A week with few images, relatively speaking. The main events were a nice bike ride on Sunday morning and a farewell to a well-liked colleague on Friday.
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I start with the Sunday morning mountainbike ride. To get from my house to the start of the Vía Verde del Maigmó, I have to cycle 23 km, the last 5 of which are on field paths like this one, more difficult than the actual Vía Verde:
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Cycling on the Vía Verde (converted railroad track), I enjoyed the ride and the views:
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A winter landscape as it looks around here:
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Turning left:
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A selfie at km. 10, almost halfway on the trail:
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At km. 17 (out of the total of 22 km) there is a spot where the trail is adjacent to the Maigmó-Agost paved road. I usually get off the trail at that point and return home on normal roads, because the last 5 km of the trail are not visually interesting and there are a couple of long, dark tunnels which I dislike. On this day with nice weather, the road was full of parked cars; people drive here to start their hiking or, as in this photo, cycling at this point:
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On Sunday afternoon we had BBQ at Eliot’s as often happens:
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Argentinian food is most certainly not for vegetarians:
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But we did have some non-meat dishes, like this roasted aubergine:
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On Friday we were saying goodbye at the office to our Italian colleague Massimo. He had been with us for 4 years as a Seconded National Expert from Italian customs. We wanted to keep him longer, and he very much wanted to stay longer, but his employer back in Italy wanted him to return. This was a sad day because we were losing a top professional and an extremely well-liked colleague. To make it worse, the Covid restrictions prevented us from having the usual bash with drinks etc. Instead it was held on MS Teams:
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But on my instigation, a few of us decided to meet physically. The meeting room accommodates 5 people in the restricted configuration, and we complied. But we wanted to toast Massimo in person, so a few bottles were procured from our still very generous stash:
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Stephanie, Massimo and Tamara chatting with the rest of the colleagues on the screen:
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Videos of past, more pleasant, events involving Massimo were shown:
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Finally, Massimo gives his farewell speech:
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Sad Stephanie (her own caption of this photo) listens:
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On my way home that evening, I stopped in the centre to buy some Polish items at the Eastern European grocery store. I also walked to my favourite bar in town, Malatesta, which to my horror was closed the last time I had walked by a couple of weeks earlier. This time, to my delight, it was back in business and one of the three outside tables was available for me to sit down and enjoy a draft Tripel Karmeliet, one of this world’s great pleasures:
