Popped along to la Plaza last night to have a drink or two *cough* with Lee and Heather to help them celebrate their first year in business. A very pleasant evening it was as well, after a somewhat strange day ……..

Today it is a year since La Plaza opened, and I’d like to say congratulations to Lee and Heather for creating such a great little restaurant bar.

Situated in the busy square in Almerimar, La Plaza is one of my favourite places for a drink and interesting tapas, coffee and scrummy home-made cakes, a girlie salad lunch, breakfast or a relaxed supper. It always has a friendly atmosphere, and being small and cosy more often than not we find we bump into someone, whether it’s English friends, people on holiday who are Almerimar life readers, or last week a big tables of Spaniards we know.

With all the excitement of the Euro2008 final , it feels as if we have used Al-rruz more as a tapas bar then a restaurant recently, so it was great today when Chris and I decided to have an impromptu lunch there!

Yesterday we spent a very interesting, pleasant and eventful day in the mountains with our friends Lorenzo and Luisa.

Lorenzo’s farther set up and runs an amazing winery that specialises in environmentally friendly wines called Barranco Oscuro. Lorenzo is following very successfully in his father’s footsteps, as they continue to produce very interesting wines indeed.

The summer continues with the organised sports activities and music, all of which can be found in the Events Calendar

Main events of interest are:

• 24th - Hermin Soul Music at Guardia Viejas
• 25th - Dúo Fathi Yakoub y Mathieu Saqlio at Guardia Viejas
• 25th - Diego Cruz Blues & Jazz at Brisamar
• 26th and 27th - 5 a side Beach Football
• 26th - Caldereria Flamenco at Brisamar

I forgot that when we went to the opening of La Barbera I took a photograph of a new supermarket that has opened in the row of bars etc just behind the Espignon.

I forgot to go and find out the details of the superkarket.

The public should be prepared to intervene to stop crime and be willing to stand up for others, Jacqui Smith says today.

Replace Jacqui Smith with Steven and that is exactly what he said in La Plaza last night!

After another hot and humid day we decided to wander down to the marina around 11.30pm and it was good to see that the square in particular was very busy. We bumped into a friend in La Plaza who in turn introduced us to a couple from Northern Ireland who …… you’ve guessed it, read the site and recognised us.

We have written before about the Foro De Almerimar and support it as much as we can. We attended the first (or second) meeting that they held and informed them of the blog and invited them to use it as much as they wanted (for the record we have received two items direct from the Foro this year, everything else has come through our own endeavors or via business contacts). We even offered to design, host and run a free site for them ……

Sandra wrote yesterday about the schedule for the last night of celebration for Virgen del Carmen and last night we went down to participate.

Tonight is the end of the week of celebrations for Virgen del Carmen.

By the time we arrived at 10pm the party was well and truly on it’s way, and party is the only way that you could describe the opening of La Barbera last night.

There is limited parking next to the restaurant, so if you do go I suggest that you park in the marina and enjoy a walk along the beach. It is certainly a nice way to arrive and depart the restaurant.

Don’t you just love it when something exceeds your expectations?

About 7 months ago Chris bought me a very cute red iPod Nano. The red product range is the one where Apple give a % of the sale to charity so that was a extra bonus. I loved my Nano and used it all the time when running, learning Spanish (well maybe not all the time then!), and up on the roof either sunbathing or playing with the cats.

Tonight is the official opening of La Barbera from 10.30pm onwards (well that is the current plan but this is Spain) and we have been invited by Paco so will be popping along later.

The celebrations for Virgen del Carmen continue until Wednesday, and this year we had another ‘no show’ by the Beatles Tribute band as Sands suggested after her Saturday morning gossip.

Just back from Monica’s hair salon where I go to my very pleasant beautician Isobel, who is great for practising your Spanish but also speaks some English! I was chatting to Monica and Isobel about the fiesta and music events this weekend.

Ok I don’t mean literally whether to live in a mess or do some cleaning. My question really is how much to do oneself on the basis that most of we girls find cleaning and housework generally about as boring as any man would if they got around to doing much of it. Of course there are women who actually enjoy this dubious task and good luck to them, and there are those who end up doing extra as a job, the latter being integral to my question.