On his last visit, Owain accompanied me to the service in Salinas, and we continued afterward to spend the night and following day in Grenada. This time, he was content to have a lie-in and then go for a swim, so I set out for church at ten thirty, spent a while chatting with people arriving for the service at St George's, then set off for Salinas. using the back street route through La Meced to get to El Molinillo to follow the east bank main road along the rio Guadalmedina to reach the A45. Once again, this itinerary led to a set back, as a street linking the barrios was blocked by a cement pouring vehicle with no diversion signs in place. I had no option but to double back and take the longer route out to the autovia via the Avenida Andalucia. How frustrating!
Apart from that, the journey was uneventful, and unlike my other two Salinas trips, there was no rain just bright sunshine all the way. Much of the large parking area opposite the chapel was occupied by a big tent. It's the weekend of the San Isidro Laborador fiesta as well as Ascension Sunday. Inside the chapel entrance was a processional trona with the image of San Isidro from the side altar at the back mounted on it, ready for action, some time later in the day, I guess. A few families were setting up tents or canopies among the olive trees adjacent to the building for their festive picnics.
Today only half a dozen worshippers turned up, a third of the usual congregation. The entire choir and its leader was absent. Instead of the church being open at midday for choir practice, it remained locked until twenty past, which made me wish I'd gone to the toilet at the service station en route, where I stopped for petrol. A couple of visitors from Alicante turned up, and learned they were over an hour late for the Catholic Mass of the day. I was pleased to have an opportunity to speak Spanish with then, but they didn't stay for our service.
It was only after our Eucharist had begun that I realised that the reading which had been prepared and printed were for Ascension Day and not for Ascension Sunday, which I'd prepared for, and this meant I had to improvise around what I'd prepared to preach, not satisfactorily, from my perspective. This caught me off guard unfortunately. Singing everything unaccompanied was something I'm more used to thankfully. Afterwards, all the worshippers made for their cars, and there was no suggestion of retiring to Manolo's bar. I guess it might have been much busier than usual too, on account of the fiesta. It meant I could return immediately to Málaga to re-join Owain for lunch, however, an hour earlier than expected, and this compensated somewhat for the mishaps.
Later, we walked over to Artsenal at Muelle Uno to hear a live performance from a digital music artist from Madrid called 'Looping Greice' (aka Gracia Texidor). She relies on minimal percussion voice and occasional guitar to construct a live digitally recorded backing track against which she sings. It's a remarkable technique, which she's polished to create a sustained consistent performance. Here's an example from YouTube, and there are others! The sound system at Artsenal is very good, although an outdoor venue with people casually coming and going is less than favourable to a solo performer. Yet, she managed to hold an appreciative, if dispersed audience for an hour and a half, with nothing more than a bottle of water for sustenance. I'd like to see her perform in a club venue in her home setting, where the energy she emits would be less dissipated.
We then returned to La Malagueta and finished the day with a drink and tapas at Restaurant Flor across the road from the apartment, and talked over a bottle of once until midnight yet again. Not a good idea when you have an early start, but at least, when he gets back to Bristol Owain will have the rest of the day to recover as he doesn't work on Mondays. We both wish he could have stayed longer, even if neither of us could sustain the weekend's pace of stimulus for much longer.
