Friday Night, Saturday Morning

Saturday evening we drove the few miles to the small fishing town of Candás, to have a stroll around and then have something to eat with mother-in-law, wife and daughter.

The town was thonged with people, probably because the weather had closed in to smother the district in low clammy cloud, so people hadn't been to the beaches.

It so happened that there was a bagpipe festival on in Candas in the evening and various pipe bands were stood around near the quayside practising, before moving on to the main stage. These are some members of the Candás pipe band.

Afterwards we had a good meal of grilled sardines, bonito tuna salad and coated chunks hake.

So apart from the low cloud, the evening ended well.

Earlier in the day I'd even managed to fix my mother-in-law's washing machine, which she had been resigned to replacing. So brownie points for me.

However Saturday was not a good day.

In the morning we received a telephone call to say that the father of A, one of daughter C's friends, who was staying with us, had been involved in an accident earlier in the morning, and that they were coming to pick her up.

It turned out that he was being given a lift to his work at the district post office and that shortly after 8am the car in which he was travelling overturned on a stretch of rural road. He had been killed instantly. According to newspaper reports the driver, who was unharmed, was found to have been more than three times over the alcohol limit.

A's parents were separated, but she had only recently returned to Gijon after spending a few weeks with her father. I never met him although C had been to stay at his house with A in the past and we had taken them and picked them up afterwards.

Both C and her other friend Cl, who had also been staying with us in Xivares, went to visit A and spend time with her in Gijón later in the day, before C caught the train back to meet up with us in Candás for the meal.

A's younger brother had left early for summer camp this very morning. I dare say his coach would have left Gijón an hour or two before the accident. He will be brought home Sunday morning.

Such a waste and so sad.