One Flu Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

Friday, January 27, 2012

Today’s paper focuses on the seriousness of the unemployment crisis in Spain in general and in Valencia in particular. In Valencia the unemployment rate is a pinch above 25%. That figure is not considered to be accurate because there are many who feel that, in actuality, it is higher because it does not include people who have left the country to look for work, people who have returned to their country of birth because there is no work for them here and those people who have stopped looking for work. Most of the unemployed are young and the repercussions of that fact are unknown, but they cannot be promising.

I took most of the day off yesterday trying to defeat the bug that had decided to visit my body for a short stay – I hope that it’s a short stay. I did have a chance to chat with Miguel about the router problem and we came up with a couple of solutions that do not involve ONO because, as I finally have discovered, the router that we are using for Wi-Fi was not installed by ONO, but rather by a friend of Miguel’s. I also had enough energy to walk down to FNAC and pick up several DVD’s including Almodóvar’s latest. “The Skin I Live In”.

Susan had left earlier that morning for a visit with her hairdresser, Jorge. She called about 1:30 and asked if I was interested in doing lunch close to where she was. That seemed like a good idea so I made my way down to the Cánovas neighborhood and after a bit of searching we once again ended up at Lambrusquería. We arrived before the afternoon rush and easily found an indoor table. I started with the spinach salad and Susan had the pumpkin soup. We both chose a pasta entrée and our dessert was a very light chocolate cake. I had a beer and Susan had a glass of red wine. We both had coffee. The bill was under 20 Euros. It is no wonder that it is next to impossible to find a table at this restaurant at lunchtime.

We walked home and stopped off at a store that specialized in things for the home and picked up a few items. As we continued on our way we ran into Santi who was doing a couple of errands. We always seem to run into him in our travels. He told us that Mike had been fighting stomach flu and that they had to close down the restaurant for a few days while he recovered. When we finally got back home, I e-mailed Pepe and told him that I would not be at the meeting of the veteranos that evening because I had decided to crash.

Susan left a little after 6:00 to catch up with Ofelia. They were going to attend a lecture on laughter therapy and then get a bite to eat afterwards. I spent the evening reading and relaxing. I also watched the latest episode of Glee. Susan returned home a little after 11:30 and that was the signal for me to go to bed.