Baby It’s Cold Outside

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Say, what? It’s snowing in Barcelona? A number of schools have cancelled classes? The Polar Express is paying a visit to Spain. Truth be told, although it is snowing in the center of Barcelona, there has been no accumulation of the white stuff. However, in those neighborhoods that are closer to the mountains there has been some accumulation and it is causing problems. The highs for the next few days here in Valencia will struggle to get into the mid 40’s and nighttime temperatures will be below freezing. Normal temperatures should return on Sunday.

I did get a workout in yesterday, along with some cardio. Susan got to her Pilates class in the afternoon. Sine we are both out of the house at lunchtime, we fend for ourselves. Susan had made a couple of soups, a cream of carrot and a cream of zucchini, trying to replicate a dish she had at Refugio. She pronounced it a success. I ended up snacking on some ham and cheese and that was just fine. My conversation class with Nico did not happen because Nico needed to cancel. That gave me the chance to read a bit and edit an article on René Lavand for Magic Agora.

René Lavand is one of the stars in the firmament of magic. He is one of the best card magicians in the world. His presentations are pure poetry both in word and deed. He is the inventor of lentidigitation a term he coined to serve as the antonym of prestidigitation. His catchphrase is “It cannot be done any slower.” Another factor that makes Lavand unique is that he only has one hand, having suffered an accident when he was only a child. Here is a video clip of one of is effects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS1ogWcIO5Q.

Susan headed out around 4:30 to climb to the top of the Torres de Quart to shoot some pictures. I used the time to play around a bit with some magic. At 6:30 we headed off to Cines Yelmo to see the American remake of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” We saw the original version several months ago in Pasadena and we were curious about the Hollywood version of the same film. I must confess that the main title sequence was of the noisiest and stupidest creations that I have ever seen. The music (?) was created by Trent Razor he of The Nine Inch Nails fame and the images are of people being coated in tar. It looked like a bad acid trip. The film itself was very well done. I am sure that, given the amount of nudity, this was probably the European version. I thought the ending was too drawn out and was used to set the scene for the second film in the trilogy.

We decided to have dinner at La Fórcola and that was a good decision. We shared a salad that had a variety of field greens, cherry tomatoes, nuts, raisins, and Parmesan crisps. We then shared their calzone doc that is stuffed with jamón serrano, mascarpone and mozzarella. We passed on dessert and coffee. When we left the restaurant at 11:00 it was sprinkling. Surprise! We played around on the computer for a while and then read for another twenty minutes or so. It was well after 12:30 when we went to bed.