I got up early to sort out bedding for Owain, and check that his six o'clock flight had taken off. There was a slight delay but it arrived a few minutes early here at nine fortyfive. Long queues at passport control but he got to Malaga bus station just before eleven. He had much frustration getting a ticket for the next bus at eleven, perhaps because very last minute purchases when the bus might in any case be full. Buying one on line didn't work, and not all the ticket machines were working properly, not processing payments. A sign the network was too congested to respond. Eventually, one ticket machine worked, but several buses had gone and he had to wait until midday, and arrived in Nerja at one twenty five. I followed the progress of the flight right through to touchdown on Flight Radar. Very informative and useful. Meanwhile I made a chicken and vegetable stew ready to eat later on.
I drove in to meet Owain at the bus station, parking in the wasteland site by the Mercadona (closed for the fiesta de San Isidro). The streets were busy with people in traditional festive dress, tourists were people watching from cafes along the street. The noisy procession to las Cuevas de Maro was already under way. I wondered how I would get from the car park back in the Torrox direction. The traffic police took control of the roundabout above the bus station, directing vehicles to go the wrong way around it, use the outside lane alongside the procession, then turn back at the next one. It meant we got a view of some of the floats and Owain took a few photos from the car. Then in twenty minutes we were back at Church House with beer and tapas soon on the table.
Owain relaxed after his stressful journey and snoozed on the sofa, then Mike an expat electrician from Porthmadog in North Wales arrived to fix the cooker. Owain tried out the garden pool, then we walked down to Playa Vilches, where he took a quick dip in a fairly rough sea, with waves whipped up by the wind. Then we walked to the beach in front of the Hotel Marinas de Nerja, and called in the Mesonera de Nerja restaurant for a drink on the way back. For the second time in two days I couldn't just tap and pay for a trivial sum. This added to my suspicion that my card had been hacked.
With Owain's help, we accessed the Money Card account on my laptop, but found that the same amount of money was on it with no new unknown transactions. With his encouragement I check the encrypted file where my passwords are stored and found the PIN I'd used was actually a credit card PIN, not the one for Money Card account. What an idiot! I'll have to do a test purchase tomorrow using the correct PIN to clear the card of two failed attempts. Then tap and pay can be resumed, hopefully. It still doesn't explain why a pound was taken from the card at Cardiff Airport, however. But I'm hoping I can get it to work properly again tomorrow.
The chicken stew dish I prepared earlier in the day I reheated with a few boiled spuds to go with it for supper. We ate on the balcony table as darkness descended, enjoying our time catching up with each other until we were ready to turn in for then night.San Isidro
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