One of the most popular posts of the last six months

One of my most popular posts.....


Saturday 28 February 2015

Guess what, yes....  am about to develop webbed feet

OH surprised me by leaping out of bed early and saying he had cabin fever and we needed to go to the coast and get some culture.  It was a bit of a shock to be on the road for 9.30 am and driving through the thick drizzle.  Not a lot of other people had had the same idea. We arrived and parked by the shore.  There is quite some reach before the water reaches this shore, so immense cubes of concrete have been piled up in a random style against the promenade.  The massive waves were rolling in at speed, the spray shooting back from their crests, and they burst explosively on the cubes.  The spumy, foaming water shot easily ten metres into the air and the black clothed photographers were periodically hidden from view as it landed on the promenade and road nearby.  Some cars owners were hovering, enjoying the prospect of a free car wash, and wondering how to get back into their vehicles without being soaked to the skin.

We went for a quick shop in the market and discovered the Lidl has different stuff to our local one.  I was delighted to find some Master Crumble, described as muesli, but nothing a Swiss person would recognise.  I have a complete addition to its strange clusters and fruity chewy bits.

  apparently it is full of saturated acids but I don't care

We then took a turn around the fish market.  A woman was poking a stick into an aquarium and trying to separate the lobsters and the crabs, who were establishing territory and waving their claws at one another.  The lobsters were iridescent blue and had a lower waving curtain from which they scooted around the tanks.  Such lobsters are very rare and the colour is produced because some crustaceans are better at processing an antioxidant known as astaxanthin and it was amazing to see them

this is an US blue lobster taken from http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2009/09/18/altered-evolution-strange-animal-deformities/

The range of fish in a Spanish market is truly mind boggling - from massive sharks to pop eyed red snapper, John Dory, hake (merluza), salt cod (baccalao), gleaming spotted turbot, enormous langoustines (cigales) and shoals of silver anchovies (anchoas).  What did take my eye were the mackerel.  Have you ever looked closely and in its natural state, the fish which provides your kipper.  Each mackerel has its own individual maze like pattern running over the top and middle of the body and a faint mother of pearl sheen illuminates all of the scales.  

We then went for some 'culcha' in the large art museum.  OH picked up the audio guides and marched off, saying 'follow me'.  This is what he does in museums.  He marched into a door and seemed to have trouble getting through it, so an aged museum guide got off her stool and opened it for him.

The first exhibit was called Japanese Garden.  It was moss sprayed in various garish colours.  'This is crap', exclaimed OH, loudly.  I prayed that no one in the room understood 'basic' English.  The guide let us back out again and we went into the cloisters.  OH peered at the signs on the wall and then marched off decisively.  I arrived and had to open the door for us into the church.  I hope he is not going to start having these problems at home.  There were a lot of ancient tombstones.  The audio guide was somewhat verbose and OH charged around the room shouting 'get on with it!'.  Fortunately we were alone.  After a battle, when he insisted on opening the door himself, we found an exhibition of alpinisme which was quite interesting and then some modern art which was actually crap and then, oh joy, found a costume display from which I took quite a few photos.  OH stopped shouting at the audio guide briefly to shout at me to get a move on.  As usual, I ignored him and took lots of images of the exquisite detail on the bodices and jackets.  There was also some really crazy headgear.  

Back home and the car aquaplaned twice, again.  These days out are rather bad for my nerves.  The new Ikea is coming on apace, they are up to roof level and have electricity. We could go there for lunch, says OH.  I would be going there for, in the words of Nanci Griffiths, for unnecessary plastic items

(Love at the Five and Dime) Nancy Griffiths

If you don't know her, listen and love.