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DIARY:
Ruminations, Occasional thoughts &
happenings - as they arise
The Canaries, Holiday Report:
February 2002
Oh Dear! So long since I made an entry.
Been very busy.
Anyway, snatching a moment.
Went on a weeks holiday
to Lanzarote this month - as a kind of a trial, for health reasons (dickey
heart, waiting for an operation to replace a faulty aortic valve}.
But
I should say that I went first to Northumberland, to visit my cousins
Eithne and Deirdre. What right royal treatment! Breakfast in bed,
clothes washed and ironed, trouser leg ends turned up. Lovely
treatment for a guy who lives on his own - all this with a number of fine
dinner parties, sufficient to set up an old chap for the next leg of his
holiday.
I'll make it brief. I have been to a few of the Canary
Islands - Gran Canary, Tenerife and Furtaventura, and quite frankly did
not like them: people cooking in the sun on great lumps of volcanic rock
off the coast of Africa. Not much personality about a burning
rock!
Lanzarote was a bit different. It has a quiet personality of it's
own. Good place for a traditional family holiday, for a rest in the
sun. Playa Blanca is the best place to lodge. Good idea
to have a car (Rent about GB£10 per day. Petrol at 34p per litre
joyously cheap. Why does the UK government soak us with
incredibly high tax? Bad habit I suppose - and we accept it like
sheep being sheared - the odd bleat, nothing else! Shame upon
us!)
TEXT OF AN EMAIL SENT TO FAMILY & FRIENDS
February 2003
Right! My winter 2003 Holiday in Lanzarote!
OK! Let's Start! I'm booked into the Sun Hotel.
Self-catering apartment on the ground floor near the swimming pool, the
heated one, in the seaside town of Playa Blanca, Lanzarote.
Sun pretty well guaranteed for a fortnight, starting Monday 17th Feb away
from Ireland's freezing temperatures, at a cost of £366 - well, no, not
quite, you forget the penalty for being single, add a further £100
because you do not have a wife.
So, £466. Not bad, considering all that sun and the swimming pool,
and a few dozen decent restaurants along the seafront, 10 minutes walk
away.
5 a.m., Monday; scramble out of bed and head off to Belfast
International Airport. arrive there 40 minutes before takeoff and the girl
at the desk says, "Sorry Sir. That flight's closed!'
And so it is, despite various pleadings. A middle-aged couple behind me
are nearly going berserk. They are in the same position - gob smacked at
leaving themselves so late for the plane.
"OK, What's the alternative?" I ask.
Consultations, telephone calls, computer lists, then "Flight from
Manchester to Lanzarote at 3.30 this afternoon."
"OK. Book me on that."
The couple behind me chime in with the same request. It costs me an extra
£50.
"Now," I says, 'What's the next flight to
Manchester."
"Oh ? we don't fly to Manchester from this airport!"
"Yer joking!"
"No, no. You would have to fly out from the City Airport ? 15 miles
distant."
OK. Retrieve car from longterm car parking. Only cost a coupla quid. Hare
off to City Airport with elderly couple and their cases packed into my
small banger. I park in long stay. Jesus! It's going to cast me £42 when
1 get back - and 1 don't fly back to here! 1will arrive back at the
International Airport. Ach well, it's only a minor blip.
Race back to reception and go to British Airways desk. "I need a
flight to Manchester, as soon as you can."
"Flight going out at 12.50," she says - the despatch clerk.
"Arrives Manchester around 2 p.m., provided it takes off at
12.50."
"Right. That's ok, " 1 says. "I've got a connection to make
with Lanzarote plane leaving at 3.30."
"Oh, you'll make that easy," she says.
"Give me a ticket," 1 says. No time to say please.
That will be £131.50," she says.
"WHAT!"
"£131.50. It would have been cheaper if you had booked in
advance...."
"I couldn't …..! Give me a ticket."
I wait in Belfast City, and in due course the plane takes off.
I Land at Manchester, spend a half hour trying to locate the 'My Travel'
desk and eventual stroll up and present my documents.
"Oh. That flight's closed," says another female clerk.
"Yer joking," I says again.
"No, No Sir," she says. "You would have needed to have been
here 15 minutes ago to get aboard. Flight leaves in thirty minutes, at
3.15."
"I was told 3.3O!"
"No ? 3.15. Its there on your ticket." It was. 1 had never
looked, or never seen. It's all true. I've missed another
connection.
"What's the alternative?"
"You could fly to one of the other islands and get a boat to
Lanzarote, if there is one! ?
No? Well, there's another flight to Lanzarote on Thursday!"
"Thursday?! - and this is Monday, in Manchester!"
So that's where 1 am, in sunny Manchester, with the old ship canal frozen
outside the Youth Hostel I stayed in last night, for a modest £19. Only
tomorrow and Wednesday to go and then I might get to Lanzarote. No
guarantee. There were 27 available seats when 1 checked last, but I cannot
book until 24 hours before flight departure, so I might find that by that
date there are none! Ach well, Manchester's a fine city, and I'm meeting
nephew Anthony Kerr and his girlfriend this evening to go on a pub crawl.
Quite different from the drinking session ion I had with Anthony last
night. That was firmly located in the bar that Anthony manages. A special
evening sampling cocktails and drinking Grand Marnier!
Lanzarote? Who needs it?
Sunday 23rd Feb.
All is good. I walk along the beach and the sun shines. Been to Mass. Feel
Holy but wish I had a good woman to express my loving concern for
humanity! Y?need someone to cuddle now and again, don't y?
Ach well, old men with no teeth have little option, unless you have a
few $million, and the wimmin that come flocking then have a name that I
don't wish to use on a Sunday.
Thanks be to God all that travel is over! I have an excellent little
apartment 20 feet from a heated pool, well, heated might be a bit strong,
but at least the chill is taken off the water. Sun shines daily and the
temperature and sunshine is about the same as on a very good summer's day
in Ireland / UK. Only bad thing is that with the exception of Mateus Rose
the only wine on the island is Spanish. Not a drop of French, Australian
or S. American ? and I do not like Spanish wine (especially Lanzarotean -
dry to bitter). Oh for a glass of well chilled Chilean! And I am not too
keen on restaurant food so far. Primitive standard. Am taking to cooking
in my own little apartment (very good microwave etc.) and have stock of
Mateus and quite good Spanish champagne (forgot about this). Will leave
you alone for a while.
Best regards,
Mick
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