Monday, 25th September.
Necessary Terrorism

It was cold when we started out this morning. We passed groups of schoolchildren, waiting for their luxury schoolbus. (You should've seen the mongrel! When I was a kid - cue violins - we had to travel in the freezing cold in a cranky old bus that had one heater - located under the third seat from the front on the left - and the tough kids would spit on you if you looked at them.)

Apparently I gave a running commentary on Underpants Man's state of (un)dress this morning. "Did I?" I queried. "Yes!" came the unanimous reply.
"Did you see Strech Woman?" I asked.
"Who?"
"The woman who was doing these ridiculous - dammit Ian I'm using that word - stretching excercises between the bunks."
"I was eating breakfast. I had to look away" I said.
"I would've thought you boys would've liked that!"
"If she were my age, or if I went for older women, yes! But she ain't, and I don't!"
"Imagine meeting her in her youth!"
"She still would've been French." Hmm, seems to be some xenophobia developing here.

All along the Camino, trucks and vans have been honking at the girls. Well, presumably there's been a bloke behind the wheel honking the horn. Or a woman, this is Spain after all. This morning a truck drove past and there was no honking. "You girls are losing it!" I said to Barb and Noelle. I then bent over to get something out of my backpack and a passing trunk honked its horn. "Now somebody knows quality when they see it!" I said. The girls shook their heads, Dave just stood there in disbelief.

It was a relief to make it to Sahagun. Underpants Man, Stretch Woman and the other Frenchies made an appearance later. We had a snooze, then venture out to find the local internet joint advertised at the refugio.

The internet joint was a small operation, and the head boffin (the one to whom the abundance of diplomas on the walls belonged to) wore a white coat. We were internetting away merrily, when proceedings came to an abrupt halt. The internet connection was down. I'm so glad it's not my problem. (For those that don't know, I was an IT Administrator in a previous life, ie before I became a secretary.) White Coat Man sat down at the server, which was next to me, and tried to fix things.

He was having some difficulties reconnecting the modem, and started cursing in Spanish and English. "The telefonica network is terrible. Spain is a third-world country. The connection just...cuts out, like that!"

I was doing some network things from my computer. "We can't even see the gateway" I said.
"What did he say?" asked Noelle.
"I think it's nerdspeak," replied Barb. And she was right.

"Necessary terrorism! We need to blow up the Spanish telefonica system, start from new," his rant continued. Eventually we left, and he did't charge us.