End of British Summertime

Life has largely got in the way of me updating the website during much of October, so as we reach the end of the month and put the clocks back to GMT (or whatever your local equivalent may be), it's a good opportunity to look both back and ahead.

The main event of October for me was a trip to Valencia, Spain's 3rd largest city, lying near the county's East coast. It was a short trip, a long weekend really, but it was great to get away from the big smoke and get abroad for the first time this year, which is remarkably infrequent by my standards.

For me Spain will always remind me of childhood holidays to Majorca or the Costas. Happily many elements that made Spain memorable back then remain. As I booked my flight very much last minute, I ended up taking indirect routes to avoid paying an arm and a leg. In the end this took me via Palma, Majorca on the way out, and via Madrid on the way back.

I looked forward to going to Majorca to rekindling some old memories. I wasn't staying there; in fact I only went between the terminals at the airport when changing flights, but seeing the distinctive windmills around Palma was heartening. I assume there are still the same twig-like sun shades on the beaches of the resorts. I've heard that many of the 1970s hotels are being knocked down and replaced by more modern constructions, but at least Palma airport was reassuringly 70s, which in some ways is part of my image of Spanish holidays.

Valencia was an interesting city: historic yet modern, by the sea but not a seaside town. It took a while to get used to eating at 10pm, and then on a few occasions going to a Valencia nightspot until 5am with my Spanish friends. I'm too used to British opening hours, obviously.

Although the reason for my trip was to visit a friend, the fact that the sun was shining, and the temperature was akin to a good 6-weeks earlier in the UK (i.e. summer), it made it feel all the more like a conventional holiday; something which, as much as I enjoy it, a winter trip to Sweden just doesn't convey :) It's years since I've been on a beach-holiday. Now don't get me wrong, this wasn't a beach holiday, but having visited the beach on a couple of occasions it was certainly the nearest I've been in a while. I suppose when you get to a certain age you want something more engaging than working on the melanoma, the city-breaks take over as the preferred type of holiday.

So it was: I had a fine few days in Valencia, and you can view the pictoral evidence on my photography website.

Now speaking of photographs I've got new content coming in that respect thanks to a new camera I've got. More soon on that.

Where did the summer go?

My God it's October already. The heating has been switched on in the building, the shops are (to the irritation of everyone I've heard from) filling with Christmas related merchandise, and we're a few short weeks away from the clocks going back.

I was hoping this weekend might allow a last glorious blast of summer, but it's not looking particularly likely so far, with Sunday looking like a potential washout. Nevertheless, if there's a sign of sun, I shall be making an effort to get out and about. At least it's still quite mild, and not unconducive to enjoying the great outdoors.