A little therapy

The medicine dispensing cup

I should start today with an update on the state of health of dear Captain Clarke. We visited a pharmacy this morning, (now, of course, it is actually yesterday, but you get the gist!), and explained that he had a bad ‘tos’ and that we needed something to make his ‘tos’ better. The very nice lady in the pharmacy enquired after how his ‘tos’ was performing and how bad it was. We explained that his ‘tos’ was worse at night and that it was quite dry. She knew exactly what he needed and we procured said medicine.Every time he took it, he was feeling very nauseous, although it took a couple of times before we managed to associate the two. Now, at this point, Captain Clarke learned three very valuable lessons:

1. The medicine has a side effect that it causes a feeling of nausea
2. He was using the wrong side of the dispensing cup and taking roughly three times what he should, (as can be seen from the brilliant sketch on the right!)
3. Always read the label!

Having discovered his error, he began taking the medicine and, indeed, did feel somewhat better. It is true that at night he is still suffering, but it is definitely improving.

Writing my missive!

We returned to the hotel so that I could update you on the previous day’s events. Now, I should update you on the hotel’s new Wifi – it’s as bad as the old Wifi!!! It is so bad again this morning that I have had to tether to my phone in order to be able to even display this page! In fact, if ever you are in Costa Adeje and you want Wifi, go the Guayarmina Princess hotel, pretend you are staying there and ask for a code for their Wifi – you can see their Wifi from practically everywhere! I would have done this myself, but it seems a bit pointless on what is now our last day here. We have, though, slipped into quite a nice routine. We rise, take breakfast, (or actually the last couple of days we have skipped breakfast because neither of us can face another German sausage!), take a short walk out and then return and I write of the previous day’s events. Captain Clarke usually updates himself on the news and other matters of interest.

Just a small ficus benjamina!

And so, since Captain Clarke was feeling a little nauseous, we returned to the hotel for a short while. Once his nausea began to pass we decided to go out for a walk and have a look for some aftershave we had been asked to find. We happened across a shop called ‘Fund Grube’. There are a number of these shops in Tenerife and, I believe, a number across Spain. They often appear a little expensive, but we had a special discount voucher of 15% given to us by the hotel. The only exceptions to using the voucher are tobacco, (not a problem for us anymore!), and items with a ‘Happy Price’. We didn’t actually have the voucher with us and, although we found what we were looking for, we decided to return to the hotel and collect the discount voucher. On the way, we decided to take a photo or two of the local flora and fauna, some of the specimens are quite fantastic!

Callistemon growing by the sea

We arrived back at the hotel just in time for lunch. Captain Clarke took some more medicine, (whoops!), and we had lunch in the pool bar of the hotel. It was all OK – we saw our new best friend from Montenegro, Igor, (or Milko as he is actually called), who told us he only has 10 days left in Tenerife and he can’t wait to go home. It must be very difficult working in an environment where you don’t speak or understand the language, where you are learning a new computer system and where you are away from home for a month! I think I understand him. Having had lunch, Captain Clarke was back to feeling nauseous so we decided on a couple of hours rest in the hotel. It was after this rest that Captain Clarke read the label and made his three important discoveries! Apparently, according to Captain Clarke, parrots eat Bottle Brush plants, (see left), which could be difficult on a island where the main attraction is the ‘Loro Parque’ or ‘Parrot Park’!

An Arecaceae shrub – Ok, I looked it up!

Once recovered and slightly more educated, we decided to return to Fund Grube and have a little retail therapy. We did indeed get what we want there, although I should tell you that everything, and I do mean everything, that we bought was already on a ‘happy price’, so the discount voucher was of no value to us what-so-ever! Having said that, everything that we bought was very reasonably priced and was definitely a bargain compared to what it would cost us in the UK. By way of example, one item we bought is available on Amazon at almost twice the price. Others were very similar. As you might expect, you see palm shrubs and palm trees growing everywhere here, so I couldn’t really not include a photo here!

Mount Teide!

On the way to the Fund Grube shop we passed a sand sculpture depicting Mount Teide. We actually saw the two guys building it the other day. At that time it didn’t look much more than a heap of sand and I honestly thought that it wouldn’t look much better when it was finished. How wrong can one be? I think this is a stunning sand sculpture and I am really pleased that we saw it finished. It is a little sad that they have to keep someone standing by it 24 hours a day to protect it, but I guess that is a sign of the times.

Enjoying a glass of Rosé from the Lista Negra grape blend!

After our retail therapy and the discovery about the medicine we returned to the hotel once more to shower and change for dinner. We decided to go somewhere we haven’t previously been and ended up in an Italian restaurant called ‘La Tosca’. (Ok, I can already here some of you saying, ‘but he doesn’t like Italian food!’. As I have always said, I like Italian food, just not Italian food in Italy – all the decent Italian cooks have left and opened restaurants elsehwhere!) We had an experience on arrival that I have never had before! We were greeted by the restaurant manager who said, “Well, you can come in, I have plenty of tables, but you’ll have to be patient, we are very busy”. Actually, when it came to it, the service was relatively prompt and the food was fine. Talk about try and put you off though!!!

Captain Clarke samples the wine

Simon and Zena had been watching ‘A place in the sun’ and had seen a piece about Tenerife. As part of the ‘experience’ the punters had been tasting wine from the ‘Lista Negra’ blend which, according to the programme, is grown in the volcanic soil. it was suggested that we give it a try as they had enjoyed wine from grapes grown in volcanic soil when they went to Sorrento, (isn’t that in Italy? Shame about the food!). We didn’t fancy a red, so we tried the Rosé. It was OK. I am not going to be ordering cases of it and I probably won’t remember it beyond next week, but there was nothing bad about it either. It also massively improved the waiting time in the restaurant which can’t be a bad thing!

And so, we are almost at the end of our holiday in Tenerife. Just one more day to go. We shall shortly be going out to make some purchases for future birthdays of others! That will be followed with a lunch in our favourite tapas bar, Pata Negra, and who knows what after that. One thing is certain – we will enjoy our last day of sunshine for a while! It’s RudyMenTerry!