"Amazing!"

Keith left the house very early this morning to do our Christmas shop and rang me just before 7am to say that Tesco was busy even at that early hour! He said that there was a lot of staff picking for online deliveries and stacking shelves, so it was a job to get about in the store. Rather him than me!

I was working with Shirley today and back answering the phone, so I knew I'd be busier than yesterday, thank goodness. We were busy with all the usual calls about swimming lessons and our opening hours over Christmas. It was lovely to turn the phones off at 4pm and go home, knowing I was off for ten days!

Sophie had finished at 1pm today and had gone to have lunch with Vikesh, but she was home when I arrived. Keith had cleaned the oven, and the fridge and shelves were full from his shopping this morning. Let the celebrations commence!

Keith went to the pub this evening to see John, and both of them were a little shocked as Ian, our old landlord from the pub, had died this week. He can't have been older than his late 60s, which was totally unexpected.

Sophie and I opened our first bottle of Sherry, a Fino, which we found dry. While sipping the drink, we nibbled on little rounds of cheese covered in herbs and satay chicken with two dips. The cats showed enormous interest in our snacks!

The second Sherry was a Bristol Cream and was medium sweet and fruity. We decided to watch Gambit, starring Colin Firth, Cameron Diaz and Alan Rickman, and it was very enjoyable! It was about Monet's paintings of haystacks, so it was great to see them in a film!

Our third Sherry was a dark, sweeter wine, and we both said we preferred the second, cream Sherry. We then opened a bottle of red wine from Emporda but neither of us was impressed with the wine, even though it was 15%. We've both been a little disappointed with the local wines in Spain and we perhaps know why this region isn't that well-known in the UK!

After a delicious dinner of chilli con carne, we watched the final episode of James Martin's Spanish Adventures and poured out three small glasses of Ratafia. Each time he said, "Amazing!" we had to take a sip! We also guessed how many times he would say the word: Sophie said 6, Keith said 7 and I went for 9 times...

His first visit was to L'Escala for the anchovies the town is famous for! He then cooked a dish on the seafront, near to where we used to go for a drink. The weather looked chilly and cloudy! 

From L'Escala, he went to Olot where Ratafia is produced and it was the same company that made the bottle I bought! This episode was a great ending to the series and he went to Girona which looked beautiful. Next time, we're definitely going to go and explore the lovely city.

By the end of the episode, he had said "Amazing!" ten times! I won!