Hangin' in the 'hood

Saturday, 10 February 2024: It didn’t start off to be a very nice day today, sun and cloud - mostly cloud - low teens. And windy. I bundled up and went out on my own in the morning for a walk around the neighbourhood. I tried to walk down blocks we don’t usually walk down, but it’s difficult. We’ve spent so much time in Ruzafa over the years. 

Ruzafa: random bit of street art

     Still, I did see some interesting little businesses I hadn’t noticed before, including an artists’ studio/gallery/atelier over on Carrer de Buenos Aires with some interesting-looking abstracts in the window. The artist - or an artist - was working on a painting at the back. 

     There are a lot of interesting arty businesses in the neighbourhood: ateliers teaching people how to paint or make pottery, small art galleries, eccentric little shops selling odd mixes of books, art, clothes, records, knick-knacks. How they stay in business is anybody’s guess. I’m sure many don’t last long. I really should take a notebook sometime and make an inventory of the more interesting little specialty shops. One I like that has been around for a few years sells nothing but berets that have been painted with funky designs. It’s rarely open.

    And then, slightly less interesting, there are the countless curated “vintage” shops, and bicycle rental agencies. The second-hand shops are a cut above the charity shops in Britain in terms of display and selection, but they’re also priced accordingly. 

The bike rental places  obviously cater to visitors. But the city-run Valenbisi bike-sharing service, while mainly for residents, is also available to visitors. You can buy a one-day ticket for €3.99 or a one-week pass for €13.30. It’s cheaper than most of the private rental agencies, and you don’t have to worry about locking your bike when you stop - although you can lock them. Instead, you just turn your bike in and get another when you’re ready to ride again.

After lunch/dinner, we went out for a walk together. We started off heading for the centre, thinking it wasn’t going to be sunny or warm enough - and a bit too windy - to sit anywhere comfortably. Once we were out, though, we realised it was warmer and sunnier than we’d thought, so we headed for Turia park. We ended up, as so often, at the foot of Carrer de Ciril Amaros at the Bridge of the Sea and the Bridge of Flowers. This time we sat on a sunny bench on the Bridge of Flowers - it has planters from one end to the other, crammed with geraniums, mostly bright red. The sun went in and out a few times but it was warm enough that we shed a layer and sat reading happily for an hour.

I’m reading a book called The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk. It’s his first novel, but he’s won prizes as a short-story writer. It’s an historical adventure with a fantasy element, set largely in Constantinople in the 1760s. Highly recommended…if you quite like that sort of thing. He’s a fine writer with an interesting cast of mind.

     Two somewhat odd-sounding movies I’ve been reading about recently that I want to see. A new Wim Wenders film called Perfect Days, about the daily routines of a caretaker who looks after public toilets in Tokyo. The guy’s a sort of Zen figure. Nothing much happens in the film, but it sounds intriguing. And it’s up for a Best Foreign Picture Oscar. 

     The other is The Taste of Things by the French-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung. He made a lovely film Karen and I saw years ago called The Scent of Green Papaya - also nominated for Best Foreign Picture. The new one is another in which little happens, except a lot of food preparation and eating apparently. It stars Juliette Binoche, which is never a bad thing in my opinion. Given that our repertory cinema in London is apparently on the ropes, my chances of seeing either seem slim. 

     We’ve started two new streaming series. We had been watching some old and slightly (or wholly) cheesy American shows. So these two are a nice change. Both look good. Expats, a four-part, Hong Kong-set psychological thriller starring Nicole Kidman, is brand-new on Prime.  One Day, also new, is on Netflix. It’s a British-made dramedy about mis-matched and unrequited young lovers, based on a novel by David Nicholls (whoever he is). 

Sunday, 11 February 2024: I went out for a run this morning. I was going to just do another fast walk, but then I got out there and felt like running. Well, jogging. Well, trudging. It was cold - supposedly 10C, but feeling colder with the wind. A short route: about 4K, around the railway stations. Gotta build back up slowly.

    In the afternoon, I went out again on my own for a walk around the neighbourhood.  Karen said it was too cool and cloudy. I had downloaded a little audio recording app to my phone with the idea I could take voice notes and begin my inventory of odd-ball shops in Ruzafa. Everything was closed, of course. Or almost everything. I did take note of a few places and photographed a couple mentioned above. I’d forgotten the beret painter also painted other kinds of hats - but mostly berets.

Ruzafa: random bit of wall art

     Cluttered “antique” shops are more a thing in the neighbourhood just east of the Central Market and south of Carmen, but I did find this one in Ruzafa, a kind of flea market in a shop front. Who buys this stuff?