An Hour Tops

All I had to do was nip into Fontalmazora on behalf of my neighbour and ask for someone with the necessary knowledge and equipment to visit and seek a suspected leak.

But if I was going to take Henry out then I might as well make it worth his while and do some other non-urgent jobs at the same time.

Initially I had no other jobs needing attention, but I bent my brain to the task and came up with four other destinations. Shouldn’t take me long. I’ll be back in no time.

I started with Fontalmanzora, the only essential task on my to-do list. It didn’t take me long, and in no time I was Arboleas-bound.

I needed to recycle some paper, and Arboleas has a paper bin, right next to the Farmácia, so I could get my pills and get rid of my recycling paper; two jobs got done at once. It was only a hop and a skip from there to the charity shop with stuff that I had sorted out during lockdown but hadn’t yet passed on. That didn’t take long, either.

The mobile and I had had a serious falling-out that morning, so as I was in Arboleas I decided to pop into the phone shop and ask Ali to frighten it into submission for me. Up until now it had all been plain sailing, but here’s where it began to get sticky.

‘Have you dropped it?’ He asked.
Knowing how clumsy I am I answered ‘Probably.’
‘It can be repaired, but it will be 80€, and there is no guarantee with a repair.’
The subtext was ‘It’ll be cheaper to buy a new one.’
‘OK, but can you transfer the sim? I need to keep the same number and my contacts.’
‘Yes, but it will take half an hour.’

So up to the Colmena I went and partook of an early lunch or late breakfast, I’m not sure which. I dragged my heels, knowing the likely interpretation of half an hour in Spanish time. I was right. ‘I haven’t done it yet. I have to do each contact manually, because it is broken.’ He said. ‘And I am very busy.’

I could see he was speaking the truth – while I was there one customer would leave the shop and another would come in. ‘I’ll come back tomorrow.’ I sighed. So far my quick nip out had resulted in four tasks successfully completed and one ongoing, so my ‘quick nip out’ was going to stretch into tomorrow.

On the way back home I bought Henry some petrol – I felt he deserved it. I often wonder where the time goes, and this is how my one hour trip had stretched into a two day marathon!

Now I need somebody to show me how to drive my new phone. And I bet that won’t be a quick job either!