Although there was no travel during the week, it was quite eventful anyway: there was the retirement of a well-liked colleague, there was an overnight visit by a neighbour’s dog, a whiff of carnival, and the usual walks along the beach and cycling escapades in the mountains.
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My weekend cycling took me to the town of Agost:
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As I do every week, I continued my visual exploration of sunrise on the beach:
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A different way to look at the morning light:
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The bottom of my street:
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The actual moment of sunrise:
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On Monday, when I came home from work, there was a small dog running around in the side street next to my house where I park. It looked like he had escaped from somewhere–he did not look stray, since he was wearing a collar and was generally well kept. But he seemed scared and we were concerned that he might run out on the busy road. So after some persuation, he came into our house and spent the night with us. We called him “Lucky”, bought him some food and treats, and set up a bed for him in the kitchen:
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On Tuesday morning, I found him sleeping on top of some soft storage boxes in the kitchen, next to my bicycle handlebar bag. Later that morning, my wife took “Lucky” to the vet to check if he had a chip. He did not, so I made some posters that we were going to post around the neighbourhood. But then my wife found out that Lucky belongs to a young guy living in a house nearby, a rather disorganised person who inherited the doggie along with the house from his grandmother. So in a way all is well, even though we wish that Lucky’s human were more careful. In any event, now we know where to go if it happens again, and we certainly enjoyed his company for the 24 hours he was with us:
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Next, a series of photos from the office. In the middle of the campus formed by the three buildings we have, there is a statue of two hands holding a tablet with our logo; I find it rather cheesy, but the pigeon on top made it interesting on this particular day:
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In the lobby of our main building there is a piano. It actually gets used from time to time (there are no work areas nearby), and some of the people are quite good, especially Carlos here, whom I have heard on several occasions:
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Thursday, the last day of February, was also the last working day for our colleague Jesús. Health problems have forced him to take early retirement. So a bit of a sad background, but on the other hand he was happy with the outcome and is planning to make the best of his new situation. And we wanted to give him a good send-off, so the usual party paraphenalia were rolled out at lunchtime:
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Brief speeches were held, and Jesús received his parting gift, a goodie basket:
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There was a lot of food of all kinds, including this eclectic collection of goodies–Spanish cheese, salchichón, and Danish candy called Chocofant, contributed by me:
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I then turned to photography of my colleagues, as I usually do on such occasions. Ludmila is one of our secretaries:
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Graziella actually works in another department, but she is a friend of Jesús and was therefore also invited:
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Stephanie:
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Jesús talks to Nicki while getting ready to open another bottle of cava:
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Carolina:
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Massimo catching me catching him:
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Two Greek ladies in animated conversation:
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I usually go to the beach around sunrise, but because we live on a bay (thus, the coast is curved), sunset can also provide nice views, such as El Campello illuminated by the low afternoon sun:
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Another beachfront apartment building under construction. While the boom that we had until 2008 has not returned (which is a good thing), there is clearly a recovery under way:
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An “outdoor art gallery” has recently been created along the beach road; it is really just about 100 meters of wall art, but nice enough:
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Friday night is now pizza night in our home, so I walked the 100 meters to Tutti Pizza & Pasta, placed my order and had a beer while I waited:
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Tutti is very much a neighbourhood place, where most of the customers (including now me) are regulars, and the owner will sometimes sit down and have a beer with guests:
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Our daughter had come for dinner on Friday and spent the night. On Saturday morning I drove her to the apartment she shares with her Italian friends. After dropping her off, I took some photos of the sea from the third floor of her building. The weather was a bit hazy, but I liked the delicate shades. This picture shows the two kind of maritime traffic we have here–mostly pleasure boats but Alicante does have a proper harbour with some container traffic:
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Two boats:
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On Saturday afternoon, I cycled a couple of km to explore an Irish pub I had noticed. Along the way, I stopped on an overpass to photograph the roundabout that forms the top of the street on which we live. This spot is about 2 km from the other end, depicted in photo no. 4 above:
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The Irish bar turned out to be quite ordinary, but then I ran into the carnival celebrations in San Juan, the municipality that borders on El Campello (where we live) and Alicante. A stage was set up on the main street, and there was an enthusiastic audience of children and adults:
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I was standing next to this couple with funny headgear, and I took several pictures of them. This one and the one that follows are my favourites:
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