What I saw in front of me, a few hundred meters to the West was a huge tower of black smoke billowing up from something in the distance, clearly a big fire!

I didn’t hear any sirens of firetrucks, which are pretty common here in Valencia any time of day, and as it was already around 3am I decided to give the firemen a heads up.

So I called 112 and explained to the guy on the phone in my best Spanish that what i saw from my terrace had to be a big fire! The guy asked some question about directions, but as I only have a bird’s eye view from the top and not very familiar with the street names around here, I could only give him compass directions from my location.

We eventually settled on a location where the fire must be and there were already fire engines being sent there, so not to worry. OK vale.

About a week or 10 days later I received a call from the police. At first I didn’t have a clue who was on the phone and what this person wanted, but after a while I understood the meaning. This guy wanted to know why I called the fire department 7-10 days ago.

“Uhuh, because there was a fire?!”

“Was the fire on this and that address?”

How the fuck would I know? So I explained (again) that I saw the fire from my terrace late at night and thought it a smart idea to call the fire department.

In the end the guy thanked me and hung up.

This evening Mia and I went for a smoke on the terrace and again, in approximately the same direction as last time, I saw an enormous amount of smoke rising up from whatever apartment building.

This time however, I just stood and watched, being my total ignorant self, as it is clear to me that calling the fire department in this country is not entirely appreciated…

As I write this I smell melting plastic and faintly I heard a siren in the distance. I guess they found it…

There are numerous apps available via the marketplace and one of them is wpToGo, as the name suggests, WordPress on your phone.

As you can imagine, this little post is written on the HTC Magic.

Off now to cook, Mia after all has to put up with my geek behaviour, so I’d better show that I do care…

Bought a new phone (Nokia 6300) and a Dutch number so finally I was mobile again.

I booked my flight to Valencia, walked the dog and cooked Rene’s favourite dish from China: coca-cola chicken.