a late blogpost about competitions and winners of one sort or another.

Phil sent me a photo of himself having a glass of shandy after winning a chess game today. This is the fifth game in a row he has won in the Mondariz tournament. When I left Spain on Monday he was considering withdrawing from the tournament. He had asked for a “bye” - an agreed no-show which gets the player half a point - for the first three rounds as he was decidedly under the weather. Then he had lost Sunday afternoon’s game, much to his chagrin. So the general mood was one of gloom and, had he not won on Monday, he was considering pulling put altogether. But he won. And again on Tuesday. And on Wednesday and Thursday and Friday (today). This won him a prize. Clearly I should abandon him to get on with the chess business on his own more often.

I went into Manchester in the rather dull and gloomy morning to get my hair cut, to have my eyebrows tidied up, and to do a bit of shopping. On the tram gong into Manchester everyone was wrapped up, not quite hats and scarves but not far off. By the time I emerged from the hairdressers at lunchtime the sky had cleared, the sun had also emerged and the temperature had gone up. I regretted not having taken my sunglasses with me. The weathermen promise us more sunshine for the bank holiday weekend. We shall see!

Having done most of my Manchester errands, I phoned my daughter as there had been talk of visiting a phone shop to do something with the 16-year-old’s phone. It turned out she was a matter of two shops away from me with her partner and their small daughter. So we got together, did a bit of wandering and went for a late lunch at a place called Solita in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. Like so many people I know, my almost son-in-law gets vouchers for eating places one way or another. Consequently we ate quite well for half price. Not a bad deal at all.

People were busy on the streets with their phones, videoing indifferent musicians on Market Street, which sometimes has excellent musicians busking there, far more worthybof being put on Youtube. Inevitably they were also taking selfies. You have to prove that you were out and about! Yesterday I saw two people taking photos of themselves eating ice-creams in the rain. More specifically taking photos of the ice creams! The mind boggles! Mind you, we have no room to talk. After all, Phil sends me photos of himself drinking shandy!

Looking through my notebook for my shopping list later in the afternoon, I came across some notes I had copied from a Pontevedra paper a few weeks ago. This was about fiestas in a place called La Cañiza.

On the Wednesday, at 19.00, there was going to be a Masterclass de corte de jamón - a ham slicing masterclass. Well, it would be jamón serrano, which must be sliced as thinly as possible from the bone. Quite an advanced skill!

On the Thursday, at 11.00, they planned to start selling tickets at €5 each which entitled people to buy servings of jamón serrano. The price included ham, a glass of wine, bread and a napkin. 

Simultaneously the VI Concurso Nacional de Cortadores de Jamón, the national ham-cutters competition, would begin. Presumably this is the ham that people could buy servings of. But, just imagine a ham slicing championship!

At 12.00 the ham procession would take place, from the town hall to a designated square where at ... 

12.30 prizes would be awarded to the winners of the ham slicing competition. Oh, to be champion ham slicer!

In the evening, there was to be an “Espectácula infantil de animación”, basically a children’s theatre troupe. It was called “Laia, aprendiz de bruja”, which translates as “Laia, apprentice witch”.

Witches, as we all know, are a common theme in many Galician arts and entertainments. But, somehow, I was surprised and a little disappointed that no ham was involved!