PARRRTY!

Thursday, December 22, 2011

It’s another perfectly lovely day here in Valencia. The sky is clear and blue and the temperature will rise to the mid-70’s. It is almost lunchtime here as I sit down to write and the only thing on my agenda is a meeting of the veteranos this evening.

Yesterday was a rather uneventful day. We played Santa in the morning and visited the Banco Popular to give a little gift to Carlos and Sebastián for all the help they have given us this past year. They were very responsive in providing documents for the Subdelegación and said documents were crucial for our getting our visas. They also have solved a number of non-visa related problems that have made life here in Valencia much easier for us. Both of them thought the gift was unnecessary, but we told them that we did not agree. After the bank we made a quick stop at the Nespresso store to make sure we had enough coffee for the holidays. The other day we discovered that they were selling Nespresso capsules at the Corte Inglés and that marks the first time that we have seen capsules for sale outside of a Nespresso store.

While Susan busied herself with some ironing I managed to sneak out to the gym and get a workout in. We had decided to have lunch at home so while I set the table Susan made us a lovely meal of chicken filets cooked in a garlic and basil infused olive oil, mashed potatoes with garlic and Stilton cheese and some green beans cooked with onion and tomato. We added a little bread and a little wine and we had a terrific meal. After lunch Susan made her way to the municipal pool for her Aqua Fitness class and I worked on the blog.

I got a message yesterday from Juanma González telling me that the course descriptions for Magic Agora’s first offerings have been posted on the site. Here is a link to the descriptions http://magicagora.com/category/products/workshops/?lang=en&lang=en I also got an e-mail from Pepe about another birthday surprise that his friend, Salva, sprung on him. Salva told Pepe that he had made reservations for dinner and they both got on Pepe’s motorbike and headed out. They passed by what Pepe thought were a number of possibilities and somehow ended up on the road to the airport. At the airport they boarded a flight to Paris and Pepe enjoyed his surprise dinner at The Crazy Horse Saloon. It appears that there are more surprises in store since Salva promises Pepe that there would be five – one for each decade. Pepe’s birthday is on January 5.

Speaking of birthdays, Susan’s is coming up shortly. We decided to celebrate it on January 3 and we have made a reservation at Carusel for nine of us to dine there that evening. Tomorrow we have been invited to Zahava’s for a Hanukkah celebration and Saturday evening we will be celebrating Christmas Eve with Brian, Ofelia and Olivia. We have a New Year’s Eve reservation at La Fórcola where we will enjoy a spectacular dinner. Once again the calendar is getting filled with events.

We spent the evening reading. Susan is about halfway through the new Harry Bosch mystery and I have started Carlos Ruiz Zafón’s new novel, El prisionero del cielo. It was close to midnight when we closed our books and then closed our eyes.