Monday October 11, 2021

Today was day two of the teams event (the one the USA pulled out of for “various reasons”).

I drove over to Marraxti near Palma to train for about 90 minutes at a small academy (Global Tennis…NOT Nadal’s academy which is in Manacor). I had a good hit then went to Alcampo again, the huge supermarket/appliance/homegoods store nearby.

I had a few things on my list…more apples (the Fujii apples I bought a few days ago were great so I got more; some distilled water for Donna Fales (W80 and now she will have it when she arrives) and sharp kitchen knives (because somehow mine were left behind when I changed suitcases). So at the Alcampo, there is a person dedicated to weighing produce…one person for the entire store (there is no self service for this and if you don’t get the produce weighed, when you go to checkout the clerk will send you back to get it weighed). On the other hand there are a handful of checkout lanes which have live clerks and dozens of self-checkout lanes. It’s an odd juxtaposition.

The carts for the Alcampo are outside and as is normal in Europe, one has to put a euro coin in the cart to use it..when it’s returned so is the euro, so there are not carts strewn about the parking lot. It might work in the USA but then our largest coin is a quarter, so it might not.

When I got back to Font de Sa Cala (a nice drive via Petra…I hope to visit the cathedral there tomorrow) I got in an hour hit with Steve Dance which was excellent…I’ll be ready to play a lefty next week.