Opposites

Song of the day: “Bang Bang” by Jessie J, Nicki Minaj and Ariana Grande. I know. Very superficial of me, but the song has been in my head off and on, along with “Problem” by Ariana Grande and Iggy Azalia. Go figure.

So, too much time passed again, but you gotta admit that time passes so fast these days. I fully planned to post a blog after one week, and yet here we are, well past that mark. *sigh* Bad Sammie.

Right. So the last time I mentioned that I was going on my first Safari trip for my new job, which was, I am afraid to admit, close to a disaster.

Yep. The weather was horridly cloudy, misty and rainy, the guide/driver grumpy and I was feeling more than a little under the weather. The only good part was that the married couple, the customers of the day, were very, very nice, and kept things pleasant. Regretfully the route wasn’t a new one. It went from Monda, Guaro, Tolox to Alozaina and then back through the country. There were quite a few stops, regretfully a couple of them at rather modern little restaurants…as is par for the course in modern Spain, really…and by the time the air cleared and the lunch hour arrived, I made a slight error. Turns out I hadn’t heard part of the speech from the guide, talking to my new colleague, about us not sitting with the customers, (what I heard was: lunch is included for the guide, but you’ll be on your own since you’re just along for the ride…I interpreted this as that we had to pay our own lunch *sigh*), meaning that when I found the couple sitting at the corner table, looking a wee bit out of their water in the all Spanish surroundings, I joined them while they had lunch.

We were having a nice talk about their kids and work, but all this got the guide in a bit of a sniff, I fear, for when he came to take their orders for dessert, he told me, rather gruffly that he had said I wasn’t supposed to sit with the customers…which of course had the customers jump to my defense, saying that they  hadn’t minded and that we were just talking together. This made the guide a tad defensive, and say that the boss had a thing about guides eating with customers, causing more discomfort, naturally. I just apologized to all the parties involved and went outside to eat the sandwich I had taken along for lunch. Later, when I was in the ladies room, the female customer all worriedly asked me if I was alright (I bet I was blushing, even though I wasn’t feeling particularly embarrassed; I hadn’t heard. If I had, I wouldn’t have sat with them) and that they’d felt so sorry for me because of the whole incident.

But anyway, the remainder of the trip was spent in an uncomfortable silence before the other trainee and I were dropped off at the starting point, way earlier than expected. *double sigh*

As you might expect, I was a little ambivalent about the whole thing when I got another call for my second trip a few days ago.

Be that as it may, I was at the meeting place on the dot, and the Land Rover arrived, thankfully with a different guide. He was so much nicer, and relaxed, not to mention that he really took the time to explain stuff to me and the other trainee, and even though the four customers weren’t as wonderfully chatty as the ones of the previous trip, I had a very nice trip.

This one was way more elaborate and there were different off road tracks, and even an abandoned village, including two rather nice, real Spanish little restaurants, and going up into an abandoned castle.

Turns out that this guide had no idea what the “correction” I got was about. He said, if the customers like it, you join them, it’s as simple as that. So, I’ve decided to dismiss the not so nice experience as an aberration, and just see where things go from here. The trips were just complete opposites, that's what.

What else? Well, the normal stuff. I’ve been writing, naturally. The book is coming along nicely still. At the moment I am working towards the first real action scene, and I am definitely looking forward to that. The images and dialogues are constantly tumbling through my head, just waiting to get out there on the proverbial paper, so I hope that the present conversation I am working on is finished quickly. Hah.

There was the usual cleaning of our living area, naturally, laundry, as always, and a grocery shopping trip. How come you need to do groceries, anyway? Why don’t the cupboards just stay full, darn it!

Have been training at the gym quite a bit. Yep, this past week we even went four times, which was wonderful, despite the frequent soreness that results from three days in a row. Was nice that our friend T could join us, too, seeing as otherwise I might have begged off this Wednesday. Hah. Instead I did a mile and a half speed-walk on the machine, and quite a bit of weight lifting, so, yay. Will have to get myself some new boxing gloves one of these days. Got an open knuckle from the old ones, which suffered greatly from the past years, despite me not using them a lot ever since the disaster, the estate management job and my stay in the UK for three months.

Had another rush job at a local store. They needed more shelving, small and delicate for the tea section, which was what we worked on for a total of half a day, spread out over several due to the lousy weather. Had to go to the store to install the day before yesterday, but it turned out that you need special permission to do any remodeling in that place (one of those big commercial superstores that has small boutiques on the side) so we had to do it sneakily, make as little noise as possible, and be fast. Managed it too without a word from management, so that was good. And it looks nice, meaning that all’s well that ends well…or some such nonsense.

At the moment the weather is downright summery…loving it. In fact, as soon as I’m done with this blog, I’ll be on my way outside, thank you very much. The poplars are about to burst into leaf, the mimosas are blooming, so is the broom for that matter, the jasmine and basically everything spring like is out there in their full glory…no reason to stay inside.

Heard that tenant is going to have two eye operations in the near future. They are going to replace the lenses on her eyes, which should improve her sight substantially. We’re keeping our fingers crossed, despite the fact that the operation will take 15 minutes each at most.

Cousin Ed is enjoying her new job as a taxi driver for handicapped and disabled. From what I understand it was well worth the hassle of having to follow a course in driving (especially for this type of taxis) and applying for work.

Grandpa…I’m a little on the fence as to how he is doing. Physically he seems to be doing alright, but mentally he is struggling, I fear. He is very much withdrawn into himself, keeps himself in a very tight reign, until he gets completely stuck. I feel bad for him, but there isn’t anything I can do at the moment. He will have to figure things out for himself.

Most of the doggies are doing well…except Arthur and Jelly, who are clearly showing their age at the moment. The first is the worst, I fear. He’s hurting somewhere, but we can’t really locate it, added to that, he seems to be feeling addled quite often, meaning that something is off in his head. Added to that, he is leaking urine, getting stiffer in the hips, and remaining behind when normally he would follow where we go. A sad state of affairs.

Had another nice dinner with friends in town. I did the cooking, while T supplied a wonderful dessert, allowing for a nice evening of talk and laughter. Were rather late getting home.

Did a little bit of experimenting with cooking…which included a couple of really nice rice dishes. I will have to post them on the cooking blog one of these days, see what others think of it.

Well, that about sums it up for today. I got stuff to do, rubbish to gather, and a pick up to do, so…I leave you to it.