Sunday mornings are my favourite time of the week. Sitting with coffee and toast, I am grateful for the opportunity to sit on this terrace, under blue skies. It is the one day of the week that Don Beto will not arrive to drown the plants, Pachita will not be pounding the pillows and Tonio will not be lurking behind a bush. Construction and destruction come to a halt on Sundays so the sounds of hammering, tinking, scraping, crashing are silent today. A pelican floats by with its wings tucked up onto its back. Two small fishboats set out slowly to find the day's catch.

My New Year's resolution was to speak Spanish every day with Pachita(our maid) and Don Beto(the gardener). Every night I planned to prepare a sentence for the next day. With great enthusiasm, I greeted Pachita with my first prepared sentence. She looked at me, slightly puzzled, and answered with a question! Of course, I had no idea what she was asking!! Undaunted, I have persisted. The problem is that their speed of speech far exceeds my ability to comprehend! I still have 72 days to become fluent!