Spanish Practices - Real Life in Spain
Society & Culture:Documentary
Day forty eight, On yer bike! Life behind the police lines in Lockdown Spain for a British couple and their three good legs cat.
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Day 48 On yer bike!
It is day 48 of our Spanish Lockdown, slowly we are unpicking that lock, last week, the children could go out for a bit of exercise, today we can join them.
I went for a walk, I planned to take a gentle ramble into the countryside, maybe accompanied by my trust tape recorder, giving you a walk with nature, maybe accompanied by three good legs cat, who I take, or rather he takes me on his lead. He is a bit of a cat dog, in respect that he will tolerate a lead and loves to sniff and explore every nook and cranny along the way.
Instead we headed for Petri and Justin’s big house on the corner. Petri called from the UK.. “Justin is worried about the tall palm, can you take a look.”
So we both took a walk to the house, took some pictures of the palm, it is growing the fruit tendrils, which Justin would like cut off. When palms fruit they grow masses of these weird flowery things that one, make a mess and two are loved by rats.
It was nice to leave the house and to think that the Police are not going to stop us for going for a walk. Although back in bad luck La Herradura an English couple rocked up to the beach complete with deckchairs and picnic lunch. The sojourn lasted exactly ten minutes before the police arrived and explained to them that sitting in a deckchair swigging beer might be considered an English exercise – but not here in Spain.
Day 48 I am a bit filthy. I got up this morning helped clean the pool, then threaded to mains cable through a wall to power our WiFi extender. Now I have a very expensive and brand new MacBook. After my other machine burnt out. I have to say, I prefer the older machine, it was better at picking the wifi up, it had considerably more sockets to attach stuff, including normal USB, not what Apple call Thunderbolt, the keyboard rattles, I loved the silent keyboard of the old machine, I could write little notes when when I was live recording with a microphone near by.
Steve Jobs mantra was always “is it better” just making something sleeker and thinner and shinier, doesn’t mean that it is better. It also gets very hot and the battery at the moment says 8% grrrr.
The local Spanish shy away from expensive Apple products, most of the phones you see when you are out and about are Android, computers tend to be P.C. based and much cheaper. I think the Spanish are far more sensible when it comes to buying in to the Apple experience, as I guess the folk at Cupertino would call it.
So I have had to move the wifi nearer the machine and that involves drilling out more of the horrible white dusty rendering that most houses have on their walls.
So not at all the chilled day I was planning, then I fell asleep outside, in the shade but the midday temperatures have suddenly jumped back to what they should be. I woke from my doze, overheated and vaguely remember dreaming about Barry Manilow, .. I have no idea why.
Chris has gone off for a walk accompanied by next doors dog, it is still really too hot to go out walking. The Spanish are used to the heat here. When summer comes you will see them in the early morning and then they disappear for the rest of the day, returning about 6-7pm in the evening where they will come out be social and finally have something to eat at about 10.30pm, after that maybe spending time out on the street or in a bar till 2 or 3am.
The late night life also includes the children who seem to be quite happy playing in the playgrounds until the early hours, I don’t know how it might affect their education and how tired they might be at 9am when school starts in the morning, but that is life under a hot sun.
The sun is not your friend and sitting out on a beach in the midday sun does really only fall to mad dogs and Englishmen. Oh and a few Germans and other northern Europeans. The Spanish respect the sun, they hide away from it, even when they are on holiday. Sitting in the shade of a bar, drinking coffee, soft drinks or the odd beer, chatting with friends, that does seem to be what the majority of home-grown tourists do.
Early this morning we were greeted by another magical sight.. the cyclists have returned, not in great packs but enjoying a short healthy cycle for a mile or so and then back home.
We both had cycles back in the UK, I gave up cycling when a bus driver attempted to knock me over as he wanted to get to his bus stop I was passing. I found cycling in Britain a cold and miserable experience, you seem to be universally hated by motorists. The cyclists are just as guilty, some ride aggressively, through red lights and the like. I remember once we were going to work, stopped at a set of red lights at London Wall, when suddenly a cyclist shot down the nearside of the car, smashed into our side mirror, breaking it off its mounting and simultaneously calling me a see you next Tuesday as he jumped over a set of red lights narrowly missing traffic coming from the other direction.
Here there seems to be a much more relaxed approach to cyclists, they are indulged and allowed to meander in front of you. I think it is because they are tourists and bring much needed income into the local economy, something I really hope will be able to start up again soon.
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