Well with one day to go before the big trip in Christine to Valencia, preparations are almost complete. Good news, the oil leak seems to have abated and in fact the oil level seems to be going up rather than down which is strange, but not for Christine.

The heat peaked yesterday with the official weather office recording 37.2º so I decided, for a laugh, to buy a little digital thermometer for the car. As soon as I put the batteries in the little display and stuck it on the dashboard of the car, I thought the thing was going to explode. It went straight up to 42ºC. Phew.

"I knew I shouldnt have moved to Jerez"

After some touch rugby with the local lads here in the park I made my way to La Bodeguita Indiana to join the gang to watch Spain V Croatia. I arrived late and the place was packed.  Juan Ma’s little incentive to come to his bar this time were free canapés, which in fact were little bite-sized sandwiches cut into quarters. Perfect for watching Football.

So ironically it looks like it’s going to be England V Spain in the quarter finals.

Torres News

He’s Rubbish

Today I am hunting for music for the trip. I have an ancient radio/cassette in the car and the radio doesn’t work because I haven’t got an aerial. I had a look at a couple of aerials yesterday but at the price they were selling them, I could buy petrol for a month, so my search continues today for a cassette tape that isn’t flamenco. I’m not saying that cassettes are out of date but spell check just flagged it up as an unknown word.

Me with my Ipod

One thing I will have to be careful of is the petrol gauge. One gets so used to seeing a little amber light flick on to warn you of impending doom, that I almost ran out yesterday. The petrol dial has three marks, empty half-full and full. (ed…well there’s a surprise) As the gauge was on the empty sign I decided to make a quick pit-stop. I put in just €10 and bugger me the little needle went up to half-full!! Result. In comparison my Jeep Grand Cherokee when the low petrol light came on, I would have to put in £20 just to get the low petrol light to go off! Aaaahhhh happy days.

Juan, a regular at La Bodeguita Indiana and whom I met most nights whilst watching the football, has taken to learning English and I have had to teach him a couple of  phrases over the last week. After trying to enrich his English vocabulary with some prose and poems from Shakespeare and Keats, I soon realised that I was fighting a losing battle, so against my better nature, I have had to succumb and as I walked into the bar last night I heard a familiar voice from the back

“For F***’s sake ref”

Next week, Shelley.

"On me 'ed son"