West of the Town

Saturday 24 May 2014

Open Day

Saturday. And I returned to France yesterday just in time for the open day at work. It's a family day, a chance to introduce your loved ones to where you spend much of your time, and in the words of the company, your passion.

Although I had no guests, I decided to go anyway. I had never been shown round the facility so it was a chance to see what there was going on in locations I had never had cause to visit.

And it was a cold blustery day.

So I arrived rather late to find I was one of the first. All on your own? he asked at the gate. Yes. The rest are in England.

I expected a lot of activity, fairground style, from the frequent emails banning cars from all the car parks. True, every park was used, but not to the full. It was clearly for the kids, but there were not many kids there yet. A large padded climbing frame was near the entrance, a food tent, then a car demo, and model racing cars. And round the corner a driving simulator, pictures below.



Open to all ages. When I was there there were so few people there was a spare seat and no-one but me to use it. So I sat down. Now you can see from the chair in the top photo that it is well constructed. It vibrates with the terrain, which was dirt track. The screen said "go" so I did. It wasn't easy to follow the guide line down the route. Just before the bridge I came off the track and struggled back to cross the finish line at the end of the bridge. It said I was 8th. Probably that was how many had used it so far! Some time later I saw a young boy finishing. He too came off the track before the bridge. He drove over the line to finish 3rd. He probably practiced a lot.

Here are some more photos from the day.




Inside I could find out about the business. It was interesting to me, but I shall spare you the details. I avoided the face painting and magic man, although the caricature artist was interesting. Here is an image of me taken by a specialist department resulting in adult face painting and caricature all in one.


Evangeline says it does not look like me, but I assure you it is. The temperature scale is on the right. Comments such as "hot head" will not be published.

Some things the French do particularly well. Catering is a speciality and I rather think they take some pride in it. Being early I could snap this 'still life' before it was spoilt. The champagne in the photo is mine, placed there to add to the style for the snap.


It rained a little.

Everyone settled into the food tent for a while. Which was fine.

Delicious in fact.


Wednesday 21 May 2014

Well it is Spain!

Yesterday I was relaxing in the hotel bar when the news item on the television showed matadors getting outdone by the bulls. I had no idea what they were saying so I supposed it was a review of the worst events, or something of the sort.

When I finished work tonight it was quite late and there were just 2 of us left in the office. I remembered to ask if bullfighting was still practiced in Spain.

"Of course" he replied, and he went on to say that the bulls are special. Well they look normal to me so I asked him to explain.

These bulls, it appears, have a favoured life. Allowed to roam on spacious fields and eat what they chose, it is a far better life than being farm-bred. And they are a specialist breed; since most bulls will ignore you, these are bred because they are aggressive and attack you!

Do they get eaten after the fight? Oh yes, the Spanish, I was told, don't like waste and the bulls are tasty! No difference there then.

I explained that some people would object to the sport. His response was genuinely surprised. "Why" he asked? It turned out to be hard to justify so I did not try hard.

So what about the news item? He explained that yesterday there was a bullfight in which all 3 matadors were gored by the bulls. They had only 3 so for the first time in over 30 years the fight had to be stopped. The BBC news item is here, with pictures.

It appeared that the bulls had won!

Just once in 30 years so no wonder it was a news item. Mathematicians can calculate from this the odds against the bull. They can't be good.

Terry

Envoyé de mon iPhone

Sunday 18 May 2014

Sunday Sport

The town of Jaén is close by and I don't feel like going far so I headed out there to see the sights.

There were lots of policemen stationed at junctions, even here at my starting point at Martos. I pass the first one on my best good-driver behaviour and turned onto the dual carriageway going north.

As I drove along, there appeared on the carriageway going south, police cars, motorbikes; both blocking the road and going slowly; and the a host of racing bikes in a great mass followed by loads of cars all sporting spare bikes on top.

It would have made a good picture as I was coming down a hill and I had a good view. I needed a camera savvy passenger!

And so I passed on to Jaén. I found a car park underground, and climbed out to explore. There is a big church in the town centre that I have visited before. The upstairs gallery affords some great views. I found my way in that direction.

At the church, there were hundreds of people dressed for running. I saw one registration with 999 on it. Music was playing and some more serious runners were warming up. However others were clearly there for the fun(?) of it as they came in all ages and all shapes and sizes!

I wandered passed them and found a place to sit in the shade of a tree. Others were there too, including more policemen and there was some anticipation in the air.

Fairly soon after, sportily clad people appeared and turning the corner in front of me, they descended the road. I took part by photographing them! Then they appeared again coming up the hill. Even by this point the front runners were far ahead of the back. They went round the circuit twice. Some running, others clearly finding it a struggle.

When the leaders did not appear for a third time, I assumed it was a 2 lap run (it did not look like it was a race for most people). I wandered back towards the car park, on the way passing the church again. This time the last of the runners were passing the far side, and some of the church were on the entrance balcony with musicians and loudspeakers. They were bringing out the service to the people. Just how much of the service each runner could hear I am not sure, but certainly more than they had expected.

Well it was Sunday after all.

Cordialement
Terry

Envoyé de mon iPhone

Thursday 1 May 2014

En Route

You never know what you will meet on the road, and it's why I leave a little extra time when travelling to the airport. Normally in Spain, the roads are very clear, but then today I was travelling at a different time than usual.

It is Wednesday, an odd day to fly in itself. But also the end of April, and tomorrow is a bank holiday (ok not in England, but it is in Spain and France). So there is lots more traffic on the road than usual.

Indeed, later in the day, the aircraft appeared to be particularly full too.

The view ahead

So what is this in the road? The big lorry in front has stopped and put his hazard warning lights on. And there are spires reaching to the sky ahead.

Whilst I am stationary I dare to snap a photo, but there are policemen all about so that's the only one. As you can see, the policeman on the left was unconcerned with me at the time.

After some traffic comes our way, it is our turn to pass the obstruction. The spires turn out to be part of a crane and there is a battered looking lorry-cab on the edge of the road. The event that precipitated the arrival of the crane is clearly long over. It's hot, and the police are interested only in moving the traffic.

I move passed- without taking a closeup!