Wedding aniversary

Today's our wedding anniversary, 14th years since we've tied the knot in Argentina and still going strong, or at least laughing together almost every day, which is a better measure of the relative "togetherness" of a couple than sex. Not to day that sex is not great... well... let's private things remain private, the gist of this sentence is that we're still wanting to be married!

We went to a lovely restaurant in the local Rambla. It's always full and at weekends local people queue outside waiting for tables, so we've just assumed it was good and were forever planing to go. Now that we had a "proper" occasion we took the chance and went there. And it was full but we arrived a bit earlier (for local standards, at 9:30pm is still early) and had no problem getting a nice table. The food was really nice, I asked for a duck comfit with oranges, "the husband" had swordfish and my mother-in-law rice with seafood, all delicious, we had wine and one dessert and the bill was less than €50 (around 33 pounds).

We didn't exchange presents, we almost never do because we both keep forgetting this so... why bother with something that will only add stress? If we remember in time we go and just have a special night out.
In any case, mother's day is on the 6th of may here and I do need a new watch as the old one is falling apart, so I'm dropping hints all over the place (including here). I specially like Swatch designs but it have to be big and with a plain face with numbers as otherwise I get confused and cannot tell the time (blame it on the dyslexia plus short-sight-ness). I totally love this one pictured here.

In any case, my dearest family should know that I do have a wish list in amazon.co.uk. Just in case!

Oh... now I realise that my mother-in-law will need to be given a present too and that it's probably my job to get it. Ok, at least I still have some time do find and buy one.

Tatting

I'm glad is Friday. As I have more teaching hours I also work longer hours at home preparing the classes and finding interesting bits of news or podcast that I can use with my students. So, at the end of the week I do feel tired.
This weekend is longish that usual due to the fact that this year Worker's day, 1st of May, falls on a Tuesday next week, so most people here do what they call puente (bridge) and they take Monday off to neatly create a longer weekend. Nice concept, isn't it?

Today my bottom hurts! It's not only getting bigger and bigger but now all this sedentary life is taking its toll and now it literally hurts. It's not only the driving everywhere and the time spent in the classroom, but the preparations and even the relaxing time mean that my bottom in on a chair. After cooking dinner (since the chicken head affair we've been more or less vegetarians around here) there's nothing more relaxing than sitting down in our lovely oversize sofa and tat while watching mindless tv or listen to music or radio.
I should be doing something. "The husband" suggested that we go to a club to play whatever the days we take P. to rugby, Tuesdays and Saturdays. But on Tuesday I leave P. at the club entrance and rush off to the Bank to give a class until 8:30pm and by the time I go back to the club, his rugby practice is almost over. I should go to Yoga classes (don't let me start on that again!!) or join a club or take dancing lessons or something!! I can feel my bottom melting downwards and I'm going to end up like the guy at Dali's paint, The enigma of William Tell, using a stick to hold and stop my big buttocks from falling down.
Dali's museum in Figueras, the town were he was born, is in Cataluyna, just a few km away from here. He's also buried there with Gala, his wife and the most painted woman in history. I've been there ages ago and I plan to take P. to visit it sometime in the summer.

My friend Barbara brought and gave me a whole bunch of lovely white cotton thread that I'm slowly turning into a tablecloth. I'm tatting 6 points snowflakes-like motif and then I join them together. The idea is to use all the yarn that she gave me in this one unique piece.
It's my most ambitious project ever as I'm planning to make it big enough to cover my dinner table. I think is coming up nicely and it looks quite beautiful. If I ever finish it I'd have to place a glass on top of it so it wont get dirty.

Tatting help me to relax, and I love to see that I've done something while I was mindlessly watching some silly sitcom on tv. It's like my time is not wasted.

Shopping and fashion

With the nice weather back in town I found once more that I have nothing suitable to wear for work. With winter and the coldish weather it was easier to cover a multitude of sins with my old and trusted fleece jumpers but now I truly don't know what to wear.
People here is so much fashion conscious than in England that I'm starting to feel under-dressed. Specially because I've got 3hours teaching to a bunch of the upper-level investor group at the bank and they do wear what I still call "Sunday's best". The guys all wear smart suits and the women look like they stepped out of a make-over fashion mag and I do feel totally out of place there. A bit on the boring side of fashion, you know, conservative, mostly black smart whatever, but always with full make up and high heels.
So far I kept on thinking: Not my style anyway. But as the weather is getting warmer I'm finding that my usual uniform of jeans and t-shirts is not good enough... at least not my old 1-pound t-shirts from Tesco!!!
So I started my own what-not-wear analysis and I'm totally lost. Help!!

It's also a sort of mid-life crisis as well because, for the first time ever, I'm totally loss when I go shopping and I don't even know where to start.
It's not helping that the current fashion here is totally weird. Very 60's, Mary Quant A-line dresses with a twist, no, make that a whirpool. It's like Jackie O on speed. Great if you're pencil thin, which I'm definitely not, and very tall, which, funnily enough, I feel I am as people here is really shorter that in England. One out of two, so far, not that bad!

Under the false pretences that we were practicing vocabulary, I asked my fashionable students where do they buy their clothes, and most of then mentioned Massimo Dutti, Zara, Mango and El corte inglés (the local department store, the Spanish Debenhams). So off I went searching for new stuff.
The clothes at Massimo Dutti were far too boring and in any case, far too expensive for me at the moment. Well... even if I have the money I wouldn't buy there, most clothes were in black and so traditional that not even the Queen will find anything there.
I like Zara despite the fact that its sizes are ridiculously small and nothing seems to fit me.
Anyway, I tried one lovely yellow A-line dress there but I looked like Big Bird! Not good. (click on the link and skroll down until you can see the dress). At least not good for teaching as it will drive my students to distraction. It doesn't help that I'm shopping alone so I don't have anyone to stop me even thinking of try such horrors.
I thought that Mango will be more suitable for me because it's a bit like The Gap, practical stuff, at least on their window. Not inside! They have more or less the same wacky fashion than the other shops. You know, when some style is in fashion all the shops sell the same stuff over and over.
Finally and out of desperation I drove myself to the nearest shopping centre and spend a whole morning there trying almost everything and with the total conviction that I was to buy a few whatever, enough to last me until the real summer heat arrives.
To make a long and tiring story short... I bough a white short sleeved shirt in C&A. One pair of high heel espadrilles (extremely comfortable). And one pair of sand coloured Capri pants.
Nothing to write home about but I'm very pleased because for once I didn't really worried about expending money on me.

Then, the very next day, I went back and bough a lovely withe dress at Mango. It's very plain and confortable and the idea is to wear it with a coloured (Tesco's) t-shirt underneath. I'll try to get a picture here asap.
Of course, now I started to regret that as I'm never totally conformtable wearing a dress or a skirt. But I'm determined that I'm going to wear it, just out of sheer hartheadness: I want to be fashionable!

Any ideas and/or suggestions are most welcome.

Sant Jordi's day

Today is Sant Jordi, the patron saint of Catalunya. Yes, it's Saint George, the one with the dragon, the same guy different name. It's also book day in the whole of Spain
The tradition say that guys should give a rose to the special women in their lives: wives, girlfriends, mothers, daughters, etc, and the women should give their special guys a book. Now, in order to avoid being sexist some women also ask for books... at least I did!
So in every single corner of our town and even in crossroads outside the villages you could see a little table covered by the Catalan flag (see picture on the right hand) and vases of multicoloured roses individually wrapped for sale. The prices varied greatly from €3 and up according to the colour of the rose and the wrapping which was as creative as you can expect here.
Since very early in the morning you could see guys with roses and of course the bookshops were at their busiest. In some workplaces the bosses made sure to give one rose to every female employee, as "the husband" told me it happened in his lab.
I've got books for "the husband", my son and I even bought a book so my son could give to her grandma. "The husband" bough 2 gorgeous roses for his mum and for me and I've got another one from P. Very sweet. But I've got no book!! So I'm going to buy one for myself as soon as I can!
In our town the central square has its own open air show with music groups and local folk dancers and musicians. We also had 2 book fairs, one in the central square which included some local authors signing their books, and another one near the local market square. Most books were in Catalan, but there were also some in Spanish.
It's a nice event and I've been told that in the central Rambla in Barcelona is almost a show with all the book-stands and flower-stands beautifully done. The variety of roses is something that I've never seen before and I'm not sure that they were all naturals as I've seen one blue rose and another almost black one. Of course, you could also buy felt roses, metal roses... you name it. It was really lovely.
Of course ther was also a Sant Jordi's cake, but we didn't try as it was quite big and I'm trying not to eat everything that is in offer here, we're eating enough as it is!!
Every country has its own tradition and I'm truly enjoying the fiestas here. This is a special day in Barcelona and worthy of taking into consideration if you're planing a visit.

More working hours

A colleague of mine (whom I only know by mail) asked me to take some of her classes for a couple of week because she needed to go to England for personal reasons. I agreed and did so, no problem. Now she decided to give up most of her teaching hours and the boss-owner of the agency asked me if I'd like to take her classes up.
It was very sweet because she sent me an email with the proposal and when we meet after that to agree on the final time-tables she told me that my students reported that they're happy with me and my teaching and that she thinks that I'm very reliable and hard working so that she hoped that I could be able to take more hours on.
I'm pleased by the assessment as I do try my best with the teaching and to be on time and so on and is nice to have good feedback. I do believe that if you take a job you should be doing to the best of your abilities. I don't know how long I'm going to enjoy doing this job but while I'm doing it I'm doing it as well as I can.

Of course, the best thing about this is the increase in my monthly income which is going to more or less double. We can now plan to take a few days off for the holidays in August, which we'll take so it coincides with a conference that "the husband" is having in Arezzo, Italy. God knows I need a good rest, as this year was very tough on us all with all the changes and our economy was tight due to all the expenses we had.

As you know, my son's school is in another village nearby and he has to commute by bus for 45 minutes each way every day and stay for school dinner all due to the fact that we had to sign him into a school in April last year when we were still living in Bristol. Now I apply for a place for him at the school which is just one block away from the flat. I can actually see the school's side from my balcony as it's just a stone's throw away from our flat.
It took me 2 days to collect all the certificates and what-have-you that they needed in order to allow any child to apply for a place at the school and i still have to ask our GP back in Bristol for the vaccination records. Bureaucracy here is the worst ever and the one thing that bothers me the most. And even after I show them most of them and because we're not locals we're a square peg trying to fix into a round hole and there's always something that doesn't fit, so I have to write a letter explaining that we're foreigners and our papers may not be exactly what they expect. For instance they want a copy of the libro de familia or family book where all things related to the family are written, this book is given to all couples when they marry so we cannot possibly have one since we married elsewhere and P was born in another different country. Our marriage certificate is in one language, the birth certificate in another and the latest school certificate in a third! (Spanish, English and Catalan)
I've no much of a problem with all this as I'm able to write a letter in lovely formal Spanish and then I can go to the school and sweet talk them into whatever I want, so I managed to register my son and I've been told that the school has 2 places and no other applicants for year 6 so it's most likely that we'll have the place in our first choice of school (the one opposite to us). However, what other immigrant do when they have to deal with bureaucracy here is beyond my understanding, as here you don't have a choice of the applications and guidelines in any foreign languages other than Catalan or Spanish and you have to either have all the required papers and certificates or talk your way in.
Remember those reality tv programs about Brits trying to live and work abroad? Well, they do not exaggerate a bit! Living under the sun can be great fun until you have to face the bureaucrats.

The whole chicken for dinner

A few days ago I bought a chicken in the supermarket. I usually buy chicken pieces to use as we're only 3 people at home and a whole chicken seems too much; but because now we're 4 I decided it was ok to get one to roast.
The package was apparently the same as in the UK, you can see the chicken breast and and legs as the chicken sits in a plastic tray and it's tightly cover with a clear plastic sheet. In the label it said: whole chicken, the weight and the price and I choose a smallish one that I thought it'll be ok for us and took it home without a thought.
Well... yesterday I opened the packaging and was startled when I lift it up and the head hung down from its long neck. I haven't seen a chicken head in a long while and was surprised to see it there. After the first what-the-hell moment, I just removed the thing off and placed the chicken in the tin to be seasoned before going to the oven.
Luckily I then though that if this "whole chicken" actually had the head... it may well has all the internal organs as well... and I checked and it had. Yucky! I don't think I've ever eviscerated a chicken before but I vaguely remember my mum or the cook doing it while I was very young; I even remember how they removed the feathers but it's not something I was looking forward to ever do.
Yesterday, though, there was no option since I was not going to put to waste a perfectly good chicken or cook another thing. So I did remove all the internal organs and I felt a bit of a Kay Scarpetta, (the forensic doctor who is fictional a character in some Patricia Cornwell's novels).
It was very interesting and a bit messy because I didn't have a clue how to do it properly and I couldn't even ask my mother-in-law as she was away with "the husband". There were some ghastly bits and, just in case, after removing everything I could think off, I wash the whole thing very thoroughly. I can proudly say that it was the cleanest chicken we ever ate. And it was very good.
My son P. latter said it was a pity that I throw everything away as he read somewhere that chicken liver is a delicacy.

So, the moral of this story is: if you're ever visit Spain and decide to cook, bear in mind that when the packaging said pollo entero "whole chicken" it means precisely that.

Time flies when you're having fun

Time also flies when you're busy. Since my mother-in-law arrived I've no rest or time of my own.
The lady rubs me the wrong way and I'm on the edge constantly when she's around. To her credit, I have to say that's she's in her best behaviour and really working on not to be demanding or needy. I do know her and she can be a pain and she's really trying not to.
It's me! I'm a horrible, terrible, impatient daughter-in-law. I'm so used to be the queen of the flat and lying down the law of the house that I cannot stand her doing things her way. I know is my problem.

sigh...

I decided that I'm not going to interfere in my son and her grandma relation. So, she can spoil him as much as she wants and she's totally allowed to break my rules while she's here. After all, is only one month every 2 years and they both deserve to have a relationship and good memories of one another.

My mother-in-law is a remarkable lady. She was the first woman to graduate as a physician in our local university and she managed to do so while supporting herself working as a teacher. A big achievement. She then went on to specialise as a pediatrician and worked all her life. She even managed to be the the first woman director a local hospital in our home town and she retired when there was a military coup because she was involved in politics, something very dangerous at that time.
She's now 82 and in great shape.
She's also very strong minded, no nonsense kind of lady and I think that we're similar in that way and we're both strongminded and think that our way is the best one.
She also helped us very much in many ways during the years. She loves her son and her only grandson very much indeed and she was and is very generous toward us.
I do admire her and I should find a way for us to get along better.
Any ideas?

I'm going to take her shopping today. Let's see how it goes.

Spring has sprung

Barbara & Pete are going back to Bristol today. I was very pleased yesterday when we were talking about the many places they've been and Pete said that it doesn't really matters if they missed some because they'll see them the next time. I was thrilled! Despite having actually worse weather than they should have had in Bristol, they did love the place and they'll be back!!
In fact, they thought that the weather was just right for sightseeing and going to museums and art galleries, and they're looking forward to visit us again.
With those cheap flights is really not a problem.

And, of course, now that they're going home, the weather here is back to it most normal sunny and hot self.

Yesterday "the husband" took everybody (guesses, mother -in-low and son) to the Montserrat mountain to see the Monastery and the famous black Virgin and I stay at home catching up with the house chores and my teaching for this week. It was nice to have time just by myself and they loved the day off hiking happily in the mountains... very Heidi-like.
They didn't see the Virgin because the queues were far too long, but they did see everything else.

My MIL (mother-in-law) was very impressed by the roads, trains and how clean everything was. This is a very prosperous area in Spain and somehow she expected a poorer or more run down place so it was a pleasant surprise to find it so nice. Although she couldn't stop herself comparing this to Argentina and wondering when it went wrong for it. Mind you that Argentina was a very prosperous country when she was young and people were migrating from poverty stricken Spain during and after the Civil War. Nowadays is just the opposite.
In fact, when I went to pick up my MIL at the airport I noticed that there were loads of families with young children in the airport lounge, most of them with Argentinean accents, and they were all waiting for their grandparents arriving in that plane. This is one of the last flights in low season, meaning lower fares, so it seems that all the grandparents are taking some time off to visit their children living in Spain.

It doesn't stop amazing me how many Argies live here. And British. And I keep forgetting to find some time to go to the consulates and register ourselves. Is not something compulsory but it'll make our life easier when we need to renew our passports and other stuff.

My boss called me today to offer me more hours teaching from next week. Great! My medium term goal is to take as many hours as I can until I can earn around €1,000. Let's see how long it takes me to do so.
My short term goal is still to start doing some exercises... I still have the €100 for the enrolling and first month fees pin to my board and never manage to actually do it!! Plus I have to go to the hairdresser and to get new glasses... so much to do, so little time.

The perfect keyring

I don't wear jewelry but I do like bling from time to time. However, I'm very particular and don't like most things I see around anyway and the things I do like... well... for the most part I cannot afford them. My dad used to say that I have a taste for champagne but a budget for Coca cola.
Since we've moved to the new house I'm looking for the perfect keyring, a bling one if at all possible. Every time I moved to a new place I've bought a new keyring, and they do mean the new place and also a new phase in my life.
In this case, since we're moving into the most modernist, art deco, whatever design filled city I've ever seen, well, I was looking for a new designer keyring without any luck. I'm looking for something like this two designed for Alessi for the MoMa in New York. I do find them gorgeous! But, sadly, the little guy is sold off in the online museum shop. Sad.

Thanks god is Friday!

This week has been really busy. It still takes a long time to prepare my classes, although it does offer some comfort to know that, apparently, it gets better with time... not sure why, maybe with time teachers just stop caring... I hope that the idea is that preparations require less time once you're an experienced teacher.
Right now, for each teaching hour I spend more or less the same time in preparing the class, and I'm lucky that my students don't do homework! Marking must truly take
In any case, I do hope that things can only get better because I'm going to have more teacher hours per week, Apparently, my employer was quietly checking my students about my teaching skills and the feedback was good, so she's offering me more hours from next week.

I'm pleased that all this hard work is paying off and my students (and employer) do appreciate me. It's also great to know that I'd be earning more money because I'd like to take the whole months of August off as most people here do.
It's a bit weird, but it seems that absolutely everybody is out on holidays in August, with the exception of people working in the tourism industry and cafes and restaurants, whose employees seems not to take holidays ever as restaurants, cafes and so forth are forever and almost whenever open.
Last summer we were far too busy trying to figure out where to live and how things worked in Barcelona for me to take truly, real, time off and this years has been so intense that I do really need a relaxing time.

My mother-in-law arrived today and I went to pick her up at the airport. Hats off for her flying all the way from our hometown in Argentina to here in one go, more than 26 hours and arriving here just a bit dishevelled but fine. That's a big achievement if you know that she's 81 years-old!!
I'm truly happy that she's here, we don't get along great but P loves to have her grandma spoiling him and I love her for that! She's a brilliant grandma.
She's going to stay with us for a month and that's going to be more work for me. Wish me luck!!
She just now came into my room and asked me if I'm working right now so I can give her a hand with something... luckily for me she doesn't speak English so I can write about her.

Busy times

Last week was really slow and I expected things to pick up slowly, but life gets complicated sometimes and this week I'm working extra.
On top of my usual work I'm doing some extra hours to cover for a colleague whose sister died last week in a car crash. I don't even know this lady, we just work for the same agency, but she sent me an e-mail last week asking to replace her a few hours for a couple of weeks and I couldn't say no so I'm doing some of her hours.

Plus, late on Monday, I went to Girona Airport to pick up a couple of dear friends of mine. Barbara's one of my oldest friend in my British time, as I meet her the very first year I arrived in Bristol and the friendship grew from there.
It's great to be able to catch up with long distance friends, plus I think they're liking Barcelona a lot. Even if we're not having any fiesta right now.

There's two main airports in this part of the world, the one that EasyJet use is in El Pratt (I love that name) and the one used by RyanAir is Girona. Both are ok if you'd like to visit us in Sabadell and both airlines flightsfrom Bristol.
Just so you know. wink wink!!

Laziest Semana Santa

We're in Semana Santa in Spain, as the week before Easter is called here. And it's been the laziest week of my life! Just eating, reading and watching DVDs, heaven!
The weather has been really bad, cold and rainy, almost like Bristol! And I heard that in Bristol you had a lovely sunny week! Crazy weather.

The official holidays are just Good Friday and Monday after Easter but most Spaniard do what they call a puente (literally bridge, to take advantage of the days between the holidays) and take the whole week off, so most of my classes were canceled, I've just worked 1 hour on Monday and that was it.

Why do they call it Good Friday in English? If you think about it, there's nothing good about it as it's the day when Jesus was allegedly crucified. In Germany they call it Karfreitag meaning mourning Friday, and in Spain is viernes santo meaning Holly Friday which is more appropriate, but then, language is anything but logical.

For non religious people is a day with not much to do, more awful TV programs than the usual boring gossip, even most radios play sadder music this day, the shops are mostly closed and even the supermarkets are closed. In most parts of the country there are lengthy processions, where members of the cofradias dressed in long tunics with KKK's style hats in various colours, (the most popular being white and purple but everything seems to be allowed) carrying on their shoulders a gory figure of a crucified and bleeding Jesus. The picture shows one of the local Jesus being taking out for a walk.

You have to be a member of a cofradia or hermandad to be allowed to wear the full uniform and the membership is extrictly controlled; originally this was only open to men but since the 60's they have allowed women parading too.

Semana Santa en Sevilla is the best of the country, if you're into S&M of course, loads of bleeding Jesuses and crying Madonnas parade around town in a very dramatic fashion. There you even have some nuts crucifying themselves or offering other kinds of sacrifices. Plus you can watch the whole 6 hour parade on national TV.

Celebrities and, of course, some politicians do join the parades too.
Antonio Banderas, who was born in Seville, belongs to a cofradia and doesn't miss the Good Friday's parade, plus he brings all his family from US with him. See pictures here of him and his wife Melanie Griffith.

The Spaniards have a very developed sense of drama and this is one of the top events of the year for that. Very colourful and very local and it is definitely not done for tourist or for show, they take their traditions very seriously indeed.
Here in Catalunya people are somehow more reserved and don't do as much drama as people in the south, but the processions are very good nonetheless.

Of course, not everybody takes this seriously, as you can see in the cartoon here.

I'm looking forward at tomorrow's chocolate eggs.

Happy Easter my Christian friends and Happy chocolate holidays to everybody else!

Salsa Celtica

Great movie

I've just seen this little gem of a movie. Driving Lessons. It's British, made in 2006, with Julie Walters and Rupert Grint (Ron in the Harry Potter series). It's not all sweetie pie as the poster may suggest, so if you have a chance, watch it.

It also feature the music of one of my favourite Scottish bands Salsa Celtica. I've seen them in one of WOMAD festivals and they do a mix of salsa and Latin American sounds with more than a Scottish tilt. Cuba meet Scotland. I'll try to add a video here as soon as I learn how to do it.


See a weird but funny video of a bunch of Scots dancing Salsa Celtica's music by clicking here.

P's new blog

P. had been reading and criticising my blog for a while now and he keep on saying that I'm taking far too many liberties with "the truth" and taking far too many "poetic licences", so, he's now starting his own blog in order to set the record straight about our life here and the many fiestas.
I also think that writing a blog will help him to keep alive his written English and help him improve his writing skills. He hates hand-writing and it's the the cause of his teacher's complains in his otherwise brilliant report. Maybe this will also help him to try harder with his handwriting.

So, I'm happy and proud to add his blog to mine. Fell free to check it out.

P's blog.

My friends are going home

My friends left today and they're heading back to Bristol as I'm typing this. It was great to have them here with us, as I've been missing my friends since I arrived here. They have a toddler which is the nicest and cutest baby I've seen since P was a baby. We baby sat a couple of time and she was no trouble whatsoever. It's nice to have a baby in the house.

As we're planning to take our friends to the airport we were having the worst weather ever in here. The rain wasn't just falling gently from the sky but it was hitting us with a vengeance, as if a mischievous minor god was hosing us down on purpose so my friends would think that the weather here is not, after all, that different from Bristol!!

I'm going to miss them a lot. I enjoyed having them around and showing them the place and the food. I also think that they had a good time as they were eating like mad (and they bough loads of chorizos and ham to take with them) and they also could to be tourist for a while without the baby, which is always a nice break for parents with young children. They also founded that prices are cheaper than in Britain; for instance we went to have dinner out in a lovely restaurant in La Barceloneta (bangs on in the middle of the most touristic part of the city), with seafood paella a big whatever-is-called fish, soup, dessert, sangria (just coke for me as I was the designated driver), for 80€, more or less 60 quids.

I hope that reading this will give you ideas.... and you'd come to visit us.

Palm Sunday

Today is palm Sunday, or Domingo de Ramos and in still the very Catholic Spain is, of course, the excuse of another big fiesta. On Palm Sunday, in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Episcopal church and most Lutheran churches, palm fronds (or in colder climates some kind of substitutes) are blessed outside the church building and a procession enters, singing, re-enacting the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
My visiting friends left us to babysit their adorable baby girl (who's having her siesta right now) and went to mass.

Since last week you could buy a palm to take with you to mass so you can have it bless by the priest and then take it home until the next year. (Our downstairs neighbours kept their last year palm in their balcony).
Of course, there were loads of palms to be bought in every shops, from the main supermarkets to the small seasonal shop around the corner. I call it "the seasonal shop" because is basically an empty shop that sells whatever is on season; for Christmas it was trees, logs and decoration, fancy dresses for Carnival, and now they're selling palms.
There's a variety of palms as I've never seen before, some are knitted in very elaborate ways and are quite beautiful, some are just very plain and my neighbours told me that they buy a simple one and knit it in a special way that's been in the family for generations. There's also big ones and smaller version, such as this that can be pin to a lapel.

A Spanish rhyming proverb states: Domingo de Ramos, quien no estrena algo, se le caen las manos ("On Palm Sunday, the hands drop off of those who fail to use something new"). Before the advent of consumption society, Palm Sunday was a day to wear new clothes or shoes, according to the possibilities.

The most famous Semana Santa tradition in Spain takes place in the south, specially in Seville where you have this huge processions with the cofradias' members carring the dying Jesus around town, dressed in long robes and pointy hats that remains me of the KKK. Very dramatic. You can see the whole thing on TV, actually you can see it too if you have sky because they have TVE with is Television España. Not a cheery sigh, mind you, at least not until Sunday when we're back to celebrate and eat another lovely Easter mona as the one here.

This is a good time to visit Spain. Altough the weather hasn't been that good later, it was raining almost everyday since my friends arrived and they're joking that all my writtings about Sunny Barcelona are just a ruse!!

My friend Esmeralda suggested to add more pictures to each entry of the blog, to make it more attractive so... what do you think?