I've found my home

normal service has been resumed

...which probably means nothing - as I am not totally convinced what goes for normal round these parts...

It's Sunday, 9:40am, the thermometer has already hit 30 and is threatening to rise even further. This, suggests to the kids, that we should be going to the beach. The good news for me is that Maria is still feeling under the weather. This is good news for me because (seriously) I don't like the beach, not at Playas. My idea of fun is not sitting around, on a beach, burning/melting. The beach in San Diego offers some shade, I can sit under a tree, but the kids don't have their passports. So the only choice is the beach here in Mexico - which means death to me. It doesn't matter that I use SF60, mentally I still freak if I am out for longer than 15 minutes. I will spend the whole time trying to keep my skin covered with clothing, finding a position to sit in, making sure that the sun hits only protected parts of my body. And then I will sweat. And, no matter how much clothing I wear, sand tends to "walk" up sleeves, up trouser legs, down through collars, and before you know it, I am covered in sand! Gah! I hate the beach!! Bah-humbug!!!

(Croila, you can ignore this paragraph - nothing of interest here for you) And there is football to watch today! The mighty Santos Laguna are into the play-offs for the title. It is the quarter finals, second round, and the mighty Santos go into the game with a 2-1 lead! Even betterer are the facts that (1) America never even made the play-offs and (b) Chivas (the red-hot favourites to win) went down 4-1 in the first leg, needing to score 4 goals in the second leg, which they did, except they conceded 4, losing 8-5, meaning they are out!!! (Pretty sure that the punctuation in that previous sentence was awful - so let's hope Nancy didn't read this paragraph either!) Anyhoo, the intention was to go round to friends (fellow mighty Santos supporters) and cheer the mighty Santos on to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, with Maria feeling a bit under the weather, this ain't gonna happen. But I will still be cheering on the mighty Santos! Oh, and while we are on the subject of footy, there was probably some happiness in chez Alan yesterday, congratulations.

An English exam will be writted [sic] today, not because it has to be (it is supposed to be done by Monday) but because it will be.

Oh, and this morning I got some (what I first thought of as) good news. However, the more I think about it, the worse the news gets. Fraggle Rock is one of those programs that hovers somewhere at the back of my mind. I am convinced that I loved it. I know that I still love The Muppets, so I am fairly convinced that I loved Fraggle Rock. So, for 15 seconds, after Maria told me that a Fraggle Rock philum was in production, I was really happy. And then I started to think (without taking a shower!) - maybe Fraggle Rock was good back then. Maybe I enjoyed it then, back in 1983, when I was still a student, with a one year old daughter. Maybe now...actually, the more I think about it - it is bad news. I get the feeling that it will be another good memory destroyed! Ah, well.

Right, onward and upward. I have forgotten to take the chicken out the freezer - I got distracted and ended up doing the washing up instead - and there are worlds to conquer, places to go, people to see, sofas to be laid on. Have a good Sunday, catch you on the flipside.

and not a knotted hanky in sight

Monday morning I opened an email from my mum.

Lovely to hear your voice yesterday, especially as only Denham and I were  in the dining room at the time.  I stayed until 6.30 and then had to de-ice the windscreen, but managed to get home O.K. to awake this a.m. to about 6" of snow and it hasn't stopped since.  Great big flakes have made a wonderful landscape outside - a scene I haven't seen in years, and I can only be pleased that it is a bank holiday and I, for one, don't have to be out in it.  Thought you might like to know what you are missing!!

So we went to the beach! The sun was shining, it was a hot day but there was a cool breeze blowing. We got across the border in record time and drove to the Mission Beach area. There, we went to one of the parks (if you've ever seen Traffic it is the park where Catherine Zeta Jones is threatened). Rather comforting was the fact that there were a couple of policemen taking their lunch break under the shade of a tree - so we didn't have to worry about the kids being kidnapped!

At first Danny was all teenage-ry, refusing to join in as Nikos ran around the beach, digging holes in the sand, building sand castles, and throwing stones at the sea. He even had the energy to chase a group of coots (not sure if they are coots - they are what my dad called coots when we were on the Norfolk Broads but that would make them fresh water fowl?).

However, as the time stretched out, socks and shoes came off and Danny joined in with the fun. Trousers were rolled up and paddling was partaken of - (is that the way to say it? who knows?)

Anyhoo, a jolly good time was had by one and all. All pictures will biggerise if clicked on , if you are desperate, here's a short video of Danny and Nikos paddling in the sea on Easter Monday Download paddling.AVI !

bullet point blogging

Wednesday 5th
> Maria's dad arrives.
> Go for meal in fish restaurant - have shrimp wrapped in bacon
> Walk on the beach have two photos taken

Thursday 6th
> Kids arrive to stay until Saturday
> Flat crowded and very hot
> Go to Maria's dad's photo exhibit
> Get involved in argument with photographer about what his photos represent

Friday 7th
> Maria's dad leaves
> He likes me

Saturday 8th
> Kids go back to their father's
> Don't get out of my pyjamas all day

Sunday 9th
> Stay in pyjamas all day
> Santos beat America 4-0

Monday 10th
> Work and I manage to avoid sitting in on any lessons
> Watch the beginning of Season one of Felicity
> Computer keeps switching itself off

Tuesday 11th
> Work, sit in on a lesson that starts really badly but after talking to the teacher for five minutes becomes a great success
> Am wearing a cowboy hat to put kids in cars at end of day
> Have no internet connection

Wednesday 12th
> Work, sit in on a lesson that is based around "Fruit Loops" (the cereal) - it is excellent
> The modem is a piece of shit and is replaced
> Computer a lot happier

Thursday 13th
> Work, sit in on a lesson that had so much potential but the teacher is struggling. She asks if I will teach lesson next week so that she can learn from me. Feel really good about myself.
> Maria makes meatloaf - her meatloaf really rocks!!

Friday 14th
> Start auditions for Lion King
> Go across the border and Maria buys me some Marmite
> Go out for a curry - Maria's first curry!!

Saturday 15th
> Go to San Clemente
> Eat oysters and a bucket of wings
> See "The Bourne Ultimatum"

Sunday 16th
> Two years ago Maria landed in England
> Spend three hours on computer writing emails and (finally) a blog post
> Open a beer at 12:50

speed blogging

breath deep, read fast

monday - appointment to see La Directore to tell her that the whole of her school stinks at maths and that there has to be a better way to teach it and I know the answer gets cancelled because La Directore is on holiday for a week. break-time (recess to you) is spent fighting off the latest craze in school "touch mr. kay's hair it feels so soft, like feathers".

tuesday - she has a job interview so I dash from work and sit outside a medical company planning lessons for october all the time sending "negative" vibes at the factory - oh, I want her to get a job, I'll support her in anything but do I want her to get this job? no fucking way because she'd leave at 6 and return after 7 we would be apart for 13 hours and I don't want that.

wednesday - she has a job interview so I dash from work and sit outside sanyo grading the students for the month of september and for the first time in a long, long time I feel scared - frightened to be sat in a car in a foreign country, constantly surrounded by people walking round the car, looking in at "the foreign bloke" and laughing and joking at his expense. I come home and write her a letter, a letter that she can use to get the job at the medical place - I might not want her to have the job but I love her and will support her in her decisions. We go for tacos at our favourite place (for tacos).

thursday - I return all the students' maths exams and no-one cries, in fact they are very happy with their grades. Whereas I was slightly disappointed with the results, they are ecstatic - it appears they all feel they have finally understood a maths exam and have a certain sense of satisfaction with what they have done. At the end of one lesson I am confronted by a 12 year old girl who waits until the room is empty to tell me "thank you mr. kay. I have never passed a maths exam before, I have never liked maths lessons but with you...well, thank you". I manage to hold back my tears and suddenly become mexican - I kiss her and hug her (normal behaviour for a mexican teacher).

friday - we are supposed to be going to a party with maria's co-workers but (and this is a big butt) there is something that bugs me about the guy holding the party. I have managed to stay quiet about my feelings (when I say quiet, I have only let through 17 bitter and twisted comments) but the guy let's slip his whole feelings about maria - he tries to encourage her to lie to me (invites her out to look at beds and asks her to tell me that they went on the internet). Alarm bells ring in maria's head and then, with immaculate timing, we get an invite somewhere else. Efrain and Ilyana and wonderful, the evening is brilliant. I cry. I cry tears of laughter at one stage - not because of the mouse that we spend an hour chasing round the house while Ilyana "dances", not because of the fantastic company, not because of the copious amounts of alcohol but because of a story about a fire extinguisher. Please, add to your "things to do before I die" list - listen to Efrain tell his fire extinguisher story. We get home at 3am.

saturday - we wake and phone the kids to tell them to pack their swimming stuff, we are spending a day at the beach, to be told - they aren't coming YET. Nikos is sick and Danny is feeling rough. Sheffield United continue to lose - it will be a long season. We eventually get the kids, pick up films from blockbuster and spend the day watching "Robots", "in her shoes", "wallace and grommit", "pinky and the brain" with the volume turned up as danny throws up in the background. The kids gone, we settle down to watch "Fletch" and maria falls asleep.

sunday - we get up and charge across the border before the queues form. We go round Target for stuff we need and then head 60 miles north to san clemente. This is "our" place - at the end of the pier I proposed to maria. We eat good food, we laugh, we talk - we walk, we kiss. We go home and watch "V for Vendetta".

monday - La Directore needs a day (or two) to recover from her holiday and so my appointment is put further back. I get home to discover that the electricity bill that was paid on thursday hadn't "gone through" (I could write several posts on mexican banking) and so we have been cut off. We pay the re-connection charge which means that when we get home maria "reconnects" us - using a hacksaw and a pair of pliers!

tuesday - no La Directore but I have one of those days that ends in 30 tonnes of marking (bad move) but I do manage to find ten minutes to write a post (eventually) - enjoy.

the 'L' is important

As you barrel down the road from Tijuana to Ensenada you come across Foxploration - this is not what you are looking for. Oh sure, one day you might want to go visit the place where they made "Titanic" but if you are on the road for the first time you should be looking out for a white archway. Don't try to follow the signs to Popotla because that isn't where you are really going. You turn off the road onto a dusty, rutted cart-track. Under the arch and two hundred metres down the "road" (just after you've lost your third filling) there is a hole in the fence which says "$3 Safe Parking", turn in there. You are now driving through a rutted field that was ploughed in 1763 and has been left to dry out since then. It might be an idea to wire your jaw closed because there is a chance you will bite your tongue off.

Park the car and walk through the hole in the fence. There is one street in front of you that runs out onto the northern tip of the cove. In front of you is the walkway down to the beach. Walk down there. Look out to sea and try and spot a boat that is heading in towards the beach. There are several boats out there, far on the horizon but you are waiting for one that is heading back to land. If you get bored, or are thirsty, or hungry. Wander off to the stall where they will sell you a clamato. Realise that they are opening the clams as you order, chopping them in front of you, adding them to the clamato. Fresh clams for your clamato. Drink (and eat) your clamato as you continue to search for the boat coming in.

Try not to join the rush down to the boat when it comes up on the shore. Most of the people going to look are tourists, some, though are stall owners. Watch for the people who start bargaining with the fishermen. Watch for the person who picks up the fish and starts to walk towards a stall. Head towards them, try to get there first, before the other tourists leave the boat and follow them back to the stall.

Think carefully before you pick your fish. Some might look interesting and exotic but you need to remember that an interesting look might not equate to a great taste. You can pretend to be be daring but it might be best to just go for something that looks like it won't scare you on the plate. And try not to give the fish a name once you pick it. You are going to have to eat it and as fresh as it is, trying to eat somthing with a name takes away some of the enjoyment.

Take your fish from the beach and back up onto the one street. There are thirty buildings on the street, twenty of them have to do with eating. Ignore the shops selling souvenirs to tourists. Ignore the shop selling fresh coconuts and pick your restaurant. Try to pick one on the left hand side of the street as the view will be wonderful. Once in the restaurant, hand the fish over to the cook, pick a table, order drinks, eat nachos with the salsa dip and relax looking out the window at the sea.

After a time your fish will arrive,cooked. Enjoy your meal. Is there anything better than fish, freshly caught, cleaned on the beach, cooked and then placed before you?

After lunch you might want to take a walk on the beach. If you want a dessert there are people selling mangoes on the beach.

However, after a good meal there is nothing better than a walk on the beach, staring out to sea, throwing stones and avoiding the waves.

You'll eventually leave because there is nothing else to do, to see. But you will take with you happy memories of a wonderful day, a marvellous meal in a beautiful setting and excellent company. Oh, and if anyone asks you where you went remember to pronounce the 'L' in Popotla otherwise you will be doing the place a disservice*.

(All pictures will biggerize when clicked upon and there are more pictures at my zooomr account.)

*Popota (no 'l') translates as "big shit" much to a certain 5 year old's amusement.

on the beach

Saturday the weather forecast was for Thundery Showers. Saturday is the day we have the kids.

Let's go to the beach.

Errrm. Thundery showers?

Best place to be then - the beach. The weather is always different at the beach.

Who was I to argue.

Friday I went shopping and bought a "20 piece beach set", a bag filled with buckets, spades, forks and plastic shapes. Put four bottles of water and two cokes in the freezer.

Saturday I coated my face and arms with factor 55 while Maria went and picked up the kids. Across the border, bought severap bags of crisps in the petrol station, nipped into Borders to buy a copy of Pinky and the Brain (out on DVD now!) and then onto the beach.

It didn't rain!

Like a good Englishman I didn't take my trousers off, just rolled up the legs. I did take my shirt off for nearly a whole hour, kept my shoes and socks off for the whole five hours. Got badly burnt on the tops of my feet. The drinks stayed frozen in my multi-layered, plastic bags. A fun day was had by all.

I've made a photo album of the day here if you want to look at some of the pictures.

ALL of the pictures are at my zooomer account here.