Bloody hell! Alarm went off at 5am, after finishing work the evening before at 8pm. I’d had a ‘now on holiday pint’ pint or two. But when the alarm went off, I had that moment of ‘what the hell is that going off for’!
Then I remembered that Jane and I are booked on a Jet2 08:15 flight to Malaga with Mr & Mrs B, from where we will head up into the hills to an apartment in Mijas.
So I got up, showered and closed up my little walk-on case.
We had all declined paying £47.50 (after discount!) each way per person for an additional 12kg of luggage allowance, so had to pack the dimensionally correct bags to a maximum of 10kg, ready for what I assumed would be a serious bag inspection before boarding.
Final weight and dimension check complete, I had my traditional 3x double espressos and was ready for our taxi to arrive. Which it did, 10 mins early.
A short ride up the A555 to Terminal 2 of Manchester Airports drop-off zone and we waited to meet up with The Bs. A sneaky bacon barm from Starbucks later and they arrived.
We headed to security and put our bags and belts in the trays and onto the scanner and headed through the “star jump” people scanner to collect the bags.
The Bs went through and they collected theirs, but inevitably both mine and then Jane’s got switched to the “further investigation” lane.
It turned out that my shower gel that I’d decanted into a sub-100mm clear bottle needed an analysis scan. After which it was returned and I repacked and was free to go.
Jane on the other hand had two Robinsons Fruit Juice concentrates removed, rescanned, swabbed and after a controlled substance was detected, was taken away for further questioning.
“Unopened, bought from Tesco Handforth Dean and put straight in the case”. On her return, we were told that due to it being a negative scan, the Mixed Fruits Mini Robinsons would be destroyed but she was ok to repack the Mini Lemon & Lime. Oh well!
We navigated the long & winding road through the Duty Free and then straight to the Amber Alehouse as run by Salfords very own “Seven Brothers Brewery” for a pint of their Session Pale Ale. Breakfast beer at airports is a tradition.
Downed too quickly due to us being called to gate B9, we all trooped off to the gate via the prerequisite pre-flight toilet stops.
Our boarding cards were scanned and we moved through to get on the bus to the aircraft. But wait! Where was the military bag size & weight check?! I could have had 10.5kg of luggage rather than the max 10kg, where they could then extract £100 from me to put it in the hold! 8.2kg was my actual bag weight for those interested.
Down to Row 25, bags in the overhead lockers and seated and belted up for a pushback that was only 5 minutes later than scheduled.
A very uneventful and uncomfortable flight down through France and crossing into Spain over Santander at 37,000ft and then heading to Sevilla for final descent and landing at Malaga with a bump, but without the cheering and clapping that seems to accompany such controlled crashes.
Jane and I joined the slowest queue through immigration control as is required but eventually got our stamp of approval and headed straight to the Salida to meet our Taximan, Danny.
Danny played a blinder, taking a decent racing line and some impressive over- and undertaking to get us to the beautiful hillside village of Mijas.
The Bs have stayed in this apartment a few times before, hence us coming here. Nice apartment and a good layout! The balcony is definitely a highlight with a view down the valley to the Fuenguerolan coast.
We dumped bags and then followed Mr Bs lead to a local bar. Beer was had, a gorgeous dog was stroked and then we ordered some food.
It turned out I ordered sausage, egg and chips.
A stroll through the narrow whitewashed streets, down some steps and a break was required so we stopped at another bar. Beers were had, meals were booked at local restaurants, and we moved on again. Moved on about 200 metres to a Square where we sat again.
Beers were had, cocktails and sangria were had, and we couldn’t be arsed moving, so stayed there until mid evening and then had more food! I opted for the traditional Spanish Spaghetti Carbonara.
Decisions were made and we headed back home via the supermarket. And up the hill, which will be a theme to the next few days.
We unpacked the shopping and then retired to the balcony to watch the “Bomber’s Moon” rise over the hillside and illuminate the deadcalm sea. With some beer. And some wine. And some Haribos. After which we retired for the night.
The aircon was a touch too low overnight and will be altered next time, but otherwise a nice kip and a lie in as I write this nonsense.
The plan for today is to have no plan. Probably pool, sunbathe, beer and food given that the weather is fab.
I suspect if I write again, it’ll be breakfast musings, as an fyi.