Cloudy, sun, breeze: not the perfect sun drenched
Sunday that our visitors were hoping for, but still good enough to come out
for. Castelldefels was crowded today.
Not as
crowded as it could be, but certainly fuller than it has been for a while. People are determined to have sunny fun by
the sea.
From
the perspective of my bike rides, I am able to note the increase in traffic and
the numbers of people doing what they do best in our long beach town: walk
along the paseo to see and to be seen.
Rules? Well, most people are
somewhat sketchy about what part of which set of rules is applying at any
particular time, and the fragmentation of Spain into the regions and countries
with their own system of lockdown and their own notation of phases and you have
something purpose made for confusion.
Catalonia has hot-spots of viral infection and those were kept back from
the general loosening of restrictions.
We in Castelldefels are part of the Barcelona region, which is itself
sub-divided into further parts each of which has its own set of rules and its
own level of phasing.
As far
as we know we are now in Phase 2, but tomorrow, Monday, we will be in Phase
3. The cafes and restaurants that have survived
so far are desperate to open as much as they can and start making up for the
disastrous season that they have had so far this year. The loss of the Easter holiday period is
going to be difficult to make up for and the fact that they will not be back to
full occupancy is going to make future survival difficult.
It will
be interesting to go into town tomorrow and see exactly what is open and what
is likely to open. I have a need to get
my mobile phone repaired as it is a complete, but working, shattered mess. The phone is far too expensive to junk, and I
am prepared to pay up to 20% of its cost new to get it back into something like
its original condition. I live, as
always, on hope!
I have been told that I have ‘passed’ my Catalan
course and I am entitled to a certificate to show my ‘ability’. All I have to do is collect it from my ‘school’
when that institution opens its doors again.
Unfortunately, in collecting my certificate, I will have to speak the
language in which I have obtained an alleged proficiency, and that is a
daunting barrier. Which tells you
something about the worth of the piece of paper that I am debating whether to
humiliate myself and get! Choices,
choices!
As we had chicken from the pollo a last yesterday,
we did not have our traditional lunch today.
Instead we had the albondigas that I bought in case somebody didn’t want
the chicken. They are very good, and
they come with a ‘home made’ sauce from the pollo a last place. One portion is not quite sufficient to form a
meal for two, so I augmented the sauce provided and cooked some pasta. Toni was very impressed with the final result
and demanded that I repeat the repast at some future date. As the selection of ingredients for the
augmentation was based more on inspiration than recipe I think that a repeat performance
is going to be the other side of difficult, but I remember most of the
ingredients (at least two of which Toni would demand excluded if he realized
they were there) and it is likely to be edible even if it will have serious
differences from the food that had his accolades. I can’t help feeling that there is a wider
metaphor lurking somewhere in those last sentences, together with life advice!
Next week sees the second ‘lesson’ with my friend
in the pool and I am having fun thinking of topics to extend his
vocabulary. I have been unable to get an
8 am start for Monday or Tuesday, but I will probably meet him at the changeover
tomorrow as one hour ends and the next starts and so I can find out if he is
prepared to wait for me to have my swim and join me for a later breakfast chat,
or other arrangements will have to be made.
Toni is determined to ‘sort out’ the garden and
this needs some thought and preparation.
We should go to a garden centre and get some plants and compost. Now that the pine trees have been cut back,
our front garden actually gets some sunshine and for the first time in many years,
weeds are actually able to push their heads above the pine needle carpet which,
this year is not there! We might think
of a few garden boxes and get some instant colour. If the plant places are open.
This
week will see a more determined approach to getting back to something
approaching what used to be normal. It
remains to be seen if we have the determination to do so.
