The last couple of days were cloudy and intermittently rainy. Finally on Friday, I got around the buying a second hand guitar from the music school down in the car park basement level of the building that houses St Andrew's church. It's taken me a while to make up my mind, but on days when going out didn't seem like a congenial option, I fancied that I was missing having a guitar to pick up and play. Roy, a retired musician who attends church introduced me to the proprietor of the music school who showed me some instruments he had for sale. He didn't do hire, but there was one instrument I tried which had an attractive voice. So, after a week of indecision, I decided to buy, and I'm not regretting the outlay of 160 euros.
It's a proper classical Spanish guitar from Muro de Alcoy in Valencia Provice, made by a company whose brand name 'Alhambra' and its in immaculate condition. My original classical Spansh guitar bought for me by my father when I was eighteen is also of Valencian provenance, a Tatay. During the past dark couple of days, when not watching Olympic skiing on TV, I've been picking it up and playing. My hands are stiff, so I need all the practice I can manage to get my musical memory to re-connect with my fingers, but it's such a pleasure. It's a lovely instrument, and I was lucky to get it at such a reasonable price. The question is now, will I eventually take it back to Wales? And if so how will I transport it safely?
Over this weekend, the BBC channels have finally disappeared from the Sky satellite channel. It's been on the cards for many months and much moaned about by expatriates in southern Spain, all affected by change in the orientation of the Astra 2 satellite. Watching the Olympics with Spanish commentary was, in a way, quite educational. Watching Ireland thrash Wales in the Rugby international on the RTE channel was a cross cultural experience of another kind. The Irish gift of the gab isn't displayed in high emotion or hyperbole, but in a fluent, educated use of words, less irritating more listenable than common BBC sports spiel. It was a pleasant surprise, despite the result of the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment