The theme of this week is not so much things getting quieter as getting noisier - due to the gale force winds! Last night was the worst so far; I'm not sure many of us got much sleep due to the banging or crashing as terrace furniture slid all over the place and shutters left open kept slamming against the wall (one of my pet peeves here - to hear the rhythmic SLAM ... SLAM... - it's hypnotic and not in a good way!). It rained too but that didn't make the noise so much as the wind. In any event I think most of us didn't get much of a night's sleep last night and the season of storms is definitely upon us 🌬
An event that everyone will be well aware of is the fire at Albufera (near Playa de Muro). It has apparently affected more than 300 hectares of land, with three properties burned out and two others damaged. As ever, the brave emergency services including the locally based fire planes, did a fantastic job and eventually nature assisted by providing some rain. Although I'm sure many people have seen a lot of coverage/photos of the fire, but for those who haven't, you get an idea of the scale and ferocity of it from the second photo:
I think everyone is just grateful that no-one was killed or seriously injured 🙏
In local news, La Llonja has now closed for the season as has Ben & Jerrys on the seafront. As far as I'm aware, everyone else is plodding on. We went for a menu del dia at El Posito on Friday and had my all time favourite food - tumbet. El Posito's tumbet con huevo (I may have mentioned this before!) is the stuff of dreams and here it is in all it's glory 😍:
I really and truly could eat it every single day...............
Ironically today (27th September) is World Tourism Day. I'm not sure that this year there is a very great deal to celebrate as tourism has been so badly hit by the pandemic. It's probably better to focus on hopes for next year. Lots of flights in the autumn are being cancelled so I think it is safe to say that the 'season' has been - and gone. Mallorca is so dependent on tourism we have to absolutely hope that next year brings better times.
The weather has brought slightly cooler temperatures here and those of us who live here are walking around saying "My goodness, it's a bit chilly isn't it?" when it's 22 degrees 😳 Mind you, in our defence we have been used to 10 degrees warmer than that until lately so cut us some slack! I believe it's very chilly in the UK now and friends said that yesterday in outer London it was 11 degrees which sounds horrendous 😱 In those temperatures I would most definitely be wrapped up in so many layers you'd be hard pressed to see who I was!
This brings me to......now that autumn is here, I for one am overjoyed that the Great British Bake Off has started again 💕 it's like a big TV cuddle 😆 and it really is wonderful to have something like a semblance of how life used to be, back in our lives. And once Strictly Come Dancing starts, I will be more than happy just to add some enjoyable escapism to live - don't judge me!
So far work wise, teaching is going well and all the students are being wonderful at observing the rules around social distancing, mask wearing and sanitising. It is probably the children who are coping the best with things if I'm honest; they just seem to get on with it and accept things as they are. I'm not going to pretend that it's easy teaching or learning a language whilst wearing a mask but we have all adapted pretty well and everyone is enjoying their classes, including me!
Today we went twice to Meraki in the square - once at lunchtime for a coffee - and saw several birds using the water in the upside down tables at the now closed Maxims, as a bird bath. They drank, fluttered and played in the water which was adorable:
Tonight we went for a couple of beers and found that there was a sort of story telling/circus-y performance in the square for children; the parents seemed pretty involved and there were lots of actions that everyone enthusiastically joined in with. It was lovely to see families enjoying themselves in a safely distanced, outdoor, mask wearing environment:
So....as autumn draws in......stay safe and hasta octubre!
No comments:
Post a Comment