Saturday 17 August 2019

My Brother's Keeper

"My brother's keeper" is an old saying which derives from the story of Cain and Abel in the Old Testament but I thought about it yesterday!
I was in Cadaqués taking photos for my greetings cards (I will turn them into paintings). 


I was walking along a path several metres above the sea when I came across one of many restaurants but, being British, I immediately noticed that one guy's chair was perilously close to the edge - there was no protecting wall, nothing, just a sheer drop of several metres onto rocks. I spoke to the waiter and suggested it was a little dangerous. His reply was my least favourite saying in Spanish, "Es lo que hay". I persevered and spoke to the family group. They were French and were very receptive to my faltering French, they were relaxed and happy. The man's response was similar to the waiter's which surprised me because I imagined the French as being a little more like the English. We joked about it, I attempted to say, "I guess it makes life more exciting" in response to their saying more or less the same, but I couldn't remember the word in French. They helped me out, "excitant". I left with good relations abounding but I didn't go back that way.


But I cannot help myself, this is the way I am. Most people's response would be the same as the waiter's and just walk by with a (gallic, because Cadaques was full of French visitors) shrug of the shoulders. But I think, in general, the Brits are more aware of risks, sometimes too much so. But some things I see here, especially at the railway crossing at my local station, scare me. I have given up trying to warn RENFE that to sound the train horn when it is only 50m from the crossing is somewhat too late. It should be ten times that.

My view of the human race is not to walk away but to consider that we are all connected in some way and that we should say something if we see a dangerous situation.
It is funny, because I also said something in the bus between Figueres and Cadaqués, where other people may have turned a blind-eye. There were two young girls about 24 obviously in love with each other in the seat diagonally in front of me. The aisle seat was even reclined to enable the passionate kissing. I said, "Por favor", and they stopped. The girl by the window was obviously the more passionate of the two, to put it politely. Soon they were at it again. I wasn't going to move for sure. I suggested they move to the rear seat of the bus if they wanted to do it. I said that it was "maleducado" which means "impolite", that it was OK to do it in private of course, but not in public. I said that it was the same for heterosexuals also, I wasn't commenting because they were two girls. Sorry, hehe, I don't have a photo!


Here is the great man himself! I took many photos, looking for different angles. There were lots of people in Cadaqués and at one point I was regretting coming here in August as the bus crept forwards in the traffic queue entering the town. But I'm glad I went. If the mood takes me, it would be a shame to wait. 
I had arrived by taking the regular train to Figueres and there was a 30 minute wait for the bus (in fact a little longer because its arrival was delayed by 15 minutes). The journey was rather tedious (enlivened by the two girls) because it went into Roses on its way to Cadaqués.
I felt sorry for my friends who had Thursday off because it was a holiday. It was cloudy and it rained in Girona. And here, the following day the sky was blue again as you can see.
On the return, I took a bus at 5pm directly to Girona which would have arrived at the bus station at 7pm. But, as it was approaching Hospital Trueta, I calculated that the bus leaving for Celrà at 6.40 would soon pass by in the opposite direction. So I jumped off the bus at the hospital, crossed the road, and 5 minutes later, the bus to Celrà arrived. I though that was pretty cool! If I had gone all the way to the bus station, I would have arrived back home an hour later.
Here are a few photos but I took loads more.