{"id":2018,"date":"2017-11-04T07:46:58","date_gmt":"2017-11-04T06:46:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=2018"},"modified":"2017-11-04T07:46:58","modified_gmt":"2017-11-04T06:46:58","slug":"week-43-friday-at-the-office-moros-y-cristianios-in-jijona","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=2018","title":{"rendered":"Week 43: Friday at the office, Moros y Cristianios in Jijona"},"content":{"rendered":"

As it was the last week of October, it was also the last Friday of the month with the customary drink at the office. And because of the change to winter time, I now see the sunrise on the days when I have to take Monica to university at 8 a.m. And I also happened upon another town fiesta. It was not all joy and fun though–our dog Cheeta became seriously ill during this week.<\/p>\n

43_1<\/strong>
\nMonday morning I saw sunrise from the office terrace:
\n\"DSF4427\"<\/p>\n

43_2<\/strong>
\nAs always, it is interesting to look at what the rising (or setting) sun illuminates. The port of Alicante:
\n\"DSF4435\"<\/p>\n

43_3<\/strong>
\nThe city and the surrounding mountains:
\n\"DSF4436\"<\/p>\n

43_4<\/strong>
\nThen Friday arrived, and the noontime drink:
\n\"DSF4442\"<\/p>\n

43_5<\/strong>
\nCharo needs a refill:
\n\"DSF4448\"<\/p>\n

43_6<\/strong>
\nOur Polish secretary Kasia:
\n\"DSF4443\"<\/p>\n

43_7<\/strong>
\nOur other secretary, Fouzya, is originally from Belgium:
\n\"DSF4446\"<\/p>\n

43_8<\/strong>
\nFrancisco and Stephanie:
\n\"DSF4447\"<\/p>\n

43_9<\/strong>
\nI had brought a particularly nasty Danish akvavit, which I had previously advertised as something that would separate the men from the boys. The challenge was accepted by the men:
\n\"DSF4440\"<\/p>\n

43_10<\/strong>
\nA serious conversation on the margins of the festivities:
\n\"DSF4445\"<\/p>\n

43_11<\/strong>
\nThen on to the serious stuff. Cheeta had been showing signs of illness for several days, refusing food, not moving much and overall listlessness. So on Saturday morning we took her to the vet for a blood test:
\n\"R002800\"<\/p>\n

43_12<\/strong>
\nWe got the results after a few hours, and they were not good–just as happened with Taco the cat last year, Cheeta’s kidneys were failing. A scan that the vet also did showed some kind of growth on Cheeta’s liver as well, but it was the kidneys that were the main problem. We resigned ourselves that it was probably a question of days, but in the meantime we were determined to make Cheeta’s life as pleasurable as possible. So in the afternoon, my wife made Cheeta’s favourite food, rice with black beans and fried chicken. For once, Cheeta actually ate her food, giving us a flicker of hope:
\n\"R002809\"<\/p>\n

43_13<\/strong>
\nOn Sunday morning I cycled to Jijona, one of my standard routes. But this time the town looked different–the main street was closed, and a procession was visible in the distance. The town was celebrating its Moros y Cristianos festival:
\n\"R002812\"<\/p>\n

43_14<\/strong>
\nI sat on a bench with my Coke and waited for the procession to get closer:
\n\"R002815\"<\/p>\n

43_15<\/strong>
\n…and closer:
\n\"R002816\"<\/p>\n

43_16<\/strong>
\nThe man with the Moorish sword:
\n\"R002818\"<\/p>\n

43_17<\/strong>
\nThen the band followed:
\n\"R002819\"<\/p>\n

43_18<\/strong>
\n\"R002821\"<\/p>\n

43_19<\/strong>
\n\"R002822\"<\/p>\n

43_20<\/strong>
\n\"R002824\"<\/p>\n

43_21<\/strong>
\nAnd then it is time to sit down and lubricate the throat:
\n\"R002827\"<\/p>\n

43_22<\/strong>
\n\"R002830\"<\/p>\n

43_23<\/strong>
\nIn the afternoon, we had lunch with our friends. Cani served us some top quality Iberian ham:
\n\"DSF4453\"<\/p>\n

43_24<\/strong>
\n\"DSF4456\"<\/p>\n

43_25<\/strong>
\nWe joked a bit about this scene, with Elio looking as if he were communicating with the dead pig:
\n\"DSF4457\"<\/p>\n

43_26<\/strong>
\nFinally, a small bit of commentary on the current crisis in Catalonia. In the rest of Spain, including Alicante, there is a very strong anti-independence feeling. Not anti-Catalan, but anti-separatist. People show it by displaying Spanish flags; I have not seen so many since Spain won the World Cup in 2010:
\n\"DSF4462\"<\/p>\n

43_27<\/strong>
\nThe flags are everywhere, on private homes, on car antennas, and here, a popular bar near the beach:
\n\"DSF4460\"<\/p>\n

And so ended another week on the Mediterranean coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As it was the last week of October, it was also the last Friday of the month with the customary drink at the office. And because of the change to winter time, I now see the sunrise on the days when I have to take Monica to university at 8 a.m. And I also happened […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1779,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2018"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2018"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2020,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2018\/revisions\/2020"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}