Blimey, who turned up the thermostat and humidity in England while I was gone?

I spent a whole week without internet access, stuck in the middle of nowhere. It was so far from anywhere of any interest that I wouldn't have been surprised to trip over a blonde farm-boy with a lightsaber looking to get out of his humdrum existence. One internet café seen, if only in passing, very few English newspapers, and a TV whose only English channel was some 24 hour business channel. I managed to finish reading some books that I had been putting off for a quiet moment - and this holiday was one very long quiet moment.

It felt as if I had travelled back in time to the 1980's, there was pitiful mobile/GPRS coverage - so much so that I could only get a signal at sunset - and that was everywhere I went on the island. The music that was being piped out of shops and coaches was of the Phil Collins/Chris Rea/80's soft rock movement.

But the thing that made me think I was in the 80's was the design of the advertisements. Billboards with the faces of people who look rather uncannily like a (pre-capture) Saddam Hussein, pictures of bad drawings of buildings. Big red stars with whatever the Spanish equivalent of "Sale!" or "50%! Off! Now!". It is a sad state of affairs when you start looking for more and more tacky advertisements for entertainment and for some form of cultural "zero-point".

Some things that I did learn on holiday, taking a laptop is well worth its weight, especially when said laptop is loaded with films. Seeing a 'Marineland' show taught me that Dolphins and sea-lions are smarter than me, because I can't balance a ball on my nose, and that although being a dolphin trainer must be one of the best jobs in the world, they still have to rake the dolphin shit from the bottom of the pool.
Also after a trip to 'Green Planet' zoo, I've discovered that Raccoons are the cutest animals in existence - can we have some released into the wilds of England please...

To get vaguely on-topic, Spanish ambulances are tiny, I couldn't stand up in one...

I was exceptionally happy to fly back into England, catch the last train home and in a fit of rather sad geek-dom, post that I had returned. What can I say - I was itching to get my keyboard under my fingers. For the rest of today (after unpacking my bags) I shall be catching up on all those links on the left of the screen. Understand my journey - click on them all yourself and spread the love of a visit.

I'm back from holiday - it is currently 01:20am on Tuesday,this means I haven't slept in 38 hours - and the first thing I do when getting home is boot up the computer and post about how I'm back.

Tomorrow/Later Today I shall be catching up on what has happened in the world during the last week, sending off an article for Lingual Nerve and posting (and moaning) about my holiday.

Then hopefully it will be normal service resumed when I moan about everything