Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age.

I was just trying to remember how we met Paul but I can't. He's English though, he lives in Culebrón and we expat Brits just tend to bump into each other. I know scores of people to nod at or to speak to occasionally without knowing anything about them except their first name and one other key fact. "Hi Robert, how's the folk dancing going?"

I know Paul's family name and we know his wife too. She, amongst other things, is Maggie's Avon rep.

Last night Paul had his 50th birthday party at the one remaining bar in Culebrón. It's a British bar called Litani and Tim, who I know relatively well (without knowing his surname), runs the bar there. Tim is a big man, he's got tattoos, he was a butcher and he's returning to the UK to drive lorries. I've always liked Tim.

Last weekend we took my mum to a place called El Cortijo over Paredon way to get Sunday lunch. She said she was surprised that Maggie and I were going to a British run place for Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding. It's maybe the third time we've been there but the food has always been good with keen pricing and we thought that she'd be more at home in a place where we didn't need to translate the menu.

Back at Litani Bill was doing the disco, he played music like The Bachman Turner Overdrive "You ain't seen nothing yet" We had an intelligent conversation with Stuart and Joyce and another with a North American couple. They were very positive about their Spanish experiences. Two people, one an old customer of Rustic Original who I'd prepared furniture for, commented favourably on my blogs and magazine articles. When it came to food time there were bits of pork pie and cocktail sausages as well as empanada and tortilla. All in all a very pleasant evening and no need for a word of Spanish.