Days 233-235, Friday-Sunday, 24-26 August 2012, Alcaucin.
Friday was work day ! The sun is starting to rise a lot later now so being on the job at 7:00 am is just not much use anymore. I had a quick garden watering job to do before heading over to number 20 to start prep for the paint job next week- house needed a good wash and scrub down first.
I spent almost four hours scrubbing down the top half of the house before stopping, very hot today and I had used up all the shaded parts, plus my head wasn’t in it. Too much on my mind, thinking about the next few weeks, no job , no home and no idea where there home could be means I am feeling a bit misplaced at the moment. It all hinges on the job, get a job, find an apartment nearby and hopefully make some friends – things will be sweet 🙂
I spent the rest of the day reading and looking at jobs and flats on the internet before making myself a not too bad chicken risotto for dinner – and finishing season 3 of The Wire 🙂
I had the crappest sleep ever Friday night, hottest night in Alcaucin and head full and spinning, I think I finally must have dropped off at 5:00. I woke at 7:00 which was a pain as I wanted to be out on the road by 7:30 and i still had to eat and walk the dogs. Finally at 7:50 I made it out on the road for a hoped for five hour run. It was humid and there was a hot wind blowing straight down the road off the hills – my calves were sore and my back stiff – not a perfect start!
My plan was just to run the road I ran a couple of weeks back, but just to keep on going down into the next valley and turn around after around two half hours. I surprised myself by running the first section to the top carpark reasonably well, I thought I was very slow but did it five minutes faster than normal! Up one of the side valleys the wind was whipping the sand and dirt up so badly I had to run with my eyes closed and my bandana over my nose and mouth. sadly my running sun glasses are in my storage unit in NZ. The wind and dust clouds were a feature throughout the run unfortunately.
At two hours fifteen of mostly continuous running (by running I mean jogging at a pace that was probably slower than a Zimmerframe oldie walks) i ended up in the valley on other side of the ridge. There were a lot of loose dogs around the farm houses so I ended up turning round and heading back up the hill again.
The views on this side were not spectacular, but the road was steep in places and I walked some of the uphills on the return.
The run back took about two and half hours, giving me a total of 4:45 on my feet, just under what I wanted and I was tempted to take a side trail for a bit, but in all honesty I was buggered, so stopped !
I had a quick shower and jumped into the pool to cool down, but got sick of Muttleys yapping at me so ended up cutting it short. I was pretty wrecked, so the afternoon was quiet – though I did spend a crap load of money and booked my flight to the UK on Sunday Sep 09 !! I also spent I some serious time researching possible Africa tours if I do not get work within a reasonable time. I have found a company I like – with a space on a tour….
Sunday – hmm, not a lot happened really, washed the rest of number 20, drank beer, ate food, wrote blog
posts.
Where is Phil now? 