Monthly Archives: November 2011

Viva Espana!

Dave was needed in Cadiz, south west Spain ,for work for a few days so Ellis and I tagged along to see the place and to catch a glimpse of the sun before the Aberdeen winter.

The journey there takes a day and a half from this part of the UK due to limited flights. Neighbour Euan kindly took us all to the airport on Sunday afternoon in plenty of time for our flight only to discover it was delayed due to fog in London. So, five hours of hair pulling and general running about ensued:

Monday afternoon we finally arrived to Cadiz after an hour or so transfer from Gibraltar (weird place). We were staying in a residental part of the area called Vistahermosa. The hotel Los Jandalos was lovely except that it was pretty much closed for winter.  Sadly therefore, the pool was not open and neither was the restaurant or the bar! Luckily our room was very lovely and therefore not such a pain.

Dave was busy working every day from 7 until 6 so Ellis and I did some touring about while waiting for Dave to come home. The first day we did a walking self-tour of Puerto de Santa Maria; the nearest town to Vistahermosa. It took most of the day to get around it despite all the attractions being closed due to being off season. Still, we saw the outside of lots of lovely buildings like the Cathedral in the imaginitively named Plaza Catedral!

That evening we went out to a local bar with some of Dave’s work colleagues to say hi.

Wednesday Ellis and I went over to Cadiz on the ferry! It was much more open for business than Puerto and we had a lovely day wandering about the bussling streets and of course drinking coffee in the Plazas. We got the train home again and it was Ellis’ first train ride! She had some difficulty remaining upright!

Thursday Ellis and I headed to one of the beaches at Vistahermosa so that she could try her hand at walking on the sand… and eating it. It was picturesque (other than the view of the Cadiz fab yard) and practically deserted.

Friday was Dave’s last day at work and our last full day in Spain. Sadly I was rather ill on the Friday perhaps due to the alcohol connsiumed the night before with his work buddies but I think it must have been dodgy albondigas! When Dave got back from work we all went to another of the Vistahermosa beaches for a play and then out to dinner in the evening. It was the first time we had made it past the bar and beyond the tapas!

A lovely break away for Ellis and me and perhaps a sightly more interesting week at work for Dave.

You can see the rest of the photos here.

A fun Weekend climbing and dressing up

Saturday afternoon was spent holding onto sharp objects and trying to move in an upward motion.  We had entered a round of the Scottish dry tooling competition being held at our local climbing wall.  This basically involves using ice axes and climbing with them rather than hands.

It was a bit alien to us, but great fun and a rather good work out. both of us felt like some one had kicked us hard all over afterwards. 

The organisers had done a great job of route setting with a massive variety of moves and techniques required, from torquing,  to wood and bike frames being used as obstacles to get up and over. Ellis was cheering us on as we took it in turn to climb from the viewing balcony and even took some interest in climbing gear.  I reckon she will like climbing

A great event and something we hope to do again, good training for the fast approaching winter coming

In the evening we went to Gus and Lorraine’s fancy dress halloween party.  Here they are in their amazing home made costumes

We decided that as it was halloween we would go with the ghost theme and go as something to do with the legendary ghost busters movie

Yes that is me hiding inside there.  I some came to realise this was a better costume for deepest darkest winter months as I was roasting in there and it was like wearing a duvet all night!  We had a brilliant time, dancing, playing games and having one to many drinks.  Our old neighbours had generously offered to baby sit Ellis for the night and for her to stay at theirs, so we were free to go out all night with out having to think about her.  thank you very much N&R – you are brilliant!

(yes , funnily enough I did chose Lara’s costume………)

Family Visit to Dubai

Work needed me to go over to Dubai for a week, Lara had never been so thought it a good idea to combine both.  Dubai is not a place we would normally go on holiday so was a great opportunity for Lara to come and see it and get a bit of sun (which we all know she misses living in Scotland!!)

During the day I would go off to work at the Fab Yard in Jebel Ali.  I spent a large part of my time in a boiler suit sweeting  uncontrollably and craving the heaven that was air conditioning.

 whilst Lara would do the touristy things and generally relax around the hotel pool or on the sea with Ellis,

  Mid sun was a little too hot for Ellis so the pool was her refuge with some funny results!

We managed to catch up with some old friends of ours Daisy and Whizz and let Ellis meet her future husband – Bertie!  they had fun in their paddling pool becoming friends!

Once I got home we usually went out along the beach and went out for dinner and a few drinks whilst Ellis was great and came with us sleeping in her pram.

A great week for me to get some work done and some sun for Lara. The rest of the pictures can be seen by clicking here