Well, we made it past the 29th March and haven’t yet turned into Pumpkins – although to be fair we have eaten rather a lot over the last few weeks so I do feel a bit like one….

We are still in San Juan Playa and have been making the most of the generally sunny (18 + degrees) days and cool (9 degrees) nights to catch up with friends and get back into a routine.

The Saturday market in San Juan itself is as good as always and we have got back into the routine of cooking lunch for Santi and Manolo after a trip to the market.  I think Santi’s mum must hate us – or perhaps love us, depending on how you look at it –  as whenever we are here he doesn’t see his parents anywhere as much as he does when we are gone!!  We have been the recipients of her rather good Tortilla, although are still awaiting the invite for the infamous Paella!!

Apart from using the BBQ a lot to perfect the Babaganoush recipe, Spatchcock more chicken, extend our repertoire with the pizzas – Keith has now gone Italian with an egg in the middle – And having a go at garlic bread to go with a lovely homemade lasagne.  We have also been cooking for the neighbours… a delicious Fish Pie, lots of soups, a few foccacias, many rounds of bread rolls,  cheesecake, a couple of crumbles, Belgian Fridge Cake, lots of Flapjack and a couple of batches of fruitcake muffins…. we certainly aren’t going hungry and nor are the neighbours!

We have also been out to eat quite a few times, notably trying out a new Moroccan restaurant with our Spanish friends, revisiting the Cuchara del Carmen in Alicante which serves delicious food from Asturias with Mary and Melvyn and more locally, Casa Julio which is one of our favourite restaurants on the beach…. this time we opted for a mixture of starters which included calamari, some pretty sizeable mussels (although they were tiny in comparison to those in New Zealand!), a pretty delicious Monkfish and Clam Paella and dessert … which I have just realised would have been Zak (my Nephew’s) ultimate dessert plate as it contained Cheesecake and Chocolate Fudge cake!!

Thankfully we have been keeping up with the running, exercise and walking as otherwise I would have definately needed a new pair of jeans by now!

I know it is odd but strangely, we have also fallen back into our routine of going to the cinema thus far, we have seen The Green Book – well worth seeing if you haven’t done so, Taxi to Gibraltar which was ok (and thankfully reasonably short) and Pain and Glory (Dolor y Gloria) which is a film by Almodovar which is also worth seeing if you like his style as he is a bit ‘Arty’ for some!

The photography challenge took a brief interlude as Zak was knocked out by tonsillitis, however he is fighting back and promises to have a couple of good photos for the next blog!!

My photo last week to ‘Fill the frame, using one colour to isolate the subject and create interest in the photo’ is the following …

Let’s now see if the next couple of weeks changes anything with Brexit …. or not !