Waking up to another bright and sunny day certainly infused me with fresh impetus to tackle a few tasks I've left undone from sheer inertia. First, I went and topped up my bus fare card in the estanco down the street. I assumed it was empty, and was surprised to find it still had enough on it for three journeys at €1.30, plus the €10 top up. So why did the card keep throwing up read a read error when I tried to use it on the bus?
I walked to what I thought was the bus card office on the Alameda, only to learn after queuing for ten minutes that it was only the bus card top up office, and that I needed to visit another office further down the Alameda that deals with card issues. Never mind, I was pleased that I succeeded in explaining the problem and understanding the answer without recourse to a word of English, and the same in the card issue office. Here it was explained (I think) that my 20 month old card still worked and was good for 5 years, but the card issued wasn't was of a slightly different type, and not really what was best suited for city journeys of up to an hour with no change of bus to a different fare zone. Better still, the new card fare simple trip charge is €0.97 instead of €1.30! Ironically, it wasn't the Spanish that gave me problems but actually understanding how the fare structure operates with this technology. I've read it on the EMT website, understand the language but the concepts are a mystery. Never mind, cheaper fares with make up for this.
Mission accomplished, I wandered over into the shopping streets and found a substantial bookshop which would be the equivalent of a UK Waterstone's in terms of variety on offer. I fancied buying a poetry book, to practice reading and decoding an artist's text work. At home I have a book of Pablo Neruda poems, which has given me enjoyment. Up on the third storey, I found several of his works and bought a slim volume of his early love poems, which has become a classic. I also discovered the shop had an extensive section devoted to religious books and scriptural texts, a couple of dozen shelves. The bookstore we'd visited while searching for a Spanish New Testament for my birthday sent us to a specialist religious shop, as nothing of this kind they had in stock. Maybe there's some kind of ideological fault line in the bookselling world, I wondered at the time. Evidently not. It's a matter of getting to know the diversity of the market offers, here as everywhere else.
Then, heading back for the apartment, I stopped at a religious supplies store in an alley near the Cathedral, to get Amanda the rosary she recently asked me to buy for her. The shop had one made from Jerusalem olive wood, which I thought she'd appreciate. Encouraged by today's absence of setbacks, I decided it was time to pluck up my courage and mount the motion sensing light over the apartment doorway. It was somewhat tricky, as the landing lights are on time switches, and I had to stand on a chair and use a screwdriver up over my head, in order to secure it. It's not all that bright, and maybe it could be in a better position, but at least it illuminates the double key hole in the door.
So now I don't have to walk across the landing in the dark and switch on the light, then return to lock the door - menos mal - as they say. I understand that the antiquated lifts are soon to be replaced, and hopefully with that the apartment block will get motion sensing lights through the stairwell. Present glumness certainly detracts from the attractiveness and value of these prime location properties.
After supper, I walked to the port as the sun was setting. The millionares' residential cruise ship was getting ready for a departure just before midnight. In the sky above, the new moon was descending towards the city skyline with one other brightly shining object nearby. Venus? Or the International Space Station maybe? Amazing either way.
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