Should you try new things when having a bad luck day?

Yesterday I had an awful day when things didn't seem to work for me. So, what did I do?
Instead of accepting that life and luck have their ups and downs, and when it happens you just should go with flow, accept and relax, it'll pass.

NO!
I went to the hairdresser. Not even the usual one. I went to try a new one that I don't know from Adam, just a couple of blocks away and ask her to "cut it short, make it up to date looking and styled as she wanted, please".
To start with, the water was not working properly, they didn't have enough pressure, just a trickle of freezing cold water. Bad sign. I should have gone back home there and then. I didn't, obviously my common sense out of order that day...
It took at least half an hour to get all the shampoo out of my hair with freezing cold water.
Then, the teenager with the haircut taken directly from the catwalk of a wacky fashion designer said that a short and quirky hair do will be ok because, allegedly, I have to "compensate for the very old looking white hair". Her words, not mine.

Lets make a long story short and say that when "the husband" arrived home he didn't say a thing and when I asked about the new haircut and do he said that, sorry, he didn't notice, he though that I didn't comb it and that it looked a total mess, no offence. P, my son, just laughed at me and asked if I was really going to work the next day.
Even I agreed in that it looked awful.

The day ended with a good note, though, because after I had a shower and washed out all the wax and what-have-you that the hairdresser put on my hair, the cut was quite neat and if you comb it in a ... let say more traditional do, it actually look pretty good.

So, the answer to the question on the heading is YES, do take risks even during bad luck days, they may not work out but at least they provide a touch of adventure in your life.

Bad luck day

Do you know about one of those days? When everything seems to go wrong?

Well... Today I'm having one of those days.

It started earlier in the morning, I don't have any class today, so I stay latter that usual yesterday thinking that I could stay in bed until late. Wrong. "The husband" couldn't find the car keys and he woke me up shouting from the kitchen as if the house was on fire. For a moment I thought that the house was on fire or something... whatever, but something happened. While i was still trying to get my brain to work, he shouted back saying that he had no time so he was getting the extra set of keys.
Why didn't he do that on the first place and let me sleep?

Then, of course, I couldn't get back to sleep.

After breakfast I decided to prepare my classes for the rest of the week after checking my mails. I was in the computer for an hour or so, surfing for podcast and writing my lessons when it freezed. I'm not used to this because I don't use windows and my new operative system (Linux) is, usually, much more reliable, so I freaked out but nothing I did helped and I lost everything and the modem was disconnected, so I called "the husband" to ask how to connect everything again, he was busy so I lost another hour.

I re-booted the PC and started working again, another hour passed and it was then when the electricity went out! It was ever so briefly but it did mean that the computer got disconnected and re-booted itself and, again, I lost everything.

With a sight and some curses I decided to take a break. Went to kitchen, open the fridge and chose to have a yogurt. When I was trying to remove one from a pack of two, the one that I wasn't holding just went down and crashed on the floor. Did I mentioned that it was a glass pot? Yes? Well... not only there was yogurt all over the floor but pieces of glass too.
I cleaned and hoovered the mess and when I was picking up one little piece, yes, I've got myself cut with another one that I haven't seen. Yes... then I was bleeding.
But it get worse... what's the first thing you do when your finger hurts and it's bleeding? Yep. I did suck it without thinking, just an automatic response. And yes, there was a tiny piece still in the cut and I hurt my tongue!!!! Whatever so slightly and it wasn't bleeding but at that time I felt so stupid!
Ever the optimist, I though that well... at least it was not any of my typing fingers!!

A few hours went by without any incident and I decided to go back to the computer and my MP3 player cable got entangled with something and it felt. Now it's not working and I'm feeling truly miserable. Well, it's sort of working but not a sounds gets out of the headphones, which is awful.
I had it for nearly 2 years now and it's the one thing that I'm totally addicted to and the thing that I carry with me at all times together with my glasses. Whatever I am and whenever I have a minute I use it. I listen to the local radio, music, books, news, motivational tapes, assorted podcast from all over the world, I even have a couple of hypnotic relaxation and healing tapes for when I'm not feeling very well. I just can't function properly without my MP3 player.

Now I feel truly terrible. How shallow is that? I don't care!!!
I even have a headache now and cannot hear my healing tape!!

Freecycle Barcelona

I hate to throw away things that are in good condition, and I always try to recycle where possible. There's enough rubbish in this world to add some more without thinking.
While I was moving away from Bristol, I got rid of many good things by giving them to charities and also by posting offerings in the Bristol Freecycle group. People were always happy to collect all sort of things and I had to restrain myself from taking some of the stuff that was on offer there!
Great site and brilliant idea that saves many good things to end their life prematurely in the dump.

Freecycle has communities all over the world and I was looking forward to get many things from our new flat from them, and getting rid of some good stuff that we brought here only to discover that it doesn't fit or we don't really need it, plus the many boxes and expensive packaging material such as bubble wrap that we used to transport everything.

So, you can imagine that I was very much disappointed when I couldn't find a Freecycle group in Barcelona. That was very sad because it's plain obvious that in any rich European city there's a lot of waste that can be recycled and Barcelona is not the exception.
I keep on complaining and saying that somebody should create one local group, specially after I saw many good staff, such as furniture in good condition, placed to be collected for the council just to be dumped on landfills
Then I've got one eureka moment and decided that if nobody else was doing it, well... I have to do it myself.

So I wrote to the Freecycle people explaining the situation and they asked me loads of questions and... well.. to make a long story short: I was approved and we're starting a group right here.

I'm thrill and more than a bit scared, because I created and managed a newsgroup before and Gods knows that it's a lot of work and you have to invest a lot of time just to keep the group running smoothly.
However, I do believe that we have to give something back to the community where we choose to live, so... wish me luck!

And as every good deed deserves another, I hope that someday I'll find somebody who's giving a clarinet away so I can get one to keep on learning!!

Make-up & knickers

I miss Boots and Marks & Spencers.
Not Sainsburys or Debenhams, just Boots and M&S. The first for the variety of goodies and how easy is to browse them; I just loved to go and browse all sort of make-up, shampoos and what have you there. I was forever buying new stuff and I don't think I ever run out of anything.
Here you have plenty of chemist shops, and I do mean plenty: there's one in every block more or less, I've never seen so many together, here self medication is the norm and it shows in the number of chemist in town. There's also plenty of beauty shop, selling everything from make-up to perfumes, but they're look expensive and far too specialised and they have very eager shop keepers who follow you around the minute you enter the shop and are forever trying to spray you with the latest fad. I hate the attention and the pressure. And I never seem to find what I'm looking for.
Take yesterday experience as an example. I run out of my face cleaner liquid soap and I wanted to buy a new one. If I were in Bristol, I'd go to Boots, browse happily for half an hour and find at least 3 within my price range plus a couple of things that I didn't realised I wanted in the first place. Bliss!
The experience here couldn't be more different. I went in, fought off a girl trying to spray me with a perfume, the I couldn't browse happily with the same girl keeping an eye on my and following me around the store making smiles every time we made eye contact. After a few minutes, I left with a very expensive Clinique liquid facial soap that later found out smells like old candles. Ew!! And I all but forgot that I also needed a shower cream.

Then I miss M&S for the knickers.
Of course there's plenty of shops that sells knickers here but do they have to make it a boutique experience? For starts, the shops look like they're selling knickers designed for taking off rather that to wear. You know what I mean, more Agent Provocateur's thongs and Victoria's secrets' Wonderbra than comfy 100% cotton knickers that you can sit comfortably in.
You go into the shop and the assistant is immediately assessing the size of your boobs and bum, never a nice experience to start with; then she checks the ring on your finger and as I don't wear one, they assume that I'm looking for knickers designed to obtain one ASAP, so they offer me thongs and padded bras and I leave the shop rather than ask for organic cotton comfy ones.
So far, I couldn't buy a single one and I start to worry about it.

Homesick

Yesterday I was watching tv and there was a program about medicine, in this case it was all about the lungs and how to keep them in good conditions.
The program was good, very informative and detailed, but the most important part for me was that all the scenes that were not in interiors were actually recorded in Bristol. So, the presenter was cycling along the College Greens, going pass the statues of Queen Victoria and Raja Roy, then going up to the Triangle in Queens Rd until she reached the BBC building in Whiteladies Rd.
We used to live in that area for years, my son was born nearby in St. Michael's Hospital, my graduation ceremony was in the cathedral, "the husband's" was a few yards away in the Well Memorial building. So the images brought me back home and I felt terribly homesick.
So many lovely memories.
Bristol looked so nice!

After that it was "Grow your own vegetables" in BBC2 and I realised that every year around this time I did plant my own seeds and placed then on the windowsill untill they were ready to go out, then all the weeding and pruning and killing bugs until, sometimes, we had a few croocked vegetables but sometimes we had loads.
I miss that too!!
"The husband", ever the realist, remain me that I used to complain a lot about the hard work involved; the way I remember is that I used to complain a lot about him not helping me enough with the work.
Here I have the weather but no garden.
I'm far too lazy to go and get an allotment, and anyway, they're hard to find. Maybe I could plant something in the balcony. It is south facing and very sunny indeed. There's not much room, now with the satelite dish, but... well... I'll get some info about gardens for small places and we'll see.

Maybe I should buy one of those cheap flights to Bristol!

Cheap flights to Barcelona

A friend just told me that Ryanair is advertising its new flights Bristol - Barcelona (Girona airport) at 1 pence each during weekdays in February.
Check Ryanair website:
http://www.ryanair.com/site/EN/
and come to visit us!!

Girona is actually closer to us that the more used El Prat airport which is south of Barcelona.

I'm in!

I told you before that I had an interview with a language school that belongs to a couple of British guys. I met one of them, Steve, at the rugby club and after a tough interview with him and his partner, I think he was keen on hiring me but I don't quite think that his partner agreed wholeheartedly. Anyway, they gave a me a few hours a week to start with and they told me that they'll be monitoring me and at the end of the month they'll tell me if I'm good enough to work for them. No money was mentioned at this stage, although I did ask.

Well. On Monday 8th of January, Steve introduced me to the class and stayed there for a good half an hour. The next day we had a post-mortem and he gave me a lot of what I chose to think was feed back, positive criticism and he also suggested changes on my teaching methods.
My attitude was: I'm new at teaching English and this guy's been doing it for 20 years, so he may or may not hire me, but this is my chance to learn something valuable. So I really payed attention and tried to learn as much as I could.

Yesterday, Steve joined my class again for the second and final assessment. By now, I developed a good rapport with my students and I did implemented a lot of what Steve told me. I also prepared my class carefully, so I was as prepared as i could be for the assessment but still nervous. Steve stayed half an hour and left.

So this morning I went to visit him to get the verdict.
He started saying that he was very pleased that I took his advice seriously and applied it, that the class went much smoother than the first one. He also said that it shows both, that I'm willing to learn and that I can teach reasonably well. He still had some more suggestions on how I could improve things but overall he was pleased and satisfied about my teaching and, basically, I'm in!!
I did ask about money, again, and again he was vary vague and told me that it's all on the hands of his accountant. Weird. However, he assured me that I'm going to earn no less of what I'm earning now, which I think is fair enough for now as I'm just started in this business.

All in all I have 11 hours a week now, which is a good start but I really need to double that in order to get a decent amount. We're just starting here and still we're not able to afford some things that we had in Bristol, such as piano and swimming lessons for P. Our basic needs are covered but I'd like to go on holidays during summer and stuff like that, so it's up to me to earn the extra cash.
So, I'm still applyng for jobs. Last Saturday i meet a lady who has contacts with a bilingual school and I'm going to send my CV to her so she can pass it on to them with a kind word. Things work like that all over the world in relation to jobs, but I think that networking it's even more important here in Spain.
We'll see.

Globalization

I'm a fan of Vanity Fair magazine. I had a subscription for years in Bristol and I was very pleased when I was able to buy it here in downtown Barcelona; even that it's a couple of weeks later than in the UK and more expensive (at €8).
Then, now that we have our own flat, I thought that I can subscribe and they can sent it sent here as well. The British edition for an European annual subscription cost a whooping 65 pounds, but the American edition for international annual subscription cost $42 (which is more or less 22 pounds!).
That's ridiculous because it's the same magazine!

Of course, there is a small catch in that you need a credit card from an USA bank in order to be able to subscribe to the USA international(which is silly given that if you want the international subscription you actually live outside the states). But that was easily solved. I asked a friend who lives in Bristol but still has her bank account in the USA to do it for me and I transfer the money directly to her UK account.

Globalization has its advantages in that you are not confined to the local choices but you have your pick internationally.
I'm aware that moving goods around the world is not very eco friendly and I do try to consume wisely, using local produced goods if at all possible and we even try and cook using whatever is in season. However, from time to time we have treats such as Heinz baked beans (this is just a treat for my son, who loves beans on toast) and it feels good to have the choice. There are so many Brits in Spain that you're able to find whatever you may want from home, from tv to Worcester sauce.

Another consumer choice of mine in the UK was to have as many fair trade products as we could regarding things such as sugar, coffee and so on. However, I cannot seem to find any here in Spain. In the UK every supermarket has a selection of fair trade food, here I couldn't find any so far. I even google it and found only one shop in the old part of the city, but that's not a practical option for me.

Rugby day

Yesterday we had a big day at the Sant Cugat Rugby Club. Children from all over Catalunya went there to play and it was great fun. P. played against 4 other teams and at the end of the day he was all sweaty but sooooo happy. They put "the husband" to work as an official, checking the matches' results and so on.
One surprise for me was that there's loads of girls in the teams and they're very brave and tough. Good for them!
I had a good time, it was really nice to sit under the sun and and get to know some of the other mums. There's two ladies I could be friends with, very nice people; one is an Argentinean married to a Brit and with 2 bilingual kids (or should I say multilingual as they have to deal with 3 languages here), the other is a local lady married to Steve, the guy with the English school I started to work with.
The weather here is fantastic, it was a bit misty early in the morning but at around noon the sun was very worm and nice with a coldish breeze just to remained us that weŕe still in winter. As in Britain, we're having the hottest winter since records began, nice but worryingly in the long term view. A pity for us because I was looking forward to learn to sky a bit but there's not much skiing going on.

Tomorrow I'm having a new group of students. Wish me luck!!

Big brother and Spain

Yesterday, in my advance level class, my students asked my what was the big hullabaloo about the current Big Brother.
I've never seen Big Brother, ever, and that particular show is certainly not on my list of things to watch here. So I didn't have a clue of what they were talking about. They told me that they've seen on the local news that there were loads of complains about allegations of racism on the program, that people in Bombay were incensed and that even the Prime Minister has been talking about it in the Parliament.
My students were not surprised that some contestant can make a racist remark, you can find that sort of people all over the world, but they were indeed surprised that a sort of private action, albeit one done in a very public way, could have such resonance on the society.

That lead us to a very interesting talk about the cultural differences between the Spanish and the British. Both countries have an imperial (and quite bloody) past but their own perspective and vision of their history and the outcome of and relation with their former colonies are very different indeed.

I did promised my student to do some research and about the allegations, and I did find out some videos in the net about the row between Sherpa and Jade Goody. I said that I never seen Big Brother before, but of course I knew of Jane Goody, she was a sort of national calamity and she´s infamous precisely because she was a contestant in a previous Big Brother show and she also has done a few tv shows on her own, cashing in her down-to-earth, big-mouthed, totally ignorant person doing it wrong every time. And goodness gracious me, how she outdid herself now.

I took some videos (click here to see it)to the class today and my poor students were none the wiser because they couldn't understand a word of what Jade was shouting (they've never heard the word malarkey before, now they know exactly what that means!). Welcome, dear guys, to the poor man version but very real English.

For all I could see and could understand of what happened, I personally think that big-mouth Jade was totally bitching and bulling the lovely Sherpa but I'm not convince she's been racist. I, for one, can very well imagine Jade shouting that to any other person, in any colour or shape.

My student asked me if the racial tension and racism was particularly bad in the UK, compared with other European countries, and my honest answer was that I think that racism is seen as such a morally wrong thing that normal people would not let one such public remark to go uncensored and that in my view that was a good thing.

I do hope that this will open an honest debate about racism in the UK because not only the white Brits can be racist, sometime racism lurks in the minds and hearts of the so call "ethnic minority" people. My former neighbourhood was a big rough on the edges, (there even was a racist attack to a Indian family in one shop nearby), but the worse outburst of racist language that I've ever heard by far there was an exchange between the Asian owner of a nearby shop and an a couple of Afro-Caribbean teens that he was accusing of trying to steal something. They shouted things at each other that made my skin crawl.

Racism do exist in the UK but certainly not more than in the rest of Europe, if anything it'll be less! And I think is a good step in the right direction that a racist remark or insult is considered to be such a horrible thing.

I really would like to know what do you ladies from the library think of this and what does people say in Bristol. Please, tell me!!

A word of caution

If and when in this area of Spain, beware of local cakes, they do taste divine but the locals have a penchant for hiding little trinkets inside the cake and tradition say that whoever find them will have good luck. That's pretty good, cute and quaint when you know that there's something hidden and you are looking for it in every mouthful.
When you don't know about this and you go on eating as if there's no tomorrow, you risk breaking a tooth or, like "the husband" here, almost choke to death with a, in this case, a little plastic yellow duck. After P. had to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on his dad, we recon that "the husband" was pretty lucky not to die anyway thus confirming the tradition.

Another fiesta

This time I don't have a clue why we were having a fiesta in Sabadell, we just had, plus a tasty round cake to go with it.

Just a few minutes ago, while I was busy preparing my class for tomorrow, "the husband" called and told me to go and join him at the centre of Sabadell, he just came out of the tube and he was faced with a fiesta.

So, P and I run there and founded the usual: police closing roads, crowds of people and a parade. This time the parade was very country like, with loads of horses, beautifully dressed and handsome riders with traditional dresses and weirdly enough, some girls dressed in the very British horse-riding black tunic. There was also some carts pulled by all sort of horses, from tiny ponies to Arab-looking horses and even one lovely donkey, all lavishly decorated.

As it seems to be a sort of tradition here, the people on the carts were throwing candies to the onlookers, and to some of the horse-riders too, sometimes engaging in a mock battle with another cart or pelting their friends on foot when they saw them, to the general amusement and cries of "Ole!" from the crowd.

While I'm writing this, I'm also googling for info about what was going on. Today is the day of Saint Antony Abad and he was the saint patron of farm and domestic animals. That explain the horses. Here in Catalunya he's also known as "Sant Antoni del porquet" or Saint Antony of the piglet because his always portrayed with one as you can see here. Apparently, today the farmers can take their horses and other animals to their local church to have them blessed.

I though than the saint patron of all animals was Saint Francis of Assisi, but I found out that he's the saint of all that there's in nature, thus, the patron of ecology.

Once the parade was over an on our way home we noticed that many people stop at the pastisseria (bread shop) and bought a sort of round bread. So, we bough one too. It's really tasty. Sweet bread with a marzipan and brandy (?) filling, decorated with candied fruit (?) not sure about this. But it taste great.

I wish there was a way were we can find in advance about the fiestas because we've just seem to bump accidentally with them. Well... there's no way to avoid them, as they're always loud event and we live very close to the centre of town. Although I wonder if we're missing some, or if their even better in a village nearby or in Barcelona. The most incredible thing for me is that this are not events for tourist, they're just local fiestas and local people embrace them and participate fully.

I like this.

lovely day in downtown Barcelona

I had to take some documents to the Ing bank in downtown Barcelona because I'm opening an account with them, being all fed up with local banks. So, I took the opportunity to wander around the city. Barcelona's just such a beautiful place that every time I go there I feel fortunate to live just a few minutes away.
There's also the local after-Christmas's sale. Here they start only after the 3 kings had left their presents, this year it was on the 13th, and every week thereafter they gave more discounts until all it's gone.
So, I was rubbing my hands with greed and went there with a happy heart and a scared credit card. Then... what a big disappointment!! Yes, all the shops have red "sale" signs, but once you go in you find out that the real sale is confined to a corner of the shop or to the sad contents of a table. Definitely: nothing to write home about. I just bought a diary and that because I need one, now that I'm having more students and all, and it wasn't even particularly cheap.

No worries. The trip is always worthy as Barcelona is a great place to visit.

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday we had the laziest Sunday so far in Barcelona. Up until now we spend every single minute we had unpacking, tidying up, cleaning, or whatever was needed at the time around the flat. And believe me, there was always loads to do around here.

On Saturday we did some work before watching "The prisoner of Azkaban" on tv (the one in which the Dementors looked like seaweed according to Patxi) and not much more.

But on Sunday we woke up late and had a wonderful, and unusual for us, breakfast: freshly homemade pancakes with Maple syrup. A colleague of "the husband" came to Barcelona in December and when we met he and his wife gave us a lovely glass of Maple syrup from Massachusetts. We've only seen it on tv, never tried before, so it was a total treat. And it's just delicious! Say what you want about the Americans, but their food do taste good.

For the first time since we're here we didn't have something that needed to be done so we were a bit bemused by that and didn't know what to do. Then P. suggested that we go to Coll Bato, which is a place with wonderful caves where he went with his class last year. It's something like the Cheddar's caves and it's also next to one of the most beautiful and most visited places in Catalunya: Montserrat, a Monastery built in the middle of the mountains around the 9th century and only just about half an hour from home.

After more lazing around off we went. But while on route we realised that we were hungry again, and as it was lunch time we stop at a restaurant to eat something, knowing that the food at Montserrat is overpriced and not really good (tourist's trap). This was the first Chinese restaurant we went here and the food was just great. For starters we had dim sum, which is one of my favourite foods and then a whole 3 courses menu. Of course by the time we finished eating we just wanted to sit down and have a siesta.

Just around the corner from the restaurant there was a bowling alley and P. really wanted to go and play. So we changed our plans and went bowling instead. Had a great family time there and by the time we finished, it was too late to go to Coll Bato or Montserrat, so we went back home instead and did nothing much. Brilliant!

Never mind. We have years ahead to visit Montserrat and it'll be probably one of the places where we'll take our visitor. Are you tempted?

There's more than tv in life, innit?

Sorry. I've been far too busy watching TV and didn't have time to write.

To my great delight I found out that channel 4 is airing the US version of a Latin American soap opera that my mum used to watch and love sometime ago "Ugly Betty". My mum and other 80 million people loved it.
I'm not sure how good this translation is going to be; meaning not only the language translation but the culture translation as well. Betty was originally living in Colombia, worked for a fashion shop (I think) and all was set in a Latin American environment. In this version Betty is still a clever and sweet but ugly Latina girl, but she lives in New York and work for "Mode" fashion magazine.
The show was such a success that it has been remade for many countries, such as Germany, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Israel, the Netherlands and even Japan.
I've seen it yesterday and it was funny and entertaining.
So, ladies, give it a go.

But. there's more than TV and chocolate in life... allegedly.
The New Year started with a sort of an offer to work with a new language agency. I still don't know for sure if I'll be working for them for long because they're taking their time to make sure I'm good enough for them and I feel I'll be on probation for a while.

Now I'm teaching around 12 hours a week and from the next week I'm going to more or less double my teaching hours, thus doubling my earnings, which is more than alright.
I've got 6 hours with the bosses and owners of a company that make elevators and who are dead set on expanding and taking over the world. Their English is atrocious, (you know, Tarzan stile at their best), and their very keen to learn, which made my job easier. Money is a great incentive.
This year I decided to get myself some text books for teaching as well as my grammar book that I've been using so far.
I also ordered some books to learn how to teach properly on Amazon because I did learn a bit of it while at college but I can do with some help preparing the lessons and some teaching tips. I'm looking forward to get them. Pity there was nothing like "Teaching English for dummies". I did check.
If you came across any book that's particularly good or relevant, please let me know. I need all the help I can get.

Britania rules the waves!

I mean the TV waves. British tv really rules, specially when compared with the local one.

"The husband" found a way to have British TV and he managed to install the satelite dish in our balcony and to have everything working by the time P.'s got back home from school; so "Blue Peter" was actually on tv for him. All for around £100 and we've got all the free channels that ar available back home (meaning Bristol). He's my hero.

Local TV is bad, not worse than everywhere in the wide world, just worse than in the UK where people still have a great BBC and a good channel 4. And they're complaining about the dumbing down of the media? They don't really know how low can it go if left to their own devices.

We hardly watched tv all this months and P. didn't at all. There was one one good sitcom that we were following "Dr. House" and that's from the US and Hugh Laurie, who plays the main character is actually a Brit. There was a local sitcome about a familly living in Madrid during the 70s and that was all. Not even the news were worthy of attention because they have at least 50% of their time to crime and gory stuff.

One of the program with more audience is the spin off of an Argentinean soap opera re-made in Mexico and set in a posh high school with allegedly realistic teenage drama, but the actors looks like... well see picture here and judge yourself. Remember Britany Spears' video for the "oops I did it again" song? Well... now imagine a whole school dressed and made up like that and you'll get the visual idea.
The soap was so successful that the actors now have a music band and they're touring in Spain with enourmous success. They've just kicked up their tour in Barcelona and they've filled a huge stadium; the same that Bruce Springsteen filled a few month ago with his show "The Seeger Sesion Band Tour".
This is a sad world, my friend.

Then there's lots of programs dedicated to celebrity gossip, game shows such as the local version of "who wants to be a millionaire" and local versions of UK shows such as "you are what you eat", "super nanny" and so forth.

Boring!!!

So today P was over the moon watching "Blue Peter" earlier today and I have to confess that I'm in a high myself. Even just a few minutes ago I watched "soapstar superstar" and while I couldn't name any of the soaps stars, Zoe Ball never looked more lovely. By the way, is Zoe pregnant or the dress really didn't do her any favour?

All this costed "the husband" around £100 and it's totally worth every penny!! I wonder if it could be consider tax deductible as a work related investment for me, due to the fact that'll keep my English up to date.

Teaching EFL and the fear of not being good enough.

I think that I'm over ambitious sometimes or just a perfectionist because good enough is never good enough for me and I'm forever finding faults in everything I do.
That attitude used to stop me for even trying to achieve things because my standards were so impossibly high that I knew in advance that I couldn't ever reached even the good enough level.

Then I went to England and I founded myself sounding as a half witted alien!
So I had 2 options, 1- be forever quiet until and unless I could sound as clever and assertive as Jeremy Paxman interviewing a politician or 2- hid under the duvet forever. Nobody can do as Paxman does and, anyway, I'm unable to shut up or to hide under the duvet for long. So I worked a lot learning English and in the process I learnt not to take myself so seriously.
I think that the not taking oneself too seriously is part of British culture and thus is ingrain in the language. Language and culture are totally related and dependent. You have to laugh at yourself in English otherwise the language doesn't work. And once you'd learn to laugh at yourself, you're in a safe zone and can start to deal with the deep issues.

I can wax lyrical for pages about the "whys" and the "hows" I'm like that and how I'm better than I was, but the point is that it's a work in progress, were I'm trying to do my best and I'm learning to cut my self some slack.

Yesterday's class went well. I was totally freaking out because Steve was there to supervise me, basically to see if I'm good enough for them. My mouth was absolutely dry and it felt as bad as a test, worse than the interview in fact. So I took my books and introduced myself to the students and started the class. Steve left after what felt as an eternity and then the class got animated and even fun.
I'm going to meet Steve tomorrow for a port-mortem and I hope he'll be happy enough.

Anyway. The old agency just sent me an e-mail telling me that my former students gave me glowing reports and so they're offering me some more teaching hours.
So, I'm finishing this post with a positive note, I'm still employed!

New job starting today

Later today I'm going to my first class with the new agency. One of my employers is going to be there with me, first to introduce me to the students and second and most importantly, to assess my teaching.
I'm terrified. I spend some time during the weekend preparing my class, revising the past simple tense and the material that Steve gave me on Friday but I'm scared. I really want to do a good job but maybe I'll be forever feeling inadequate and a bit of a fraud as a teacher. Well... at least I've been teaching for a few months by now.

Forgot the library mascots

My son reminded me that I forgot to mention the 2 library mascots that were parading together with the Aladdin look-alike character and helping him to get the kids letters for the kings. This are 2 cuddly characters that are printed in every library ads for children activities, one is like a reddish ragged doll and the other like a big blue Elmo from the Muppet's show.
In this case they are people in costumes like the one I was about to wear (the oversize blue bear costume) for the library, remember?

So, the kings' cabalgade is also an opportunity for the local council to show some of the things they do for the community.

I've seen the king!!

Not Elvis.

We actually saw the 3 kings. In Britain they're known as the 3 wise men who brought gifts to baby Jesus; here they're called "3 reyes magos" or 3 wizard kings, one from Europe, one from the East and one from Africa. They were supposed to arrived today... at least today is when is celebrated here and, as you may know by now, anything that is worth a fiesta deserves have it done properly.

The tradition is that kids send a letter to the kings telling them that they've been good kids and asking for some presents, long list, then tonight they place their shoes on the balcony or near a window or garden, together with some biscuits for the kings, grass and water for the camels (it was the Middle East, after all) and the next day the food disapears and there's some presents.

When I was young we didn't have Father Christmas but people give each other presents in the name of baby Jesus, it was great but not really magical as the 3 kings days. That was totally awesome.

I keep the tradition for P. while I also incorporated Father Christmas, so for years he's got 2 sets of presents. Although we never did the other part of the tradition, the one that said that bad behaved children get a piece of coal on their shows instead of presents!!


So, as usual, P. wrote his letter last week and we posted in a special golden box at the local post office. That was a change because in Bristol we had to go and post a letter to them in Israel, which probably amused or puzzle some postal workers somewhere.

I forgot all about it and we spend the day screwing and tiding up my books because I need to learn some basic grammar for Monday.

At around 6pm P and I went to the supermarket, which is literally around the corner and found that the street was being closed by the police and there was a bit of a crowd already there all along the street. We though it was weird and started to speculate the reason for it, maybe a parade of some sort? Then I realise that they were far too many kids around and some of them were beyond themselves with excitement, so I said to P. that maybe they were waiting for the kings to arrive.

Well. P. my son, is an sceptic and a self-described non-believer; he told his school priest last year that he didn't want to have first communion because he believes in Darwin. So, he looked at me with a funny face as if I was totally mad, well beyond my normal madness.

We decided to wait there and try to see what was going on. The crowd grew stronger and at more or less half an hour latter a police motorbike brigade appeared with lights on and all as they do when they have bigwigs to take care of. Then a bunch of mysterious looking guys and girls with long robes and their faces covered with dark scarves in the manner of the Bedouins went by giving the children little flags to wave, with the local council logo welcoming the kings to Sabadell.

Even P. was impress.

Then a police car followed by a horse-cart with a guy dressed as a sort of Aladdin from a British pantomime to whom children handed their letters as he went by.

P. then panicked and told me that he's not sure if his letter will find its way to the king as it appeared that you have to give it to their "handler", PR person or whoever this guy was.

After that a motorcycle group in old motorbikes, like the ones from the 60's, mod's style went by, decorated with balloons, also a bunch of very old small cars went by, both were local clubs of bikes and car collectors.

Then, after a pause, as the horse-cart had to go very slowly to allow all the kids to hand in their letters, a carnival exploded. A bunch of lovely girls dressed as in Egyptian fantasy, with huge colourful fans, went dancing, then a truck with a gigantic silver star (like the one that the kings had to follow to find baby Jesus) followed by another truck filled with children dressed as garden gnomes throwing sweets at the delirious children (and some parents) some of whom were well prepared with carrier bags to bring them home. Not handing sweets, mind you, actually trowing them around with such an energy that I feared for my glasses!!! One actually hit me on the head and I swear I saw stars as the cartoons do!!!!

Then, in a huge truck decorated as if the planetary system, it came one of the kings, the one with a white beard. He was great but the best thing by far was the children's faces, including my skeptic one, with eyes shining with pure unadulterated magic.

After that there was bunch of musicians dressed as royal astronomers, at least according to P, who also said that they looked a bit like Henry VIII without the gut. So that must have bee the European king. Here you can see a glimpse of him and his... elves? assistants? You can also see some children with bags ready for more sweets.

Then another big truck with children throwing sweets followed by another king. This time all in blue hues and more oriental style, but "oriental" in that panto sense again. Followed by another truck with kids throwing sweets.

Finally, and terribly politically incorrect, a bunch of people with their faces painted black as in those all movies of Al Johnson went dancing with huge banners, preceding the black king, and the children favourite: Baltazar. He was followed by some people all dressed u with lovely red capes and riding beautiful horses. More sweets were thrown.

Then the local firefighters, the ambulance, the forest firefighters and, last but not least, the street cleaners with their carts specially decorated for the occasion closed the parade while cleaning all the confetti and sweet wrappers around.

I think it'll be a good idea to the council to offer some ritalin after the parade (that's the drug giving to ADD's children) because some of the kids were in a totally high trip with all the sugar and excitement. I know I was!!

I've heard that every village in Spain, no matter how small, has their own parade, although the biggest are usually on the bigger cities. In Barcelona the kings actually arrive by ship and the parade starts at the port. We saw on tv the parade in Madrid and it was awesome.

Now, we're back home, P. already left his shoes on the balcony together with some biscuits he baked himself. I bet he's going to wake up at 6am tomorrow morning, that if he manages to sleep at all!

I do miss you, guys, but living here is great fun.

Second job

Well. I've got myself some more hours of teaching. Good!
Steve called me yesterday to say that they have some students for me, a beginners' group, starting next Monday. He's going to be with me during the first lesson to assess my teaching methods and to see if I get on fine with the students. He gave a bunch of books, one that the students are going to use, one practice book, a teacher's book, some tapes and a thick and very well thumbed grammar book (not sure if he gave it to me as a hint that I have to study it or if is meant to be used as a guide for homework for my students).

I'll have to prepare a class asap. I'm planing to set aside some time during the weekend to do so.

I'm a bit bewildered with the fact that people are hiring me to actually teach English to somebody. Either my spoken use of the language is better that I think or I'm really good at selling myself! Maybe I should consider finding a career in PR. I wonder what Steve'd think if he had a look at this blog... specially before I run the spellchecker!!!

Screwing again???

And not in the fun sense of the word!

I feel that all of what I've been doing for the past weeks is opening boxes, unpacking flat furniture and endless screwing, I even have a couple of blisters on my fingers to prove it.
But despite everything, one has to marvel at the ingenuity of the designers at Ikea. From the minimalist packages to the pre-drilled holes, the furniture is actually easy to assemble if you follow the all draws no words booklet of instructions. It's amazing what they can do with such inexpensive furniture. And the flat is starting to look good!
It's such a lovely, warm feeling this process of actually making a home... despite the fact that we're totally tired all the time.

Now, let's do a quick re-cap of the days that I was far too busy to be able to write this blog. Sorry.

The day before the last day of the year I had a job interview.
This a bit of networking on "the husband"'s part, he told everybody that I'm looking for a job and some coach at P's rugby club mentioned that another coach (British) has a business teaching English as a Foreign Language in one of the major local banks and that he'd have a word with him.
I didn't think much about it until I've got a call asking for "P's mum" (I love it when people call me that!). His name is Steve and in a very posh voice asked me if I was still looking for a job to go and meet him and his (business) partner. He lives just a block away from us and he usually gives P a lift to the rugby club on Saturdays.
So, I went and meet the two guys (the other one, whose name I cannot recall has the strongest Mancunian accent that I've ever heard) and they grilled me. Truly grilled me. One the toughest interviews ever. They asked me about my nationality, background, my education, job experience and so forth and so on, all in English of course.
All went well until the partner told me that it was ok but that I didn't have a "proper certificate". That surprised me and I said "but... I have a BA, in a British university". He, totally patronising, told me that was ok but that he meant a certificate in EFL. I then had to explain that my degree was precisely EFL and Spanish and that a certificate usually takes, how long? 6 months? And that I studied for 3 whole years to get it. And that I've got a 2:1 and a the prize for the best essay of my year.

I had no modesty whatever, but in my mind I was thinking:
yeah...with THIS English...???
you must be joking!!!
Anyway, I may speak (and write) funny, but at the end of the day I do have the proper qualifications.

Finally they asked my why did I want to work with them, to which I, boldly replayed (yes, I did split the infinitive, another rules go to waste with me) that I didn't know them yet, that I was just looking for a job and that the real question was why should they hire me. Yes, I really said that!!! And then went on and explained that I'm the ideal teacher of English for beginners because they need to learn the foreign language through their own language and my Spanish (at least) is flawless (not true either here) and that I've been there, done that and got the t-shirt and I know exactly where the problems will be and how to address them.

Well... with that pitch I really got their attention. Now let's hope that they do have loads of students who are really beginners and that they liked me enough to hire this lady with a funny, although very idiomatic and colourful, English. AND, I didn't even mentioned that I'm dislexic!!!


New Year's Eve.
We spend the whole day trying to empty the rented flat so we could start the year by sleeping on our own beds. Hard work.
Plus I had to put together some side dishes for dinner at a friend's flat. So, when it was time to go, around 8pm (they live by the sea, an hour drive away), I was already knackered and the ready made beds were soooo inviting... But we're not the sort of people who'd turn down a party so, off we went.
Dinner was really nice and we've got to meet some new people as well, which I always appreciate. (they have a corner shop in which they sell all sort of Argentinean goodies,, good to know).

We're wearing the same clothes than in the Christmas' eve party because that's all we got out of the boxes.

Here New Year's Eve is called "nochevieja", the old nigh, and at the stroke of midnight and the dawn of the new year, everyone has to eat 12 grapes, one for each chime, for good luck for each of the incoming 12 months.

It's been said that the ER people hates the tradition because every year they have loads of people who chockes badly. This is akin as people getting burn on the UK with Guy Faulks' bonfire. There's some recommended techniques about how to eat the grapes, my favourite was to store them all in your mouth and they eat them all together, not an easy task; "the husband" said that that was like cheating and he managed to eat them all one by one. We'll see who's the luckiest this year.

I drove home after the party and the motorway was pretty empty. The police, however, stoped us once with breathalysers at the ready; (the practice of taking points off your driving license has been implemented just a few months ago). I was very exited to had a go to the breathalyser, never done it before, but they just saw me all smiling, "the husband" looking tipsy but not driving, and P's asleep on the back seat and they just waved me away.
I think that in the same spirit of the points taken if you commit a fault, they should give extra points to us who are goody two-shoes, at least a t-shirt "I don't drink and drive", that'd be nice.

Now I'm off to sleep. good nigh and good luck.
(yes, I love George Clooney and the movie was great)