Roof terrace evening bubbles in El Molinar

I enter the arrivals hall on a sunny Wednesday in Palma - and my dear friends Jill and Peter are there to greet me. So good to see them again after so long. The last time we were together was in NZ in January 2019, just before Covid and lockdowns caused their global chaos. 

We hug, they remove my luggage from me (with a congratulatory nod to its economic scale!) and we head for their home in nearby El Molinar. 

This is my fourth trip to Mallorca, and my third stay in their home here. Spread across four levels, it's in a quiet local neighbourhood; about 2 minutes walk to the beach and about 45 minutes walk from Palma along the Mediterranean seafront. Perfect.

I unpack in the familiar basement boudoir and we head up and up to the roof terrace. It's a balmy night, with a soft breeze. Twilight is looming and the Cava (Spanish bubbles) is poured. Dusk turns to night as a bright first quarter moon looms in the sky. 

It may be Thursday 1st September in Spain - but in NZ it is the 2nd, my birthday. The bubbles have double significance - reunion and celebration. 

More wine, more chat, more laughs. 

Jill prepares a delicious truffle pasta meal which we scoff in the courtyard over more wine and chat and laughter under the moonlight. With some reluctance - because, in the perfect world, a blend of all these things would go on forever - it is time to sleep.

OBSERVATION OF THE DAY:

I love how it is so easy to reconnect and settle in with true friends in far away places, as though time and distance didn't exist for the duration it did. Jill and I have known each other for 40 years - we've worked together, flatted together, travelled together, partied together; we've been there for each other through good times and bad; we've laughed, cried, debated and chilled together. We've shared so many aspects of life over many years in many places - and here we are doing it all again ... this time in Mallorca.