All hunky-dory

A lousy title but too many differing issues!!

Bill continues to improve, now all the tubes, and many of the connections, to medical gizmos at his bedside have been removed and he has been able to speak to Ann and his eldest daughter, Kathy, just arrived from Georgia USA. He still has "a long way to go" (Ann's words) though, with further surgery no doubt required to finally clear the problem with his Gall Bladder. Did I say speak? Actually, despite the stresses of life in a hospital ICU it seems that he has not lost his sensa yuma (grin, Cilla Black can translate!) telling Ann to make sure that the pair of them enjoy a night or two out and, specifically, to make sure that Kathy, who has not been to Spain before, is taken on one of our infamous "Tapa Runs." You can bet that I'll save my last cent to be able to go on that should it come to pass pretty soon.

I'm sat in Teresa's bar waiting to collect the key so that I can work tomorrow for her, thereby giving her a long overdue day off, and taking advantage of her WiFi hotspot. Having walked past an empty Ana's Bar, and many others, on the way here I'm pleased to see (and this is "live") that she continues to do better than many others locally. She has just told me that a few days ago she broke her all-time record for a day's take and the following day did next to nothing. Normal in this trade, one day good, the next bad which means that you cannot budget the business easily. Been there, done that and taken the tee-shirt off as they say, which is why I'm now happier trying to earn a living rather than make a living in this particular business but even that is proving difficult in these hard times.

OK. you wished that you could enjoy the meal with us! Erm, I doubt that! The menu was very fish orientated. Larisa excelled alone in the kitchen, leaving me and Katia to talk together, lounging on a sunbed each, on the terrace. Having poo-pooed any offer of help she presented at the table a Gazpacho with a cucumber garnish followed by Octopus fried with hot paprika in a kind of pil-pil fashion, then a seafood paella preceded the main course of baked Whole Mackeral. I was offered "seconds" of this which I gladly accepted because it was deliciously simply done with just a couple of lemon slices shoved into the belly cavity and presented with a communal half-a-lemon to squeeze over it. Perfectly cooked, the fillets just fell away from the bones! I love fish and seafood and she knows that but "tea" a couple of hours later was a different kettle of fish - a fruit tea was , unknowingly to me, brewed. Together with a peach tartlet and chocolate biscuits the table looked fabulous but upon tasting the tea my enjoyment was somewhat dampened. Black or green, I don't particularly care, but "tea" is "tea" and only comes from high altitudes and a certain plant. Having said that, it wasn't bad, spoilt probably by my ignorant addition of milk but I would never buy it for myself! This, of course, was all preceded by a trip to the local beach where I grabbed my snap. I found the water too cold and we all found the beach (and sun) too hot so we cut short our stay there, ending up in the relative cool of the grass surrounding the heated pool below the apartment.

Katia has an insatiable desire to visit London so I have promised her that, should I return home, she is invited to come and stay with us, when she can and that we will show her the sights that she wants to see while, all the while, improving her English (which is the main reason why she wants to come.)

Bugger it! I've got the camera with me but the necessary cable is not where I thought it was, in the computer case so I'll upload my snap tomorrow during a lull in serving behind this bar. Sorry 'bout that - Sod's Law again! Bye