Anything from the back of a van?

So, there we were, just all sat, sitting quietly watching a program we taped last night (on Tiger Woods) when suddenly a van pulled up outside.

Now we don't get uninvited visitors, no-one knows we are here and normally we have to give extremely detailed directions for anyone who is genuinely trying to find us, so to suddenly find a van outside on a Saturday afternoon is quite unsettling.

Neil went out to see who it was while I extricated myself from my very comfy seat, and as I got outside he called over to me. 'Do we need any fruit?'

It was a local local 'man in a van' who had a surplus stock of fruit and was driving around the houses in the Campo to see if he could sell any of it. Having spent a couple of hours walking around our market this morning I knew I didn't need anything as I always get our fresh fruit and veg there BUT I thought I would be polite and see what he had.

And there was the disappointment. He only had Sandia (watermelon) and melocotón (peaches). Admittedly the watermelons were incredibly large, and would have kept a family of 6 going for a month, heaven knows how long it would take Neil and I work our way through one. I normally buy just small portions of watermelon so we don't end up throwing most of them out. I have to admit to not being a great fan of watermelon and gracefully declined buying one.

But I did want to try and be a good neighbour and we could always work our way through a few peaches so I reached over to take a couple and see how ripe they were, and they were really, really ripe. So ripe as to be almost too ripe. I think we would have needed to eat them all today before the were only fit to throw down into the Rambla for the animals to finish.

So, I said in my sweetest Spanish that I didn't want anything and he closed the van door looking a little unimpressed with me. I have a feeling that he won't be making the drive down our track again soon, regardless of whatever crop he has an excess of.

I did think that maybe our neighbour on the hill had sent him down but as I went out with the dogs a few minutes later I saw him up there at their gate so I guess, it is just becoming known locally that there is a house down this track and more importantly to them, there is someone living here.

It would seem the peace and quiet of our rural hide-away just got a little less quiet.