Bob went into Chaudi this morning to pick up his second pair of new specs from the Royal Optics shop. They look really nice. He’s ordered a pair of sunglasses now too.

I walked down to the beach with Gloria and we had breakfast at Sea Front with Stuart and fi. Very hot day today. Kept the brolly up a lot. And the sea was quite rough, or rather the surf was very strong. i only ventured out thigh deep. First time it’s been like that this trip. Pamela and Eddie joined us again after the flu bug and that was lovely. Still not quite 100% though.

Tonight we were meant to have a big group dinner centred around Gloria at the restaurant she had chosen – Sea Touch – but it all fell apart at the last minute, not quite sure why We still had a great dinner there with John and Sue, Sheena and Dave but without our guest of honour. Before that we went to Boomshanka for sunset cocktails with our dinner companions, plus Hilary, Martin and James. The sunset was nice but not a touchdown… too much dust on the horizon. Cocktails were very nice. They are definitely back in the groove again after the too-sweet concoctions last year. Service was as slow and bumbling as ever.

We hadn’t been to Sea Touch in a long time but the food was excellent and cheaply priced. I had an amazing palak paneer. A nice thing happened. Ram, the chief waiter from Salida days arrived with some friends and he was so pleased to see us, as we were to see him Had a lovely chat. He’s now based in Agonda but they still hope to get the lease on Salida back. 

Walked back up the beach and Stuart and Fi signalled to us by torch from Casa Fiesta so we joined them for nightcaps and chat under the stars which were stunning tonight. A very good day albeit a disappointment over the dinner arrangements. In future we will just do our own thing with close friends who choose to join us. I am done with being the arranger…..