Monday, July 9, 2012

Susan is back at her Pilates class now that everything in the new place is more or less under control.  We will do some food shopping later in the day and I will most probably head down to the CIVAC meeting this evening.  A number of the guys are in England attending the FISM convention, which is being held in Blackpool this year.  It appears that the weather is not going to cooperate since the forecast for the week is rainy with highs in the 60’s.

Yesterday was another day to take it easy.  We puttered around until 2:00 at which time we headed out to Carosel. Miguel, the father of Andreu who has become a fast friend of Robbie Handelsman invited the Handelsmans and the Kaplans to join him for lunch.  He also invited Javi and his family to join the party.  Javi is Jordi’s fishmonger and provides Jordi with the best the market has to offer.  Javi’s star indeed did shine at this meal.

We started our meal with a bowl of clóchinas, followed by some incredible shrimp, pulpo a la gallega, some more shrimp, a coca topped with escalivada and finally, as Jordi had promised a hamburger, except this hamburger was made from rabo de toro.  The wine flowed and the conversation was very animated.  Our lunch ended at 5:00, a respectable three-hour repast.  We said our goodbyes to the Handelsmans who head for Madrid on Tuesday morning with the Woodberry boys.  The students return to the US on Friday, but Andrew and family will spend another two weeks in Spain.

Our evening was uneventful.  I finished another book La playa de los ahogados, which is set in Galicia.  It is a murder mystery featuring a detective named Leo Caldas.  It has been translated into English and is available on Amazon.  I did not finish the book until 1:30 and by then Susan had long since fallen asleep.  Today’s pictures of Jordi were taken on the day the Woodberry boys accompanied Jordi to the Central Market.  The photos were taken by Andrew Handelsman.