And the Roof's Leaking!

An update on the rain situation. Just before we left for the no-wind beach, much later than usual, I stepped in some water on the floor by my suitcase. At first I thought it was coming from the air conditioner, the power had come back on and I'd turned it off after it came on automatically, but no... Pulling my suitcase away and rescuing the Tiree t-shirt, I realised it was coming from a crack in the ceiling. Clearly the flat roof doesn't hold water. This evening it's all dry, so either the sun has dried things out or it's all dripped through and the maid mopped it up!

However, I did attempt to see how much water there was by standing on the veranda wall to look over the roof edge - no good, the sloping porch is lower than the main roof. The main effect was to get into conversation with the recently retired Brummie and his wife sat on their veranda next door, which was interesting from an observational point of view. They have a caravan they go round the UK in, and spend time in warmer climates also. His main interest seemed to be whether or not we had a remote control for the TV, because they don't - we said we did but it wasn't worth it, because it's only Portuguese channels. They spoke of going to eat at the Turtle Shack, which we tried to put them off, since other places in town are much better - they paid 20€ a head for last night's meal here in the hotel, so 8€ at the Compad, say, would suit them better and cost less. They seemed surprised that Santa Maria is safe, and that you can walk around pretty easily. What's the point of all this detail? Not sure really - I kind of felt a bit snobbish about it at first, but hey, he's organised his life, he's enjoying it, what kind of problem's that?? I suppose I'm trying to learn how to do that in a way that is enough for me, which brings me to...

I've been reading Revolutionary Road, the Richard Ayers (like I heard of him before ;-o ) novel that's now a film with Kate Winslet and Leonardo DeCaprio. Wow. Brutally exposing, like seeing one of those preserved, plasticised corpses that that Austrian guy makes. So many illusions revealed, explored, in a totally forensic and I'd say non-judgemental way - you bring your own feelings, morals, illusions and problems to it, which can be hard going. It's about a couple and the people whose lives intersect with theirs, examining their inner life really closely, their dissatisfaction, their resentments and what they do about them. I'll probably read some of his others, this was his first so it'll be interesting to see where he took it. He has some great phrases, very big, powerful, colourful, a novel written with the intensity of youth I wonder? Defo going to see the film!

Oh yeah, today got to the beach, virtually zero wind, A&T sitting looking out, big surf, tough shorebreak, with the waves at the point working well for surfing. To get away from the rather static thing happening I walked down there to see F&M, and watch the surfing close up. There was a broken board that made an ok picture, and an astonishing charnel/midden heap of conch shells, which it was someone's theory that fisherman dump there when they've taken out the meat. Who knows, but plenty of supplies for conch sellers everywhere, once they've polished them up a bit! Some people went out later, and there were some guys trying boogie boarding, but I fell asleep and despite a coffee couldn't raise my game to get out there, which I rather regret. But it was BIG and the run-out to the beach is full of newly-revealed rocks after the pounding of the last few days. We came back here earlier than usual which is ok, apart from the horrible music and show crap going on by the pool for the Djadsal Holiday Campers - Butlins on a desert island (Desert Island Dorks? There you go again...). Time to go buy some more internet time so I can upload this and check on everyone :-)