And yet more driving

Yesterday N went to see her car insurance firm. Yes, the policy includes a tow truck. Yay! But the truck would come from the other side of the island so she couldn't travel with it. On the plus side, they should get to the car half an hour after she phoned.

So off we went back to Garafía, yet again. We phoned the insurance firm while we were stuck in roadworks. Shortly afterwards, the breakdown people phoned to ask where the car was, and then said they'd be just over an hour because they were coming from Santa Cruz! So she could have got a lift with them, and I could have stayed home.

Oh well, stuff happens. So we went to Franceses and had a cup of tea with Helen, and then back to the car in time to meet the breakdown lorry. We waited half an hour, and were just about to phone them when they arrived. So the car went off, and I took Norma back to Helen's. The plan was for Helen and Theresa to go to Puntagorda this afternoon with Norma, so that she could finally look at the house she was headed for on Tuesday. Meanwhile I set off for San Andres to see the Corpus Christi celebrations. I got these nice photos of flowers on the verge as I left Franceses.

I just had time to pop into San Andres, but there was no sign of the flower arches that I'd been expecting. So I asked a local - it's Sunday. So I'll go back then. But it's a lovely little village anyway, so it made a nice diversion.

Lots of driving

On Monday I caught up with housework and got three submissions out of the door. I felt pretty pleased with that.

On Tuesday morning I went off to Santa Domingo Town Hall with Helen, to get back their 600€ bail for the Franceses Motorway. Normally getting back in time to collect my son from school is rather tight, so I was delighted when we were invited to Lou's for lunch. It meant he had somewhere to go even if I was five or ten minutes late.

As it turned out, everything went extremely smoothly, and I got there first. We had a lovely lunch. And just as as I beginning to think I had to drag my son home for the dreaded homework, my mobile rang.

My poor friend N's car had broken down in the wilds of Garafía on the way to look at a house. And wouldn't you know it, it happened on the one day her mobile was out of money. So she'd walked over a mile to Helen and Theresa's, only to find them out.

I phoned Helen and Theresa. Wouldn't you know it, when N's car broke down, they'd been just fifteen minutes away. Now they were in Santa Cruz, heading for Los Llanos.

So I left my son with Lou (Thanks, Lou!) and went back to Garafía and fetched N. On the way I managed to contact my husband, who pointed out that her insurance would likely cover a breakdown lorry. But when we got there, it turned out that the phone number in the car was from the previous policy. The right number was in her house.

Oh great.

I took the poor woman to Helen and Theresa's but it turned out that I didn't have the key after all. She still hadn't had lunch, and this was about 5 p.m., so I gave her what I had: a small tub of pringles and one small chocolate. Thank goodness for the oranges in Helen and Theresa's garden!

I did wonder about towing her home, but neither of us had done it before, and we didn't know where to attach the rope on either car, or how long the rope should be. It would take at least half an hour of faffing about to get hold of a rope, and then we'd have about two hours of twisty roads and roadworks to get home. So I just took her home, and we left the car in Garafía.

I got to Lou's just as they were about to eat, and they invited me. Man, it was wonderful to eat without having to cook! And meanwhile, Lou had helped my son make a one-room dolls house for his art homework. It looked really good, especially considering that Lou doesn't have arty stuff in the house, because her own son's still too young for that sort of thing.