Bonfires On the Beach.

Saturday 23rd June “El Noche de San Juan.”

Graham:
Hi,
Right! We now have the arrangements sorted for tonight’s celebrations. Olivia is going to close the bar/restaurant a bit earlier than usual and head for the beach, with Yara who works par time in our bar/restaurant, her 11-year-old daughter, Luna and Yara’s younger sister, Becki; whilst I head for my best friends Chas and Noa’s house, which is in one of the older, but very pleasant urbanizations, called Mar y Monte. It’s Chas’s birthday today, so I simply must be there. Chas is doing a BBQ in his charming back garden. It has a lovely shaded terrace and a small lawn/orchard, resplendent with sub-tropical plants. He also has splendid Lemon, Apricot and plum trees.

Chas loves to BBQ. His specialties include; spare ribs in homey and garlic sauce and then he does some cracking Thaiesque dishes combining the use of the BBQ with the wok.
We have an unspoken rule, that when he cooks, I turn up with some fine wine. This would normally be one of the wide varieties of Spanish wines, which we stock in our bar, such as a wine from the Rioja, Penedes or La Mancha region. Tonight, however I am going to surprise Chas with beautiful 15-year-old French Sauternes. I can taste it now and with Chas doing the cooking, we are all in for a good night. Unfortunately Noa cannot touch alcohol, as it brings on instant migraine, but she is used to the situation by now and still really enjoys herself on these occasions.

Olivia:
Hi,
Getting away early from a bar/restaurant, without offending clients is an art that takes years of experience, but the basics involved are; letting people know shortly after they have settled in at their table, that tonight is “Noche De San Juan” and everybody will be there, then at around 10 pm start gradually turning the music down, until by 10:30 it’s turned-off. Around 10:15 you must invite them for one last drink on the house. Also around 10:30 start turning lights off, one by one, until they are all off and that’s basically how you do it! Oh! And don’t forget, you must wear a broad smile all the time.

I would have really loved to have been able to wear a fancy dress, perhaps made specially for the occasion by Eimy my friend (Well we really regard her as our daughter.) She makes beautiful clothes from her home in San Pedro. I would have chosen to go as a witch. Yara is great with make-up, so she could have done everybody’s make-up, before leaving the bar and then as soon as we’d had a chance to close up, we’d have made a beeline for Isdabe beach, with Yara as designated driver. Her daughter Luna who is so pretty; you want to eat her is so excited about hitting the beach long after she should normally be in bed.

I am a little sad that Graham won’t be joining us, but I know he’ll enjoy himself at Chas and Noa's place and I’m pleased that they’ll have a nice evening, as they decide it would not be a good idea to take Sergio in the wheelchair, to the beach, as he catches cold very easily.

Right! I’ve got to get back to work now, as we have a table of 12 golfers just sat down for lunch.