Prowling my world, camera in hand

7 October 2016

Week 40: cycling, Hostal Maruja, plenary

Filed under: — Administrator @ 12:12

This was an intense week at work, as we were hosting an important meeting of public and private stakeholders, the Observatory Plenary, for which we had been preparing a lot and which consumed two days of the week. Of course there are also some pictures from my cycling escapades and walks with Cheeta.

40_1
On Sunday, I cycled south to Elche and Santa Pola. At one point I was passed by a group of people on classic motorcycles, who then pulled into a petrol station. I quickly followed them to get a few snaps:
R000271

40_2
This man posed for me with a beautiful 250cc Ducati from the 1960s:
R000272

40_3
A red beauty, probably also from the 1960s although I could not identify the brand:
R000269

40_4
And then they were off:
R000273

40_5
I continued my ride and stopped for a break on the beach in Santa Pola. It was nice and warm, but the place was much less crowded than it is in the summer:
R000278

40_6
Relaxing on a bench and looking at the island of Tabarca:
R000279

40_7
On the way home, passing through the centre of Alicante, I happened upon the Ciclovía. It is an annual event where a major thoroughfare is closed to accommodate a mass bicycle ride of a few km. It is aimed at families and casual cyclists, not hard core types like me. The idea is to get people out on two wheels who would not otherwise do it:
R000281

40_8
R000285

40_9
A bicycle cop:
R000280

40_10
During the week, one of the “children” of my late mother’s miracle cactus bloomed for the first time:
DSF2558

40_11
24 hours later:
R000287

40_12
Another 12 hours later, the following morning:
R000288

40_13
About a day and a half later, the flower is gone:
R000309

40_14
We had the first rain of the autumn this week. I tried to capture it from two different viewpoints:
R000293

40_15
DSF2586

40_16
But weather returned to normal, and my wife and I went for lunch at Hostal Maruja, enjoying the view of the beach from our table on the terrace:
DSF2561

40_17
Readers:
DSF2563

40_18
My wife on her way to get her feet wet:
DSF2564

40_19
A sequence of three images. A woman with her glass of wine, and her partner fetching one for himself, and then joining her:
DSF2565

40_20
DSF2568

40_21
DSF2569

40_22
Meanwhile, an African vendor tries to close a sale on the terrace:
DSF2566

40_23
On the way home, we stopped for some shopping, and among our purchases was a package of ice cream, bought for Cheeta:
DSF2576

40_24
Cheeta loves ice cream. We call this expression “orgasmic eyes”:
DSF2580

The next several pictures are from the plenary meeting we hosted at our office.

40_25
My Italian colleague Valerio:
R000299

40_26
Our boss has a word with Valerio:
R000296

40_27
Lunchtime conversation:
R000303

40_28
Claire takes a snap:
R000315

40_29
Luis, the head of our communications, getting ready for an interview on the margins of the meeting:
R000320

40_30
Claire with her victim:
R000317

40_31
Looking at some papers, seriously:
R000318

40_32
Looking at me, less seriously:
R000319

40_33
The people attending the plenary come mostly from northern Europe where autumn is already in full swing. So they enjoyed the Alicante sunshine, although a windy afternoon like this makes it a challenge to have a smoke on the terrace:
R000305

40_34
A festive part of the event, dinner at restaurant La Cantera on the beach near the centre:
R000312

40_35
One of the other evenings, I went out for dinner with a couple of colleagues and a visiting economist from the OECD. We chose a place on Plaza de Correos, a lovely square with some spectular trees, made even more so by the changing colours of the illumination:
DSF2587

40_36
DSF2588

40_37
Chris and Francisco share a laugh:
DSF2589

40_38
Saturday morning at the golf course. The weather is nice, so there is a queue of golfers waiting to tee off:
1010952

40_39
After my golf lesson, I cycled a new route, 45 km to a town in the inland mountains called Castalla. A few km before arriving at the town, I stopped to have a look at the roadside vineyard:
1010953

40_40
Harvest is just around the corner:
1010955

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Leave a comment

Powered by WordPress