Bedrock

Well, it’s all happening this morning…

We got a call from a non-English-speaking DHL driver this morning (just after the second Alexa alert in 2 days to say we have packages from Amazon on due today – yesterdays’ didn’t turn up) to say “Peter” then something in Spanish then “Posa”. We headed off down to Pizzeria La Posa, intercepted on the way by the DHL van who had decided after all to deliver to the house – thank goodness there is only on way up to our place.

The driver handed over the slightly bashed parcel and off we went to the cafe where we met Bob from the Altiplano photo club who answered some questions I had about supplying club-promotional photos for the forthcoming Galera fair (Sunday August 18, 2019). Looks like I got over-enthusiastic about the photo frames.

Weather in Galera is sunny but calm today, a good time for some writing and a spot of painting… so our next stop was the local ferreteria.

When in doubt, check local stores. After gasping at the price of a 6-way mains extension on Amazon.es (€14, just under £14 – not only that but there’s a good chance of it ending up in the local pub), I was pleased that my neighbour/friend Dave picked me up an extension during his trip to the coast for a mere €9 – then THIS MORNING while looking for a quick paintbrush purchase at the local ferreteria, I noted the same thing at a staggering €4.90 and bought one. Pays not to make assumptions about prices at local stores.

Now, I would tell you the name of this hardware store in Galera, Granada (Spain) but he has to be the last store on the planet to NOT be on Google Maps. He is however on Calle Cervantes, just seconds away from Parque Infantil Sanchez Faba.

I have to do a technical write-up elsewhere about the sockets and an update on a couple of smart bands (watches ) I  just received so that’s about it for this entry.

Last night after a hot day in which Maureen went off to yoga and I spent the day working on my tech blog,so then not unusually, Maureen and I took two of our cats out for a walk (one chickened out and went back home alone as he often does) and on our way back, we bumped into a couple of Scottish friends, made arrangements for later in the week then took yet another pair of friends back to our cave for a chat.

That led to a late night as is often the case and when they left, instead of going off to bed as might’ve made sense, we started scouring Netflix, Amazon and ShowBox for something to watch – no joy, nothing even remotely interesting.

I don’t know what started me off but I went looking in desperation for the movie “Stepford Wives” and this appeared in a date order search through ShowBox. It didn’t take me long to realise that something was wrong.

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Like parts of the UK, though FAR more consistently, we’ve been having a heat-wave here in Southern Spain recently. Hardly a day has gone by in the past month without the mid-afternoon temperature topping 38c (maybe 100f) in the shade. Accordingly we’ve not done a lot of travel on foot as it is easier to hide indoors or drive somewhere in the heat.

That’s not stopped several car trips as far off as Gibraltar and to various local pools and it CERTAINLY hasn’t stopped us popping out regularly to cafe-bars like Emilio’s (Los Carriones, near Castillejar) for coffee and Tostada – that’s on the cards for this morning in fact.

The weather hasn’t stopped Spanish workmen either – as you see here, three of them drilling holes in the fountain in Galera town centre – the photo really does not convey the fact that it was stinking hot at the time..

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I noted today at Yoga that our guide Brian uses a decent incense to help get everyone in the mood – I thought I’d take the time to show him which incense we use here at Bedrock – and in the process reminded myself of the vast range we’ve collected.

Since being a teen of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s and using incense sticks to put my mother “off the scent” as it were, I’d completely forgot about the delights of incense until a few years ago our neighbours here in Spain introduced us to something called “Precious Yatra” which they brought back from Dubai (and which remains one of our favourites along with “Nag Champa”).

Since then we’ve been on a journey of discover, in the process discovering that Chinese incense is largely rubbish – thankfully some of the better names over in India produce some of the finest scents in the world (IMHO). Fantastic places to get this stuff in Spain include Ronda (GREAT store on the high Street), Granada (including a little Indian store just across the main road from the Cathedral), Nijar (up near the top of the high street) and no doubt countless other places, I’m told there’s a store in nearby Huescar. Back in the UK we discovered a store just off the high street in Hexham (Northeast of England) which keeps a decent range of incense.

Here then, in imagery is a summary of just SOME of the scents we keep at home here in Spain and in the UK. This also gave me a chance to try out my newly-acquired photo package Luminar 3 from Skylum. No attempts here to demonstrate any photo skills – just straight off the camera and a spot of straightening up.

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This entry covers our trips this weekend to Orce pool and the Huescar Ruta De La Tapa with friends. In this late-June heat, anything more energetic has to be saved for early in the morning or later in the evening. For anyone looking in and not familiar with the area, our home town of Galera is 90 minutes drive Northeast of the city of Granada in Southern Spain and Orce “Piscina Natural” or pool is around 8 minutes drive south-east from Galera whereas Huescar is just 12 minutes drive up north.

We share the spring-fed pool with the local fish, some of which grow into monsters well over half a metre in length but they are completely harmless.

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Watched a decent and original sci-fi movie “FAST COLOR” tonight while earlier today we saw a great example of Spanish driving: Maureen and I were enjoying Cafe Con Leche in a little park in Huescar this morning when along came a supermarket delivery truck. Determined to get through the very narrow road, he ploughed across the pavement and into a road sign, damaging the sign and no doubt his side-mirror in the process. I’d be surprised if his vehicle side escaped unscathed. This is not untypical behaviour but it did raise a nervous laugh or two. When done, the driver just continued on as if nothing had happened..

After that, we popped by an office building and just happened to notice the most beautiful wall tiles you see in the photo above. As always I had my phone handy to take the odd pic while out and about. See church below – also in Huescar, a town which has more than it’s fair share of Kodak moments and I can never resist, especially when the sun is out.

Next, Maureen found a new (to us) Chinese store to buy some embellishment for at least one of her dresses. The results I’ve seen so far look good.

We also had a reminder of just how treacherous our little approach road can be to someone not familiar with it. Our neighbours were getting a large delivery and Dave and I were guiding the driver from the village and to his cave. We’ve been doing this for so many years it is second nature but the delivery guy seemed absolutely mortified at the idea of driving down a road only marginally wider than his rather large vehicle. As you might imagine we found that incredibly funny.

This evening, I went with Dave who was taking the dog for a walk and I took my wanna-be dogs with me. Simba and Ruffy (our cats) both enjoy going for walks with us, something denied to them for so long in the past when we had inconsiderate dog owners for neighbours – unlike the current situation where the dogs are all well behaved, lovely animals with responsible owners. Today our corner of Galera is generally very peaceful though we did have a scare as 2 women came by with 5 barking dogs NOT on leashes, which scared the cats – there are laws about keeping dogs on leashes, sadly not too well policed and even if they were, the laws don’t seem to cover the noise aspect of unruly dogs. Thankfully in this case no harm was done as the cats were quick to find hiding places then re-joined us when the danger passed. Perhaps next time the owners may be more considerate – one can only hope.

Finally, for technical readers I’ve discovered a relatively new web browser today (always something new) called “Brave” – got it running on the PC and Android phone and it is looking very promising. Also found several new watch faces for (IMHO) one of the best watches in the world, my Samsung Gear Classic – the experience is almost like getting a new watch every day and most of the watch faces are free – I keep several dozen on the watch at any time.