With the car rental hassles out of the way, and they weren't really major hassles to be honest, we've started to settle into our standard on-island routine.

I went down to the Village and picked up a baguette, croissants, pain raisin, and pain au chocolat, practiced my French some more and chatted with the guys running the place. I got back just in time to avert a disaster as The Goddess's stomach had started to rumble. As soon as her feet touch the floor in the morning, food had better be somewhere close by. If not, The Goddess can quickly transform into The She-Devil. This morning was a close run thing.

And what did we do today? Well, we enjoyed the outdoor shower, ate breakfast, shot the breeze with Chloe & Thierry and some of the other guests and then jumped in our tiny Kia and hightailed it down to the beach at Club Orient, where we added our own shapes and sizes to the assorted collection already on display. The beach was great, as always. The water was a little choppy and seemed colder than usual but that didn't stop us going in and doing the usual bobbing about, in between snoozes and reading. The only problem we had was with a couple of sets of obnoxious neighbours. Sometimes I think Sartre got it right about Other People.

Willy was at her station at the Perch, dispensing her usual wit and wisdom, not to mention those weapons grade rum punches. I swam the beach once (with the current, I must admit). Last summer, I had about a month before our vacation where I was working from home and I could swim daily. That let me build up some stamina so the swim from Papagayo to The Perch wasn't much of an effort. I had no such luxury this year and let me tell you it was a heavy breathing specimen that finally hauled its sorry carcass ashore.

After our beach day, we relaxed back at Club F before walking back down to The Village for my birthday dinner. Walking from Club F to The Village takes around 10 minutes, so getting to the beach adds on another 1-2 minutes. Getting to the beach at Club Orient will add another 5 minutes on top of that. Getting back to Club F involves an uphill walk. Now, the road winds its way up the hill and there is only one section that can be considered particularly steep. We are in the second half of our fifties, are not particularly fit but have all our mobility, thank God. The walk back up took us around 15 minutes, with a couple of stops to look at the stars and smooch a bit. I mention this because there was discussion in one of my earlier posts about whether walking to and from the beach is a viable option if you are staying there. In my view, if you are reasonable mobile and you don't want to drive then it is perfectly doable.

But back to our tale. We had Le Piment in mind and that was where we went. We met Crystel (my spelling of her name is probably horribly wrong) and she took us through the list of specials the board. It seems like the place has two menus: there's the printed menu and then there's the board menu, which is at least as long again. The Goddess had cod en papillotte and I had the lamb shank. We had a couple of glasses of champagne to toast my birthday, and a glass of White Bordeaux and a glass of Côte du Rhone helped wash down the marvelous, marvelous meal. For dessert, we split a panna cotta that made our knees buckle, it was so good. Just as we were downing our complimentary Ma DouDous, our newest best friends, M & D, spotted us and joined us. As it turns out, they are well acquainted with Crystel, so a new round of shots promptly appeared. The bill came and was promptly paid by the goddess herself as my birthday treat and we left the place and wound our way back uphill for a final swim of the day. As I finish this report, I'm still hoping for one last birthday treat. We shall see. But you'll never know.