The last week of October culminates in the silly Halloween “holiday”. I really disliked it when we lived in New Jersey (I associated it with annoying intrusions of kids looking for candy, plus a dose of vandalism), and it annoys me that in the past couple of decades it has become increasingly popular in continental Europe as well, although mercifully the trick-or-treat habit has not caught on here. The day after Halloween happens to be my birthday, but I have not celebrated it since my father died on this day in 2004. So no birthday party, but my wife (who loves both attending and hosting parties) put on a Halloween party for a small group of friends. I went along with it on the condition that there would be no mention of my upcoming birthday, no presents, no cake etc., and this was respected.
43_1
But before Halloween there was a normal week, including some glorious sunrises during my morning bike rides:
43_2
Thursday evening we had the monthly wine tasting at the office:
43_3
As usual, I turned my camera on some of my colleagues, here Charo:
43_4
María del Mar:
43_5
The following day was the last Friday of October, so of course we had our usual monthly drink at the office. This time it was additionally a leaving do for Francisco (second from the left) who was moving to another department. The guy to Francisco’s right is our new trainee Said, originally from Morocco but he came to us from the College of Europe in Belgium:
43_6
We have a new crop of trainees now (our traineeships run for 1 year, from October to September). One of them, Olga from Poland, here explains a traditional Polish drink to another trainee:
43_7
Three lovely ladies with whom I have the joy of working–Claire, Stephanie and Carolina:
43_8
On the morning of Halloween, I went to the centre to buy some meat for that evening’s BBQ. While walking, I passed these distressing stickers–along with Halloween, US-style fascism has also made its way across the Atlantic, apparently, mixing with our homegrown sort:
43_9
43_10
At the Mercado Central, there were some newly installed statues at the entrance, rather striking and amusing:
43_11
43_12
I bought some beef from these two young butchers, who upon seeing the camera around my neck wanted a picture. I took a couple of portraits, and e-mailed them to the guys afterwards:
43_13
During my bike ride after the shopping, evidence of Halloween was visible even in Aigües:
43_14
Then it was time for the party. My wife had invested quite a bit of effort into decorating the house:
43_15
43_16
We set up the table outside, on our terrace:
43_17
Monica got into the act too:
43_18
This is NOT the normal way to serve Iberian ham:
43_19
Then our guests arrived:
43_20
43_21
As always, the Argentine expert was put in charge of the grill:
And then we sat down to eating and drinking, so no more photos.