Saturday 2 January 2016
Raining a lot at home 12 degrees
Nine o'clock and it was still dark and grey and the rain lashing down on the gravel in the courtyard. Some soggy birds were lurking in the upstairs window of the barn. RJ had been up for two and a half hours and wandering around, fully dressed. He is used to running a large kitchen and has forgotten how to relax. He had not used the time to put away the dishes or clean the fire or sort out his mess in the hallway.... OH, on the other hand, has no problem in relaxing. He is relaxed to the point of being comatose. I dig him out of bed and suggest we go to the coast. If, for nothing else, to stock up on beer and loo paper. How on earth do men get through SO much loo roll?????
We head towards the coast and the sky is blue on one side and slate black on the other. A massive rainbow arches over the sky, thick and brilliant with colour. And, miraculously, the cars on the auto route have their own little rainbows, glowing ephemerally around their chassis. We drive through a rainbow thrown off by a lorry. A Disney moment...
On the coast, there isn't a cloud in sight and town is heaving with well wrapped up people, enjoying the ozone and stiff breeze, and periodically shrieking and running away from the spray which makes it over the prom wall. We park, eventually, and go for a quick drink before hitting the shops. The coffee comes in large bowl like cups, its froth shaped into a leaf and accompanied by glossy cream and yellow potato and cheese tortilla, full of butter and salt.
The shops are in full sale mode but still shockingly expensive. The joy of coming to this particular town is that, each time, I discover curious shops which on subsequent occasions, disappear and are never to be refound. This time, we come across a shop which sells braided items. Stacked from floor to ceiling, there are ropes as thick as your arm, there are hessian ropes and jute ropes and synthetic fibre ropes in every dimension down to fine finger width. There are, to my joy, many ribbons and cords and I am torn between deep mulberry, golden, silver or three tone brown, green and white cord. I end up with five metres of the latter and make sure I have their business card. I should have bought some of the gold.....
The men are now hungry so we go to the Oquendo bar which has photos of all the stars who have come to the Film Festival over the years. We eat rabillitos which are deep fried balls of ham and cheese and more coffee and try and spot who is who...
Then to the big centre commercial where the car park is SO full that there are men with batons directing the traffic. The supermarket itself is relatively quiet so we are back on the road by 4 pm but alas the traffic is appalling so we don't get home until nearly 7.
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