In Search of Crumble Mix

Tuesday 14th May

I was woken very early by Jill pointing out that there was a red sunrise which might prove worth a picture. I stumbled out of bed barely awake and went out to inspect the sunrise. Sure enough, it was red but there was no sign of the sun yet so doing my best sloth impression I went back to bed. Before I could get to sleep I was informed that the sun had now put in an appearance and that I should do likewise if I wanted to remain free of bruises! Two pictures later, I realised that there was no chance of going back to sleep so I made a coffee.

	The weather had looked promising but we should have taken heed of the old shepherds warning 'Red sky in morning - Shepherds warning'. It was soon evident that there was a mass of high cloud and the best we could hope for was hazy sunshine and so it proved. It was even cold enough to put the fire on - perhaps we are just a couple of wimps!
Sunrise at C'a Na Copea

It must seem boring all this constant wittering about the weather but when you have spent the best part of £1500 with the express purpose of lying in the sun trying to achieve the bronzed, Mediterranean look, the weather assumes a somewhat important role.

We eventually decided to venture out and do some shopping for presents. On the way down to the car we met two German tourists who had just reached the top of the track and were reading my 'Private Villa - No Entry' sign. Surprise, surprise they were trying to find the monastery on top of 'Puig de Maria'. We pointed out the correct route and wished them luck. They needed it as the climb to the monastery is torturous and seems never-ending.

In Puerto Pollenca we did a tour of the pottery shops looking for something to take back for Tricia and Janet (our cat sitter and horse sitter respectively). We settled on a couple of traditional Majorcan small pots - at least we assume they are traditional as everyone seems to sell the same ones!

Back at the villa we moved the table down to in front of the villa on the theory that it was warmer (by about 0.5 degrees probably) and had a pleasant lunch of cold meat, cheese and bread washed down by the cheapest beer we could find in the supermarket - it all tastes the same to me anyway.

As tonight was 'Tortilla night' I suggested that we try to find the ingredients for an apple crumble as the omelette is a fairly light meal. We strolled down into the old town to search out a pudding - not an easy task in a country that doesn't believe in them. After a tour of the shops we ended up in our local supermarket where having failed in the search for crumble mix I decided crushed biscuits would do the trick. All we needed now was the fruit. No sign of rhubarb, the only apple was pureed but there were fifteen different makes and sizes of peach and due to the vagaries of Spanish shelf-stocking, red cabbage and tomato puree. Red cabbage crumble? Perhaps not, so peach it was. The young girl on the till was polite and friendly to us - in the words of Basil Fawlty - they should have her stuffed!

All Rusty's lessons in the production of a one piece Tortilla were wasted as one important ingredient is a non-stick pan, something else that hasn't reached these shores! The final result looked like something that came out of a rusty cement mixer but it tasted nice so who cares. The peach crumble was not a roaring success. When Jill said 'it reminds me of something' my first thought was straw! As a result of this, crumble mix has been added to the list of things to bring with us next time.

Just heard a rumble on the roof, thought it might be another friendly goat, but couldn't see anything so I guess if was one of our shy local cats.

Next day