With my daughter staying overnight with a friend and the little guy tucked away at Gaga’s for the night, my lesser half and I were free from the little people on a Saturday night. Yipeee!

I can still remember when the vague whiff of freedom would have me galloping off to the nearest dancefloor but instead we opted for a sedate walk round Costa Del Silencio. The first place we meant to visit was shut and the second may as well have been as we were the only customers.

Just across the road at Coral Mar, El Botijo was doing very nicely. There was a good little buzz in the dining area and enough custom to keep Amanda busy in the kitchen. Manolo, from Gran Canaria sang and played guitar for the diners while Natalie and Paula kept them happily fed and watered (or wined).

Sitting in the bar area instead of the dining section we enjoyed listening to Natalie’s banter and watching Amanda cook up a storm. Guitar-playing Manolo sang his heart out for the diners and then came to the bar and sang some more. Unfortunately though I took lots of video of him and the girls, as well as of regulars Dennis, Ben-ben and Blackie, I accidentally formatted my camera card so can’t show you any of it. What a plonker!

So, my apologies to Manolo but you’ll just have to take my word for it. If you are visiting Costa Del Silencio and are looking for good food, served with a smile, and at a cost that won’t break the bank head for El Botijo in Coral Mar.

Every so often you come across someone and think , ‘Where the hell have you been all my life?’ Maybe that person turns out to be your soul mate or becomes a very dear friend. In my case, it’s Andy, hairdressing magician of The Village in Chapparal, Costa Del Silencio.

As I was the poster child for mousy hair at school, it’s not surprising that two kids and thirty years have done nothing at all to improve its texture or manageability. I’ve always known that I have challenging hair but I’ve never been impressed with those hairdressers that collapse in hysterics when I present a picture of Halle Berry and say, ‘I want to look like THAT!’

Not Andy. Okay, so Halle Berry may be a bit of a stretch but over the last few months he has rescued my hair from the absolute depths of bad haircut hell and resurrected it to the point where I have finally been brave enough to go for something a bit more exciting. After much uhmming and ahhing, I’ve gone for a perm. No, not a Kevin Keegan type 70’s nightmare. A body perm. According to Andy, it makes me look glam. Personally I suspect that the only thing that is likely to do that is dark lights and a bottle of vodka but a bit of harmless flattery never hurt a soul.

That was last Thursday and I left the salon feeling great. My flat and boring hair had bounce and shine and believe it or not, I did feel glam.

At least for a little while.

By the time I’d finished messing about with my exciting and dare I say …sexy …new style I looked more barmy than bombshell.

I struggled along for a few days convinced that my perm had fallen out. As if I’d dropped it on the way to the shops or something. I called Andy and wailed down the phone at him. Instead of telling me to get a grip and a bit more practice with my velcro rollers, he set me up with an appointment for a wash and blow dry and told me to come prepared.

When I turned up, he washed my hair, sat me in front of the mirror and told me to get on with it. I had to do my hair the way I was doing it at home. He stood back and watched me torture and twist my hair onto the rollers with thinly disguised horror before showing me what I should be doing and making me do that instead. At one point he was waffling on about what I could do with a pair of tongs before visualising the damage I’d be likely to inflict on myself or innocent bystanders and retracting that suggestion.

In the end, I left the salon with my beautiful bouncy barnet back and a new spring in my step. Andy had made me, make me, look good and feel great. Now that’s what I call a hairdresser!

I have mentioned Damon Park in Costa Del Silencioa few times here and there. With children in tow, it has always provided a pleasant place to sit out on a sunny afternoon. The kids get to grips with the mini-golf while the adults enjoy a little pester-free refreshment comfortable in the knowledge that the bairns are happily amused, in sight at all times and there are no cars in the vicinity.

Sadly, those lazy Damon Park afternoons are no more. After eight years the council has denied the renewal of the lease to the current Tennis Clubhouse proprietor and nobody seems to know what the current plans are for the area.

There has allegedly been an alternative offer to the council from a young lad with deep pockets and a burning desire to invest in the shabby park. As yet, this offer has not been acknowledged so it would seem the council have their own plans.

Let’s hope that they include keeping a green and open public space and that there is money available to rehabilitate what was once a pretty town park with miniature train and public swimming pool.

As it is, the only thing that kept Damon Park from total neglect was the little tennis club cafe which served both patrons of the tennis courts and petanque ‘pitches’ and the general public. Now with that closed down and the once lively Calabaza restaurtant a distant memory there is nothing to stop the whole park side of the location being concreted over and turned into a giant and ugly carpark.

What is on this weekend in Tenerife? Well heaven only knows if you wanted to know what was going on locally in Arona the last place you should go is the ayuntamiento website. Take the Feria de Artesania in Las Galletas on 6th and 7th of December. There’s lots of other information on the Arona website including the Christmas and New Year celebration schedules for 2008 (though I defy you to find it) and a teasingly thorough description of all the things you probably missed in 2007 but the only reference I can find to the Feria de Artesania is from 2006.

Well, take my word for it. There is an exhibition of local handicrafts along La Rambla in Las Galletas on Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th of December. If you have any crafty folk in your family circle this might be just the place to pick up some Christmas goodies.

I have had a bit of a bad hair life really. Even my daughter, whose natural pre-raphaelite curls are the bane of her existence, would not swap her hair for mine. ‘I’d love straight hair, Mummy’, she says. ‘But not like yours.’

A good cut makes all the difference of course and that is why I am so happy to have met The Village Barbers in the Chaparral. Andrew and Matt have got it all worked out. Between them they have been cutting hair for centuries so if they can’t sort out a dodgy barnett, no-one can.

Andy takes care of the women who walk through the door while Matt is the gentleman’s barber. On the day Gags and I visited we had to wait twenty minutes, which we spent by nipping over the road to Tre Bol (Why is there nowhere to have a cup of tea in Chapperal before 11.30 on a Saturday morning?)

My previous haircut had been something of a disaster. I had ended up with two completely different styles. A rough, choppy cut at the back and droopy spaniel ears at the front. I didn’t even have to explain as Andrew fingered my weird locks before flashing into action with his scissors.

Seconds later and my spaniel ears had flopped their last and although sadly Andrew could not give me the thick luscious locks I have wanted all my life, he had given me a fabulous cut which makes my hair look thicker and suits me very well.

He worked the same magic on Gaga’s wispy locks and in the time Andrew had been working on us, Matt was taking care of a steady stream of men’s trims and cuts while the two bantered back and forth and gave us the low down on the spate of strange burglaries that have been plaguing locales in the area.

It seems some mad bandit (though Matt’s language was a wee bit stronger) has been breaking into shops and bars and stealing the oddest things. They had broken into The Village Barber only recently and made off with a plastic water bottle and half of Andrew’s hair dyes. In bars, the villain nicks some grub and a couple of bottles of booze. All very mysterious. A starving alcoholic transvestite who can’t afford to buy his own hair dye?

Still never mind the Mad Bandit, if you are looking for a haircut in the Costa Del Silencio area, Ihighly recommend the Village Barbers in Chapperal.

After all the excitement of my blood test at Mahon I was absolutely ravanous but it was only 8.30 and at that time in the morning where to go? The little burger van (bocadillo van?) at Mahon is alright I suppose but a cafe con leche and a doughnut just wouldn’t hit the spot this morning.

Instead we made for Alejandra’s Cafe at the side of Costa Sol in Costa Del Silencio and I got a cracking Scottish breakfast – two rashers of bacon, toast, beans, mushrooms, a fried egg, a tattie scone and a slice of black pudding for €4. Compared to the average of €3.06 for a cup of coffee or tea with milk, two slices of toast and an orange juice not too bad at all.

Alejandro’s is about the only place at the top end of Costa Del Silencio that is open at that time of the morning so it is ideal for early birds.

This cheeky chap has started hanging out near a friend’s bird feeder. She suspects he may have escaped as he does look very young and he’s not the usual kind of clientele she gets at her open-all-hours bird diner.

He arrives with his green parrot buddies at about 7 a.m. and they all screech the place down till they take off about 9 (I bet the neighbours love that!) then they are back at 5p.m. for more grub.

Is he a Cockatiel? I’m not sure but he is most definitely cocky the way he perched there posing. If anyone has lost this little guy, please give me a call on 922733583 and I’ll tell you where he might be found.