Taking the sun

I’ve had my most British, nay, English morning since I arrived in Spain.

Getting up with little expectation of fine weather, I was galvanised into action when I saw fragments of sunshine among the leaves of a tree lining the street.

I therefore hastily assembled a tray and soon I was on the Third Floor eating toasted scones with Robinson’s strawberry jam and that revolting (but delicious) cream that comes in a pressurized can.  Even as I ate I could sense my mind wondering how I would pronounce those Irene cooked deliciousnesses.  I usually pronounce scones as “sk-ò-nz” but I think that my natural pronunciation at the parental knee would have been more like “sk-ough-nz”.  Good thing that I was alone and the Mitford crisis passed in silent contemplation!

These delights were washed down with my own particular blend of China tea.

For the first time since University, I think, I recently had a cup of Lapsang Souchon tea.  Toni described it as smelling like a box containing a pair of newly bought shoes and it does have a taste which makes one think irresistibly of varnish.  A tea to add a tang to another blend, rather than one to drink by itself.  Even with milk as I drank it.

My blend this morning had a base of Earl Grey with a generous sprinkling of Oolong and just a pinch of Lapsang Souchon - delicious.  I also had it in my individual tea maker which is a machine of quite unnecessary complication with a red button tea release system from an internal reservoir which gives me pleasure each time I use it!

Breakfast over it was necessary to evaluate the sky.  It was not raining which was a good thing.  It was not exactly sunny which was a bad thing.  But I am, after all, British – and we are prepared to suffer in the cause of personal enjoyment.  It was, at best, hazy – but tucked away on the terrace and away from the wind it was warmish.

So I lay out on the sunbed and thought of those rough days in Gran Canaria when I had stretched myself out on the sands in inclement weather because I had paid far too much to be there to ignore any opportunity when it wasn’t actually snowing to get a tan.  I remember one Christmas actually lying in the rain willing the sun to come out again.  Which it did.  But I did get very wet!

It was not unpleasant lying there on the Third Floor except when vindictive clouds filtered the rays quite unnecessarily causing me to squint an accusatory glare towards our nearest star.

Lunch was in St Boi where we had gone to buy a Barça shirt for Marc’s Name Day present.  We went to a very large restaurant which appears to be in part of an industrial unit and only has one window onto daylight.  The main dining area is box-like and the lack of daylight is compensated for by the number of truly hideous paintings they have on the walls.  The food however is better than the art.

The red wine we had was a trifle rough but the Casera made it drinkable.  We were brought small sausage roll like pastries filled with a smear of paste or a taste of cheese as an appetizer.  My first course was scrambled egg with potato which was hearty rather than subtle and had overmuch salt for me.  My second course was chunks of tender pork cooked in a very mild mustard sauce with some undercooked rice; this looked like a curry but was of a inoffensiveness to pander to the Spanish taste for the non-spicy.  I chose to have iced coffee rather than the dessert.  €9.70.  A bargain.  Unspectacular, but a bargain.

Before the rain started hammering down in the evening I did manage to get a very little time on the sunbed though that was through gritted pores as it were rather than unalloyed sunshine!

I trust that our climate is getting the rain out it its system so that tomorrow can be a day to give me the necessary vitamin D boost that I need to get through the looming week.

And this week, a working week of five days rather than the three we had last week.  Though the collective exhaustion of the staff on Friday bore no relationship to the amount of time that we had spent in school!

I am going to count the number of days to the end of term.  A bad idea but one I need to do on a need to do basis!

And Barça have won the worst game that I have seen them play for a long time!