2008 : Summer holidays

I always think that during the holidays I will have time enough for writing, studying and/or water-colouring, but apparently it is not the case. I do not blame the weather that is fantastically bright and hot.
But the days are passing and I haven’t yet written a single text.

We are spending our holidays in Palamós as usual. We have come here for more than twelve years, in fact I used to come here when I was a child because it was the easiest place to come from La Bisbal by public transport.

We have met a lot of friends and family. We had a special lunch on the first weekend of our holiday, where all my cousins were supposed to assist.
My youngest sister, Paqui, organised the meeting, in Sant Feliu de Boada.

She had already done the same seven years ago but unfortunately I was the only one missing. Finally, this time, some of my cousins, living in Barcelona, couldn’t come; but even so we succeeded to be sixty two : nineteen direct cousins and relative spouses and children.

Most of the children were round the twenties, some of them came with their boy/girl friend.

It was very nice because these last times we only had met for funerals and sad situations.

It was the first time I saw Some of the younger.

To see more pictures to this event go here.

In our daily holiday rythm, we have more or less established a kind of routine. I try to get up at half past seven and I go for a jogging alongside the beach for more or less three to four kilometres. Evelyne, as she can’t jog anymore because of her knee problems, comes walking. Often she leaves fifteen minutes before me so we get to our destination more or less at the same time.
There we have a fresh swim round a quarter past eight when most tourist are just waking up. After that we have a coffee with milk and toasts and then we go back home. Sometimes our son comes with us on his rollers.

My daughter and her schoolmate friend Amandine stay at home sleeping till late. Sometimes when we are back they have already had breakfast themselves.

Then Evelyne and me, we go to the daily market to buy fresh fish and fruits trying to decide, depending on what is to be sold, which meal we could prepare.

We decide then if we go to the beach till three or four and have lunch just after we come back or if we stay at the apartment or go for a walk and go later to the beach, after having had lunch, round three till seven in the evening.

In the evening we go again for a walk and have a drink somewhere outside on the promenade while seeing the other tourist strolling.

From time to time we go to visit some villages in the nearby like Monells, Cruilles, Pals, Begur, etc. We use too to go to Peralada to increase our cava stock.

Traditionally one morning we go on food to the Cap Gros at three kilometres to the North to see the sunrise and then from Cala Margarida we observe the departure of the fishing boats from the Palamós fishing-harbour.

While I am on the beach I mostly read or listen to the music I have uploaded in my Ipod.
At the apartment I reorganise all the data, in my computer, because I have never enough time to arrange during the year.
I have decided to assign to everyone of my external disk drives a specific kind of data : music, data and documents, pictures and videos, films, etc and the biggest one is used as back-up of the others.

Since the arrival of the wifi era things have changed quite a lot. At the beginning it was quite easy to get connected to the Internet squatting one of the many open networks. Today only a few of the many accessible networks are unprotected. As the apartment we rent has no Internet connexion I am not able to access the Net apart from, time to time when I am in the courtyard, because there is still someone who apparently doesn’t cares or doesn’t know how to protect his network. Then I only consult quickly the emails as it is not a reliable connexion.

Adeu Ramón

J’ai une pensée, aujourd’hui pour mon ami Ramón Castiella, qui est décédé il y a deux jours à la suite d'une maladie grave et qui a été enterré ce matin à 11 heures.

Il avait mon age, 50 ans, nous étions nés exactement le même jour : un 10 novembre 1957.
Nous nous sommes connus sous le drapeau espagnol pendant que nous faisions notre service militaire ou plutôt nous nous somme rencontrés pour la première fois à la gare ferroviaire de Girona le jour que nous devions partir pour Cádiz.
Nous étions cinq, Ramon, Pep, Esteve, une autre gars dont je ne me rappelle plus le nom et moi, tous nés le même jour.
A peine arrivés à Cádiz nous nous sommes enrôlés dans la Légion espagnole et nous avons passé à peu près treize mois ensemble à Melilla.

Nous avons vécu des moments magiques. A cette époque le service militaire servait, pour certains, plus qu’à l’apprentissage du maniement des armes, à couper le cordon ombilical.
Pour moi c’était surtout me sortir de ma torpeur juvénile, de mon petit monde tout rangé.


Sans y toucher, j’ai ouvert les yeux, j’ai découvert l’existence de l’herbe, du « chocolat », j’ai fréquenté des délinquants; mais là nous étions tous logés à la même enseigne. D’autre part j’ai pris pour la première fois le bateau, l’avion … J’ai eu en main un arme, un fusil, j’ai utilisé un mortier, une mitraillette, etc. et j'ai noué des liens d'amitié très forts.

J’ai côtoyé aussi d’autres jeunes gens de toutes les provinces d’Espagne, cela m’a permis de connaître mieux les pensées des autres espagnols.

Venant de la même province. Parlant la même langue, le Catalan. Ayant une culture similaire, nous nous sommes forcement rapprochés.
Depuis notre séjour à l’armée, je suis parti vivre en Belgique, nous nous sommes revus, pas tous les ans, mais assez régulièrement.

J’ai une pensée surtout pour son épouse Milagros qui va se retrouver sans sa moitié au midi de leur vie commune.



















Je n'ai pas de photo récente de lui mais une photo de notre séjour à Melilla c'est celui qui sert le thé.