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The Perfect Trip to Spain and Launch of Winter 2009 Spanish Jam
Written by Jimmy
Because of the difficulty in getting insurance for the band to all travel at once — our record company has read too many stories about small plane crash victims amongst musicians — we are forced to split into separate planes and even separate airlines to come down. So as we kick off the Winter 2009 Spanish Jam, Jimmy, Martyn and Saint Kathy came down on the 800AM BA and the rest of the band are coming this evening on an Easy Jet Flight.
This allows me to make a note on the perfect way to travel to Spain. Please note I’m an early riser and therefore what i am about to say is actually appealing. You wake up at 5AM, get to airport and thru security by 610AM or so, for an 8 flight. This leaves plenty of time then for me to get a full English Breakfast, while Kathy gets a muffin from Starbucks. And then we both go to WH Smith, where she buys 12 women’s magazines, and I buy Uncut, Mojo, Word and Q (which are all written by the same guy, Bob. And while on a guy named Bob, isn’t it amazing to think the biggest Raggae star in history, at end of day, is just a guy named Bob?). We then go to HMV where Kathy works very hard to not let Jimmy buy any CDs or DVD’s and Jimmy works very hard to explain that four DVD’s for £17.01 is a deal of a lifetime and it doesn’t matter that I hated these four DVD’s, at £17.01 they are a good deal even to use as coasters. This goes on for a bit and Jimmy wins about 1/3 of the time, which just ensures that he asks 3 times as much as he normally would. Armed then with big bag o’ CD’s and big bag ‘o magazines, we then discover it is 628AM at which point Kathy says to Jimmy -‘ Will you please remember this for next time? We don’t need to get to airport at 6AM for an 8AM flight. You’ve had your breakfast, you’ve bought your magazines and DVD’s and we STILL have 90 minutes to wait’. Jimmy says something about those 90 minutes are insurance in case of car crashes on the M4 or something. She doesn’t buy it.
But then we’re on the plane after a wee wait, read all the papers, enjoy our leg rooms in exit row and arrive in Spain. Now this time we’re with Martyn so things don’t go quite to normal. As we de-board he loses his passport — we go ahead to meet him after control, but he spends so long looking for passport in the gate tunnel thing connected to the plane that they lock the security door with him inside. He has to wait about 40 minutes to get unlocked. Jimmy and Kathy don’t know this and Kathy goes ahead to get rented car. Jimmy waits for Martyn by the luggage conveyor thingee — yes, MARTYN CHECKED IN A BAG!!!!! — and Jimmy waits. And waits. Luggage comes. Luggage goes. People take bags off. After 35 minutes only one remains — Martyin’s, Jimmy assumes. Then Jimmy calls Martyn but has wrong number. Calls his assistant to track down Martyn’s wife to find number for him. No luck. Finally Martyn shows up, having finally been unlocked from the gatey-tunnelly thing. We have routinely been coming down to Spain with three kids since they were about 4 and never lost one. We lost Martyn within 9 feet of him deplanning.
But I digress. Because the perfect trip to Spain is all about getting in the car and driving straight to Marbella, parking underground and running to the Tapas bar on the beach for sangria, fried calimari and tapas. Which we did. we then drove to Abubilla and every one is napping! Perfect start. Oh yea, and its pissing down rain. Which is good because we will be locked in the studio for 4 days anyway.
Buenas Dias.