Misadventure Memoirs

Catching the train from Salamanca to Madrid for the last few days of our amazing holiday, we stop briefly at Avila and, as we slow to roll into the station I glance across at the medieval town with its perfect, multi-turreted walls and suffer a severe attack of ROMO (that’s ‘regret of missing out’!). You see, we never did make that tuk tuk tour. 😩

Oh yes, all booked and paid for, but the R&D left a lot to be desired (probs should have taken care of that at the time of booking!). So, at about the moment we should have been kicking back in the tuk tuk, 🛺 gazing at amazing sights as we were whisked around the historic town, we were still an hour away from Avila, back in Segovia, doing the math on how much a taxi would cost to get there if we were able to reschedule. 😕 Damn, fifty down ze drain. Oh well.

The way we roll, you’d think we had a tiny, portable printing press churning out Euros while we sleep at night. Drunken sailors have got nothing on us when it comes to slinging cash! 😳 Yesterday, we sent our second box of stuff back home, primarily because our suitcases would no longer zip up. To be fair, I realised I was kidding myself bringing a medium sized suitcase pretty much the minute we left home. (The expandable gusset on that baby was zipped right out early in week one!). But I had faith in my Little Friend (who brought along a mammoth sized bag) to accommodate any spillover I might accumulate during our journey…that was until I learned that he had brought along his backrest!! 

Now, I wouldn’t for a moment begrudge this situation except for two reasons: 

1. That flipping backrest is the same size as the chair back of the most pimped out gamer throne you ever saw! It has its own postcode! It can be seen from Earth’s orbit in the same way as the Great Wall of China! It takes up the entire space of one side of Colin’s suitcase with its voluptuous lumbar curves and deluxe neck support!
2. It has never left its niche spot in said suitcase.

I’ve tried being reasonable about its presence on our journey, I really have. (And in my private moments of loathing the bastard thing, I’ve fantasised about slashing it into bite sized pieces!). 

To my inquiries as to why it even exists, let alone is along for the ride, I’m assured that Col was positive he would need it to ensure his comfort in the bus on our tour. “But it’s never seen the light of day” I implore, with desperation in my voice (this turd of an appliance is taking up valuable suitcase space that could otherwise be dedicated to my purchases, ffs). 🤦‍♀️ 

Him: “Well, I didn’t expect the bus seats to be so comfortable!” “I didn’t actually even need it”. (Seemingly pleased with the outcome!). 

Me: “OK, but can we ditch it now?…It’s useless and takes up mega space”.

Him: “Oh no, I need it and it cost over $100”.

Logic and reason have completely left the building at this stage, so we walk the 2.5kms to the Post Office in Salamanca with a blue plastic rubbish bag each, tucked under our arms, spend 45 minutes gesticulating, speaking entry level Spanish, but relying heavily on the one staff member who speaks a little English and shell out €80 (me) to ship back a bunch of our old clothes and one of Col’s books, artfully crammed into the smallest box we could manage to stuff it all into to get the price down from the original quote of €156!! 4.2kg of dross….it hurts! 

Backrest? Still in situ…. 🙄