learning to relax (again)

Yesterday I did something crazy and almost deviant---I took a day off. Okay, I worked Sunday so that I could take off Monday, but there you go. Saturday I stopped by J. and M.'s shop to get a present for our neighbor's R. birthday party that night. M. asked if I would like to spend Monday with her and their son D. down on the coast. I quickly reviewed my work schedule in my head and yes, if I worked a bit Sunday, I could swing it. "Yes, yes," I said. So we set off at 11 in the morning and first went to the mall in Torre del Mar. Our first stop was to buy a new pair of running shoes for D. This was imperative because their latest canine acquisition, who is still a puppy, had had a bit of a chew fest during the night with D.'s previous pair. (Oh how I don't miss that---so glad ours are now proper dogs.) D. was also looking for a replacement orange tee shirt as the one he was wearing had become a tad faded. I believe all Dutch must have at least one piece of orange clothing in their wardrobe. But then again I have observed only Dutch men can pull off wearing orange pants without appearing utterly ridiculous, so it is a look that works for them. Lots of window shopping, although I did buy a pinkish tee shirt at Zara, quite pretty actually and only 5 euros and some change, so how could I say no. Then we had a quick stop at Eroski's. All the school books were lined up on tables, sorted by grade level. In Spain, parents have to buy their children's books, and there have been many news stories because the prices have gone up considerably this year, on average 45 to 60 euros more per child. I headed to the international foods aisle to get some coconut milk and was so excited to find tofu on the shelf. I had gotten hooked on tofu some years ago and haven't been able to find it anywhere here within 50 miles of the village. I got the last package. Wahoo. We then went off to the coast and had a nice lunch at one of the seafront restaurants. The best buys there are the menu of the day. There is a list of five or so starters, same number of main courses, and then ice cream and coffee for dessert, all for about 7 euros. So I had gazpacho (a decent bowl but it did not creep onto my "best of" list) and a grilled pork kebab. Too full, I skipped dessert and just had coffee. After lunch, we went food shopping at Lidl and didn't crawl back up the mountain until 5:00. Lovely, relaxing way to spend the day. But now it is back to the work grind for me. To all my friends who have sent e-mails in the past couple weeks, I promise I will get back to you soon. :-) hasta pronto, mylifeinspain