Small world - big Strete!

DecaDance's Web Diary
Chris White and Jeanna Coleman
Sat 15 Jan 2011 10:42
Position: 28:51.43N 013:49.01W - Marina Rubicon, Lanzarote
 
 
On Thursday morning, as I was typing out a reply to our neighbours David and Anne, saying we too were sorry that we'd missed their post New Years drinks as we miss socialising with friends, Chris came back from the loo, with a, "guess who I've just seen?"  He saved me the bother of naming everyone we've ever met and told me Andrew and Monica (our friends who run the post-office 50 yards from our house in Strete, who we last saw at our leaving do) were sat outside the bar at the end of our pontoon, along with Martin (who I recognised from operating the lower ferry in Dartmouth) and his wife.  After a hasty tidy up we joined them for a beer in the sun, showed them around DecaDance and invited them around for lunch the next day.
 
 
I think they turned up especially to prove me wrong, as earlier that morning Chris and I were disagreeing about using the port-aft cabin for storage.  I think we should use it for easy access to belongings whils it's not being used for chartering (and it would only be used when both cabins are chartered so not very often).  Marta (we met in Lagos) does this, although they don't charter their cat.  Chris wants both cabins made up to look nice and neat just in case someone pops round to look at the boat.  Less than a couple of hours after me saying, "yeh right, who's going to just pop in to have a look?" our friends from Strete popped in.
 
 
I wasn't quite as organised as I'd have liked to have been when they arrived the next day because I was preparing lunch in a fug of co-codamol.  It's an extremely rare thing for me to take painkillers, and I won't be taking co-codamol in a hurry again, but my back's been playing up since just before we left Lagos, and yesterday it was unbearable.  It's a trapped nerve or something, right at the bottom of my spine - 14 years on I think my sky-diving accident may finally have caught up with me.
 
 
We served a glass of bubbles to start, and they'd brought lots of wine and beer, so I thought it would be best to saute the potatoes we were going to have for tea and chuck in some chorizo to go with the nibbles I'd planned.  I used all our best plates and serving dishes, and Andrew guessed (correctly) that I was practising for charter guests and they were guinea pigs .  The effect was spoilt slightly by flimsy plastic knives and forks as I didn't have time to polish the silver cutlery.  The wine and beer and conversation flowed and we had a lovely, lovely time.  We had to raid the supermarket for some more wine and we ran out of 'impress the guests' food and eventually had to break open the cheesy wotsits, but by that point everyone was past caring.  They wobbled down the pontoon about sixish and I crashed out and left Chris to the washing-up.
 
 
As well as finally getting to socialise with friends which we miss so much, it was also a welcome day-off for us.  On Thursday evening our first charter guest confirmed her booking, which is a relief (nothing to do with my marketing - Chris's guardian angel strikes again), Chris got a break from maintenance and I had a break from the computer, and it was just what we needed.  A happy happy day.