Pictures from Sardinia, an old Nokia and an evening out with friends

I have been thinking of images that sum up our stay in Alghero and it is this old classic Nokia that I have chosen first.

Now I wrote in praise of this early classic Nokia back in February, and rather thought that was that.  http://chorltonhistory.blogspot.it/2012/02/my-old-nokia.html

But here in Italy amongst all the smart phones, there was Rosa’s Nokia, the very model I once owned and long since passed through the hands of various sons of mine.  It was and still is a sturdy phone.  It can be dropped, suffer almost all sorts of neglect and still keep you in touch with the world.  True it will only give you one game, has a small screen but its buttons are perfect for a ham fisted old codger like me.  Rosa must have had hers for nearly a decade, but then if it works why change it?*

And Simone has one going spare, which is tempting.  I can take it back put in a sim card and have a fully working piece of history.

Which I expect is what the men sitting at the roadside café by the sea front will use.  After all the old Nokia is not only reliable but uses so little in the way of battery that you can be confident that it will not need recharging only hours after you have left home.

Now I am quite attracted to the image of the men sitting and talking as the evening wears down.  Of course the climate delivers the opportunity.  The long warm nights are perfect for sitting and watching the town parade past.  And they do.  It is a very pleasant way to see the evening out.  You walk from the apartment into and around the old town, take in a few friends on the way, stop to sit and gaze at the others out for the night and finally finish with a coffee or ice cream.

On one level it serves little purpose, but it is a wonderful way to get out in the evening, enjoy the still very warm weather and is a balance to day on the beach doing little.  Although on our beech underneath the big thatched umbrellas by the bar are a group of old men playing cards.  They arrive about 11 and will play and talk all day.  I guess in the winter they retreat to a bar in the town when the sun departs and the weather is cooler, wet and very windy.

I suppose they have been playing together since they retired and may have known each other during their work days.  Certainly there is something in that social thing.  I remember a friend telling me how during a ship building strike in the 1970s in the North East, the pubs opened especially early and the men on strike would be in there not for the beer but for the company, playing cards, dominoes and darts.  After all if your entire working life has been in the company of a handful of workmates, from 8 till 6, five days a week it is difficult to break the habit.

And so to the men by the road side café.  It doesn’t take much imagination to shift the scene back a few hundred years and wonder if at the end of a day out at sea fishing there would have been a similar group just sitting by the harbour gazing out to sea and passing the time of day.

And as if on cue one of the men reaches into his pocket to answer the phone.  It is a modern smart device and I watch as he concludes the call, zips across the screen and calls up the weather for tomorrow.  Ah well not the ending I wanted but I bet someone in the group had an old Nokia like Rosa’s.

Pictures; from the collection of Andrew Simpson