The title might have persuaded you not to bother reading this but for those of you still here… It’s not been a great day. Nothing bad has happened. I haven’t been thrown onto the streets of Cádiz or expelled from the language school or anything like that. It’s just that I’ve been in a miserable mood. I wonder if this had anything to do with the weather. Since artiving in southern Spain nearly three weeks ago it has been almost constant blue skies, there hasn’t been a drop of rain and temperatures have been consistently in the low 20s (probably much higher at times). Today’s sudden reversion to a grey sky, occasional rain and a temperature probably only half of what it has been is a (cruel?) reality check that even in this most southerly point of the continent, a day in mid March can be just as lousy as elsewhere. The forecast for the rest of the week isn’t looking brilliant. [Stop moaning!]

My enthusiasm at the language school this morning was lacking and I did the minimum; sufficient not to arouse the suspicion of my teachers that I wasn’t making an effort but internally I was struggling with motivation and much effort was expended in clock watching. As soon as the final class finished at 2pm I was back ‘home’ at the flat preparing for a siesta. Well, I ate a quick lunch and then positioned myself horizontally on the bed and idled away some time in Twitter. It didn’t involve sleep which, I assume, is a key ingredient of a proper siesta but it was as close as I could get.

I eventually summoned up a modicum of enthusiasm, gathered my things together and headed out onto the streets in search of a bar that I visited last Thursday on the ‘tapas night’. After around 90 minutes of trudging around Cádiz, I couldn’t find it, so I gave up and found a rather uninspiring place in which to write this and catch up on a few emails. At least it’s conveniently close to the Carrefour supermarket which is my ultimate destination for the evening. En route I took a picture of this door. [You really aren’t selling this post to your readers Andrew.] More positive news after the door:

There has been one minor success today however. If you remember, on Saturday I made a visit to Tarifa, the starting point of the cycle across the continent to Nordkapp only to discover that the Guardia Civil have taken occupation of the peninsula (erroneously called the Isla de las Palomas as it is most definitely attached to the mainland) and in so doing have put a spanner in the works of my plan to cycle from the most southerly point of Europe to the most northerly one. This morning I called the tourist office in Tarifa and a very nice lady explained that there would be an organised guided visit of the island (which is really a peninsula) but that it would be on Friday 10th April. My plan is to set off from Tarifa on Thursday 9th April. Should I delay my departure by 24 hours? Perhaps. The tourist office did give me however the email address of the Guardia Civil in Tarifa and I’m holding out hope that they may allow me onto the ‘Island’ on the Thursday. There can’t be that many people who write books about cycling from one end of the continent to another, can there? It’s worth a punt at the very least. If you are reading this and know someone high up in the Spanish establishment who might be able to help me with a bit of ‘enchufe‘ (the Spanish word for making the most of people in authority to make your life a bit easier), do get in touch.