Quiet Saturday morning

The attack on the Pelosi home in San Francisco was front page news in El Pais this morning.

Last night, the Friday before the Halloween/All Saints/Dia de los Muertos triduum, featured a crowd of about 200 youngsters -- late teens to age 26 or so -- lined up on my street to enter some kind of Haloween party. There's a space that says YOGA withhout any other explanation, and it does seems to be a place where people go to yoga classes, but it's also a disco or party space of some kind. So that meant an unusual level of noise outside my window, more than usual for a weekend night, which is already substantially noisy.

I like sleeping with the window open, as a rule, but because of the noise, that's impossible. I have to shut the window tight and wear the best foam earplugs I can get. That cuts out 99% of of the sound, but also 99% of the fresh air, so I have to run the AC all night. That does help to cover the noise, though.

This morning I got up and, after chatting with Anna as I was getting dressed and she was going to bed, went out and had two breakfasts. In search of the first one I happened upon this long line of people, almost as many people as were waiting to get into the club last night. But these were all middle-aged people and they were waiting to buy lottery tickets. They take the lottery very seriously here.

In the picture you can also see a lottery vendor on foot. He's selling tickets to a different lottery than the one that everyone is lined up to buy into, but I don't know any more about which is which, and why one of them is so compelling for Madrillenos.