A Comical Dilemma

I believe there are a million roundabouts in Spain.  Some are very artistic like this one.

Today was the day for Lyn to find a new laptop.  She’d been putting it off because of the little panicky feeling of learning how to use a new one. She Skypes with her friend Saidie in the UK every day and must use headphones to hear her because she lost audio some time ago.  When I saw that she had an external keyboard abutted in front of her laptop, I assumed it was because the smaller keyboard on the laptop wasn’t sufficient.  Nope —- it was because she’d spilled water on the keyboard and it died.  Some days the cursor doesn’t work or jots out letters without touching the keyboard.  Yesterday, it crashed a bit, so she gave in.  I promised her I could be her teacher, so let’s do it.






We found one in Malaga and then Lyn called her computer tech in Benalmádena.
Lyn: If I buy a new computer, can you transfer my old data?
Ramón: Yes, I can do that for 40 euros.
Lyn: Do you also sell new computers?
Ramón: Yes, I do.
Lyn: That’s good.  We will drive over there before you close at 2:00.
Unfortunately, when we got there, we found that yes, he could sell her one, but only from online and it would take 2-3 days for the laptop to arrive in his shop, and then another day to transfer the data.  Big sigh.
It was decided that we ‘d return to Malaga, buy the laptop and return to Ramón's shop at 5:00.

 Ow that the computer issue was nearly solved except for the trip back to Malaga, we were hot, hungry, thirsty and our feet were talking to us. But first, since we had three hours, we looked for a café.  Across the street from a Pablo Ruiz Picasso Museum, we slid into a cozy, shaded outdoor café and were soon drinking our beer and tinto verano.  The menu was covered in photos, so we decided to share a plate of grilled swordfish along with a mixed salad.
The waiter stood beside us with pencil poised...

Lyn: We are going to share the swordfish and this salad, she said and pointed to the photos. 5,90 euros for the salad and 9,95 euros for the fish.
Waiter: Sí, share swordfish and ensalada mixta, he repeated.
He brought us the usual bowl of bread, two plates etc and then returned with a huge bowl of salad filled with lettuce, tomatoes, boiled eggs, white asparagus, tuna, cucumbers, garbanzo beans, corn kernels, olives and shredded carrots.  We were stunned with the size.

Lyn:  Do you think he’s trying to pull a fast one on us by putting two salads in the bowl and
pretending he hasn’t understood?  This is huge!
Me:  Yes it is, but aren’t these tiny olive oil and vinegar pots cute?
The  salad was delicious, but before we finished it, he brought the plate with the largest piece of grilled swordfish we’d ever seen, more salad and potatoes.   

Our eyes rounded and we shook our heads.  The man surely doubled our order.  Lyn looked at other people’s plates to compare their sizes with our own.  And they didn’t measure up to the size of ours.  We ate, and ate and ate some more.  And then, we discussed whether we should act shocked when he brought the bill for nearly $40 euros and argue with him, or play dumb and shake the fellow up a little.  She’d heard that a lot of tourists get cheated like this on the coast.  Our dilemma was giving us a little grief because we really did not know how to react.  When Lyn asked for our bill, he smiled

and brought it to us in a little payment dish.

When I showed it to her, we were both stunned.  The dishes were truly only for one person and the bill totaled 20, 5 euros.

We laughed at the silliness of our conversations, paid the bill and started walking back to the car for our second trip back to Malaga.  We rehashed our crazy thoughts and laughed some more.

It was lovely to get home again.  Scally and Scamp greeted us as if we’d been gone a week, ready for their food.  Lyn always toasts bread for them as an appetizer and spreads paté over the toast for them.  When I heard her talking soothingly to Scamp as she gave her the snack, I couldn’t help but take a photo.  She surely loves her dogs and takes sweet care of them.

And then it was time to jump into the swimming pool.  I’ve been trying to think of all the living expenses I can sacrifice in order to have my own swimming pool, en casa, at home in Arizona. As Darla noticed, I’m definitely going to miss it.