Sunday 2nd September 2018
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| Dinner at Maria Picola on our last night in Santa Pola |
Good morning again.
Today I am writing from home. We returned from our lovely holiday at our apartment near Santa Pola on Wednesday so our summer holidays are now over.
Last Sunday saw us at the beach in the morning where we sat on our 19 year old beach chairs which are still going strong under our old parasol. There we read, swam, went for a walk along the beach and then came home again, a pattern we repeated often during our holiday with our friends from Yorkshire, Phil and Kathy.
We came home and after a quick cooling off by the pool I made a simple lunch of spaghetti bolognese with what ingredients I had. After our proverbial siesta, we left for Alicante - about 15 km from here, so not very far. We went to show our friends the capital of the Alicante province and also to pick up Oli who was coming from Valencia to spend the last days in Santa Pola with us and travel back to Madrid. Her programme on TV has closed for the summer and she won't be back to work until the end of September; lucky her.
We parked by the port where lots of luxury yachts are moored and walked across to the famous Explanada de España. The Explanada is a bit like the Ramblas in Barcelona and is a promenade that is beautifully paved with marble in red and cream colours imitating waves and all under very tall palm trees. I have always loved it. I read that this promenade which runs parallel to the port is decorated with over 6 million marble tiles. It is emblematic of the city and a lovely place to walk on. Built at the beginning of the 20th century it has 4 rows of palm trees and is must if you ever visit the city. Alicante is where sea level is measured for the whole of Spain by the way.
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| Eladio and Pippa on the Explanada on Sunday |
We took Pippa along as you can see. At the end of the promenade, the Kiosko Peret, an open air ice cream parlour is located which I think is equally famous in Alicante. It's the place to go to be seen and watch people go by. Only Eladio and I had an ice cream which would be our downfall as you will read later and our English friends went for a gin tonic and beer. Peret is also famous for its "horchata", a local beverage made of tiger nuts. I had tried it for the first time at Peret many many years ago.
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| At the Kiosko Peret on Sunday with our friends |
From Peret we walked to the Alicante town beach called Playa de Postiguet which is actually rather small. That day was hazy and warm and the beach was full. We took photos there like the one of Eladio and me below.
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| Eladio and I by the beach in Alicante with Pippa last Sunday evening |
We then walked back on our heels past the port, along the sea front and to the car park where we would pick up our car to drive to the train station. We walked past a fascinating outdoor photography exhibition with superb nature pictures by the Brazilian photographer, Sebastiao Salgado. It was entitled "Genesis" and I would have loved to stop to see each and every photo. Here is one of the few remaining women in the world who wear lip plates. They are from Ethiopia.
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| From the outdoor photography exhibition by Sebastiao Salgado in Alicante |
On the subject of photos, I got one from my past which pretty well stunned me that day when my friend Andy sent me one. I had posted a photo of myself outside the house my Mother had bought in Callosa de Ensarria in about 1972 or 1973. Andy promptly posted one he had of me with a friend, Izzy, of me standing by the house in 1975. I must have been 18 at the time. It's a bit grainy but so funny to see myself so young. My hair was longer then and that is the true colour of it; a sort of dark blonde . I was pretty chubby at the time, the bane of my life and often I hated myself because of my figure, especially as a teenager. I remember the dress well. I think it was my Mother's and I always loved it.
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| Photo from my past - me with a friend, Izzy, outside our house in Callosa in 1975. I was 18. |
Later I dug out an old photo of me aged about 21 sitting on the street outside our house and made a collage out of it with the photo Kathy took of me 40 years later. Imagine! Being there 40 years ago feels like yesterday. It has been a good journey since then with its ups and downs but more ups than the latter so I can't complain and never do.
Oli later remarked that Suzy looks just like me. Does she? Oli was arriving at 8.20 from Valencia. We got to the train station early and there my dear friend Kathy introduced me to a Spanish shop I didn't know but liked immediately. Called Ale Hop it's a bit like Tiger or a small Primark. Here I bought a pretty pair of flat white lace espadrille/pump shoes for only 9 euros. Oli's train arrived at just after 8.30 and it was a joy to greet her. She was delighted we had taken Pippa along who was equally excited to see her.
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| 40 years separate these two photos of me sitting outside our old house in Callosa in Calle de las Flores |
We then drove home, stopping at Lidl to get a few provisions we needed for dinner and to keep us stocked until the end of our stay. Thus dinner was late but lovely; salad and cold cuts with lots of fruit. Later Oli and I went down to the gardens with Pippa and had some nice mother and daughter time. The day ended with more time on our little terrace with our friends, most of it spent laughing, until it was time for shut eye. Sunday had been a great day. Monday was not to be good.
On Monday after a night turning and tossing and waking up at least 3 times, despite my sleeping pills, I woke up with a headache and feeling rather bilious. I also had a funny feeling in my stomach. Obviously something hadn't agreed with me or I had a bout of sun stroke. When Eladio woke up he was feeling similar and we could only conclude the cause had been the ice cream at Peret in Alicante as it was the only thing we had eaten that no one else had. Rather than the ice cream itself, the quality of which is very good, we may have picked up some germs from the metal dish it was served on or even the spoon. Whatever the cause, we were to feel under the weather the whole day and for the rest of the week. Thus we decided to make a quiet day of it. While Eladio who probably felt worse than me as he actually threw up a few times stayed in the flat, the rest of us took our chairs and our books down to the pool for the morning. I was ok for a while and even took a dip with Oli and my friends. We had the place practically to ourselves as you can see from the photo of my daughter and I swimming, courtesy of Kathy.
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| Swimming in the pool by our apartment on Monday |
However, I soon felt worse and had to lie down on the grass on my towel where I fell fast asleep. All I felt like was crawling into bed and at about 2, Oli woke me up. And up we we went, me to go to bed where Eladio would join me while my daughter with Phil and Kathy's help made their lunch. We wouldn't touch a morsel all day. For the rest of the day my husband and I felt pretty fragile. We did manage, though, to sit out on the terrace in the early evening with our 3 companions and we played ludo, believe it or not. And here is a selfie of the 5 of us enjoying the game. It certainly took our minds off our upset stomachs.
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| Playing ludo on Monday |
The Spanish version of ludo is quite tactical and according to Kathy rather different to the English version. For the record Oli won. Later our friends went out to dinner alone which was not the plan at all as I had hoped to end their stay with a great dinner out together. But it was not to be. What cheered me up on Monday was a new Airbnb reservation for September by a family of 5 from Lithuania whose kids were coming to enroll at the Spanish Basketball Academy. Our guests do come for all sorts of reasons. September is now nearly full up; whoopee or not whoopee depending on how you look at it. Yes, it is a much needed income but also a slight invasion. In any case I like to look on being an Airbnb host in a positive way.
Tuesday came and both Eladio and I felt better although our stomachs weren't really right. Phil and Kathy were leaving that day and at about 10.15 we drove them to the airport which is very near Gran Alacant.. Thankfully at departures there is a drop off spot and you don't have to park. We said goodbye to our dear friends who had been a pleasure to host, not to mention a laugh a minute and I hope we see them again soon either in Yorkshire or at one of our homes in Spain, preferably Montrondo as they have not seen our new house there.
We spent most of the day in the flat afterwards apart from going out to dinner that night as neither Eladio nor I felt completely well. I was sorry poor Oli had coincided with us feeling poorly and missed out on walks and time on the beach. I helped her make a tortilla for lunch which I couldn't face. Instead I had a bowl of plain pasta followed by a yoghurt. We spent the time reading, talking and occasionally taking Pippa out to the garden. Here is Oli wearing one of my cheapo new summer dress with our darling dog. When I posted this photo of her with Pips, a friend commented she made a beautiful accessory, except that Pippa is far more than that; she is frankly another member of the family and I cannot imagine life without her. She brings us so much joy as do our other dogs Norah and Elsa. We don't bring them with us as they hate travelling by car but also because we just couldn't manage 3 dogs here. But not to worry they have each other for company at home and Lucy looks after them well.
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| Oli with Pippa in her arms where she loves to be - Tuesday at our apartment |
Even though we still felt a little poorly we were up to going out to dinner on our last night thankfully. Both Oli and I got dressed up for the occasion and here is a picture Oli took of me wearing the new flowery linen top I bought at the Gran Alacant market which matches the trousers I bought of the same material at the market in Majadahonda last year. I rather like the outfit. I wore Oli's lovely colourful necklace with it which always brings a sparkle.
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| Dressed up to go out on the last night of our holidays |
We chose our local favourite restaurant, Maria Picola, on the road to Elche from Santa Pola where we have been going year after year since we bought the apartment in 1999. We especially love the garden terrace. Here Oli took more photos, this time of Eladio and I together and I have chosen one of them to illustrate this week's post. I love it. It's amazing to think we met in 1980, got married in 1983 and that we have now been husband and wife for 35 years. Kathy and Phil bought us a happy anniversary card which said "still loved up". That was new English slang for me. I think it means a bit overly in love. Google describes it as "the sickly sight of loved-up couples on Valentine's Day". I do hope we are not a sickly sight hahaha.
What has been sickly or rather a great annoyance this week has been the abundance of mosquitoes which have eaten us fairer skinned ones alive. One of the reasons for wearing the long sleeved and long trouser outfit that night was to protect me from them. I took along the repellent spray I had bought in Guadalest and some Indonesian post mosquito bite relief cream Oli gave me. Without them I would have been scratching all night.
We were the first guests to arrive and had the whole place to ourselves. That's where Oli took the photo of Eladio and I. I took one of her and her Father also as you can see below.
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| Eladio and Oli on Tuesday night at Maria Picola restaurant on the road between Santa Pola and Elche |
Eladio only ate a sea food soup whereas Oli and I went for shared starters rather than a filling second course. However we were soon full up on croquetas, calamares and duck salad. We did manage a small dessert and I risked a scoop of my favourite ice cream flavour; pistachio. I wondered how I would feel the next day. It was a lovely dinner and we found ourselves talking about all the houses we have lived in since we got married and all the moving in. Oli said we had done well for ourselves. I suppose we have in a way. She and Miguel are contemplating buying a house themselves but it won't be as easy for them as it was for us.
We were home by 10.45 and Pippa was frantically waiting for us. It's amazing but she hears the sound of the engine of our car arriving and knows immediately it is us. Of course we took her down before we went to bed.
Once in our evening dress, aka nightwear, we sat on the terrace with a beautiful full moon with no need for any artificial light. It was quite magical. I would miss our time here when we left on Wednesday.
On Thursday I woke up far too early. I thought it was 6 something but actually it was 5 something. Oh well, I would make up for lost sleep in the car when we drove back that day. I was happy to see new bookings on Airbnb. A guest from Miami had made 3 separate bookings for October which was good as I only had bookings for September before that. I now have 12 bookings coming up. Whoopee I thought hahaha. Although I was still feeling a bit fragile, naughtily, I bought fresh bread and croissants for breakfast from the lovely bakery across the road from our flat. After that we spent nearly 3 hours putting on 3 washing loads and hanging out the laundry for it to dry for when we come back, packing and cleaning the flat. We left at around 11.30 but before we hit the road to Madrid we went to a pottery shop on the road to Elche. Oli wanted to buy some pretty and colourful bowls like the ones I had bought a year or so ago for the apartment. I couldn't resist either and bought more but for home. We have a huge collection of bowls in our house, mostly from our travels.
Making up for lost sleep I slept most of the car journey home, only stopping to scratch the dreadful mosquito bites that had plagued me during our stay. There is no relief on the market that I know of that is really effective. If you know of one tell me as I have tried everything there is and never found one that really works. We stopped at the sleepy little town of La Roda in the uninspiring province of Albacete to fill up on petrol and to have lunch. Oli and I found the best place according to Tripadvisor, La Molina which wasn't really up to much. I could hardly face the food on my plate due to my upset stomach. An hour or so later we were back on the road again in the blaring sunshine and got home at around 5 pm. Just as we arrived our Dutch guest, Kimberly arrived too. She is a lone traveller, here to see Madrid and Valencia and believe it or not will also be visiting a friend she has in a village in the mountains of Alicante called Tárbena. When she told me, I couldn't believe it as I know Tárbena well. It's just up the road from Bolulla and where I met my first proper boyfriend, someone called José Francisco. He was a medical student at the time and it's thanks to him I really learned Spanish. What a coincidence. Later we would meet our other Airbnb guest, Yuki of Taiwanese origin but living in Canada, who had arrived on Monday. She came to find accommodation for her first year at the local University (UEM) where she will be studying dentistry.
Our favourite Airbnb guest (together with 7 year old Brody from the UK), Marianne, aged 8 and from Normandy who we had fallen in love with, had left us a present on our magnet filled fridge door. The sweetie, who apparently cried when she left, not wanting to leave Elsa and Norah, had left a drawing of the two dogs for us. It is a drawing I shall treasure.
Making up for lost sleep I slept most of the car journey home, only stopping to scratch the dreadful mosquito bites that had plagued me during our stay. There is no relief on the market that I know of that is really effective. If you know of one tell me as I have tried everything there is and never found one that really works. We stopped at the sleepy little town of La Roda in the uninspiring province of Albacete to fill up on petrol and to have lunch. Oli and I found the best place according to Tripadvisor, La Molina which wasn't really up to much. I could hardly face the food on my plate due to my upset stomach. An hour or so later we were back on the road again in the blaring sunshine and got home at around 5 pm. Just as we arrived our Dutch guest, Kimberly arrived too. She is a lone traveller, here to see Madrid and Valencia and believe it or not will also be visiting a friend she has in a village in the mountains of Alicante called Tárbena. When she told me, I couldn't believe it as I know Tárbena well. It's just up the road from Bolulla and where I met my first proper boyfriend, someone called José Francisco. He was a medical student at the time and it's thanks to him I really learned Spanish. What a coincidence. Later we would meet our other Airbnb guest, Yuki of Taiwanese origin but living in Canada, who had arrived on Monday. She came to find accommodation for her first year at the local University (UEM) where she will be studying dentistry.
Our favourite Airbnb guest (together with 7 year old Brody from the UK), Marianne, aged 8 and from Normandy who we had fallen in love with, had left us a present on our magnet filled fridge door. The sweetie, who apparently cried when she left, not wanting to leave Elsa and Norah, had left a drawing of the two dogs for us. It is a drawing I shall treasure.
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| The drawing Marianne had left for us the day they left. |
That morning I had heard from her Mother, Peggy who sent us a photo of her daughter. Oli and I promptly sent a funny video for Marianne and then we got a lovely one back. We must have played it about 4 times until we got every word she said and we did. Sorry I can't post it here. But I can post the lovely photo of her with her cat Mimi.
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| Marianne with her cat Mimi |
She said hello Masha and Oli, asked whether we were having a good holiday, said she missed Elsa and Norah but was happy to be back with her cat. She also sent us big kisses. Oh what a lovely little girl.
Our room was so hot after being closed in our absence, I had to put the air con and fan on full speed. I spent at least an hour unpacking, etc. It was great to see my
Father and to see that the book I had ordered for him on Amazon had finally come, the one on the Romanofs. I immediately printed my latest blog post for him. After unpacking, I had a shower and spent time by the pool with
Oli. It was a luxury to have it to ourselves. Soon it was time for dinner but I couldn't face food and had very little. The best thing about coming home on Wednesday was sleeping in our own bed. That night we started watching a new series, "La Otra Mirada" on RTVE. I had recently updated my Fire stick and now Amazon Prime offers more streaming platforms apart from Netflix and its own. It even includes BBC World News! I was asleep by about midnight but was plagued a bit during the night by the damned mosquito bites we had suffered while in Santa Pola. That was the bad bit about our holiday.
Thursday came and it should have been a lovely day but it wasn't. Both Eladio and I still felt ill so I booked an appointment with a GP at a local private health clinic that afternoon. I couldn't face a walk or even lunch. The only constructive thing I did that morning was to look for a private French teacher on internet for Oli and I. We were both inspired to improve our French after spending so much time trying to talk it to Marianne. I found one, Helene who lives nearby and who would come on Friday for our first lesson. Watch this space. French has always been a language I can muster but it's very rusty and I have huge gaps in my knowledge. I have always wanted to improve it and now is my chance. Oli too always loved French and for both of us we would be fulfilling a wish to become more fluent.
I skipped lunch and went to bed to sleep. I had zero energy. Finally it was time for the doctor's appointment and he confirmed what we both suspected. We had gastrointeritis. He prescribed a stomach settler and a soft diet. I looked up what that meant and off we went to Carrefour Market to get white fish (hake), chicken breast, York ham, carrots, pumpkin, courgettes, apples and bio yoghurts. That would be our diet for the next few days as well as rice which I already had at home.
Later we spent time reading by the pool in private, a luxury again. That night I got another Airbnb reservation for October which is slowly filling up. After lots of family bookings this summer I am now getting students from the University. For a change this reservation was for a Spanish girl. Out of the next 12 reservations there are only 2 from Spain.
Friday came and I didn't really feel better but had a bit more energy. Thus we both went for our walk with the dogs, the first one in quite a time for Elsa and Norah. We left at 9.30 and my, it was so hot and sticky I had to have another shower when I got home. Kimberly was leaving that morning and we saw her off on her travels. That day she would be visiting The Valley of the Fallen and El Escorial. Earlier, Yuki had left for Segovia using public transport. That was very brave of her as she is so young, has never been to Spain before and doesn't speak the language. But she managed ok. That night she arrived home just as we were finishing dinner. She showed us her photos of the Aqueduct, the Cathedral and the castle but what impressed us most were the videos taken by her own personal drone. She has her own drone!!! We felt a bit like technological dinosaurs next to her! I suppose they are the future in photography but very expensive at the moment.
At midday, just as Kimberly was leaving, our French teacher, Helene arrived. Born in Le Havre in Normandy she studied in Nimes and is half French and half Spanish. Aged about 52 she lives in nearby Brunete. She only charges 18 euros per hour for the two of us. I think it's not a lot and money well spent. I set up our lesson room in the dining room with new exercise books for Oli and I. It would be a first having a lesson together as well as a "back to school" type feeling. Helene brought along two books she would be using with us, one with exercises and one on grammar. We asked her to talk to us in French throughout only using Spanish to tell us words we didn't know in French. These are the books she uses and which we later ordered on Amazon.
After talking a bit to her in French, Helene decided we were intermediate level. That didn't really surprise me and I'm glad she started from there so as to fill any grammar gaps we had and there are many. The hour passed quickly and I think we did quite well with the exercises we had to do after reading out texts of dialogue. Our next lesson is on Tuesday next. We shall be doing some homework before that, going over the work we did on Friday and writing up our notes neatly.
We felt really happy with ourselves after she left. We liked her and think we can learn quite a lot from Helene. So watch this space. My aim is for my French to improve enough to use it more when I go the next year's "cousinade" (cousin meeting) in France next year. If Oli can she will join me but that will depend on the date chosen because of her work.
I did have lunch on Friday, but it was all diet food because of my stomach, so made grilled chicken breast with rice. I also made a vegetable soup with courgettes, carrots and pumpkin, a great favourite with my Father.
We all had a short siesta and then Oli and I went to do the weekly shopping. I had been putting it off as frankly if you are not hungry or can't eat certain things, then food shopping is not at all enticing. We did it though and in the end filled 2 trollies as detergent, milk and dog food take up nearly one on their own hahaha.
Dinner was diet food again after which we sat on the swimming pool terrace reading until it was time for bed.
Saturday was the first day of September but the relentless heat continued. It has been in the mid 30's all week and today will reach 36ºc. Yesterday we went for our walk a little earlier to avoid the heat. It was a lazy and semi quiet day if you don't count the 7 guys who came for the day and night to celebrate a stag party. We don't accept parties on Airbnb but the guest who booked promised me they would be quiet, just do barbecues, sit around the pool and play board games. That was largely true but they were rather messy as bachelors tend to be. I later learned they are colleagues who work as IT support staff for the Sabadell and Santander banks.
Our last guest of the week, Yuki from Canada left that morning. She has been a delightful guest. I just wish we had had time for her to do drone photography of our house. We agreed to follow each other on Instagram and thus I will be able to follow her progress as a new student of dentistry at the local University. I wish her lots of luck.
Oli did her French homework that morning. I preferred to read and will do mine either today or on Monday on time for our next lesson on Tuesday.
My stomach was still playing up so I still had to be on a soft diet but at least I had some of my energy back. Thus lunch was fish and carrot and potatoes; not very inspiring. While the 7 guys were preparing their barbecue, we retired to our air conditioned room for a siesta. Oli went off to spend the afternoon with friends at a swimming pool. I could have done with a bathe in ours but it was occupied. Thus I sat out in the garden under the trees with the dogs reading my kindle. Eladio's kindle has disappeared which is very mysterious. I do hope it turns up. We had dinner on our own on the kitchen patio while our Airbnb guests occupied the swimming pool terrace. One of them broke another chair or rather the chair cloth. I think we have a replacement cloth or at least I hope so.
We began watching a new series on Amazon Prime last night; Jack Ryan, a CIA and terrorist story very fitting for these times. It seems quite promising.
Today is Sunday and our 7 guests will be leaving at midday. That will give us time to prepare for our next guests the family of 5 from Lithuania. Very inconveniently they will not be arriving until well past midnight tonight when my latest check in time is 10 pm. I imagine they will all be very tall as their kids are coming to enroll in the Spanish basketball Academy.
Now I am at the end of the tales of this week which started well but then brought us our "tummy" problems, aka gastroenteritis, which knocked us out this week. I do hope it goes soon.
So my friends I shall leave you now to publish this and get on with the day.
Wishing you all a great week ahead, cheers till next time,
Masha
Thursday came and it should have been a lovely day but it wasn't. Both Eladio and I still felt ill so I booked an appointment with a GP at a local private health clinic that afternoon. I couldn't face a walk or even lunch. The only constructive thing I did that morning was to look for a private French teacher on internet for Oli and I. We were both inspired to improve our French after spending so much time trying to talk it to Marianne. I found one, Helene who lives nearby and who would come on Friday for our first lesson. Watch this space. French has always been a language I can muster but it's very rusty and I have huge gaps in my knowledge. I have always wanted to improve it and now is my chance. Oli too always loved French and for both of us we would be fulfilling a wish to become more fluent.
I skipped lunch and went to bed to sleep. I had zero energy. Finally it was time for the doctor's appointment and he confirmed what we both suspected. We had gastrointeritis. He prescribed a stomach settler and a soft diet. I looked up what that meant and off we went to Carrefour Market to get white fish (hake), chicken breast, York ham, carrots, pumpkin, courgettes, apples and bio yoghurts. That would be our diet for the next few days as well as rice which I already had at home.
Later we spent time reading by the pool in private, a luxury again. That night I got another Airbnb reservation for October which is slowly filling up. After lots of family bookings this summer I am now getting students from the University. For a change this reservation was for a Spanish girl. Out of the next 12 reservations there are only 2 from Spain.
Friday came and I didn't really feel better but had a bit more energy. Thus we both went for our walk with the dogs, the first one in quite a time for Elsa and Norah. We left at 9.30 and my, it was so hot and sticky I had to have another shower when I got home. Kimberly was leaving that morning and we saw her off on her travels. That day she would be visiting The Valley of the Fallen and El Escorial. Earlier, Yuki had left for Segovia using public transport. That was very brave of her as she is so young, has never been to Spain before and doesn't speak the language. But she managed ok. That night she arrived home just as we were finishing dinner. She showed us her photos of the Aqueduct, the Cathedral and the castle but what impressed us most were the videos taken by her own personal drone. She has her own drone!!! We felt a bit like technological dinosaurs next to her! I suppose they are the future in photography but very expensive at the moment.
At midday, just as Kimberly was leaving, our French teacher, Helene arrived. Born in Le Havre in Normandy she studied in Nimes and is half French and half Spanish. Aged about 52 she lives in nearby Brunete. She only charges 18 euros per hour for the two of us. I think it's not a lot and money well spent. I set up our lesson room in the dining room with new exercise books for Oli and I. It would be a first having a lesson together as well as a "back to school" type feeling. Helene brought along two books she would be using with us, one with exercises and one on grammar. We asked her to talk to us in French throughout only using Spanish to tell us words we didn't know in French. These are the books she uses and which we later ordered on Amazon.
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| The books we will be using for our French lessons |
We felt really happy with ourselves after she left. We liked her and think we can learn quite a lot from Helene. So watch this space. My aim is for my French to improve enough to use it more when I go the next year's "cousinade" (cousin meeting) in France next year. If Oli can she will join me but that will depend on the date chosen because of her work.
I did have lunch on Friday, but it was all diet food because of my stomach, so made grilled chicken breast with rice. I also made a vegetable soup with courgettes, carrots and pumpkin, a great favourite with my Father.
We all had a short siesta and then Oli and I went to do the weekly shopping. I had been putting it off as frankly if you are not hungry or can't eat certain things, then food shopping is not at all enticing. We did it though and in the end filled 2 trollies as detergent, milk and dog food take up nearly one on their own hahaha.
Dinner was diet food again after which we sat on the swimming pool terrace reading until it was time for bed.
Saturday was the first day of September but the relentless heat continued. It has been in the mid 30's all week and today will reach 36ºc. Yesterday we went for our walk a little earlier to avoid the heat. It was a lazy and semi quiet day if you don't count the 7 guys who came for the day and night to celebrate a stag party. We don't accept parties on Airbnb but the guest who booked promised me they would be quiet, just do barbecues, sit around the pool and play board games. That was largely true but they were rather messy as bachelors tend to be. I later learned they are colleagues who work as IT support staff for the Sabadell and Santander banks.
Our last guest of the week, Yuki from Canada left that morning. She has been a delightful guest. I just wish we had had time for her to do drone photography of our house. We agreed to follow each other on Instagram and thus I will be able to follow her progress as a new student of dentistry at the local University. I wish her lots of luck.
Oli did her French homework that morning. I preferred to read and will do mine either today or on Monday on time for our next lesson on Tuesday.
My stomach was still playing up so I still had to be on a soft diet but at least I had some of my energy back. Thus lunch was fish and carrot and potatoes; not very inspiring. While the 7 guys were preparing their barbecue, we retired to our air conditioned room for a siesta. Oli went off to spend the afternoon with friends at a swimming pool. I could have done with a bathe in ours but it was occupied. Thus I sat out in the garden under the trees with the dogs reading my kindle. Eladio's kindle has disappeared which is very mysterious. I do hope it turns up. We had dinner on our own on the kitchen patio while our Airbnb guests occupied the swimming pool terrace. One of them broke another chair or rather the chair cloth. I think we have a replacement cloth or at least I hope so.
We began watching a new series on Amazon Prime last night; Jack Ryan, a CIA and terrorist story very fitting for these times. It seems quite promising.
Today is Sunday and our 7 guests will be leaving at midday. That will give us time to prepare for our next guests the family of 5 from Lithuania. Very inconveniently they will not be arriving until well past midnight tonight when my latest check in time is 10 pm. I imagine they will all be very tall as their kids are coming to enroll in the Spanish basketball Academy.
Now I am at the end of the tales of this week which started well but then brought us our "tummy" problems, aka gastroenteritis, which knocked us out this week. I do hope it goes soon.
So my friends I shall leave you now to publish this and get on with the day.
Wishing you all a great week ahead, cheers till next time,
Masha
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