A cold night, but I was kept warm in bed by a huge comfortable duvet, and woke up at first light to enjoy opening the bedroom window curtains and see the light of the rising sun at the far end of this group of houses, beyond the swimming pool.
Jen and John passed by after breakfast to bring me the Chaplaincy phone - an iPhone, unfortunately for me as I have never used one before and don't know how to work it. With trial and error was got as far as finding out that I can't access WhatsApp as it won't work unless up to date. There seems to be no record of the phone's Apple i/d or other sign in details. It can send as receive phone calls, but do nothing else in this state as the phone cannot be returned to factory settings without knowing who registered it, how and when. Not quite the sort of cultural challenge I was expecting!
My ankle got jolted when I tripped this morning and it hurts again, though it isn't swollen. It's set me back a few days in terms of walking discomfort, but this was a timely reminder to buy some pomade de arnica as arnica cream is called here. I went to the Mercadona, ten minutes walk from the house and did my first big grocery purchase of my stay - enough to last me over the weekend and into next week. The wind blew in strong unsettling gusts. No wonder the original name for this region was Costa del Viento.
When I came to tap and pay using my Post Office money card, the card reader gave an error message several times, so I had to hunt for the pin number in my password protected file, as I'd not used the password before and then insert it into the reader. Still an error message. When I took it out, I realised that the chip on the card was partly covered by a strip of paper telling me to activate the card. I had done this, but omitted to peel off the notice. Oh dear, silly old fool.
I had a rucksack and a Mercadona bag for life full of groceries to lug uphill back to the house, and it took a longer than usual, but my ankle coped with the extra weight and the slope. Then my first cooked meal, pasta and a veggie sugo with butter beans, enough for another lunch tomorrow, or even Sunday to save me cooking when I get back after church at Alhaurin.
Clare and I chatted on WhatsApp over lunch, but it wasn't the best arrangement as background noise was a problem for both of us - from me cooking and her washing up. We'll have to consider a better way of keeping in touch during the day, before either of us gets too tired.
Jen asked me to collect a batch of weekly notice sheets from the church office for Calahonda, so I walked to Los Boliches with my big bunch of keys and let myself into the Edificio Jupiter apartment block which houses St Andrew's church in a ground floor corner location, accessible from the main street. Work on the building planned before lock-down and completed after has created a new disabled access toilet, renovated the old one and the kitchen, and redecorated the sanctuary. It all looks very good indeed. A credit to the church at such a challenging time. I went out for a walk down to the promenade and had a message in response to a query made to Caroline to say I'd need to bring a liturgical stole with me for the service at Alhaurin, so I had to return and collect one.
On the way back up the hill I called in a pharmacy and bought the Arnica I needed for my ankle, and some Argan oil to use as scalp and help conditioner, as advised by Chris, since my hair easily gets dry and my scalp flaky. Not cheap, but necessary. The thermometer in the pharmacy sign read 19C, half an hour before sunset. The same strong gusty wind picked up again and it was soon dark. With the curtains shut, and the wind moaning outside, I'm in an island of calm.
The temperature drops quickly at dusk and reveals how poor is the thermal insulation of houses in part of the world. I had to work out how to get the air conditioning system to blow warm air into the lounge. It's years since I've had anything to do with such a device. It seems to be working now, but fighting a losing battle to raise the temperature any higher than 15C. Another cold night ahead. It'll take ages for the house to gain overall warmth, having not been occupied for a month in mid-winter.
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