ORANGE TAPE - a story in one hundred words

ORANGE TAPE

The beach was packed, but an area at the far end was empty, cordoned off only by flimsy orange tape. There was a sign in Spanish but no guard, so Trudi stepped over and spread her towel, ignoring the shouts of a local.

“Can I explore that cave, Mum?”

Charlie’s ‘cave’ was the size of a small car – Trudi nodded, lay down and relaxed.

She was woken by a shower of pebbles and looked up, far too late to run - she didn’t stand a chance against a forty-ton rock.

It took them three long, hot days to find Charlie.

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It's only a story - right? Yes, but based on somethng that happened while I lived in the Canary Islands.  You can read the news report here:  http://www.tenerifemagazine.com/happenings/2-dead-6-trapped-in-los-gigantes-rockfall.htm

Thanks, as ever, to Rochelle for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to C E Ayr for the stunning (!) photograph that is this week's prompt. Follow the links from https://rochellewisoff.com/  to read other stories.

And for anyone who read my blog two weeks ago, I am proud to announce the arrival of my third granddaughter - I am now Nanny Liz to five children, all delightful!

ANDROMEDA - a 100 word story

Friday Fictioneers is hosted by Rochelle who sends the members a photo prompt each week on her blog  https://rochellewisofffields.wordpress.com/   Follow the Blue Frog link on her blog to read the other stories..

ANDROMEDA  (or The Long Goodbye)

Celia decided to leave Henry on July 23^rd 1993, the twins’ third birthday. She caught him in a clinch with Daphne Mortimer in the summerhouse when he should have been blowing up balloons.

After consideration, and believing her children deserved a stable home, she put her decision on hold and accepted Henry’s apologetic diamonds gracefully.

Each subsequent affaire earned her another rock, which for twenty years eased the chafing of her self-imposed bondage.

What broke the final link in the chain was catching Henry in flagrante in the hayloft –  with the groom she had hired specifically for her own amusement..

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Please do leave a comment below, and feel free to browse back through my earlier posts including the daily stints through April for the A-Z Challenge. Oh yes - and my APARTMENT page if you fancy buying your own place in the sun!

THE ROCK - A-Z CHALLENGE

I am late on parade today with my A-Z post, so it's a good thing I had it planned!

To those of us who live here, Tenerife is sometimes known affectionately as THE ROCK. and let's face it - there's an awful lot of rock about.
BUT when people say "Steady as a rock" they are using an inaccurate simile, as the inhabitants of my village discovered eighteen months ago.

Parque de la Reina has its own motorway access – No22 if you want to explore – but in November 2013 it was blocked by a ROCK FALL that just missed crushing a car and the young couple inside.

There is a banana plantation perched on top of the cutting and I suspect that decades of watering were responsible for bringing down the wall.

The Cabildo chopped back the rock and were part-way through building a RETAINING WALL when there was a second collapse – fortunately at night so no workmen were injured.
The road was closed for months.

ROYAL BRITISH LEGION

REMEMBRANCE DAY – the Tenerife branch of the RBL – sadly now closed due to the increasing age of its few active members and an increase in the amount of paperwork demanded by Head Office – hosted a REMEMBRANCE SERVICE at Westhaven Bay, Costa del Silencio, for many years. One year the crew of a British Royal Navy ship joined us - that was a day we shall never forget – and other guests have included Ricardo Melchior, President of the Tenerife Government.

These photos show how locals and visitors remember the fallen, Tenerife-style.

LAUNCHING A WREATH INTO THE ATLANTIC IN MEMORY OF THOSE LOST AT SEA

THE WREATH IS BIO-DEGRADABLE

AND AFTER THE PARTY WE FACED THE LONG PROCESS OF COLLECTING UP THE TINS AND COUNTING THE MONEY!

THE OTHER SIDE OF TENERIFE

You don't have to go very far to find the other side of Tenerife - the side tourists don't often see.

Only a few years ago these ruins were inhabited by banana plantation workers - their kitchens were shared between several houses and their laundry room was an outside concrete sink with built-in scrubbing board. You can still buy a version of those sinks today.

Now people live in these modern blocks, but they are constructed in much the same way. Beneath the plaster the building blocks are made of cement rather than cut from volcanic rock, but I wonder if they will still be recognizable as housing sixty years from now?

You might have seen street sweepers carrying a palm leaf on their trolleys - there is even a special slot for them! They are unbeatable for cleaning great swathes of paving in one sweep, and when they wear out there are plenty more where they came from!

This alleyway, with its unrailed stairway to an upper apartment, is across the road from where I live, and likely to remain for some time. The several families who live there refused to move when the Cabildo widened and straightened the road, which is why there's a huge bump in the middle of an otherwise even stretch of road.

You only have to go for a walk to find evidence of the old ways - such as this water-channel made from hollowed-out lengths of volcanic rock, or the collapsing walls of rough brown rocks that once held back the earth in small terraced fields. Alas, the south of Tenerife no longer has the rainfall to sustain such subsistence farming.

But some people still grow their own, and this elderly woman walks a kilometer several times a week to the next village to trade her garden produce for groceries. I think she shops for several neighbours, because I have seen her carrying a huge sack of potatoes on her head and a box under each arm with apparent ease!

Next time you're out and about in Tenerife, look past the hotels and bars for the simpler things that make this island different, and go home with another aspect of Tenerife etched on your memory.