Coast watch

Another night when it wasn't too hot to sleep thankfully. A load of washing done and hung out to dry after breakfast, then editing next week's Morning Prayer audio, making the video and uploading it to You Tube. We then went for a walk along the senda litoral, where the mouth of the rio Guadalobon is blocked off once more. The charco teeming with fish and sometimes turtles as well is a natural feature, but I'm pretty confident nature is being given a helping hand here. I wish I could find out more.

While we were walking I heard the rumble of a high powered motor boat off shore. Not that of a pleasure craft or a fishing boat, but a high powered engine. I caught sight of a boat off-shore and took a picture that revealed the legend 'Guardia Civil'. This must be one of the high speed Spanish vessels that intercept drug transporting craft, commonly called RIBs (Rigid Inflatable Boats) with big racing engines, equipped to outpace standard police and customs patrol vessels. 

Costa del Sol far western beaches are destinations for drug runners in highly sophisticated organised crime enterprises. Cargo is off-loaded to a RIB outside territorial waters, then run ashore to a rendezvous with transporting gangs on-shore. Andalucia outside of the holiday zone is economically deprived, so it's not good when drug crime is shown to pay, but this isn't prevention but rather mitigation of the reality. Real economic development, productive industry would do more for the health of the region and its crime rate.

Clare cooked swordfish for lunch, a delicious favourite of ours. I augmented yesterday's efforts to use all the veggies Clare's diet doesn't allow with brown lentils soaked overnight and cooked with garlic. The mix went down well with gluten free pasta, but the swordfish had to be savoured on its own!

After a siesta, Clare had a swim in the pool, then we went for another walk by the sea before supper, and for lack of anything better to do or watch, a couple of ancient episodes of NCIS before early bed. Both of us are feeling tired today, perhaps because of the amount of walking we did yesterday.

In at the deep end

There were eight of us for this morning's midweek celebrations of Communion, and all stayed for a lively bible study on last Sunday's Gospel. Four of those present come out regularly from Britain and stay a good while. Unfortunately they'll be leaving this coming week, so the regular group will be smaller next time.

I stayed chatting afterwards for rather too long, and didn't leave myself quite enough time to cook a meal, and then drive at a leisurely pace to Velez Málaga by three for the bible study session there in the Capilla de San Juan. Even so, I was only a couple of minutes late, but taken aback to find the place locked, and nobody else waiting. Had I come to the wrong place? No, Doreen told me when I rang. I was half an hour early. That meant I could go for a walk up the main street in the direction of the old town. It's a town that sprawls down the plain from the ancient settlement below the moorish castle, probably half an hour's walk, and I only had twenty five minutes available. It wasn't all that interesting a street either, but at least I got some brisk exercise.

One noteworthy feature was a couple of buildings belonging to the Guardia Civil, and a roundabout in the middle of the dual carriageway with a bronze statue of a uniformed Guardia officer. It's an armed military police agency, a member of the European Gendarmerie Force, with public protection and criminal investigative powers exercised in rural areas, on the coast and off-shore. It even plays a part in some international peace keeping operations. It provides accommodation for its members and their families. Britain doesn't have an equivalent civil institution.

Outside the Guardia station stands a memorial to officers killed in the line of duty in the form of a simple stone pillar surmounted by a bronze effigy of the characteristic tricornio ceremonial headgear, the equivalent of a British bobby's helmet. It's a curiosity to passing foreigners who know nothing of this aspect of the culture. In fact, there's a lot that's different about policing and public protection in different European countries for any Brit to get their head around, as I am often reminded when I watch Euro-crimmies on TV.

There were eight of us for the bible study group at three thirty. I enjoyed doing this second one, as it was made up entirely of regular congregation members I'd met before, and the conversations were quite different. I'm looking forward to Sunday worship with them again, a week on Sunday.

On the journey back I stopped at the Carrefour hypermarket and shopping centre beside the MA24 motorway linking the A7 Mediterraneo with the N340 coastal highway. I've passed by many times on my previous stays in Malaga, but this was the first time to negotiate the access roads and take a look inside. I just wanted a simple colander for draining veg. I needed light bulbs as well since both the bedroom ceiling fan light have died. I haven't yet been able to remove the cover and check the type of bulb required, but now I can navigate my way to the 'household goods' aisle to find them without losing track of why I'm visiting. So easy to do that in such a vast cathedral of consumerism.

If I'm passing that way it's as easy to call in as it is to walk into the Old Town and hunt for a shop which has the right kind of bulb. There are many more worthwhile distractions to enjoy there than in any shopping mall. That's the trouble.

  

Last beach weekend

Saturday afternoon, we went to the beach so Clare could say she's been swimming in the sea once this year. She's been swimming in the pool belonging to the urbanizacion every day since we came, and it's really helped her regain her fitness, and a super sun-tan. I've joined her in swimming several occasions but was punished for diving in by wax blocking my eardrums leaving me with half my usual hearing.

There were three aircraft flying up and down off-shore this afternoon. Two were light aircraft towing advertising banners, only readable correctly from the beach on one pass, the other was a Guardia Civil seaplane, doing 'circuits and bumps' on the waves, collecting and then dumping sea water to refine the piloting technique so vital for fighting forest fires inland.

I was delighted with photos I took, although it was not without its awkward moments. Almost for the first time since I've been on one of the local, very family friendly beaches here, several women paraded unselfconsciously along the water's edge bare-breasted as the seaplane performed its manouvers. How to get the aircraft pictures with my Sony HX50 telephoto lens, without any of the women believing I was intent on sneakily photographing their proud assets? Keep on looking over their shoulders and keep the camera down until the last moment, I decided, and got away without scowls or unintended naughty snaps.   

This morning, I woke up early and drove to Benalmadena to celebrate the Eucharist there. I was unable to find a parking space close to the church, as it seems that there are still plenty of end of season car driving holidaymakers occupying spaces, although that should change soon. I found a space a quarter of a mile uphill, and was still on time for the opening up of the church. There were two dozen present.

Since my last visit to Benalmadena, the Revised Common Lectionary book, whose weak spine broke through much use over the decade, has been re-bound by a contact of Val's whose speciality is binding legal documentation, so it's now more robust that anything the CofE publishers are likely to produce any time soon!

Anticipating further problems parking in the church assigned parking space, I took the first vacant one I saw on the road approaching. No point in taking chances, and as the traffic on the return journey had been light, I was there ready to start in good time. The congregation was half the size it normally is in periods popular with British visitors. The autumnal 'swallows' have yet to return.

I cooked a paella for lunch with the last batch of frozen prawns from Clare's acquisition of favourite foods. The beach was noticeably quieter when we made another visit after siesta. Sun shadows cast by the tower blocks were emptying rapidly, small crowds lingering until the last moment in the patches of sun streaming in between the buildings, before packing for home.