Snoo's kitchen

Given that I knew I was going to a yoga practice at 11am, I had a lie in helped by the absence of the builders who were clearly celebrating the sabbath. So we arrived at the sculpture park in good time and assembled in a shady spot for some meditation. Imagine sitting in a circle listening to guided meditation in an unfamiliar language – you would keep peeping to see if you were still meant to have your eyes closed, wouldn’t you?! Was unfamiliar with a good 20-minute meditation session before starting a practice but that’s fine. Opened my eyes in time to see the rest of the group heading off with their mats to the hammam. A few minutes later we started our physical practice. Again, everything was in Spanish but we just folllowed the teacher. This worked a treat until we had to lie down – at which point visibility was reduced so I had to gauge the next moves by checking out a guy who was half visible on the other side of the room. All in all I think we did pretty well. We might have been a few bars behind the rest of the group but we were invited at the end of the practice to be part of the photo shoot to promote the yoga activity in the sculpture park. So they must have thought we were ok. A brief walk round the park and a few diversions on route, we ended up back at Zahora beach and the boat restaurant. I chose well – repeating the salmojero and fresh fish, followed by a light passionfruit mousse with a slight creme brûlée topping. Washed down by tinto de verena and a glass of local white wine. I am living the dream. Weirdly, the restaurant gave us free sun hats (free key rings first time, maybe a t shirt next time!).  A scary few minutes when attempting to walk back after a swim – with the tide receding, a massive rock system made egress very hard. Safely back on dry land we spent a lovely hour or so drying off as the sun got lower and the beach slowly emptied. My favourite time to be on the beach. Homeward bound and shower. A quick whatsapp call with the Porsche Panamera Man and my lovely son. Seems as though the car is VERY BIG, SO BIG. Not made it into the garage but there’s plenty of time for that. So tomorrow is Rooftop yoga, shopping and Bolonia beach. And then I start a tough week learning how to cook and eat Andalusian food – how tough is that? 

While welcoming the sun on the roof terrace, Husband was taking delivery of “the beast”, a carmine red Porsche Panamera. He texted it was his #bigday. I believe it was. Meantime, shopping was on the menu followed by great tapas in the central market. A beer then a sherry then some wine. The tapas was very good. Great place just to sit and linger over some white anchovies, a few slices of pork and some sherry (or have I mentioned that already). Day 3 in the big brother house and we have attuned to the Spanish timings. Siesta on the roof terrace while some laboured in the kitchen skinning tomatoes and making gazpacho. A trip to the beach with the compulsory 30-minute search for a parking space. Beach not so fab – Barbate – reminiscent of trips to Bournemouth when I was little. Many many people – happily no other non-Spanish audible. Cloudy and a bit chilly but home beckoned and we chilled out prepping the next feast. Gazpacho was awesome. A flamenco fashion show in a stunning setting rounded off the evening followed by a meal which would have been fit for a masterchef final. Had too stay awake but check out these pictures!

Quick late night resume while my ears are ringing from the Saturday Night Fever album which played out as we cleared up from a delicious dinner of gambas and tuna. Lovely day – sun salutation on the roof where the sun miraculously joined me for my last breath. Listened to the stories about qigong – didn’t foresee that stories was to be a main theme of the day. Jumped in car to Chiclana which en route turned to a trip to Cadiz with accompanied history of the singeing (sp) of the King of Spain’s beard and other interesting facts by the resident Melvyn Neil Bragg. Cadiz is lovely – the mercado central is the oldest market in Spain and the fish took my breath away. We stopped for numerous sherries and some shrimp fritters. Then headed off for some culture at the cathedral and tower. Some decided to go shoe shopping. Then we all joined in save for Melvyn who decided to sit in a doorway and paint (no upturned cap, no signage). Most of the other attractions were closed so we drove back via El Palomar beach – great waves. Then home for gambas and tuna. Lots of wine, my special magic trick (you know the one) and. Game of who am I. The bee gees sung us out. Sayonara, buenos nochas and hasta luego, amigos!

Woken up by the bells at 8am and realised my intake of sherry and wine might have exceeded normal limits. A few rounds of sun salutations on the roof terrace sorted that out and a shopping trip to the local covered market, where pointing and smiling came in handy, was followed by breakfast with the ripest peaches and melon. A trip to the beach at Zahora was planned but before we could go, I had to move the car from the expensive car park and find a free place. In Vejer, anything car-related can bring on high levels of stress – not helped by the fact that I had lost the parking ticket. We were saved by a very dashing young man who acted as the go-between for us with the car park attendant. We reparked in a free car park. The other car had been given a parking ticket as the lines were green or blue rather than white. Who would’ve known?! Quite a while later, we were heading for Zahora beach – recommended by a great friend. It was lovely. To swim in the sea and dry off with a warm sun, with your feet sinking into warm sand – this is what a holiday means. After some real relaxation, we walked to the beach restaurant – amarna – and had a great meal. Marine salmorejo, tuna carpaccio, sea nettle risotto, tuna steak with ginger and an aubergine and courgette salad. Washed down with some tinto de verano. It was so good. Will definitely go back. 

A lovely late afternoon walk along the beach where the sky put on a great show. Home to more sherry, prawns and padron peppers and a fish stew. I could reload and repeat this day very easily.  

First day of holiday and started it early – 3.15am – so that’s before the sun rose. Leaving Essex behind, Stansted airport was buzzing at 5am. What? How? Why? My Waitrose large sandwich bag didn’t meet security requirements so I had to decant all my liquids into the Airport Regulation plastic bag before proceeding through to the sparkly black path through duty free where vendors shouted their wares “fancy a tipple before boarding? Buy one get one half price” IT’S 5 O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING! Flight was uneventful save for me falling asleep within minutes of boarding and vaguely hearing a comment about the life vest being in the panel above my head. Car hire went well – few extra dents than shown on the diagram but all sorted. Driving from the airport was sweeet. Arriving and trying to find car parks, not so sweet. But, at this time of night, and after a few beers, sherries and a couple of glasses of white wine, then the car parking is fine. I didn’t need to spend a good hour trying to locate a certain car park which turned out to be unreachable from one side of town. With delicious tapas from a lovely restaurant and the safe arrival of my other friends, I can say with confidence that my holiday has started on a high. Hasta luego! 

Well, here I am on the 22.00 to Manningtree. The next two months have taken ages to prepare and now I can’t stop grinning. Two months without work. Two months with adventure. All this week I have wanted time to slowdown, even wished this day would not come but it has and I am chuffed to bits. This time tomorrow I will be sitting in a bar in southern Spain. Right now am on an East Anglia train. I never thought I would be starting my journey in Essex, but wonders will never cease…

There’s a guy opposite me taking loads of selfies. On the train. Smiling into his phone, tilting his head, checking, deleting, reframing, resmiling, resulting…. why do people do that in public? Should I offer to take his photo for him? People don’t do that anymore – “would you mind taking a photo of me and my friend in front of the Taj Mahal?” We had to speak to strangers – and they were always more than willing! I even remember a group of Indian tourists at Fatehpur Sikri edging closer to me and my brothers, and dad, and wanting us to appear in their photos. I loved it! They had the memory of meeting us and we have the memory of being in their holiday snaps – never to meet again and no more than a hello and a nod between us. 

The only thing that selfies have going for them is the potential to bomb other people’s selfies. The best one I did was at the Globe – the two boys loved it and then wanted me to pose with them. We recently got photo-bombed by an armed patrol officer when cycling on a charity ride in London – that was pretty cool.  Am hoping to add to my photo bomb album over the next two months – and if successful will share the results. 

So, rather than Eat Pray Love, my sabbatical will be Eat, Eat, Pray (that the yoga retreat will counteract the Eat, Eat). I feel like I am the luckiest person alive.

I hope to blog a bit. If it gets tedious, I apologise in advance. We are just pulling into Chelmsford, seems like an appropriate place to stop writing and my battery is running low.  

Hasta luego! Sayonara! Namaste! 

Second day and we took two buses then a ferry to reach tortuguero national park. I wrote a long blog about the great journey but I think it got lost in the atmosphere. Suffice to stay I was not impressed with the good having nibbled on a empanadas which was really not pleasant. But the journey to our hotel through the canales was amazing and I felt like we were on the set of Planet Earth. We saw two kingfishers – the Amazon kingfisher and the ringed kingfisher – and a Jesus Christ basilisk. For those that don’t know – a Jesus Christ basilisk is a lizard which wakes on water – so cool. Last night,  we went on a night tour – was a little disappointing but I think that was the jet lag kicking in rather than the non appearance of a sloth. However the food has turned up and we went to a great Jamaican where the chefs salad was delicious and I was able to reach for my phone. 
Today we have been on a sunrise canoe trip – got up at 5am and it was already light. The canoe trip included some fantastic sights – Sue, John and Erika look away now – green kingfisher and a ringed kingfisher (catching a fish!), tiger heron (and a juvenile), green heron, snake bird (anhinga) male and female, keel-billed toucan, green macaws, snowy egret, montezumas oropendola, jacana and a boat billed flycatcher. Moving on to the reptiles – we saw some more Jesus Christs and a Cayman. Lastly, there were howler monkeys putting on a show and spider monkeys. What a fab place. Below are a collection of photos – spot the seat back of the bus which I had to look at for a few hours yesterday…