Sunday visiting

Over the weekend we've been enjoying a cool breeze and temperatures of 25-30C, quite a pleasant combination, which looks set to continue into the coming week. There were twenty six of us for the Eucharist at St George's, a few went to Velez Malaga today to join in the farewell to churchwarden Rebecca who is moving back to Britain to live. 

Over drinks and nibbles after the service, I was interested to meet a young woman from Sierra Leone whose family migrated to Canada when she was a child, so she'd grown up and worked there. She decided to take a year out and come to Spain for a different experience of life and work. Her third continent to live in before reaching the age of thirty. I guess that's more characteristic of today's world than it was when I was growing up, and didn't even venture out of Britain to the Continent until I was twenty.

After lunch and a siesta, I drove to Torre del Mar to visit one of the Velez Malaga congregation in the Comarcal Hospital. I had a feeling beforehand that I'd visited someone there before when I was on locum duty in Nerja, and this was confirmed as I found my way directly there from memory. At six on a Sunday evening nobody was on duty at visitor reception, so I went to a ward, which turned out to be on the wrong floor, and made enquiries. I was pleased that I made myself understood and was directed to the correct ward in Spanish. The nurse who directed me to Brian's room kindly said the number in English, so I repeated it in Spanish with a big smile. Practise, practise, all the time! 

Brian's an artist, a writer and was a lay preacher in a Congregational Church when he was younger, so we had an interesting and wide ranging conversation. He's hoping to return to the UK in the near future, so ending up in hospital has frustrated his intention for the moment. Life has this annoying habit of interfering with our plans. 

Although my return journey had me driving with the sun in my face for part of the time, it was nonetheless lovely to see the coast from the high road in a different light on a clear evening. Later, I walked along the Paseo Maritime into the port, enjoying the breeze, with hundreds of others, both holiday makers and locals, making the most of the respite before another working week begins.