First stop was lunch. The options were fairly limited - a couple of tapas places, a sushi place, and an American burger place, Foster's Hollywood, so we thought we'd try that. It was quite early for lunch, Mallorcan-time, but the place was rammed. After a little wait, huddling in the doorway out of the freezing rain, we were finally given a table. And there followed one of the worst meals we've had in Mallorca - slow service (they were trying hard, but were completely overwhelmed); bad chips; rubbery pasta - just not great. And what was so bizarre was how popular it was - within 10 minutes of us being seated, there was a queue of twenty people lined up outside. We just didn't get it. But at least we were warm and dry, and had been fed.
Next stop: one of those wonderful Decathlons (that giant, good value, sell everything sports shop). Kevin sidled off to the running section while Jemima and I looked at the bikes; and he emerged later with a new pair of trainers, a new pair of shorts (his old ones are now too big), an arm strap for his phone, and some wireless earphones. It's official - he is now a Runner...
And that was it - home in the driving rain, hoping for better weather tomorrow...
Sunday dawned slightly better. Jemima and I had one of our lovely weekend mornings (pancakes, homework ("hooray!" she says - I wonder how long that will last...), TV and arts and crafts); then I fancied a little trip to Chameli's. No-one else was keen, so they sent me on my own! And it was GREAT - tea, pa amb oli (the traditional Mallorcan breakfast of bread with a puréed tomato and olive oil mixture, which I hadn't tried yet - delicious), and some alone time. Lovely.
I got back to the apartment to find Jemima and Kevin dressed, and heading out to the garden to play football. I had a clear up, then went to collect for lunch at the Chinese in the marina.
The food was pretty indifferent - I had read something about how Mallorcans don't generally do Indian or Asian food that well, and this was certainly true here: overly greasy prawn toast and spring rolls, flavourless chicken satay, very basic chicken chow mein, although the sizzling prawns with ginger and spring onion were great. The big draw here: the kids all playing together outside. And today was no exception: Jemima befriended two Spanish sisters who spoke good English, and the playing went on and on... Kevin went back to watch the Formula One in Heroes, and I sat reading on a wall while they played football, catch, took scooter rides, played in the fountain, made potions - Jemima had a whale of a time.
By this point it was getting pretty cold, so we went to collect Kevin from Heroes (they weren't showing the F1 after all), and went across the road to Chameli's together instead. Femi had been planning to watch the F1 too, so he joined us in Chameli's for a convivial dinner. Jemima was amazing: she played quietly with her toy (a very rubbish action man figure Kevin had won for her in a fairground-style grabber machine in Heroes - his first time ever apparently - I heard his whoop of joy from the next door room...); she joined in the chatting; and she tucked into her dinner (although it was pizza and ice cream, so not exactly challenging for her). Still, I was very proud.
Then, as it was getting late, I spirited her away and off to bed, to be joined later by Kevin. According to reports, this weekend was the last of the bad weather - from here on, it's a countdown to summer. We will see...
Ants in Your Pants at the Chinese restaurant
Games
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