Our hire car was delivered today. A very nice Fiesta, in quite the best condition as a hire car we’ve had here. Poor Ozzie (Gunray) is not really running the business at the moment as it is too expensive to be operating and he has lost so much. So, we went to Pacific Car Hire who are very well regarded here and a much bigger concern. Impressive. They gave us a deal (didn’t even have a chance to ask) of a manual a/c Fiesta which is one up from their smallest tier (Hyundai i10) for £10 per day fully insured and with no extra driver charge. A really good price. Delighted with that. The chap came at 945 and we sat in the garden to do the handover, all distanced, masked and using our own pens! Of course we can’t use it till we drive for our tests on Wednesday.

A little later and there was a car hoot outside and it was Marion with our shopping. I also had a new Kindle for her and her UK driving license which had been sent to me. So we did a socially distanced exchange in the carport and had a chat too. We are now well stocked for food and drink till we are released from quarantine. Thank goodness.

And a little later still and a text pinged through to say that Pamela was on her way with two pots of paint: one internal emulsion for touching up, and one exterior for the wood oven. We had the whole hall, stairs and landings painted 2 years ago but inevitably people bash the walls with their suitcases as they haul them up and there are little marks to cover up. So it was lovely to see her and we had a good catch up in the carport!!!! We are having dinner at their house on Friday night, all being well. I also had a carrier bag of UK goodies for her.

Bob rubbed down the wood oven ready for painting and cleared up all around it. He also painted the oven door with Hammerite.

This afternoon we lazed around the pool as usual, reading. I have a pre-publication copy of a second novel written by a dear friend to read. I was honoured to be the first reader in a slightly earlier incarnation, so I am going to devour it again tomorrow and see what has changed….. It is set in India, and the descriptions are so vivid, you can actually smell it.

This evening we were just sitting down with a g&t when a message pinged from Stuart and Fi, who are up in Scotland, suggesting a Facetime video call. So we had a lovely 40 minute catchup with them and Stuart’s dad. I think the weather looks better here ( ROFL ) but Fi was in a T shirt so it can’t be that bad. It’s great that we can all keep in touch with wifi.

I forgot to say that last night we had a long viewing of the International Space Station as it went overhead. It is a very dark sky location up here, very little ambient light to hide the stars and the night sky. It started passing over about 840pm and was visible for over 10 minutes, very clearly. I’ve seen quite a few astral events up here. Once I got up at 4am to see a red moon, that was a couple of years ago. Got some great photos.

Things sometimes disappoint me….. I like to leave out a lot of our things here for guests to use – only locking away precious things that it would really, really matter if we lost. Today I noticed that two carved wooden incense boxes with brass inlay have disappeared…. I mean…… BOTH! That’s so annoying.

Bob cooked dinner tonight. Burgers. And we have some downloaded films to watch. Having a break from Homeland after 5 series on the trot.