasionally, when I got home, I still had over 400 waiting for me so, if I haven’t commented on your blogs, please forgive me but I did read them all, honest.

We went to Empuriabrava which with nearly 24 kilometers (15 miles) of canals, and 5,000 private jetties is, apparently, the largest residential marina in the world.  It is only about 40 years old so if you want quaint fishing villages or picturesque bays you would need to nip up the road to Roses or Cadaques (which we occasionally did) but it has a fantastic large sandy beach, lots of restaurants and many millionaires’ boats to gawp at so what else do you need on holiday?

We stayed in a villa meant for twelve people – there were only five of us but we booked late!

This was the barbecue provided!!

It stood out like a sore thumb in an otherwise immaculately presented property.  Luckily, we had our own bar – imagine Mr. T’s delight – (I know you can Sheila Sewchet 😉 ) which also housed a chimney and, once the security shutter was up, it looked out onto the pool so was a semi-outdoor barbecue and we were able to cook more than two burgers at a time.

We hired a boat for an hour.  None of us have a Skipper’s licence so we could only go at 3mph around the canals – no sea-faring adventures – which is just as well as I get seasick.

Mr. T, Mlle. T. the elder and her boyfriend went and collected the boat and arrived to pick up me and Mlle T. the younger up at the bottom of the garden.  As you do.

Empuriabrava is also home to Europe’s most famous skydiving school, considered to be among the three best in the world.  They have the equipment (don’t know the name) where you enter a vertical tube with a powerful fan in the floor and it simulates freefalling from an aircraft which we saw people doing practically constantly every day.  Eek!!   I didn’t try it out myself because I was accompanied on my holiday by an enormous infected swelling just underneath my eye which meant I had to wear sunglasses all the time – even at night! – in case I put people off their food.    However, Mr. T., one of my madamoiselles and her boyfriend all had a go – albeit briefly as you pay by the minute!!

We had never met ‘the boyfriend’ before and it was perhaps a bit rash to go on holiday with him for a week but he proved to be a lovely chap and, although I also have photos of  my husband and daughter in the wind tunnel thingy – the one taken of him best expresses the thrill and joy the experience apparently gave them.

 

Just as well they didn’t try it earlier in the week otherwise all our holiday funds would have gone on this one activity!

Anyway, that’s the holiday photos over with – you certainly wouldn’t want to see any of me and my eye.

Just before we left, I decided to make more practical use of the space in my workroom.  I asked the Depot-Vente down the road if they wanted to try to sell my big, lovely oak cupboard and, even though they take 30% of the sale, she said she didn’t want it as it was not ‘à la mode’ and why didn’t I paint it.   I had to laugh as the place is full of crap and I can’t imagine that much of it is ‘à la mode’ but I didn’t really want to paint it the ubiquitous chalky grey that is trendy at the moment, firstly because it’s oak and quite old and it seems a shame and, secondly and more to the point, there are gazillions of carved pieces and twisty turny bits which would be a complete pain in the arse to paint.

So, we manhandled it down two flights of twisty stairs and gave it – sort of on loan so that no money had to change hands – to some friends of ours who have a holiday home here.

I replaced the object of beauty (or not depending on your taste) with some ‘à la mode’ stuff from Ikea which is definitely not beautiful but is eminently more practical.

It looks so ‘fit for purpose’ now I feel as if I should be running classes or holding crafty ‘get togethers’ but, if nothing else, it should encourage me to get a move on with all the projects I have in hand so that, next post, I should be able to show you some finished work.