St Bartholemew celebrated

My first assignment on St Bartholemew's Day was to celebrate the Eucharist at Calahonda. I wondered if I'd remember which N-340 exit to take, but in the event it wasn't a problem. There were two dozen of us, including three children who are currently being prepared for their First Communion. There are several more children being prepared up at Alhaurin as well, and there'll be a special celebration up there on Holy Cross Day. It's a tribute to the enterprise of lay people in the chaplaincy. The initiative has developed during this first year without having a chaplain to guide pastoral affairs.

I drove back to Los Boliches in good time but couldn't find anywhere to park in the gated area reserved for church use. Too many holiday-making families bringing more than one vehicle and taking two spaces per key access instead of one. It'll quieten down in a week or so when the school holidays end and people return to Madrid and other big cities inland. But, for the moment, it's a nuisance. I was about to drive up and away from the main streets to try and park on the road to the Vicarage, when Linda the church secretary spotted me hunting, as she was crossing the road. As luck would have it, a car parked close by made ready to leave, so Linda minded the space until I could make a turn at the roundabout and claim it. It was a stroke of real good fortune as I then only had a hundred yards to walk to the church entrance, and wasn't late at all.

The St Andrew's congregation was half its usual size, as many members have yet to return from visiting family in Britain, as is customary in the summer months, when temperatures are highest and hardest to cope with. We stayed in the shade after a lunch of tortilla and salad, until it cooled enough to walk down to the beach and along the promenade to our favourite beach bar in Torreblanca, to drink a beer and watch the sky turn colour. On the way back we bought our first postcards of the season, ten of them, each costing a fifth of the price of the postage stamp that will send them to Britain. Sea front restaurants, shops and supermarkets here stay open very long hours here during peak periods, then shut completely in the the quieter winter months.