saturday saw me slogging my guts out in the garden all day but at least i have finished digging the footings for my new wall. today was more of a finish and tidy up.

this coming week it is time to buy bricks and cement and hopefully by the weekend i will have started my first wall ever! wonder how straight that will be? how hard can it be? its less than a metre high so i reckon i can pull it off.

had a visitor today, a german dude was lost and needed directions. i know my place is a little remote but that was a first. i was playing xbox in my towel after having a shower when he knocked…….bizzare

i have finished a little vegetable patch for julia and her tomatoes and red hot chilllis, maybe this will cut down on the bugs a little?

so this week, back to work. i am toying with the idea of going to the sudoeste festival this year, some good names like goldfrap, zero7, the prodigy and even the mighty madness are playing this year, all for 70 bucks – damn cheap, maybe……

watch this space for more on that.

picked up the mini mal today, so looking foreward to a ride on that sometime this week, lunchtime surfs are cool but you have to trade food in place of a surf – no competition really.

so enough for now

saturday and sunday evenings , at sunset, i scored two beautiful sessions. yup, small and beautiful, just like a good woman, these are how i like my waves.

ponta ruiva was my chosen destination, on the west coast, my nearest beach to home, just ten minutes down the dirt track. at that time in the evening, all of the trendy boys have gone home after strutting their stuff to the local talent all day long.

that leaves you with the beach all to yourself. i just love paddling out back and saying hi to my chums that are already there. Sven, Ricky and rob, already in the water picking off the better shaped stuff.

the water was warm with a light off shore breeze, i should have gone in wearing just my shorts really but i wasnt sure………next time, i promise, i still have last years hawaiian shorts, dusted off and ready for action this year.

at the weekend, the holiday season starts so all hell will break loose. time to study the tide timetable and pick off an early morning surf before work (a dawnie) and last thing at night (sunset session).

and while the tourists are here, i can hide away in my tatty little farm house and start fixing it up.

nothing more but work this week – its fun being at autorapo ……..sometimes russ can be a complete cock !!!!!!  oh yeah !!

and sadly – the land of the trendy surfers!

i hate to admit it, sagres has changed. more upmarket surf competitions means the place is full again of pretentious tossers……either that or i forgot what tourist season is like down here.

have been working harder than i thought i would too. russ has a new mechanic and he is off on holiday for a month, so i get to cover. must admit though, it is good to be back, working at autorapo is a good laugh – and i havent broken anything – YET!!

sandra, the ex is in town. so i get calls at 6 am in the morning and a brace of texts for amusement. what does piss me off a little is how she flirts with other guys in front of me, presumably to make me jealous, only thing is, i wonder why she has so little self respect to do stuff like that.

she is doing her best to make friends with all of my chums here and even making friends with some of the local fools! women…….i will never understand!

enough about her.

the house will get hit shortly, i have a plan, and i am sticking to it, which also includes air con with de-humidifiers. got some roof work to do too, good job i am ok with heights eh?

some wierd looking giant crickets, tons of ghekos, spiders that you dont want to go near to, a lizzard in the kitchen and even a big black scorpion in the garden. mind you, when i got the strimmer out to go look for him, he was long gone.

the good old peugeot just keeps going – the lion goes from strength to strength!!

i am still currently having email with bank girl – she really is something of a cutie. her name is marta but for now lets call her bank girl. keep watching for more news.

ok, tonight i am heading to ponta ruiva to meet rob the soap for an evening surf session. should be good, high tide is late so expecting an excellent centre section, ideal fro me and my long board.

enough for now, will be back soon.

she’s cute and yes i have the word – officially single……….

so come back soon to read an official update.

today we had thunder storms and power cuts , god i love this place. no surf today but maybe tomorrow afternoon, forecast for just under two metres, might even take the camera to the beach.

the road trip was a bit of a monster. the ferry was 2 hours late so i hit downtown valencia at rush hour. you ever tried a city at rush hour on the wrong side of the road?

to make matters worse, i got diverted half way to lisbon to cross the border from spain. I was steaming about that, a 100 mile detour!!

anyway, when i got home finally, i was miffed, the house was a real mess. didnt help that the apartment i had in mallorca was stunning but at least i am heavily motivated to get into the work and start renovations. so i went to bed early on monday night.

woke up on tuesday and hit the surf. suddenly all was peachy again. had two good sessions on tuesday, i was surprised though, after 4 months off i was actually ok!!

surfed again today, took me 20 minutes just to paddle out at barriga and i was so knackered when i got out that i had to rest for ten minutes. caught a beauty of a wave back in but couldnt face another paddle out so i left. this afternoon at mareta, had a very chilled session for a couple of hours, small but easy

chicks!!!

sandra is in town this weekend. i have to say she looks stunning. dont you just hate that? she always was very sexy but now even more so. we had a quick chat last night.

bank girl emailled me. told me she couldnt have dinner with a client. i told her i will be back in october/november and i will change my bank so that i can take her out – waiting for a response – of course will keep you posted.

my neighbour, the pissed belgian has stolen some of my land while i was away. i have to go to the police tomorrow to report it, then i will steal it back while he is away and put a great big fence up to keep him out.

so for now, thats about it. when i have some more to add, i will be back, with pictures too.

lastly, big thanks to max for the music. I only listened to the kings of leon, nothing more. good call max, you are a star!

well, finally my time here draws to a close. i have been away from england for 19 months now and am enjoying the new experieces of life. There are many differences between the uk ( the island as it is referred to in the rest of europe). Through portugal and certainly in mallorca, law and order take a massively different perspective, i reckon they focus more on the important things rather than the non important stuff but let me give you a few examples.

Here in mallorca, i can cycle to work every day, no mean feat i hear you cry but imagine this. I am riding the wrong way on a one way street. no-one is shouting abuse at me or sounding their horn, it is the norm. I have even cycled on a one way street the wrong way, no handed towards a police car. what did they do? nothing more than get nearer to the kirb to give me more room, no windows down, no finger wagging – nothing

Compare that to england. cycle the wrong way there, horns from every car, pedestrians shouting at you and the old bill would lock you away for a month while you were sectioned. In fact some years ago while courting a very attractive young girl i was cycling to work with her on my cross bar, a very romantic gesture! A patrol car passed us at the far end of a street, drove around the block and came back to us, making me drop the girl off on the path.

 the helmet laws here had me all confused for a while. The law says that you should wear one. some people do, some dont, others simply plonk it ontop of their head without pulling it down. even a horse riding helmet is considered ok. The police figure that you are only going to injure yourself so why should they worry? But be warned!!!! piss the law off here and the only thing you will get is a six pack of whoop ass opened on you.

Below is a link i found on the web, it shows a robber in mainland spain fleeing from a bank after telling the staff he had a hand grenade. He made a randsome demand for a motorbike to make his escape and they gave it to him. Now before you click on the link to see how the spanish feds dealt with this tosser – i read in the daily mail this week that police in england refused to pursue a youth who had stolen a moped. their reasons – if he crashed he might sue them for injuries because he wasnt wearing a crash helmet. Where is the justice in that? now before you read on – click on the link below, turn on your speakers and see the european way of dealing with trash like that

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yoUaH6wGLs&search=motorcycle%20crash

 so now you might see the subtle differences between blighty and the rest of mainland europe. some might say that being able to break the law by riding down the street the wrong way is just the begining of social decline and being one step closer to a lawless community – but i just dont see it. A liberal but hard line approach seems to work and also gives people the freedom to enjoy life before they die, which is what life is all about. we all know right from wrong but if by doing wrong, you are not harming anyone else, why should that be a problem?

of course, the biggest difference comes with the weather but i cant help you with that, other than to say even in the hot spots of europe we still have water all year round.

I also read this week that england currently takes in around 2 million immigrants a year. Staggering. I also read that 1 million brits are leaving their homeland each year. you work it out – in 7 years an englishman will be a minority in his own country. I was amazed to read that but what also added thought to the statement was that last week i saw a police car with a spanish flag sticker on the rear…….you know what i am going to say next eh? yep, uproar in england, racist police showing the english flag blah blah blah. not that they are and not that other ethnic groups would be bothered, just the politicians looking to score points.

see, i live in spain and abide by spanish law, i also live in portugal and abide by portuguese law and on the odd occasion i am in england, i abide by their laws. If i have issues with abiding by a certain countries law, i move, simple as that. I dont expect special treatment but i do expect equal treatment.

so enough of my rant. let me tell you about mallorca.

a beautiful island, very rich indeed. contrasting from the north to the south but wherever you are, it is greener than portugal.

there are billions of gorgeous spanish chicks here, and once you have a taste of that gorgeous latina shape, there is no going back.

it is very much a place to look good. the girls take such a pride in their appearance. yeah, i guess sometimes that is a little anal for me but you never see one looking daggy, which all adds to the beauty of the place. tons of long black curly hair – i reckon i am into that more than i am into red hair now – what a shift in expectations.

but here’s the thing – when i come back in november, i think it will be time to have a serious sniff around for a good woman. yep, you heard it here first – the eternal bachelor is on the sniff , but not for the next four months eh – afterall, there is surf to be had.

so, in 7 hours time, i will wave bye to palma as it nestles in a meditereanean evening, with a little sadness too.

be good

verao em portugal!!