Despite having all that meat sloshing around in my delicate tummy, I slept well - safe in the knowledge that I had captured most of the blog content for yesterday before switching-off the light, safe in the knowledge that my #2 position in the Duolingo Obsidian League is secure and not overly worried about getting stuck here in Mallorca, as the State of Emergency starts to take effect.
I wake at about 06:30 (normal time for me) and read another few chapters of Laidlaw - that’s over 200 pages now, something of a record for me on holiday since I started to blog / duolinger most of my waking hours.
Madam eventually stirs beside me and we are up and ready for breakfast by 07:40 - the place is more or less deserted at this time of day, before the golfers emerge from their beds and tuck-in before their battle with the course. If there is a downside, it is that I’m trying to be restrained today; not so much because my weight has yo-yo’ed back up by 2 Kgs, but because I want to leave a little room for lunch - paella!
Wardrobe Malfunction
Today is set to be another 20 degrees Celsius plus day here in Mallorca & Sandra and I reflect that apart from the wind, this has probably been the best weather that we’ve experienced at this time of year - 4 / 5 days solid now of 20+ degrees - lovely jubbly!
The problem is that we have not really brought much of a Summer wardrobe and are running short of t-shirts. Despite having spent at least three weeks since we were in Dorset last month, Sandra confides that she hasn’t really brought the right clothes for this climate - and no, this wasn’t one of her subtle hints to pop into Palma later for some retail therapy - it’s too late in the holiday for that.
Even the nights have been relatively warm, with no need to rug-up with scarves and hats against the evening chill. Unheard of for her, Sandra asked me to turn-on the air-conditioning in the room last night, when she woke up feeling hot. Don’t worry, she doesn’t have a temperature - I have to say, it was quite ‘cosy’.
Whether it is global warming or not, I couldn’t say, but next year when we bring more complete Summer wardrobe, you can bet that it will be freezing - I even recall waking-up, opening the curtains and seeing snow fall one morning in 2010!
We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place
Sandra & I recently watched a Sky Arts documentary about Eric Burton, the Geordie lead singer of the Animals; famous for his vocal on House of the Rising Sun and for allegedly being the ‘eggman’ in John Lennon’s Magical Mystery Tour lyric.
It was fascinating to hear how the band broke-up when Eric, Chas Chandler and the other two members realised that all of the song-writing royalties for their global hit were attributed to keyboard player, Alan Price, who refused the cut them in. Chandler went on to fame and fortune managing Jimi Hendrix, Eric went off to California to become a hippy, where he still lives in the desert at Joshua Tree, touring occasionally and still belting out the old tunes, before returning to the North-East to seek sanctuary in Lindisfarne - as if the Mojave Desert wasn’t remote enough.
My reason for mentioning all of this is to add context to another of the Animals hit records, We’ve Gotta Get Out of This Place (if it’s the last thing we ever do). The local news about Spain’s State of Emergency is that the lockdown is progressively taking hold.
We learn later in the day that Jet2 has cancelled all of its flights to and from Spain, even turning back flights mid-air - just as well we’re flying easyJet, whose App continues to show our flight as being ‘on schedule’.
I WhatsApp Dudley, our taxi driver to tell him that all things being equal, we’ll see him tomorrow.
R&R
Sandra & I agree that we’ll let our breakfast digest for an hour or so, before heading into Palma on the 10:30 bus, well ahead of schedule for our 13:00 lunch reservation at Ca n’Eduardo.
She nips out onto the room balcony to catch the morning sun and read her book, whilst I consolidate my position in the Obsidian League, by racking-up another 220Xps, converting another 11 modules from Level 2 to Level 3 without too much difficulty, apart from struggling with the Duolingo technology, which doesn’t work well over the hotel’s wifi, which still seems much slower than I remember in previous years.
And then it’d down to Recepcion by 10:15, where we chat to Ramon / Jose Francesco before wandering down to the bus stop to await the #7 bus into Palma.
We’re sitting on the wall outside the hotel gate, when the bus comes up the hill around the corner and goes sailing by without the customary stop for the driver to go and have a pee in the bushes across the road - what the hell!
So, rather than waste another hour waiting for the next one, we hail a taxi who has just dropped someone off at the hotel and ride in comfort down into the City Centre, where he drops us at the top of the Passeig de Born.
It’s a short stroll down to the seafront Passeig Maritim, where we are intent on a leisurely stroll along the promenade to Portixol.
Exercise
Since ruining my 300+ day streak last week, I must admit that I’ve become somewhat relaxed about the Apple Watch reminders, reminding me that I’ve missed the odd exercise target, reversed my trends and whatever other metrics Apple thinks it can use to rule my life.
It hasn’t worried me one iota whilst I was feeling less than 100%, these last few days, but today I am at about 90% of my peak, and intent on working out some of my frustrations. Sandra is my willing companion.
And so we stride out, eventually reaching Portixol, where we ate fish on Monday night, a lovely walk amongst many other like-minded people, walking, running, skating, scootering, cycling - all intent on burning a few calories on this bright sunny day.
After about 50 minutes we reach Portixol; we’ve covered about 3.75 Kms, it’s getting on for midday, and we must turn tail and head back to the City Centre / Port, where our restaurant is located above the Fisherman’s Market.
Ca n’Eduardo
We climb the steps to the restaurante above the fish market, on the stroke of 13:00..........to find that the place is deserted.
Johnny, an Irishman, who is now running this place, explains that whereas it would normally be heaving with locals and tourists alike on a Saturday lunchtime, the States of Emergency has hit trade badly. He goes on to say that he knows Castillo Son Vida very well and a lot of the long-standing staff, as until a few years back he used to work in the kitchen as a chef - small world!
The waiter comes over to take our order and being creatures of habit, we know what we’d like and resist his suggestions of fresh fish and a nice white wine from Northern Spain, explaining that we’ve eaten here many times before and know exactly what we’d like to eat and drink.
And so, we proceed to order calamari to start, followed by a mixed paella, with a bottle of white Mallorquin wine that I’ve been tempted to try elsewhere this last 12 days, Can Axartell, another malvasia blend, this time with Premsal Blanc grapes from Pollenca.
The food was delicious, the service attentive (not surprising, as there was only ourselves and three other tables occupied) and for the first time, we failed to clear our plates. My excuse was that I didn’t want to over-burden my recovering digestive system with too much rich food ahead of our flight tomorrow........maybe.
Sandra had quite another, ulterior, motive.
Ghost Town
The lyrics of the Specials’ two-tone record of the year for 1981 resonated in my mind as we headed back towards the old town of Palma:-
🎶 This town (town) is coming like a ghost town, All the clubs have been closed down 🎶
An enterprising merchant in one of the newspaper / bookseller kiosks on the Rambla is even optimistic that he might finally dispose of an old Robin Cook paperback - strategically positioning a battered copy of Pandemic visibly in the rack (I recall reading this book back in the day - about a virus outbreak, but its very relevant at this time).
Streets that would normally be heaving with people are eerily quiet as we head for Hotel Mama in Placa Cort - Mrs Shaw has left a little bit of space for a coffee and final slice of torta de almendra!
The waitress comes over to our table and proceeds to spray the table after the previous occupants had upped and left - part of the new health and safety measures imposed by the State of Emergency no doubt. I raise a smile when I lift my feet and have her spray my feet and Birkenstocks as well as the table top!
An even bigger smile crosses her face, when I order by showing the photograph of the receipt from Cappucciono the other day, explaining that Sandra likes her coffee muy muy muy muy hot!
It duly arrives, with a nice slice of cake, and then it’s off to look for a taxi back to the hotel, where we have a language lesson waiting, but not before a wholly unexpected event.
Noticing that it is 15:50, and we are at the top of the Passeig del Born, I suggest to Sandra that we wait and see if for once we can catch the bus back to Son Vida, and make-up for the earlier disappointment.
Imagine our surprise when not only does the #7 Son Vida bus come round the corner, but the driver refuses my offer of €5 for our two €2 fares to Son Vida - we subsequently discover from Mathew that part of the new coronavirus countermeasures decree is that Bus Drivers are forbidden from accepting cash / money!
I head back to the room wondering if the same applies to hotels, with my account to settle before we leave in the morning, but then recall that Davinia took an imprint of my credit card when we checked-in - shucks!
Language Lessons
No, not Duolingo, but our one-to-one sessions in the Bar Armas, where Jose Antonio seems impressed when we tell where we’ve eaten for lunch - Comemos almuerzo hoy en Palma, a Ca n’Eduardo - paella!
Then Antonio brings our drinks out onto the Balcony of Mallorca, where Sandra enjoys the last of the afternoon sun in one of her favourite places, wondering to herself when (if?!) we’ll next return.
The ultimo cava / cerveza grande go down very nicely and then its back to the room for the worst part of any holiday - packing! But at least, I am not distracted from having to watch 6 Nations rugby as invariably has been the case in previous years - usually involving an anti-climax from England these last few years.
Photography
Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t succumbed to the cult of the selfie in these pages - I just don’t feel the need to include my ugly mug in the picture, spoiling what to me is a better picture of what I see in front of me (ideally without anyone cluttering up the image).
Occasionally, when Sandra might remember to put her own iphone into her bag when we go out somewhere for the day, she might just bring it out sneakily and she has been known to fire off the odd snap of me snapping, unaware of what she is up to.
By her own admission, she’s not a talented photographer and I think this image proves the point, from our visit to Soller last week. Honestly, I stood there posing for about 10 seconds, whilst she adjusted the settings, framed the image and then pressed the shutter..........only to find afterwards that she nearly got my head and feet in the shot!
Even using the iPhone camera’s ‘live’ facility, which takes about twenty images before and after you hit the shoot button, failed to improve the situation, although admittedly she did get all of my feet in - so now you know why I rarely feature!
Pack-up All Your Cares and Woes
If only it were that simple - news of the impending lockdown here in Spain continues to cause confusion and uncertainty.
When we pop along the corridor to settle our bill, Davinia & Mathew up-date us on developments from their News service and think that we should be OK getting out of Mallorca tomorrow, but other guests who have longer stays planned are being advised to review their plans.
The easyJet App still has nothing more recent than yesterday’s coronavirus notification and our flight is still showing as on schedule.
Being British, we ‘keep calm and carry on’!
Back to the room and pack the suitcases and luggage ready for the off tomorrow morning - an hour later; all done.
So, now we just have to get some rest, pop down to breakfast at 07:30, drive over to the airport at 09:00 to drop the hire car off and then catch the 12:00 flight home.................
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