Observation #1- I do not have the self-discipline it takes to do a blog entry every day. It is too much like having to write a composition for school every day. Besides, I am retired. To me that means having less “have tos” than I used to.
Observation # 2 – In Valencia it doesn’t matter if it is hot or cold out, as long as it is not raining, people are sitting happily at sidewalk cafes having a coffee or some other liquid refreshment.
Observation #3 – A 3-hours shopping and walking extravaganza yesterday did not require a turtle neck sweater, a scarf and leather jacket. By the time I got home I thought I was going to melt.
Observation # 4 – Ready-made curtains and drapes all seem to come in one length 270 cm. If you want something different, they need to be custom made. Part of my shopping event was to find room-darkening drapes for the bedroom.
Our Monday had been a day to get a few things done. First task at hand was to get 2 photos printed. That was easily done at the photo shop 2 doors down from ours. Next, on to the frame shop. I’d had several pictures framed last year and they did a wonderful job. I can hardly wait to pick up the new ones but that will be in 2 weeks. Marty saw an adorable framed picture of an elephant that he couldn’t live without. It now lives on our “office” wall.
Marty's Elephant
From there I headed to el Centro Deportivo Petxina to sign up for a Pilates class and a water aerobics class. Vicente helped me select a couple of the available classes. Most were already full so I had to settle for late afternoon classes. Maybe in January something will open up earlier in the day. I paid my 24 euros for the month and got my “bono” cards.
El Centro Deportivo Petxina
We then headed to a shop nearby where they sell drapes and such. Unfortunately everything there is custom made and I really didn’t want to go to that expense. So, I decided to give Habitat a try later in the day as I had seen ready-made drapes there.
We settled on a new place for lunch, La Pitanza. We’d walked by it many times but never walked in as it didn’t look like much. When we entered we discovered that the dining room was on the second floor. It was a beautifully decorated room. We were presented with the menu of the day. Like many other restaurants, the first course is predetermined. It is usually a selection of items. In this case it was a meatball soup and then a canelón de rabo de toro ( bulls tail cannelloni). Rabo de toro is quite common here. It was delicious. For our main dish we selected the specialty of the house, a lovely combination of garbanzo, langostine and other seafood. The stock was rich and flavorful and the seafood abundant. Dessert was a very decadent tarta de chocolate con helado de turrón (almond and honey flavored ice cream). The tarta was less cake and more like two frosted chunks of fudge. A couple of cortados (short coffee with hot milk) and chupitos of Mistela and we were on our way.
A little something to nibble
Caldo de Inverno con Pelota
Canelón de Rabo de Toro
Garbanzos Marineros con Langostino
Pure Decadence
Chupitos de Mistela
After a meal like that a walk was very much in order so we set off for FNAC for yet another bit of electronics. After Marty made his purchase we parted ways. He headed home and I went on the hunt for the drapes. I passed Zara Home and decided to go in. They had a wide range of drape styles and some were even room darkening. But, of course, I needed to make sure that Habitat didn’t have something better. Habitat was a bit further than I had remembered but at last I arrived. I soon discovered that I really preferred the ones at Zara Home and headed back. I purchased some attractive sea foam blue drapes. I do see some hemming in my future. The distance from the rod to the floor in our bedroom is certainly less than 270 cm. I also picked up 3 throw pillows.
At 7:00 PM, I found myself schlepping home two enormous bags. The sky was darkening but I couldn’t resist stopping and taking a shot of the church next to the Mercado.
Dusk
At 7:30, Marty headed out for a meeting of CIVAC. I, very contentedly, curled up on the couch with a cup of tea and 1Q84, which is a wonderful but strange book.
