Thursday we had yet another trip planned - the blanket trip which I've already told you about. However, we were surprised that the 28 places or so which had been filled on the first day, were now down to only 10 from our hotel who went.

We had a guide from Yorkshire this day - chatty too, but always at the back of her mind, and ours were that she was trying to sell us something - first of all sunglasses, then wine and chocolates and then blankets. We were firm and didn't buy a thing.

We did have one nice thing happen on this trip which relates to the next few days. A tall white-haired gentleman was picked up from his very posh hotel before we started on the way to our village. Our hotel was the first stop on this trip - and we called in at maybe six other hotels to pick up potential customers - but in all the bus was only about half full. Anyway, this man was waiting on the steps on his hotel with his wife, and he kissed her goodbye - and got in the bus and sat down behind us. We didn't talk to him at all - other than to say thank you when he passed the sunglasses to us that we all had to try on. But when we were wandering the streets of the little town, trying to find some cheap but good sherry - he asked us if he could take our picture together - which we were very pleased to have him do.

I didn't think about him again until the next day at bridge (he must have overheard us talking because we were the only bridge players on the bus) he and his wife arrived at our hotel asking if they could join in. Pauline said they couldn't that day, but would be welcome on Saturday evening if they cared to come then, and they said they would. But we recognised him right away, and I think he did us too. Then on Saturday when we arrived for the last night of bridge, we chose to sit with them on the first round, and got to know a bit more about them. They were from Nottingham, and only just learning to play bridge but quite keen - so they hoped to perhaps join us on future trips that we take.

But back to Thursday night. We were back early from our blanket trip so had to time to rest up before the bridge. Kathleen had a good soak and we napped a bit - trying to get in the right mood. I decided that maybe if I wore my dead mother-in-law's jewellery, it would bring us luck. She was a very good bridge player, and I had brought her jewellery along with the plan in mind to wear it to show her that I forgave her for being so mean to me when she was alive. But so far, I hadn't worn any of it.

But on this occasion, I put on her green jade ring and a red stone bracelet, which probably weren't very valuable, but Philip insists that he doesn't want her jewellery valued - that we can only wear it for sentimental reasons - and certainly not sell it if it did turn out to be valuable.

We had our usual mediocre meal- and our usual half bottle of wine - which we will have supplemented by our cheap sherry or beer in the room before hand. The bridge actually seemed to go quite well that night, and I had a good feeling about the results. The bracelet did actually fall off my wrist at one stage - due to the age of the clasp no doubt. But when the results came out, we were bottom - so I decided my mother-in-law had sent me a message. Leave my jewellery alone! So the next day I only wore my own rings and bracelets and guess what, we came bottom again. So I guess I can stop blaming her for our bad luck. But after all somebody has to be last in any competition - and think of the pleasure we gave to all those people to whom we gave top scores.

On Friday we had to play the second round of the knock-out and this was against Bob (another bridge holiday regular of great charm) and his fiancee Bronwen. They both can play well when they are in the mood and go from top to bottom in the listings on most holidays. But this was not their lucky day and we beat them quite easily. Which meant we were in the semi-finals. I was pleased about that. Think of how impressive it is to be in the semi-finals of any big competition - very good indeed.

But then my pleasure turned to anguish when I realised who we had to play against - Pauline and Martin, her son-in-law. I knew he was a very poor player, but Pauline is a grand champion many times over - and can beat anybody given 10 points. ((2 Aces and a Queen). And beat us they did - but we were actually quite pleased to be beaten, because it meant we could spend the rest of our last day on the beach, rather than playing the final - which Pauline, again managed to win. I wonder if Martin played a hand in the entire competition. She just assumed he wouldn't bid and bid 3 No Trump no matter what her hand was and almost always made it.

But I am ahead of myself I haven't yet mentioned what we did on Friday - our first trip-less day. After our bus tour the day before, we had wandered into the village and met up again with our friends from America - and they took us down the little streets to the liquor store, where we tried to find blueberry liquor made in Holland - and some good sherry. I did find some sherry - not a bargain and not as good as we hoped, but better than the rough stuff we had been drinking from the place across the road. But that was all that we had seen of the town. We walked home sort of zig-zagged this way and that, and eventually happened onto the right streets and got back to our hotel.

Friday, we were determined to do a proper shopping trip. We started out by trying to find the Pensioner's place, recommended by people from my bridge class at home. We did find it, but since it was just a restaurant and the bar not open, we went away again, without going in. Then we found a mainish street, and went back and forth across the street, going into almost every store looking for cheap and valuable souvenirs and not surprisingly finding very little worth buying. We did find some nice things we intended to go back for later - but wouldn't you know it - siesta time came too soon, and again we were out of luck.

We walked back to the hotel, again me worrying about getting lost but we got there in the end - had a snack, and a drink - and then our hands of bridge, which I've already indicated were not terribly good. Only 5 tables played on Friday - lots of people were either sick or sick of bridge by then. And the sun had come out and to give up sunbathing for bridge was not really a popular choice with many. After the bridge we did sit by the pool for awhile and had a drink - and Kathleen put her feet in momentarily. She threw some coins in the deep end for Pauline's grandson to dive down to get but I think he was disappointed that it was Spanish coppers rather than British pounds that she had thrown in.

After supper on Friday we had a show to look forward to - Flamenco dancers. We weren't allowed to use the bridge room that evening, because that was the room they used for the dancers. There were five of them - one young rather surprisingly chubby man and three very slim dark women and one also rather chubby lady, who however was very good, as they all were. We would have perhaps 15 minutes of dancing, then a break for drinks, and for them to change clothes into yet more exotic and colourful costumes. There were 4 such intervals - and after the last one, they got some of the audience up on stage and taught them to dance. Martin, Pauline's son-in-law was chosen (we knew it was a fix because Sue had told us about it when we were playing bridge with her). And Bronwen was chosen and did a very good display of her skills and charms. One older man looked on the verge of a heart attack, but luckily he survived at least until the dance was over. So it was thoroughly enjoyable and a fitting end to our last but one evening. (We went again this last January and except for the fact that it our first trip was 10 years earlier, it could have been the same people and the same costumes and the same dances.)

But the last day was really the best from the holiday point of view, because we went to the beach. You might think it unusual that we would choose to go on vacation to the Mediterranean and go through six whole days without once being on the beach. We like the sunshine and the sand and walking through the waves. We like cliffs and seashells and collecting rocks - but we just hadn't done it up until then. Kathleen said if she had gone to the beach on the first day, she would have gone everyday thereafter, and foregone all the rest of the things we did.

She was so pleased because the beach was full of pretty coloured stones washed shiny and smooth by the waves. The cliffs were compressed pieces of shell and stones cemented together by God, is how I think she put it. We walked in little coves and around them and up and down and here and there, and at each step the sea was lovelier and the rocks were prettier, and the views more amazing. So we had a good time. We eventually got to the most famous view of Nerja - the Balcony of the Mediterranean, a piece of land that juts out into the sea with wonderful views. Just as we were approaching it, we ran into Joyce, and not far behind were Stan and his brother Arthur and his wife Margaret, who are very good bridge players and have been on many of these holidays before too. So we all sat together on a bench and Stan organised for some body to come and take a picture of "Two Americans together, two English people and one from Wales" - and the man who obliged was from Ireland. Unfortunately, he couldn't get Stan's camera to work at first, but after much fussing and bother, it did work - and then he took another one with my camera. (This is all unnecessary to the story, but nostalgic for me because Stan got liver cancer shortly after and died.)

We went our separate ways, and we had some very good pizza and beer at a roadside cafe. The waitress couldn't understand English, so much was done by gestures. She really confused us when I had inadvertently given her the bill for our drinks at the hotel along with the money  when I was paying for the beer - and when she tried to return it, I thought she was asking for more money. Such confusion - but in the end we understood what she was saying, and I was a bit embarrassed to have caused so much confusion by my carelessness. And for the last time we argued over which roads to go down and up and which way was the right way - even with our two maps out all the time - but with patience and the grace of God, we again found our way home.

Saturday night is always prize night, but this time Pauline decided to play bridge first and have just a limited number of boards, and have the prizes at the end.  The bridge was fun, and I think maybe Kathleen even enjoyed it a bit - knowing that it was almost over. She did comment on how much she enjoyed meeting the people and how friendly they were - so that aspect of the bridge playing was a success.

Pauline has a computer to calculate the results, but on this occasion it let her down - so she couldn't give the results of the last night's play only the previous five nights. Unusually, there were hardly any couples who won more than once - which was nice and meant that there were lots of different people getting prizes.

After the gave the ones for the top scores both North-South and East-West each night, she gave a prize for the couple which had come second most - which turned out to be two people we had enjoyed being with - for whom this had been a first bridge holiday. Eileen is the mother-in-law of Marilyn who came to my bridge classes many years ago - and her partner Joan was in fact someone who had also come to my class - and I hadn't recognised her at first. She was rather upset when she said who she was, and I didn't remember her - but how could I pretend that I did when I hadn't because she would then expect me to say something about her and the others in the class, etc.

But after we had played the two hands with them on the first night, I suddenly remember who she was - and wondered how I had ever forgotten. She was the loudest and rudest and most colourful character I ever had in a class. And when I told her that I had twigged - and that she hadn't toned down at all in the 20 years since she came to the class, she was so pleased and said how much fun she had had coming to my class. She looked a lot different at 70 than she had at 50.
 
Anyway, they got the prizes I would have chosen had we won - some beautiful water-colour paintings of the area. And Joan and John got a consolation prize too, for being third quite a lot. Kathleen was pleased for Joan because she had so much appreciated having her cards sorted for her. And then after the pictures had been taken on stage of the many winners - the few losers looked quite small in contrast - although in a group of 52, there must have been 20 first place winners and the 4 consolation prize winners so the losers will still have been the larger group. But we shared a table with Jean and Grace, who had never before gone on a bridge holiday and not won - and they really felt bad about it. After the pictures, Pauline gave Kathleen a bridge diary as a momento of her trip, which I thought was a very nice gesture, and I think Kathleen was very pleased to have it.

We were nearly packed when we went to bed that night - with only pyjamas and pillow (I always take my own) and washing things to put in at the end (and Kathleen left her wash cloths behind). We went to breakfast and were sitting there eating our last boring meal when Pauline came up and gave us prizes - which we had won the last night. I said, "You don't really mean that we won?" and she tactfully said, "You had a very high average.”  So we got little lidded candy dishes with Pauline's bridge holidays, Netja, 1996 written on and card symbols here and there, so we had to repack to put them safely in our cases.

Then it was to the busses, to the airport, to the plane, and home with Philip there to meet us. It was a fun holiday and one we will both long remember.