Eventful

It's been a sad, strange and eventful last few days. Cora, Pascal and Frank arrived on holiday on Thursday, but while we were waiting for them to arrive, the news of the bombs in London started filtering through, and the euphoria generated by Live 8 and the successful Olympic bid were immediately replaced with shock, horror and sadness for the victims and their families.

The kids were blissfully unaware of all this, of course, and were counting down the hours and minutes until their cousin Frank arrived. They talk all year about their trips to see one another.

Carmen's mum Anja is staying with us while Cora & Pascal are here. On Thursday evening, she went out for a walk with Carmen and Cora, and at one point she twisted her ankle on nothing, a slightly uneven paving stone by the sound of it. It was very painful and she limped to the doctor's with difficulty. They put a bandage on and told her to go and get it x-rayed the next day.

On Friday I was due to go to a rock festival in Santander in the evening. The first proper festival or concert in Santander since we moved here. Pascal was planning to come along as he wanted to see the Chemical Brothers, but when he saw they weren't due on stage until 12.45 am he decided to stay at home and get a good night's sleep instead. He did all the driving on Wednesday and Thursday so he was still recovering from the journey.

Carmen took Anja to get the x-rays in Santander (120 km / 85 mile round trip) and the result was that she has broken her ankle. They put the ankle and lower leg in a half-open cast, and sent her home. Great timing - no trips to the beach with Frank, no day trips, at least for the time being. Poor Anja, it's the first time she's ever had a plaster cast or been immobilised and she's having a hard time getting used to it, asking for help, etc.

As it was cloudy, Cora and Pascal had taken Jamie along with Frank to the shops in Santander, and just after Anja and Carmen got home, I got a phone call from him - could I get the spare car keys from Anja's flat and bring them to them in Santander? He'd locked the keys in the car (I don't know how he managed it, I thought with remote control keys that that didn't happen any more). I'd just got an urgent job in which I had to deliver in a couple of hours, so Carmen had another 120 km round trip.

When Carmen got back, I jumped straight in the car to drive to Santander again for the festival. It took me a while to find it, as the directions were not very good and there were virtually no signposts. It turned out to be right next to a beach, a compact festival site about half the size of Pinkpop or Torhout. Nice friendly size, in other words. The sun was out and there was a good vibe. The first band on the main stage was Ocean Colour Scene, but the sound check went on for ages, with various mic problems, so they were 50 minutes late coming on.

They played an excellent gig though, the crowd going wild for the big hits Things You Said and Day We Caught the Train. During the gig I got chatting to a group of Spaniards sitting in front of me on a strategically placed hillock, and spent the rest of the evening sharing rounds with them.

Next up were Morcheeba. The new singer fitted in perfectly and they put on a great show. She also plays sax. The sun went down during the set so the light show could start, and the big screens were switched on.

Morcheeba were followed by The Faint, a band from Omaha who I didn't know at all, didn't even vaguely recognize any songs. They reminded me of The Strokes, but not as cool.

Finally it was time for the headliners, The Chemical Brothers. I managed to get right up the front and got in some serious pogoing. Amazing. Unfortunately I forgot about my dodgy knee, which had just about recovered. The next morning it felt like it was back to where it was 3 weeks ago :o(

I'd lost contact with my group of Spaniards, and at the end of the gig the thought of the 2 km walk back to the car for a kip did not appeal, so I set my alarm for 7 (I had to be back to collect the keys from our departing guests) and crashed on the hillock for an hour. Woke up at 4 and wandered back to the car for another short kip, then back to San Vicente for the key handover.

See below for a couple of photos.

Despite clouds most of the week, our first paying holiday guests said they'd had a wonderful time, which was encouraging.

Despite the lack of sleep I took the kids down the market while Carmen made up the beds at the flat and changed the towels. We are getting a cleaner in to do the dirty work. Cora and Pascal then phoned to say they were taking the kids down the beach, so I rushed home to get the kids ready and creamed up, make a picnic, etc. The skies were clear and it was a beautiful day, the kids had a lovely time on the beach, diving into deep rock pools and digging lots of holes.

In the evening we were all knackered, but we had one more big job to do - the spare room, where Anja is sleeping, suddenly got an ant plague. All the flying ants were coming out, and the curtains were covered with them. We guessed that the nest was somewhere in the roof, and that they'd found a hole in the wall somewhere and were coming into the flat that way. We emptied the built-in cupboard where they seemed to be coming from and tried to find how they were getting in, but couldn't spot a gap anywhere. So we sprayed insecticide in the cupboard and left it for a couple of hours.

When we went back to look, the dead ants were concentrated in one place, so I got a mirror and found a hole in the plaster next to the inner wooden frame of the cupboard doors. I got some Polyfilla and carefully filled the gap, with the help of a torch and mirror, and it seems to have solved the problem.

I bought a wireless kit for the computer, so that I can use the internet from other rooms in the house and the balcony, especially while Anja is staying here. It arrived on Friday, but it doesn't work properly - the signal strength drops to nothing when the computer is in the lounge or on the balcony. So now I have to send it back and hope they send a replacement quickly.