New Life abroad (again!)

Bloody telefonica!!

2008-09-30T14:13:00.002+02:00

Hy guys!
It's not that I'm too busy or in holidays. I'm not being able to write because the local monopolic phone company left us dry and hunging (or whatever the idiom is!!) and without a telephone line since mid-August!!

I'm unable to log in or even make a phone call since then and I'm force to go to the local cyber café round the corner. The place doubles as a long distance phone booth so is extremelly noisy, as I'm writing this I'm listening to a guy screaming his head off while talking with "babushka" back in Siberia or somewhere like it... I don't know if his conexion happened to be very bar or the old lady is deaft... In the next booth is a guy talking in rapid Latin American Spanish with his mother in Ecuador and that's even more distracting because he's telling her all sort of gossip about the family here and it's quite entertaining in a soap opera sort of way. (aparently his sister is going out with a -gasp- gipsy guy and all the family disaproved but there's nothing they can do really).
Nex to me where the computers are, sit two kids that should be in school as they're not older that 15, they're watching some video in youtube and beating the rythm on the table while singing badly out of tune (blame the headphones) in a phonetic English... that would be hillarious if it wasn't so annoying!

And last but not least all the keyboars are sticky and yucky and I'm tying as fast and lightly as i can in order of 1- not to get the muck in my fingers and 2. be able to get out asap.

Not nice.

Living in Spain is great fun most of the time but the services and the attention of clients is as bad as it can be in a third world backwater country.

With any luck we'll get phone line this month... or so they say in September.
Pray for me!

And my mother in law left

2008-05-06T23:33:00.002+02:00

On the 5th of May "the husband" took her to the airport where she took a direct flight to Argentina.
To my, and her surprise, I cried in the morning!!
The thing was that I left very early, before she was awake, and when I returned home, at around 10am, I was expecting to find her busy finishing packing but she was not to be seen... The flat was completely empty and it was if like a frozen hand grabbed my heart. I make myself a cup of tea and then she arrived and when I saw her.... I just burst into tears!!
All of a sudden I felt very sad and terribly lonely.
For goodness sake!! What's wrong with me!! The lady was a pain the backside most of the time, she's demanding, doesn't help around the house, messed up my bookshelves and turned upside down our routine... I truly though that I was going to be totally relieve when she finally went home. But no, when the moment arrived I was crying and feeling terribly sad.

To her credit, I have to say that she was as shocked as I was and the only thing she managed to say was: -"I didn't have a clue that you liked me being here! That you feel like this". To which I answered, still in tears and with my arms wrapped around her neck: "I didn't know either!".

Go figure!

The flat is really empty since she's gone and I really miss to have somebody here, even though she was useless and we bickered almost all the time... well... I guess that I miss having family around. In Bristol we always had friends and they were (and are) very loyal and I knew that I could count on a number of them, phone them and they'd be with me if need be. While here I've been feeling really alone. Being in Bristol recently just serve to remained me how lonely I really feel and now even she was going.

Don't get me wrong, living here is good but all this experience's been harder that what I wanted to admit even to myself. I know it takes time to make new friends and I know that it¡s even harder the older you get and I know all the theory... but I feel I'm holding myself up by my own hair... like the Baron Munchausen in the old movie saving himself from drowning by pulling himself out of the water by the straps of his boots (or his own hair, don't really remember). It doesn't really work in real life... not even as metaphor.

International rugby

2008-05-05T16:13:00.001+02:00

On the first of May P's club was invited to play in the local tournament in a town near Perpignan, in the south of France, a place that most people here consider as "north Catalunya" as the cultural links joining this regions are very ancient indeed. In fact the road signs in that area of France have the names of villages written both in French and Catalan and the local flag of Perpignan is the same as the Catalan flag, red and yellow.
So we woke up very early that day and drove all the way there in order to see our guys play.
Last year it was a bit of a traumatic experience for them as they were all under 10 years old and it was their first experience playing against children that live rugby since birth, as the game is particularly big in the region of a country of rugby lovers. By comparison rugby is an unknown and minority sport in Spain.
The French rules for kids playing are also slightly different and they're allow to kick the ball forward while that isn't allowed in Spain until they're older. On top of that they played rougher than Spanish kids and our guys were literally black and blue and that was also under their black and blue uniforms!! There were literally blood, sweat and tears (and almost a broken nose), all for us as we didn't win one match, I don't even think we managed a draw.
(you can check my entry here in my blog of when we went last year and our kids were trashed by the very good and tiny rugby players)

Anyway... probably because last year we had such trashing, most parents decided to stay at home to enjoy the fiesta day of Labour Day and when we arrived to the club we had just enough kids to form one team with one for changes. Hardly encouraging considering that most French teams have at least 2 full teams which give them plenty of fresh players.

The matchs were very short and there were one after the other, all morning and after an hour break for lunch they continued all afternoon. Our guys fought very bravely, as you can see in this close up with Patxi and Angel faces:
And I lost count of how many games we won as what counted was that they were giving the French teams a totally unexpected great run for their money!

Sant Cugat did'n win the tournament, nor was the last team; we finished somewhere in the middle which is a great improvement considering how strong the French teams are.

There was only one incident just before lunch time in which one of our best runner was badly hurt and we later learnt that he actually suffered a fracture on his left arm. But this was outside the field while Felipe was trying to show his dad how he tackle one of the big guys just minutes before, he went too far and tackle his unsuspecting dad, who promptly felt on top of him resulting in the fractured arm.
We then lost a player because he has to be taken to hospital by a French ambulance, luckily for the parents one of the drivers was local and spoke Catalan, because before the ambulance arrived I was translating to the doctor using my bad French and English.

That left our kids without a valuable player but also with no spares so by then end of the afternoon they were exhausted. Even then they really did it magnificently and actually won a cup to be kept at the club.

Here some more pictures:

The happiest coach in town Ricardo:

The hero of the day, Borja, the kid who scored most of our tries.

April (3)

2008-05-04T14:24:00.000+02:00

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.

April (2)

2008-05-03T13:36:00.000+02:00

Sant Cugat rugby club, Patxi's club, was invited to play in the local tournament in mid-April so we all went to support him. My mother in law got bored after a while, poor thing, as she's not a sporty person, plus she's quite shy so she doesn't talk with anybody. But the rest of us had a great time. The weather was fantastic, very sunny but a bit chilly, and I forgot to bring sun cream protection or a hat so I ended with my face all red.
The kids played really well and I think they finished in the third place of all Catalunya, which is great.
After the tournament was over we decided to go with another families to have lunch by the sea in the nearby Costa Brava. The grown ups went to a restaurant overlooking the beach while the kids went on to play... cricket!!
Is funny that Patxi never played cricket while we were living in Bristol, (I don't even understand the rules!). But here with the other ex-pats kids he was just at home doing it. He's such a Brit! (not a brat!!).
This is really worlds apart form our life in Bristol, there I used to take Patxi to play rugby in the pouring rain while it was close to freezing and we were lucky if we could go after the match to get some hot chocolate to try to combat the frostbite! Here... well... just look at the pictures!! We were pleased enough but the British parents were positively glowing with glee as they drink nice wine while the kids run around in the sun.

April (1)

2008-04-30T11:49:00.000+02:00

April came and went so fast that it felt like the proverbial blink and and you miss it . Is it totally true that the older you get the faster times seems to pass. Although my dad tells me that it feels slow again once you pass your 70's. Wait and see. I just hope I'll still be bloggin by then...

I've been very busy in April. There's the usual stuff such as working, taxiing Patxi to his rugby practices and games, keeping the house going and so on and there was also some extra and very good things. All in all, a very good month. Few pictures, though, pity but I keep forgetting the camera even though I love to post pictures here.
Let's see...

I have to start writing about my students, sometime they say the funniest thing or use the cutest turn of phrases and we're really have a good time in class... at least I have a good time. From now on I'll start writing things down to bring here. I promise. No names of course.

On April I started going to yoga. There's a place just on the corner of my block, literally a few steps from my home and I was meaning to start going there since we moved here but for one reason or another I never did. Then "the husband" noticed a sign saying that they have a special offer and they were not charging joining fees for April so I had to join them. No more excuses.
There's a selection of classes doing different things and so far I've only doing Hatha yoga, twice a week and I'm really enjoying it. I don't even break a sweat but my abdominals and the muscles in my upper arms were hurting after a class or two so is not hard to figure it out that this is somehow working. Is also very relaxing and I appreciate that as I don't really know how to unwind and every little thing in life affect me a lot. Everybody have to wear white clothes in the class, which I though was a bit weird, but it does look really peaceful.
I discovered that I'm actually quite flexible and I'm no trouble crossing my legs with my knees on the floor and stuff like that, but, to my surprise, I've got no sense of balance whatsoever. I cannot even stand still in my two feet with my eyes close without swerving badly. And I'm not talking about wild strange yogi posture, no sir; while everybody in the class can stay peacefully still in one leg as in the picture, you can see me wobbling with my face contorted in concentration, tongue out and all, trying hard not to fall and failing miserably time after time.

I'm really going to try keep going as I can see yoga working just right for me.

We also went to the cinema in April, something unusual as movies are dubbed and we don't like that. We went to see Persepolis, and I mention it here because I know is on the Arnolfini in Bristol right now, so please go and watch it as is a gem. Is mostly a black and white animation of the story of an Iranian girl growing out in the 70's and during all the downs and downs that Iran has being through. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, is a great inside into the culture and also a great entertainment. We loved it. "the husband" then downloaded the comic book in which the movie is based by Marjane Satrapi and I'm thinking of buying it as is comic as its best, with a real and moving story.

On the 19th and 20 of April there was a Fair of the earth in one park in Barcelona and as it's a annual event, I wanted to go and check it out to see if we may do some advertising of the local Freecycle group that I opened. Definitely next year I'm going to try and do some advertising of freecycle as the fair is all about recycling and green issues.
The fair was the usual mix of long-haired people badly playing drums, green activists, save-whatever stands and lovely hand made crafts for sale, plus great ethnic food from all over the world (including Argentinean barbecues!). What really surprise me was a solar oven that people can build by themselves with scrap of mirrors or polished metal. It looks like a parabolic dish and it work by concentrating sunlight into a point and thus heating whatever you need to cook (see picture with the cook and the oven which looks like a box of mirrors). this is great for those part of the world where people need cheap reliable energy to cook, usually people cook making fires with wood that people (mostly women) have to walk for miles to collect or by cutting trees and the deforestation takes place. (In refugees camps women are particularly vulnerable to attacks when they have to leave the camp looking for wood to light a fire)
Then I learned that a German guy created a blueprint to make affordable and cheap cookers and donated its copyright to humanity, so poor people can build a cheap solar cooker or over.
I think that this could work beautifully in sunny poor places like where I'm from in Argentina. Well... thinking about it, I'll love to have one here in very sunny Sabadell... maybe I can build one and use it on the terrace at the top of my building to barbecue... Oh, how I miss having a garden!!

By the way the freecycle Barcelona group is growing and working really nicely, and we've got more than 500 members so far and people are exchanging things and keeping them out of the landfills. To find a group in your area, please check here:
http://www.freecycle.org/group/?noautodetect=1

Castellets!

2008-03-31T23:30:00.007+02:00

Castellets season started on the last Sunday here in Sabadell. This is a very ancient tradition here in Catalonia and one that I really appreciate and like.

A group of people of both sexes and all ages (really, from very old folks to kids as young as 5 years old) will form a sort of very high human tower, crowned by a small child (usually a girl) standing on the very top. There's also a small band playing traditional music with a couple of drums and some small flutes with a very piercing sound.

Each town and village in Catalonia has its castellers and our town, Sabadell, wears the green shirt.
In this day, 2 other towns were invited to participate with their castells, the one form Granollers were wearing the maroon shirt and, sorry, I forgot the name of the other town, in pink.
In the last picture you can see the the three groups together in their final salute, with Sabadell in the centre.
After the final salute, all the three bands play together and everybody gathers to dance a sort of lively traditional dance, something looking as a square dancing with couples joining hands and jumping a lot, and I mean everybody joins, castellers and public alike. Its lovely to see old ladies dancing with their grandchildren, parents or friends and having a great time.

We went to the central square with my mother in law and some other friends. We didn't tell her what we were about to see and she was truly amazed and mesmerised with both the skills and the tradition. Our friends from Japan were also in awe and taking pictures like... well... Japanese tourists!!

Of course there are some castells done in down town Barcelona, and if you ever come here this is one of the must see turistic event. Here it was the Real McCoy, just the locals and we were the only weird people taking pictures!

As you can see, the weather was changing from sunny to cloudy and still is a bit chilly, but when the sun shines it gets lovely.

Flat Christmas decorations

2008-03-24T22:50:00.006+01:00

I mentioned in a tatting newsgroup that I do Christmas decorations with my tatting and somebody actually want to see them!

So I'm posting here a few of the decorations that I tat using a standard bangle for support.
I tat a 5 point start and attach it as I go to the bangle, this is not as difficult as it sounds, just means going around the bangle with the shuttle and getting the next stitch to support it firmly in place.
As you can see, the colour and size of the thread makes all the difference. In this case I used plastic pink bangles and a metal looking one.

Sometimes I also add beads but I gave those away so, sorry, no pictures. I also did them with with a metallic thread as I hope you can see on the second picture (the blue one) but I didn't like it much because the thread was too hard to work with.

I also tried with different designs, basically anything will do, but the snowflakes and stars are my favourites for Christmas.

I'll try to post the baubles as well.

This decorations work really well for me as most of my family lives in the southern hemisphere and my friends are scattered around the globe, so I have to post the decorations and is easier and cheaper to post flat things. And they look really good on the three or even on a window.

What do you think?

Easter's egg

2008-03-23T22:22:00.009+01:00

I start with the recipe for the traditional Easter cake here.

Our second Easter week here in Catalonia and I'm having a tummy ache for too much chocolate and sweets.
As usual here Easter chocolate means much more than just an egg and the creations are as beautiful as ever and it was a pleasure just to go to around town visiting the shops to see what new wonderful things they have. This year, on top of the more traditional styles, I saw many designs such as the ones that I'm posting here. Art to lick! I love this place!

We still have one more day of eating as tomorrow here in Catalonia is Pascua Florida, which can be translated as Blooming Easter. I've no idea what's the meaning, but nobody work and we have to eat a special cake decorated with coloured feathers and sometime small chicks as this one in the picture. Nobody I know takes the trouble to bake one as the local shops do a magnificent and truly delicious job. In some places you even have to book them in advance.
As we were invited for lunch today to our Japanese friend's place, we took one and everybody loved it.

I wish we could share this with a nice cup of Earl grey! or even a humble PG. I'm about to run out of PG tea and "the husband" teases me that the true reason that I'm going to Bristol soon is to get some more tea!
Whatever!

I wish you had as lovely an Easter Sunday as we just had!

Parent's season

2008-03-18T22:13:00.001+01:00

My mother in law is arriving latter today and this means the starting of parent's seasons, the time when our elderly parents travel to visit and to stay some weeks with us.
So... I'll be trying my best to be patient with the old people.

The worst thing is that I have to give up my computer room as this is the place where the old people sleep when they stay here. The desk with the pc are relocated to my bedroom and everything gets smaller and more crowded and the flat gets a bit claustrophobic.

As our family lives in the other hemisphere most of the time, we're not used to have them around living here 24/7 but they were great parents to us and I suppose is time for us to give some care back to them.

My son loves to have his grandparents here as they spoil him rotten, of course. So, he's really the one looking forward to the time of the year.

Wish me luck!

My tablecloth

2008-03-14T22:04:00.005+01:00

Well... is far from perfect, especially because I started tatting this when I was too sad, depressed and unable to read after my beloved dog passed away, so my concentration wasn't brilliant anyway.
However, I'm pretty chaffed with my tablecloth as for the very first time I didn't copied from somebody elses' but made up my own designed as I was going along.
It measures 1.20m x 1.20m and it looks really good.
Here on the right you can see the whole thing and on the left a detail of a corner.

I've been tatting for years but this is the very first project that I can truly call mine from scratch. Now I started another one, this time the fabric circles are much smaller and I'm planing to add some coloured variegated green-yellow thread too so it'll be less plain.

Now I could invite you ladies for tea and use my very own tablecloth!!

Going to Bristol!

2008-03-13T11:43:00.002+01:00

I've bought tickets to go to Bristol for 6 days!!

This is the first time for as long as I can remember that I'm taking a holiday on my own, and God's know that I deserve it.

Then why do I feel guilty?

Well... it all started last year when my mother-in-law declared that if my father stayed with us for 6 months then she's going to stay with us for the exact same time this year. Of course we totally panicked as the old lady is not exactly a joy to be with.
I'm not going to bore you with the whole negotiation story, let's just say that "the husband" managed to reduce the time we have to serve from her proposed 6 months to 1 month and 18 days. A great achievement for "the husband" as she's a very determined woman.
(She was the very first woman to graduate as a medical doctor in our local university and then she went on to a post-grad and became a paediatrician. That tells you a lot about her and her determination in a machista society as it was Argentina on the 50's).

So, as we were talking and trying to see how are were going to organise for her visit, Patxi said that it'll be a good idea if I take a holiday on my own before she arrived so I'd be fresh and relaxed. That got me thinking but then I've changed the timing a bit so I could have a nice break in the middle of her stay to refresh my self.
Then I found very cheap tickets in Ryan Air (total return tickets cost €45 around 30 pounds!) and I'm going!!

That's going to be invigorating. I know that probably the weather is going to be bad but who cares, I've got sun here!
So, ladies of Filton library, here I go! We'll have to organise to have lunch on the pub behind the library as I haven't see you in almost 2 years.
I'm going to visit loads of people and also do some shopping, despite the fact the Britain is very expensive if you go with euros.

I'm looking forward to my first holidays on my own for a very long time.

Book update

2008-03-12T17:31:00.006+01:00

I've downloaded a talking book that I enjoyed very much listening. Is called Naked in Baghdad by Anne Garrels who was the war correspondent in NPR (National Public Radio in USA), only 1 of 16 US journalist who stayed in Baghdad during the invasion. As she's a radio journalist I thought it'd be a better to hear the book instead of read it and I did enjoy the book a lot. She talks about the situation of the people and the city but also of her own tribulations and feelings and she manages to convey a very clear picture as one feels like you're somehow with her. The book also contains the e-mails with personal updates that her husband is writing to friends and family.
Although I remember following the invasion on the news at the time, this book is not just a re-statement of facts but a very insightful and personal view. Often sad but sometimes unexpectedly funny and I enjoyed the very female middle-aged perspective. Once I started listening to this audio book I just couldn't put it down.

Please listen to it if you can get it.

Now I started reading a book that I bought very recently on amazon.co.uk and had it shipped here around a month ago.
I loved Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood bible which is one of my all-time favourite list, but this one is a non-fiction account of her and her family as they're trying to eat only locally produced and seasonal produce at least for a whole year.
The idea temps me as I grew up eating mostly seasonal and locally produced food and then embraced the eat-everything at all times culture more or less when I moved to England. It was there too when I started eating loads of highly processed food, something that was far too unusual and expensive to eat back home.
Then, well after Patxi was born I started to learn about what exactly is inside processed food and the effect of pesticides and conservatives and I slowly turned from junk food addict to a more concious and, hopefully, healthier consumer.
But it was only recently that I learned about the carbon footprint of food as is it send all over the world and I started to wander if we really need to eat fresh tomatoes the whole year around.
Plus... I'm in a country that takes its food seriously and I' learning to appreciate food's raw materials in a different way.
So, as I'm trying to educate myself and my family on ways of eating healthily I bought this book and so far it hasn't disappointed me. I'm even getting some ideas of going rural!!

But so far, I'm still a Coca Cola addict!!

the worst flue ever

2008-03-10T17:14:00.001+01:00

I've had the worst flue ever!
It all started with P getting sick on Friday 23th of February. He had some fever and said that he didn't feel well so he stayed home all day long. When I arrived home later that day he was, very unusually, still in bed (in my bed!) totally knackered and he stayed that way for the whole weekend. He even missed his team final game of the local championship and for my son not to go to play rugby... well... that was a first.
In any case, he's such a strong little guy that by Tuesday 26th he was ok and back to school.

By Wednesday 27th I had a slight cough early in the morning but of course I went to work as usual. By 4pm that day I had lost my voice completely, I was not only hoarse but virtually mute. This never happened to me before but I wasn't feeling that bad and it was sort of amusing to have to cancel my classes for a few days... or so I thought.

By the first of March I was in bed with fever and a heave chest, couldn't sleep properly and was feeling utterly miserable.
Of course, by then "the husband" also got it and this time I felt truly sorry for him as he was as bad or worse than me and he didn't got to work either.

To make a long story short... that was the reason I didn't write, I just couldn't. I spend a solid week in bed feeling miserable and sorry for myself. The proverbial silver lightning is that because I couldn't smell and my sense of taste was all but gone I didn't eat much and I lost 3 kg.

The first time that I felt well enough to go to work was Friday the 7th and even when I only worked 4 hours as some classes were cancelled due to a local fiesta, I ended up feeling as tired as if I'd climbed Mount Everest!

This week I'm working hard to try to catch up with my students and some translation work that I have to do, e-mails, blog, etc.

Not much

2008-02-21T16:47:00.002+01:00

Sorry for not writing but there's not much to write about (thanks G!) as this is a busy but calm month, if you know what I mean.

The local freecycle newsgroup that I've opened is getting busy with more that 350 member and is a nice feeling to know that I'm doing something for the community where I live. The idea of freecycle is to encourage people to recycle by giving away things that they don't need instead of throwing things away as most people do here. The concept of recycling is pretty new here and I'm glad that I'm doing my bit spreading the idea. People do throw away perfectly good things in Bristol too but here there's no such things as charity shops where you can take your old whatever so... imagine the waste!

The job is still ok. I did cut down 2 hours on Tuesdays' morning because I didn't get along with the students and they were cancelling far too many classes. I think I can get along with most people and I'm very professional about that, but the fact is that I hate waking up early and they were cancelling far too many classes so I woke up for nothing. So at the end I value more my sleep and decided to give that class up.
To my own surprise, I'm still enjoying teaching and my boss tells me that the rate of cancellation was way down since I'm here, meaning that I'm keeping people motivated to attend the lessons, which is half of the job as people usually starts with great enthusiasm and then after a few months get bored and quit.
I don't like all the driving everywhere as driving is stressing but for now is too much of a hassle to start really looking for another job.

Ate the moment I'm trying to understand how the education system really work here as we have to enrol P. in a secondary school before April. The system is further complicated by the fact that we live in an Autonomous Community whose laws are not necessary the same as the rest of Spain. So far I know that education is compulsory until children are16 years-old, is called secondary education (as the O levels) and then people can choose to go on to do a bachillerato (sort of the A levels) if they want to go on to university, or choose a more practical thing. After the basic things get complicated in that schools can be state owned or not, a mix of both, religious, non-religious, with Spanish as the main language or Catalan, English, Japanese, German, etc. Sadly there's not such thing as a table for school's performance but some are horrible and some good, the problem is how to know which one as we don't know who to ask or whose opinion to trust!
So, I'm busy researching our options and believe me... information is hard to find here.

Doña Cuaresma

2008-02-10T15:59:00.000+01:00

Once Carnival ends here there another tradition for Lent, is called Doña Cuaresma o Mrs. Lent. She's represented an old woman with 7 legs carrying the tale of a cod, as this one here from a 18th century engrave.
I think the tradition came as a visual helper so illiterate people could properly count the weeks of Lent until Semana Santa or Easter week starts, as the custom is to take one leg off every Friday until Doña Cuaresma has no legs.

Here the Carnaval finishes with a sort of mock funeral called "el entierro de la sardina" the burial of the sardine, when people dress in black and in a pretend sort of burial burn a paper or wood sculture of a sardine that represent the end of the good pagan times. Then Mrs. Lent, Doña Cuaresma, takes over and all goes back to normal for a few days until is time for all the Spanish drama of Semana Santa. She's also carrying the tail of a cod as a reminder that people shouldn't eat meat for all those days.

I love the fact that I'm still discovering new traditions and things going on here.
I asked "the husband" to cook at least once a month and on Saturday he prepared one recipe from our Catalan Cuisine recipe book. Something that people use here to kick-start Lent. He prepared a fantastic deep-fried cod very special as the batter was made with flour and honey. Just that, mix flour and enough honey to get a runny batter, then dip the cod and fry it. It wasn't as sweet as it sounded an it was totally delicious.

Ghosts of Spain

2008-02-07T16:27:00.000+01:00

I've just started reading Ghosts of Spain by G. Tremlett, a British author. Is a must read if you're at all interesting in Spain as a country or culture as it gives you an insight into the country's history, culture and then some.
It has a bit of condensed history, the 500 years under Moors' rules, the civil war, Franco, even the Madrid bombing by Islamic fundamentalist very recently etc. It also provides some cultural commentaries from the Anglo-Saxon point of view. Is informative and also funny.

As the books is bound to create controversy and is written in very elegant English, I'm planing to use part of it with my advance students, as the Spaniards are very amused about how other people see them and this is a subject that is bound to create some discussion among them.

Carnival and political correctness

2008-02-03T11:58:00.000+01:00

Carnival here is is not only for children to get fancy dresses and some extra fun at school. Is for the whole community to enjoy some fun and debauchery before lend. And unlike Great Britain where all communal events are somehow sanitized in order not offend anybody or scare children psyche for ever here they don't give a damn for political correctness, they don't even try.

Look at this picture of the carnival main event in the local central square in the village of Vilanova i la Geltrú at 7pm. A friend of mine took part and he's the first one behind the mail orator, the one just behind the penis. Yes, a penis, and check the other card! The lovely porno pictures at the back were there for everybody to see, even young children. Sex is considered a normal part of life here. Amazing!
Apparently they're reproductions of originals being used in the 17th century that were kept in the council house. Antiques.

Is also interesting to note that in more or less a month from now, this same people will be parading down the street in a very dark and sad mood with symbols of dead and torture in memory of the crucifixion. And immediately after that is the celebration of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Carnival!

2008-01-31T17:50:00.000+01:00

Carnival starts officially on Saturday, but in most schools the whole week was somehow related to that subject and P's having great fun. This year he told me that he wanted to dress as Mario, the game character pictured here.
So we starting figuring out what is he wearing and first went to a local shop where they sell working outfits for the industry. There we found a great blue working overall and we're lucky that P is as big a many adults here so size was not a problem. Then we stop at Zara and bought a red long-sleeved t-shirt and the basic was done. In the local costume shop we founded the false moustaches and white gloves, but the hat remained the one thing we couldn't buy so we had to customise it somehow.
In the costume shop we found a plastic red bowler hat and "the husband" cut it and shaped it and they both designed and added the big "M".
Today P went to school dress as Mario and he said that as soon as the other kids saw him they all screamed "MARIO!" as they recognised him in an instant. They even didn't know who was underneath!! And he also said that the small children where all in total awe of him, some of them even asked him for autographs!!

Isn't he the cutest thing ever!!

Of course we're all going on Saturday to the local fiesta and P's going as Mario.

Reading again!

2008-01-25T17:28:00.000+01:00

When I'm sad or there's something wrong in my life one of the first thing to suffer is my reading, and it always makes matters worst because if I can't read I feel worse!
I stop reading when Darwin died and it was not until a few days ago that I pick up a book again. Appropriately enough it was a book about readers and the power of reading in ones life. Is Alan Bennett's "The uncommon reader". I never read any of his books before but i was tempted to give it a go when I saw it on the best sellers list in Amazon.
As it's a tiny book it only took me a few days to go through and at the end I felt that familiar sense of lost that I get when I really liked a book and felt close to the characters and sad that I'm leaving them behind.
There's no many book in English in the local library and whoever buys them has a penchant for crime and mystery, genres that I don't particularly enjoy. So, thank god for amazon! So far the service is good and fast and only once did a parcel got lost and they offered to send replacements or a full refund as one of the book was out of print.
Now that I broke the jinx more books are queuing up in my bed table and I feel that I'm getting back to normal after all the grieving. In fact the very next book is Cesar Millan "Cesar's way". This guy has a TV program that I watched both in the British TV and the local one and he deals with dogs with behavioural problems. So, I'm reading his book now to hopefully learn how to avoid having problems with the next dog. I want to be the best dog owner that I can be so I'm starting to learn (at least the theory) well before the dog is actually here.

Now that I'm back on the books I'd really appreciate if you tell me what are you reading or listening now, it may inspire me! And is always good to check on other's reading bag. thanks in advance.

Nice January

2008-01-22T10:54:00.000+01:00

So far I'm having a very quiet time this January. I knock on wood as not to jinx it, because I feel I truly deserve some peace and quiet.
We had a meeting with P's teacher and we're very pleased to report that he's doing much better. Now he's doing most of his homework and as he's actually revising for the exams, he's doing much better on the test. He also participated playing the piano for the whole school in the Santa Cecilia's concert and performed in a little play. However the teacher also reported that he sometimes forgets to bring the equipment for PE, that his hand witting is atrocious, that he's spelling in Catalan needs to improve and that he's still very shy and not play much with the other kids.
So, apart for the shyness, which I don't know what can I do (any suggestions are very welcome), I think that we did the right thing in taking away all the things that P enjoys at home (computer, Nintendo, Gameboy, TV time plus allowance.) and only given him some time to use them after he's done his homework and done some extra work. So now that he's back on track we're relaxing the rules a bit and we even started giving him some allowance as well and promised him an increase if (and when) he get better results at school.

We also gave a lot of though to the plan of getting a new dog. "The husband", ever the scientist, did a thorough research on every imaginable breed of dogs and their characteristics plus what we can realistic offer to it. So, after a while he found the Shiba Inu, a Japanese dog that's one of the oldest breeds in the world. I've never heard of them and thought that it was very unlikely that we were to find a Japanese breed here, but "the husband" was so taken with them that he managed to find a place where they breed them at just an hour from home. (for their web site click here).
So we contact them and went to visit their place on a very sunny Sunday. To start with they live in a such a small village that it's not even listed in the GPS so it took us forever to find the nearby village on the map that they send us, then we had to ask for directions to Alta-riba and after some driving we managed to get lost and arrived to a tiny village. It's such a small place that houses don't even have addresses and as it was siesta time (after lunch time where everybody goes to take a nap specially on Sunday) we just parked there and tried to phone them.
After 5 minutes a car arrived and as we approached them to ask for direction they told us they we just parked in front of their house and they were the dog's owners. As we arrived at the place by chance this is the closest thing to fate that I've ever seen.
They are a lovely young couple with two small children and theirs is not one of those awful dog factory but a house in the country where they have dogs that they obviously love. So, if you want to buy one dog from them you have to wait until one litter is produced, no fixed time, and they will give you the puppy only when it's ready to go, with all the papers, vaccines, etc. This may take time as their heat period is around spring time. They have 6 Shiba Inus and one rescued dog. I appreciated this as it shows that they do love dogs in general and are not dog snobs (in case there's such a thing!).
Of course the dogs were adorable and we all fell in love with them. The picture here is one of their dogs. They were smaller than I thought they'll be, more or less lighter that an adult Beagle. They've got more fur that I expected and we've been told that they shed it twice a year so they do require regular brushing and I can just imagine dog hair everywhere in our sofa! They're famous for being very clean, even fastidiously so, and very clever dogs, the owners said that they temperament is that of a big dog in a small body: calm and assertive.

Of course I do believe that we'd fallen in love with almost any dog and I'm not sure about the morality of spending a lot of money on a puppy, but "the husband" heart was set on the Shiba and this was his turn to choose (I did choose Darwin). So, after playing with dogs for a while and asking a lot of questions we decided that yes, we want one. I wanted a girl-dog, to even things out a bis at home, but "the husband" said that he always had boys and that he really, really wanted one and that it was, after all, his turn to choose. So, a boy it'll be.
We pay the first instalment (€250), meaning that we'll be the first to choose a male from the litter in summer. Then we pay a second instalment when the puppies are born and a final payment when we collect him.
We're looking forward to that.

I still miss my sweet and cheeky Darwin everyday. This is the last picture of us together. Nobody will ever replace him, but we do need some extra love in our life and a reason to get out and walk more.

bad bug and bad specsavers!!

2008-01-12T00:32:00.000+01:00

After the poor Japanese family, on Wednesday it was my son's turn to get the bug and he has a bit of temperature and diarrhoea.
P's such a healthy boy that when he woke up in the middle of the night with a "bad feeling here, a sort of pressure from the inside" as he put it, he didn't even know that it was nausea. So he just sat there for a while when I was half awake and trying to figure out what was going on. Then he just proceeded to vomit half of the dinner on my bed.

So we have to change the bed covers, give some comfort and paracetamol to a sick child and try to get everybody sleeping as soon as possible as it was the middle of the week and everybody had things to do.

The next day P stayed at home as he was still feeling poorly and had some fever and i don't want him to be at school feeling terribly and passing along the bug.

I went to work on Thursday feeling very sleepy. Luckily, as this is the first week after the Christmas holidays for most of my students they were as sleepy as me and I hope that nobody noticed that I actually had different colours socks!!

And today, Friday, it was my turn and I had a stomach ache all day long and finally diarrhoea. Luckily none of my classes today was longer than one hour so I managed to rush to the toilet between them.
Of course I couldn't stop after work as I had to take P to the optician as his teacher reported to us that his sight is getting worse and he's not able to see the board from his seat at the back of the class.
I was a bit surprised because P go glasses in Bristol and he never used them much. Anyway, I though that because he's young it was perfectly possible that his eyesight is worse now.

After a very thorough examination, the local optician told me that there's a discrepancy between her results and P's old glasses. Apparently the glasses have 0.5 myopia in the right eye and 1 astigmatism but according to her result the inverse is actually the case. So she said that is very unusual that this will reverse in such a way, possible but extremely unusual. So she suspected that when they made P's glasses somebody along the line confused the eyes and gave him the wrong correction.
Luckily he never felt the glasses were making much of a difference and we never insisted for him to use them so not real harm was done!!
That's really add another meaning to the add: "we should have gone to specsavers" as we did got them there.
At the end we're going to use the same frame as P loves them and have the glasses replaced, something that we thought it was going to be needed anyway. So, now we're €75 the poorer and the glasses are going to be ready by Tuesday.

Gone.

2008-01-09T18:29:00.001+01:00

The Japanese family who was staying with us left yesterday's evening. They finally managed to get their flat with running water, gas and electricity and it only took them 8 days to get it so... which for them is incredibly slow but not bad at all for Spain at the start of a new year as i told them before!

They all got a stomach bug that's going around Barcelona and they were really worried about their baby who has some fever on top of everything. I also think that is the water and food that they're not used to.
"The husband" took them to a local hospital to see an emergency doctor with baby Mebuki and they were surprised that everything was done fast, efficiently and free. The hospital was hard to find as we didn't know the address and when we tried to find it in their web page we found all sort of information about everything but not telephone or address!! This is typical of official web sites, they have all the blows and whistle. music and what-have-you but not any useful information!!!

I'm glad they've gone. First because now they have their own place finally. They were really good guests but it was getting uncomfortable to have so many people around the flat. You have to think that before their visit we never meet each other.
The good thing is that I feel that we've done a really good deed with them and they're going to enjoy their stay in Spain more thanks to us.

And there's also a bit more of good karma for everybody. A good way to start a new year!

Reyes Magos

2008-01-08T17:33:00.000+01:00

The reyes magos or wizard kings are the three wise men in the English version of the bible. In Latin countries we celebrate them on the 7th of January, which is their day. But the real event take place the nigh before, when children all over the (at least) Spanish speaking world leave their shoes outside on a window or balcony, (together with some water for the camels and drinks or biscuits for the kings). If the children behaved well during the previous year the kings would leave presents for them but, according to tradition, if the children behaved badly the kings would just leave some coal.
Here in Spain there also a big event called the cabalgata de los reyes or the kings' cavalcade, when there's a big parade when the kings with their entourage go around town and everybody get out to see them and cheer them. Some children take the opportunity to deliver their letters to the kings with their list of presents. This happens all over Spain, from huge parades in big city to small and humble events in small villages. In Barcelona the kings arrive by see, from Orient, and they step down their ship in the old port amid much expectation.

Here in Sabadell we have our own parade, of course, and it's a great one. Luckily they do it just around the corner from us. Along with the kings the parade has many other features that change from one a year to the next. In our local parade they have a sort of representation of the solar system with the star of Bethlehem starting the whole event. Lovely. In this picture you can see some of the planets.

Some local associations also take part of the parade and are a big part of the show as some people go there just to see and cheer their friends and family members. This year the local scooter association chose to dress their members in what I think is the most funny and politically incorrect dress ever. I think they're supposed to be some sort of Arabs or Palestinians, as the kings went from somewhere in the east to Israel to give baby Jesus their presents, but their headgear looked more like old tablecloths. Just hilarious as this one in the picture.

In the parade, the kings' entourage throw sweets to the crows and everybody scramble to collect as much as they can. Old people and young kids, everybody!! And the old people can elbow you out of the way as easily and eagerly as any small kid can throw you out of balance, plus the old folks had years of experience so they very fast!! It's war!

We went and took our Japanese guests with us, I don't know what they make of this but we had a great time and have enough sweets to last us at least until summer!!

At the very end of the parade goes a horse-cart carrying big black pieces of coal to remind children of the deal. As this goes by you can hear the kids taking their breath in and some whispered boos!

The next morning P found a nice Charlie Brown book on top of his shoes, a Catalan edition, which is great as he needs to read more in his third language in order to do well at school. Also he got a small bag of coal!!
I have to admit that it was me who put that as a joke and it was a kind of special sweet made of black sugar that he ate first thing in the morning and then spend the rest of the day in a state of sort of sugar and kings' induced high.

Big long-time project

2008-01-06T14:49:00.000+01:00

Since Darwin died I've been really sad and I cannot concentrate on reading or anything, which is quite unusual for me and a sure sign that I'm falling into depression.
After taking some time to mourn I decided to fight back and I'm doing it my way, with craft.

This happened before when I was at college and P was a baby and I was under a lot of (self-inflicted) pressure to do a good degree and rise a healthy and happy baby. During the second year I was quite fed up of everything and wanted to quit. But by that time I was very close to finish it anyway so, instead, I took some time off and taught myself to quilt and did a (bit wonky) but very pretty king-size bed cover that I still have. It took me months but when it completely took my mind of my worries and by the time I finished I was ready to go back to Uni and I graduated with a 2:1 and a prize for the best essay of that year.

So now that I cannot read I decided that instead of watch tv and get depressed I'm going to do something that I never did, something that it required learning new skills, concentrate and even design. And I decided to make a table cover with lace and fabric.

This picture from a sewing German magazine (Burda) is my inspiration and I'm loosely following their instructions. However, the fabric circles that I'm using are bigger than in the original and the thread that I bough is also different, so I'm going to need to adapt and design things as I go along.

Although I've been tatting for years, I've never done something that looks so complicated and sophisticated and it's a big challenge.

The first problem was that the magazine say to buy the fabric circles ready made and attach the lace as you go following their diagram. Well... I'm sure that you can buy them in Germany but not here. So I started by cutting circles that I previously draw in a very cheap fabric that I bought from the nearby Chinos where I also bought loads of white cotton thread.

(People here call "los Chinos" to the shops that are owned and run by Chinese people selling a huge variety of a motley crew of usually very cheap Chinese imports. You'll find everything there from cat food to clocks)

It took me a few days and many tries to figure out how to attach the thread to the fabric in an evenly way as I'm not very good at sewing and have none to ask. Luckily for me, there's a lot of people doing this sort of craft and publishing their works on the web so I found some ideas and finally one worked: I tat with the normal shuttle and pierce the fabric with it to attach the lace as I go.

This is the result. A circle with a round of 56 tatting circles and chains around. I chose 56 because is a number that can be divided by eight, meaning that each circle is surrounded by 4 others in a cross and then joined to them with 4 little doilies to fill the space between them. Does it sound clear?
The picture's a bit distorted by the scanner but the circles are quite even and the lace looks good enough. My idea is that any imperfection will sort of blend when the whole thing is finished and I can put plates and cutlery on top!

Now I'm doing loads of this circles in the same manner and when I have enough it'll be time to think on how to join them together and what sort of pattern I can use to fill in the gaps.

No idea yet about the size of the whole thing. It may be as smallish as the one in the original picture with only 25 circles or maybe bigger, I haven't decided yet although I'm aware that the bigger the project the longer it'll take and I don't want to finish this on time for P's wedding! (as he's just 10 years-old!).

So, I'll keep on posting on how this thing is developing. Which me luck!