It was a day of two halves. We ended up spending the afternoon floating and snoozing in and around Club F's pool after a pretty serious downpour chased us off the beach just after noon. What lightweights we are!

The day started off bright and so, so sunny. I went down for my brief morning chat with Malot while picking up our daily bread then, having grabbed some coffee and wolfed the pastries ( we hadn't eaten in almost 12 hours) it was beach time again. The morning went in its usual way, --you know, bob, bob; snooze, snooze etc. -- until we noticed lots of black clouds and rain on the horizon. Half an hour after spotting it and starting to pour down on Tintamarre -- and the Tiko Tiko's passengers, I expect -- it was upon us. This didn't look like something we could wait out so we scuttled off the beach and headed up hill, through some minor flooding already, ready to spend the rest of the day at our adopted home. Lunch was last night's leftover pizza --always good, in any circumstance -- a pot of rilettes de canard, courtesy of Larry & Cleta and the most part of a bottle of Corbieres.

Then, of course, the rain stopped and the skies cleared. The choice was to go back down to the beach or stay put and we chose the lazy option. Thus, ours was an afternoon of floating in the pool and siestas. Around 5pm, we went to Simply Market to pick up some ingredients for risotto, our planned meal. This was the point when the plans started to go awry.

After a couple of drinks I started chopping vegetables and slicing onions and discovered that we were minus an essential ingredient and risotto could not be made. What to do? Obvious, really, we went from frugal to profligate and drove down to Orient Village. We decided on eating at Little Italy. The Goddess chose the ravioli special and I had the Gnocchi Gorgonzola. I like gnocchi but it's something I would never try to make myself. I understand the process and life is just too short to make gnocchi from scratch.

This was our first visit to the village and it is very nicely done with the circle of restaurants providing a friendly ambiance in the warm evening air. Service was not included, which surprised me but I wasn't gong to get hung up about it. When we got back up the hill, the missing ingredient was located and so the risotto can make its delayed appearance at a later date. And with that, today's report reaches an end. We have now reached the midpoint of our trip and from here on are on the downward slope towards are departure on the 31st. Something that saddens me completely even as I type the words.