Another week in the Canaries, and this time I’ve come back very brown - when it was hot it was very, very hot. Unfortunately, when it was not hot is was very, very  overcast and extremely windy.  Still, I went in order to sleep and read, and managed both for huge periods of time, regardless of whether I could read and sleep in the sun or needed to retreat to the apartment.

I also read Priestley’s The Good Companions.  It made me chuckle - once I’d got used to the Yorkshire dialect.  It’s a delightful book but I can’t imagine that the TV serialisation will have been able to capture its charm, and will have reduced it to a picaresque romp. 

We stayed much nearer the strip than last time – we were almost on it.  Surprisingly noise wasn’t an issue, in part because nightclubs aren’t as numerous as in, for example, Tenerife; but also because the tourist population wasn’t particularly young. The apartment was pleasingly spacious, and largely well arranged, although a rather odd arrangement of windows in the bathroom and kitchen meant all that went on in the neighbours’ bathroom was unsettlingly obvious if we were in the living room.  

I had a couple of disastrous meals, each the result of ‘international’ restaurants, which have spring up everywhere.  It would appear that international restaurants can’t cope with spaghetti.  Still, we found a small Italian restaurant, which I liked so much that we ate there three times.  After a salad there, I’ve developed a passion for mozzarella cheese served with fresh strawberries – I plan to try out the combination in lunch-box sandwiches next week.