Feeling a little queer

I awoke this morning at 04:45 feeling a little queer. It was quite strange. I felt decidedly unwell, but with no specific symptoms. I failed to return to sleep and eventually concluded that it was, in fact, a dodgy stomach. When Captain Clarke arose I reported this to him and we decided it must be something I had eaten. What had I eaten in the last 24 hours that was somewhat below par? Oh yes, that bloody Pepito de Lomo! It must have been that. Nevertheless, we abluted, (I did feel a little better after a shower), and went into town for our morning coffee. We went to Café Roy and Captain Clarke had a ‘Café con Leche’ and an ‘ensaimada’, (a very sweet pastry favoured by the locals in the morning), and I a ‘Cortado’. Although a very good coffee, I decided that, in my current state, it would be unwise to drink a very strong coffee, so Captain Clarke finished it for me.

The game of Pokémon. The blue thing is a Pokéstop.

I did, however, consult my ‘app’ to see how far we had actually walked yesterday. 12km in total! I was rather pleased with this amount of exercise and so decided I would share it here. I should also report at this stage that the forecast rain arrived this morning. Like the best of Spanish rain, it arrived in style. Thunder, lightening and rain that sounded like rocks landing on the surface! The first thunderstorm arrived at about 07:00 and lasted through until about 09:00. It was only when this thunderstorm was over that we ventured out for our coffee. Having had our coffee we went off in search of ‘Pokéspots’. Captain Clarke had run out of ‘Pokéballs’, (needed to catch ‘Pokémon’), and desperately needed a topup. There are lots of Pokéspots in Sitges, so we walked around town for a while picking up Pokéballs. I have not played Pokémon as much as Captain Clarke and, frankly, had plenty of balls, but it was a pleasant enough walk around town, albeit, with spitting rain which could, at any moment, turn into ‘Spanish rain’.

Having picked up a few Pokémon and some Pokéballs, we returned to our hotel. I then decided to stay in the hotel and to complete my ramblings from the previous day, whilst Captain Clarke went back out, (with a power pack for his, now flat, phone), to collect more Pokéballs. By the time he returned, I had finished my ramblings and it was lunchtime. We started to walk out to find a suitable hostalry for some lunch but I felt that the spitting rain was getting quite threatening. Although we were well on our way towards town, Captain Clarke suggested that we return to the Italian restaurant, (Ragazzi), which is near to our hotel. I agreed and this we did. Still feeling a little under par, I decided on another bowl of their excellent Penne Arrabiata. Captain Clarke had a bowl of ‘Tagliatelle con Ragu’ which he said was more like a bolognese but enjoyable nonetheless. I struggled to eat all of my Penne, so Captain Clarke bravely finished it for me.

I should mention, at this juncture, that adjacent to our table was a table of ladies ‘of a certain age’. It transpired that they were from Hassocks in Sussex and they were part of a party of 18, (they were only 3), who all belonged to a ‘water exercise’ class which apparently involved ‘power walking’ in water. They were all very good friends and had a great camaraderie. One lady had only learned to swim when she was 70 and had already achieved some impressive statistics. She was working on a distance equivalent to the distance from Cuba to Florida, although didn’t think she would achieve it until she was 78, (she was 77). We chatted with them for a while and, whilst one had been to Sitges 20 years ago, the others hadn’t, (one had never been to Spain), and they were asking a little about the town. They are only here for a few days, so they wanted to know if there was anything they should look out for. It turned out that they had booked to have dinner at a ‘drag’ show for the evening – something Captain Clarke and I have never done!

Our hotel, the San Sebastian Playa

The minute that the three ladies got up and left, we were approached by a couple who turned out to be Australian and from Sidney. They are on the last couple of days of a holiday in Europe that had started in Milan, toured Italy, (poor them!), then Switzerland, into France and finally into Spain, (via Andorra), where they are due to fly home from Barcelona on Saturday after a month in Europe. I had observed during lunch, (they were also on an adjacent table), that he was a big man – he also consumed the biggest steak I have ever seen! They explained that they had actually been booked into a hotel in Barcelona for 3 nights but that when they got there it transpired that there had been a mix up with their booking and there were no rooms available. Apparently there is a big pharmaceutical conference going on in Barcelona this week, so they literally couldn’t find a room. One of the receptionists in the hotel that didn’t have their booking was from Sitges and recommended that they came to Sitges instead. Apparently, she also phoned ahead and booked a hotel for them.

They too were asking about the town and what it had to offer. Since we had finished lunch and Captain Clarke had valiantly finished the bottle of rose wine he had ordered and I had consumed one glass from, we now had nothing to drink whilst we chatted to our new Australian friends. Eventually, feeling we should have something, I ordered a coffee, (cortado), and Captain Clarke followed suit … along with a brandy for himself. Our new Australian friends, called Nick and Kerry, ordered themselves a glass of red, (for him), and a glass of cava, (or as she consistently called it, ‘bubbles’). We chatted some more and, before long, the drinks had finished. As the conversation didn’t look like it was going to end anytime soon, more drinks were ordered – this time a glass of rose for myself, a glass of red for Captain Clarke, more red for Nick and more cava for Kerry.

After yet more chatting and cajolling from Nick and Kerry about us visiting them in Sydney, (I suspect by now the wine was talking more than they were!), more drinks were ordered. By this time, and still not feeling 100%, I declined more drinks, (also secretly thinking that this may hint we were ready to leave), but it turned out that others had different ideas. For the next four hours, (yes, that is 4 hours!), Captain Clarke matched our friends Nick and Kerry drink for drink as they consumed more and more. I mentioned that Nick is a big man, apparently he weighs just over 140 kilos, (although I think that is a conservative estimate and he can certainly put the wine away!). When I eventually managed to extricate us at 19:00, Captain Clarke was definitely more than a little worse for wear!! I guided him back to our hotel, (thank goodness it wasn’t far!), and when I opened the door of the room, he launched himself at the bed and was snoring within seconds. I realised that in my rush to escape, I had left my bag in the restaurant with my glasses in it, so I told Captain Clarke that I was returning to retrieve it, but I don’t think it registered.

Not the best photo ever, but he had consumed about 3 bottles of wine!

Over the next 4 hours, I went out twice – once to retrieve my bag and once to do some printing I needed, (tickets for our return trip). Captain Clarke was not aware of any of this. He managed to snore, (from both ends!), heavily for 4 hours and never once awoke. I, on the other hand, came to the conclusion that dinner was off for the evening, as was some shopping that we were going to do, as was anything else other than listening to a warthog on a motorbike! And so it was that at 23:00 Captain Clarke awoke. He asked what we were doing about dinner and when I told him the time said, “Oops! Sorry!”. I did suggest that I would like a quick drink in the bar next door and he managed to pull himself together to come along with me. The most frustrating thing of all is that today, as I write this account of events, he is as right as rain, (of which there was much all day yesterday), and I am still suffering slightly with my stomach!

Now, the astute amongst you will have noticed that there are virtually no photos today. This is because a) it rained for much of the day and nothing looks good in the rain, b) because we spent the vast majority of our day ensconced in a restaurant, and c) we didn’t really go anywhere. This morning, (as I mentioned I am writing this on the morning afterwards), we have been for coffee and been on a short excursion – more about which tomorrow. We shall return to the town a little later and make the purchase that we had planned to do yesterday. We shall not be bumping into our Australian friends, (although they are a couple, they don’t live together which I strongly suspect might be because I imagine she would be a bit of a nightmare on a long term basis – she is very loud and quite course … even for me!), and I shall ensure that Captain Clarke has a pretty dry day. I feel that after yesterday he needs it. It is, after all, RudyMenTerry!