Joaquima

Joaquima, her name means 'prepared', runs a fantastic corner stall in the local market specialising in olives and cod. Here you see her behind her bank of olives of many varieties/cures, and just in shot, bottom left, is one of the marble rehydration basins for the slabs of salted cod she sells. Apart from her many tasty offerings, many of which are pressed into our mouths by her generous fingers as little on-the-house appetisers, her jovial personality spreads bonhomie among all her customers who wait in line for their turn. She hadn't seen Dd for a while and was relieved that I still had her and hadn't traded her in for a newer model!

In other news, I've been working on renewing the padlock on the street chain which broke last night and needed men with massive wire cutters to open up access again. The new padlock is being soldered to its retaining chain, as I write, for installation this afternoon. The same men also managed to repair all the damage to the wiring of Françoise, our Deux Cheveaux car, after thieves ripped out her radio and tried to hot wire her the other night. If they were planning to use Françoise as a bank robbery getaway car they would have been disappointed in the 37 second 0-60 mph time! They failed in their start-up attempt - it takes me all my time with subtle variations of ignition spark, accelerator peddle angle and choke position to coax her into life - and I was left to pick up the pieces including all the contents of the boot scattered down the street. But she is once again road worthy and has been washed and scrubbed inside and out to rid her of any sign of intrusion. And I found an old five peseta coin in the process, so it wasn't all bad!