Wednesday, February 26, 2025

We start with wonderful family news from both Las Vegas and Camarillo.

They both made the team!

Both grandson Kevin and our new step-grandson, Max, are now proud members of the Canarelli Middle School Colts soccer team in Las Vegas for the 2025 season.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Meanwhile in Camarillo . . .

Grandson Jacob competed in the

Division I U.S. History Finals of the

Camarillo Academic Olympics

Jacob was the only Seventh Grader

to make it to these city wide finals

Jacob took home the Silver Medal

Proud parents Michael and

Vanessa with Jacob

CONGRATULATIONS!

What great accomplishments for all three of these young men!

When I looked at my calendar today, I noted that it was my 50th day living in Gijón and it got me to thinking.

How many days in total have I spent living abroad since I started coaching American football overseas in Catania, Sicily, Italy in 2008?

I decided to research this blog to come up with the answer.

I discovered that I first landed in Catania on January 4, 2008 to start this incredible streak of Adventures.

In total, I have been working in EuroBall with side Adventures to Mexico and Brazil for a total of 1,901 days which equals FIVE YEARS and 76 days!

YIKES, I HAD NO IDEA!

This 1,901 days total breaks down as follows:

Italy - 818 days

Sweden - 342 days

Spain - 284 days and counting

France - 232 days

Switzerland - 160 days

Mexico - 44 days

Austria - 12 days

Brazil - 9 days

Good times to be sure, but I think that these long spells away from Camarillo need to end soon.

Wednesday is my day to do two things every week. To begin with, I wanted these Wednesdays to be days 100% free of any football work to help clear my mind weekly.

Building upon this, I wanted to use Wednesdays as a day to travel and explore things outside of the city of Gijón.

Today, I indeed had a football free day but felt a tad tired and decided to stay in town to do some reading, watching a highly recommended Spanish movie called Los Santos Inocentes, and viewing a documentary on the Spanish Civil War.

Now more culturally literate than ever, I headed out of the apartment for lunch.

Casa de Puros

Translation, if you want to buy a Cuban cigar, this is the place. 

No useless, out of date embargo with that island nation exists in Spain much to the general cigar smoking public's joy. 

Eureka!

My lunch spot beckoned, only a one mile walk from the apartment on a warm, bright, cloudless day.

This spot is located far away from the historic area that typically attracts the tourist crowd. It caters to a much more local crowd save me today.

It is a seafood restaurante

specializing in octopus dishes

Seafood here is prepared in the style of the nearby Province

of Galicia which lies to the west of Asturias.

When I entered, the pulpería's front room and bar area were both packed with loyal patrons. I almost left when I noticed that they also had a back room.

I asked a waitress if, as there were no open tables or stand up bar spots in the front room, could I have a table in the back room?

"Sí, hombre!"

I had this back room to myself, but not for long.

As I said, this is an extremely popular spot for the local elite dining clientele.

Not sure what is says as it

is written in the Galician dialect

but I liked the looks of it

DIOS MIO!

My delicious lunch from top to bottom:

Galician Bread

Croquetas Caseras

White Wine

Potatoes

Pulpo a la Plancha

I could easily have stopped with the Croquetas Caseras and been perfectly happy. Originally, there were 12 of them.

As to the Grilled Octopus, it was DELICIOUS!

To say that I will be returning to Mesón Pulpería Galícía 84 is a foregone conclusion.

The front room had thinned out

quite a bit by the time I left fully sated

Pasteles de Carne in a bakery window

Growing up, these were a family favorites in San Marino's Casa Contreras that we rechristened as Cuban Hamburgers.

 

The DEEP BLUE waters off La Playa

de Poniente today just outside

of the apartment's window

I decided that it was finally time to take a good evening walk through most of the city's old town to see what was going on in preparation for the Carnival weekend. 

The City Hall has decorations

on it but, as you can see, none

were lit up as yet

La Playa de San Sebastian at night

is a good sight indeed

The local knife store was

Open for Business . . .

. . . with lots of options both small . . .

. . . and HUGE!

If you need anything bicycle

related, go to this establishment

Guarding the Central Library

with but a cogwheel and a hammer

Carnival decorations at a jewelry store

Carnival 2025 in Gijón from

Friday, February 28th - Tuesday, March 4th

This promises to be a highly interesting extended weekend in our fair city.

By the way, in the Asturian dialect Gijón is spelled Xixón and the word for Carnival is Antroxu.

While our Mariners Senior team is idle this weekend, it does not mean that the Mariners program is taking a break.

The Mariners are hosting three flag

football games at Stadio Las Mestas

on Sunday

At 12:30 p.m., it is the Gijón Mariners Open club vs. Oviedo Phoenix Old Rookies squad.

The 1:30 p.m. contest sees the Gijón Mariners Junior team take on the Oviedo Phoenix.

The final contest will be, in part, a recreation of the Spanish Civil War, as the established Gijón Mariners Open club faces the rebellious Gijón Mariners Youth team in open conflict for the first time.

I'm interested to see how the Mariners Flag Football guru, Daniel Castañon, a.k.a. DaCa, who coaches both of these Mariners teams handles the play calling in this final skirmish.

Another of JR Gomez' photos from

last Saturday's game that I liked

Our Mariners team have

the Western Conference bye

In this weekend's Western Conference games, the one of interest is the one that sees the Osos Rios (3-2) hosting the Coslada Camioneros (3-2).

The winner will earn the inside track to second place in the conference and the playoff berth that goes with it.

The first time that these two club's met this season in Coslada, the Osos Rivas won 35-10. With Coslada still needing to play the high flying Las Rozas Black Demons (5-0), not only do the Camioneros need to win this weekend, they need to win by more than 25 points in case the aggregate score tiebreaker comes into play at the end of the season.

FYI:

Belgium's 21 American

Football Clubs for 2025

Seven teams in both of the Senior Divisions I and II plus another seven clubs vying for supremacy at the U17 level this Spring.

Five years, 76 days and counting . . .