November 2, Thursday.

Karen Raimbault, former trainee and now good friend and working partner, came for a visit, after visiting a friend of hers in Alicante. First, we hung out  with a bunch of the people with whom she had trained before, such as Sheela, Katja, Sally, Mick, Lise, Fredrik and Sue. Then after lunch Karen and I stopped at the gelato shop, where we had the ice cream man take a picture of us outside his shop with his sign behind us, so we could send it to Richard, our former ice cream buddy, and rub it in. Then we walked up to lighthouse and sat up on the high cliffs overlooking the sea, where we shouldn’t have gone, but hey… We had a great walk and talk, catching up after a long time. When we came down, Karen wanted to collect some of the round, smooth rocks from the beach. We grabbed a tea and talked about the project we are doing together. Karen then had to leave but that night after dinner, Fredrik told me he was going to play some fiddle tunes up in Katja’s room. So I went up there–Lili, Ylva and Gabriela joined us, and we had a great time. First, I played a video of my son Dave’s band, Locos Por Juana, and everyone really loved it. Then Lili played a video of her son’s band, and I really loved that. Then Katja and Fredrik put on a swing dancing exhibition; I couldn’t believe how graceful they were. Then Gabriela danced to mariachi music. Fredrik played the violin, improvising to all of it. Then he turned the violin into a fiddle and played his favorite, Irish music, and more. That boy is talented! I loved it all. Great day!