Wet day

I thought it was time for an antidote to all those pretty dune blips! This is a very typical road for this area, with a typical amount of traffic on it (you'll need to go large to see the traffic). It rained steadily and heavily from sometime during the small hours till about 5 p.m. -- the first really wet day we've had. It's cleared up now, but it looks as if more rain is on the way.

We decided to break the working day up by going out for lunch, to a hotel on the outskirts of Deltebre. It was another place where they gave us the overpriced tourist menu. But we've got wise to this now. "Do you have a menu del día?" asked S. "Of course!" replied the waitress brightly, returning with a smaller menu. It had equally interesting and more varied choices on it; two courses, water, wine, and bread for 12 euros a head. It was very good value too. S had some deep-fried calçots with Romesco sauce and I had a copious Caesar salad; then we had duck breast kebabs, and iberico pork fillet in mushroom sauce. The place seems rightly popular with locals.

Yesterday evening we went to see The Grand Budapest Hotel. We were totally confused for the first twenty minutes, a confusion enhanced by difficulties following the Spanish dialogue. But we relaxed once we figured out that understanding the detail of the plot wasn't really important -- it's all about the way it looks, plus the over-the-top cameo performances. It reminded me of Jeunet and Caro films (Delicatessen, Amélie), which I love. Nearly every frame was visually stunning, there were great visual jokes, and we enjoyed it -- though I'm sure we'd have liked it even more with the original dialogue.

On a serious note, today is chaiselongue's birthday. On this day last year, she was enjoying sunshine and colour in Mèze. She's still missed, and my thoughts are with LoJardinier.