Is this winter?

It was hard to take Katie seriously while she sported Oscar’s sunglasses, one lens raised jauntily, but, despite her comical appearance, her comment over our pre-lunch snack was undeniably astute: ‘When was the last time you ate anything outside in Canada in January?’

Warmth is something that people from temperate climates take for granted.  Fair enough, I’m sure that I take a whole host of things for granted that others find as joyous and wonderful as I do the warm, sunny days of winter here in Valencia.  I don’t think the novelty will ever wear off.

In fact, today was such a nice day that we kept Oscar home from pre-school so that we could all hang out together, do some shopping at the Central Market and soak up some of the 20ºC+ heat.  As evening approaches it’s clouding over and the temperature is dropping (about 12ºC) but it’s been a great day.  It might not be strictly considered good parenting to make your child play hooky (hacer novillos) but he’s not even three yet and it won’t be for much longer that we’ll be able to steal time away like this.  I just had to do it…  The nice thing is that when I called the school to say that he wouldn’t be coming in they were just happy to hear that he wasn’t sick again - two illnesses since starting just over a week ago!  While dialing I felt oddly illicit but they seemed glad that Oscar was going to have a fun day with his parents; and why shouldn’t they?

We strolled the streets of the old quarter and loved our time on the sunny patio in the photo above, as you can see from Katie’s goofy pose, but in reality the food wasn’t anything special.  I feel that I’m overdue to share some favourite spots for food and drink, as well as regional delicacies and - of course - wines, but I’m just not ready.  You’ll have to wait and let me explore a little more.  I promise not to let you down in the long run.  I might even share a few insights tomorrow…

Stay tuned…