Costa drive

A long night of undisturbed sleep did me a power of good after yesterday's early start. I walked to St George's for the midweek Eucharist, aware that two regulars would not be there, but a third did arrive, and we were able to celebrate together. While I was putting things away after the service, I had a phone call from Doreen the curate, asking if I could take a funeral on Friday, as it was set to take place in Velez Malaga, and it would take me a third of the travel time that it would take her. 

She'd been contacted by Nigel, the Chaplain in Nerja, who'd first been contacted about the funeral, as the family live in his pastoral area, but he's already booked for a wedding blessing that afternoon and so rang Doreen, not knowing I've just arrived and could provide cover. I contacted the bereaved family and arranged to visit them later in the day and was given travel instructions to find their apartment in Mesquitilla, a coastal resort about 9km east of Torre del Mar.

I returned, cooked lunch and had a siesta, then drove along the coast road to Mezquitilla. It takes twice as long due to traffic and speed restrictions, but the route is familiar from the time I spent last year, living in Rincon de la Victoria, and I needed an opportunity to stop at a Chinese Market store I know near there, to buy a coffee filter funnel, as I've not seen such a shop in the local barrio. It was also my first outing in a left hand drive car for six months, and gave me a chance to get used to local urban traffic and lower speed limits again.

It took me over an hour to reach Mezquitilla, and despite receiving good instructions to reach the destination apartment block, it took me a while to find the urbanizacion, due to lack of street signs, and knowing where to look to identify which apartment block it was out of several identical ones. Google Maps made up for lack of street signs, while being unable to provide the latter detail, so I had to call, to be met on the street and accompanied to the apartment.

After an hour's conversation and service planning, I returned to Malaga using the autovia as far as Benagalbon, then dropping down to the coast road to reach the Chinese store and buy the necessary filter funnel. It was gone nine by the time I parked at St George's and walked home after stopping off to get some milk. I had to repeat the walk to St George's to retrieve my earlier purchase, but the additional exercise did me good, as spending a total of two and a half hours in the car today. And now looking forward to another good night's sleep.