Four friends in Marbella
We´ve been thoroughly enjoying having our friends Pat and Sue over to stay. They really are the perfect guests, not only providing excellent entertainment but at the same time cooking for us and also helping with general jobs around the house. Sue did all of Ian´s ironing (something I have actually never done) and Pat has helped Ian build a fence to create a secure outdoor area for the cats. (Poor little Grace was recently chased by Chica, the cheeky Spaniel – who seems to have adopted us as surrogate parents, spending all day over here and only returning home to eat and sleep – which caused her some considerable distress. Unfortunately, she found herself on the wrong side of the fence at the time which instead of protecting her, prevented her from returning to the safety of the house. She did cause a bit of damage to the netting, running into it at 80 miles an hour and eventually getting stuck in it, but this has since been fixed.) Together the ´boys´ have tidied tools, built steps down into the olive/almond grove and I believe today´s plan is to put up curtain poles and curtains in the upstairs lounge. The weather has been fantastic since their arrival last Sunday so we´ve been relaxing on the sunloungers in between chores.
Apart from the occasional outing into the village to go to the supermarket, fishmonger´s, butcher´s shop and stroll around the market, we´ve not been out very much, so on Saturday we took a trip down to the coast and visited the grand city of Marbella. None of us, apart from Ian – albeit many moons ago – had been to the resort, so we didn´t quite know what to expect but, to our delight, what we found was very pleasing indeed. The old town was lovely, dotted with squares full of orange trees and colourful flowers which provided a striking contrast to the white-washed walls. Yes, there were some sights to be seen, i.e. skinny posh ´babes´, clad in designer gear, sipping a glass of champagne whilst wondering which shop to frequent next but generally, the place had a lovely relaxed feel to it and definitely merits a return visit.
After a mooch along the seafront, we found our way back into the old town where we had the most delicious lunch in the shady back patio of a traditional Andalucían restaurant. I started off with homemade gazpacho with all the trimmings, a mixed salad and fresh breadrolls, followed by hake cheeks in a pil pil sauce (olive oil, garlic and chilli peppers), washed down with a cool, crisp white wine. It was one of the best meals I have ever eaten – I´m in heaven just thinking about it. After coffee and ice cream in a street café, we returned home.
The perfect day and the icing on the cake: the Canaries winning 3 - 0 at home to QPR.
Can life get any better?
xxx
Old town in Marbella
The sea at Marbella