Small world - big Strete!
DecaDance's Web Diary
Chris White and Jeanna Coleman
Sat 15 Jan 2011 10:42
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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. |