August 2023
Easter Islands; never been nor likely, to! I always remember watching Alan Wicker, decades ago, doing a series following a super luxury cruise ship on a round the world trip. There were people who said " and we've got Stonehenge" and others who opted out of this part of the trip in favour of staying in Sydney. No accounting . . ., eh?
"The month of August had turned into a griddle where the days just lay there and sizzle." (Sue Monk Kidd) How right she was! Temperatures reached well over 40° during the day and nights registered at least 25°. Nothing else to do but close the shutters, keep cool and party in the evening.
I'm writing this in the middle of November; it's still unseasonably warm. 23° yesterday. I'm still struggling with trying to find a way to keep Chitchat up to date and keepit interesting. This catch up will give you a snapshot with little detail (do I hear a sigh of relief?) so sorry if it's all a bit two dimensional.
My only escapes from the village were to La Jonquera to top up on cheaper alcohol,
to
Figueres for the market with Michel who's here outside Dali's
birthplace which is due to open soon to visitors. Yes, that is a snail
on Dali's
head.
Obviously we've been much taken with the water restrictions so I'm still saving washing up, shower and vegetable water and thankfully I only lost a couple. The jasmine is looking scorched but I'm hopeful that it will come back when I give it a good prune. Not sure that the thousands of tourists are aware or even care about the situation.
Of course, cacti around the village have thrived!
And amazingly there are other spots of colour, too.
The area has also been on high alert of fire risk with outside fire fighters stationed at key points just in case. There was only one major fire which involved 600 fire fighters dealing with a fire around St André raged over 1,500 acres. In solidarity, their German twin town came with a donation of 18,800 Euros to go toward replanting and individual grants for those affected.
How
quickly time flies, it's already over a year since Maggie died, so at
Trevor's request, Jo and Chris organised a commemorative meal at their
place. Went a bit
earlier to lend a hand and stayed on at
the end, too to help clear up. About 25 of us including the local who
I
found had a Scottish mother and was a fan of the gorgeous Jamie Fraser aka
Outlander. Now, that was a surprise! Pimms was on offer and with it came
another surprise .. it can be bought in La Jonquera and was soon to
become my new "go - to" apéro.
Needless to say, food
and drink figured high on the list of this month's activites. Chez des amis, notably
at Jacques', Jean and Françoise's, at Michel and Michelle's down in
Empuriabrava where of the 8 of us around the table, 50% were called
Michel(le)! But most of all, I was at Michel's in the village. too many
times to enumerate. Mojito's often kicked off the meal and conversation
flowed.
Now armed with all the ingredients, on occasion, I made Pimm's which, while a pleasant summer drink, was pretty tame in comparison even though I swapped the lemonade for cava.
I, too did some hosting, primarily by way of apéritif dinatoires or a more simple apéritif as a precursor for Michel and his guests before going on to his for dinner.
Not quite so many restaurants. This one in the village with Nancy and JJ, a couple of times at Michel's favourite in Figueres, in Llers and tapas at the bar.
As usual there were a number of village wide organised meals but I gave those a miss apart from the 30th Anniversary meal to celebrate our twinning with Bretteville in Normandy. Far too much to eat and drink but the ambience was lively and I was in such a good mood that I stayed on to help clear up!
Coffees and/or apéros with Nancy who was here from the States for 3 weeks, became almost a daily ritual. There was also an influx of second home owners who gravitated to the café on a regular basis. All ruing the day that Brexit was voted in and some of them had even voted for it. No comment!
Music was on offer often twice a week at the bar and at the weekend down at the recreation ground. The best evening was when Michel appeared with Pierre. They livened up the square with their music (Hendrix, Stones etc) and the loud appreciation of their numurous followers who were there to listen, eat tapas and drink wine.
On the domestic front, my new internet provision was installed without problem and glad to say that, while streaming can have its blips, it is better and cheaper than what I had with Orange. It came with a booster and tv, too.
Despite eating out so much, shopping still needed to be done. Just look at the price of British products in a nearby supermarket. Why would anyone spend that much especially as some can be found much, much cheaper over the border.Talking of over the border and consumerism. What about these chairs at the market café?
It was too hot to go walking so I contented myself with some treadmill sessions. Not enough though, to make up for the time spent on the sofa watching catchup tv and generally foutering around.
It wasn't all hedonism though. I translated the restaurant's menu into English and had a weekly English conversation session with Lisa. There was no vernissage this month as the current exhibition continued throughout August but there was the summer meeting of the literature group set up by Jacques and Yaneth; I just listened. And on that note, I'll leave you with some celestial images.
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