Letsgoloolala with Lily Anne
Meeting Lluis
It was a real stroke of luck that just a few days before I left for Spain a friend invited me over to her home in Kilkenny to meet her friends from Valencia. It was easy to relax in their company. They were just finishing breakfast and were still in their pjs. Clearly they didn’t believe in standing on ceremony. They were staying in the home of a very jovial host Joan who knew Beatriz since her student days.
The next time I met with them they were the hosts to me and a friend Kerri who had travelled with me a year previously to Russia. Vicent was the chef for the day and paella was the main course.Their apartment was close to the centre on a main thoroughfare that was distinctly quiet on a Sunday. They were close to Colon and close to the Rusafa, an area I know well as I had signed up in La Escuela, a dance school that offered a wide range of dance and other artistic pursuits. It was just a few days later when my friend was heading back to the airport that I followed Vicent’s advice to have a look at the ceramic museum in Manises. We had raved about the Marquis de Dos Aquas Palace with two male figures of gigantic proportion who grace each side of the entrance. They look like they are made of marble but apparently the material is alabaster. These figures represent the rivers that were associated with the city one of which had to be diverted following the tragic loss of life in 1957 when the rivers overflowed. Now a museum this building had been a family home and one of the most popular rooms is the traditional Valencian ceramic kitchen.
Barry from Carrick on Shannon and I accompanied Kerri to the airport and then I went in search of the Manises museum close by. It was another stroke of luck that I needed to check directions en route. I walked into a café and met a man called Lluis. It turned out that Lluis and his wife Amparo were proprietors of Café St Joan, a bar and restaurant combined. It was that time of day when things were quiet and Lluis gave me his time and attention for the best part of an hour. It was just as though I had walked into his living –room and was greeted like a old friend.
By coincidence we both had books to sell. His was called Jaque Mate and was written in Castillian (Standard Spanish) and mine Strange Fruit in English with a Spanish translation. I was honoured when he offered to do a swap. His book is a novel with lots intrigue and is centred on Hamburg during the 2nd World War. Mine is a collection of short stories centred in Ireland North and South.
In the pub there is a very eye catching larger than life size photo of Lluis playing a trumpet when he and Amparo were holidaying in New Orleans. He was very proud to be invited to play with a popular New Orleans band and carried off the challenge with aplomb. We were able to chat a little about New Orleans as I had travelled there in 2018 and visited all the music cities and the Deep South as it is known. I continued on to the ceramic factory but knew for sure that it wouldn’t be long until I’d be back in Manises for the Celtic night that is held annually to celebrate the druid festival that originated in Ireland. As it happened when I passed by later that evening I saw Lluis, his staff and a significant number of his clientele, suitably sorted in traditional Bavarian garb as per pub theme of that week. I got the metro back to Av. del Cid and the yellow bus on to Aldaia knowing that Kerri was now safely home, while I was planning my next trip to Café Sant Joan
*pjs is an abbreviation of pyjamas pronounced p-jays