Fuego

Well this post was going to be about posh frocks and socks but events of the day rather took over!

DS announced his forthcoming marriage in 'four' weeks time, so DD and I went off to Moraira in search of the 'posh frock' boutique.  Unfortunately nothing suitable for me but a couple for her, one of which was stunning on her.

So we decided to head off to other shops today in the old town of Benidorm - these streets are tiny, many one way, with people cross crossing across the roads without looking, eyes in the back of your head job.  Having never been to this side of town before we were being very careful, not helped by being barred from roads that the sat nav wanted us to go down.

Suddenly approaching a junction with a split road, the car conked out, nothing, nada, no hazards or anything, suddenly I saw and smelt smoke coming out of the bonnet and shouted to DD to get out of the car quick, don't worry she said it's only steam - no its smoke - out of the car pdq reaching for the extinguisher, she opens the bonnet (carefully) having tested for heat, only smoke billowed out, put the bonnet down then round the back to erect the triangle.  Why people have to honk their horns when they can see a breakdown is beyond me, but it added to the stress.  Suddenly more smoke was coming out of the bonnet when DD lifted it, huge flames sprung out and began licking all around the engine - the extinguisher wouldn't work, then a very unhelpful man came over and gawped when we handed him the extinguisher, but he couldn't make it work either,  all we had were 2  1.5L bottles of water so we poured that over and thankfully it seemed to put it out - the man then began to say it was the radiator and began a lecture on ladies not remembering to fill up the containers, grrr, when DD pointed out everything was full he walked away wishing us luck!!! **'@*&**

One thing they do have under control here is breakdown cover, their main aim is to keep traffic moving and under control, so after a call to the insurance company we were informed a grua would be arriving after 45 mins.  Luckily being a two laned one way street we were not a total obstruction - a Policia Local pulled along side (blocking the road!) but was uninterested once they knew the grua was en-route.  They passed again a little later and just waved! By this time we were just recovering when a second Policia car turned up.......
After telling them fuego (fire) one rang the grua whilst the other decided to move the car back - bearing in mind we were on a slope! and wondered why it nearly ran away down the hill derrrr - the worst was yet to come the absolute idiot tried to start the car - the grua arrived and they walked away. not realising they had reignited the fire.

Suddenly I spotted more black smoke coming from the bonnet - shouting to the grua 'senor, senor, fuego' - he looked bemused - what is the silly woman on about - boy did his face change when he saw - suffice to say after rushing over and grabbing the extra water I had found he doused everything and dismantled the sizzling battery - copper wire exposed after the rubber sheaths had melted, the whole loom of wiring across the car, fried, including all the extra sensory blocks - something out of Salvador Dali's paintings - he realised the police had caused the latest fire and began taking photos.

Conclusion - we felt like cocktails - shaken (very hard) rather than stirred - no water left, no lunch, no car, but the greatest positive is no one was hurt and thankfully I was with DD to help and comfort -  the garage took one look and destined the car to the scrap heap - they said there was nothing we could have done, it was 'just' an electrical fire - thank god it wasn't worse - their advice was to carry a bag of sand in the car for electrical faults - great! another item for the boot.

Enough excitement for the time being - a nice glass of rosado (rose) and a little chill out - the special project, posh frock and the socks? well they can wait for another day............
take care