Happy days

It’s been an age since I’ve been in so I thought I’d better sign in and post a quick blog. I must say its going be a quickie because I’m not in the mood and I have got loads to do today. The good news is that the food poisoning has finally walked out the door and whilst the weight loss has been fabulous, it will be good to eat again.

As you can tell from Phil’s blogs from Pineda De Mar, our week’s stay in the Costa Brava wasn’t a pleasant one; I’ll go as far to say, that actually, it rates as being one of my top 5 five worst holidays. The food was disgusting, the weather was crap, the wine was almost undrinkable and Pineda de Mar was a dump. Pineda Palace (what a joke this name is) was at first presentable but at closer inspection the only redeemable feature was that it was clean and we had hot water 6 days out of 7. All in all, a f***king nightmare and it goes without saying I will never, ever, return to the Costa Brava. The girls (G&J) were fairly uncomplaining and I did feel sorry for them because there was nothing whatsoever for them to do. Phil was the only one amongst our gang that took any joy from the entertainment, but that’s Phil; believe me it was so dire; self harming would have been more fun.

Even the journey home wasn’t without incident. Girona airport was dull, made even duller with no alcohol due to sickness and sod all to do for three very long hours. Our RyanAir flight was delayed (no surprises there) but amazingly the pilot made up the time in flight and somehow we arrived at our scheduled time. Unfortunately a lady was honking up the whole flight (boy I knew how she felt and that would have been me, had it not been for the orange pills) but anyway, we couldn’t get off the plane until the paramedics had taken her off the plane and only then were the rest of us of us civilians allowed to disembark.

Mercifully, thanks be to god, Phil had paid 20 quid for the Freelander Rover to be delivered to the taxi rank outside departures because it was gone past 10.30 pm by this time. It was bliss for about 10 minutes but we weren’t long driving on the M1 when it was obvious we had a problem with the car. The heating wasn’t kicking in, there was a bad smell and the temperature gage told us the engine was overheating. We limped along the M1 and eventually made it back to the kebab flat sometime after 11pm. Phil dumped me and our bags off and then transferred the ‘girls’ and their luggage into my Ford KA and drove them back to their respective homes in Northampton. It was after 1pm when he got home and even the journey back wasn’t without incident. He got stopped on the slipway in Campbell Park by the police. I thought it was a test for drink driving but he hadn’t touched a drop and apparently they searched the under carriage of the car just like they did when looking for bombs when I lived in Germany. My guess is they were looking for clues relating to the guy that was murdered and dumped in the canal in Campbell Park. Either way, Phil was innocent and with a bad case of ‘deli belly’ he certainly wasn’t in the mood to be stopped! It was very late when we finally hit the sack.

Sunday was a day for me of unpacking, washing and ironing. Phil opened post and laid on the sofa reading the papers. To be honest we both felt unwell and didn’t eat a thing all day. The highlight of the day was watching the grand prix and watching Lewis Hamilton winning the championship; Great race and a case of ‘the boy done good’. He is a true star.

With a heavy heart (and stomach) Phil went back to work on Monday. He wasn’t a happy chappy but needs must and all that. I had to stay in the whole day to wait for the BT router to connect us to the internet and a replacement toilet seat from B&Q. Both arrived before 9am and I am proud to say I had us online before10am. Unfortunately I had to wait in on Weldons, the council contractor to come in and change the lounge radiator. Guess what, the engineer came at 2.30pm and didn’t know how to isolate the water. He huffed and puffed and sighed as most men of a certain age do as and he left with a sigh and hunched shoulders saying “this is an all day job, which must start in the early hours”. Typical council contractors, USELESS. Phil chased them yesterday and we are booked in again for next Tuesday.

I don’t know where this week has gone; washing, ironing, cleaning, cooking, paperwork, replying to email etc etc. Generally just catching up on domestics and applying for jobs. We took the Landrover over to Cowleys in Whaddon and it turns out that the head gasket has gone. More money but it’s gotta be fixed and hopefully we should be able to go and pick it up today. We went to see the James Bond movie on Tuesday night and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I am not a big Bond fan but it was great and I think Daniel Craig is the best James Bond ever. You must go and see it if you have a chance.

Although I have recovered from the holiday and the food poisoning, Phil is still suffering. I told him to swallow the orange pills or otherwise go to the doctors but of course he won't do neither. He has been in a foul mood all week. Not helped that David (our posh plumber) made a bit of a hash of the bathroom whilst we were away and it now looks worse than it did before he started the work. I have to say I feel disappointed especially as he left us to the very last minute which meant he didn’t finish what he was meant to which means that Phil now has to do all the jobs that David didn’t fancy. It seems as if we will never get this flat finished. I'm sure we’ll get there in the end, we always do; I just wish some days, that it would all go to plan.