Odds and ends.

So, it seems as though summer has been and gone for 2012. We’ve had a week of sunshine and amazingly high temperatures for the time of year but it appears to be over and things have got back to normal. Well, almost: it’s not raining!

Funny things happen when the sun comes out here. Not only do legs come out but tables appear outside all the pubs and all the blokes – no, not all but far too many of them – feel that they have to bare their chests. Every pub becomes a seaside bar where a state of undress is the norm. Now, I understand that in Barcelona they have been applying bye-laws to prevent people from doing that except in … yes, you’ve guessed … seaside bars and more specifically beach bars.

I can just about understand the feeling that the sun is so rarely seen that you have to take advantage of it when it’s there but, really, there has to be a limit. And large expanses of white flesh at the roadside are just not what you want to see as you travel back from the town centre.

However, it has been very nice to be able to walk about in the sunshine without having to take extra layers with you and a raincoat in case of showers. Even the local mudbanks have dried up somewhat.

Mind you, if last year is anything to go by, that may have been summer that we just had. Last year we had a very nice April and May, I seem to remember, but after that the “summer” was a disaster.

Ah well, so it goes. This has been a funny week in other areas too. I discovered, to my surprise, that the Duchess of Cornwall, aka Camilla, have something in common: our admiration for the Danish police series, “The Killing”.

The Prince of Wales and his missus have been visiting Denmark and Camilla apparently asked especially for a visit to the set of “The Killing” where they are filming series three. It seems she is a big fan. It was very odd to see actress Sofie Gråbøl, who plays stroppy, rule-breaking, I-refuse-to-conform-to-your-norms Sara Lund, bobbing a curtsey to Camilla. But then, Denmark has a royal family so I suppose they are used to that sort of thing. Anyway, they gave Camilla the cardigan version of Sara Lund’s famous jumper and she was very pleased. If you want to see the curtsey, a hard thing to do when you are wearing jeans, here’s a link.

I’d like to share another video with you all. Someone sent me this link to an odd festival which forms a part of Carnevale in Sardinia. These Mediterranean places really know how to do processions.

And then in today’s paper I read an article about the playwright Eugene O’Neill, whose “Long Day’s Journey into Night” is being performed again in London, Now, the O’Neill’s seem to be a family who truly know how to do the guilt trip in a big way. First of all there’s Eugene’s older brother Jamie who had measles when he was about six and passed it on to his baby brother who died of it. The six year old was pretty well accused of deliberately giving his baby brother measles and lived guilt ridden for the rest of his life. There there’s Eugene himself. His mother suffered from what was probably postnatal depression after the birth of little Eugene. She was prescribed morphine and quickly became addicted. When Eugene reached the age of fourteen, his father and older brother decided it was time he knew that his decision to be born at that time effectively ruined his mother’s life and mental health. What a great family to belong to!!!

It’s been a funny old week.