Hola Blogers,
Well last friday´s birthday fondue night was a success. It nearly didn´t happen - as I realised at five minutes to closing time of the supermarkets that I didn´t have any fondue oil to burn in the damn thing. Well of course I didn´t have any. Who does? Anyway all was saved by my clever boyfriend who went to the 24 hour chemist and came back with some form of alcohol that he assured me would burn well. I dread to think how he knows these things but thats by the way. So, I´m now well versed in fondue preparation and serving and am in the game to host fondue parties galore. Heather and Pablo are first up but we are struggling with dates (and there is always the possibility that they won´t be a couple when the as yet not arranged date comes around. This is a feature of their relationship rather than any specific one off problem they are facing right now). Maybe a fondue night is just what they need.
I am loving teaching. I now have three sisters from the same family under my care. All of which are charming, beautiful, clever, polite ......just how I hoper my brood will be one day. Speaking of which, my sister is due to give birth to the first of the next generation in our family. She ahs booked in for a compulsory C section due tot he little blighter being upside down (breached I think is the medical term). So, thats happening next Tuesday ....unless baby decides to do anything exciting beforehand.
My excitment for the day (other than the usual thrills of waking up and remembering that I live in Barcelona, I don´t work, really, I have the best boyfriend in the world and that I am, well, me!) has been Batuka! This has all started due to my recent addiction to Operacion Trionfo - which was teh spanish equivalent of Fame Acadamey. Thats over now (yes I did predict the winner right from the start) but I am left with Batuka. Batuka was a new form of exercise that was developed during the show in roder to get the students into shape but still keep some ties with their musical inclinations. So, its a work out, a bloody good one too, but its more like a dance class. You follow routines executed perfectly by your leader as best you can (questionable in parts as to whether I could be said to be following but I´m sure I´ll get the hang of it). You basically do a couple of songs of one type of music and then move on to another. The styles used are: salsa, hip hop, samba, reggeaton, flamenco, pop, merengue and a few others that I didn´t catch the name of. Its a gas (as my Irish friend Nena would say). You sweat like heck but feel like you been clubbing rather than pumping iron. I love it! I am going to try and go twice a week -Tuesdays and Thursdays. Watch out for it in the UK or whereever you are. Here there are videos to buy and do at home and classes in soem fo teh big chain gyms. I thoroughly recommend it.
Batuka!
S xx
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Friday, November 18, 2005
Gainfully Employed
Hola Blogers,
Its Jose´s birthday today so I ahve just been marching around looking for a suitable cake. Mission accomplished - I have a chocolate Hedgehog in a box under my chair as I write. Why the hedgehog you ask. Why not? No, actually I often call him a hedgehog if he has put too much wax on his hair so its kind of a lovey dovey in joke kind of thing. He´d better be anyway because it cost 15 euros and its not very big if you ask me.
I´m giving my new fondue set a test drive tonight - for the old birthday meal. So if you don´t here from me again, chances are I will have set the flat a light with a combination of incorrectly lit fondue sets and candle adorning hedgehogs.
From the title of this blog entry you would not be wrong to suspect that I have got off my arse and got a little job. Correcto - but not exactly thanks to me getting off my arse. More thanks to something falling right into my sofa sitting lap. Through a friend I have been recommended to a family with five children seeking English language assistance. Starting from Monday I shall be tutoring the youngest one three times a week on an intense programme aiming at getting her into English boarding school next september. No easy task as entrance xams involve Latin, chemistry, biology, physics (none of which she has studied before!) as well as english , maths, history, religion, geography and modern languages. Two days of exams for the little lamb and she´s only 12. I am trying to get though to the registrar of the school to tease some past papers out of them or better still some text books. Then we´ll be well on our way (I hope).
The family have also enlisted me to tutor the second youngest daughter (aged 16) on a more general conversation basis. That will be twice a week. So, all in all I will be up at their house every day of the working week. I remeber putting something in this blog about my life being like that of Little House on the Praire without the kids. Well I spoke too soon - here come the kids! All good practice for the future (God willing!)
There is the added angle that the father of this family is a lawyer here in BCN and he has already had me in his office for some business talks. So, lets get the bambino packed off to boarding school and then you never know I might take him up on his offers of legal or legal related work. Nothing too strenuous of course - as I am rather used to the lady of leisure thing.
I recommend Woody Allen´s new film Match Point if any one is considering a trip to the cinema. Although, It might not have the same appeal for those of you still on the island. Maybe I just enjoyed the sight of the black taxis and country estates due to my current residence.
The cultural highlight of Spanish life this weekend is the Barcelona v Real Madrid match taking place on Saturday night. Of course I will be keeping my eyes for Beckham, Raul and other such Madrid beauties firmly under my sombrero as it wouldn´t be proper to be anything than the most ardent of Barcelona fans considering my romantic attachments.
Right, I shall carrying on tearing out interesting articles from English papers and magazines for my older student. You know its surprising how little there is of interest in a paper for a sixteen year old, well for all of us really, but we just read out of obligation don´t we, or out of some deep rooted fear of looking stupid in the wrong company.
Wish me luck with the fondue and hedgehog!
S xx
Its Jose´s birthday today so I ahve just been marching around looking for a suitable cake. Mission accomplished - I have a chocolate Hedgehog in a box under my chair as I write. Why the hedgehog you ask. Why not? No, actually I often call him a hedgehog if he has put too much wax on his hair so its kind of a lovey dovey in joke kind of thing. He´d better be anyway because it cost 15 euros and its not very big if you ask me.
I´m giving my new fondue set a test drive tonight - for the old birthday meal. So if you don´t here from me again, chances are I will have set the flat a light with a combination of incorrectly lit fondue sets and candle adorning hedgehogs.
From the title of this blog entry you would not be wrong to suspect that I have got off my arse and got a little job. Correcto - but not exactly thanks to me getting off my arse. More thanks to something falling right into my sofa sitting lap. Through a friend I have been recommended to a family with five children seeking English language assistance. Starting from Monday I shall be tutoring the youngest one three times a week on an intense programme aiming at getting her into English boarding school next september. No easy task as entrance xams involve Latin, chemistry, biology, physics (none of which she has studied before!) as well as english , maths, history, religion, geography and modern languages. Two days of exams for the little lamb and she´s only 12. I am trying to get though to the registrar of the school to tease some past papers out of them or better still some text books. Then we´ll be well on our way (I hope).
The family have also enlisted me to tutor the second youngest daughter (aged 16) on a more general conversation basis. That will be twice a week. So, all in all I will be up at their house every day of the working week. I remeber putting something in this blog about my life being like that of Little House on the Praire without the kids. Well I spoke too soon - here come the kids! All good practice for the future (God willing!)
There is the added angle that the father of this family is a lawyer here in BCN and he has already had me in his office for some business talks. So, lets get the bambino packed off to boarding school and then you never know I might take him up on his offers of legal or legal related work. Nothing too strenuous of course - as I am rather used to the lady of leisure thing.
I recommend Woody Allen´s new film Match Point if any one is considering a trip to the cinema. Although, It might not have the same appeal for those of you still on the island. Maybe I just enjoyed the sight of the black taxis and country estates due to my current residence.
The cultural highlight of Spanish life this weekend is the Barcelona v Real Madrid match taking place on Saturday night. Of course I will be keeping my eyes for Beckham, Raul and other such Madrid beauties firmly under my sombrero as it wouldn´t be proper to be anything than the most ardent of Barcelona fans considering my romantic attachments.
Right, I shall carrying on tearing out interesting articles from English papers and magazines for my older student. You know its surprising how little there is of interest in a paper for a sixteen year old, well for all of us really, but we just read out of obligation don´t we, or out of some deep rooted fear of looking stupid in the wrong company.
Wish me luck with the fondue and hedgehog!
S xx
Monday, November 14, 2005
Business as Usual
Hola Blogers,
Well its business as usual for me this week - which involves a theme of generally pleasing myself. I am in cooking mode, as I was all last week too, as a trip to the farm was enjoyed the other weekend for the purpose of mushroom picking (more on this later).
Looking back through my now very sporadic blogs I can see that I last communicated back in early October, when I was being visited by Juanita Banana (Jo to those of you not familiar with her new name). Well she is now happily esconced in sunny San Francisco driving the male population crazy with her no stop dating action. It seems very much the done thing over there - to date and be dated for the sheer hell of it. These "dates" can involve anything from a coffee in the afternoon to a full on bender of a session - well it seems to be that way with Jo. Its fun listening to her tales anyway.
I went to Seville in mid October for Jose´s brother´s wedding. He lives up here in Tarragona with his wife but, as in most places, it is tradition to have the wedding in the home town of the girl. So, off we all went. Things always go wrong at weddings don´t they. Our list goes as follows- Javier, the groom, forget to bring his wedding suit, Jose and I missed the plane down there from BCN and then whoever was supposed to bring the wedding rings to the venue forgot to do so! Nothing that couldn´t be resolved though - luckily Javier was down in Seville a few days before the wedding and realised in time about the suit. This was resolved by a friend somehopw getting into Javier´s flat in tarragona and flying down with the suit the next day (he was comuing to the wedding anyway). Jose and I managed to get on a flight the next morning and didn´t miss anything of the wedding and Grandma and some other lucky person got to donate their wedding rings for the day to the happy couple.
The wedding ceremony involved some dude singing sevilianas and lots of flamenco style dancing by Jesse (the bride) and her entourage of friends. In the early hours and I´m talking 6am!) Jesse´s dad got up to the microphone to sing some flamenco songs too - complete with pretend guitar noises because no one had a guitar. Most amusing.
The weekend after the wedding was the weekend of my birthday. I am now the ripe old age of 31. I had a fantastic time on the saturday night because Jose and Susana (a good friend of ours here) organised a surprise party for me in Tarragona! I turned up to the restaurant with Jose and two friends (Heather and Sylvia), expecting to just meet one other friend .................but I was hit by a surprise turn out of 19 people complete with silly hats and presents and cards. It was amazing - they made me feel so special and part of the group here. Needless to say lots of drinking and dancing ensued and I finally got to bed at 8am after watching the sun come up over the ocean with Jose.
The Sunday of my birthday weekend (my actual birthday) I crawled out of bed at Jose´s parents house at about 2pm to be greeted by his whole family singing happy birthday as best they could in English (some coming out with things such as happy baby??). Jose´s Mum had cooked a big paella and baked me a cake and his Dad cracked open some champagne and once again I was showered with presents. Fantastic!
It was nice to see some of you in England the other week. I was annoyed that I couldn´t see everyone and annoyed that I came down with a temperature and a horrible cold as soon as I got off the plane and so didn´t really feel up to London in many ways. I think it was something telling me to stay in Spain. I´m staying alright - it needn´t worry. I was most impressed by the new improved Waitrose on Holloway Road and sadened by the fact that I can´t frequent it every day as in my previous life. Still, there´s always a trade off when facing life decisions!
Jose joined me in Yorkshire and we shivered and froze together and enjoyed home cooked soup. My Dad took us to a Barnsley football fixture and we ate fish and chips from the paper in the park before hand. He is obviously putting Jose through some sort of northern manlyness test.......which I think he is passing (his mother is from Pamplona - they run with bulls you know).
This weekend Jose and I celebrated our one year anniversary. Can you believe it??? We took ourselves off to Rome to stay in a fancy hotel, dress up, wine and dine ourselves, gawk at pretty fountains and do all the other things that lovers do.
Its now a running joke in Jose´s family that we miss planes (due to the Seville affair). Neither of us have ever missed a plane before in our lives - and I have certainly flown a lot so a good study has been carried out. Something is going on between us though because we nearly missed the one back from Rome. I think we are too busy staring at each other and being all dreamy to realise what time it is and shake a leg. Anyway, thanks to the kind heart of a certain Alitalia operator, our lateness managed to get us flying back in business class this time. Result! I am now torn between being super early to avoid problems or being one minute late to provoke favours such as experienced last night. Hmm.
Right, enough is enough. All that remains to say is Hello Mr Simon ..........I´m told you have been reading this site avidly over the last year. All the best to you, your lovely wife and little baby son. L´Haim!
Un beso a todos
S xxx
n
Well its business as usual for me this week - which involves a theme of generally pleasing myself. I am in cooking mode, as I was all last week too, as a trip to the farm was enjoyed the other weekend for the purpose of mushroom picking (more on this later).
Looking back through my now very sporadic blogs I can see that I last communicated back in early October, when I was being visited by Juanita Banana (Jo to those of you not familiar with her new name). Well she is now happily esconced in sunny San Francisco driving the male population crazy with her no stop dating action. It seems very much the done thing over there - to date and be dated for the sheer hell of it. These "dates" can involve anything from a coffee in the afternoon to a full on bender of a session - well it seems to be that way with Jo. Its fun listening to her tales anyway.
I went to Seville in mid October for Jose´s brother´s wedding. He lives up here in Tarragona with his wife but, as in most places, it is tradition to have the wedding in the home town of the girl. So, off we all went. Things always go wrong at weddings don´t they. Our list goes as follows- Javier, the groom, forget to bring his wedding suit, Jose and I missed the plane down there from BCN and then whoever was supposed to bring the wedding rings to the venue forgot to do so! Nothing that couldn´t be resolved though - luckily Javier was down in Seville a few days before the wedding and realised in time about the suit. This was resolved by a friend somehopw getting into Javier´s flat in tarragona and flying down with the suit the next day (he was comuing to the wedding anyway). Jose and I managed to get on a flight the next morning and didn´t miss anything of the wedding and Grandma and some other lucky person got to donate their wedding rings for the day to the happy couple.
The wedding ceremony involved some dude singing sevilianas and lots of flamenco style dancing by Jesse (the bride) and her entourage of friends. In the early hours and I´m talking 6am!) Jesse´s dad got up to the microphone to sing some flamenco songs too - complete with pretend guitar noises because no one had a guitar. Most amusing.
The weekend after the wedding was the weekend of my birthday. I am now the ripe old age of 31. I had a fantastic time on the saturday night because Jose and Susana (a good friend of ours here) organised a surprise party for me in Tarragona! I turned up to the restaurant with Jose and two friends (Heather and Sylvia), expecting to just meet one other friend .................but I was hit by a surprise turn out of 19 people complete with silly hats and presents and cards. It was amazing - they made me feel so special and part of the group here. Needless to say lots of drinking and dancing ensued and I finally got to bed at 8am after watching the sun come up over the ocean with Jose.
The Sunday of my birthday weekend (my actual birthday) I crawled out of bed at Jose´s parents house at about 2pm to be greeted by his whole family singing happy birthday as best they could in English (some coming out with things such as happy baby??). Jose´s Mum had cooked a big paella and baked me a cake and his Dad cracked open some champagne and once again I was showered with presents. Fantastic!
It was nice to see some of you in England the other week. I was annoyed that I couldn´t see everyone and annoyed that I came down with a temperature and a horrible cold as soon as I got off the plane and so didn´t really feel up to London in many ways. I think it was something telling me to stay in Spain. I´m staying alright - it needn´t worry. I was most impressed by the new improved Waitrose on Holloway Road and sadened by the fact that I can´t frequent it every day as in my previous life. Still, there´s always a trade off when facing life decisions!
Jose joined me in Yorkshire and we shivered and froze together and enjoyed home cooked soup. My Dad took us to a Barnsley football fixture and we ate fish and chips from the paper in the park before hand. He is obviously putting Jose through some sort of northern manlyness test.......which I think he is passing (his mother is from Pamplona - they run with bulls you know).
This weekend Jose and I celebrated our one year anniversary. Can you believe it??? We took ourselves off to Rome to stay in a fancy hotel, dress up, wine and dine ourselves, gawk at pretty fountains and do all the other things that lovers do.
Its now a running joke in Jose´s family that we miss planes (due to the Seville affair). Neither of us have ever missed a plane before in our lives - and I have certainly flown a lot so a good study has been carried out. Something is going on between us though because we nearly missed the one back from Rome. I think we are too busy staring at each other and being all dreamy to realise what time it is and shake a leg. Anyway, thanks to the kind heart of a certain Alitalia operator, our lateness managed to get us flying back in business class this time. Result! I am now torn between being super early to avoid problems or being one minute late to provoke favours such as experienced last night. Hmm.
Right, enough is enough. All that remains to say is Hello Mr Simon ..........I´m told you have been reading this site avidly over the last year. All the best to you, your lovely wife and little baby son. L´Haim!
Un beso a todos
S xxx
n
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