Author: Steve Antipolo

• Faro 1 still has the giant turn marking where the loos are.
• Roja still make those loos
• Leg room is getting even less on planes and if I notice it must be bad.
• One of the guys at Merlin’s (the Italian one) seriously broke his leg roller skating and is off work just now but hopes to be back for September. He doesn’t look at all himself though, bless him.
• It was lovely to meet Ree and Jules out there a couple of times, they seemed like really good fun so it was annoying I felt too crap to really enjoy their company.
• I am starting to really dislike the Spanish. Not all of them of course, I have not met all of them! Our neighbours on both sides of the apartment seemed incapable of talking to each other in anything less then a bellow. They were worse than the Germans for reserving sun beds. They dominated the pool and just didn’t give a sod if they spoiled the enjoyment of others especially if those others were not Spanish. They smoked regardless of regulations to the contrary. At the airport I was told by a female security operative ( I know of a better and more accurate term) just after I said I didn’t understand what she had just asked me to do in Spanish, that I should learn the language or not bother coming to her country … I wish I had not had the kids with me as I would have liked to followed that up with a visit to her supervisor reminding him or her just who it was that kept them in work.
• Top marks to Pub Nestor for embracing the kids totally. I was dead worried that we would be forced into some horrid straight bar with a crap entertainment or no entertainment but they were brilliant. Not one customer made us feel uncomfortable either except for Matt who was getting a little miffed when it was assumed he was my boyfriend. At one point he asked if he could throw a queenie strop and publicly dump me just to make the point! Of course, if Matt was my boyfriend, what did that make the girls?
• By the last day I was very ill and bringing up blood but thankfully survived both the trip to the airport and the flight home.

This is just a summary of the first week as each day would seem to dull to write individually.

We got in the habit of playing crazy golf and enjoying it each out to improve upon our own best … I was naturally far superior to Matt (that’ll change so I shall indulge for now). Zoey was also improving but had something that doesn’t quite justify the word ‘style’. Daisy was quite good too, in fact, held on to a better average than Matt for some time. All three of them had more holes in one than I did (Grrr).

We enjoyed the delights of Merlin’s restaurant quite often as we did the Miramar in the Yumbo Centre.

We walked in the dark across the dunes in order for me to get rid of my fear of the place after being mugged there last year … probably a dumb thing to do but seemed right at the time. Swam in the pool a lot, played pool a little with a little air hockey too.

Some time toward the start of that week I developed what I couldn’t decide whether it be a growth or a mouth ulcer. I treated as an ulcer and made do though eating was very painful.

The Barbados Apartments are cheap and it shows. To be fair, they were OK for what they were but what they were wasn’t much. Slightly larger than the Tenesor that I had used before but no better equipped. In fact, probably less so. There was no way of sitting more than 2 out on the balcony and, for an apartment designed for 5 I found that just a little stupid. More stupid yet was the fact that the balcony doors couldn’t not be secured in any way. I believed they were for a few days until I accidentally lent on them and they opened. I tested them a few more times and was amazed at just how easy it was to get in. Even Daisy was able to ‘break in’. Also quite annoying was that the safe was downstairs and downstairs at the Barbados mean the basement so if I wanted to get some cash to go to the pool this is what I had to do.

Walk a corridor to one of the glass elevators which were so basic they couldn’t hold a memory. More than one floor was selected and all others were erased at the first stop! So, in this thing and down to the basement dressed in my trunks with a draped towel. I would get some money then have to go up to the first floor in the glass elevator after waiting for 10 seconds after the doors closed before it moved (we counted, it was very consistent). Up to the 1st floor, along the corridor to the stairs then down to the ground floor and out to the pool which actually sat just behind reception!

This is just a summary of the first week as each day would seem to dull to write individually.

We got in the habit of playing crazy golf and enjoying it each out to improve upon our own best … I was naturally far superior to Matt (that’ll change so I shall indulge for now). Zoey was also improving but had something that doesn’t quite justify the word ‘style’. Daisy was quite good too, in fact, held on to a better average than Matt for some time. All three of them had more holes in one than I did (Grrr).

We enjoyed the delights of Merlin’s restaurant quite often as we did the Miramar in the Yumbo Centre.

We walked in the dark across the dunes in order for me to get rid of my fear of the place after being mugged there last year … probably a dumb thing to do but seemed right at the time. Swam in the pool a lot, played pool a little with a little air hockey too.

Some time toward the start of that week I developed what I couldn’t decide whether it be a growth or a mouth ulcer. I treated as an ulcer and made do though eating was very painful.

The Barbados Apartments are cheap and it shows. To be fair, they were OK for what they were but what they were wasn’t much. Slightly larger than the Tenesor that I had used before but no better equipped. In fact, probably less so. There was no way of sitting more than 2 out on the balcony and, for an apartment designed for 5 I found that just a little stupid. More stupid yet was the fact that the balcony doors couldn’t not be secured in any way. I believed they were for a few days until I accidentally lent on them and they opened. I tested them a few more times and was amazed at just how easy it was to get in. Even Daisy was able to ‘break in’. Also quite annoying was that the safe was downstairs and downstairs at the Barbados mean the basement so if I wanted to get some cash to go to the pool this is what I had to do.

Walk a corridor to one of the glass elevators which were so basic they couldn’t hold a memory. More than one floor was selected and all others were erased at the first stop! So, in this thing and down to the basement dressed in my trunks with a draped towel. I would get some money then have to go up to the first floor in the glass elevator after waiting for 10 seconds after the doors closed before it moved (we counted, it was very consistent). Up to the 1st floor, along the corridor to the stairs then down to the ground floor and out to the pool which actually sat just behind reception!

I was due to go to Cambridge for the Pink Punting event arranged by Tony but it really didn’t seem fair to be doing that and leaving Matt in charge of getting Jermaine off to respite. Pete called anyway to say that they had done me the favour of not picking me up as the weather looked total rubbish, which, in the event, it was.

Sure enough, when the time came to get Jermaine off to respite he was in no mood to be going anywhere. He did his worst kind of strop but somehow we managed to avoid his kicks and punches and get him in the car. Soon after that, one of the carers from Eleanor Lodge closed the boot lid on my head which hurt like hell, I guess I was not being as alert as I thought I was!