August 17th San Isidro

Well, an English Fool Abroad with his sketchbook hasn’t done a lot of sketching today, if truth be told. To be fair we had quite a lot to do today. Jen and I did the rounds in ALbatera this morning – chemist – papers – coffee – food shopping – bank, although not necessarily in that order. This meant that we could get to the hospital fairly early to see John.

Basically, once an adult has been admitted to the hospital here, then visitors can come and go at pretty much any time. Although I did have a look at the handbook they give you yesterday, and if my Spanish served me right – by no means a foregone conclusion – they do ask that you limit the amount of time that you bring children, and you bear in mind the times when the lifts are most in demand. Fair enough.

John certainly didn’t seem in worse than he was yesterday evening, and possibly a wee bit better. We knew that the doctor wanted to have a word with Jen, so we stayed. Quite a long time actually. That wasn’t a problem, but I was a little bit concerned about Jen as time went on. She’s a type 1 diabetic – I’m a type 2 – and while it’s not advisable for me to go missing out on meals, it’s not going to do me serious harm. However if Jen’s blood sugar gets too low, it can be serious. So when someone turned up to take John for tests, Jen decided it might be an opportunity to tell the people on the desk that we’d had to go, so that the doctor could ring if he wanted.

A short way from the hospital is a bar restaurant called the Ca Tona. Now, anything which brings to mind those awful Iceland adverts of a few years ago is, to my mind, to be given a very wide birth, but fair play, we went in and had one of the biggest and best steaks I’ve had in a very long time.

None of which is very entertaining to read about, I’m sure, but there we are, that’s my day. Jen went back to the hospital a few hours later – honestly I did offer and would happily have gone as well, but she preferred to go by herself. So I used the opportunity to make a sketch of one of the locations I scouted out last weekend, when I went for a walk around to see if there were any places nearby I hadn’t sketched before and would like to sketch. This is a house in the same road as the chemist’s. Now, last week John did tell me that the occupants of one of the houses in the street won a huge prize on El Gordo a while ago. El Gordo – literally ‘the Fat One’ – is the Spanish National Lottery. Apparently the winners haven’t moved, but have just had a ton of work done in doing up their house. I can’t say whether it’s this one, but the place is by any means to my mind a little bit grander than the other places in the same street.

Alicante Day Two (Written on August 11th)

Yes, An English Fool Abroad with his Sketchbook is still sketching. This is going to be a bit of a short post though, because although there’s been a bit of sketching there’s been precious little foolishness to write about. Basically I’ve been chilling out yesterday and today, and in all probability tomorrow as well. Don’t panic though. I’m planning on taking a ride on the choo choo to Murcia on Monday, and then into Alicante on Tuesday, and there should be plenty of opportunity for foolhardy Englishness there.

This morning, then, it got to about 11:00, and I did think that if I couldn’t shift myself, I’d have to leave it until the later part of the afternoon, since previous experience told me that it would just be too damn hot. So I just mooched around, taking note of buildings and places which I might like to sketch later on in the week. Last year I did make a watercolour and ink sketch of Jen and John’s house – although mostly it was of Jen’s Smart Car – but this year I couldn’t resist doing an ordinary ink sketch. However, I digress. Gradually I wended my not very weary way to my favourite public space in San Isidro. Incidentally, when I typed San Isidro on my kindle, the predicitve text decided to render it as San Weirdo. Hmm. You may recall that I got the local train from Alicante to San Isidro on Thursday. Well, the station here is very new, and was only built within the last few years. Now, when they demolished the older station which stood there, they re-erected the platform canopy, and the wall of the station building which faced onto the platform, in a street in the town. I’ve never been there for a performance but I understand that they do have music there sometimes. There are a couple of benches though, and it was pleasant to sit in the shade of the canopy and sketch a couple of the houses opposite. It would have been very pleasant if not for the flies. Oh well.

Later this evening we’re going to a ‘Spanish Evening’ in a place I sketched last year. Back then it was called La Cerveceria, but it’s changed hands since. A ‘Spanish Evening’ in Spain does tend to bring to mind a phrase containing the words ‘coal’ and ‘Newcastle’, but be fair, I’m not entirely clear of what the evening’s going to involve, but since we’ve all been asked to wear white, I’m guessing it won’t be that messy.

9) Spain - ALicante area - early August 2017

San Isidro Church nr. Alicante

 My mother in law, and my wife's stepfather live in a wee village called San Isidro, about 15/20 minutes outside Alicante on the Costa Blanca. The village itself was a new construct in the 1950s, and this modernist church dates from 1956. I'm not the greatest fan of modernism myself, but this building is clean and unfussy, and has a certain elegance. One thing I found about being in Spain was that the brightness of the light was an encouragement to be more adventurous with line and wash watercolour.

Backstreet roof garden San Isidro nr. Alicante

 I just liked this back street roof garden.

Former San Isidro Station platform shelter - San Isidro nr. Alicante

 Now, when they rebuilt San Isidro - Catral - Albatera station a few years ago, they did a very clever and rather wonderful thing. They took this, the back wall of the station and the canopy over the platform, and transplanted it in another street to provide a rather lovely public performance space. Bravo.

La Cerveceria - San Isidro - nr. Alicante

 This is the Cerveceria - a restaurant which hosted my mother in law's birthday party, while the painting below shows her house and smart car.

San Isidro Street - nr. Alicante