To Paris

It seems as though I just arrived back from Ukraine and I am back off on my adventures again. I arrived back on Monday, went to a meetup but only two people came. Tuesday, we had our regular meetup but we sat outside for 45 minutes because the owner, Eugeni, was late. But that was his plan for the rest of the summer so we have to find a new place to meet. I chose Lapsus in Plaça de la Independencía for the next two weeks. And then I went along to Girona Grapevine on Wednesday morning at 11. The group really needs someone to be there early to grab a table because we cannot reserve a space. My favourite is below the passage near to the bar where I can pull three tables together. But three weeks ago, I wasn’t able to do that and we ended up in the middle of the bar. Then when a number of people arrived at mid-day, there simply wasn’t space for them. And I never know how many are coming anyway. I suggested taking another table close by, but this was resisted. One person said, “I think you are losing the war”. Another time, I was told to “move up” by one of the people coming at 12.

Sometimes this situation becomes a little fractious and I can do without that! 

This week, the same thing happened again but it was another of the members who ended up being the villain of the peace by refusing to “move up”. Instead she said that we should simply overflow to another table nearby. This makes sense but there were people who wanted to create an “L” shape of 4 or 5 tables. But there is no logic in this. People at either end of a long table can’t communicate anyway because they are too far apart so it makes no difference if we are on two separate tables or one enormous “L” shape!

I am writing this on a French TGV approaching Paris and all this arguing about tables is a long way behind me in Spain. I plan to relax and enjoy myself among my dear friends Tom and Louise.

I left home at 9am, took the 9.30 train from Celrà which arrived in good time to catch the TGV from the subterranean high-speed train station in Girona. I have to buy two tickets for the journey, one to Perpignan and then another from Perpignan to Paris. Otherwise I don’t get my discount.

Who says wifi isn't dangerous? This is what happened to my KitKat when I put it in my bag forgetting that my little wifi gizmo was buzzing away. It gets quite warm, so that is definitely dangerous for chocolate!

Tom and Louise were at the staton to meet me and we took the short ride to their apartment. Then, in the evening, we celebrated Tom's birthday in a restaurant near by.I had woken up really early and by about 10pm I was feeling really tired. We got back to the apartment at 11 and Tom and I tried to fathom out the sofa-bed in the lounge.

It was rocking backwards and forwards noisily but I found the solution by launching myself onto the bed at which pòint something somewhere locked into place and we were "go" for sleep. Except that, by now, I was a bit stressed and over-tired, there was noise from the courtyard outside and I didn't fall asleep until 2am, so I was rather zombie-like the next day.