At some point I’m sure I’ll manage a week away from work without coming down with some sort of illness – this is not that week though. Yesterday started with a visit to see the festivities associated with the local holiday to celebrate the Canary Islands. There were stalls, singing and dancing, and far more people than I’m usually comfortable with. It was OK, but by the end I was starting to feel like I was coming down with some sort of head cold (although I did manage to wander around and take some photographs). This feeling continued throughout the day, and the evening ended up involving little more than watching a film (Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children – which I actually found quite entertaining) and then going to bed fairly early. I then woke up in the middle of the night with a really sore throat, and this morning I’ve got most of the symptoms of a heavy cold, although my energy levels suggest I’ll be fine to do something today so I’m not going to let it stop me.
I’ve been here a few days now, and I’m really enjoying the weather, the pace of life, and the fact that it’s possible to spend a whole day moving between different cafes and bars, drinking reasonably priced coffee and wine in a visually impressive environment. I don’t think I could live like this, but I certainly plan on coming back here in the future to see all the things I’m not going to get round to on this trip (not least the volcano, which I really would like to stand at the top of at some point). It looks like we’re going to have family here for the foreseeable future, so I don’t mind too much if illness or the relatively short duration of the trip leads me to not doing everything that there is to do. There will be time, and I do not plan on knocking myself out on this trip as I’ve got another week of (business) travel straight afterwards.