Time and weather and results and such.

Well, here we are, halfway through June already! Where does the time go? People around here are complaining that it’s halfway through June and summer hasn’t got going. They were lulled into a false sense of security by having a very mild winter and now summer is eluding them. Granted, it did rain absolute bucketsful in the night; it woke me up several times. And my normal running route around the Castro was rather muddy. It made me feel quite nostalgic for the muddy Delph Donkey Line back home. OK, I exaggerate, but it was very soggy. 

Despite the rain in the night I don’t think people have a lot to moan about here. Temperatures of between 15° and 18° first thing in the morning (well, 9 o’ clock feels like first thing to me) are not at all bad. I know people in the UK who are seriously considering turning the heating back on. 

And even though I took my waterproof when I went out for a run this morning, the weather has improved and the sun has come out. The sea out by the Islas Cíes looked very blue from the top of the Castro when we went up there this afternoon. No complaints, OK? 

UK folk should be feeling reasonably cheerful, however, as England managed to beat Sweden at football last night. It wasn’t quite the resounding victory of Spain against Ireland from the previous night but 3:2 is still a win. We watched it in a cafe again and found ourselves with a small dilemma. 

What is the paying protocol if you want another beer but a Spaniard has already “invited” you? When a Spaniard says, “Os invito yo”, it means he’s going to pay. Now, this is what happened last night. We went for “just one beer” after chess club closed in the cafe on the corner, another place with free tapas by the way. On the previous couple of occasions, we have paid and it was clearly getting to our Galician Spanish friend’s pride. So as we went in he declared, “Os invito yo.” Fine, no problem. But then England’s match was on the TV. 

As the tension mounted and the “just one beer” had been drunk, there were still about 20 minutes to go. We needed more beer. If you’ve been “invited” where does this leave you? 

In the end we ordered more beer and an extra coffee for our “host” who insisted on paying anyway. So there you go. 

I mentioned yesterday the importance of wifi cafes and our obsession with not overusing the allowance on the mobile dongle. Well, last night we got a message form Vodafone saying we have used up 80% of our THREE MONTH’S allowance already!! 

Oh, bother!!! Just when I need to keep track of my last ever group of sixth form students. They’re all coming to the end of their degree courses and posting their results on Facebook. One Master’s successfully completed, two 1sts, possibly another 1st as well but so far unconfirmed, a 2.1 and a 2.2 to date. I need to be able to access Facebook to find out what they are doing. 

So it’s off to the nearest wifi cafe again now.