Sights and sounds of Sunday.

Down at the Carrefour roundabout yesterday morning there was a certain amount of bustle and activity. They were blocking off one carriageway and setting up refreshments stalls. A sponsored race of some kind to raise funds for cancer research, for the Asociación Española Contra el Cancer, was about to take place. At least that's what it looked like. 

I asked at the breadshop. The weather witch's aged mother knew nothing about it. So it was not just me who had missed some moderately important notice then. It's quite hard to understand an aged weather witch when she gets a bit excited and talks fast, especially when she is sucking a boiled sweet at the same time. I did, however, manage to understand the story she was telling me of a woman who won hundreds of thousands on the lottery and gave a quarter of it to cancer research. Good for her! 

The morning was full of the distant sound of sports commentary over a public address system, not quite loud enough to make out what was being said but close enough for the intonation to be heard. There is a special intonation for sports commentary here in Spain, just as there is one for public safety announcements in bus stations and train stations throughout the UK. The Spanish sports commentary has a tone of contained, detached excitement, with a singsong rhythm that isn't quite natural to speech while UK bus and train station announcements always sound like a condescending infant school teacher talking to a demented group of small charges. I find both annoying but the second one especially so. 

Other sounds of the morning were those of gunfire. On the other side of the bay there must be a firing range of some kind. Either that or somebody goes out hunting there on a Sunday morning. For we have noticed this phenomenon quite often before now. The sound echoes around so that it is difficult to work out exactly where it is coming from. Puffs of smoke on the hillside between Moaña and the Rande Bridge reveal the place however. You can't hide much from us! 

The rain managed to keep off throughout the morning so we had an early lunch, intending to go out for a walk up to A Guía in the relatively early afternoon. Since we got here almost three weeks ago Phil has been chained to the computer, meeting a translation deadline and this was the first time he had felt free to take a longish walk. Inevitably the rain set in immediately after lunch and we had to postpone our promenade. We did get out later and did walk to A Guía, opting to take the coastal path instead of walking up to the chapel lighthouse. And it did rain on us again but we were well on our way by then. Besides, we had gone prepared, umbrellas at the ready, That's the way it goes. 

Today the sun seems to be back, although a little hesitant, hiding behind intermittent cloud. I have been back in the pool. A bit chilly but I managed. We have standards to maintain after all!!