The end of Summer

  Porto Petro, Spain
Thursday, August 31, 2006

The final days of August have taken with it its hoards of tourists, leaving the streets of Porto Petro and the surrounding towns immersed the lazy tranquility of the end of summer. Everyday feels like Sunday: no busy traffic, no bustling pedestrians, no groups of people wandering about. All I can see now when I peer out from the terrace of our flat is the empty quiet main street of Porto Petro, left alone in the cloudless noons of the end of the season.

For us this means better spots at the beach, being able to pick out any table at a restaurant for dinner, no long lines at the supermarket, and the decreased annoyance of English and German tourists. As far as customers for the Cave go, we haven't been too worried since last Saturday we were packed considering the decline in demography. People are still showing up on midnight from Thursday through Sunday to drink and dance till sunrise.

Ed has been let go from his current job, due to the decrease of tourists and hence, incoming money. This was a bombshell but ended up being a pleasant surprise for Ed who yearned for free time for himself. He'd desperately been wanting to spend an entire day at the beach with me or have dinner out together. Now that we're able to spend more free time together he's more than happy to say goodbye to his swift employers.

So this week we've been hanging out at the beach, climbing through rocks to try to get a nice private spot on the cove. We both had winter-wan skin so we decided to catch up on time lost by the sun and try to look like we actually spent the summer in the Mediterranean. We've also been eating healthier since we can now cook for ourselves instead of relying on the greasy, garlicky Spanish restaurant food. Ed, who has lost 10 kg's since he's gotten here has actually started putting on some weight, since now he actually has time to eat. So for those of you who have written to me inquiring about my Ethiopian boyfriend, rest assured that he is now making up for calories lost.

I, on the other hand, am still trying to recuperate from the loss of my voice. The appearance of a lousy cough together with the smoke and dust from the Cave have rendered me voiceless. Today is the fourth day since my voice decided to take a vacation, but it's slowly coming back. As far as the cough goes, it's still there not allowing Ed or myself a good night's rest.

Ed cut his finger a couple of weeks ago, as you might remember, and he still has not regained mobility in his thumb. Apparently the muscle was damaged and that's going to take some time to heal. In the meantime he's been trying to move it as much as he can, trying to regain its original strength.

Neither of us are in a hurry to look for jobs now. We're pretty much waiting for the season to end to see where our next destination will be. We've also grown tired of the working experiences here and like I mentioned in the previous entry, neither of us are impressed with the way things have turned out, job-wise. So for now, the rest of our time in Majorca until the end of September will consist of lazy beach days and fun-filled Cave nights.