It's Hot Up Here

It’s actually quite hot here.

You don’t feel it so much because it’s a very dry heat but when you inhale through your mouth and it goes totally dry you know it’s hotter than you think. This evening Brett remarked that I had caught the sun on my face, but I’d only been outdoors to walk the two-minutes to and from work and for a forty-minute lunch break where we sat in the shade for most of the time. I’m clearly going to need to be well-oiled in Sitges to avoid coming home looking like a lobster!

Work was very smooth today. I was essentially deconstructing and then rebuilding a server and I’d anticipated the job running into the night but in the end I was done by 6pm so it meant I got to go home and have a nap before we went out in search of dinner.

I had managed to forget to pack any form of guidebook to Madrid, so we were entirely in Brett’s hands (as he’s been here more than I have) to find the kinds of places we wanted to be.

We had dinner at a restaurant overlooking the fountains in Plaza de Colón where my fish came with what looked like an entire bulb of garlic chopped and deep-fried! I forced Brett to eat some of it too so he won’t notice the reek so much tomorrow… Rather worrying experience when we asked for the bill though; two of my credit cards were declined. A couple of concerned phonecalls later though and there was nothing to worry about; one of them had been the waiter’s incompetence (not asking me to enter the PIN) and one of them had been mine (late payment on a new card) so we paid by cash and went on our way.

Our way took us along the Paseo de Recoletos and around into the Justicia area, which has some gay life to it apparently. We were really there too early for much to be open; Madrid is a late night city and sadly I’m not up to that kind of partying when I’m working, but we wouldn’t have minded a drink or two before bed. Alas we weren’t really too sure where we were going and the madrileños seem to be rather shy about flying their rainbow flags which didn’t help either. We kept passing pairs of guys, who we judged to be family, but no matter which street we took they all seemed to be going in the other direction; very confusing. In the end we decided to call it a night and that Brett would come back this way tomorrow to pick up a gay map from one of shops we saw.