Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Tonight is Susan’s birthday party delayed by two days to allow people to recover from New Year’s Eve.  Ten of us will gather at Carusel at 9:30 to enjoy an arroz con bogavante and whatever surprises Jordi has up his sleeve.

Yesterday was a rather uneventful day and that’s not bad.  I managed to get to the gym, which was closed all last week, and do some cardio and get in a good workout.  On my way home from the gym I stopped in at the Bar Alhambra and got a bocadillo de tortilla. In October of 2006 the newspaper El País called the tortilla that is made here on of the best in Spain.  The bar still deserves that title based on my sandwich today.

Susan has signed up for two Pilates classes this month.  Both meet at 2:30 on Monday and Wednesday.  She left a 2:00 to get to the class on time without having to rush.  The teacher of the class was the same woman who taught her morning classes when we were here in the spring.  Her teacher remembered her even though five months have passed since her last class.  Susan returned home after what she called a rather energetic class.  After brewing herself a cup of tea, Susan got comfortable in front of her computer and watched the Rose Parade live on the KTLA website.  I peeked at the screen occasionally, but I spent most of the afternoon reading my book.

The past few days we have been giving the music service Spotify a good workout.  We have a subscription that costs us 5 Euros a month.  That entitles us to unlimited streaming of songs from their extensive library without commercial interruption.  We spent a day listening to Joan Baez and another listening to the songs of Tom Paxton, Tom Rush and Richard and Mimi Fariña.  As some of you know a lot of these songs go back to the 60”s when folk music had its greatest revival.  Almost everyone owned a guitar and Susan and I were no exceptions.  The first song that Susan ever played and sang for me was “Henry Martin”.  It took me about a week to convince her to sing it, but in the end it came to pass.

I was never an accomplished guitarist.  The truth is I knew about ten chords and I was never known for my sense of rhythm.  I did have a varied repertoire that included international folk songs, as well as some classic rock tunes.  I used to teach my classes Spanish songs and when Susan and I got engaged we were invited to a series of parties so that I could get to know her relatives and the invitations always included a request that we come with guitar in hand.  Susan and I had six songs that we sang and harmonized on.  It has been a while since I have picked up a guitar.  In fact I have two that are gathering dust back in Alhambra.  It was fun revisiting the past vicariously thanks to Spotify.

There was an interesting development last night at the CIVAC meeting.  I was asked if I might be interested in participating in a TV program that is broadcast on RTVE 1.  The program is called Destino España and it features people from countries other than Spain who have come here to live on a more or less permanent basis.  Last week when I did an effect that I call “Pears and Apples” (in Spanish you are accused of comparing apples to pears whereas we compare apples to oranges) the boyfriend of one of the producers of the show was present and he liked the effect so much that he suggested to his girlfriend that I might make an interesting subject.  His girlfriend is currently on vacation and may get in touch with me next week.  Who knows if it will come to pass?  At this point in time is flattering to know that someone was impressed enough to put me forward as a potential candidate for the program.

I had dinner with the boys at the CIVAC.  We had some bocadillos de lomo y salchicha, along with a beer.  I stayed until 10:30 at which point I walked home.  When I got home Susan was watching a cooking program on TV.  Since she was nodding off she decided to go to be.  I read for an hour before I finally called it a day.