the rock

Had a good day yesterday. It was fun just getting out of the village for a little while. :-) The village was completely quiet, except for a crowing rooster, when we left just after 5am. On the drive down the mountain we passed but two cars, and the highlight was spotting a large white owl perched on an electric pole, that then swooped down in front of our car (which we had stopped incidentally). Huge wingspan, very cool to see. We arrived just as the sun was beginning to rise behind the Rock. It is a pretty impressive bit of earth I tell you. If we had been thirty minutes later, I am sure the full sunrise would have been stunning. Entering Gibraltar is an interesting experience for first-timers because you have to cross the airport runaway. There are railroad crossing posts and heavily armed RAF guards who shut the border whenever a plane is taking off or landing. On my first visit, I walked across; this time obviously we had the car, which is slightly less exciting. We had our passports ready, but customs just waved us through. So much for border control. We parked up, which is no easy feat in Gibraltar. Most of the streets have been pedestrianized, and the intelligent Gibraltarians all seem to drive scooters. After driving around the city center a couple of times, we did manage to find a spot. Turned out later it was part of a taxi stand and we had missed the sign. Got yelled at by a female taxi driver as we were leaving, but no ticket at least. Having almost an hour to kill before our appointment, we decided to have a full English breakfast. We quickly found a restaurant called the "Copabanana" and placed our order. I haven't had a FEB for a few years, and afterward I remembered why....my body goes into fat and salt shock. My first FEB was prepared by Big Jim soon after we met, and it took me two full days to recover from the fried food assault. Thankfully, the Copa at least didn't also fry the toast. Although it was delicious, I gave half my bacon to Big Jim and concentrated on finishing the English sausage, which was supertasty. We waddled out, finished our business in an hour, and then did some shopping. M.A. had requested we pick up a bottle of Lanvin Arpege for her, a classic French parfum I was told by the saleswoman. It appears the family of the woman whose guesthouse I stayed in as a student has gotten into the perfume trade as there were several establishments carrying her name on the High street alone, including the one where I found M.A.'s bottle. I can understand why most English find Gibraltar to be a bit of a boghole. The main street is full of many discount booze (one shop is actually called Booze & Co.), tobacco, jewelry, and perfume shops because Gibraltar is one big duty-free zone. And the whole place is in need of a coat of paint, so it generally looks a bit shabby. Big Jim had never been there before and was intrigued by the Spanglish spoken by the natives. Two very English-looking older men, complete with cardies and in beige head to head, would greet each other in Spanish, have an entire conversation in perfect Spanish, and then wind up by saying, "Nice seeing you then, mate. Have a nice day. Cheers, cheers," as they patted each other good-bye. The more I travel around Spain, the more I realize how odd the language is that is spoken in and around the village. It must be the Spanish equivalent of our Cajun dialect or a thick Glaswegian accent. Like the Ken Loach movie a few years back, My Name is Joe, which had English subtitles even though the characters were technically speaking English, because the accent was so strong and the language so colloquial. The Spanish outside our immediate area seems almost stilted in its correctness, and mind you I'm still talking about Andalucia, which is also slammed by some northerners for being a bit lazy and not speaking what they consider proper Castilian. The weather was dubious so we didn't travel to the top of the Rock, but we'll return soon. :-) It's only a two-and-a-half hour journey from here, so it's very doable for a day trip. Today it's back to work, so must get to it. I'm already behind schedule because I had to give the precious Boo another bath this morning...yes, more burro caca on the goat track. hasta luego, mylifeinspain