Pintura Plastico

I'd headed out to Spain to get some much needed painting under way. I have to say, that it really didn't seem to be a big task, but as I took a first close look, the size of the job seemed a bit daunting. All I had to do was to paint a garden wall, which was on an incline, laid with membrane and covered with pebbles. The surface was the killer, it was so unstable, and the incline was 15 to 20 degrees, and the temperature was about 30-35 degrees!

Once I'd done some ground clearance, and found some really thick gardening gloves to push the neighbours ornamental palms aside I made a start.

Early starts were the key to success, as it became obvious why Spanish workmen down tools and head for the beach in July/August. I'd opted to try Spanish paint, and as I'd inherited a large can from the last workmen on the premises, I got stuck in, after buying a second can. The application method seems to be to load up the paintbrush and generally spread the paint out on the wall. To describe this paint as thick is quite an understatement. I would have confidently upturned the can over my head and looked up with my eyes open.

The gloves worked quite well, and I received only a few punctures in my hands, however it's really not nice to see a small army of ants marching up the glove heading for my arm, each time I disturb them.

The paint pots rapidly emptied, and I faced the prospect of buying more, (easy) and transporting it by bicycle (more entertaining). I knew I would find that there was a downside to deciding to manage without a car. It is entirely possible to carry 8 litres of external plastic paint on the handlebars of a bicycle in Spanish holiday traffic (and not fall off).

Of course, I had the locals pass judgement on my work.

Beta Tester



Quality Control

12 Hours

This is the time it took from the first phone call from my partner to say that our cat was seriously ill, to the second phone call he made in tears from the animal hospital car park. No need to speculate on the contents of the call. Of course we all know that our pets will likely die before us, but that does not stop us giving them a loving home.

There was no time for me to get home to say goodbye to our beautiful, spirited girl, and the vet was unable to take any action to save her. She died too young, but the odds were against her becoming an old cat, because of long term ill health. I will miss her, and right now I feel very sad. Once I get back to the UK, I will take the time to celebrate the good times she gave us over the last 11 years.

Natural High

I set off from Bendolla to hike to the Roc D'Orzival. My route took me through the Abondance area, which in winter is my favourite ski itinerary. It's quite a sharp climb and the area looks so different in summer, with features that I don't get to see in the winter.

The usual skiers entry point is in the centre of this image.


Here is the view from the entry point. I had no idea there were so many rocks!

Once up onto the main ridge I headed for the top, but the air was not too clear so the views were not so good.

This is looking across into the Orzival area, which is another popular off piste destination, easily reached without skinning up. Beyond is the Rhone valley.


After this, I headed down to Tsarva, and then back to Bendolla, passing a drag lift on the way. The snowpark kickers still had some snow, I wonder if it will last until the season starts.


Here is a good example of why surface lifts can't run in summer!


I stopped for a sandwich, beside a stream which was in a very pretty setting. I really think that the nearby bridge could use fixing though.

Weather 1 - Hiker 0

I set off to hike in Grimentz several days running, and turned back each day because the weather was not good. I was surprised at the amount of snow on the walking routes and as I was walking alone, I opted to turn around as the hills were very quiet.

Basset De Lona

I wanted to hike around Point De Lona across to Lac Lona and then onto the Basset De Lona, but was thwarted by the cloud descending. It was cold, and hard to see the route because of snow and cloud. In almost 5 hours of walking I saw no-one else. To add to my enjoyment, my boots leaked when I crossed a wide stream-twice. It's quite a rugged route and my guide book promised great views, which I completely missed due to the weather.




Cabane Becs des Bossons




I'd set off good and early, caught the first lift up to Bendolla and planned to reach the Cabane by 1pm latest. At about 11am it occured to me that I could not recall putting my sandwiches in my pack. Oh well, lunch would be an energy bar! I had a couple of hikers following me, perhaps they thought I knew where I was going, but for me, hills looks so different in summer. The path up to the top of the lift system, was quite snowy, and where I broke through the snow, there was shin deep orange mud underneath.

At the top, I set off towards the Cabane, but turned back after about 10 minutes, as the route was not visible under the snow, it's a traverse of a steep slope with much loose scree underfoot in parts. The folks that were following me, had not done the route either, but decided to keep going, planning to return via Pointe de Lona. I retreated back to my awaiting sandwiches and had lunch at 2pm having ascended 770m and descended 770m in 4 and a half hours. My boots leaked again, which was predictable given the conditions. These hills look so pristine in winter, early summer is very different.

Getting Down To Business

My life is unfortunately not all skiing, hikes and Tarte au Myrtilles, so, having waved bye to Andy who was heading to the UK, the next day I started on the job in hand. As a warm up, I totally masked out the apartment, and then painting the ceiling twice. Thereafter I spent a portion of each day getting the apartment up to a reasonable standard of decor, planning to spend the remainder of the time on hiking.

One slight disadvantage of travelling light by air, is that I'm not able to carry my tools, so ended up buying some Swiss tools, plus paint, varnish, sandpaper etc. I have decided that I really prefer my own, and I have now developed a dislike of Swiss paint. The stuff for the ceiling was like glue, and I'm not happy with my work, and have decided to repaint it next winter, and use my favourite paint. The varnish for the exterior was also pretty thin and odd, and reacted with the existing covering, leaving a sticky mess, which needed more stripping back.

My best results were with the Wood Oil I'd purchased, which was French, and I'll seek out the brand again, as there is still plenty of interior woodwork to be restored. I refuse to worry about the labelling on the can. It was certainly not Hell to use!



It was good to be able to get out and about and enjoy the scenery, which helped me regain some perspective on what I was actually achieving each day.

Cabane de Bella Tolla

A lovely sunny day, though a little cool to start with. My ankle was still not right, so we settled on an easy hike up to the Cabane. Heading over to St Luc and taking the Funicular to Tignousa, it's a leisurely 166 metres climb, though we did raise the pace in order to get a table in the sunshine ahead of a large tour group. The Cabane is a pretty place in summer and it's well patronised.

Interesting Menu though, 3rd Menu choice is worth a second glance.



So we stopped off for a coffee and very tasty Tarte au Myrtilles and then hiked over to Chalet Blanc and back along the Chemin des Planetes, passing lots of Herens cows, fresh from Inalpe, who were trimming the grass around the depictions of the Solar System.
No prizes for spotting the Cowherd lying in the grass!

Chilling

As it was my Birthday, and I'd managed to sprain my ankle on the Schwarzhorn, we decided to have an easy day, as it was a Sunday after all. So we drive up to the Dam and have a good look round, It's pretty spectacular, and the view of the right side of the bank here, is skiable, well sort of. I have been down it, but a bit further across, and mostly on my back with my legs in the air as I recall.

This has to be the biggest overflow, I have ever seen!

It's hard to get a feel for the size of the structure, but there is a car down on the foreshore in the image. Yes, I know it's the wrong way up, but I've not managed to find out why this is happening, sorry!

It was a bit chilly for June, so we grabbed out coats and headed off for a long lunch in Zinal. When the sun came out, it was a whole lot warmer.

Interesting restaurant, with live entertainment!

Some Parapente guys gave us a free show while we had a coffee, and then we set off for a slow walk around the Naviscence for me to try and get my ankle freed up.

Hiking the Rostigraben

Starting from Chandolin we took the Tsape chairlift up, which was not without a little drama, as the lift operator could not work the ticket machine. The chair only runs for 30 minutes every couple of hours and time was getting on, but he finally managed to issue a ticket.

We walked over to see the Illsee barrage, which is quite spectacular then passed Lac Noir, then carried on up the Schwarzhorn. The path is marked as difficult on the route, though the new Swiss Hiking grades only mark it a T2 Mountain Hike. It's certainly a hands on walk at times, with good eyesight needed to spot the marker paint.



After a walk around on the top, we had lunch at 2790m with our feet dangling into German speaking Switzerland and looking down on the lakes of Oberer and Unterer Meretschisee.
Andy had a little vertigo, and felt drawn to the edge, which was not good.

On the way back, we stopped at the Tsape restaurant, which has recently been demolished and rehoused in a tent behind the chairlift station.

"Have you ever visited a Harvester"...

We hiked down the piste back to the car park, as it was the most direct route. It's surprising how steep ski pistes are! The day 's height gain after the chair lift was 315m. Descent was 860 metres. It felt like more!

Cabane d'illhorn

We had set off from Chandolin village aiming to get up high. The old village is very pretty and on sunny days gets great views of the valley.
The weather had other ideas, so we hiked through the woods to the Cabane d'illhorn for coffee and cake.

The weather set in for the day, and after hiking through the woods for a while, we decided to quit in favour of a long lunch at a local restaurant.It was good to visit the Cabane, as we have skied past it many times, and never called in. It's a charming place with a good menu and friendly staff. Next winter we will be back.

All New and Very Shiny

Today is the official inauguration of the new Zinal Cable Car cabins. They will carry more people, offering a better view up to the existing destination Sorebois. The old cabins are looking elderly and a little forlorn in the car park.

Weapon Of Choice

I have a listing on Facebook. I guess, that like a lot of Facebook users, my Friends list is made up of folks I associate with with face to face, folks I've met elsewhere on the internet who have similar interests and affiliations, and genuine long time friends.

Who knows what makes other folks tick, but I'd hoped I knew a bit about my long time friends. As it turns out I didn't know one of them very well at all.

Facebook has a large number of selectable restrictions with which a profile owner can modify who sees their profile, and what those folks can view. These are in addition to the Public Profile choices. I'd never used them as it made me feel a bit uncomfortable, if I didn't want some folks to read what I had written, why write it?

Logging on around the time of my Birthday, I was very surprised when clicking onto a long time friends profile, to see it looking very bare, with a minimal page of Wall information. So I emailed him to ask if he'd had a clear out, and he told me he'd been messing with the settings and the way blog posts appear, and he also said he'd look at it again sometime.

Now as he's a bit of an IT expert, I did wonder how this could have happened, but hey, maybe all of his listed friends were in the same puzzled situation as me, maybe it's Facebook at fault.

So, I contacted a couple of mutual friends at random, from very diverse backgrounds, and to my dismay, was told that they could see the full profile. So I'm starting to think that this was personal, and using the Facebook help section I now understand the fairly slow and painstaking process of blocking Profile access through entering an individual friends name, against different sections of your Profile. It was also a bit shocking to read in the dedicated chat areas that this particular tool is most often used by women to deter sex pests on Facebook.

You really could not do this by accident.

Never mind, I was sure he'd put it right soon, he's a good friend after all.

Except that didn't happen, because by the next day, a click on his profile, produced a 1 line entry only, for his Wall. So, he'd definitely looked at it again, and it would seem, reduced my access further.

Why do that, what's the point?

Enquiring of mutual friends has failed to identify my crime. They are at a loss to offer a reason or justification for his actions.

The next day I used a dummy registration to view his Public Profile and it looked pretty complete, so clicked on "Remove as Friend" to watch his Public Profile fill up, now the restrictions he'd placed against my name no longer held. At least I could read his Blog entries now. I emailed him to ask him to restore my Friend Status and remove the restrictions - no reply. So I sent a "Friend Request" - which he rejected, by clicking the ignore button. He then placed restrictions on his Public Profile, cutting my view of it to the minimum.

So, I waited a month, and then phoned him. It was Voicemail, so I rang off. My phone rings straightaway, and it's him, and he sounds upbeat and cheerful, but then I'm on a new number and once I tell him it's me, his voice tone changes, and despite phoning me, now he can't talk as he's in the car. In fact, that's all he said, over and over. I gave up.

As for me, I'm still pretty upset by this, but I'm determined to get out there and enjoy my life, as this will fade with time. Perhaps he will make the time to contact me one day and explain why he took the actions he did, but I'm not waiting in for his call.

I failed to see this coming, it seems things are never what we expect them to be. It appears that I was friends with him, but he saw me differently, disposable perhaps?

Thames Stroll

We took a very pleasant 5 mile stroll along the Thames Path. There is always plenty of activity both on and off the river, and the town of Abingdon was equally busy. Of course, the sunshine brings the crowds, and many tourists want to either walk beside the river, or rent a boat, and get afloat. Either way, solitude is not something they will be experiencing.

There are some very large boats moored near Abingdon, and we wondered just how they manage to get underneath the bridges.

Chufi

I should really start this entry with an apology, because I have no idea why some of my photos are on their sides, or how to fix it! Perhaps a quick fix of Chufi is needed in the system. It's my weak spot, I can't resist chilled Chufi and I was a lost cause when I spotted a large chilled display just full of Chufi in the supermarket.

Of course I need the full-on version, the low calorie one just does not taste right. So there I am swigging enough calories to keep me fed for a week in one glass (or so my waistline tells me).

I did make the effort to get some exercise, and we played tourist one afternoon and climbed the Peniscola castle ramparts, and visited the little exhibition in one dungeon. This was hanging from the ceiling BTW.


This is a view we have never seen before, from the castle roof, over the old town and we were left wondering why the port decided to paint the town name on the roof of the dock!

If you have ever been to Switzerland, you may have memories of a well ordered, polite society. Well, here's an example of how the Swiss park when they are abroad. It's probably a case of "when in Rome, do as the Romans". This is a Swiss registered Subaru Tribeca parked outside a local supermarket in Peniscola.

The weather was a little dull, but we escaped being rained upon, until we were heading for the airport, so that was fine by us. We managed to do a little DIY and gardening and most importantly relax, which is what a holiday is all about.