Saturday 25 January 2014

St Paul's day on the beach

Today's the Feast of the Conversion of St Paul, and the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. No extra duties today, but it's been an eventful week with memorable experiences. We were delighted to discover as we stepped outside this morning that the wind we could hear howling from inside our apartment was pleasant mild air. We went over to the office so that I could print out my sermon notes for tomorrow and to take advantage of the internet connection to email the Parador in Ronda, where we hope to spend a couple of nights before Clare's flight home on Tuesday. 

Then we visited the market and bought a couple of sea bream for supper, one of them rather large, but sold with charm and enthusiasm by our usual fishmonger, ever ready to help us get our heads around the different names in English and Spanish for the creatures on his counter. A stroll along the beach before lunch and another stroll along the beach and a sit down out of the breeze to enjoy the winter warmth for a while before the sun hid behind the beach front apartment blocks. This is special for the end of January when it usually rains. 

Altogether, quite a lazy day, and while we were cooking those amazing fish, an email from the Parador confirming our booking. The bream is an oily fish like mackerel, but its flesh isn't early as dense and the flavour delicate. Despite the formidable size of the fish I'd picked, it was a pleasure to eat with rice, broccoli and haricot beans. It didn't leave me feeling I'd eaten too much. For pudding we had half a persimmon each accompanied by a yoghourt which was a mixture of goat and sheep milk. Beautiful delicate flavours together, worth repeating when we're in family banquet mode over Easter.
   

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