Bombs and Bulls!

Hola faithful followers!

I´m back! So many of you have been complaining about the lack of blogpostings that I have finally got my act together. Sorry for the delay but being a lady of leisure is very time consuming.

First things first - I sincerely hope that none of you have been seriously affected by the senseless bombs in London. It has been horrible to watch on the news and read about. I was crying when I first saw it. Crying for all of you, for London, for all of those people just like us whose lives have been stolen or ruined for nothing. When will all this war and violence end?
A part of me wishes that I was in London now - to be able to do something, heaven knows what, maybe just carry on in defiance - like the rest of you are doing. Its weird to think that if I had come back to work as planned, last week would have been my first week back at work and I am almost 99 percent certain that I would have been on the piccadilly line around Kings Cross at ten to nine. Jose is my angel in more ways than one!

On a happier note, I am settled in quiet nicely now in Barcelona. Its now official that I am staying here forever and not goign abck to my job in London. I know you can never know if something is forever. Everything ends some day .......but for now, I am here for good.

To answer the question that I am asked most often in emails - no I am not working, and no I am not looking for work. Fortunately I don´t need to (at the moment) so I am enjoying that freedom. I must say, its amazing how busy you can feel even though you don´t work. There is always a mission to be completed everyday. Today´s has been to empadronate myself in the area and sign up to get my NHS (or equivalent) card. This has involved going to three different buildings in Barcelona. Add to that, taking the car to the garage for a service, food shopping, coming here to the net cafe and washing clothes .....and the day is over. Its always like that so I´m rarely bored. If the day comes when I want (or need) to work then the plan is to give english lessons or get invoved with transaltions. English is big buiness here so I doubt I will have a problem ( I will perhaps have to remember how to hide my Yorkshire accent though - it seems to be difficult for them to understand for some reason ? I am sure I can do that though - I had to do it with all of you southerners at some point in our realtionships before I slowly introduced you to the finer points of my accent and got you ready for the full force of it).

We went to Sant Fermine this weekend. Thats the festival in Pamplona where the bulls run through the streets. Jose´s Mum is from there so we stayed with his family and went out in a big group with all his cousins. There was a 15 of us in total and boy did we have some fun. You HAVE TO stay out all night in the bars and street parties and drink colimocho (wine and coke in a pint galss) until 8am when the bulls come (well thats what I was told anyway). I didn´t do any bull running - instead we bought tickets for the bull ring and watched them come running in - chasing the nutters who had run through the streets with them. Spectacular!

God knows when I last put an entry on this thing - so god knows what I have been doing that you have all mised out on hearing about. I have probably been drinking lots of amazing wine, eating in fantastic restaurants, swimming at midnight in swimming pools, going to the beach to wander about and eat paella, playing tennis, laying in in the mornings .......enough already? Ok I´ll give it a rest.

I had actually better go and cook my own spanish bull some dinner now.

Lots of love to you all. Stay vigilant and safe in scary England.

By the way I am sat next to a very well turned out transvestite in this net cafe. It is just the voice that has given him´her away (the phone just rang).

Un beso

S xxxx