¿Londres? Niet!

You were right, or rather Dan was. Three times Larisa and I have tried to talk on the phone and three times the connection has failed after a few minutes or so. Anyway, not to worry, at least I managed to wish her a Happy Birthday yesterday and to hear her say that she has been sending messages to which I haven't replied. I need to receive them first of course. And there is more talk of restaurants.....I have now "picked-up" the fact that Viktor's Son is the proprietor of (at least) one. Where I don't know although I probably have been told but my point is that it is a line of conversation that is not going away. Maybe she has been taken to meet the son on a business footing in order to bring Viktor's dream that I have mentioned before to fruition. Who knows? I don't, yet, but I do know that during my 3 day stay in Calahonda last month, surrounded by the Russian language (including TV) she made a smiling point that I will soon be speaking Russian! And that might be true because I managed to say "привет" (hello) to whoever answered the phone yesterday (probably Viktor's wife) without a second thought. On a slightly different note; you may remember me telling you a few years ago about that night in El Bar Jardin when her friend Victoria was told to stop being silly, well, other events in Calahonda last month lead me to believe that Victoria had actually been primed and I am becoming convinced now that if I do pop the question I am not going to be disappointed and Viktor and his family have become key players in that outcome. If I do?? No. More like just plain when! Exciting days ahead maybe. Favio may have done us both a favour with the changes in the bar.....she is not going to allow me to scuttle back home to the UK; that message has been underlying our conversations since my troubles started at the bank let alone the more recent ones with my employment!

Boiled Egg and Soldiers. I know I'll get indigestion but I just luv'em. I've got time on my hands again......home early, bed early, up early (5am this morning) all adds up to a new lifestyle. To the shops later for some yeast for breadmaking and....wait for it....CRUMPETS. I'm going back to my quest for the perfect homemade crumpet ever. Yep. Back to slaving over a hot stove for fun. And why not? I've now decided that next week I'll be cancelling the phone for a while with the consequent loss of this internet connection which, by the way, has been a pain these last few weeks...the ADSL has been dropping its connection regularly (3 times while I've been writing here) and I forgot to tell you yesterday that the email address you have for me will change when Telefonica are told to cancel the account but I'll give you another soon. There is a public WiFi Hotspot nearby so I'll keep in touch via that as I told you but whether I'll write here again soon is another problem.

Done & Dusted.