Spanish Dream

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‘Spanish Dream’

A flashback to my time in Barcelona late last year (loved the sheer style of this old building!), on account of hearing on the news of lockdown restrictions lifting in Spain.

The country has suffered more than most with Covid-19, but it brought some joy to see footage of children who had been prevented from going outside for weeks, finally playing in the spring sunshine.

When I was there, there was an entire week of Catalan protests, culminating in marches involving over 500,000 persons. I had never seen so many people in one place in my life, let alone such purposeful and agitated crowds!

Contrast that with the deserted Spanish cities under lockdown currently.The television shots of the main centres have been emphatically eerie and quiet.

But the laughter of children running around in parks is a small sign that maybe are heading in the direction of our dreams, rather than being haunted by with a nightmare.

There are no people in my picture, but I hope that those cooped up inside the fantastical building  right now, and all around Spain, and elsewhere , get some sense of normality and freedom soon.

Stay safe until then!

 

 

 

 

Gravestones And Battlements

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It was a dismal weekday afternoon as we trekked towards Calton Hill in Edinburgh.

Then, joy of joys, just before  our destination I saw some stone stairs leading up to a small cemetery.

Like a rat up a drainpipe, I quickly found my way to this vista, with looming castle battlements to ice the proverbial cake.

Victorian gothic nirvana!

I would have lingered, but my wife and daughter were less than impressed with another funereal photographic detour.

I rejoined them, and when we reached the top of the Hill, the drizzle became hard rain, forming waterfalls down the steps.

So wet, so grey…and I was so happy with it all.

Sometimes I wonder what the f**k is wrong with me.