After this morning's services, I set off straight away to drive to La Cala de Mijas for Peter and Linda Hammonds' joint birthday celebration at the Restaurant Olé, where I've dined with them on previous occasions. After an hour and ten minute drive in perfect conditions, I arrived just as the two dozen guests were being called to collect their first course from a huge buffet of interesting assorted tapas. This was followed by beautifully braised pork with frites or croquettes, and then a chicken paella!
I thought it was ingenious of Juan the proprietor to issue everyone with side plates. You could take as much as you wanted of everything, and go back for more without shame as there was plenty to go around. A few confessed to running out of room before the paella arrived. I heard a rumour of paella soon after I arrived, so ate modestly in order to have room for it all. A chocolate mousse for each of them, decorated with candles seved as a birthday cake. All accompanied by a very pleasant Navarra wine, and in my case, lots of water, knowing that eventually I'd be driving back.
It was so lovely to be re-united with many of the people I'd shared life and worship with during my seven months of locum duty in Los Boliches last year, and to meet Fr Alaric the new chaplain, still finding his feet after three months, and trying to get his head around learning Spanish after a decade of Italian speaking as chaplain in Rome. For me, it was such a happy and sociable occasion, that it had me buzzing with excitement. Peter offered me a bed for a post-prandial siesta, as they live nearby but I wasn't the least bit sleepy, and enjoyed the drive back to Nerja as mich as I'd enjoyed driving there - not something I can often say. And I was back in time for the Archers.
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