Prowling my world, camera in hand

14 June 2009

Week 23: end of enforced vacation

Filed under: — Administrator @ 19:09

This week marked the end of my enforced vacation following my surgery. I went back to work on Tuesday. But there are still restrictions on what I can and cannot do, so most of the images are from places that I can reach on foot or that are on the way to and from work (since I am still not allowed to drive, they also have to be along the route taken by public transport). I present the images chronologically.

Main
On Saturday, while walking the dog, I saw this nice scene in a nearby park. Some teenage boys were playing drums, and the small children from the playground visible in the background immediately congregated around them:
L1005098


The alternates
:

Alternate 1
The boys did not consider the little kids a nuisance, as one could expect. On the contrary, they even let them have a go at the drumming:
L1005101

Alternate 2
Sunday I went for a long walk along the beach promenade, about 5 km or so. It got really hot, so I sat down to have a bottle of water before taking the tram back. While waiting, I was attracted to the shape and colours of the umbrella at my table:
L1005131

Alternate 3
Young people in Spain (at least some of them) have adopted the binge drinking habit from Northern European visitors during the past couple of decades. It is known here as a botellón, meaning that you buy some cheap booze, find a good spot and get smashed. This abandoned bar is evidently used for this purpose:
L1005139

Alternate 4
Sunday afternoon one of my co-workers, a Lithuanian girl called Egle, invited us for a barbecue. Egle has two delightful daughters, who at this point speak Lithuanian, English and Spanish:
L1005150

Alternate 5
Monday was the last day of my sick leave. I decided that I had had enough of sitting at home and that being at the office was not particularly physically challenging. So I used this last day as a continuation of the weekend, starting with a long morning walk. Here is some contre-jour with a mailbox and pretty flowers:
L1005151

Alternate 6
Morning delivery to a local butcher shop:
L1005152

Alternate 7
Then the big day arrived. Tuesday I went back to the office after a two-week absence, the longest period of sick leave I have ever experienced. It was good to be back, and in the afternoon I stopped at the Puerta del Mar, where I had to change from a bus to a tram anyway, to enjoy a pint of Guinness at O’Hara and watch the human traffic on the Esplanada de España:
L1005178

Alternate 8
Clearly, I was not the only one looking at the passing señoritas:
L1005175

Alternate 9
A father and his daughter briefly swap roles:
L1005174

Alternate 10
One man, three doggies:
L1005179

Alternate 11
Platform shoes:
L1005181

The last four images are from my immediate neighbourhood.

Alternate 12
Morning coffee:
L1005191

Alternate 13
Little men:
L1005196

Alternate 14
Canine social life:
L1005213

Alternate 15
The preceding picture and this one were taken Friday afternoon (in Spain, “afternoon” means until 8-9 p.m.) while enjoying life with my wife at our favourite watering hole, El Sitio. Here are some cool guys with a cute dog:
L1005215

During my beach walks, I of course also took a lot of pictures of the beach itself. You can see some of them here.

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