Monday 28 November 2011
Charles slept till 10. (Of course, he was up till 2.) Every so often we remind ourselves that some mornings, when all necessities of life on the road had been arranged.... there was no need to get up early. There was nothing that had to be done by a certain time, no schedule, no alarm clock required. Dian went downstairs to the bakery next door (turns out the shopkeeper lived directly below us!) and brought back some slices of thick layers of veggies on a hard crust for breakfast. Different, and quite good.
Then we all took off for the local market, very large and wonderful but not impressive compared to the Mercado Central we'd already experienced. However, this one had a treasure just a few steps inside - Lucia, the Egg Lady. That's all she sold in her stand, but we noticed her shells on display, all sorts of characters made out of egg shells and decorated and painted. An entire school! Dian found out from her that she made and painted them herself, then immediately noticed that one of the figures had Lucia's face, which she confirmed with a delighted grin.
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| Lucia |
The ever-daring Dian could not resist the opportunity to throw out our "egg carton" riddle, but of course had to do it in Spanish. Amazingly, it worked! She let Nicole take the lead, since it was her riddle, and with Dian's input they not only puzzled Lucia for a while (to the point where she was ignoring customers and telling them to come back later!) but totally got the solution across. That must have been even harder than trying to tell a yolk, uh, JOKE in another language. Then Lucia came back with her own riddle, which the Latin-speaking American ladies sort of got, better when Lucia whipped out a pen and paper for illustrations. All were delighted by the very special cultural exchange.
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| Sending mail! |
Then it was off with homing pigeon Nicole to find the main post office, where we took a number and sat and sat until our turn came. We prevailed upon the patient clerk to put three kinds of colorful stamps from Espana on our package home, rather than a machine-generated strip, and it looked festive indeed, and hopefully would bring smiles to Dian's parents when it arrived. We took photos of each of us mailing a postcard by sticking our hands in the lion's mouth mail slot, and were led on to the grand market. We bought an antherium plant there as a thank you gift for Pilar's mother for letting us enjoy her beautiful home in her absence, and Nicole picked up a perfectly-fitting pair of jeans. Dian found a cool cap, then we headed off to find La Senora Henderson again, our "New Mexican" vintage store.
On the way we paused, as always, for Nicole to shoot street art she found worthy, and when Charles moved some dumpsters for her to get a better shot of a wall on a narrow little street, Dian made her move because she spied something behind sitting on a ledge, which turned out to be a thin wooden candle holder carving of Saint Peter.
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| Carmen on the left, St. Peter on the right |
We found the store after some indecisive wandering, and picked up an item we left there the last time, and a couple more scores: some more of the fascinating old photos (1963) of some unknown Spanish family, and a very colorful long scarf for Charles, exactly what he had been looking for to wear in Valencia and upon our return to show our Spanish neighbor Mariano in Santa Monica that he's not the only stylishly dressedEuropean man in the neighborhood. We met Sonia's mother Ernestina, and she and others in the shop declared immediately that our street find,
San Pedro was a piece of quality work, and that it was a fairly common occurrence to find things like that in Valencia, if you had your eyes peeled.
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| Lucia's mother helping Charles pick out a scarf, and tie it correctly |
Hunger beckoned us home for pasta, then Dian napped, Charles strolled and Nicole had some uninterrupted computer time. Then Charles proposed they finally watch the doc on his old journalism professor and world-famous mystery novelist Tony Hillerman, posted by his daughter Anne on Youtube, and that he had a surprise for the family: microwave popcorn to go along with the "movie." First time for that in four months, a treat that Nicole enhanced with slivers of Parmesan cheese carved off our big block. We called Dian's dad, then later her mom too when she returned home, had some fresh-off-the-stove lentil soup with onions and beef chunks, got busy posting lots of pics to the blog but with many to go finally called it a day. Another really good day.
The ever-daring Dian could not resist the opportunity to throw out our "egg carton" riddle, but of course had to do it in Spanish. Amazingly, it worked! She let Nicole take the lead, since it was her riddle, and with Dian's input they not only puzzled Lucia for a while (to the point where she was ignoring customers and telling them to come back later!) but totally got the solution across. That must have been even harder than trying to tell a yolk, uh, JOKE in another language. Then Lucia came back with her own riddle, which the Latin-speaking American ladies sort of got, better when Lucia whipped out a pen and paper for illustrations. All were delighted by the very special cultural exchange.
Hunger beckoned us home for pasta, then Dian napped, Charles strolled and Nicole had some uninterrupted computer time. Then Charles proposed they finally watch the doc on his old journalism professor and world-famous mystery novelist Tony Hillerman, posted by his daughter Anne on Youtube, and that he had a surprise for the family: microwave popcorn to go along with the "movie." First time for that in four months, a treat that Nicole enhanced with slivers of Parmesan cheese carved off our big block. We called Dian's dad, then later her mom too when she returned home, had some fresh-off-the-stove lentil soup with onions and beef chunks, got busy posting lots of pics to the blog but with many to go finally called it a day. Another really good day.
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