So, after a brief sojourn in not-Barcelona, I am back in Barcelona for what is not a Bank Holiday weekend. Wednesday 1st May was celebrated here with a public holiday as International Workers Day but, in the UK and Ireland, the May Day holiday is on Monday 6th (and in any case is not so much a workers’ holiday but a spring festival of much older origin.
Right now, just after 7.30pm, it is a pleasant 19°C here, a bit warmer than in Ireland. It seems, however, that there was torrential rain for much of the day on Monday. It rained so much in fact that there is even talk of the current drought restrictions being eased. Yesterday, my flight here was delayed by a mysterious weather event that temporarily closed the airport, although what had happened was never fully explained.
From now on, temperatures are forecast to rise steadily until the real heat of the summer arrives. I have this apartment until the end of June and, at some point soon, I have to decide how much longer to stay in Barcelona. My sabbatical lasts until the end of August, but the University is closed for that month, and I would probably find the heat intolerable then anyway. The question is whether to stay for July…
This month will be very busy, with some important results from Euclid coming out on 23rd May and a number of things related to that. Before all that, though, I’m going to have a drink or two on the terrace. There may not be a Bank Holiday coming, so it’s not a Long Weekend but it’s still a weekend!
