Once bitte[r]n twice shy

Apologies for the terrible pun in the title of the blog, but we couldn't resist!

We spent a sunny afternoon on a walk along the beach at L’Estartit, to the local nature reserve and settled down in the hide over looking the lagoon and reed beds, content to let the Mallards, Egrets and Black-Backed Gulls entertain us. However, it seemed we were in for a more exciting afternoon; firstly we spotted two groups of terrapins enjoying the warmth of the sun; then we marvelled at the proximity of the Marsh Harrier who provided a couple of displays over the lagoon; finally out of the reeds popped a Bittern, it stood in the sunshine and thoroughly preened its thick neck for long enough to stop us fighting over who would look through the binoculars, before disappearing into the thick reeds again.

Lunchtime in Girona and we found the city centre street where the Lonely Planet guide recommended a veggie restaurant; as we often find with such specialist places, it was no more. Anthony wandered around the corner and returned grinning from ear to ear, he'd found an Indian restaurant; we were able to have onion bhajis for the first time in six months.

We think we may have found the answer to improving the populations health; take a gap year. We now have the time and the weather to be out cycling or walking almost every day; there are always new places to see and we easily exceed the minimum recommended amount of exercise each week. We are also eating plenty of local fruit and vegetables, we are certainly relaxed and feeling well; we haven't had a cold between us since we left the UK. We've both lost some weight, which means that Anthony is verging on fading away, although no danger of that happening to Carol.