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Hi
I can’t believe that its November already and for the last two days the weather has been cold and grey – winter has arrived in Majorca and Hugh is feeling the cold!
October was a very sociable month and if I continue drinking at that rate for the winter I’ll be an alcoholic by Christmas. Sadly, but thankfully for my liver, Andre and Helen have gone home to gainful employment in Holland.
My Mum and Dad came out with my nephew Colin for 10 days while Hugh returned to the UK. We had a great time exploring the island by car and doing the tourist bit. The weather was great, a bit windy at times, but sunny every day and not too hot for walking around. Colin caught a couple of ‘huge’ fish from the boat, then set them free again with some help from Hugh and my Dad. Before Hugh left for Scotland, we did a day sail up to Sant Elm in lovely quiet conditions. We saw dolphins at Dragonera and as it was hot, we planned to go swimming in the bay. Unfortunately October seems to be when all the jellyfish visit Majorca and the bay was just teeming with them. We had lunch then started to head back to Port Andraitx watching some large black clouds gathering ahead of us. By the time we reached the entrance to the bay, the visibility was almost zero, as if we had sailed into a cloud and the rain started. We all shot below stranding Hugh out on the helm (we gave him his jacket!). The rain was unbelievably heavy until we berthed, then it stopped and the sun came out. We couldn’t have timed it better.
We drove up to Andraitx town to visit the market and after three circuits of the town managed to find somewhere to park the car. I couldn’t believe how busy it was so late in the season, but there were some good bargains to be had and a lot of very high pressure selling going on. I almost walked away with a bargain leather jacket that I didn’t even know I wanted! But my Dad put the experience to good use to buy a smart leather waistcoat that he did want at a bargain price.
We visited Marineland and got soaked! I’m not a fan of these places, it feels all wrong to go looking at large mammals such as dolphins and sea lions in such small enclosures, but they are apparently all bred in captivity these days and in the performances they really seemed to enjoy themselves doing amazing tricks. It must be fun to work with them, so long as you can get used to the smell of fish.
Colin went karting at the outdoor track in Magalluf, unfortunately, he was restricted to the junior carts at 40km/h when he really wanted on the adult track at 90km/h but he sped round anyway trying to drift the corners and avoid pile ups with the other mad road users. A few days later we hired one of the powered “dodgem” boats at Santa Ponca and I drew the short straw to accompany him on that adventure. Actually the biggest danger was the jellyfish both from being stung as you got into or out of the boat and from sucking the little blighters up into the water-cooling system. We also made the mistake of driving into Magalluf, the place is impossible to get out of. We must have driven every street at least twice looking for some road sign clues to getr out. Luckily we weren’t in the busy season.
Another day, we drove up to Soller and had a really lovely day wandering around the town and taking the tram trip down to Port Soller. We also had a shopping day, that was a bit frustrating apart from our trip to the Olive wood factory in Manacor, where my Dad managed to buy a large heavy piece of olive wood to take home. – Whose luggage was that going into Dad?
Hector has decided he wants to star in his own version of the great escape and started his attempts while my folks were on board. His first attempt got him 5 boats away albeit in the direction of land – so he is not completely stupid. I had to clamber over them all to get him back, which is bad news as it is generally considered bad form to go climbing over other people’s boats uninvited. Hugh returned and we fitted up a lot more netting to try and keep him in, so he then turned his attention to the gang plank. This is a long plank of wood like a horizontal ladder but with the rungs full of holes and for the last two years he has studied it but never tried to use it. He mastered it first time last week and was off again. More netting strung across the boat. Finally a couple of nights ago we had a few friends over for dinner. Hector was up on deck, the first course was in the oven, suddenly no Hector! Cancel dinner; everyone out looking for him, he was on the motorboat next door having wormed his way under the netting and then under the tarpaulin boat cover. When I went over to get him he shot inside the boat cockpit and was posing on a large white leather sofa when I finally got to him. The problem is that I am now coming home for 10 days and Hugh has the job of keeping Hector Houdini safe for that period – odds anyone?
Looking forward to seeing everyone when I’m back
Anne
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