A wet non-bank holiday

It's not a bank holiday here, but a normal working day today, and time for Kath, Anto and Rhiannon to leave us. After a long slow breakfast I took them to Malaga Airport to pick up their holiday hire car from Goldcar at noon. I was there and back again in half an hour, despite the rain. Unexpectedly, they had to queue for two hours to collect the car before setting out north on the A7/N340 in the direction of Almeria, and then inland to Lorca, where they were due to spend the night at the Parador hotel. Mid afternoon we had a photo of them enjoying a picnic lunch on the Balcon de Europa in Nerja, a place well familiar to Clare and I from previous locum stints. Early evening we had a photo of the wonderful view from the hotel room at their destination. Tomorrow they travel to Sta Pola for their second week.

Despite the rain and heavy cloud, we drove with Owain up to Mijas pueblo, enjoyed a tapas lunch at the Secret Garden Restaurant, and did the obligatory tour of the shops and viewpoints. It was quite cold up there because of the rain. I was disappointed it wasn't conducive to a longer stroll, but Owain was glad to have been there. After our return, I went down to church to meet up with Jim and then we took Peachy her Easter Communion. As we left, the rain poured on us, so we dashed up the street and caught a bus back to Los Boliches to save getting any wetter. Fortunately I'd driven down to church and succeeded in finding a parking space close by the church, so I didn't get went tramping back up the hill to the house.

Owain cooked us some delicious fresh filleted sardinas for supper, with a tomato salad, washed down with a bottle of Ribera del Duero, a wine for which he has enquired a fresh enthusiasm. It originates in the region south of the Rioja zone in northern Spain and has a fine character of its own. It's the vino de casa at la Vieja Escuela restaurant, and I've noticed a lot more of it on sale around here than I've seen in other areas.

There was no alternative to early bed, as Owain's early return to Cardiff with Vueling tomorrow demands a five o'clock wake up call.