This was the penultimate working week of 2019, and Christmas is beginning to be very evident, both in the street picture and at the office, where I had two Christmas lunches to attend during the week. So the main focus of the week’s blog are the people with whom I shared those lunches.
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But I start with one of my dog portraits from the vestibule of the local supermarket. A full-size dog this time rather than the usual little terrier:
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On Sunday I was out on my bicycle, this time on the road from Maigmó to Agost:
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The plaza in Agost, sleepy as usual on a Sunday, but with Christmas decorations already put up:
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Early morning on my street, walking towards the beach; Christmas also in evidence here:
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The first of the week’s Christmas lunches was on Tuesday. It was organised by the Danes in the office. There are about 20 of us working here, and we were 13 at the lunch which we held at the restaurant in the office. I took just a few pictures of the people near me, starting with Birgit:
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Kirsten and Annette in conversation:
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The food was the restaurant’s usual French/Spanish fare, but we had brought our own akvavit for the real Danish touch, and the restaurant provided the shot glasses:
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Once we reached dessert, it was time to sing, another Danish tradition; we had decided that we did not care about the fact that there were other people in the restaurant–traditions would be upheld:
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Other groups around the office were similarly indulging during the week. Wednesday morning, when arriving at work, I ran into Claire from our Academy department, decked out for their Christmas lunch:
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A German Christmas tradition, a cake called Stollen, brought to the office by a German colleague. Our standard procedure when sharing such goodies is to leave them on the kitchen table and send an e-mail to the department informing people. Usually the goodie in question is devoured with an hour:
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On Thursday we then had the department Christmas lunch, in a nearby restaurant. There were about 40 of us, spread across three tables:
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The waitresses were kept busy supplying us with wine and beer:
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I had taken my old Leica M8 for an outing and used it on my fellow employees. Kasia, our Polish secretary:
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Charo, our Seconded National Expert from the Spanish Trademark and Patent Office:
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Charo listens to Juan:
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Carolina, my favourite “victim”:
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Two members of my team, Michał and René (Polish and Dutch, respectively):
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Anne-Sophie, my Danish-French colleague, making the rounds:
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Finally, it is time to pay, and Mario helps the restaurant with the card machine. Even though it is a work event, we all pay for it ourselves, with the members of management (there are 5 of us) picking up the bill for our trainees in addition to our own:
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On Saturday I was cycling again. On the plaza in Aigües people were just beginning to decorate for Christmas:
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Finally, Christmas has also arrived in our home–my son and daughter-in-law are arriving from New York on December 22nd, and my wife is decorating the nest with a vengeance:
