MY LIFE © Chapter 38 - BALLOONING & LADY K

I knew Lady K from the time she was a senior in the Loreto Convent (El Convento Verde) which I hasten to add for my non-Yanito readers, did not make her a nun. It was actually the Loreto Convent School for Girls which was indeed run by nuns. I would say that my first memory of her was seeing her walk past, wearing the green school uniform and with knee-high brown leather platform boots, the rage at the time.

I do not think she realised then just how attractive she was, that must have come later.
The usual story, she met a nice guy they fell in love they got married and they disappeared. I believe they went to England where they lived for several years. She was one of the "walking wounded" of Divorce Courts, and in 1988, unfortunately, so was I.

One of the effects of divorces can be the knee-jerk impulse to marry someone else so as not to be alone anymore, but that was not my case, nor I believe was it Lady K's. She was apparently a regular at the old Cool Blues Cafe, where the Gibraltar Bank is situated today, and me, at 40 years of age and freshly divorced, it was definitely not my haunt. I did not want to be named as:

"Ahi este el viejo verde buscando rollo"
("There's that old ruee looking for action")

But chatting with Cool Blues owner, Joe Beriro, one day, Lady K walked past on the opposite pavement and we both remarked how attractive she was. On an impulse I decided I would ask her out. Aahhh, but I am an old romantic, and I wanted something a bit different for a date with her.
I had seen an advert in one of those quasi-newspapers that carried a million adverts and one or two articles and was found littered everywhere in Gibraltar as well as in the Costa. In it I saw an advert to go ballooning over Ronda, Marbella and surrounding area. I think the idea was rather novel at the time and an exciting and different way to both impress and enjoy a first date.

I really could not remember how I contacted her. Did I lie in waiting, leaning with apparent difference on one of the Main Street arches till she passed by?
Or did I call her?.... But this was before mobile phones so I think the "leaning indifferently" would have been the preferred system.
Would she say yes?
Would she turn me down?
After all I was rather older than her and going through a rather too-public divorce. But since the worst that could happen would have been a disdainful "No!", what was there to lose?
In fact, as she reminded me years late, I had the audacity of sending her a big bouquet of red roses to her place of work. 

If you are gonna do something brash .... brash BIG! Obviously of caused a bit of a stir among the several secretaries working with her. Once I was sure she had received it, I called her.

"Hi Karen" (I had not ascended her to 'ladyship' at that time)

"Hi ....?" (I have added the ? because it sounded like it was there when she replied)

Going into my "Mr Cool" act, while quaking in my boots (no, not platform ones!):
"What do you think of going out this Saturday night and Sunday?"

Yes, I know, I was not that suave, was I?

"OK" she said

"OK?" I said

"Yes....OK" she confirmed.

I am trying to remember details of this which happened over 30 years ago. Time has a way of leaving you with a bare wisp of a memory, sometimes pleasant, sometimes not, and occasionally a wonderful one. This whole incident, despite its end, has remained that in my mind.
I tend to be rather organised when it comes to assignations.
I booked a trip for that Sunday morning with the hot air balloon company, a hotel in the vicinity - separate rooms .... de viejo verde, nada!.... and waited for the sun to go down on Saturday evening, releasing me from my obligations of the Sabbath.
Karen got into my car and two things I remember were her brilliant smile (she still has that) and her excellent taste in clothes, which has grown even more tasteful with the years.

How curious the mind.
As a lifelong obsessive of my being fat, slim people have always attracted me, and Karen was and remains slim. So, as we sat in the queue at the frontier waiting our turn to cross, the conversation turned to food and her reply has remained in my head ever since for no particular reason:

"I eat everything and as my friends often say:'Si te sobra, daselo a Karen que ella se lo come todo!' "
(Any leftovers give to Karen who'll eat it all)

We had never spoken before this, so I was careful to keep the conversation light and pleasant.... a bit like verbally walking through a minefield try not to step on any possible sensitive mines.

Puerto Jose Banus in Marbella,

simply Banus to the super-cool, of which I was certainly not one. We sat at a good restaurant, (I was going to write ‘an expensive restaurant’ but in Banus that is a given!) We had a good meal, excellent wine and by then the ice had been broken somewhat. But Karen, by her very comportment, expected - and from me certainly received- respect. So when we went to one of the night spots there, we chatted as best we could against the loud music and danced close, but not too close, tentatively by both of us I believe, till it was time to drive off to the rural hotel for the night.

Did we kiss?
Nope …. I was still on that minefield I mentioned above!
But I remember her perfume was exquisite

On our way there I asked her if she had any idea what I have prepared for the next day.

Talk about balloons and puncturing them:

"Are we going in a hot air balloon?"

Yup, somehow, she had sussed it out!

SHIT! The best laid plans of mice and men..... isn't that the phrase?

It was probably 2am or nearer 3 by the time I accompanied her to her room and wished her a good night.

Our take-off time was 8am, by which we had to be breakfasted, packed, out of the hotel and ready for the no-longer-surprise adventure. I am never at my best so early on a Sunday morning and definitely not with just a bare 3 hours sleep. But Karen looked fresh as a daisy ....why a daisy? I have no idea ....as we finished a breakfast laced with 3 cups of coffee.... for me anyway.

And here is the punchline to this chapter.

In fact was a knockout punch!

When we arrived at the location, the two English guys who ran this shoestring business, we're looking morose, watching the clouds slip by the bright blue sky of Andalucia.

"Lo siento, guys"

"What's wrong?"

"The wind ... it is too strong ... no ballooning today!"

Indeed there was a strong Levanter blowing in, which though it did not appear so at ground level, the way the clouds were scudding past in the sky confirmed their decision not to fly.

There was not much left for us to do but to return to Gib with all my hopes for an exciting Sunday dashed.

Between that and the rather platonic hours I enjoyed her company, I drove back ….. and to my everlasting shame, never attempted a second assignation.

But then on the other hand and neither did she show much enthusiasm.

Since then we have each moved in very different directions, no doubt both to greener pastures; me now older, fatter, re-married and re-divorced.... and she, as elegant as ever, as aristocratic in demeanour as ever - hence in my mind she is  invested with the title of "Lady K". If we see each other across the street we smile politely ....and move on.
No regrets.
Some things work out some things do not, and when they do not, often it is for better things to come.

Lady K, I am certain you are enjoying your "better things" as much as I am, but the memory of that fateful week-end will forever remain in the annals of my failures.