Malaga on Wednesday

Thank you al for the stars and hearts that took my water lilies high on the Popular pages,

I was up much earlier this morning and in the market before it opened. The stall holders were trundling in boxes of goods and laying them out with great care. This is a food market with fruit, veg, meat and fish. I was surprised not to see dairy products.

I hung around and have a set of images I'm pleased with, probably enough to make a panel of six when I return home and process them.

Just after I arrived the heavens opened, with a spectacular thunderstorm. At times it rained in parts of the market. The streets were awash. It seemed to increase the banter and excitability of the traders.

Eventually I braved it to a nearby cafe for breakfast. Back in the market a few people were shopping and I caught this group. I have a few where they posed, but this is my favourite. If you are on Facebook, you can see a few more.

Later on I went to the Pompidou Centre and viewed the permanent exhibition. Some exhibits pleased me, some disturbed me, some made me think and some were pretentious IMHO!

Tonight we all started at the sherry bar, not far from the hotel. The sherry is in large casks and very cheap. Then we set off for dinner - except M needed to take his wife bqck to the hotel first. Fine. Then K and L decided to go back to hotel for umbrellas. Fine. They were away for ages. Then we followed G to find last night's hotel. Fine? NO, we list 10 of the group in the pouring rain. How many had mobiles? Perhaps 3. Who had mobile numbers for the others! NONE! Chaos. Eventually 6 of us made it to the restaurant where the wAiter nearly had a nervous breakdown. We thought we would never be served. One couple nearby left because of slow service.

The wine came and the food came and our spirits revived. We even left a tip. It was lovely.