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.