Ken has been in his element here at Naunton Farm.  He has been tractor drivng, running errands, dropping Nick off at work when Angela has been on night shift (nurse).  A little sheep work.  When we arrived he had a smile from ear to ear.  When I first saw him I was quite shocked as he had lost so much weight (15 kilo) but with his normal pants he looked a sight, just like a bag of chaff tied in the middle.  The beard was also a little longer and much scruffier. I think he has put on a little weight to when he fist arrived, with Angela's fantastic cooking. 

Mavis and I had a very quick trip to Madrid. We went straight to the Australian Embassy from the airport.  The lady there informed me that I would have had trouble trying to get out of the country with my damaged passport, despite what everyone else was telling me.  The emergency passport, which is only good for six months, cost me forty six euros.  Normal processing time is forty eight hours but the lady rushed it through for me in thirty hours so we could fly to England the following day.  We decided for convenience sake to stay somewhere close as the Embassy was about half way between the city and the airport.  The lady warned us to be very careful of stealing etc in the city she said it was worse than Barcelona and after Leigh's bad luck we were very concerned. We tried three hotels only to find out they were all full. The third one informed us that they were a chain of twenty one (in Madrid) and that all their hotels were booked.  The man at the desk explained that there was a big football final in Madrid and also a Conress (not sure what this was about). We had no idea where to find an internet to look up accommodation and I had very little credit on my phone.  I text a message through to Pete asking him for help. Fortunately for us he respond within minutes, however he asked me to phone him so that he could get some details and because only had two euros left in credit it wouldnt allow me to phone out.  What to do now we thought?  Pete came to the rescue he twigged that something was up when I didnt call him back so he phoned me.  He needed to get some info from me and to make the booking and get the confirmation number and hotel address details etc to me, and would you believe it whilst we were talking my phone kept beeping, the battery was running low. I just prayed for it to hang in there until we could get the information needed.  The day was saved and we ended up, thanks to Pete, booked into a really nice hotel where the staff could speak and understand English.

We were both tired and decided that we didnt need nor want to do much.  We had a quick trip to the Museo del Prado, floor after floor of wonderful art.  After a couple of hours of exploring and viewing this great work we went onto the Botanical gardens for some fresh air, before returning to our hotel for a light dinner.  We slept in the following morning and then caught a taxi to the Embassy on our way to the airport.  The lady cancelled my old passpor and warned me that if I lost or damaged the emergency one I woud have to go through the dramas of applying for a full passport which could take up to a week.  So guess who held on to their passport like grim death until they were safely on the plane on their way to England.