A couple of weeks ago I was talking to Rindy at Bolton Octagon and ended up recalling an old holiday memory of mine. He suggested that it may make a decent blog entry, so here goes.
It was the summer of 1990 when I qualified as a nurse. I got my first job on night duty on a surgical ward at BRI. I was excited to be getting a decent wage, I had a morgage to pay and had struggled on a student nurse's wage.
After working for a couple of months, I received my first wage with my night duty enhancement on it. It was a fortune....... When I examined my pay slip I realised that I had been paid at a higher grade by accident. I phoned our finance department who were pretty unhelpful, so I thought 'stuff it.'
I excitedly went home and dragged my lodger Suzanne out of bed, and asked her if she could get a week off work at the end of September. The answer was affirmative, (even though she had no holiday time left and rang in sick for a week) and we immediately booked a holiday in Spain.
A couple of weeks later we were on our way. Lazy days were spent dossing in the sun. A very drunken visit to a bodega on the outskirts of Barcelona was one of our highlights. Evenings were spent propping up the local bar and chatting to the local romeos.
All too soon it was our last evening. We spent it in the local bar having drinks with all of our new found friends and saying our goodbyes. We'd had a really good time, but it was soon to take a turn for the worse........
We said our final goodbye and stepped out drunkenly into the street. It was chaos............It was a riot........
A melee of drunken, sweaty male bodies were upon us. Curses shouted in Spanish and German, fists flying, feet kicking, head butts and spitting... We tried our best to hang onto each other and make it back into the bar but we couldn't get through the crowd........
Hands grabbed us roughly and plucked us from the mass. When we looked up we were in the hands of 4 police officers who were shouting something in Spanish. We didn't understand what they were saying, but the tone was not favourable. We were literally thrown into the back of a police van. Bruised and shaken we looked around. The back of the van contained several German and Spanish reprobates who were spitting at each other and cursing. It was a football riot.........
Realising that we were under arrest and would in all likelyhood miss our flights home, we started to feel a tad panicky.......
Then suddenly, from nowhere came Steve.... The bar owner who had spent a week relieving us of our holiday cash. He had stepped outside the bar for a breath of fresh air, and had seen what had happened to us. After a rapid conversation with the police officers, some slightly raised voices and a few insults, we were finally ushered out of the van and back into the bar.
We had a stiff drink to calm the shakes and recounted our tale of woe. Somebody offered us a fag, I hadn't smoked for 4 years and Sue had never smoked, but we both had one, then another...
We made it safely to the airport the day after, and both came home with 200 duty free fags each......
All in all it was a good holiday but put me off mainland Spain for life. I went back into work and guess what......... The finance department had got their act together, not only did they pay me the correct wage, but they had deducted the over-payment from the previous month from it..........Oh Bugger!!!!!
It was the summer of 1990 when I qualified as a nurse. I got my first job on night duty on a surgical ward at BRI. I was excited to be getting a decent wage, I had a morgage to pay and had struggled on a student nurse's wage.
After working for a couple of months, I received my first wage with my night duty enhancement on it. It was a fortune....... When I examined my pay slip I realised that I had been paid at a higher grade by accident. I phoned our finance department who were pretty unhelpful, so I thought 'stuff it.'
I excitedly went home and dragged my lodger Suzanne out of bed, and asked her if she could get a week off work at the end of September. The answer was affirmative, (even though she had no holiday time left and rang in sick for a week) and we immediately booked a holiday in Spain.
A couple of weeks later we were on our way. Lazy days were spent dossing in the sun. A very drunken visit to a bodega on the outskirts of Barcelona was one of our highlights. Evenings were spent propping up the local bar and chatting to the local romeos.
All too soon it was our last evening. We spent it in the local bar having drinks with all of our new found friends and saying our goodbyes. We'd had a really good time, but it was soon to take a turn for the worse........
We said our final goodbye and stepped out drunkenly into the street. It was chaos............It was a riot........
A melee of drunken, sweaty male bodies were upon us. Curses shouted in Spanish and German, fists flying, feet kicking, head butts and spitting... We tried our best to hang onto each other and make it back into the bar but we couldn't get through the crowd........
Hands grabbed us roughly and plucked us from the mass. When we looked up we were in the hands of 4 police officers who were shouting something in Spanish. We didn't understand what they were saying, but the tone was not favourable. We were literally thrown into the back of a police van. Bruised and shaken we looked around. The back of the van contained several German and Spanish reprobates who were spitting at each other and cursing. It was a football riot.........
Realising that we were under arrest and would in all likelyhood miss our flights home, we started to feel a tad panicky.......
Then suddenly, from nowhere came Steve.... The bar owner who had spent a week relieving us of our holiday cash. He had stepped outside the bar for a breath of fresh air, and had seen what had happened to us. After a rapid conversation with the police officers, some slightly raised voices and a few insults, we were finally ushered out of the van and back into the bar.
We had a stiff drink to calm the shakes and recounted our tale of woe. Somebody offered us a fag, I hadn't smoked for 4 years and Sue had never smoked, but we both had one, then another...
We made it safely to the airport the day after, and both came home with 200 duty free fags each......
All in all it was a good holiday but put me off mainland Spain for life. I went back into work and guess what......... The finance department had got their act together, not only did they pay me the correct wage, but they had deducted the over-payment from the previous month from it..........Oh Bugger!!!!!