Prowling my world, camera in hand

28 September 2016

Week 39: rice in Benidorm, wine, footie in El Campello

Filed under: — Administrator @ 06:26

More than half of this week’s blog is from Sunday afternoon, when we visited our friends Roberto and Mariluz in Benidorm. Roberto is a master rice (paella) cook, and we spent a pleasant afternoon watching him cook and then eating. There was also a wine tasting at the office and the usual walking and cycling pictures.

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The process of making the rice begins with browning of the meat (chicken and rabbit):
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Vegetables are added:
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Roberto and Mariluz have a couple of cats. This one was a keen observer. I caught her showing me her tongue:
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Getting a scrap or two:
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Being her majestic self:
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Meanwhile, the rest of us were munching and talking:
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Roberto adds the rice to the meat and veggies:
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A critical milestone in the preparation of a rice; the caldo (broth) is added:
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Roberto and Mariluz taste the broth and confer:
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It’s ready!
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It tastes as good as it looks:
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Mariluz doles out the goodies:
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Mariluz and Roberto live in a hilly area outside Benidorm. After the rice, we went for a walk:
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Looking one way, the sea:
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Looking the other way, the hills:
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To get back to the paved road we had to scramble up a grassy and rather steep hillside. Elio struggled a bit in his flip-flops but he made it:
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Nereyda arrives at the top:
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Mariluz arrives too:
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Afterwards, it was time to go home. Monday morning loomed, and besides, I wanted to watch the Buffalo Bills game at 7 p.m., on the NFL network.

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When I walk around downtown Alicante, I always look up. I really like the various shop and bar signs, some old-school, some fanciful:
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A bar:
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A cheap hotel:
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Back to my neighbourhood and my golf course cats. This one is getting braver, and now waits for me on my side of the fence:
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On Thursday evening, we had the monthly wine tasting at the office. This was the overall setting, this time on our outside terrace:
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The presenter was from a company called Nuevos Vinos, which has its own bodegas but also markets the products of other wine makers. He was very knowledgeable:
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Serving the next round. The format is always the same; a wine is served, the presenter talks about it, and then we taste it. This time it was two whites and three reds:
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This was my favourite of the reds, but I will not be buying any because at €18 it is too expensive for what it is:
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Wine glasses and bokeh:
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As usual, I cycled every day after work, which meant that I saw some pretty sunsets:
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On Saturday I cycled to Jijona via Busot. On the way, I stopped to pee, eat a banana, and take a picture. Or rather, I took 8 pictures of this curve in the road (which I had just climbed) and stitched them together in Lightroom to create a 180-degree panoramic image:
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This is usually how I find Cheeta when I return from my bike rides. As a guard dog, she is pretty much retired:
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Saturday evening I went to El Campello to watch the Arsenal-Chelsea match in an English bar.

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Smoking indoors is banned in Spain, so a smoke break means going outside:
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During half time, I took a brief walk along the beach. There were a few people out and about. The air was clear, so Benidorm was visible in the distance:
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Surfers:
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Walkers:
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Friends:
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