11pmish. Tough day golfing at one of the hardest courses you could find. Alhaurin. The fairways were tight and on some of them the golfers from parallel holes would cross over to play what they notionally thought were their own balls but which made for real confusion and occasionally our party were suspicious that someone else had played one of our balls.
Back to Hotel Mac Puerto Marina and a dip in the pool followed by a stroll into the Marina for not a particularly edifying meal. Tourist central.
Back to the UUUK tomorrow and meeting THG for a couple of nights in town. I’ll leave the hotel at around 11am for a 2pm flight. Could probs leave it a little later but we shall see.
Unlikely THG and I will return here for a holiday ourselves. Not our scene.
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Next morning. Friday. Back out on the balcony whilst Jezzer is still sleeping. A few insect bites from yesterday’s golf giving me some gyp. I don’t have any spray but do have some sudocrem and have slapped some of that on. Not confident it is the right stuff. Farmacia opens at ten. I’m leaving for the airport at around eleven so that does give me a window to head out and buy some insect bite treatment if I still need it by then. Trouble is you can’t bring everything you might need from a first aid perspective when all you have is carry on luggage for the plane. When we went to France in the summer we took the car so were able to take an extensive first aid kit that we mostly did not use. The other problem with buying anything locally here is if it comes in a container of over 100ml you can’t take it on the plane! Might be a fire and forget job. Use it and chuck it. First world problems.
Another clear blue sky in Andalucia. Ten degrees cooler at home. Bliss 🙂
Bit of a cough coming from the next balcony. Bloke having a telephone conference with his missus. Hello darlin, just got back from breakfast. He is having problems with his trousers falling down. I think he might have forgotten his belt! Hey ho… Ah, he is going to have to try and take a belt off another pair. Might have to buy one. We haven’t got that much money in the bank. Three eighteen.
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Made it to breakfast solo for around nine thirty. Had just about finished when Ajax and Banner turned up so I stayed on a little longer for a chat and to save them my outside table – these are in great demand. Far more pleasant than inside. In fact you develop a strategy for bagging one. The thing to do is pick up a coffee or a fruit juice as soon as you get to the breakfast room and then look for a table. If you find a free one you stick the cup down thereby making it known to the world that someone is sat there. A bit like getting to the pool early to stick a towel down on the sun lounger. It really does happen. You can then safely go and get some food at your leisure.
The food is nothing special but there is a good variety on offer and if you want a full English there is one to be had. It is clear what nationality the majority of guests are here. I don’t think this would be a holiday destination for me ‘n’ THG. The nightly cabaret is not an attraction and I’m not sure about the half board buffet either though I haven’t really eyeballed what’s on offer. All the restaurants are geared at the tourist market.
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Uber to the airport was an E Class. V comfortable fair play. Security Fast Track was fast. Big queue if you didn’t have it. Picked up some Cardenal Mendoza Carta Real something or other (not sure as it is now in my bag and on the receipt the name was too long for it all to print) and Carlos 1 Imperial XO. I have great expectations of both. The lounge is clean and airy and the food selection looks a step up from the stuff BA dish out. I now have just over an hour before I need to go to the gate. Plane delayed by 10 mins.
I also return home from Malaga with a very fine Rolex picked up for next to nothing from a vendor working the bars at Puerto Marina. He had a few of them to offload as he needed money to send home to his wife to pay for a life saving operation for one of his kids. It’s good to be able to help someone out like that and walk away with a bargain yerself. I don’t wear a watch but the Rolex will no doubt be a good long term investment. I must have it valued when I get home. Am expecting 20 Euros. The guy said it was worth 45 but I don’t think I really believed him 🙂
Meanwhile I’m sitting in the lounge relaxing. One or two people on the Cava but I’m ok with sparkling water.
Couple boarding in front of me claiming they had paid for speedy boarding. Ba don’t do that they go by groups. They were in group 4 and were most miffed to be sent to the very back of the boarding queue.
Wheeler, leave the ladies bag! Breaking new ground on kids names?
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Looking like a full flight. At 13:55 we are still boarding. It’s scheduled departure time was 14:00 although that was delayed (to 14:04 fwiw). Not much chance of that I’d say. Bloke carrying a v noisy babyt just walked past. Sufficiently far back by the sound of it now.
Now half way through the flight. Ploughmans for lunch with one of those small bottles of red wine. Chilean cabernet sauvignon. Bit of a change from the flght out which was party central. Meeting THG and my niece Lils in the Waldorf for cocktails. I should be able to get there for five thirty. Lils finishes work at around 5ish. Whitehall somewhere.
Early night ce soir after a full on golfing trip. Can’t see the lads wanting to play today. They are there until tomorrow. Nothing was arranged. I came back early as we were originally goign to fly to Malta for a week’s break but decided we needed a break from travelling so now just staying in London for a couple of nights. Seeing Sinatra, the musical tomorrow evening.