May 12 A Windy Day

 Today was an exciting day - I finally met up with some expats - this was the knitting group I found out about on an expat facebook page.  They turned out to be a wonderful group of women.  The women who started the group, Joy, introduced me to a lot of the members - I ended up talked to only about 4 of them in depth.  The women seem to be mostly from England and Scotland with a few extraneous members from Canada and Ukraine.  I hope to go back next Friday and talk to some of the others.  I found it very interesting that the women from Canada introduced herself as being from "America".  At first I was taken back - but of course she has as much a right to call herself American as I do.  She said she was from Toronto and I replied that I was from Albuquerque, NM.  I hope to talk to her more next Friday as the experienced of moving to Spain from England or Scotland is so different depending on whether they moved pre or post Brexit!  Being from Canada would be more like moving from the US.  

Our conversations moved all over.  "We have Boris", they said, " So, what do you think about Trump?"  Religion even came into play.  And of-course I had all kinds of questions about their moves to Spain.  The two hours sped by very fast.  Joy mentioned to me where I could get yarn and knitting needles - but I have a complete supply at home!  

Michael and I stopped at the tram station to by the tram card for our area.  The Tram line going from Alicante to Danai goes across three zones.  I believe you can buy 3 different cards where you get discounted rides.  Or you can buy a ticket for each ride.  The card we bought will work for us to get to Alicante and almost to Benadorm.  We will figure the rest out later.  

Joy had suggested a restaurant just across the street from out apartment to get fish.  So we headed their next.  It was very good and not too expensive.  Michael had maceral and I had bass - both were served with 3 small slices of potato and a tomato/squash fish.  We also got an artichoke appetizer and a roe sandwich appetizer.  Both were good.  

While I had been at the women's group, Michael had gone on a long walk.  He ended up going home earlier to take a nap, but when I texted him he came to get me to go out to lunch.  After lunch I felt the need to walk off all the food, so he went back to the apartment and I set off along the board walk.  The skies had gotten very dark and the wind had picked way up.  I wanted to get my walk in before the rain started.  I got a good walk in before I felt the stinging rain starting.  I made it back to the apartment before it started pouring.

The winds are whipping up the waves.  

I did not notice the wind surfers were out again until I was back up at the apartment.  As you can see most of them are wearing wet suit.  but even they do not stay out when the rain starts pouring down.

When the rain started pouring down - they all left the water.  But before they did - it was fun watching them leap up and fly through the air before they landed back in the water.  I never caught that action!