A nice week back in Alicante, with some pleasant office-related events: a new art exhibition, a meeting of our book club, some nice cheese and bread for sale during our weekly “market” at the office. Of course there were the daily walks with Mochi. And my late mother’s magic cactus exploded in an orgy of flowers during the week that marked the 25th anniversary of her death.
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A random photo from one of my bike rides. Near the village of Verdegás, someone has apparently taken up residence in an empty lot. The lot is fenced, so we are not talking squatting here. The flag on the fence and the presence of a grill suggests that the inhabitant of the camper is Argentine:
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My morning beach walks continue to provide me with nice images, like this classic sunrise image:
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Or images like this and the next one, looking at the objects illuminated by the rising sun:
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Our daughter went to Madrid for the weekend, so my wife and I were babysitting. On Sunday, we took Mochi for a walk on the Vía Verde del Maigmó, a 22 km gravel path that replaced an abandoned narrow-gauge railroad:
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It was a new experience for him to walk through the dark tunnels:
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I think Mochi enjoyed the new smells more than the views, but we did enjoy the latter:
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In the evening, Mochi and I went for our usual weekend treat at The Place:
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Tuesday was an artsy day, in several ways. A new exhibition by local artist Manuel Aguilar opened in our exhibition space. The exhibition consists of paintings of various celebrities, not exactly my cup of tea, but it is nice that we continue to attract local artists to exhibit in the office:
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Marilyn:
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Demi and Bruce:
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Sharon and Sylvester:
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Julia and Clint:
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Tina:
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After looking at the paintings, I went to check out our “Tuesday market”. This is a new initiative by our office, to invite local businesses to sell their products to us every Tuesday. I was especially interested in this goat cheese producer from Muchamiel, a suburb of Alicante. I bought a couple of cheeses from him, and they are delicious. Artesanal cheese, made from raw milk:
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With good cheese you need good bread, and that was available too:
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The prices were high (compared to regular bakeries around here) but the bread is truly delicious:
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That evening, we had the monthly meeting of our book club:
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The traditional photo of the book of the month, Siddartha by Herman Hesse. This time we had versions in English, Spanish, Italian and Greek. Funny enough, nobody brought the original German version:
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Harrie is Dutch but he brought an English version. It was shorter than mine, and Harrie demonstrates why–it was printed using a really small font:
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A rare photo that includes me, with Eri:
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The next day, Eri came to see me about some work issues. Afterwards, she posed for me in my private meeting room, called the Eureka Chamber following a vote of the staff of my department. Being Greek, Eri appreciates the name:
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Some more photos from my morning walks with Mochi towards the end of the week. A “beware of the dog” sign in my neighbourhood, for some reason in French rather than Spanish:
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A construction site near our house. When I see something like this, I think of the line from “Jurassic Park”–“nature will find a way”:
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Another nice sunrise on our beach:
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Mochi with one of his favourite people, the bakery owner who gives him bread every morning:
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My mother died on 21 April 2001. So this week was the 25th anniversary of her death. To mark the occasion, her Magic Cactus went nuts this week. On Friday morning it was clear that something special was on the way:
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On Saturday at lunchtime, the flowers were ready to open:
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On Sunday morning, the 16 flowers were open in all their glory:
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Later on Sunday, we went for lunch at the house of our friends Eliot and Assumpta. The men were outside, discussing manly things:
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As usual, Eliot was roasting what seemed like half a cow on the grill:
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After devouring the meat, we enjoyed the dessert:
