What a weekend!

I am starting off with another beautiful sunrise picture. Isn't it lovely? It's a good thing you all know how much I love the sky, especially at sunrise and sunset. One of the best things about living here is knowing that there will be a new and very lovely scene everytime I step outside. I love to watch how the sea changes with the sun, (or lack of it). It can be vibrant, sombre, or tranquil, but there is always something special about it, and I can't resist reaching for my camera every time. Sometimes it is really hard to catch the mood on film, but I thought this one worked really well. As I have so many photos of the sky, usually sunrises here as we face east, I have decided to put a folder on my gallery of sea and sky pictures, and just add one now and again that I particularly like.

Well, this weekend has had its ups and downs, but mainly ups I am pleased to say. We decided to go shopping straight after breakfast on Saturday as we had lost faith in the post by then. So we set off, and discovered another different supermarket, with a much wider selection of foodstuffs. I even found some self-raising flour, though it was a tad expensive. But I'm not exactly going to use buckets of it am I? The shop had a range of foods to appease the ex-pat community, but wherever possible I bought the Spanish equivalent, which was considerable cheaper, and will help me learn more about what is available here. It is surprising how easy it is to read the labels with a little bit of knowledge and a lot of intelligent guesswork. I still haven't found dried fruit for my scones, but I did buy a tray of dried strawberries. That will be interesting! There was no pre-packaged meat there, but there was a long counter with huge lumps of 'carne', some of which I recognised and lots I didn't. Two butchers took orders and cut it up while you waited. With some trepidation I approached him and managed to buy enough meat to last us well into November. One thing I learned was to ask for under rather than over the weight required, because he took a wild guess and you got what he had cut, which could be getting on for a quarter kilo over what you asked for. It's a good thing I have a freezer! Anyway, we were just unloading all the shopping at our flat when - guess what - Yes, the post lady drove up! So thank you to all who sent lovely birthday cards and other messages. We had a great time going through it all. Even Chris' long awaited letter was there. The mail was dated between 9th and 14th October, and arrived on 18th, so it is just luck whether or not it gets to Pulpi (where our mail is delivered from) before she comes over here.. I know one package was posted around 14th that didn't arrive, so it won't come until next Friday or Saturday now. But at least that means I have something to look forward to next week.
Amongst the meat I bought was a whole chicken which roasted beautifully in my ramoska. However, when I switched it on again to try roasting potatoes, it cut out and fused all the electrics in the flat as well! It did this several times so we gave up. When it was cold we looked at it and found a loose screw in the lid which we think let steam in to the element so it shorted out. This happened to my previous one, and in the end it killed it. But this time we saw what we thought was the problem and left it all day today to dry out. Then we tightened up the screws and tonight it worked again. Hooray! I was seriously worried there for a bit.
With no post to wait in for today, we decided to drive off into the way blue yonder, and having stopped off at a little mountain village that we like, called Sorbas, we then ended up in the National Park of Cabo de Gata, on the lowest tip of the Almeria province. We found a small town actually called El Cabo de Gata, with a long stretch of grey sand and a wide prom, where we sat in a very Spanish café and ate our lunch in the sunshine.

When shopping yesterday, I gave in to a whim and bought a squishy pouch of ready-mixed chocolate cake, so when we got in I decided to try out the remoska by cooking it. Of course I hadn't thought about what I might cook it in, but after searching through the cupboards I came up with three tiny loaf 'tins' made of silicone, that I bought just before leaving England, too late to put in storage, and I thought I'd use them. The result, three very acceptable little chocolate loaves. To the uninitiated, the first of these pictures is my famous ramoska; my life-saver in a cookerless kitchen!

And the proof of the pudding as they say, is in the eating!

I am sorry, I seem to have rambled on a bit today. Too much to say as usual. I'll try to be more concise next time. Hasta luega!