...and now I've been fired!

Yeah. Although the tittle is worse than the actual news... I've been watched the tabloids' tittles for far too long not to get influenced.

The thing is that Steve send me an e-mail saying very briefly that we needed to talk, infamous words that usually means bad news, and then he sent me another mail asking me to bring the material I've been using, so I was prepared.
I was doing one hour a week teaching for him without a contract and he was paying me cash-in-hand, not social security, nothing. Plus, last month he forgot to pay me all the hours I worked (he sent me an envelope with 3 hours worth of wages instead of 4) and I had to send him a mail asking for the whole amount and he answer was "sorry, you're right, I don't how it happened". He also asked me a month ago to take more hours with him but I declined because that meant leaving my already established hours with the other company.

So, I went to see Steve and first he handed me an envelope with my money, plus the hour he forgot to pay me last month. Then he said that the students complained that I was arriving later and leaving earlier to the class. I did arrived later a couple of times but I never left earlier and I told him so so. He said "so, there seems to be a difference of opinion there" to which I simply reply (in what I hoped was an assertive way) "yes".
I think you either believe your employees and you backed them up when there's trouble or you don't, and maybe I should have told him so. He choose to believe the people who pay him. Fair enough as this is his business.
He then added that I failed to attend one class and I didn't call the students or him. That's correct and the reason was that it was the next day after Darwin died and I was in such an state of shock that I totally forgot. I explained that and added that I was sorry about it and that I did send an e-mail to him, admittedly, after the event.
I should have added that he forgot to pay me and that I didn't hold that against him as mistakes just happens. Of course, I only thought of that on my way home.
He then went on to add that we cannot work together like this, to which I agreed, and that he had to ask me to return all the material he gave me for the classes. As I only took the book that I was currently teaching, I said that I'll send then asap and that was the end of it.

It's never a good experience to be fired and I was a bit shaken when I left, especially because he could have been nicer or more understanding about the reasons why I failed to attend one class. I only once before failed to attend one class that I was doing for him and that was the day after I crash the car.
I think Steve's quite a shy and insecure man and to compensate he comes across as arrogant. He wasn't comfortable dealing with this and he obviously made up his mind well before our meeting, so I felt I couldn't have said anything to change his mind and I certainly didn't do anything to keep the job as I have enough hours and I'm comfortable working with the other company.
With whom, by the way, I did sign a contract, they do pay my national insurance and such taxes and they just raised my wages. They seem to believe that I'm a good and responsible employee and they trust me.

So, after a while, the shock of being fired vanished and I'm ok.
... although I have to say that I'm very grateful that the year is finishing really soon as New Year is a sort of clean slate and in my mind the one that's finishing is most definitelly my "annus horribilis".

I totally understand that Chinesse (?) curse "may you live in interesting times"* as this year made interesting reading, as some people told me about this blog.

I do wish we're going to have very uninteresting times for next year, very uneventful and peaceful. And, from my heart, I wish the same to all of you, faithful readers.

* May you live in interesting times is reputed to be the English translation of an ancient Chinese proverb and curse. It is reported that it was the first of three curses of increasing severity, the other two being:

• May you come to the attention of those in authority
• May you find what you are looking for

It is often argued that the word interesting is meant to be a synonym for turbulent or dangerous, while others suggest that no such similarity is necessary for the statement to be imposing. However, both of these theories miss the essential irony of the saying in light of the value Confucianism places on stability and constancy.

Peaceful Christmas

We cooked for hours to get a great dinner on Christmas' Eve and we've got it.
"The husband" invited a guy he knows from his lab who was all alone as his fiancée is in Argentina preparing their wedding (they're getting married in Argentina in mid-January), so we were four at the table.
Dinner was magnificent. The turkey took longer to cook that I expected, Jamie Oliver's site said that you have to calculate 1 hour per kilo and I miscalculated counting the weight of the turkey without the stuffing, but I've been told that to have the turkey a bit later that expected is very traditional anyway.
However, when the turkey was finally done it was divine. We followed the recipe on his website and the result was great.
This is the web page in case you'd like to do it yourself: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/christmas/
I couldn't find cranberries to make a sauce but all the rest was there, including wonderfully crispy potatoes, and we had a gourmet dinner.

I didn't drink alcohol as somebody needed to be sober enough to give our guest a lift back to his home in a nearby village.

Despite the food being delicious and me not eating as everybody else did, I had a bad tummy ache and I was pretty sick after dinner. I know is my way of dealing with stress as I bottled up all my sadness and in trying to look great on the outside I can feel my insides literally churning. Lately it's been happening after almost every meal so I'm trying no to eat much.

Christmas day was nice as went to Barcelona for a walk. This is one of those rare days when the city is not flooded with people and you can look around and up without bumping against busy passers-by or tourists.
Christa you're right, this city is beautiful and just strolling around in a sunny day is enough to make anyone feel better.

Crazy pre-Christmas time

As soon as I finished getting my salary up I went to the supermarket to buy some food in order to avoid the rush during the weekend.
Patxi want a traditional British Christmas dinner so we watched Jamie Oliver on TV and decided to copy his turkey recipe as it seems absolutely delicious. Is funny as we never had a traditional Christmas dinner ever while we were in Britain. We keep the tradition of eating a big meal with friends on Christmas's Eve and then only leftovers on a very lazy Christmas day. More or less what they do here.
So, we'll mix and match. We're going to have tuukey with all the trimmings, Jamie's style, with Cava (the local champagne) with pineapple (my dad's own drink) , Spanish turrón and Italian tiramisú for dessert on Christmas's Eve.

Of course that after checking all the ingredients of Jamie's turkey we needed to go back to the supermarket today. Which I totally hated as half Spain is out and about doing the shopping. Luckily nobody eats turkey here so I've no problem finding a small and nice one and the trimmings were no problem, except for the goose fat that was nowhere to be seen. I'll try again on Monday if I can face the las minute crowds.

I've seen so down lately that I've not even considered buying any presents, Patxi doesn't want anything this year, the poor thing is as sad as me, but "the husband" was very disappointed when I suggested having no presents at all until the Three Kings night. So at the very last minute I had to go around and try to find something for him in the mist of a huge crowd of frantic shoppers... my mind is not working properly and I couldn't find anything to buy.
I'm going to try again on Monday, while I take a break while doing the cooking.

At the end of the day I'm all tired and cranky. Christmas' spirit, anyone?

wrong NLP tape?

I'm starting to think that I've may been hearing the wrong NLP tape... as I still feel sad and emotional (I've go all mushy when I see any add on TV with a dog on it, even cartoon dogs and I still cannot walk near the place where Darwin died) but I've been behaving a bit out of character recently.

Judge for yourself:
A couple of days ago I sent an e-mail to my boos telling her that the other (the British guys') are actually paying me more and that they offer me some extra hours for January and I'm considering the offer, so that we needed to meet and talk.
Her answer was a brief text to my mobile saying that they have a present for me in their office and that she'd be happy to talk when I can drop in to collect it.
So I went today (my final day teaching until next year), after my last class (around 10 o'clock) to give her all my hours' sheets and pick the present up. She was very nice, as usual, and we chit-chated a bit about this and that and she gave a lovely box of chocolates. She then told me that they're still a small and newish agency, that they're taking only a small commission from the teaching hours I've got so they cannot offer me a lot of an increase on my hourly rate. However, she added that they're very happy with my job as my students' report that they're very happy with me and I actually have a queue of people wanting to join my classes in one of the companies I work with. So they're willing to stretch as much as they can to give me a raise and that we needed to talk with them before agreeing to take some hours with the other agency.

So, I think I was very assertive and we negotiated a bit until we reached an agreement that I'm quite happy with. I've got a raise on my actual pay that it means around €200 more per month with the same hours I'm doing now. We also agreed that I'd take some extra job translating, which means even a bit more money at the end of the month, and doing something that I can do at home while I'm checking that P does his homework.

Great!

So, now I think that maybe... maybe... I downloaded the wrong tape and got one of those motivational speeches with NLP where people learn to be more pro-active and assertive.
I've never before asked for a pay rise! And never, ever, imagined myself telling a boss that I totally deserve a rise as I'm very good at my job and I'm getting great results. And without blushing violently.

The cheek of me!!

So, now I'm going on a 2 week holidays that are not going to be the best ever, but at least from January I'd be earning a bit more and that's nice.

going through

Well... No point of telling you again that we're all down. We are.
So, I'm going to try something to try and snap out of this black deep misery. I'm getting tired of it, of feeling miserable and having this physical pain in the middle of my chest. I'm not eating, sleeping or working properly, so, I soon as I loose a few pound I'll do something. Well.. the least I can do is to try to get thinner!

Have you ever heard of Neuro-Linguistic Programming or NPL?
It's a sort of fast approach to psychology. A bit psycho-babble plus some old-fashioned "get over it" attitude. An alternative to psychotherapy. The sort of fast-food approach to it. Quite new agey. A friend of mine who did a PhD in linguistic at Bristol University say that it's total quackery... but he's a devout Catholic so I always take his opinions with a bag of salt.
The basic idea related to trauma is to "create" a new mental link or association with the thing that is bothering you. The idea is that although you cannot change the past and how events affected you then, you can change your reaction to these bad things and your perception to them thus effectively changing your present and your future.

Allegedly, people get fast and long lasting results, and as is cheaper that paying a therapist, I decided to give it a go. After all, once I tried homoeopathy and it worked just fine.

So, I got myself a copy of NPL for dummies (it does exists, check it out in the link) and after carefully reading it, I decided to try to get try to get rid of the trauma of the accident. I don't want to forget Darwin, but I want to be able to breath again without this lingering pain in the centre of my chest or to remember him without getting all mushy and start to cry.
So I downloaded a tape with some exercise to get over trauma and I followed it and yesterday before going to sleep I did all that it told me to do. The idea was to re-program my brain so I may finally be able to get over the shock and maybe be able to go back to the same road without crying.

I'm suppose to do the exercises a few times during a few days. I'll try and then I'm going to write here if I feel any better.

Going through

Well... the antidepressants are starting to kick in as I find it easier to go around now but I still feel a knot in the middle of my chest all the time. As a mum, I'm a sort of centre of the family and I have to keep P going so I can not afford to be a wreck. Sometimes I think that that alone keep me from crumbling bubbling on the floor!
As I have to work and keep cooking and everything going as normal, this actually helps not to think or dwell in my loss. However, when P cries or feels sad, we end up crying the both of us and he ends up trying to cheer me up saying things like "he's ok now, mummy", which made me cry even more!
I'm also finding very hard to concentrate on anything and I'm unable to read anything more complicated that a girlie magazine!! In me, that's a definite sign of depression.

P said that although there's no way that our beloved Darwin can be replaced, we need some other dog to love and take care of. At first I though no way but it may be a good idea as Darwin few months with us were worthy of the pain we felt with its departure. Grief is, after all, the price you pay for love.
So we started talking of maybe buying another beagle or maybe adopting one from the rescue centre in Barcelona. "The husband" is not very keen on adopting because he thinks that a older dog could be more difficult that a puppy, he believes that "you can not teach new tricks to an old dog" and I think that it may be a myth.
We need to do some research regarding adopting vs. buying a dog.
I suggested to P. that we could go to the rescue centre an do some volunteering, such as walking the dogs to give them some exercise. P gave a look and very matter-of-fact say: -"no offence, mum, but with your truck record... I don't think they allow you walk their dogs". From the mouth of babes!!! I didn't know if I should laugh or cry!

An old friend of mine, whom I know since we were in primary school and who now lives in Madrid travelled to Barcelona for business and stayed with us for a couple of days.
That was like a breath of fresh air as we took her sightseeing around here and to the park Guell (a great park designed by Gaudi) and I talked and talked and cried a bit on her shoulder.
Thanks Tutti!! You've been a true friend.

Grieving

When your affective life is reduced to two other people and a lovely young dog, it's really hard to cope when one is gone.
We're all crying at different times of the day, when its absence catch us unaware and we notice that the flat is terribly empty and silent.
Patxi said that is unbearable to arrive home at midday and find the flat so empty as he was used to a very warm, tail-shaking welcome and to eat his lunch watching tv in the sofa bundled together with Darwin.
My heart is aching all the time and I find it very hard to teach this days. Even waking up is painful because he used to wake me every morning and now all there is is silence.

I started taking anti depressant because I was already low when this happened and I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to cope with normal life otherwise. I don't feel like working and even getting out of bed is a major deal.

Patxi was crying yesterday and we had a talk about dead and losing someone you love. I said that times heals everything and in a few weeks we'd be able to stop feeling this sad and able to remember the good times and remember Darwin with fondness. He then said "but... I don't want to stop crying because it's like start forgetting".
This is the first time that he had to actually deal with dead as when his grandma and granddad died they were too far away for him to really grasp the meaning of it all. I took him to the vet to say goodbye to Darwin as he was lying there. That was a shock to him, as to us all, and maybe wasn't the best thing to do. But I think that children should participate in the family grief and that was the only chance to say bye to Darwin as we don't have a garden in which to bury him and do a sort of funeral for him.

This is going to be a very sad and lonely Christmas.

feeling low

I'm totally devastated. I haven't cried that much or feeling this low since my mother died. And even then I was sort of preparing myself for it and trying to get used to that. Also I saw her dead as a sort of liberation for my mother after suffering so much with dementia. I thought that as her mind sort of died before and her body was just lingering on. So I grieved for her for a long time before she actually died.
In this case I was totally unprepared as this lovely little dog was so full of live and so young. He was just starting to lift his leg for peeing, for goodness sake!

Today I took the day off work and I never do that but I don't think I can face talking to people, not now not ever. I didn't cancel tomorrow classes but I'm a wreck right now and truly don't know how I'm going to be able to face people tomorrow. When I was working in the library it was ok if I had a bad day (and I did quite a few) because I could sort of hide myself and tidy up the shelves when the low ride arrived. Now I'm a teacher and there's no escape as I'm totally swamp and overwhelmed by this, red-eyed and puffy-faced etc.

The house is so empty and silent. Darwin was always following me around checking everything or just lying behind me when I was working in the computer. If I was feeling lonely before now I reached new lows.

This is like a catalyst for many things that I was bottleing down and all the tears that I couldn't cry for my mum and those that I didn't cry since I started feeling low are flooding out and it's scary the deep of the sorrow. At times it seems that there's no way up. This is a heavy knock as I was trying to get some sort of balance and I'm feeling really down now.

Of course the guys are devastated too. "The husband" started crying the moment I told him. Patxi at first was in shock, I think he couldn't quite believe it, but he burst into tears the moment he saw Darwin at the vets, just lying there, intact but with loads of blood around his head. I took him there because I though it was important that we all say goodbye to this precious little being that brought us so much fun and love.
Now we're all crying and feeling miserable.

We're having a very interesting discussions with Patxi about dead, as this is the first time he actually experiment it close enough. As we're non-believers, we don't even have the consolations that faith provides, but we do think that someday, when we die we join him somehow.

We asked for Darwin to be cremated with other dogs, as he loved to be around his kind. But I do think that we need to do something to mark his passing away, a sort of ceremony meaning the closing of a chapter but I don't know what.
It's amazing how close you get to this little beings that became part of the family in their own right. I cannot start to imagine how people survive the dead of a child.

Thanks for all the words of support in this blog and in my personal mailbox. Thank for understanding that this is a big and unexpected loss and that we're sad. And, above all, thanks for sharing; even if you're not physically with us your kind feelings touch us a lot.

Darwin died today

As usual I took him to the nearby park for his evening walk. There we meet a very young dog and they wanted to play so, very unwisely, I set Darwin and they were hapilly running all over the place. All of a sudden, Darwin darted away to the square opposite and crossed the road without looking and the other dog followed him.
In a total panick I run after them and i was running after them calling Darwin, ordering him to sit and wait for me. He was having a ball and was very checky, coming close to me and evading me at the last possible second.
Then he run back to the other square.
I saw that there was a car approaching and I just heard a loud and dry bump. The car stopped and when I arrived Darwin was lying there and there in a pool o blood and there was blood all over him. The driver was very upset when he saw Darwin and told me that he just didn't see him. It was all too fast, too close and it was very dark. It was not his fault.
I then picked Darwin up in my arms and his heart was still working, so I run with him to the nearest vet and banged on the door. They opened and took him away.
The vet came and asked me to go to another room and told me he was dead on arrival and there was nothing they could do.

I went back home to pick up the boys so we could say our goodbyes. The were totally devastated as I am.

Thanks my cyber friends!

Thank you all for taking some time to write to me. I was inundated with mails from as far as Brasil, Germany, Argentina and, of course, Bristol. It's really moving to know that I do have many dear friends whom, despite being far away, love me and are more than willing to give me a pat in the back (or a kick in the backside when needed!).

After a few days feeling truly rotten, and after getting an upset stomach and bad sleep for days due to stress, I'm feeling a bit better. The weather here is so nice that is hard to be sad with the sun shinning so warmly.

My dad is back in Argentina and although I do miss him, it's nice to have the house to ourselves and to be able to walk around the house in my undies again scandalising only my son.

Did I mention you how conservative Patxi is? I don't know where does he get it from but sometimes he sounds as an old Tory gentleman disproving of everything.
A few days ago we were watching the local news about an 11 years-old girl who is pregnant in Almeria or another city in Spain. As Patxi's studying a bit about sex, puberty and the rest in school, I pointed the news to him as an introduction to talk about condoms, etc. I said: -"look, that girl is your age and she's pregnant" to which he looked up shaking his head in deep disapproval and muttered: -"and I bet she's not even married!".
He complains about women going topless on the beach to the rudeness of Spanish kids and everything in between. He's idealising England and I'm afraid that one of this days he's going to say he miss the England of "the village cricket team, warm beer and spinsters cycling through country lanes to communion" as in the John Major's silly speech.
I do miss Bristol too, not only my friends and colleagues but things like walking down Gloucester Road checking the charity shops, Indian food and even the rain! As my friend Miriam put in her mail from Brazil (after living 18 years in Bristol): - "I don't know what it is about Britain that it grows on you and you become quite attached to it".

A few days ago, after a lot of cajoling and negotiating, he accepted and invitation to play the piano in the school's fiesta de Santa Cecilia (the patron saint of music). He didn't want to do it as he was afraid that the children would boo him out! So we reached an agreement in that I'd allow him a lot of extra time in the computer in exchange of him taking the risk and performing. He played "Scarborough fair" and a shanty "What shall we do with the drunken sailor" and, to his surprise, the kids loved it and one of his classmate even suggested that they can form a band.
I hope this help raise his self esteem.
For my part I' m bound to feel better if I see him doing fine as he is my main concern.

feeling down

I think I'm getting some sort of depression.
First, I don't feel like writing and that's very odd as I'm a compulsive writer.
Second, I do have some reasons to feel down as my father is going back to Argentina tomorrow, my son is not doing well at school and I have to pay through the nose to get the car fixed without any guarantee that I'll get my money back.
Plus I'm feeling very lonel

Plus I'm feeling very lonely lately with all this working in and outise the house and not enough girly chats. I don't have somebody who can listen me vent out and complain and then laugh about everything.
I do need a hug or at least a pat in the back..

General elections in Argentina

Tomorrow is general national election in Argentina. I'm not even registered here in the Argentinean consulate so I've no idea if we're entitled to vote. In any case, I don't think is fair for me to vote because I've been away from the country for more than 14 years and I hardly know who's who anymore.

However, the stronger candidate seems to be Cristina Kirchner, the current president's wife and all political forecasts and polls are predicting that she'll be the next elected president. She's always been compared with Hillary Clinton in that she was as much involved in politics as her husband, was elected senator and was always pursuing a political career on her own right. She's also been called ruthless and accused of all sort of sins, from corruption to wearing too much mascara.
I meet her once in a party in London given by the Argentinean embassy when their were touring European countries as her husband was then the newly elected president. That was 2003. She was already a senator and I remember that I asked how it was the meeting with the then PM, Tony Blair, a few minutes before the party. She said the it all went well and that she dared (her word) to say that maybe protocol would not allow her husband to mention the problem with the Falklands (of course she said Malvinas) but that she, as a senator, couldn't let the opportunity pass to say that there should be more talks about it and all the rest. Then Blair as an answer muttered something such as they're were also a good a political team and that he knew a thing or two about that and it all ended in polite smiles. She seemed very chuffed with herself while telling this. I found it funny at the time.
I found her very clever, well spoken and very self assured and with that politician's easy charm that you can see is kind of fake but still work. She's petite but she was wearing the highest heels that I've ever seen in real life and was dressed and made up to the extreme. She was also very kind and all smiles when I asked to take her picture with me, as I explained to her that my late mum wanted to see me with the power couple of the times and was very exited about my meeting the then very popular new president and his feisty wife.

I remember telling them how much hopes people were investing in them and that I wished them both all the luck in the world.
The same now... I liked her at the time and I appreciate that to be a woman in that position must be really hard so I wish her all the best.

Rock chic

"The husband" and I went to a concert. A very rare night out for us.

An Argentinean group that we really like very much is touring Spain and they're giving 2 shows in Barcelona. I think it's mainly for the Argentinean expats community altough you can find their cds in any local music shop.
They're called Bersuit Vergarabat and they have a very eclectic style, to say the least. Their music range goes from fun upbeat Argentinean cuartetos (salsa like music) to dramatic tangoish songs to furious riffs from heavy metal inspiration. So the whole concert was very interesting and one moment you can see everybody shaking their hips Ricky Martin's style and pogoing furiously at the next song... sometimes even in the same song.
The hall was packed, mainly Argentineans, and the average age must have been around 25 so I felt extremely old. Nevertheless I was dancing, clapping and all except the pogo bit which I cannot do, so I just flexed my knees with one hand in the air (and the other on the wall to keep me steady) in the vain hope that it'd look like a pogo from afar.

We had a great time and we sang our hearts out. My knees are still a bit sore and my ears are still ringing today as the sound was far too loud but I'm going to keep going to pop/rock concerts until I stop enjoying them or I'm wheel chair bound, whatever happens first.

It's nice to go out without much care or planning, knowing that my dad is at home to feed and just been there with my son when he's back from his rugby training. My dad's going next month and I'm going to miss him very much.
Not that we go out any often now... but it's going to be even less easy when he's gone.

The saga continues

The saga to get the car repaired continues today as "the husband" finally got hold of the people from the insurance and the people form the garage so they can assess the damage once and for all. However, they could only do it today in the morning or in a month time so, I had to drop everything and take the car to the garage.
That meant cancelling my lessons without any notice something hate, but... no options there.

The only silver lining was that I could stay in bed a little longer that usual, something that I really love to do and that it give a well deserved rest as I've been working too hard these past weeks.

I'll treat Darwin to a longer that usual walk today.

Rugby overdose

Well. The rugby world cup is over and we're very proud of the Pumas as they've reached new heights beating France twice in a very dramatic and colourful game that we saw on Friday (thanks that we have Sky tv as the world cup was not aired in Spain). Then it all ended in tears for England as we lost against South Africa. I feel as if they beaten us twice!! (that's the downside of having two nations).

Meanwhile life was going on and we learned that it's actually true that we may take up to 2 years to recover the money to repair the car as the other party was Hungarian and they're not even into the European Union yet. So it does make sense to pay for the repayments ourselves and then wait until (and if) we get the money back.
So now we're trying to find out how much the repairs are actually going to cost, how long it'll take and we haven't even started to think how are we going to manage to find the money. We don't even have a Spanish credit card yet... although this may be a good time to get one.

On top of that Patxi's teacher call us really worried because he's regularly falling asleep in class and when asked told him that he has trouble sleeping plus he's homework is not delivered on time if at all and his overall performance is falling recently.
After a bit of research we find out that the reason P couldn't sleep was that he kept on playing or surfing the net until the small hours. I was very much against the idea of letting him keep his computer in his room on the first place, but there's no room elsewhere. Regarding the homework and overall performance, I think the reason he's not doing as well as he can it is that there's nobody at home to really check as I'm working longer hours and I'm not at home to check what he's doing.
So we took immediate action. We dealt with the playing all night long night problem by blocking him access to the computer after certain hour. And I took the executive decision of cutting down my working hours in order to be at home when he arrived from school. That means less money at the end of the month (around 100€ less per week, which is a lot for us) and I didn't even check this with "the husband". I just thought about it overnight, then took the decision and informed the agency. All was dusted and done by the time "the husband" arrived home later the next day and he wasn't too please about it.
For me is a matter of priorities, and since I decided to have a child I've just knew that he was going to come first, always. Now I feel that he need his mum at home to coach him in order to learn how to self motivate and do homework without a coach. So, I'm going to be there.

My boss at the agency (the Catalan one) is a mother of 2 girls around the same age as mine so she was very understanding and made it very easy for me as I've just got to teach for one more week my afternoon classes and that's it.

Regarding the loss of money... well... we'll manage. For instance we were thinking of getting someone to clean the flat and now I'll have more time to do it myself. Great.

Any money saving tips are going to be very much apreciated.

Another one SO cute!

Great rugby add from Argentina

B****y garage!!

I'm still going around with the car looking like a wreck. The insurance send me a letter asking me to take the car to a garage to have the damage assessed and an estimate of how much it'll cost to fix it so they can charge the other driver insurance. That's supposed to be free of charge.
So far so good.

The problem now is that when I went to the garage that they recommended me, the people there say that they need to dismantle the car to check if there's any internal or unseen damage.
OK.
Then they say that once they dismantle the car they may not be able to put it together again (Humpty Dumpty style). So they say that it made sense to do everything together, the assessment and the repairs.
Of course, in order to be able to do that they need me to pay upfront for the job and then wait for the other insurance to refund me. They hastily added that it's the best option for me because as the lorry was foreign it may take up to a year or a year and a half to sort everything out and get my money back. So to do it at once will save me time and money in the long run as the car will get worse if it has to wait for a year to get fix.
Plus they are not able to tell me how much the repair will actually cost without taking the car apart! But we may be talking of anything from 1,000€ to 2,000€.

I hate garages. Is it only me or are they really out there trying to get us women to pay extra and/or do unnecessary work?

I tried calling the the insurance office to hear from them that it really may take a year to get the money but there's nobody at the other end of the line who can give me advice! They didn't know and promised to call me back asap which means never in Spain.
Tomorrow I'm going in person to their office in town to try and get an answer because if I must pay to get the car fix I'll have to take a loan or pay with the credit car and nobody will pay me back the interests on that.
And also is the matter that while the car is in the garage I'm not going to to be able to go to work. Here the concept of courtesy car is that they have a car available for you to hire at actually worst rates that hiring in Europcar or the local Pepecar!!

A total rip off!

The dream is over

The Pumas lost to an unstoppable South Africa tonight in what was the first time the Argentinean team reached the world cup semi-finals. The final score was 37 - 13.
We're just so sad that the dream is over... My son couldn't even watch the whole game and just went into his room well before it ended. We were not in tears but I can totally understand why the Argentine's captain was crying at the end as you can see in the picture here.

However, I'm very proud of "our" guys.For us a third of fourth place in the world cup is an achievement. First: rugby is not played professionally in Argentina, most of the players played most of their life as amateurs. 2- Argentina doesn't play either in the south hemisphere Tri-Nations nor in Europe Six-nations and is in fact the very first country to reach that position without being in one group or the other.

The only down side was a bad tempered finish which saw yellow cards shown to and Juan Smith and Felipe Contepomi, but it could not spoil either South Africa's party nor the Pumas achievement.

Now, if you thought of England as the underdog in this rugby world cup... spare a though for the brave Pumas!

And now: GO ENGLAND!!!!

It ended! (phew!)

Today was the last time I had to go to San Llorenc Savall, the place up in the mountains, to teach. And it wasn't a second too soon. I was really looking forward to finish this one as the road was giving me a lot stress and I was then late to everything else.
I was very professional and I did finish my commitment although I was very tempted to ended right there after the crash.

So I wrote my report for the course and at the end I wrote (this is an actual quote):

I believe that they are keen to continue with lessons in November and they are going to need some more translation work in the future. However, I do not think I am willing to drive to San Llorenc as the bendy and very busy road was too much for me. (sorry)�

I'm not good at all at saying no, so that paragraph cost me a lot to write!
Why I'm not comfortable saying a plain old no? Not a clue.
Here in Spain is part of the culture so sometimes you have to guess that people actually mean NO when they're mumbling all sort of perhaps and then simply just don't do it. It's like we're told is just not polite to refuse. It's just in the culture so beware if you ever visit Spain or Latin America.

Pictures of Paris and the Pumas

The guys had great seat next to the action and they enjoyed the trip very much. Of course, they were also happy for the results, but they also said that it was sad to see the Scottish guys go home with very sad faces.
For me, it was the result that I wanted, a great memory to keep forever.

Rugby day (again)

I took my guys to the airport feeling totally sad and full with envy to see them going with a spring in their step and Puma's T-shirts on. Well... nobody said that being a very good and generous mum doesn't go together with feeling sad!
I think that it only counts as a generous action if you really value what you're giving up... Then this one is really and truly generous and it should earn me a place in heaven. Pity I'm a atheist!

Then, in order to cheer me up I drove to the nearest beach in Casteldefells with my dad, Darwin and we went to have lunch in a cafe and for a long walk.
It's a very nice day, sunny and warm and there were loads of people down the beach.
After that I drove back home just in time to watch the South Africa vs, Fiji match. I was cheering for Fiji because they were the underdogs and they play with such heart that is a joy to watch (more than half the people in the stadium thought the same as they were cheering like mad). They lost but fought valiantly. A great match! Now whoever win the game Argentina vs. Scotland will play South Africa.

They guys just send me a text saying that they're actually entering into the stadium in Paris and the atmosphere is totally thrilling.

Of course, back in Argentina everybody is talking about the match and there are several adds on tv regarding the pumas. While I'm trying to figure out how did I do to post a video here, please take a look at this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD3Dfr_9sPY&mode=related&search=&v3

Quarterfinals

We're following the rugby world cup this year and we're truly enjoying the Argentinean performance so far. The fact that they managed to beat the host and favourite team, France, in their home turf in Paris on the first match did wonders to boost the morale of the team (and the fans!).
Well, life has a way dealing bad and good cards, sometime even on the same day.
A few days ago and through the rugby club mailing list, "the husband" received an e-mail offering to sell 2 good seats tickets for the incoming quarter final match Argentina vs. Scotland. Those tickets were sold out ages ago, as everybody assumed that they'd be for the match between France and whoever was second in the other group. Now that the Argentines relegated France to the second position on that group, loads of French fans are trying to exchange their tickets to be able to go to Cardiff and watch France vs. All Blacks. (and they're furious that the match with the host has to be done in another country). (for their part, the Argentineans must be delighted that they don't have to play against the almighty kiwis, plus whoever wins is bound to end up dead tired as it's going to be a tough match).
Of course, those tickets are never cheap, so "the husband" asked my opinion. I said that this was once on a lifetime opportunity as we'd always wanted to see a world class event like this one and that we work hard so we can afford to do the things we want to do. So, we agreed that if the price was reasonable, we'd buy the tickets and go to Paris.

Then, more or less around the time I had my crash, "the husband" sent and e-mail buying the tickets.
So, despite the bad blow of the crash, we also had the good news that two of us are going to Paris for the weekend to see a world cup quarterfinals game!! So exciting!!

Then, after I thought it trough, I realised that this could be a great chance for "the husband" and our son to go together and have a sort of male bonding shared experience. You know... one of those things that people remember for the rest of their life... "the time when my dad got tickets to the quarter final world cup rugby match and we went together". So, very generously I decided to give up my place and let the boys do it.
When I told Patxi that we had 2 seats for the match he looked amazed and pleased but he assumed that it'll be the parents going. So when I said that I really wanted to go but if he wanted to go too I was willing to give my seat to him... well... he just went berserk and started jumping around the kitchen and hugging me and crying how much he wanted to go and that I was the best mum ever. Then he said that this surely count as his birthday present (his birthday is on the 31) and that I could scrape his birthday's present list or return any items that I've already bought.

So, that settled it, I'll watch the match on TV and try to find them in the crew.
We bought Easyjet tickets to Paris for them. They're flying on Sunday morning and arrive in time to go to to the match latter that evening, they´re flying back on Monday. Patxi's going to miss one day at school but I think that the experience is well worthy.

I'm a bit sad because I really wanted to go but there's no way we're going to find 3 tickets seated together, so let's them enjoy this one.

CRASH!!! Why I'm shaken AND stirred.

I had a crash with a big lorry. or better said, the big lorry crash into me.

There's one intensive course that I'm teaching in San Lorec Savall, a little village up in the mountains, around 45 minutes from home and bang on in the middle of the national park of the same name. The road is very bendy and goes through a national park, a very beautiful pine forest where we go for walks on Sundays. I took the job despite the distance because they're paying me twice as much as other classes and it was schedule to last only until the 10th of October.

I didn't like the bendy and small road with heavy traffic and I always drove extra carefully there as visibility is not great and there's many big lorries that takes up more than their fair share of the road.
I was counting the days to finish this course.

Yesterday I was going back home after I finished the class, driving carefully and slowly as usual on a very clear and lovely day. All of a sudden, as I was approaching a hairpin bend a lorry appeared and I stopped quite close but with a good meter or so between us. I put the handbrake and the reverse gear and when I was actually looking over my shoulder to reverse to give the lorry a wider berth... he just went into second gear and I heard the horrible scratch of metal against metal and left the car move while the big shadow of the lorry invaded my space.
My reaction was to press the horn and only then the lorry driver stopped, when it was few inches from my actual nose.
Once he stopped I was able to go in reverse and take myself out of it grips.

My neck was hurting badly and as the lorry went ahead and parked a bit far away I just sat there in the car in total shock.

Somebody came and opened the door, helped me out and asked if I was ok. Many other cars were there too and it felts as if everybody was shouting at the lorry driver who came down to check that I was ok, speaking total gibberish (the lorry driver did although probably I was doing it too)
I tried to talk to him but he didn't know Spanish, not English or French or Italian or even Romanian!! (I know a few words on that language and as he was Eastern European looking I thought that it was a good chance that he was from there). He couldn't (or wanted) to speak any known language. (bloody globalization!).

While I was trying to put myself together and call the police, take his papers or whatever, he just turned, got calmy into his lorry and drove away!! I was dumbfounded! People around me were outraged and screaming at him but there was nothing we could do. He just left.
It just happened that I had my mobile on my hand so I took a picture of the lorry before it disappeared. Then I realised that there was no coverage there and mobiles weren't working, so a gentleman told me that he was just behind the lorry and saw everything and he gave me his car an case I needed a witness of the accident and told me that he'd go ahead and call the police as soon as his phone started to work.

Just by chance a van with park rangers were passing by and they stopped and help, so when they realised that the guy was going away, they used their radios to call for another rangers to stop the lorry in the next petrol station and they called the police. They managed to describe the lorry thanks to my phone picture.

One of the rangers stayed with me and helped me to place the triangles on their place and he diverted the traffic. He said that I shouldn't move the car until the police has a chance to see it, even tough it was in a very bad place. So we spend the next 40 minutes diverting the cars and telling people that help was on its way. Every car that passed us stopped to stare, but one in every 4 was kind enough to ask if I needed something.

After a while I really wanted to call "the husband" so I started to move around the place trying to catch some phone signal. Finally I half climb a pine and was able to call, but "the husband" went off to have lunch and left his mobile on his office! Typical!!
I left him a very dramatic message, something along the lines of " a lorry just crushed me, call me", and went back to sit next to the car. Then I though than after listening to that message "the husband" could panic and call me, get no answer and call my dad and scare the hell out of him. So i half climb the pine and called my dad.
-"I'm all right" was the first thing I said, rather stupidly and rather out of breath after the climbing.
He took a deep breath and cautiously said: "ok.. .then... what happened?"
I explained the situation and asked him to call "the husband" and ask what needed to be done regarding the insurance.

The local police, the mossos de escuadra, arrived 45 minutes after the crash when I was fed up of waiting. In the meanwhile, the ranger was told that the the other rangers did manage to stop the lorry but couldn't understand him and that apparently he didn't have a driving license or any personal papers.
The mossos took a good look at the scene of the accident, the road, searched for marks on the roads, check my car and asked me questions about what has happened, they did ask me to get all my papers ready and to go with them o the petrol station where the lorry was.

The lorry was waiting with the rangers van in a petrol station around 10km from us. I arrived followed by the 2 police bikes and they went straight to talk with him. When the driver saw me he made a beeline towards me and started talking rather agitatedly in whatever language he used. The police took him away firmly to talk to him while I gather my papers.
After a while the police came back and told me that when the driver realised that they were the police and not the park rangers, he immediately produced a valid driver licence, insurance and he has even able to communicate ok enough; plus said that he didn't mean to run away, only to park a bit further in a safer place. (yeah, sure!)

That's the power authority has over citizen of the former Soviet Union.

The driver even described the same events that I did plus he added that he invaded my space and draw a little picture showing what happened adding that it was his fault. So the police filled an "amicable accident agreement" form, we added our personal details, insurances and so forth and we all signed in agreement.

Then the lorry driver was very happy to go his way and he managed to convey that we all should visit his country and take the water there in Budapest. Then I realised that he was Hungarian! That's why I couldn't even guest which language was he speaking. I thought that I was in shock. But the Hungarian language is one of only two languages in Europe without any Latin roots (the other is Euskera, the language of the Basque country), all other European languages belongs to the so called IndoEuropean languages and at least I'm able to identify them. Well...

Then I called the, by then rather worried, "husband" and explained the situation and said that I was going home to take a shower.

The car has several rather worrying looking scratch in the front left all the way from the front light to the back door, but it was working fine, (except for a bit of noise when I take corners). So I was able to drive myself home where my dad was waiting and he looked quite relieved as he didn't totally believe me when I said I was fine.

I'm going to add the pictures that I took with mobile phone as soon as possible.

Then it was time to call the insurance company. They took all my details and asked me to fax or e-mailed the form that we both signed with the police reference number. Then we have to take the car to the local office so they can assess the damage and the, with a bit of luck, their insurance company will pay for the repairs. The problem is that it's a foreign lorry, although the insurance is Alliance which are a pan-European company... so let's see.

From now on I'm going to my classes in a rather poorly looking car and I'm not able to take Patxi to his rugby training sessions on Tuesdays because they're in the evenings and my lights are not working properly. At least I'm able to keep on earning a living!

Let's hope that Alliance will sort out everything fast and we can take the car to a garage as soon as possible or the car will deteriorate even further and I don't really know if is legal to go around without my lights working. Keep your fingers cross!!

little act of kindness

I have to add that when "the husband" saw the car parked inside the closed car park instead of laughing at me and tease me mercilessly (as I'd probably done give half a chance) he just shrunk his shoulders and said:
-"Well... at least it's safer there than in the street!"-

So, "the husband" is also very kind and forgiving.

Set the record straight

"The husband" asked me to officially record an incident that happened today. He said that I'm always portray him as the air-head of the family and conveniently hush under the carpet any of my wrong doing. Then he forgets them and have no chance to tease me back when I tease him. He said that he always suspects that I'm as forgetful as he is but that I keep track of his incidents an he's to busy to do it with mine.

Well. here is one, on the records.

When I'm back from work I park the car in 2 or 3 places, the usual spots around the flat so I more or less know where the car is.
Yesterday I was extra busy with everything plus my dad's flue and I couldn't find any space in the usual places. So I went into the parking space of the supermarket opposite to our building and left the car there. Did some shopping and went home, thinking to retrieve the car later and park it on one of the usual places latter, when the roads are more empty.

Then, at around 11pm, while we were walking the dog and happened to pass in front of the , very closed, supermarket parking lot... I saw the car, safely parked inside the then closed and locked parking lot.

I'm very grateful that we didn't need the car yesterday after the supermarket closed at 8pm. I do hope they don't call the council to take the car away early tomorrow!!

I do confess. I'm officially another air-head!

Poor Patxi!! Genetically or not, the poor kid doesn't stand a chance!!

Flue!

My dad's got a flue that's going around Sabadell.
He's a bad patient and not used to get sick, so he's a total pain to live with right now.
So, on top of everything, I have to do his share of the chores around the house and take care of him, bringing meals and drinks, thermometers (to his great disappointment; no fever whatsoever) and a million other thing... plus listen to his detailed and often gory descriptions of cough and chest blockages.

"The husband" found out that the Italian travel agency charged us twice for the hotel and wrote to them a month ago to ask them for a refund. They acknowledged the double charging and asked for our bank account number to refund the money (on the 4th of September) and then... total silence and no money.
We're very short of money right now, as this left us 600€ shorter that we should at this time of the month.

I woke up today with a very red eye and the blackest mood on earth. I do hope is not an eye infection or a road-rage incident later today.

No time anymore!

Since we have a dog I've no time whatsoever!
On top of my usual payed job and non-payed stuff: cooking, shopping, doing the laundry, cleaning, ironing, giving orders to everybody (that's called organising the family), driving people around, etc, now i have to take Darwin for walks, clean his pee and poo, feed him, play with him and cuddle him.
So, no more time to write much, and no much things to write about anyway!!

Darwin is a dear dog, very clever,but still a puppy so he's not house train yet and that's a hard and full-time job. I imagine that is like when we were potty training P. in that at the time we could see no end to it and all of a sudden, it was done and over.
Now we take turns in taking him to for walks, "the husband" does the first one in the morning before going to work, then at midday is P's turn as he came home for lunch from school and finally I do it after supper. Most days I also take him for walks at 5 or 6pm, just to keep him entertained so he doesn't need to chew all our stuff. And at weekend we all take him for very long walks. On Saturdays it around the rugby club, plus he plays with all the children there. And on Sundays we go for long walks at a National park nearby, where we all get totally wasted at the end of it.
If one of the ideas behind having a dog was to walk more, well... we're all doing that thanks do Darwin.

But that left me with no time whatsoever and nothing very interesting to tell. Sorry. Life is complicated that way. However, you may be happy to know that I'm very happy to have him around.

The air-head scientist sterotype is true

Totally true. I know because I'm married to one.
Yesterday "the husband" needed to travel abroad for a few days, job related short trip to England. He prepared all his things himself, of course, and at 8:00pm I took him in the car to his campus so he'll meet the his boss, who's taking her car to the airport. So far so good. He even managed not to over pack as he usually does and this time he hoped that he'll be able to take the small rucksack with him in the cabin.
(I'm not sure that Easyjet will allow that as he has some toiletries and the policy on liquids in the hand luggage is quite strict).
Anyway, when I arrived home, my son told me that "the husband" just phoned in a panic estate as he forgot to take his passport with him.
So I have to take it and go back to give it to him.

How can someone forget the passport, of all things?
OK, I did it myself once, but I was 14 years old at the time and never again!
It's "the husband" after all who's always telling that the 3 essential things for any travel are the 3 ps: passports, tickets and money (at least they're 3 ps in their Spanish translation: pasaporte, pasaje, plata), I wouldn't be surprised if he also forgot his credit card!

At the same time he's a brilliant researcher and scientist. So he does have a brain and he know how o use it, at least partially!

As my American friends would say: Go figure!

Burnt

As I was wondering a couple of days ago about how many burnt people do they have every year at the local fiestas... well... I've got my own burnt at home while frying something and later at dinner I burnt my dad when accidentally the content of a plate that I was about to serve him slipped away of the plate and on his lap. Is not that bad, just a few bits on my left hand and some sort of boiled eggs for my dad, but this remained me that most accident occurs actually at home and that the health and safety rules in Britain are going too far and they're stopping the fun.
Here they're totally mad with bulls out on the streets and stuff like that. but the firework exhilaration is well worthy of the risk. And it should teach people to be more careful at home!

Fiesta mayor

Now it definitely feels a year since we moved to Sabadell, as I remember (and you can check the corresponding entry on this blog) that we were already here last year by the time of the fiesta. As it happened last year, the whole city took a few days off to party on the streets.
Now I'm more blase about all this fiesta time, the fireworks, the street shows, the diables with their dragon shooting fire, the trabucaires and so on but for my dad it was his first time and he's never been in a local, small town, fiesta; so I went with him and we had a great time. My dad is amazing in that he never loose the childish ability to crave and enjoy new stuff. He really made an effort to stand there for hours to make sure he didn't miss a thing. And later on he went on watching everything again on TV, as the local channel broadcast the whole party during the following week. From the mayor opening the part from the council balcony, (in Catalán so we couldn't understand much) to the last Castellets on the last day, my dad tried hard to see as much as he could and was sorry that he missed a few of the shows as they were scattered around town and nobody could possibly see it all.
And when all was over, he asked me to send the pictures by e-mail to his friend and my sister so he could share it all.
The thing I liked the most and left my dad duly amazed by was the castells made by the local group Castellers de Sabadell (see picture of a Castell in front of the council house, check the flags on top: from right to left, EC's blue flag, the one of Catalunya, the Spanish and finally the town's own). It never fails to amaze me that triumph and show of union power that this castells are. I think that my dad loved most to see people dancing one of the local folk dance the sardana.

I wish my British friends could see this, as I bet they'll be amazed by the lack of health and safety as diables dance in and out of the crowd brandishing their spears with their burning fireworks at their end. Just in case, there's always an ambulance or two nearby but it still shocking to see how close to the sparks people gets, and that includes small children, even babies, old people who could not jump if needs arises, etc etc. I wonder how many burnt people they have each year; obviously not enough as to stop the fireworks.

Luckily, I'm only starting to work fully on the 17th of September, as Darwin is a hell of a job and need full time attention. We still have a long way to go in order to house train him.

On the day he arrived he was obviously terrified and almost didn't move from a blanket that we put on the floor for him. He ate meekly whatever dog biscuits we gave him and we started to though that he was mute as no sound came from his mouth. He even slept in the living room without any sign of distress.
The next day we took him for a walk and he was a bunch of nerves. Then I realised that he was totally institutionalised, the poor thing lived in the pet-shop kennel probably for months before we got him and he was totally used to not being special or loved. Poor darling!

Well, to make a long story short... by the second night he was adamant that he wanted to sleep with us in the room, if not on our bed, he wanted to eat at the table with us and he most definitely will not take less that 3 walks a day. He would pee and poo wherever he wanted to and he barks for England every time he wants us do to something. Plus he hated to be left on his own.

It was really amazing how fast he realised that he's loved and it seems that not a second later
he decided to push us to try and bend the rules to his advantage. He's very clever and he's going to be a challenge.

I wish Glynnis was here to give me some tips as how to house train him!!

Some nice pictures

I love this picture of my dad. I took it while he was slowly going down the stairs in the parking lot outside the walls of Sienna. He walks very slowly, specially when he's on his way down and it just struck me as a sort of a visual metaphor on age. An old and somehow fragile man against the hard and angular concrete.

This one is just funny. Taken in Arezzo, near the church of San Francesco. Both faces look like they've been actually tortured frozen into the metal.

The last one for today is also a very curious detail of a big building and it was taken in the old part of town in Genoa, Italy. The building was very old, 1500's but the face looks very fresh and too humorous to be that old. What do you think? A modern take while remodeling a portico's details? Or a truly Renaissance piece of irreverent art?

Good start for the pumas

Being Argentinean brings very few moments for joy or celebration, and today we just had one of them. As is often the case, is sport related as Argentina defeated France in Paris at the Rugby World Cup opener in the very same stadium where France won the world cup some years ago. The score was: 17 - 12!

My cousin in France, Marie Pierre, just today sent me an e-mail asking me if i was watching the match... ahh, mon dieu! If my French was any better I'd call her right now to gloat!

I knew that the Pumas were good, but I have to admit that I though that France, being the locals and very good, had just the right edge, so I truly enjoyed seeing the Pumas fight like, well... pumas against Les bleus!

At least 2 of the Argentineans player played in Bristol, the captain of the team Agustín Pichot (surprisingly short, left, when he played for Bristol) and Felipe Contepomi (cute, right) and I was introduced to them once in a party at the Argentinian embasy in London.

The Argies still have to play Ireland at the end of the month, and in any case this is going to be a tough tournament no doub, but... what a way to start!!

My birthday

I spend my birthday in Nice, France. Sound very posh, isn't it?
On our way back from Italy and at my dad's suggestion, we stayed a couple of days with our cousin Michelle who lives there with her son Pierre Alain.
This is my dad's side of the family. My grandfather left France to emigrate to Argentina at the beginning of the XIX century and he left his sister there, to which he was very closed. She married and had children, her children had children and so on, but the family keep in touch as my grandad took my dad and his brother to France several times. As far as I know my grandad even helped them economically during the war when everybody had a bad time there but life was easier in Argentina.
Whatever this is actual true or family lore, the fact remains that we're still in touch after a whole century, half a world of distance and two different languages. My granddad and his sister would have been happy about this, I think.

Michelle is really lovely but she's terribly deaf and sort of lip read people. That's a big problem for me as my French is basically crap, so although I'm able to understand her (most of the time)but between my nonexistent grammar and terrible accent, she cannot understand me at all. Luckily for us, her son speaks a little English and that helped because he could then "translate" what we said to her.

For my birthday we took everybody to a very nice restaurant at the Promende des Anglaise (see picture here, from left to right: Pierre Alain, "the husband", Michelle, me, P. and my dad) and then they had a great chocolate cake with a singing candle waiting for me at home! I even got some presents, such a Zara voucher from my dad and a perfume form L'Occitane from the very dear "husband". This finally proves that he does listen to me occasionally as I love their lemon perfume and it's impossible to buy it here in Spain. Do check their UK site, click on the name of the shop, as you can buy their things there.

P. kept on saying that he had some very special present waiting for me at home in Sabadell and he said that it was something that I was pinning for for years and that it was going to be the best present ever.

Then, a couple of days after we arrived back from holidays I came home after work and found P. and "the husband" extremelly exited and in the living room there was the most gorgeous little Beagle I've seen!!!
P. called him Darwin ("get it? ...." - he said - "he's a Beagle and Charles Darwin actually travelled around South America in a ship called The Beagle"). Isn't he totally adorable?
P's right, of course, Darwin is the best present ever, even though I know it's going to be hard work to keep him happy living in a flat.

Arezzo, Tuscany

We spent more or less 10 days travelling to and from "the husband's" ECVP, the annual vision science conference he attends every year. This time it was in Arezzo, Tuscany, one of the most beautiful areas of beautiful Italy. (Tony Blair and his family used to spend their summers there).
You can just get a glimpse of "the husband" here in a green shirt in front of the San Francesco's church.
For "the husband" was all work and no play but we had a great time, specially because this year we went by car, so we (the rest of the family) were free to go to different towns and just drive around one of the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen.

Arezzo is a smallish town, famous for having one of the best, and I think the biggest, frescoes by Piero della Francesca in its main church. He's not my favourite Renaissance artist (that'd be Leonardo DaVinci, of course) but the frescoes were indeed worthy of a visit as it was his pregnant Virgin in the nearby village of Monterchi, the only picture of a pregnant virgin of the period.
Here you can see a close-up of the beautiful severe, regal face of the pregnant Madonna much aware of who's son she's carrying...

I was waiting to go to Florence with "the husband" but he never had any time, so we missed that glorious city this time. A good excuse to go back, because Florence deserves a few days to get just the art. The famous David is there together with many other priceless pieces.

So, we spend our time visiting lovely medieval villages and just driving around in the countryside which was a great. even my dad, who's not the most artistic minded person in town, marvelled at the beauty of the countryside and remarked that it's no wonder that so many works of art has it as a subject. He said that it even inspired him to give it a go and paint! God forbid!!
Mere pictures, specially my own, cannot do justice to the beauty of the rolling hills at the end of summer, but here you a have my favourite.

One of the highlights was a day trip to the gorgeous town Sienna. I've been there once, very briefly, and felt in love with its unique square and the feeling of the old town. And if anything, it's even more beautiful than what remembered from nearly 25 years ago.
My dad walks with a cane (the result of reckless flying in a balloon once, not merely old age), so he found it hard to get up and down the old towns, so I try my best to take him as close as I could with the car to central piazza. I may have gotten I fine or two on the process, I'm not sure, because only residents are supposed to get into the old part of town, and I did it twice, once to drop him there and another to collect him.
Here you can see Sienna's majestic and unique piazza in the shape of a shell, taken from the Internet, of course.
I'll try to find a picture that actually have me on it... I don't think there's any, as I was always the one with the camera.

At the end of it we all have a really good time. I visited lovely places and seen some art that I never saw before, my dad enjoyed mostly the grand views and he loved Sienna, a town that was new for him, P enjoyed Italian ice cream and even "the husband" said that the conference was great and he didn't miss missing the touristic part of the trip.

Catching up

After the party in Bristol we went for a couple of weeks to a lovely camping in the Costa Brava, called L'Anfora. We loved it. All of us, which is a rather rare event this days, as P.'s going into teenagerdoom and thus trying to make a point of not being in the same "vibe" as his old folks.

I took my newly acquired Harry Potter book and devour it in more or less a week. Of course I'm a fan and it didn't disappointed me; J.K. Rowling's not a subtle author and everything is spelled out for you, unlike more sophisticated books such as my beloved Phillip Pullman "His Dark materials".
I spend a lot of time reading, which is such a bliss for me!! reading by the pool, by the sea, by the tent... wherever!
The weather was really nice and it even rained once so we had a break from the heat. Just perfect.
We took our old tent, bought in Argos for less than 80 quids a few years ago and never used much. We were by far the poorest sight in the whole camping, as the other people had lovely caravans or state-of-the-art tents withe every imagined accessories.
After the first day we went out and bough a cheap gazebo to shelter us from the sun, and underneath it we had a small table, and chairs. We also rented a small fridge and microwave and that made all the difference as we were truly at home with really cold drinks and some warm food. Bliss!

It was such a relaxing time, just a short stroll to the most beautiful blue sea, 2 swimming pools to choose from, restaurants, a nice cafe, small supermarket and so on. They even have a little show, different every night, with things such a 80's disco, Disney's nigh of music, etc. And that was just the campsite, outside it there was a whole little summer town with everything else you may want to make a nice time.

It had a nice mix of people as well, loads of German, Dutch and French with some British, Scandinavian and even some Spaniards. Plenty of kids for my son to play with too and the language was mainly English or Spanish so we felt right at home.

Our neighbours were a family of 4 teenager girls and their parents from somewhere north of England. The poor dad was craving male company and totally fed up with going shopping, so he used to come by and go playing pool with my guys. It was their first holidays abroad and they were a bit lost with things such as food, but they were delighted with the weather and with all the facilities at their disposal. I think they were truly surprised to find that Spain was also a sort of civilized place!! And the ladies were delighted with how far their money went. Spain is at the moment very cheap compared to Britain.

After the camping we went back home for a few days so "the husband" prepared his poster and himself for the conference in Italy at the end of August. I took the opportunity to take my dad and son to the beach or the local swimming pool and just to keep on having a nice time. Is great to have a whole month of holidays, specially when the weather is so great and you can spend most time outside and the outside is good anyway!

Me in Rockery farm

This is me, holding Melissa and trying hard to befriend her... the poor thing cried every time I tried to hold her!
Is a picture taken during the weekend in the farm in the south-west of England. As I said before, the sun was really, and incredibly, shinning and all was green and beautiful but still very, very, wet. Mind you the thing behind me is a natural pond and not part of the floods!
Please note the Glastonbury's touch of my tiger Wellies, borrowed from Rossana, as is the top, most other clothes were kindly lend to me by Esmeralda. Thank ladies! The hair, accessories and make-up (as if!) are my own.

The hair may be totally white now, but at least I'm trying not to put on wight despite the many temptations to be found in Barcelona.

The picture was kindly send to me by Lili, who took it. I really appreciated it because we don't have any other picture of the event as our camera was in the lost suitcase.