Coming and going – going and coming

Well, today I made what I expect will be my last Galician gazpacho for a while. We’re off to the UK at the end of next week with so many things to do there that we don’t have any clear idea of when we’ll be back. And as the hot weather continues and looks set to do so all over the weekend and into next week, it was time to make gazpacho again. No doubt I will do so back in the UK but it’s unlikely that we’ll really have the weather for it. Still, we are not downhearted; after all, you never know. The UK has had hot summers before. It just doesn’t seem to be happening at the moment by all accounts.

We seem to be spending every spare moment trying to get our belongings into bags and boxes, which is a nightmare so we keep sneaking time off to go and have farewell lunches with friends and, of course, a cooling swim in the pool.

And as we are about to disappear other, more famous, characters are arriving. Yesterday saw the arrival of a yellow character with a square head at Samil. Bob Esponja, aka Sponge Bob Square Pants, was appearing in his own show. Well, at Carnaval I saw a whole lot of small Bob Esponjas so I suppose it’s about time the real one turned up.

Two lucky families had the chance to get themselves covered slime during the performance. How good is that? You pay money to see a show at the seaside and then you go home covered in gooey, sticky stuff. Oh, I’m so glad my children are grown up!!

Perhaps a more serious appearance is the forthcoming one of the Pope in Santiago de Compostela. Because this is an año santo it was felt appropriate that he should visit but security was apparently an issue for the feast of Saint James in July and so they put off the papal visit. He’s not due to arrive until early November but a number of hotels are already full. Personally I think I’ll give it a miss because the hotels have put their prices up considerably according to reports in the papers. Some 4* hotels are charging up to 300€ a night and insisting on a stay of at least 2 nights. No chance of an overnight stop then?

This is what the papers describe as explotar al máximo la cruda ley de la oferta y la demanda. I don’t think we’ll be going even if we are back in Galicia.!