Conil Friday 12th June

A tad slow this morning but tradition must be observed so the brekky was had in Conil, then off to Chiclana again to meet up with Chary and husband Coleman for tapas in the Feria. Chary runs the Spanish section of a great website for all things Irish in Europe - http://www.europeanirish.com/index.php where you can find out all class of stuff about gigs, sport but as of yet, no mention of 'Proper Sausages' - http://www.thepropersausage.blogspot.com/

It was ladies day at the feria so all shapes and sizes of lady were squeezed into the Sevillana dresses, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. There were also horses and carriages being paraded around, all very 'tipical' as they say in Spanish. In Ireland we say 'traditional' and in England they say 'quintessential'. We ended up in the 'O' Farrells' caseta, apparently there's a story as to why a family called O' Farrell ended up here in the 18th. Century, I'll investigate. The place started to fill up with women all hell-bent on having a good time while quaffing that evil drink the 'Rebuquijo'. The reason became obvious when two male strippers presented themselves and started dancing on top of the bar, the women went mad trying to rip the clothes off the boys. They also took an active part in the 'dancing'. I resisted. Then it was time to track down Encarna, my favourite Gaditana, she's working in an ice-cream parlour on La Barrosa, the huge beach that runs south of Chiclana. Trying to find her was another story as Chiclana is linked by a series of roundabouts and if you were not born there, you just end up driving around in circles. The other thing is peoples direction giving abilities, which can leave something to be desired, for example; 'around the corner' can mean anywhere, not here, that may be up to 5 Km away, '10 minutes from here' may be interpreted to mean 10 minutes by galactic-class battle cruiser travelling at warp speed or half an hour by normal transport. The number of roundabouts is inversely proportional to distance travelled, you can drive from Madrid to Cadiz sans roundabout (about 700 Km) and you can drive from Chiclana to Torre del Puerco, about 5 Km through 12+ roundabouts. Anyway, Encarna is as lovely as ever and in her element with chap and work.