A pleasant week of art, books and lunch with my friend Eri.
21_1
Mochi has been a victim of feminist aggression–he was neutered. So he had to wear this “lamp shade” for about 10 days:
21_2
Staying with the canine theme, a small dog at 100 Montaditos:
21_3
When I walk on the beach, I often see other people taking pictures, although mostly with their phones:
21_4
On Sunday I did a long ride of 82 km with a reasonable amount of climbing. Passing through the suburb San Vicente, home of the University of Alicante, I stopped to photograph the political graffiti on the wall near the Department of Education. This one is pretty self-explanatory:
21_5
A protest against AirBnB, a common occurrence in Spain these days:
21_6
After about 50 km, I was passing a pretty stretch of road between Novelda and Agost:
21_7
Alicante province is wine country, but these grapes near Agost are destined for the table:
21_8
A couple of km later, a nice view of Agost, a town I visit almost every weekend. Notice the cemetery at the highest point of the town:
21_9
Later in the week, I went for lunch at Hostal Maruja, always a pleasure:
21_10
On Tuesday evening it was time for the monthly meeting of our book club WeRead. This time we met for dinner at an Indian restaurant located in a development south of the office, in a square we called the “Guiri square” (guiri is the local slang expression for an English visitor or resident). I gave Eri and her friend Maria (also Greek) a ride from the office, and before dinner we had a drink at a pub on the square:
21_11
Then we walked across the square and sat down at the restaurant table. I had Caroline, the founder of the book club, across from me, along with Christine and Eri:
21_12
The book of the month was a somewhat unusual choice, a play by Woody Allen called “God”. Maria actually got hold of stand-alone edition of the play:
21_13
The rest of us obtained the play as part of a collection of essays and plays called “Without Feathers”:
21_14
Eri usually prepares very seriously for those meetings. Here she is speaking from her notes, the rest of us listen:
21_15
21_16
Besides the literary talk, the food was also excellent and inexpensive:
21_17
The following day Eri and I had our monthly lunch date. This time she chose a Greek restaurant called Kyknos, not far from where I live, in a location where I never imagined that there would be such good Greek food. Eri clearly knew the people running the place, and I put myself in her hands as far as the choices of food. The conversation was in Greek, and then Greek beer appeared:
21_18
The appetisers began with stuffed vine leaves:
21_19
What Greek salad really looks like:
21_20
Baked feta with phyllo dough and honey:
21_21
Stuffed aubergines:
21_22
Bougatsa, a traditional dessert from Thessaloniki:
21_23
Baklava to finish things off:
21_24
On Thursday we had an exhibition opening at the office. Our art club WeArt has a small exhibition space at our premises, to which we invite local artists to exhibit their work. This time the exhibition was by local artist Almudena Torró. Kari, the president of our club, says a few words:
21_25
Then Almudena takes the microphone:
21_26
Looking at her works. Almudena Torró is a sculptor who works not in stone or marble but rather fine metal mesh:
21_27
21_28
21_29
21_30
We also had a brief performance by a local composer:
21_31
And then some snacks and conversation, here Eri and Véronique, both of whom work in the department where I worked until I took over at my current department in July 2024:
21_32
I finish with an image from Saturday’s bike ride, in Santa Faz. These flowers are everywhere in Alicante right now:
