August in Spain 8 - New Found Friends

Sunday, August 26
Mark, Flor and daughter Malrisa picked us up early morning so we can go to the 9 am mass on base. After church, Malrisa and I went to the library next door to go on line while Flor and Donna went to the commissary. After they’re done picking up a couple of things, they took us to their house and we had lunch of fish and vegetables.

Mark and I were talking about our old Navy days. It turned out he got stationed aboard the USS Oklahoma City in Yokosuka the same time I was on the White Plains. He lived in the same apartment building (called mansion in Japan) Moriya in Hinode-Cho and he worked with former shipmates Donnie Yturralde and he knew most of our neighbors in the apartment; SK1 Kong Willie (forgot his last name) married to Kapampangan Atching Dette, our Komadre Baby (Reggie’s godmother) and husband Vic Napalan. It’s a small world indeed.

Donna and I had dinner at the same restaurant, Blanca Paloma in Puerto Sherry; we had lunch with Mary and Robert the first time we arrived here in Spain. We walked on the beach on the way over there and we met a Filipino woman with two girls clamming on the beach. We said hi to them and we went on our way. I had a nice salad and she ordered a veggie pizza. After dinner we walked back the way we came from. With the tide extremely low, it’s nice to walk around the big rocks without our shoes getting wet. It was almost dark by that time and we met another Filipino woman and we started a conversation with her. We found out there was a fairly big group of them behind the huge rocks having an illegal barbecue! They invited us to eat with them. We declined, saying we just had dinner. One of the ladies, (Dalen I think is her name?) from Madrid was the same one who called Mary a while back and said they’re coming to see her. We told Dalen Mary was waiting for her call back.

Monday, August 27
After breakfast today, we straightened out the house a bit. I swept the leaves in the back, washed the sheets that got wet during the storm Saturday along with our laundry. Donna cooked some chicken asado and watched some TFC tapes afterwards. Flor called asking how we’re doing.

After dinner we found Robert’s stash of DVD’s so we started watching the movie Tim, filmed in Australia with a really young Mel Gibson playing opposite an older Piper Laurie. She was Sissy Spacek’s mother in Carrie. We also watched Kate and Leopold with Meg Ryan and Hugh Jackman which I’ve seen before so of course I thought Donna had to. But we started watching it and it didn’t look familiar with her. I couldn’t remember where I watched it and with whom. The third DVD (yes we watched 3 DVD’s in one day!) was Mona Lisa Smiles with Julia Roberts playing an instructor in a New England college during the 50’s.

Robert and Mary called from Carson City and they had some good news for us. Cesar is recovering well, eating and drinking and has started talking so we talked with him a bit as well. We also got a call from Reggie from Japan but his phone card was only good for 20 minutes.

Tuesday, August 28
There’s not much to do so I’ve been able to do quite a bit of blogging. I’m excited to go on line because I was chatting with Eph last Sunday and he’s shown me how to post pictures in my blog again through Flickr.com. So now you won’t have to be bored with my purely-text blogs!

Wednesday, August 29
We set the alarm early this morning. We were going to meet Flor at Super Sol so we can go to the Gypsy market together. First, the good news; we got a call from Jelisa, Mary’s secretary, and she said my temporary driver’s license from the DMV has arrived and she’s going to drop it off around 7:30ish tonight.

Now for the bad news, you may recall on a previous blog about the BMW not wanting to start. Well, last Sunday when Mark and Flor were here to pick us up for church, it happened again. But it did start after we waited for a few minutes. This morning however, it’s being stubborn and wouldn’t start at all. It’s already around 4 in the afternoon and I’ve tried to start it several times without any success. We had to call Flor and told her of our predicament. She said she went to Super Sol and found some fish on sale. She bought a lot of them and she and Mark are supposed to come tonight and give us some. I hope the BMW has a change of heart soon because we’ll be in trouble if we can’t use it. We’ll need to drive it to Fatima; otherwise I won’t be able to fit everyone in the van.

Jelisa did drop off my temporary driver’s license around 8. I couldn’t make her come in because her baby is asleep in her car. A little later Flor and Mark came and dropped off some fish. He tried to start the BMW but couldn’t.

Thursday, August 30
Mary’s friend from work Ann called early this morning asking how we’re doing. She was so happy to learn that Cesar is doing better.
Alicia called and we talked about the car rental. I told her about the car here not wanting to start. Now we really need to rent a car! Lita called from Rome as well and along with Alicia, I told her about Cesar also.

Tomorrow is the big day. Donna and I are supposed to wait outside the gate so Mark can pick us up. The plan is for us all to go on base, pick up the van rental, then I’ll hang out at Expeditions, go on line and around lunch Mark will accompany us through the gate. Donna and I will then go straight to the airport to pick Elaine, Gene and Amanda.