The Forrest Gump Principle !

I finished mopping up the water from the balcony floor from where the heavy downpours, aided by the extremely strong winds, had forced their way in through the bottom of the French windows, this had been the very first occasion that we had experienced this watery invasion on the inside of our home 😲 At one point the streams of water on the balcony floor had flowed like small streams, fortunately, the floor slopes a little, down to a drainage grate on the floor, so there was no actual risk of the water accumulating to any serious level, so there would be no need for me to sit with my snorkelling gear on, flippers, wet suit, mask and snorkel although, that humorous thought had actually crossed my mind, but only so that I could watch the reaction on people’s faces as they looked up from their car windows as they passed by below 😂 ‘Little things please little minds’ I could hear my mother saying 🤭 In truth however, there were not really too many cars or pedestrians passing by, no sensible person would be out in this weather unless they really had to, how glad we are, not to have a dog to walk 😲

It seems a little strange when we think that it had only been ten days or so since we returned from our sunny and very warm day trip to ‘Vejer’, it really does feel very much longer. We have not been confined to barracks for that full period of time though, unlike some other’s who live not that far from our location, for there has been the odd break in the weather, just enough to allow us to get out for a walk and, on another half a day, to get out for a very welcome lunch, there are only so many healthy ‘Plant Based’ meals that one man can tolerate 🤭 However, for the majority of the time there has been a mixture of both light and heavy rain, dispersed with some shorter brighter periods, but in the main it has been ‘extremely wet’, with no sunshine able to penetrate the thick black storm rainfilled clouds. Shazza and I agreed that we certainly would not have enjoyed being stuck in our Motorhome in these current elongated period of sogginess, with no sunshine for our solar panels to provide us with energy for our leisure batteries, unless of course we had done the sensible thing and retreated to a campsite but, even then we would not have been protected from the deafening sound of the rain as it hammered onto the thin plastic roof and sides of the van, the van rocking violently in the gale force winds, and we certainly would not have enjoyed having to go outside every few days to empty the toilet cassette or re-fill the fresh water tank, no, it is periods like this when we are grateful for being in more solidly structured accommodation, with a lot more of life’s convenient luxuries on tap as it were, although, strangely enough, occasionally we can still put on our rose tinted glasses when we miss those days 🙄 then the heavens open up again and knock them off !!

So, as you may well imagine, although we have not been doing very much, and I should not really have very much to ramble on about, fortunately, for you my reader’s that is 🤭 it has given me lots of time to sit and catch up on what is happening in the wider world, outside of our own little bubble, and of course put my own perspective on a ‘few’ of those things so, if you are sitting comfortably, I will begin 😂

I am sure the term ‘Mediterranean Diet’ will be a familiar one to most of you, the link between a temperate all year round climate, vast expanse diet of fresh fruit and vegetables, nuts, olive oil combined with a stress free and slow pace of life etc. of course these being just some of the main reasons for why many of those who reside permanently in such regions live longer and much healthier lives. Well okay, that is the picture that is usually painted, but is it actually the reality 🤔 Now some of you may already be thinking ‘Here he goes again’, banging the drum yet again about a ‘Plant Based’ dietary regime 🥱🥱🥱 Well actually, in this ramble at least, you can be reassured that this is not going to be the case, no, what follows are my ‘opinions’ and ‘observations’ created by a publication in a recent news article that I read in a local Spanish Media publication.

You will perhaps recall, if you were paying attention that is, that in my last ramble I mentioned, although more intended as a bit of a ‘tongue in cheek’ comment really, of how Shazza and I spend some of our time, when we are sat enjoying our morning coffee’s, being the ‘Body Beautiful Police’ 🤭 So I can say that I have no arguments with the precept of this article, for our own observations do actually reflect that the article heading is quite an accurate statement of fact, although I am pretty certain from evidence accrued on past road trips within Spain, that this extends to beyond our own Malaga Province. However what I took issue with is this, the article referred to ‘Obesity’ now being considered medically as a ‘disease’ which creates both a medical and mental health condition. This article, prompted by a report actually stated that ‘Obesity’ increased dramatically primarily due to the Covid Pandemic 🤷‍♂️ Which may well be true, but were the publishers of said report not taking any notice of the Obesity issues ‘prior’ to the Pandemic I wonder 🤔 Anyway, as a consequence of what they are now labelling a ‘disease’, it would appear that they are now treating this ‘obesity disease’ with ‘surgery’ and ‘medications’ before any other options. Personally speaking, I cannot understand how individuals ‘voluntarily’ eating or drinking too much of the ‘bad stuff’, can actually be considered as a medical disease when Obesity is something that is within our own personal control. I am sure we all know by now what is good for us, and by default, what is not, dietary wise, don’t we 🤷‍♂️ So, if we know what sort of stuff we are consuming (Food and Drink) is responsible for piling on the fat and, as an obvious consequence, excess weight, then surely do we really require a medical professional, dietician or nutritionist to provide us with the solution to reduce or stop it. now I am not speaking as a ‘Fatist’, or even as someone with a super models figure, or even as someone who has any real dietary discipline myself. I am already aware that even I could certainly afford to shed another Kilo or two. However, I also know what my dietary and drink related weak temptation areas are, and yes, I even have to confess that perhaps I have too many of them 🤭 But I also know that it is up to me, if I choose to, to find the personal ‘discipline’ to do something about it, I certainly don’t need to waste a doctor’s time, especially as I already have an early warning mechanism in place, no not the bathroom scales, they lie anyway 😂 no, my clothes are all I need to tell me that I am perhaps putting on a few too many pounds and that perhaps I need to consider doing something about it, or not as the case may be 🤷‍♂️ But seriously, have we actually got to the point where Doctor’s are not permitted as medical professionals to tell a person that they are overweight or indeed fat or obese. There are differences between being overweight, fat, obese and even morbidly obese, these conditions do not actually mean that you have a ‘medical disease’, unless of course in some rare circumstances, outwith your control, medically you do. So should the first course of medical intervention not be ‘Surgery’ or ‘Medications’ but straightforward dietary advice 🤷‍♂️ Can you imagine just at how many medical appointment slots could become available to those who are actually in more real urgent need of them 🙄 How many hospital beds could suddenly become available if people were told no, we will not perform ‘Gastric Band’ surgeries or ‘Liposuction’ procedures on you, just stop eating crap and abusing your vital body organs !! Anyway enough of that, I have had my rant 🤭 Although, ‘Those in glass houses should not throw stones’, now where have I read that before 🤔 Anyway, if you keep reading, you will see a perfect example of what I have just been spouting on about when you see what I had served on my ‘Menu del Dia’ lunch a few days later in relation to my own obvious lack of any personal discipline 🙄

However, enough whinging Eric, to something more positive and perhaps sometimes, just sometimes mind you, the Spanish Authorities can also do some brave stuff that deserves a pat on the back, things that, once again personally speaking, I believe is a simple and effective solution to the problems they appear to be having in a lot of schools, in a lot of countries these days. Although I am rather hoping that this new rule extended to beyond just the pupils and included the teaching staff too, although their was no clarification on that in this particular media article 🤔

And, whilst I am still finding myself on a more positive note, during this rather extended and less than cheery wet weather period, something else for the Spanish Education Authorities to be proud of themselves for……………….

Another difference that we do witness over here, compared to the UK, is that parents do actually discipline their children, even in public, when they misbehave, have tantrums and even if they are disrespectful to other’s, although I have to qualify that statement with the fact that it is actually a very rare occurrence to see in public, but only because, unlike what we have often not witnessed in the UK, there is still respect towards adults by the younger generation, especially towards the more elderly generation which, for reasons that I won’t expand on, I am particularly pleased to see 😂 In the UK, even shouting loudly at a child in public is a reportable offence, slapping a child on the hand, or back of the legs, is considered to be child abuse, which can and has resulted in hefty fines to parents, imprisonment and can even result in having children removed from the family home and put into protective custody 😲 Don’t get me wrong, like everything, I believe that there should be limits, especially in respect to the severity of ‘discipline’ that a Parent or even person’s in authority (Teacher’s, Police, Social Worker’s etc.) can initiate on a child, a level that can be considered reasonable in the circumstances, whilst there also being levels that are considered both disproportionate and unacceptable, we should all know the difference shouldn’t we 🤔 So, back to the news article, taking a day of the academic year to teach children about peace, tolerance and respect I think is very commendable. If only there was a way to get Adults to attend such a day’s lesson each year, more so, Politicians and Religious Leader’s 🤔

Now I will take a break here for a Public Information announcement, well for driver’s at least, but note that this does not just apply to drivers of Spanish registered vehicles but to all driver’s who bring their vehicles onto Spanish roads. This new law comes into effect on 1st January 2026. Please note that there are several designs, not just the example shown in the photograph below, the majority have a flat magnetic base that attaches to the roof of the vehicle and are small enough to keep in a glove box.

Okay, so back to the here and now in our lives and what have we actually been up to since my last ramble 🤔 As you may imagine, from the introductory paragraphs of this ramble, not a lot to be truthful, as you may recall I left you, in the previous ramble, with the news that the ‘Works of Fiction’, bless there little cotton socks, had forecast that we were going to get ten consecutive days of rain, which has now been extended to over fourteen days 😲 to a mixture of heavy and light rain, with periods of thunder and lightning and so we had ‘Kevin’ the Kayak on stand-by. We prepared ourselves, well physcologically at least, for a long period of confinement and potential cabin fever, Shazza got an Amber flood alert notification on her mobile phone, although for some reason I didn’t receive one on mine 🤷‍♂️ So I could only conclude that whilst ‘she’ was at risk of drowning in a flood, the powers that be, whoever they may be, thought me worthy of saving, perhaps because they believed that she was single-handedly guilty of over plundering natures vegetable, fruit and spice resources, whereas, I deserved a reprieve, to enable me to sample more of the world’s other gastronomic temptations for a little longer, until I perhaps finally contracted ‘Obesity Disease’ 😂

Now there has been a lot of rain, and yes there have been lots of floods again, in some areas, although nowhere near as devastating as last year’s Valencian disaster but, at this particular moment in time, as I continue with this ramble, we are into day 10 of that fourteen day period so who knows how much worse it could get 🤷‍♂️ But within our local area, well the Province of Malaga as a whole, which includes not just the long stretch of Costa del Sol coastline, but also the inland mountainous areas too, there must have been a lot of rain as the last time I mentioned the levels in our particular Embalce (Reservoir), the level of the water capacity in it was around 70%, which even then was certainly a lot more than there had been at the same time the previous year, but now the water capacity is at a little over 82%, the highest it has been since 2023 and, in comparison to this same time last year when it only contained 17.41(hm3) of water, it now currently stands at 47.33(hm3) 🤗

Whilst this is obviously good news, there were periods when, personally speaking, we could have done without some of it. After the first three days of rain and no sunshine, on the fourth, but still with thick grey leaden sky, that threatened to burst open at any minute, strong winds that had battalions of white mained stallions racing landwards from the sea, we decided, after having had an early lunch, to risk going out for a walk. We got wrapped up, more against the strong wind than the cold, although it was still only 14 degrees(c) outside which, for us, is still chilly after our previous week of it being in the low twenty somethings, but wearing three layers is still a bit unusual here, but to us, it looked a lot worse than it actually was, in the end though we ended up walking with our rain jackets unzipped.

We had planned on walking to the opposite end of the town to the river boundary, to stand on the bridge, just to see if the river had carved a passage down the beach to meet the incoming tide, if it had then this is where the risk of flooding becomes more likely for our town. However, as we got closer we felt the first few drops of rain, as we looked out to sea we could see that the sky over the horizon had turned from dark grey to black, the storm was definitely on its way and we needed to find shelter, sooner rather than later 😲 Although most of the Cafe/Bars along the seafront had closed, which told their own story on what was to come, fortunately, our other favourite Cafe/Bar in the Plaza was open, although for obvious reasons there were no outside tables or chairs. It was quite full and lively inside, it was still the Spanish lunchtime period and the smell of the food was delicious, we have eaten here on a number of occasions, generally Tapa’s, but most of the customers, who covered all the age generations, appeared to be having the three-course ‘Menu del Dia’, which at €13 (£11), including a drink, is excellent value. As we had already eaten we just settled for a drink, Shazza ordered a small beer and I of course selected my usual Anti-Covid Vaccine 🍷 purely for medicinal reasons you understand, especially on day’s like these.

We agreed that when we came here next we would try the ‘Menu del Dia’ ourselves instead of our more usual Tapa’s selections. I had been keeping an eye on the weather outside, even if we walked at a fast pace it would take us a good thirty minutes to get back to the car, but the rain appeared to have stopped, although it was still very dark and threatening outside, but we decided to make a dash for it.

It was as if the storm had been waiting to ambush us, for as soon as we got back on to the seafront promenade the heavens opened up on us, with the strength of the wind making sure that each raindrop smashed into our faces, my cap offered little protection although it did remain firmly on my head. Had we have waited in the Cafe/Bar just a little longer we would have still been dry, and I could have enjoyed another glass, or perhaps even a couple of bottles, because had we have done so, and with the storm not letting up, we could have been there all night, a missed opportunity in my books but Shazza had a different opinion 🤭

By the time we reached the car we were sodden through, our denim jeans feeling twice there normal weight, water running down Shazza’s face as she had not worn a hat and had no hood on her rain jacket, we just looked at each other, like drowned rats, “At least we got out for a walk” Shazza said, with a small almost apologetic smile on her face, for it had been her idea to come out in the first place. “Actually, I quite enjoyed it” I replied, ‘Did you, really, or are you just saying that to make me feel less guilty ?” She asked inquisitively, “No, I really enjoyed the fresh air and the walk” I insisted, “And your glass of wine”, she said with a wry smile on her face, “Oh, and that too” I said, with a chuckle. It only took a couple of minutes to get back up the hill to the protection of our sanctuary, and whilst Shazza got out the drying rack and hung our wet clothes on it, I turned on the warm air heater on full blast, it would warm the place up in no time, then I got a lovely hot shower. Whilst Shazza got her shower I made us both a hot strong mug of tea, she curled up on the sofa with her ‘Kindle’ and I sat in my chair on the balcony and watched the heavy rain, like anywhere in this sort of weather, it looked bleak and unwelcoming outside, but inside, we were safe, warm and dry.

That evening, after dinner and whilst we were sat watching something or other on the TV, Shazza says, “What does the forecast say for tomorrow ?”, “I haven’t looked, it’s a waste of time they rarely get it right so I will just apply the Forrest Gump Principle”, I replied. ‘The what ?” she asked inquisitively, “You don’t know what your going to get until you open the shutters and look out of the window”, I replied, “Probably the best idea” she said, then we continued watching the TV, it was a ‘You Tube’ sailing vlog, they were in a 51ft motor yacht skirting the Northern coastline of Spain but had to take shelter from a storm for a few days, we felt like kindred spirits, although, unlike them, at least one of us would not have to be on anchor watch throughout the night.

The following morning when I got up, the pavement and roads were wet, although it was not currently raining, the sky was still a very dark grey. When I took Shazza her coffee through to the bedroom I gave her the latest Forrest Gump report, “Shall we just go and do some shopping” she said, “Well it will get us out I suppose” I replied, less than enthusiastically. So that was what we did, nothing else, just the shopping, then home again, a spot of lunch and then we both just passed another day, Shazza pottering as she does, unlike me, who can find plenty to do on my iPad, watching ‘You Tube’ Vlogs and chatting with different people via different Social Media channels, or just sat, deep in thought about various different, mainly irrelevant and unimportant things. Shazza on the other hand cannot sit still for long periods so quite often, out of the corner of my eye, I see her disappear into the kitchen, or the bedroom, then back into the room, I have no idea what she is doing, I don’t ask, I know she is happy in her own space with her own thoughts and I am happy in mine. We have spent the last twelve years living in very close proximity with each other, you cannot get much more togetherness than in a 6 metre long Motorhome 😲 So we have spent twenty-four hours of each and every day over those last twelve years, more or less joined at the hip, prior to that, we both had separate very busy careers where, some weeks we may not have seen each other for several days, as my job then often involved travelling around the country, so now, these rare, brief moments of silence and solitude just doing our own thing, we can and do appreciate a little more, rather than consider them, as some may, as a negative or declining aspect of our twenty year’s of being together.

By the following morning it was getting to feel a lot like ‘Groundhog Day’, whilst I am happy to spend a couple of days confined to barracks, by the third day I can feel Cabin Fever starting to creep in, and I didn’t count the short drive to do the shopping the previous day as actually getting out. Shazza usually doesn’t even manage that long, but I think that with the initial expectation of being confined, for what could have been ten or more consecutive days, but then getting the opportunity to get out, she was actually not doing too bad.

The Forrest Gump report was much the same as it had been, although if I am honest, it did look a little brighter outside, or that could have just been me trying to convince myself that it was 🤷‍♂️ Anyway, on reading the local media that morning, it was not looking good again, weather wise, the initial ten day forecast of rain had been extended. We have never, during the last ten years of coming here, experienced such a long period of ‘forecasted’ wet weather, at most it has never extended beyond four consecutive days and that included the Winter when our town suffered serious flooding. Even though this current period, in our own particular local area at least, it had not rained every single day, it had always looked as if it could and so on some of those days we hadn’t taken the risk and ventured out.

It didn’t make good reading, however, as this media article had been reported from information provided by the Spanish State Weather Agency, AEMET who, in my personal opinion, are the worst of the ‘Works of Fiction’ brigade, whether this latest storm and heavy rainfall would materialise was anyone’s guess 🤷‍♂️ So we would stick to the ‘Forrest Gump Principle’, which to be honest, was proving just as unpredictable.

What did make me laugh, sarcastically as opposed to ‘funny ha ha’ was the next article. Now bear in mind, and from our own perspective and experience, we have just spent the last two year’s in drought conditions, restrictions on our personal domestic water usage, unable to use our swimming pool or beach showers, drinking fountains shut off, washing of streets and pavements halted by the council and, the real threat of domestic supplies being cut off and having to collect water from stand-pipes in the street, although that never materialised. The Government have spent Billions of Euro’s on installing de-salination facilities for emergency use, some of which are still not up and running yet. So imagine my surprise when, after waiting for two years for our local Embalce to finally get a decent amount of water in it, I read this…………….

Now okay I am no engineer, but in the last two years of suffering severe drought conditions, never mind all the previous year’s, would you not have expected someone to come up with a plan to store this surplus very precious commodity, the water that they are now going to have to drain from the Embalce for safety reasons, into some sort of underground storage facility so that it could be used as an emergency supply in the future. Or, as some areas are still under severe drought conditions, could it not be put into tankers and taken to those other areas that need it 🤷‍♂️ Now of course, someone may tell me of a logical or technical issue that would prevent this from happening, as I say I am not knowledgable on the subject, but to a layman, it just seems astonishing that vital water supplies will be wasted, as it will be fed into storm drains or rivers and run off into the sea. I had the same thoughts every year, when the UK in the Autumn/Winter months always tended to flood, generally in the same areas, but then would suffer droughts in the Summer months and then they would implement water restrictions, so just what am I missing here 🤔

As you can see from the above images, I have an ‘App’ on my iPad that enables me to see what all the Embalce levels are in Andalusia, of course, these were extremely useful to consult over the previous two years, when we were in the worst of the drought, looking in great anticipation for any small increase in the water levels. However, since then it has continued to become a bit of a habit now, as I check the water levels on a daily basis when I do my ‘Works of Fiction’ weather watch. Sad really, I know, and it just goes to prove I suppose that I must have too much time on my hands these days 🤷‍♂️

We agreed, that as it was currently dry we may as well risk it and, if we did get ambushed again and get a good soaking, this time the blame would fall squarely at my feet. When we got outside it was actually quite warm, no need for three layers this time, I had elected to wear a long sleeve shirt with a sleeveless light body warmer over the top, but I decided on not wearing my cap. Shazza wore a long sleeve shirt but elected to wear her rain jacket over the top, so my fingers were firmly crossed that I had judged it correctly, if I am proven correct I may just think about applying for a job with one of the ‘Works of Fiction’ agencies, although on second thoughts, not sure that I would want to withstand that much abuse by those bunch of blogger’s who have nothing better to do with their time 🤭

As we got out of the car at our usual beachfront car park, it was 17 degrees(c), the sun kept making brief appearances in between the clouds, the sea was much calmer but still grey, and there was just a slight wind blowing, all in all it was actually a very nice day for a walk and lots of other people were obviously in agreement with me, as the promenade was quite busy and some were even eating ice-creams 😲

We of course headed into town, to our usual seafront Cafe/Bar and enjoyed a nice hot ‘Cafe con Leche’, we had just about timed it right to have them, here in Spain, Cafe con Leche’s are only drunk up to lunchtime, after that it is more usually Espresso or Cortado, which is something that we ourselves have only recently discovered about this Spanish tradition, so now that is another useful tool for our people watching, ‘spot the tourist’, they are obviously the one’s who do not know the Spanish coffee etiquette, or of course they could be just the rebels within Spanish society, there are a few of them here too 🤭 Fortunately for me, when the clock hits lunchtime it is always Anti-Covid Vaccine time, of one description or another 😉

We got into a conversation with the two lady owner’s, the names of which I irritatingly keep forgetting, it must be an age thing 🤔 Anyway, funny old thing, the conversation was about another incoming storm, why is it conversations always seem to include something about the weather, much like my rambles really 😂 My point, if I ever get around to it, is that Shazza, who is really coming on with her Spanish, must faster than me, is now getting confident in actually engaging in a conversation, and in perfect Spanish she says to the lady owners, “When the storm comes I am going to sit under my Blanket on the sofa, with a big bar of chocolate and watch films all day”, they laughed and put their thumbs up, but what I noticed was that just behind where Shazza was sat, was a table of four elderly Spanish Ladies, when they listened to what Shazza had said they all looked across, laughed in unison and said to Shazza, in Spanish, “Aqui Agual” (Same Here). When we got up to leave, the elderly ladies said to Shazza, “Disfruta de tu chocolate y de tu película” (Enjoy your chocolate and your film) 😁 I have to say, Shazza was well chuffed with herself and her much improved linguistic abilities, and rightly so.

We did a little bit of shopping, just at the ‘fruiterias’ and I am sure you need no telling what Shazza needed from there, it certainly wasn’t to get me a nice juicy steak 🤭 Then a stop at the bank ATM before heading for what we call the ‘Plaza Cafe/Bar’, although it’s real title is ‘La Cafe/Bar Viña’, yes today we were going to have lunch and sample their ‘Menu del Dia’. We are now treated as regular customer’s, not sure what that say’s about us and whether that is a good or bad thing 🤔 But we have now discovered that the couple who run it are Mother (Annie) and her son (Juanma), I cannot forget her name as it is the same as my own mother’s. They really make us feel welcome, always greeted by both with a big smile, sometimes a hug and a shake of the hand, yes even the men do that here, which takes some getting used to I have to admit. However, sometimes I think they forget that we are still in the early stages of learning Spanish, myself in particular, as they now just rattle off in a conversation so fast, most of it goes over my head but fortunately I have my secret weapon with me, my own personal interpreter, for whilst Shazza will admit to not understanding every single word, she can pick up most of them and so has a good understanding of what has been said, and now she is more than capable of providing quite a fluent response. Perhaps I need to spend less time thinking about and writing my blog and spend more time on doing much more of my own Spanish lessons 🙄

Normally we would sit outside, but it wasn’t warm enough so we found a table inside, we had timed it just about right as we wanted to be there during the Spanish lunchtime, for the ambience, and within ten minutes of our arrival the place was full. Typically, the ‘Menu del Dia’ provides half a dozen choices for the first and second courses, and three or four dessert options. Everything was in Spanish and I could work out some of the choices, but even Shazza had some difficulty, primarily because it was handwritten on a small board and not a typed one. I just decided to go with the flow not really knowing what I was going to get, I thought I was ordering a starter of Rice with some sort of meat, egg and tomatoes all mixed in, a bit like a fried rice dish, so I was surprised at what actually turned up, three sausages, a fried egg and white rice covered in a home-made tomato sauce, it was delicious. Shazza had some sort of broth, which tasted to me a little like chicken, but as you stirred it up there was rice, small pieces of boiled egg and finely cubed ham, very hearty and very tasty, she didn’t fuss over the meat content, I may even opt for that myself next time, and their will most certainly be a next time.

Shazza had ordered a straight forward grilled piece of sea bream with chips for her second course, I knew that I had ordered grilled pork cutlets and chips, simple and basic but again very tasty and plentiful.

When it came to choosing dessert for the final course, Shazza decided to just go for an Espresso. I wanted to just do the full three-course option, there was no written list of desserts, Annie just verbally reeled off the choices, but too fast for me to understand any of them so I just told her to select one for me. She came back with a silver foil pot which looked and tasted like a chocolate mousse, but as I put my spoon into it I discovered that it was half chocolate and half a sort of vanilla cream, a bit like a broule, very nice, very nice indeed and I don’t usually do desserts. The three course ‘Menu del Dia’, for the both of us, with a drink and bread, came to a grand total of €26 (£22), although we did order a couple of extra drinks, Shazza a beer and my more usual tipple 🍷, so in the end the final bill came to €30 (£25). Would we go for the ‘Menu del Dia’ again, but choose something different, most certainly we would and, with a wide variety of food choices on the additional ‘normal’ menu, well this place had already become one of our favourite Cafe/Bars, whether for just a drink or for lunch and this latest visit has just confirmed why it will remain probably No.1 on our current list of favourites.

It had turned out to be an excellent day, a nice walk, pre-lunch coffee, bit of shopping and a wonderful leisurely lunch. We returned home mid-afternoon, the weather had remained dry, contrary to the ‘Works of Fiction’ forecast, no surprise there then, but an otherwise perfect day. The rain arrived again at around 9pm, gently at first then a little harder and it is ‘forecast’ for much heavier rain, with thunder and lightening, throughout the night and all through the following day. If it does, are we bothered ? No of course not, for we had already decided on having a day in, come rain or shine, to have a domestic cleaning day, well not a whole day, it never takes more than a couple of hours doing it all between us, after that, well we will just have to see what ‘Forrest Gump’ has to say about it…………….. 😉

Until my next ramble……………..

Hasta Luego mi Amigos, La Vida Es Buena