Money from the drunk man

The incident Tina is on about in her comments about picking up the money happened one day when my sister Alicia and I were walking through Doncaster, It was a cold winter afternoon about 4 pm and the road was very quiet, only us and this man who had just come out of the pup we were passing. Well we thought he was a little drunk the clue being he was bouncing of the wall at one side of him to the road on the other side and back again.

As we followed behind him we noticed that he was loosing money from the leg of his trousers, as he walked more and more was hitting the ground. We followed him picking up all these pound coins that were leaving a trail behind him, ( we think he must of won them on the one arm bandit as there was only pound coins).
A little further on his packet of cigarettes came down the leg and landed on the ground, Wow this is some hole he has in his pocket we thought. At last he stopped at a taxi rank,so we approach him with the money and cigarettes and told him he was loosing it out of his pocket, he gave us a look and said finders keepers keep it, your cigarettes we said, not allowed them keep them and got into a taxi and left us standing there looking after him then looking at our hand full of pound coins, we then looked at each other in disbelieve.
As we were working teachers and I was on my own with the children and paying a mortgage and bills it looked like a fortune to us.
What shall we do after some thought we decided to go to BHS and have a drink and a big cream cake.
We counted the coins and they totaled over £30 wow all our birthdays at once.
When we got into the Bhs we remembered the cigarette packet and thought we would have a look and see how many there was before we through them away.
I opened the pack and just sat staring at it speechless my sister starting to panic saying what is it all thoughts going through her head, all but the right one for there sitting in the packet was a roll of notes with an elastic band round them, our cake never got eaten, I showed her the packet and watch her face a mixture of shock, surprise all mixed together, I am going to the toilets I whispered afraid someone would know what we had found, we crept away feeling guilt and fear mixed with all other thoughts and feelings.
As we counted with the money with shaking hands we discovered there was over £300.
What could we do we did not know the person or where he was from, would the police believe us if we told them, then we thought it's not as if we had not told the person and just kept it, SO we went to Blackpool for the week-end and said thank you to a very drunk man who ever he was.

Jeanette Spain

Fiesta time

We were off on our travels once again in Bessie, we were not looking forward to the trip as much as usual as this was to go to the AGM of the Spanish motor caravan club, any AGM I had been to in the past have been a bit heavy going and boring, how wrong was I this time, we had the best meet ever since being in the club (and we have had some great times with them).

We left on the Wednesday and met up with an other member who was on their way to the meet, they informed us they were stopping in Benidorm for the night as it was there fiesta, having been to the Benidorm Fiesta many years ago we agreed to go with them.

The parade started at six pm and went on for two and a half hours there was over a hundred floats and about fifty bands, we were bombarded with confetti and sweets being thrown from the floats. By the end of the parade we had a carry bag full of sweets this was nothing to what the older people had they were diving all over to pick them up, we could not help laughing at them

The float were beautiful and the work that went into them must of took ages. The nice thing about it was that the whole family was involved from babes in arms (dressed up) to the grans and granddads,

This float was beauty and the beast, there were to many floats to photograph and we were picking up sweets as each float passed.

How is this for being brave I could not work out if it was a man or a woman,when he/she was dancing some were saying male then female. As you can see the old man was enjoying it which ever sex it was.

Here are a couple of short videos to show the sort of thing there was.

After the parade finished there was a massive firework display,it was on the beach and went on for one hour, after the ones on the beach were set of they came out from under the sea, with the sprays of water coloured by the light of the fireworks it was a great sight. For the finally a yacht came out of the harbour with fireworks coming from it's deck, then the loudest bangs I have ever heard sounded the end of the display. All this for free we will be back next year to see this again

We set of the next day for Moraira where we were staying for the meet.On the Saturday night we had a social gathering one of our members is a professional musician ( he was with Brian Poole and the Tremolos) and he could still play that guitar and sing, another member played the sax with a band so it was a great night with music from the sixties and plenty jiving. The man with the tambourine was celebrating his 80th. birthday so they let him join in with the band, he played it all night with out a stop. the lady in the blue dress is his wife, she has been blind since birth she danced all night despite being 76 years old. They had driven their motor home from the UK to join us.

All was fine till it came to the draw for the raffle, at the last meeting out Brian and I won three of the four bingo games, then won three of the raffle prizes, embarrassing. We sat waiting for the raffle to be drawn oh no we won first prize, I went up hanging my head to get it with shouts of you again all in fun I hope, second ticket you go this time Brian as we won again with a different colour ticket, third prize not ours thank goodness, fourth you guest it ours, by now I want to slide under the table so sent Brian to choose it, a few more were drawn not us I said to Brian then once again out came ours. Put it back and draw again please I said. This was the first prize we got there was a bottle of champers, white rum, red wine, and white wine, dates, box of chocolates, six bars of chocolate and Christmas tree chocolates all in a basket.

Next morning they marked the quiz we always have, and to our embarrassment we won that as well another bottle of wine, so we have plenty drink in for christmas.

We had a great time and look forward to the next rally but I am buying no more raffle tickets in case we get barred lol.

Jeanette Spain

Brian playing the Pan pipes

Here is Brian trying to play the pan pipes, I told him he is not quite ready to join the Inca's just yet A little bit more practice is needed.

Well I did warn you it would be torture.

Jeanette Spain

Our favorite eating place

We took a trip into Torrevieja but in the daytime today. It is just as beautiful as at the sunset

We Had lunch and just people watched, there were the ones strolling in the warm November sun, a few brave ones in the sea, and ones watching the street entertainment from the Inca's.

This seat is the fisherman's wife looking out to sea for her husband to return home, he never did as there was a storm out at sea and the fishing boats were lost with all lives, this was in the seventies when Torrevieja was just a fishing village. today they have made this area for swimming, there are steps into the water.

After our meal we watched the Inca's and listened to there music fantastic sound, Of course Brian bought another of their CD's the sound of the pan pipes are beautiful(it is playing as I write this).

Brian loves the music of the Inca's and would love to be able to play the pan pipes so he had to buy someone large one and some smaller ones, I have told him he can practice them when I go round to Tina's.

After lunch we walked the few hundred metres to the promenade street market, this is a craft market with a good few lookie lookie men, While we were having lunch one came round selling sunglasses and watches, he was going from table to table when we saw the other lookie lookie men gather up their goods in the blankets they put on the ground to show there goods off and run down the prom, the one at the tables gathered his goods up and ran, it was so funny he was trying to hold ever thing in his arms while doing a hasty retreat, as you can guess the police were coming down the prom. As soon as the police disappeared back came the lookie lookie men and carried on where they had left off. Here is the one going round the tables.

love going round the prom market it is so colourful and as well as Spanish goods there is a lot from Africa most hand carved I



This market is on everyday of the week and is open till around 10 p.m. This is nice in the hot summer to stroll through the market then have a meal and drink ( only soft drinks though as I don't drink and Brian is driving) but we enjoy it all the same.

On the way back to the car Brian spotted a ship going into the loading pier to load up with salt to take to the U K for the roads, most of the salt from Torrevieja is exported to Europe for the roads this ship was a UK one. This is the salt piles near the salt lakes.

What a way to spend a November Saturday morning.

After we arrived home Brian decided he would try his pan pipes out.

I wonder if I can find a good hiding place where he cannot find them, I won't torture you with a video of the noise, I can't say tune if there was one I missed it.

Jeanette Spain