Arenys de Mar

We woke up to torrential rain and wondered if we were doing the right thing as we stuffed our brolly into our wee backpack and headed to Sants Station. An hour later we stepped out off the train to sunshine in Arenys de Mar, just an hour's journey away. It was the right decision to get away and after we'd checked into our wee hostel and wandered round the quiet Saturday afternoon streets, we ended up sitting with our feet in the sand at a chiringuito (beach bar) reading the papers. As well as La Vanguardia we'd treated ourselves to a Saturday English paper at the Station. When I walked down to the waves and sat down on the empty beach, I realised that, apart from my bus ride back and forward to school, it was the first time I’d been on my own in 5 weeks! The last month's 18 trainee course was hard work and there was work to do at the weekends too. This month will be easier with only 9 trainees, so smaller than usual, less of a logistical operation and more time to get to know the trainees. We had our end of week 1 drinks on the terrace and they seem a nice bunch: one Irish, one Scottish, one Italian, one Russian, one Australian, one American, one Colombian, and two English. Being September we also have a couple of public holidays, meaning one 3-day weekend and one 4-day weekend, so the course is actually spread over 5 weeks.