Pictures

I think its time that I did an update to the blog. I’ve been busy having fun and that’s a good enough excuse I guess to be lazy and not write the blog. I really want to write weekly or twice a month. Anyway after Easter I decided that I really needed a short break out of the UK as the weather is fairly unpredictable and looking at the costs of UK based hotels, it was clearly cheaper to go abroad. Having visited Tenerife at the start of the year I was keen to try somewhere new with some guaranteed sunshine. I ended up going into Thomas Cook to book it and was offered some lovely places that interested me. However, the flight times going out and coming back at 3am and 6am would destroy any rest I aimed to achieve. It’s crazy that airlines actually have these as an option for holidaymakers. I really can’t understand why people would do it and I certainly wouldn’t, So, I decided to have a rethink and choose the holiday destination based on decent flight times. Well, the only one available was traveling to Tenerife again, so not an ideal solution as I wasn’t that keen to make a return trip so soon but I did enjoy my last trip. I reluctantly agreed on the destination and book the agents recommended hotel called the Blue Sea Interpalace. This was billed as a 4 star hotel. So, I paid my money and got excited about the trip.

After a good flight on Easyjet and chatting the cabin crew at the back of the plane abut the latest Galley FM which is all the tales and gossip of cabin crew the 4 hour flight passed very quickly. The stories were very funny and mostly involved which crewmember was shagging who and how rude most of the customers can be. Once we landed I had a 1 hour coach trip to the north of the island and my hotel. So, after 5 hours traveling from Gatwick I arrived at the Blue Sea Interpalace hotel and was presented with two Spanish reception staff. Now I was hoping for a “Hello” or “Hola” and a smile but I was sadly out of luck. I was however, ignored for 5 minutes while they chatted to each other and looked glum about life in general. Which they did acknowledge my existence it was almost as an inconvenience. Checking in with the world’s most unfriendly human was fortunately quick and I was offered a room on the 3^rd floor. The room was tiny and next to a busy and noisy road. Bikes, cars and people seemed ridiculously loud and sleep was impossible. Sitting in bed I was getting more and more angry. I discussed my feeling with the 10,000 ants that were sharing my room that night. They seemed happy about the state of things and offered no real help. The next morning, having not really slept, I spoke to a new and slightly less unhappy man on reception about changing rooms. He said yes and asked “would I like a top floor room with a sea view?” I looked at him for a moment and replied, “Errrr…. Yeah” So I moved and got a much better view and less ants.

Finally I could relax but this was clearly not a 4 star hotel and I would be generous saying it was 2 stars with is worn out carpets and very average food and frankly awful nightly entertainment. The weather was my main reason for going and I had plenty of sunshine to keep me happy. I had some of the free beer that was like water and simply couldn’t have actually contained any alcohol. So, I mostly drank real water and played the games that were on offer.

This for me was the highlight of the trip. A rep would walk around the pool area and call out the name of the game about to be played. First up was shooting which I loved doing and was actually fairly good at. The hotel was mostly populated by German OAP’s but one of them was to become my nemesis or my arch enemy. Eddie was actually a resident at the hotel and played the games every day and had become quite good at them. Eddie was a loud man and a bloody know all that kept beating me at all the games, normally ending with a “Yar” Some of the games I’d never seen or played before like a Dutch game called Sjoelbak. It was played with wooden discs and all the other OAP’s had over the course of the week become my fan club, all of them willing me to beat Eddie. I had become their champion and with their backing I focused on the game in hand and with a little bit of luck I managed to beat Eddie with much applause from my new fan club and to much frowning from Eddie. Take that!!!
On the only cloudy day I took a walk up to the botanical gardens which was a very relaxing place to sit and enjoy all the colours.

In the end I was able to have a relaxing break but I honestly couldn’t wait to come home and get back into my own bed and a decent cup of tea. I learnt that Thomas Cook have no idea of star ratings. German OAP’s are really good at unknown European games and you are never too old to have a fan club.

M