The Search for Lurch
'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Mon 16 Jun 2008 14:13
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In a town called Coruna, fifteen years ago the crew
of Moonshiner & I found an establishment which sold excellent tapas and
liquid refreshment. Due to the bartender bearing a striking resemblance to the
the butler in the Adams Family (the film) this establishment was promptly named
'Lurch's Bar'. A most amazing place, it didn't have a cellar for the wine, it
had an attic. Lurch would ascend, there would be grunts and mutterings, then
he'd reappear carring a fresh barrel of wine. Grandma sat by the kitchen door
and watched the proceedings in the bar and small eating area and daughter would
be cooking in the kitchen. The floor was quite literaly sawdust and the
whole place had real charm & atmosphere......
Fast forward fifteen years......is this the
place?
 Letting myself be guided by that mystical
force, 'The Thirst', I found myself following a vaguely -remembered path,
down small alleys containing shops selling female under-garments, shops selling
dubious-looking bits of dead meat and tobaconists. Suddenly....could it
be?
Well, it might be. The interior layout is as I
remember it, but more upmarket. No sawdust and no Lurch. Perhaps I'll have a
closer look tonight or perhaps such things are best left in the pleasant
past.
On another note, today it has generally been
raining. Sometimes a lot, occasionally a lot more and even rarer it stops for a
bit. During one of the bits when it wasn't raining quite so much I re-rigged the
wind-generator (it had been in towed mode for the Biscay and seemed to work OK).
Also on the agenda was to dismantle my wardrobe, gain access to the space
behind the electrical bulkhead and see if I could find out why the Navtex
unit has stopped receiving NMEA output from the GPS. Access duly gained I then
drew a blank and as Mark of Multihill World wasn't in the office today I got no
further. I was going to drill a hole in the boom so I could insert a bolt to
tie-off the reefing lines, but I felt that two technical jobs in one day was
more than enough. If I'm not careful I'll catch myself doing routine
maintainance! The barometer continues to drop so I assume the low pressure
system approacheth. Perhaps after it has approached some more it may pissotheth
and the weather will improve.
A random thought, the French do not produce
effective flyspray. It may be envionmently friendly, it might well have
been made with 'special volants' in mind because the bloody
'volants' seem to thrive on it! They [the French] also have not got a real grip
on 'wine in a box', or more specifically the box. The wine is fine, all 5
litres of it (well, perhaps not quite 5 litres after last night) but the
box...oh dear. The wine outlet is at the top, where the handle is and what's
more the spout faces up. It would be mildly annoying except the box did not
travel well and 'dis-assembled' itself. The trick now is to be careful lifting
the plastic sack of wine out of the remains of the cardboard otherwise the sack
may puncture, which would be catastrophic. I have also met 'Captain Slarty' of
YBW forum fame. In reality somewhat unlike his internet persona
(fortunately).
Tonights culinary delight will be curry,
accompanied by a local dish of fried pimientos:
ingredients, olive oil, pimientos, salt and
toilet paper.
Method: Put the toilet paper in the fridge. Fry
pimientos until the skin is charred, sprinkle with salt &
serve.
WIFI is really hit and miss so I'm posting
this via the dreaded satellite. Even when I do get WIFI for some reason I'm
having dreadful problems logging on to Googlemail. Perhaps emails should be sent
to troutbridge[AT] mailasail[dot]com. usual rules, text only please and no
forwarded lengthy emails.
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