Sunshine and hailstones and other stuff.

This morning we woke up to brilliant sunshine. I was told it was cold but by the time we went out it was very pleasant. We were hunting for a souvenir shop. My English sister wanted to take a t-shirt for her youngest granddaughter. Up til today all we had seem had been the kind of internationally-sold t-shirts with lots of English slogans printed on them. What she wanted, however, was something that was clearly from here, El Puerto de Santa María. The trouble is that many of the places that sell what is basically tourist tat remain closed until the tourist season starts. In the end, though, we found a toyshop that sold just what we wanted.

We stopped and had a quick drink before returning for lunch, in between time making a birthday cake (that’s my Spanish sister and I) for our older sister (the English one] who has her birthday on Thursday. And so, after lunch, we sang Happy Birthday and made her blow candles out. The youngest of the party refused to join in the family photo but, apart from that, all was well.

My Spanish sister had prepared chicken fillets for lunch, accompanied by spicy rice ... and a plate of chips for my English sister, who refuses to eat rice, and a bowl of quinoa for her daughter and the daughter’s partner. Both of these are following a bit of a special diet, explaining to me that quinoa is essential to this as it is a “superfood”. So the superfoods are a big thing here as well! I was happy to try it but I can”t say it really had me demanding a lot more!

Looking out later in the day I saw that the blue sky had clouded over. Not only was it raining and blowing another gale but my nephew stepped out onto the balcony and collected hailstones! So much for being in the south of Spain.

Skimming through the papers this morning I came across this article by Fran Lebowitz.  She sounds like a sensible lady. Among other things she said, “ The only people who live in Australia are those who came to Australia and couldn’t face the trip back – I’m actually one of those people.”

Her opinion of Donald Trump is interesting too. She thinks the biggest danger of Trump is that he is a moron. “Everyone says he is crazy – which maybe he is – but the scarier thing about him is that he is stupid. You do not know anyone as stupid as Donald Trump. You just don’t.”

She didn’t expect Trump to win. “I had zero belief he would win. I have never been so wrong in my life. And being right is something I cherish. It’s really important to me to be right.” But she lived in New York which probably has a sort of political microclimate, giving a false idea of how the man in the street was going to vote.

Talking about guns she said, “Of course I don’t have a gun! Who are these people that love guns? These people who love Trump and they love guns, these are the most frightened people I have ever seen in my life. Who’s after you? They live in the middle of nowhere. I live in New York city and I don’t have a gun. No one I know has a gun.
In the early 70s, when I was more vulnerable in every way, it was really dangerous. I could have gotten a gun but I never got one. I was an 18-year-old penniless girl in the middle of a dangerous city and I was never as afraid as these men in Texas, living in a state of terror.”

 Maybe she is right in her views. I hear there has been another school shooting this week.