Sunday, January 29, 2012

It’s sunny again in Valencia after a brief bout with rain early Saturday morning.  Since most of the rain fell between 1:00 and 8:00 it really had no effect on yesterday’s activities.  Klaus and Zahava are coming over for dinner this evening and we still need to pick up a few things for dinner.

Given the fact that we had not been to the Central market all week, supplies were quite low.  We loaded up on fruits and vegetables, boquerones, ham and a variety of cheeses.  Since our guests this evening are vegetarians, Susan will be making a quiche that is prepared in a spring-form pan and is much higher than your usual quiche.  Since Cheddar cheese seemed to be a difficult find yesterday, Susan will use requesón, a cheese similar to ricotta, but less salty, and feta.  The quiche will also contain spinach.  I picked up a few bottles of a locally brewed beer called Tyris, which is one of Klaus’ favorites so we are in excellent shape.

When we got back home, I decided that it was time for the great router adventure.  I unplugged the old router and hooked up the new one.  My MacBook saw the new router and I typed in the password to join the network.  A few seconds later the check mark next to the network appeared and I thought I was good to go.  I opened my browser and…nothing.  The computer was not connecting to the Internet.  Not good.  I decided to go back to the old router and deal with the issue later.  I hooked up the old one and … nothing.  I plugged and unplugged every device and still nothing.  In the process Susan tightened one of the cables and magically there was a connection.  Was a loose cable the problem?  So it seemed.

While working on a project I happened to notice that our network had gotten unlocked in the process and was available to anyone who cared to use it.  I accessed the router and while I was reprogramming the security settings contact was lost between the computer and the router and, as a result, the router was inaccessible and we now had no connection to the network and, consequently to the Internet.  The solution seemed to be to give the new router another try.  We set it up and joined the new network.  I used my iPod Touch to make sure that it had a designated network address and that it was functioning normally.  That was a good sign.  I then tried to access the Internet on my computer and… nothing.  What’s a boy to do?

While sitting at my computer pulling out the few hairs left in my head magic happened.  All of a sudden my screen lit up and I was looking at my Facebook page.  Somehow the network and my computer shook hands and the connection was made.  We then proceeded to connect each and every device we own to the network.  The list of each and every device is as follows: Susan’s MacBook, my MacBook, Susan’s iPad, my iPad, my iTouch, the printer, the Apple TV and a repeater.  Every device found the network.  I then proceeded to check the download speed of the new router.  With the old router we were getting 6 MB on a good day and 2 MB most of the time.  With the new router we were getting 16 MB, which is the download speed that is advertised by ONO.  When I looked at the clock it was a little past 4:00 and we had not had lunch yet.  We decided to give the recently opened London Café a try.

London Café is located near the Central Market and has been opened for two weeks now.  Based on our experience I am left wondering how much restaurant experience the owners and staff have actually had.  There was one waiter on the floor when we took our seat at a booth and he and the bartender were deeply involved in trying to solve some sort of a problem with the computer-based cash register.  After about five minutes he rushed past the table telling us he would be with us in a minute.  The menu features 100 different sandwiches, several hamburgers and several salads.  There are also several other menu items that we did not study at all because we knew what we wanted.  We ordered the London Café Salad, which is your typical salad you find all over Spain with the difference being the inclusion of a few slices of ham.  We also ordered a revuelto with potatoes and ham.  The salad and the revuelto were both very tasty.  The atmosphere of the restaurant was not very welcoming and the service was poor.  With time they may solve these problems.  I doubt we shall return.  This café is not our cup of tea.

We spent our evening reading and watching Almodóvar’s latest offering on DVD. La piel que habito is called The Skin I Live In in English.  Antonio Banderas plays the role of a creepy plastic surgeon, for lack of a better description.  This film is more of a step backward for the director.  The movie is beautifully filmed and all the other necessary cinematic touches are present.  The problem is that the protagonist is so unsympathetic that one cannot empathize with him and an important hook to the film is missing.  If you are an Almodóvar fan think of other of his recent films like Volver or Háblame and think of your reaction to the main character in those two films.

After viewing the film we read for a while longer.  I am now between books and looking for a new novel.  I have sampled a few books thanks to iBooks, but I have not found anything that has grabbed my attention.  I’ll keep looking.  We finally shut off the lights around 12:30 and went to bed.

Vistas de Vida

Vistas de Vida