Cyclists and Monks

Been doing some work stuff last few days...horrible weather, cold and wet, quite normal for Feb and still 8ºc warmer than London.
Heading back to London on Monday for a few days then back to our new house near Pollenca. Will miss this little flat, rather like the sea outside and sound of waves, but it was always meant to be a stepping stone to a more rural retreat.

Drove up into the Tramuntana mountains, to a monastery in Lluc, not for the monks of course, but to check out some hiking trails in the mountains. Stunning landscape and scary roads, already filling up with lycra clad cyclists.

















This place is a mecca for serious cyclists, the mountain roads are so smooth, twisty and up and downy, but they do overpower the place later in the spring and clog up the roads for everyone else. They seem to think they have priority....nothing changes!
I have found clarity on some traffic rules they seem to ignore a lot, so I'm sure to be doing a lot of shouting at them in the coming months.

All there is to do now is get myself ready for a weekend of rugby, starting tonight with France & Italy....Poor Amy dreads the 6 nations, it consumes so many weekends. 
Tomorrow's the big one though.......Bring it on Scotland!...they hate the English with a bitter ferocity, that makes beating them that much sweeter....a bit like with the Welsh...and the Irish, oh and the French...and the Aussies of course.....so many nations just hate us!

Visiting some old ghosts in Son Sardina

Went for a ride up to Son Sardina. Tony's dad (John) had a farmhouse out here, a small village 5 miles north of Palma 40 years back.

I had my first taste of this great island staying here as a 17 yr old.

Spent the nights and mornings clubbing (sorry, discoteching), back to bed at 5:00am, then slept till late afternoon, when we'd rise, wash, eat and go out again (after drowning ourselves with John's fine array of aftershaves....Aramis and Givenchy still conjure sweet memories when I smell them.

Never got a good tan as never really saw the sun.

Almond trees beneath the Tramuntana

Primroses everywhere...it's now spring here!

The Farm House from the back, seems much smaller (surprise!) and the vicious dog prevented me getting any closer.

Later rode up Na Burguesa, the hill overlooking Palma, from where Christ cast's his loving gaze.

Great twisty winding pot-holed road takes you up to a deserted spot with stunning views over the city and bay.

The road is scary, with shear drops with unprotected sides, but not so scary to stop Chris and Nick racing their mopeds up it, driving crossed hands (hands crossed over the handlebars to swap grips), Chris dumped his bike, but remained on the road.....I get vertigo just walking up it now!

The point where Chris crashed

Perfect setting for a glorious bike....it's now my screensaver!

Car Boot Sale

Took my daily trip to Chino Maxi, the Robert Dyas of Mallorca. Going crazy looking for my wax polish which I used just last week but has vanished off the face of this island.
Turning into this awesome industrial estate, saw a massive car boot sale.

I marvel at how anyone can sell any of this stuff and more so, that anyone would want to buy it.

I rather liked this red chair, left in the middle of a car park full of paraphernalia being sold by a couple of Giants.

My niece has just had a baby and Amy wanted to buy our Great Niece a present...don't worry, love, the dolly with the mildew face is a timeless classic, she'll just love it! 

The hedgehog looked cool, but then I saw the knife....Sadly, I was pipped at the post by a knife thrower from the circus next door...He'd just been sacked, so was starting up his own knife throwing business.

Chino Max didn't sell wax polish....they sell everything else on God's earth...but not car polish.
Have to admit to be rather disorientated and confused....I thought they sold everything!
Bought a couple of small light bulbs and a dish brush to compensate, then left, a bit deflated.

Ahhh, at last. The Cathedral!

Quick trip to Palma Cathedral today… (Telaraña de Tim). 

Stunning place and really quite massive (looks smaller from the road).

God brings out her foxyness

Pictures can't do justice...I've been coming to the island for 
decades, always driving past, but first time actually been inside 
this place...and it is beautiful!

Inside it just makes your draw drop, (except for the piped music through iPhone speakers)

The majestic structure, scale and colours overpower everything.

After wandering around the lovely wee streets of Palma Old Town, I was rewarded for my holy 

reverence at Bar Colmar...best Chicken 'n' chips in town....I mean, really good!

 .      

Chasing the Dragon

Drove past Andratx in the south west corner to Sant Elm, where there is an Island called Sa Dragonera, as its shaped like a dragon in the sea.

Couldn’t quite see it and assumed whoever named it, had been sitting at the bar too long, exhausting the supplies.

Dragon???

Sweet little place with my favourite kind of truck…We're saved!

Walked around the coast looking for a monastery, but as we were reluctant to climb any hills and they tend to be up high, figured it would just stay on our list of ‘places to see’.

Renamed this place Spaz tree...

Confused by the moving sun.

As the fog lifted (metaphorically) and that truck unloaded supplies...we finally saw that dragon

See....his little head on the left and his fins up top..Roaraaghh!....No....! Still just a bloody rock eh?..bring me more beer?

Three Prong Bay (Portals Vells)

Demure...but cold

Visually impressive erosion, but guess what it smelled of inside?

Drove to remote beach, what I knew as Three-Prong Bay (Portals Vells), but near to us in Cala Vinyes.

Used to come here with Tony on his dads boat back in late 70’s.  Very different seeing it from land and in the middle of winter…..The calm sunny winter air brought out just a few die-hards but most of the place was shut down and so peaceful.

Funky villa squeezed onto a plot not quite big enough. Infinity pool has massive glass side.

Glass side makes skinny dipping more interesting

Amy still has the odd gem up her sleeve, even after 25 years she still makes me laugh…. A young couple we passed on the beach, hand in hand and very much in love…As we looked down on them from our assent up the cliff, Amy commented….’How romantic, they’re having a valentines cuddle….if we had a shot gun we could shoot them!’

Just a thought!

More hysterical outrage!

The world was less enlightened and civilised in many ways when I was growing up

Our children are hardwired to kick against how we lived, as we did with our parents…That’s evolution…progress I suppose.

But you can almost map the trajectory of the Millennial’s fair and progressive society….

The one where our kids have their own kids and those kids reject their parent’s vision of the world and in response, become even more debauched, self-serving and vile than we were, just to piss their parents off.….I have total faith in life’s cyclicality.

I like Michelle Dewberry as a commentator, but hearing her on Sky News, made me question her normally grounded and pragmatic views and illustrated how our frenzied, manic reactions can be fed.

She was puffing her disgust at those horrible Oxfam acts (I'm still trying to work out what they were) and goes on to claim some of the prostitutes were underage. ‘Well…’, she pants ‘in my book that’s not just wrong, but it’s child abuse and it must be prosecuted’ or words to that effect.
Sarah Jane-Mee later mentioned, (presumably via her ear-piece producer) that there weren’t any reports (at the time)of underage sex, as a rather limp legal caveat against Dewberry’s claim.

It may be a minor breach of facts, but there must be enough angry viewers who missed that last bit, or simply chose to ignore it, they will scream their indignation that these Oxfam paedophiles aren’t hunted down and burned.

I don’t think anyone know the facts yet, but this cant help the discussion?

Dewberry then said….’I just don’t see how Oxfam can survive this?’…...
Well probably not, as long as you have the microphone anyway.

Some just cant take this lifestyle

It's the damned dogs responsibility

Much better weather today, yesterday was hopefully the end of the 2 week winter here.

Still slightly nippy, but ya de ya de ya.

Not so bad when you know it’s not going to last the next 6 months.

Drove up to north of the island to sign contract for new house near Pollenca (just for a few months, but a more permanent home).

Far removed from the seaside flat we’re in now, very rural, very quiet and just what we wanted for our little stay…..goats and sheep in the fields around and a big fat orange tree in the garden, a pool and bbq house!

Watched a crippled dog limp painfully along the pavement, dump his load, then he just limped away….no bloody attempt to scoop his poop!

Once all docs signed, we drove up to Formentor, a mountainous spit off Pollenca. Fantastic landscape.

            

Official Suicide Spot

                   
Unfamiliar scene of Mallorca driving back...snowy tops!

Cutting, icy rain today. Maybe not as bad as London offers in Feb, but still a bit of a shock and good reason not to venture out.

This place isn’t really designed for shite weather, so quite testing when it impounds you. The flat is lovely with great views over beach, but designed for summer hols and not cold wet days like today.

Amy due back later so will pick her up from Palma airport, about 30 mins drive. Meantime, going to cook an old and easy oven dish. Chicken breast, Chorizo, feta cheese, beetroot, garlic, chilli and anything else of a vegetable nature shoved in oven at 200c. The thighs should be shoved in later after about 40 mins, so all the gubbins gets about an hour of roastin’ and good wholesome garlic & chorizo, cheesy scoff.

Big pepper ….

Good to go, but smarting over its size!

Cool bangle

Wine cooler...(not beer!)

Vase

Funky Light Shade

Without the chicken (the orange is pumpkin, but should have been butternut squash...my crap Spanish)