04 May, 2008

April (3)

On the 23th of April I flew to Bristol. The idea was to take a few days off from the family to enjoy myself. A well deserved break. Actually is the first time that I take time off the family for me, and after a month a half of taking care of everybody plus my mother in law... well... I totally deserve it!! Better still: I earned it!

On the day I worked like mad and at 5pm I picked up "the husband" and he drove me to Girona airport where my RyanAir flight was due to leave at 8pm. I was a bit apprehensive as I never travelled with them before and I bought my tickets 3 months in advance, really dirt cheap, and I even saved money by doing the check in on-line. until the last moment I thought that somebody will stop me to say that something was wrong and that in order to fix it I'd have to pay a fortune.
No. Everything went smoothly and the flight was great. As good as Easyjet and a bit cheaper if you buy well in advance. Good to know if you're planing to visit me!
I decided to rent a car in Bristol as public transport is expensive and this trip was all about having a great time and I was planing to visit a lot of people and going to the Mall and Malalan for a bit of shopping. I've a got a good deal with National car hire and they gave me their smaller car, a lovely Daewo Matiz like the one we used to have when we lived in Bristol but bright green, which was a blessing as I couldn't miss it when I parked in a crowded car park.
From Bristol airport I drove straight to Tesco to buy some bread and milk to take to my friend who doesn't eat wheat or digest lactose. To my delight, I found lactose free milk which is something that's impossible to buy here. With age I found out that I cannot digest milk as I could so I started drinking tea instead of café au lait, but I'm forever missing a glass of milk. Here is even hard to find fresh milk as most milk sold here are long life UHT which don't taste as good to me.
While I was there I also brought the biggest box I could find of PH Tips as normal good tea is hard to find (and also Earl Gray and Miss Grey tea from Twinings, awfully expensive here), and a couple of jars of Tiptree marmalade, their Orange and Tangerine is the best one that I've ever tasted... you can buy it at El corte inglés here but it cost more than 5€ each... I wonder if the people at Tiptree would send it to me if I order a big box or something... otherwise I'd have to start making my own marmalade as I cannot find one that is remotely as good.
While I was there I also bought a couple of baked beans tins for Patxi, as there's no better treat for him than baked beans on toast for breakfast. Crazy if you ask me, but there you go.
As a joke I also brought a small Marmite jar although we all totally hated it... I placed it in a shelf in my kitchen very much in sight, and it makes me smile every time I see it, there's few things that remained me more of England as much as Marmite does.

In Bristol I stayed with my friend and former neighbour Rossana. She lives just opposite the house were we used to live so it was a bit strange and sad to see our old house and the garden that I miss so much, still there and with the daffodils that I planted still in the front garden.
We stayed talking for a long time and it's so nice to talk with an old and trusted girlfriend!! This is what I miss the most.

The next day I just went walking down Gloucester road, from Horfield to the Arches. The weather was fantastic, sunny and warm, Bristol at is best. Purely by chance I meet a few people who didn't even know that I was in town so, it took me 5 hours to walk a couple of miles as when I met somebody we had to go for a coffee and a chat to catch up.
Down in Gloucester road I found a great place were they sell t-shits with Bristolian speech written on them and I bought a couple for my guys back home. They loved it. Now I wish I've bought one for my self as they're the cutest things ever.

The other things that I've bought were books, new and second-hand and trousers. Trousers are ok here in Spain as you find a wide range of styles, materials and, of course, prices. However in Matalan (and most other shops in the UK anyway!) they have 3 different leg lengths and I know that my perfect fit is size 12, standard legs. Here in Spain, all trousers have extremely long legs that don't fit anybody and you're supposed to trim it at home. A total waste of time. And, of course, books in English are hard to come by and very expensive and I've only found one second-hand book shop in the neighbourhood of Gracia in Barcelona. Too far away from me to bother.

The shopping was great and I returned with 2 big bags to Spain full of goodies and pretty things. However, nothing is more important than the fact that most of my friends still live in Bristol and that I miss them very much indeed. After all most of my adult life took place in that city and forever will be part of me.
It was great to meet all the people that I miss. great to talk a lot, to catch up and laugh with my mates.

Specially lovely was to have lunch at Glynnis and meet all the ladies from the library. It reminded me of how fun it was to work there. We were all a bunch of crazy forty something chicks, except for Francis who was the self-appointed proper middle-aged lady, which only added to the spice of the place. We could (and should) write a sitcom based on our experience and I'm sure it can have people in stitches.
I'm still remember the time when somebody asked me very politely (sic): "can I borrow your prick stick, please". At the time I knew what a stick was and I thought I knew what a prick was but I couldn't put those together in the context of a lady with some paper on her hands asking me for one. So I say: "wait a minute, please" and turn to face Glynnis with the question: "what's a prick stick?". To her credit, she kept a straight face and only after she served the costumer she turn to me to show me.... a Pritt stick!!
Live and learn.

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