An unusual celebration

We got up late and I made breakfast. I wasn't feeling that good, so Clare and Ann let me and went down to Los Boliches beach while I sorted myself out. I should know better, but at this time of year when it starts to get warmer and is less humid, I forget to drink enough water to compensate, and slowly the effect of dehydration creeps up on me. The trouble is that I never feel thirsty, and had to make myself drink extra. I learn a lesson which I later forget. Anyway, once I'd regained equilibrium I walked down to join them, and we had a drink and something to eat in the Granier cafe by the Mercado Municipal. 

Since she arrived and started playing it Clare's been having problems with the house piano. It's not terribly out of tune, but a third of the ivory/plastic key covers are detached from their wooden levers. Not she's on a mission to restore them to working order. She went to a Los Boliches ferreteria and bought some araldite with the aim of sticking them together. The challenge is ridding them of their layer of glue that no longer does the job. How to get rid of it is what she needs to find out next.

I cooked myself a very late lunch of past with a veggie sauce, leaving a portion for Ann at supper time, as I was being picked up at six thirty to be taken to the Cerros del Águila urbanizacion where a new street is being named in memory of Val Artachio, founder of Marbella's English International College. It's located on a hillside about five kilometres out of town, overlooking the Fuengirola river valley and the Sierra de Mijas with a superb view. A group of two dozen of of gathered, family, friends, colleagues from school including young children and one nonogenarian. A name plaque at the entrance to the street was unveiled by Val's husband, and I let the prayers of dedication which I'd prepared, wishing that I'd had time to render them in Spanish, as it was evidently a bi-lingual congregation.

Afterwards everyone went to the restaurant which is the social centre of the urbanizacion, where a long table to accommodate the assembly, had been laid out for drinks and tapas. It was a most enjoyable experience, giving me an opportunity to listen to Spanish social conversation and understand what was being said, plus an opportunity to converse in English and occasionally Spanish with a largely bi-lingual gathering. It was an unique event and experience for me, which I couldn't have imagined taking place forty eight hours ago. Val's brother and sister drove me home. After an evening of talk and drinking Rioja joven, I was so glad that I didn't have to drive.