Another week with a bit of a mixed bag of images from home, from work, from my cycling, and from walking around Alicante.
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The weather is hot, and so Cheeta often prefers the tile floor to her soft bed–it is cooler that way:
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A visitor on our fence; actually, I dislike the pigeons because they steal the cat food I put out for the golf course cats:
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A strange scene from the centre. Why anybody would queue at a Burger King is beyond my comprehension:
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One day I stopped at the Mercado Central. These butchers in checkered headgear caught my eye:
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The general election is next Sunday, so there are posters around town, here on the square behind the Mercado:
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The guy was looking at the posters very closely, and poking several of the candidates with his finger. I am not sure whether he was performing some voodoo ritual or was just acting strangely for no apparent reason:
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Shoes on wire, near Mercado Central:
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The European football championship started in France on June 10th, and for that reason there are more flags than usual in the urban landscape:
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Spain played its first game at 3 p.m. on Monday. A TV was set up at the office cafeteria but something was wrong with it, so most people just went back to their workplaces. But a few found an alternate venue, the reception of the gym at our office, which did have a working TV:
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People react to a missed chance:
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José tries to combine work and football:
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Three dog walk pictures. One morning, someone had added a plastic chair to the benches in the park:
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The next morning, the furniture had been rearranged:
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An immodest tree, at least for those of us with dirty minds:
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The cactus I inherited from my mother 15 years ago bloomed again:
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This is 12 hours after the preceding picture:
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BUT a few months ago my wife transplanted some of the offshoots of the magic cactus into separate pots, and this week one of the “children” bloomed also:
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The next day:
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Two days later, wilting in the heat:
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Back in the city, preparations for the upcoming Hogueras de San Juan, the biggest fiesta of the year in Alicante, are in evidence:
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Conversation, Plaza Seneca:
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On Saturday morning, I was, as usual, in the mountains on my bicycle. This is the road from San Vicente to Tibi, which follows the A7 motorway, occasionally going under it, like here. This is a spot where I usually take my first break, after about 27 km, because on the other side of the motorway there is a nasty 10% climb:
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Tibi is beautifully situated, and although it is at only about 700 metres altitude, there is a lot of climbing involved in getting to the town and in getting out afterwards:
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This is a small shop selling homemade goat cheese:
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The owner, Lilian (Lili) is originally from Kanton Zug in Switzerland, but she has lived in Tibi for many years. She keeps goats and makes excellent cheese from the milk. She sells to restaurants and comes to our office to deliver web orders once a week, but she also has a small store, and so I stopped by to chat with her and to buy some cheese:
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Purchase done, I asked Lili to pose for me. Grabbing the basket with cheese was her idea:
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These are the two cheeses I bought–a spreadable cheese with garlic, and a semi-hard cheese with oregano and sun-dried tomatoes:
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After the visit to Lili’s shop, I came across a wedding. Nothing unusual except for the vehicle in which the groom and bride were going to drive away:
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The groom enters the cab:
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This being Spain, a celebration involves lots of noise and smoke:
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Townspeople looking on:
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After my ride, my wife and I drove to Hostal Maruja for lunch:
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The beach was very much in use:
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But the wind was really blowing in:
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…which was good for some:
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A young couple eating. I never get tired of the setting of Hostal Maruja:
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A bit of food to finish the week’s blog. Patatas bravas:
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Chipirones (small squids):
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Finally, in late afternoon we went to do our shopping at the Carrefour supermarket. They had some serious Italian cheese promotion going on:
And that was another week.