Home later today after a whistlestop visit.
My family are all staying on for much of the week.
Although I know the train system well. I will book a taxi to the airport
The girl from Ipanema is playing in the restaurant this morning
The Plaster For Most ills
Tim with Sitges friend 2018
Like most families, mine can be slightly unpredictable when arranging a meet.
Someone is distracted and is late, someone wants to eat early, someone forgot the time, someone( like me) is invariably early.
I’ve learned to go with the flow.
We generally all get together when we need to.
Last night was my brother in laws birthday. We all arranged to meet at our usual table for 8.30 pm so I donned my second best I love Sheffield T shirt and went out to a gay bar around the corner from La Santa Maria for an early drink beforehand .
Minutes later I was talking to Greta, a rather shopworn and heavily made up German lady in her seventies.
She was sat at the bar reading a Spanish magazine.
Initially I thought she was in drag but as it turned out darlings she was indeed a elderly Austrian former Opera Singer from Barcelona.
All this information I gleaned moments after she referred to my T shirt
“Sheffield…I sang there in the 1980s, It was a beautiful city as I recall” she sang out
Now Sheffield, in the 1980s as anyone from the iron city would tell you , wasn’t very pretty at all and after a bit of banter I actually found out that Greta had in fact sang at the Grand Theatre in Leeds and had been a chorus singer on stage for over thirty years, most of it at the Opera houses in Barcelona and Valencia.
“I was never disciplined enough to be a good performer “ Greta confided “ Too much good living”
She tapped her glass and I bought her a beer
“ it’s too hot for anything stronger” she confided and she waved amiably at a group of gay men who were getting up to leave their table all of whom waved back and blew her kisses.
“ The Gays love Opera! “ she explained.
She chatted about Montserrat Caballé, who she said was always delightful to the “chorus folk” and talked fondly of her funeral which she said was supported by the Spanish Royals indeed.
I found her an absolutely delightful character and would have stayed longer if I hadn’t somewhere to go
When I stood to leave she asked me if I was meeting a young man and I told her I had family to catch up with
“ Ah family” she emoted wistfully, the bangles on her thin arms jangling loudly
“ The Plaster for most ills”
And she waved me goodbye
I go back home tonight.
It’s been a lovely 72 hours or so….and Greta was right…..family is the plaster for most ills in the world
In the restaurant , The die hards proved that last night when we drank the last drinks of a honest evening
Sharing stories, until then untold, around the safe dinner table
( written 0022 Monday 8th)
Killing Me Softly
As usual I’m sat at a table with my coffee.
For me, this is Sitges’ best time of day.
La Santa Maria Hotel has changed hands since we were all last year and the German Matriarch Uta who owned and oversaw everything has been replaced by a faceless manager from a chain of hotels.
The place has been streamlined and changes made, most noticeably. In the guise of the Maître d, who is now a 1980s dressed bundle of nerves with a quick temper and bad manners.
But breakfast time remains what I always remember it as being.
Cheese and sausage and scrambled eggs
Lovely coffee and
Peace and quiet.
A Spanish version of Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly is playing on the radio and The famous Church of Bartomeu and Santa Tecla has rung out the quarter to nine chimes
This pleases me
We are all talking last night of the significance of having a regular family holiday at the same resort in the same hotel when there are too many new places in the world to visit, and I would agree with that sentiment .
From this post covid year I intend to visit new places and make new experiences
But for a few days in a blistering August, it’s still lovely to be catching up with the familiar and with family.
To touch base over coffee and drinks
To remember and to celebrate.
And With the swift’s screaming in their fish shoal circles around the Town’s Church tower, it’s easy to realise that most things don’t change too much.
Sitges Bound
I can’t be arsed with much luggage
T shirts, shorts, undercrackers a book,
iPad and phone
Family reunion here I come, up at 2 am for airport
If this one is cancelled I’m off to Sheffield
Fact
A Māori performance is called a Rotorua
The performers flutter their hands quickly, a movement called wiri, which can symbolise shimmering waters, heat waves or even a breeze moving the leaves of a tree.Angitū Whakawātea • Tāmaki Haka Ngahau 2022
Sometimes a group of Maori choristers belting out an Adele tune is exactly what you need on a Thursday Evening/Friday Morning
the power of the harmony is phenomenal.
Watched, in part a sobfest kannada film with a patient called Charlie 777 which had me and a patient crying buckets
and that's without effin subtitles!!!
Meatballs
This is a nice old video.
William, old Winnie and George have long gone leaving Mary as matriarch with the ever neurotic Dorothy as back up but it’s important to remind myself that the new Puppy will find his way, like his predecessors did, with the help of Swedish meatballs and some continuity of care.
I’m a firm believer of succession planning when it comes to dogs. Having one in back up never dulls the pain of losing an older dog, it just makes is tolerable.
Dogs also do better in a larger group, I always think. They become more reliant on each other and less reliant on you , which makes the whole pack stronger and more adaptable to change
Mary and Dorothy need a male dog’s presence.
They spark off each other too much with Dorothy’s blind love for me dominating the pecking order a little too aggressively.
Winnie, was the calming voice in the pack.
Now it will be hopefully up to Roger who,
I hope , when older , will be able to step up to the mark and control the girls.
I’ve always, always wanted a dog called Roger.
In fact I really don’t know where the name Finlay , came from, when my first Welsh terrier arrived .
Roger was always going to be his name
Roger was Gerald Durrell’s first dog and his first friend.
He was the constant supporting actor in Durrell’s My Family And Other Animals and Birds Beasts and Relatives and The Garden Of The Gods and followed his ten year old master all over the island of Corfu
What was your childhood dog called?
La Santa Maria
Between now and 7 am Saturday morning , I have to squeeze in two night shifts , one visit to someone in hospital, and a date with a rather sweet guy for dinner.
Early Saturday morning , ( God Willing) I shall be flying to Barcelona in an effort to meet up with my family over in Sitges. Just for a couple of days
I’m only going for three days, I’ve got night shifts and a visit to London to fit in after that to see Nu’s Christmas gift of Too kill A MockingBird at the Gielgud
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