Bright and breezy, with Orange

Here we are on a sunny Wednesday morning. Cold and snow are forecast for parts of the UK, I understand, so we are very glad to be getting some October sunshine in Mallorca. Yesterday was also bright and sunny so after we had had our boiled eggs for breakfast (this is a German run hotel, after all) in the small and airy dining room here, looking out on prickly pears and the local church we set off exploring.

We went for a jog that turned into a stroll along the coast, admiring the scenery and watching the waves rushing in.

We were disappointed in our quest to find a café open for refreshments along the way. I am sure hat when we were here a few years ago there was one open but maybe they have decided it’s not worth the effort at this time of year.. We did persuade one place where a girl was cleaning and polishing to sell us a bottle of water and then we went on our way.

It’s mostly wild and unspoilt around here with occasional very sumptuous villas and fincas and then the odd surprise when you come across an urbanización which is closed closed off from public eye as if they expect an attack from marauding hoards.

Lunch was a rather pedestrian potato salad followed by hake with yet more potatoes and some green salad. If this is cuina mallorquina it has little to recommend it so far: well presented but rather bland and nothing special. Mind you we only paid 7€ each so we can’t really complain. We will try somewhere else today.

I did try out the swimming pool (I do have a reputation for liking swimming pools) but the water was rather cold and the pool not big enough to give you a good long swim to make up for it. Neither was it really hot enough out of the water to warm you up again. Still, I did try it.

Into the evening I was just getting into composing a nice little blog post when my Spanish phone rang. An officious lady asked to speak to my husband. When I asked who was calling all she would tell me was that she was from an asesoria in Madrid and repeated that she wanted to speak to Philip Adams. Oops, I thought, has the taxman caught up with him? How do they have my phone number?

But no, it was Orange, claiming that we needed to pay them for August and September for the mobile internet connection we had in Vigo and which we cancelled when we set off back for the UK. When I reported on my last phone argument with them on the day we left Vigo, my friend Colin said we had probably not heard the last of them. He was right. Anyway after they had spoken to my husband and he had handed them to me because my Spanish is better, I had another phone argument with them, explained the situation and appeared to be getting nowhere. In the middle of her insistence that we needed to pay 31.65€, an amount completely different from the standing order we used to pay, the line went dead and that was the end of it. Maybe her working hours had finished and she gave up. Maybe her phone stopped working. I checked my bank online and now have chapter and verse of all the payments we made to them just in case she calls again though.

I have been in touch with friends who have been pursued by Orange for sums of money, usually much greater than 31.65€, so I wait to see whether the officious lady contacts me again. In the meantime, I can always turn off my Spanish phone and ignore her and get on with enjoying the beautiful day.