We signed!!!

Yes! We went to the centre of Barcelona, to the central branch of our bank and after a longish checking of all the paperwork, signatures, certificates, IDs and so forth... we all (us and the vendors) signed the papers for the house and (most important) the mortgage and the flat is officially ours from the 5th of December.
I take the date as to be in the most auspicious month because we bought our previous house on a cold December too.

Wow!
To buy a flat is the most grown-up thing that we've ever done and the responsibility is scary. The bank actually valued the flat at 350.000€, that's almost 55.000€ more that what we've payed for it!!! So we're making money as I'm writing this. Real estate seems to be the best investment ever, I wish I could buy a flat by the sea next...

So, as the old song goes; "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...!!"

A few uneventfull days

I could get used to this. A few days of calm. This confirm my theory of cycles, that everything in life work in cycles. So I'm enjoying it while it last.
Time to regroup, lick wounds, iron clothes, take stoke of thing and plan action courses for the future. That's another theory of mine: that everything in my life start with a wish or and idea, in any case all start with a though.
I really believe that I'm the mistress of my life to a big extent. That I do create my life with my actions. That I can live a life "by design" and make whatever I really want happen. So, from time to time, I need this quite days in order to take stoke and plan the future. Then, with my future all mapped out for myself, I can deal with the unexpectedness and chaos in the outside world (that is: outside of my self) and work towards my goals. I usually have a bunch of goals that I wish to accomplish, and i work hard to get them.

I knew well in advance that this year'd be tough and important in the sense that the foundation of this Spanish period in our life have to be created. This time last year, the idea of the year ahead loomed scarily and insurmountable, so what I did was to take smalls steps and break the whole thing in chunks that I felt I was able to manage. Otherwise I'd be mad by the end of it.
I went to Argentina and dealt with my mother's passing away and my bereaved dad's future while helping "the husband" deal with his dad's death. I'm still grieving for my mum and I'll probably do it for the rest of my life.
Once we're back in Bristol I've dealt with "the husband" moving to Barcelona; we've never before been apart so it was hard. Luckily, my dad was with me and we supported each other and he was a big help in packing our belongings ready for the big move.
Then all seems to had happened at the same time, the final sorting and packing, quiting a job that I really liked and I knew then that I'd miss the ladies there for years to come, and moving to Spain.

Here in Barcelona things were never easy but at least I can say that life's definitely not dull!!!

So far, things are going more or less according to plan. P. (my son) is well settled at school and he's got his rugby to burn calories and to learn to play as a team. After a few months here, we've found a flat, got the mortgage rolling, and I've got a very part-time job that gives me some money and some estructure in my life. I've even been driving our own car! Most of my possessions are still packed but with any luck in a couple of weeks we'll be moving to our own flat.

So, my next short-term goal is to move once more and to create a home for us all. The making of a home is actually a mid-term goal, as we don't have money to buy all we need for a comfortable living, ie: a sofa, table, fridge, washing machine and the list goes on.

I was toying with the idea of doing a Master degree in information technology and librarianship but not sure about that; first it's quite expensive and, second, the public service here works different than in the UK so a master will not make much of a difference in getting a job in a library. So, I'm going to dedicate some time to learn the local language, Catalan.

Then I want a more stable job with more money, so I'll have to make it happen. now... how? what kind of job? How many hours? Now, I have to think.

Idioms and that kind of stuff

I took this to my class today so we can start talking about idioms and that stuff. It's nice and true.
The English Language

Have you ever wondered why foreigners have trouble with the English Language?

Let's face it
English is a stupid language.
There is no egg in the eggplant
No ham in the hamburger
And neither pine nor apple in the pineapple.
English muffins were not invented in England
French fries were not invented in France.

We sometimes take English for granted
But if we examine its paradoxes we find that
Quicksand takes you down slowly
Boxing rings are square
And a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

If writers write, how come fingers don't fing.
If the plural of tooth is teeth
Shouldn't the plural of phone booth be phone beeth
If the teacher taught,
Why didn't the preacher praught.

If a vegetarian eats vegetables
What the heck does a humanitarian eat!?
Why do people recite at a play
Yet play at a recital?
Park on driveways and
Drive on parkways

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
Of a language where a house can burn up as
It burns down
And in which you fill in a form
By filling it out
And a bell is only heard once it goes!

English was invented by people, not computers
And it reflects the creativity of the human race
(Which of course isn't a race at all)

That is why
When the stars are out they are visible
But when the lights are out they are invisible
And why it is that when I wind up my watch
It starts
But when I wind up this observation,
It ends.

ooouch again!

This time is a sore tooth.
It's been sore for a while and I suspected that a filling felt off months ago and maybe a cavity but I did my best to ignore the problem and avoid thinking about it, wishing it'll go away on its own. Very mature attitude.

Anyway. I couldn't ignored it any longer, so, I called my friends and asked them to recommend me a good dentist and I went to visit him. He's a darling from Argentina (Argentinean dentist are considered here to be better trained that the Spanish ones) and his wife is his secretary and assistant at the same time. Family business.

As is the case in the UK, here you have to pay yourself for any dental treatment and it's not cheap. I've got a couple of cavities and he did treat one of them and we agree to do the next one next month. The treatment itself wasn't painful, but after the anaesthetic wore off it did hurt for a while but this morning I'm good again.

Catching up

By now we're sure that the laptop is lost forever. "The poor husband" cannot stop grieving, thought. One shouldn't grieve for stuff but he lost both work and fun (loads of music's files plus he used the thing to play games).
Now he's thinking if its really worthy to buy another one. A laptop is certainly very useful and allows him to work and play anywhere in the world, but it's a much coveted thing and the risk of loosing it or it being stolen is far too high. I think we should share the computer at home.

We spend the weekend enjoying the weather, and going out a lot. I still find it hard to believe that it's still sunny out there, of course the temperature is lower than it was (yesterday we had 18 degrees and most people had their winter coats on) and the trees are yellowing and losing their leaves so it does look like Autumn but it doesn't feel like it was in Bristol. No rain for start!
We went to a club to play paddle and had a great time; running after balls mostly because we're really lousy at it, but it was great family time. My little toe was a bit sore at the end of the game, no surprise there as I was running and jumping a lot, but nothing to worry really.

P.'s much better, he almost stopped coughing and today he went back to school.

We've been taking turns to drive and I'm really getting much better at parking now; there's not much options here than to learn or die, as parking is always hard to find.

We should be getting some news about the mortgage this week, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Good news

Today was a very productive day.

Finally I was allocated my own Social Security Number.
This wasn't easy not fast, first I had to find a job and my employers had to ask the government to allocate me a number, then we all had to wait.
My employers called me this morning with the goods news that all arrived fine, so I was finally able to go and sign my contract for my teaching work, thus being able to cash in all the hours that I thought last month.

That's also good because now we'll be able to negotiate a better deal with the mortgage. We've been delaying the negotiations precisely because we wanted to have both salaries. Here is Spain the banks take into account the sum of all the salaries in order to calculate the mortgage, the monthly payments and even the interest rate, so hopefully now we'll be able to get a better deal and still be able to exchange contracts by the first week of December.

I was also invited for an interview for a secretarial job. The salary is good and the location of the job is just 20 minutes drive from home, so I hope I'll get it. I just have to wait, but I'm in no hurry because now I feel much more confident in my ability to find the right job.

The mistery of the lost rucksack

Why things are never straightforward in life? At least in my life they're not.

"The husband" lost his rucksack with his very expensive laptop in it and then later on that day he got a phone call from someone who found it. I don't know the exact conversation but according to "the husband" the gist of it was that she (it was a lady) founded the rucksack and the computer so he asked her address to collect it. Then things get complicated. The lady said that she didn't know the name of the street where she lives and gave only a number and general directions such as "opposite the train station in Sabadell"; she said that she'd be at home later that night and also said that she could be contacted on the number where she was calling.

The poor and gullible "husband" was sooo relief and happy that he didn't stop to consider that it was weird that somebody doesn't know her own address, he even bought a box of chocolates for the woman. The he asked me to take him to all the train stations in Sabadell trying to find the number. On and on we went, luckily there's only 5 stations in Sabadell, but he couldn't find the number. Anywhere.
Then he tried calling the woman again but the phone number is unavailable.

Only then it down on him that something was wrong.

Now we think that the number is from a public payphone and that the address given id totally fake.

The mystery now is: if they didn't ever have any intention of returning the computer, why did they call on the first place? Did they want a reward? Why didn't ask for it?

In a current climate of the chance of terrorist attack in public places (remember that last year there was a bomb in a train in Madrid) I don't think that normal honest people would ever pick up an abandoned rucksuck. But then, if they're not intent on returning it, why calling?

I told the husband to go to the police, but then... should he reported a theft? After all if somebody found it they're not technically thieves, altough it can be argued that they are once they known who the owner is and choose not to return it.

So, we not only have a mistery but some moral conundrums here too.

Jesus cures!

I took my son to see the pediatrician in the local health centre and, yes, his name is actually Jesus. My son couldn't stop giggling the whole time and then even I had problems while trying to keep a straight face while addressing him as Dr. Jesus.

Anyway, Jesus and his colleges only take 5 minutes per child which I think is outrageous. He told me that 5 minutes is all they got per patient and that the doctors are actually complaining about that and that they want to have a whooping 10 minutes per patient and ask me to sign a petition to the health minister, which I gladly did. My first political act in Spain.

So, after the allocated 5 minutes he told us that my son has a common flue and gave him a cough syrup, a little paracetamol, recommended for the kid to rest a few days and send us home. Medicines are really cheap in Spain, the whole order cost me 80 cents, around 50p.

I really don't know why the Beckhams didn't choose Jesus as a name for their son. After all they name the poor boy Cruz which actually means cross (with all its religious meaning) and it's usually a name for girls. Jesus Beckham sounds fantastic! Imagine the headlines if he became a footballer with that name and it can be announced that Jesus scores again!!

Oh what a perfect day!

Just when I start to relax and believe that things are settling down something happens.
Yesterday I had a quiet day, I went to the hairdresser to have my hair cut, to the library to renew my books, I prepare my lessons for a few days and even had time to read. The toe is healing just right so I felt good.

Today, "the husband" had to take our son back from school even before arriving there because the poor child had a fever, the poor child didn't have the energy to complain and "the husband" only noticed the fever as he kiss him goodbye at the school doors (at least he noticed that!). As this also happened the week before I decided that it was time to take the kid to see his GP (here in the local health centre they have a full time pediatrician, I don't think that my son was even seen by one before in his whole healthy life) but the next appointment is for this afternoon so I've had to cancel my class for today to stay at home.
That's not much of a problem because I can re-schedule the class for tomorrow, as my other students are on photo safari holiday in Tanzania. (lucky people, but they deserved it, they work long hours and even some weekends)

But problems have a tendency to came in twos. So, "the husband" just called to let me know that he lost his rucksack with his laptop on it. After a bit of talking, it transpire that he forgot the rucksack in the train!! He just left the whole thing on the tube! How could he??? He's always been absent minded as scientist are considered to be but this is too much even for him!!
I'm not sure the insurance will cover it and it was a very expensive laptop and we cannot replace right now, not to mention that he also lost the information on it.
I want to kill him.
So he's now hopping from wagon after wagon, train to train on the same subway route, trying to find it because he called the lost-and-found office and they'll now lately on the day.

I really want to kill him.

Driving around town

It's great to have a car once more. All this past few days I've been busy driving around and getting lost in a bigger scale than usual. Lovely. The best way to get to know a new place is just to get lost a few times.
The driving is getting there. I discarded the idea of taking some driving lessons after I learned that it cost 33 euros per hour. Gulp! It's cheaper to crash!! At least we're fully insured! Seriously, I drove before in Argentina so I can do it here, the Spaniards are bad drivers but not insane as most Argentines are.
So, we were driving around for hours lately. We take turns to drive and to be the navigator with the maps. We even took turns with the mad screaming, covering our eyes, swearing and so forth, much needed when driving here.
So far I stoped trying to get into the roundabouts clockwise, which is a relief. I'm still banging the door when trying to change gears and never know at first try where the mirrors are but things are better now.

The rule of thumb is to drive carefully, as in everywhere else in the world.
I still need to drive more and my parking skills are still totally atrocious but practice makes perfect so I just have to keep on trying until I get my confidence back.

Oh, and my little toe is not black and blue anymore, now it's a fashionable mauve and still hurting a bit, but it feels much better.

OOOOUCH!!!

This morning I banged the door with my foot while rushing around the flat getting ready to go out. It hurt a lot but I after a bit of heavy trilingual swearing I just had to keep on going, so I will myself not to care about it.

(The swearing went : English first, then Spanish and then the only rude word I learnt so far in Catalan "pet" = fart. Well... not really rude but you have to use whatever you have in times of needs).

My little toe kept on hurting all day long but I was busy so I couldn't stop and check it until later on the evening and by then the toe looked bad, totally black and it really, really, hurts when I try to move it. I think I broke the wretched thing.

I should go to the local GP first thing in the morning. but I'm not sure it's worthy... can they really encase the little toe in plaster?

oh! Look at that doggie in the window!!

There's a pet shop just around the corner from us and almost every time I pass by it I can't help to stop and look at the puppies they have for sale.

They keep on selling the puppies and having new ones, so there's endless entertaining and I always want to take one home.

So far I'm in love with a Beagle, who is the most serious looking dog in the shop, she's the cutest thing ever but at €650 is way out of my budget. "The husband"s favourite is even more expensive at a whooping €1100 and really the ugliest dog I've ever seen... although "the husband" with that funny logic of his said that it's so ugly is cute again, full circle of beauty. I wonder if he started to like the English bulldog because of the price tag and not despise of it as he claims.


They also have a Persian kitten, a ball of fur that cost €300 even when it doesn't have any papers or pedigree whatsoever.

Of course, P, my son, ever the rational and responsible one in the family, keeps on telling me that it's not good to have pets in flats, that even the idea is cruel to the animals and that they need to be taken out for walks and we're as lazy as it could be.
That and the price tag are the only thing stopping me buying one.

Am I really such a selfish cow for wanting a pet to cuddle?
Shall I check local animal refuges for puppies? They'll be free of charge and probably neutered as well.

Got the car!

Earlier today I had to go to the bank to fetch in cash the money to pay for the new car. Luckily, the bank and the car dealer are only a few yards apart. This local mistrust with cheques is totally crazy.
Whatever!
We finally got the car.
And there's a local petrol station's strike for 2 days starting today!!! So we don't dare to use it today in case we run out of petrol.

Euro power cut

Yesterday we had a brief power cut. At home we just a had a short cut, less than 10 second and the light was on again. "The husband" was at the local movie theatre and he said the movie was off and the emergency lights on, and after a few minutes the usher went in and told them that they were ready to re-start the movie but that they couldn't turn the emergency lights off.

We laugh it off and thought nothing of it until we read saw the news today.
There was a pan-European power cut from Germany to here!! As you can see if you take the link to the BBC European news. Apparently the power failure was linked to a line across a river somewhere in Germany being switched off to allow a ship to pass through safely. France was the worst affected with people trapped in elevators and so forth.
Here in Barcelona it was very brief due to the rapid response of the local energy company who provided backs ups and God knows what.

So, this was very close to a European (continental) black out.

I think it brings home the fact that we are actually, physically, linked in this modern world of us.

Plain globalization.

Got the offer

Yesterday the people from Avis left a message on my voice mail to let me know that I got the job and to call them asap to agree to sign contracts and so forth.

It's great for my self esteem, but I already decided not to take it, to keep on teaching until I can get a really good one. So I called and say thanks but not thanks.

However, it still feels like a gambling (or spiting against the wind) and I feel really privileged to be able to have a choice at all!

Day of the dead and rugby!

Today is the day of the dead and traditionally is the day when people go to the cemetery to take flowers to their loved departed. So it's a non working day for most people.
The local government is also having their local elections today; the idea is that people will be free to vote.

Instead we went to France for my son's rugby tournament. Rugby is big in France and there was a local tournament for under 16 years old in Perpignan and we were one of the only two Spanish club there!! And we the kids did hold their own. I'm very proud of them, specially the younger team group, the benjamines, as they're called.
There was sweat, blood and tears, and that was just the parents!! Seriously, there was lots of sweaty guys around even when the day was truly and appropriately Autumn-like with a very blustery day, truly Winds-day as Winnie the Pooh said. At least 5 degrees colder than here, where the weather still feels Summer-like with 25 degrees.
There was some tears as the French guys are good opponents with a stronger tradition and loads more exposure to the sport than the Spanish kids.
And there was even some blood as one of the guys in P's team was knocked over and ended up with a (very) bloody nose, I still have a soaked hankie to prove it!

Our guys fought bravely and they won one game out of 3 in the morning and they achieve a very honorable draw in one game out of two during the afternoon.
I'm particularly proud of P, whose a tough cookie; I've seen him emerge under a bunch of ten players, just to dust himself off and go back to play without a moan. He even managed a two-in-one tackle, tackling two guys from the opposite team!!

The best part of the day was when P. run for dear life with the ball and bravely score a try under the total surprised of everybody, but sadly all this happened after the ref blew the whistle!! (He argued that due to his headgear he couldn't hear the ref, also the ref was French and P doesn't understand a French whistle).

I was totally knackered at the end of the day and almost lost my voice with all that shouting. My back ached after hours of standing up or sitting on grass, I was cold, we only ate a sandwich and the shortage of proper toilets should ashamed the French (well, after all there's no indoor bathrooms in the whole of Versailles and they don't think any of it).

We all had a great time!!!

Job interview

This morning I woke up very early to catch the train to the centre of Barcelona. Luckily, my closest train station is the first one on the line, so and despite the fact that there was loads of poor early commuters, I easily found a seat, which was very fortunate because after a few stations the train was pack to the rim. By the time we arrive to the last stop it was comfortably empty again so I didn't have to push my way through people just to get out of it. Nevertheless it took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to arrive to my final destination. That fact alone made me doubt about the job. I'm not that desperate that I have to do a 3 hours a day commute for a job.

I finally arrived to the World Trade Centre building (yeah... not a very fortunate name for a building, isn't it? at least this one isn't very tall) which is at the end of a pier (I've just spend 5 minutes trying to remember how to spell pier), near the Columbus' tower thus as far from my place as it can geographically be. Of course, I called them to let them know that I was late due to a miscalculation of public transport times.

By the way, Columbus statue is atop of a tall column, very much as the one in Trafalgar square. He's pointing somewhere and a plaque said that he's pointing to the Americas. But according to my internal compass he's actually pointing to Africa. I've to check this out. It'll be nice when you come and I take you there to try to solve this out.

The actual interview was long but nice. The only problem being that the interviewers were far too young. How can you take it seriously when a kid ask you silly questions such as "how'd your friend would describe you"?
(My answer was: "I'm the person that everybody want to be with in a crisis". Yeah, sure!)

The silliness of it all wasn't really a problem because I truly relaxed when I saw the kids, and the very well known and standard set of questions that they had. I'm usually good at test situations as shown when I passed my driving test the first try (unlike "the husband", who has to do it at least 4 times in order to pass, a fact that will be forever remembered for his eternal shame), but this time I was really relaxed as it became increasingly clear that I didn't want the job at all. The fact that the girl giving us all this info has English as her second language and that she has a thicker accent than me, only added to the silliness of the situation.
For the first 20 minutes of the interview (there was 5 other baby candidates in the room) we've been told about the job and given time to ask questions and the only one to ask was me, presumably the baby candidates were far too intimidated.
Do they have parking space for employees? No.
Childcare facility? No.
Subsidised lunch? Not for the first year, only a common room.

The job consisted on handling the rented car reservations in Barcelona for English speakers from all over the world. The centre used to be in Manchester but they're now here and it wouldn't surprise me if they outsource the job to India soon. The working time is also quite complicated, the centre is open from 8 to 11pm local time so the employees' working time rotates monthly and randomly. Meaning that the first month you work, let say, from 8 'till 2pm and the next one it could be from 2 to 11pm or Good knows when. You also has to work 2 weekends a months and you take 2 weekdays off that week. The salary is 15,000€ a year, which is far less that I could make if I keep on teaching.

Then they divided the group for a one-to-one interview. The interview was scripted and it was totally silly and you'd have to be a total idiot to fail that. For instance:
Interviewer"what was the best part of your former job?"
Me: the true: chatting away with Glynnis and Christa. The actual answer: "solving people's problems and giving the best service I can".
And my favourite.
Interviewer: "what was the worst part of your former job?"
Me: The true: I hated answering the telephone!!! I actually used to run away and hide between the shelves every time the phone rung. But there I was being interviewed for, basically, a calling centre job... so, my actual answer was: "oh, definitely, shelving".

The cheek of me!!!!

The final part of the interview was a role play when they gave me some information and then we pretended that I was answering the phone and I had to try to rent this guy a car and get all the information to and from him, such as properly spelled name, credit car numbers, time and place for collection, and so forth. The interviewer this time was actually a Brit with a thick Yorkie accent, I swear that I'm not making this up, it was hilarious. This was a bit trickier for me because the job was actually for native speakers, however, but by that time I couldn't care less.
At the end of the interview the Yorkie told me that I did pretty well, adding, to my eternal gratitude that I did better than some truly native English speakers.
He also told me that it take up to a week to get a letter telling me if I got the offer for the job. However, he said, the successful candidates usually get a call in the next two days.

I've already decided that the commuting alone was too much, but the experience alone was worthy it.

Latter on we talked with "the husband" and we agree that I'm better off keeping on teaching with its flexible hours and not too bad rates, until I can get a job that's truly better.