Mitica and Rich Bitch

...This week my niece Michelle and her boyfriend Rick arrive for a week's holiday. I pick them up on Tuesday lunchtime from Alicante airport. On Sunday night Dave picks up his house guests who are here for a week too. It is his brother and his wife. So on Thursday we have booked lunch at Mitica, which is a very Spanish restaurant up on the old N332 road. They do a good menu del dia for 9 euros. We hope Rick can eat something because we hear he is a bit selective with food. So there will be 12 of us, Pete, Dave, Brother and sister, me, Ange, Michelle, Rick, Laurence, Tony, Patrick and Neil. So I guess we will be having a few vino collapsos too.

We have a few things lined up for Michelle and Rick, one of which is a visit to 'Rich Bitch'. This is a drag show and featured on BBC's "A place in the sun". Gary and Michael, (Gary played the vicar in the latest series of "Benidorm" ) are two nice guys and have a great business. It is 5 Euros to enter, and they sell you raffle tickets half way through the show for a range of products emblazoned with their pictures and logo. http://www.richbitch-benidorm.com/

Gary is transformed into 'Miss Jordan Rivers', Lulabelle is in drag from the moment you arrive as is Sheila Blige, who is quite scandalous all the way through the evening. You are shown a video for about an hour prior to the show which allows you to get drinks and chat, then there is a sing song followed by an opportunity to be photographed with the three stars, and then the show starts proper. The bar is closed for the duration of the show. If you are offended by bad language please don't go, however, language or not it is a very funny show. There is some audience participation and Sheila Blige picks her victim at random, a little tip, sit at the back!

Part way through Miss Jordan Rivers has a monologue spot where she tells jokes and anecdotes, and the finale is performed to "I am what I am...." as Miss Jordon Rivers transforms back to Gary. It is very professional and well worth a visit.

The other plan is to go to Paneils restaurant. We like it there as does Michelle. So she is going to treat us for having her stay, which is very nice of her too.

I suspect that a lot of her time here will be on the beach sunbathing.

The temperature is in the mid 30's C now and a bit humid. People are in the pool at the apartment block or in the sea desperate to cool off. The Pedalo boats are used to capacity the two lifeguards on permanent alert. Ange and I have seen an offer at Lidl for sun beds at 26 euros so we may invest and join the throng. What is nice is to make a picnic, a couple of bottles of white wine, fill the cooler box and spend an afternoon/evening on the beach retiring to the bar at dusk.

We did that last year when Joanne (Jonathan's sister) was here with her son Joseph. We all went to the beach sunbathed, ate, drank and was extremely merry, we left the beach at 11 pm and went to the Marina bar to be thrown out at about 3 am. The Marina has a licence until 4 am but clearly if there are only a few people they like to shut the bar. One night they were piling up the tables and chairs all around us, and clearly looking at us hoping we got the message. We were drinking wine that night, by the bottle, so when we asked for the bill, Antonio brought a bottle unopened and said "Perhaps you would like to dreenk theese on your balcony"......