Cycling or alcohol

  relapse / rɪˈlaps / verb (of a sick or injured person) deteriorate after a period of improvement. Day 77 proved my undoing. I saw it coming but seemed powerless to stop it. Once it started I probably didn't want to stop it to be honest.  Marbella looked amazing when we arrived yesterday. After many winter trips over the last few months, the place seemed to have that feeling back again of long, warm, summer days, which makes it so contrasting to the UK. I felt great and texted Arwin to see if he was around and up for a catch up over lunch. He arrived and the conversation started flowing. The sun was warm, the tapas were ordered and my first alcoholic beer for 11 weeks was sunk - just like that, without hesitation and without too much thought frankly. I was warned by those around me but I decided not to listen.  After lunch we hopped in Arwin's car and he drove us back to our village a short drive up the coast from the centre of Marbella. Luckily we travel so light these ...

If a worker bee hatches in the summer in southern Spain he can expect only a few weeks buzzing around the Andalucian countryside. The poor thing literally works himself to death in the heat in around 5 weeks. If he is 'lucky' enough to hatch in the spring though, he can double his workload and can expect his life expectancy from egg to 'death by exhaustion' to be around 10 weeks.  During a recent bike tour a few weeks ago I stopped in the town of Colmenar, north of Malaga, a beautiful little pueblo high in the mountains. I booked a hotel there, ended the day early and walked around the town for a good nosey. Colmenar translates to 'beehive' and I soon found out why. It is famous in Spain for producing honey -  probably the most sensational wildflower honey I have ever tried I thought - very quickly thereafter it became the most sensational wildflower honey I have ever bought.  A worker bee that hatched 70 days ago up there is probably now ending his existence on...