The Rest of the Best of the Parents

It took a long time to pick all of the pictures from last week's Mallorca blog that didn't get posted, so I have to finish that right now.

Some more shots of our place on the sunny day.

This the nuttiest black flower I have ever seen.

Mallorqui Cats!

This is Blanco.

This is Simon.

This is Jermaine.

This is Hummus and Tzatziki.

This is Dustin.

This is Lisa.

Pretty good huh?

OK, so now to the real 'Big Catch-Up.'

We had a good rest of the vacation with my parents. I had a nasty chest infection, so I wasn't able to take Mom and Dad on my usual routine of jogging every morning, but we managed with the other boot camp routines (Can I even joke about this? It almost makes me puke thinking about it.)

We walked around Manny a whole bunch. I took them to the library where I write these blogs and look at chavs drinking. We also popped into the John Rylands Library, which houses one of the greatest old book collections of the UK. It doesn't have a Gutenburg bible, but has one that his assistant (and the brains) printed a year or two after the first run. You couldn't take any pictures inside, which was a real bummer. The
books were stunning.

We then headed off to my favorite Manny museum--the MOSI. Dad really enjoyed it (as I knew he would) and explained how all the machines worked. It was very fun.

That night we met up with Heather and went out for a curry on the curry mile.

I really love the curries there. We have found our favorite on the mile and it is called Punjab. MMMMMMMMMM. Mom and Dad enjoyed it (or at least they are good liars). They headed home and Heather and I went out to a going away party for one of my softball mates. He was having it at his friend's house on the river that separates Manny from Salford. We didn't know it, but it was actually waaaayyy up from the river in the penthouse! It was an insane apartment. The guy who lives there is from Japan and attending uni in Manchester. He says it is way too big for him and his wife and sometimes they get agoraphobic. I could handle that. Anyway, it was kind of fun being so high up and getting a different perspective on the city.

Sayonara Sagen (in the middle below)! Kim is leaving too (on the left), and we just missed her going away party. I heard it was grand. The guy in plaid is my Manny celebrity friend, DJ Levatron--Some of you may have a few of his albums. Good DJ, horrible ball player.

The next day we pulled ourselves up and went to Buxton in the Peak District. We hit up the market and bought a bunch of countryside delicacies. The cupcakes did not last the train ride home.

We also  rented a car and went on a road trip to Northern Wales. It was not the nicest of days to travel or see things, but we made it work. (The day before in Buxto, I had picked up a double CD of the Brit Awards 1994 at a thrift store to listen to on the ride, which contained classic UK hits by artists like Gabrielle, Stereo MC's, Terence Trent D'Arby, and Peter Gabriel. Great CD for a poundie. Man, I love T.T.D'A).

We started off in Llanduando. It was quite windy and rainy.

We then headed down the coast and up a mountain for some panoramic shots. Didn't really work.

Thinking the wind and rain would eventually have to stop, we kept on down the road to Caernarfon Castle. It was hands down the absolute best castle I have ever been in. It was also the first castle I had been in, but it was wicked. I really enjoyed it. The best part was you could go everywhere--up, down, on slippery walkways, and regardless of danger levels! You fall and it's your own fault. Love it.

We just lucked into it. I had a blast. The only problem with Wales was I felt bad for all the dead badgers. They were smushed all over the road. Badger was my favorite character from Wind in the Willows. I tried to take a pic of the "Warning: Badgers on Road" Sign, but it didn't turn out.

The last day we spent out at the Imperial War Museum in Salford Quays. It was a n interesting museum in terms of the spacial positioning of the exhibits. You sort of got squeezed into tight corners that would force you into areas with horrifying and/or huge images of war. It didn't glorify it at all, and was kind of more like a giant peace museum. They also had a pith helmet and I loooooovvveeee pith helmets.

For our last dinner, we went to a delicious pub called the Knot. It was fun until Mom started singing and then it was time to leave!

We had a really fantastic action packed time! Thanks M + D!

Blast-er from the Past-er

Manny cats!

Beechy!

I'm going to try and do another monster post this week on all of the rest of the summer. Keep your ears peeled.

CC

Under the Mallorcan Rainclouds

Wow.....it's getting longer and longer between these posts. Suummmmeeerrtime and the livvinngg is easy. Maybe I'm just lazy. Nawwwwww. I still haven't kicked my sickness either. It keeps lingering. It also could be the incessant noise from Thursday to Saturday at 11:00pm and 4:00am when the bar down the street lets out and the revellers make revelry all the way down the street. Jerks.

So, my parents came and Heather and I took off to Paris. Upon return, we were right off again the next morning To Mallorca. We flew out of Liverpool as it was significantly cheaper. The kind of cheaper that makes you laugh. Like really laugh. For the four of us to fly there is was 110 pounds from Liverpool and 445 from Manchester. It's 40 minutes to get to the airport in Liverpool. About 30 mins to get to the airport in Manny. Come on?

I haven't been to Liverpool other then using the airport, but while taking the shuttle there we did see some random man getting beat up on the main street to the airport. Might be a tough place to go walking around.

Now, dear readers, I have been on some bad flights before, but this one really took the cake for the last hour. I believe I probably sweat out two gallons of water just from my palms alone. We were close to landing, but in a bad storm, and I said to Heather, "We made it, I can see the ground." She replied, "As long as we don't get hit by lightening." Thanks, sweet baby.

We arrived a little late, but picked up our "large" miniature German diesel automobile and headed to our house. We stopped off at the gas station and picked up some beers, as they were definitely needed to re-hydrate, and met the lady who we were renting the house from. I picked a house in the old fishing port of Cala Figuera, the town I stayed in during my vacation in Feb. I had actually taken a photo of the house we stayed in back in Feb!

The weather wasn't, how do you say... good, for most of time we were there, but it wasn't terrible either. There was a lot of outside dining under cloud.

Too many places to mention where we ate, but man did we eat. Eat, eat, eat, drink, drink, drink. A good combination for a vacation.

Gluttons huh? Not to say that we weren't getting any fresh vegetables in Manny, but it just didn't compare with the freshness in Mallorca. Who doesn't love to stuff themselves on vacay anyway? I was not too dorky and didn't take a photo of every meal we had, but then again I have left a lot of photos out of this blog (so I don't seem like a dork).

Cala Figuera is a really nice town. We were situated along the sheltered old fishing port and watched the daily promenade of Germans walking up and down the bay, and sometimes right up to our balcony. I suppose they have different ideas and concepts of space? I think I could have just spent the whole time staring the water and the port, while having a port.

Some days were chilly, as evidenced by Mom reading on the patio.

The rest of the town was beautiful as well. The point had a wicked coastline and nice rock formations. I like this photo a bunch.

Having the car was great (and a necessity). On the second rainiest day, we headed up to the north coast to the Cap de Formentor. I drove the whole thing in Feb, but let's just say one passenger in the car didn't like the twists and turns of the road. She really does love high places though, and had a nice time almost falling into the ocean. I jest---Mom kept saying that now that she is old(er) she doesn't have to do things that she doesn't want to and I'm pretty sure she didn't want to get this close to the edge. Is that the look of fear?

Is that the look of fear? Nawww.

We went for dinner at a great restaurant called S'Arc in Alcudia that night. It was delicious and we had the best bottle of Spanish wine. I kept the label and looked for it in every wine store for the rest of the week. Did I find it anywhere....nope.

The next day, we braved the rains again and headed into Palma for some big city living. It ended up raining hard and we mostly just spend the day drinking coffee, beer, and wine and then looking for bathrooms.

Actually, the sun did poke out and reminded me that Palima is a nice city. In terms of 'tourist' destinations, I really love it because it doesn't feel like it is pandering to the tourists, yet it is relatively easy to navigate around and the people are nice. It kind of reminds me of Prince George in that way---very similar services and attitudes (For all of you not from North America, this is a joke. Prince George is not a nice place. For all of you from Prince George, sorry.)

Unfortunately, Heather had to go back earlier than the rest of us to prepare for a work conference, but it was kind of good luck for us, since as soon as she left the weather turned for the better. Quite a bit better! I felt really bad for her. When leaving there was a massive lightening storm and downpour of rain. Her flight was delayed for two hours on the tarmac. There was probably some sweating going on. As bad as I did feel for her, we all pushed through our sullen emotions and had a good time.

Cala Mondrago, which is in the middle of a nature reserve. We had to walk a while to get there, but man was it great. Nice sand, warm water, and a beach hut with beer and snacks. Sweet.

That night we also went out for our best meal. There is a little french restaurant in an old church in Cala Figuera. The food was beyond delicious. A great meal to end the trip!

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OK-I had more planned, but I have been working on this one for three days now and my battery is about to die again and the Internet connection is making me go batty.

I'll have plenty more pics next week for the posting: The Rest of the Parental Visitation, including more shots of Mallorcan cats. Gotta run now. I promise it won't take a whole month for the next one either!!!

Later Peeps

Colin