Prowling my world, camera in hand

19 June 2021

Week 23: Vía Verde, first Rolleiflex photos, Covid vaccine

Filed under: — Administrator @ 21:30

The main event during this week was clearly my Covid vaccination, but from a photography point of view, a bicycle ride on the Vía Verde and the first roll of film in my newly acquired Rolleiflex are both more important.

23_1
The week started with our friend Eliot’s birthday party. The curfew now starts only at 1 a.m., so one can have more of a proper celebration. Here is the birthday boy doing what he usually does, serving copious amounts of grilled meat:
DSF0103

23_2
The toast:
DSF0128

23_3
(From left to right) Balu, Monica, Alejandra:
DSF0118

23_4
The next morning, nursing a slight hangover, I took the mountainbike and ventured out to ride the Vía Verde del Maigmó. It had been raining all night, and the 5 km field path to get to the start of the Vía Verde was more technical (read: muddy) than usual:
1010328

23_5
Finally I approached the starting point of the Vía Verde, the old train station of Agost, located amid vineyards:
1010330

23_6
1010336

23_7
Some nice light at the start of the trail:
1010335

23_8
I saw this couple several times during my ride. Their speed was somewhat slower than mine, so when I stopped to take pictures, they would pass me, but then I would catch up with them later:
1010334

23_9
At the first rest stop, about 27 km into the ride, I admired my muddy bike. Generally, I do not clean my bikes (or cars, for that matter), but in this case I did hose it down when I came home a few hours later:
1010337

23_10
At about 5 km there is this small viaduct; this was a narrow-gauge railroad once:
1010338

23_11
Later on, a dry river bed with lots of vegetation:
1010342

23_12
At km. 17, a family of four passed by:
1010348

23_13
This is the couple in picture no. 8, emerging from a tunnel:
1010349

23_14
In the late afternoon, I went to the beach. My way to enjoy the beach is to get a table at the bar on the promenade and watch the human traffic while enjoying a cold beer:
1010351

23_15
1010352

23_16
An African vendor selling clothes and things on the beach. These are the people risking their lives crossing the Mediterranean in rickety boats. They have had a tough year during the pandemic, like everyone else who lives off the beach and the associated tourism:
1010357

23_17
Many years ago, I had a Rolleiflex and I stupidly sold it. During the past couple of months I have been yearning to have one again. I love the square format, and I love the quality that can be obtained with these old cameras. A few weeks ago I came across a Rolleiflex T, roughly my age, in a Facebook group, and bought it. This week I got the first two rolls back from the lab, and I was very happy with the results. This is Plaza Seneca in central Alicante on a rainy day:
Rollei_XP2_2021_1_4

23_18
In the office, I enlisted my favourite model, lovely Eri, for some more camera tests:
Rollei_XP2_2021_1_12

23_19
But the main event of the week was that I was called for the first shot of the Covid vaccine. I was wondering why it was taking so long, since my wife (same age as me) was vaccinated in early May, and several colleagues at the office who are younger than me had already been called. But since I had the disease in January and therefore have some degree of immunity, I was not too worried. Still, I was happy when I got the call, and I showed up early at the facility where I was going to get my jab, a senior citizen centre about 3 km from my house which was being used as a vaccination facility:
R006619

23_20
Queuing in an orderly fashion, a somewhat unusual occurrence in this country:
R006621

23_21
At exactly 9:06 I was given my Astra-Zeneca vaccine. After the jab, we were asked to sit in the garden for 15 minutes to make sure there were no adverse reactions, with a nurse watching us:
R006623

The remaining four images are in the “miscellaneous” category.

23_22
The pretty blue flowers are everywhere, including on my windshield:
R006625

23_23
A curious sign at our local Carrefour supermarket. By law, the origin of all produce must be clearly marked. In the fruit and veg section, I am used to seeing the country of origin identified. Sometimes, the Spanish region is shown (for example, Murcia). But in this case, the supermarket apparently felt the need to emphasize that Catalonia is part of Spain. Not sure if this is a political statement:
R006633

23_24
Sometimes one does not need to leave the house to see beauty. This is morning light in my hallway:
R006628

23_25
To finish the blog with something tasty, here is a dinner I cooked during the week, grilled shrimp, beans and tofu in gochujang sauce:
R006632

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress