83 - J moins sept 2: la revanche - Biarritz

 Wednesday, June 12

The return to work.  I spent all day to learn a few more things about what's needed to get the purification equipment online fulltime, we'll try out a few things tomorrow.

Behold, a pain au chocolat 🤣

After work, I hit the beach.  The waves were a bit heavier today than before but fortunately there wasn't any sort of strong current.  I made my way out to just shy of the tip of the rocher, past a landmark rock the waves started to really get big.  I know that I'll have to swim past the rocher de la vierge for the race next Saturday, but I'll feel better about that with clear course buoys marked and a rescue team on-hand  😅

I've gotten quite used to wearing the espadrilles to the beach; they make much less of a slapping sound than flip-flops during the walk.

Dinner was at the rooftop of Olatua again to benefit from the clear skies and the sunset.  It wasn't as clear as the last time so I didn't get the flash of green as the sun ducked behind the horizon but it was still a lovely (yet chilly view.  I hadn't realized how windy it was atop the rock when I was down at the little beach, so I was starting to shiver in my jeans and t-shirt, hoping that a server would bring me a blanket since they just started handing them out to every table.  Sadly, no blanket came to me but maybe its for the best, being cold I skipped dessert.  

This time I was seated closer to the aquarium side of the restaurant and could catch glimpses of the seals mulling about in their tank. 

If not for the wind, maybe the umbrella would have been up and my window would've been slightly wider 😅

No green flash this evening, but my sunsets here are numbered so I'll take what I can get.

Thursday, June 13

Caught up with my desk mate after his vacation this morning.  Apparently Bruce Springsteen had to cancel his concert in Marseille due to illness but he enjoyed the vacation all the same.  

Work had me bouncing between the workshop and office, I'm really glad the operator working full time on this startup had a lot of patience because these last few steps across the finish line are agonizingly slow.  A representative from our German vendor was watching the testing with us to ensure things were coming along and that new parts were functioning properly.  He gave me a good chuckle: while I was explaining a ramp in a measurement I saw, I kept using my right hand and forearm to illustrate the ramp.  After a I'd signaled the ramp few times, he said, "you know, if you come to Germany, you should avoid doing this motion." It caught me off guard and took a few seconds to process but then I was chuckling to myself for the rest of the afternoon   😂

After work, I made my way to the beach for a swim again.  This time, I set up a workout on the new Garmin watch my brother gifted me and it seems pretty dang accurate.  Initially, the water was very calm, I must've arrived at slack tide, so I went out for a few laps to the point and passed other swimmers.  I cut my third lap short, I noticed a shift in the waters: the wind was picking up and the waves had gotten much bigger. My watch says my total distance was 1.9 miles, which seems about right based on the layout of the 1.5km race.  

Dinner was at a place called Los Dos Hermanos, it looks very unassuming from outside but is really quiet cozy inside.  The ambiance and food were just what I needed this evening.  

Starting things off with some sangria and herring!  It took me a while to figure out that the bar keep was ringing the bell every time somebody payed their bill.  And here I was thinking the whole place was about to get a round of shots 🤣

Friday, June 14

A busy day in the plant but not particularly busy for me: we've reached the point where my presence in the control room isn't as necessary, which is a good thing.  That means things have settled down and are proceeding closer to as expected rather than holding our breath to see what happens next.  With the extra time at my computer, I was able to sift through the data of the past few days and reach out to some folks to solicit a 2nd opinion; I'm scratching my head about what we're seeing but I think we need to measure a pressure where we currently don't have an instrument to truly diagnose what's going on. 

I grabbed the fixings for a quick lunch at the Intermarché: a saucisse ragaioulle.  It had a really nice glass jar, like very solid.

While driving home over the past week, I'd been spotting flyers posted around town for a performance of a group called Itsasoa.  An online search revealed them to be a local Basque Chorus and this seemed like a chance to hear some Basque music.  I don't know if the chorus had an age requirement or was just niche but some of the songs were pretty good. I didn't understand a single word and I sometimes found the soprano section a bit pitchy (mmm hurts so good) but overall the concert was quite interesting.  One song involved mimicking the call of a bird.  

I hadn't seen this tower before; I guess I haven't ventured out too much this way.  It seemed mostly residential so maybe that's why.  The rain went from a light drizzle to a little more than that such that I arrived at the church with wet pants.

There was an impressive number of songs on the program.  Surprisingly, the first one was done without piano accompaniment: instead the pianist got up and started doing a weird little dance.  After the opening number, someone spoke a bit about how the song was traditionally a courting dance. 

In a way, this reminded me of the community choir in my hometown of Oak Harbor; I guess in many ways the two are similar.  My favorite song from the set was a round about a bird singing: "chiru chiru ree"