It is always tough to be back at work after a nice, tiring (in a good way) and intense vacation. This was my first full week after the return from Denmark.
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Appropriately, I start with a picture from my very desk at the office. Some workmen are outside, replacing the external window pane; I thought that their silhouettes had some photographic potential:
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Tuesday night, a few of us went out for dinner at a local place called Erik Café to celebrate the launch of a major report. This is Claire, our communications officer and so a key person in every publication (French) and Michał, an economist on my team who was the lead researcher on the study (Polish):
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Erik Café is owned by a Belgian chef, and the food is traditional Spanish but with a big touch of French refinement–very nice:
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We ate in the courtyard, enjoying the warm (but not too hot) evening. We also had an onlooker:
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Staying with the feline theme, here is another portrait of one of the cats I feed. I just heard on the radio yesterday that Alicante has an estimated 3000 cats living around the city. There is now a sterilisation programme to keep their number down in a humane way:
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My daughter is home from university. During the week, we visited another new restaurant, a vegan place called Utopia, opened 3-4 months ago. The food was excellent and so plentiful that we ended up taking the desert to go. Here is Monica and her vegan burger (or the other way round–I was hungry and focused on the burger):
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A vignette from the city, Plaza de Correos. A nice and colourful little square near my favourite beer shop:
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On Saturday, I was out cycling in the mountains as usual. The heat was intense away from the coast, around 40C. For a little while clouds rolled in, and it looked like we might have a summer downpour–but it was false alarm:
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Strange place to discard a sofa, to put it mildly:
Later on Saturday, we attended a friend’s birthday party near Benidorm. Given that his birthday is at the hottest time of the year, the party is alway a pool party during the afternoon/evening. Many of the people have a mixed Spanish/French Algerian background, something that is reflected in the language of conversation and in the choice of food.
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The birthday boy Iñaki and his little dog:
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Iñaki’s wife loves music and dancing, and she is always the DJ. She had actually prepared a playlist for the party:
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The music is on an iPhone connected to good speakers:
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Conversation:
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The cheese is on the table, and it is the real French stuff:
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Cani takes a last dip in the pool:
