New cushions to dos huevos con patatas fritas

...New cushions in the Marina bar! Yes Pepi and Antonio have bought new cushions. The fact that the whicker chairs are falling apart is a mere detail. But yesterday when I went for the odd Mahou, Pepi was sat witha chord-less drill and some screws shaking a selected whicker chair to see how unsteady it was. If it failed the test he got a screw and used the drill as an electric screw driver to fix the wobble. Next to me was a Dutch couple who couls speak some Spanish and very good English. "Pepi doesn't like to spend money" the man said to me, instantly clocking that I was a limey. "He must have got the covers from a gypsy at knock down prices, but he clearly couldn't make a deal for the chairs" he laughingly continued. Pepi, who was un-moved by this jolly banter, continued shaking chairs like a man possessed.

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My wife Angela works in a small English supermarket called La Cala Save, she has colleagues Julie and Sally, an occasional worker called Rita and her boss is Andrew. They all work it amongst themselves who works when, and do swaps when the social scene demands. The shop is slightly more expensive than Mercadonna or Lidl, but he is dealing in a lower turnover so that's why. To the holiday maker La Cala save is a little part of the UK abroad.

They arrive at their holiday home for the week/fortnight full of enthusiasm. They have their first meal and start to think about what they are eating, by day two they venture out towards pastures new, and they come across La Cala save. If you have ever watched Peter Kay's acts you may have heard his tale of going abroad. How the brits see a packet of cadbury's chocolate fingers and saying "oh they taste just like those in England". Well that's their first observation the second one is after they have tried their spanglish out "hola, do youo have salto" and they realise that the person they are talking to is English, they instantly relax, "Ah great, do you have any English salt"? ....

The other bit of information that they find hard to assimilate is the very fact an English person is serving at all. "do you live here"? is a regular enquiry, my wife has known to be flippant occasionally and say "No I commute most days". (hope Andrew doesn't read this oops).

And talking about shopping, I haven't mentioned Sheila and Pat. They are professional shoppers, you hardly see either without shopping bags or trolleys, unless of course they are in the marina bar and then you rarely see them without alcohol.

Both ladies have recently lost their husbands, but they have helped each other through a very difficult period and they seem to be coming out of the other side. Shelia has sold her house in the UK and Pat is in the process of selling.

Sheila and Pat have another friend calle Brenda, who is from Scotland. All three are very good company and like a laugh. I also pity the poor man who thinks these ladies are a walkover, because they are definitely not! The three go to Cafe Benidorm which has seen off much younger people than this trio, and they come home with the milk float.

The day that Pat and Sheila seem to come to like on is Friday, that's La Cala market day. The riverbed street converts to a large open air market. Stall upon stall, selling fresh vegetables, fruit, watches, wallets, hand bags, paintings, toys. You name it , it is probably there. In the middle is a makeshift cafe, and in all cafes in Spain they sell alcohol. so from some time in the AM, Sheila and Pat are bringing their 2 favourite hobbies together 'drinking and buying'!

By the afternoon you can see emerging from the crowd and landing on an unsuspecting Marina Bar, in need of food. Sheila has very good Spanish and it is therefore maybe because she is tired she asks for "dos egg and chips Pepi".......