I’ve uploaded some of the photos that we took in Zaragoza on the day of Daniel’s (Isabel’s nephew) first communion.
They are in the blog gallery here.
He cargado unas fotos del dÃa de la comunión de Daniel. Están en la galerÃa del blog.
We were flying back to Barcelona from Gatwick last night and while we were waiting in departures we noticed that we seemed to be surrounded by Spanish football supporters complete with Osborne bull flags and blue and white Espanyol scarves and banners. They were a very happy bunch - a complete mixture of ages and sexes. It turns out that they had arrived from Barcelona and were on their way to Glasgow for the UEFA cup final against the holders Sevilla. Good luck to Espanyol! They are always seen as the second team in Barcelona, and it will be fantastic if they win the cup. 16,000 fans are expected to watch the match on a big screen at the Palau Sant Jordi up near Espanyol’s ground (the former Olympic stadium) and their will be a celebration party on Thursday night if they manage to pull off a win.
We were in Zaragoza last weekend for our nephew Daniel’s confirmation. Everyone had a great time. We picked up a car from our friendly neighbourhood Car Hire place and drove to Zaragoza in about 3 hours. We spent Saturday evening with Isabel’s brother Jesús, wife Mamen and kids Jesusito and Leonor. Sunday had a packed agenda with the confirmation ceremnoy at Daniel’s school which seemed like a really great well-kept modern building. Daniel looked really smart in his confirmation uniform and was chosen to do the first reading and I know his papa, mama and sister Juan, Montse and Ainhoa were very proud of him. After the ceremony the whole family met at the front of the church - it was a beautiful sunny day and everyone was just milling around chatting. As usual at these events, Isabel’s family were just about the last to leave (which made escaping from the car park very easy!). We then headed over to a local restaurant for a celebration lunch (more like a feast really). Amazingly tasty roast lamb was on the menu washed down with some great Rioja. We rolled out of the restaurant around 6pm, had a stroll in the Parque Grande and then headed off to an evening celebration party held in an undercroft in the centre of Zaragoza near the Augustus arch. This was an excellent venue provided by Isabel’s cousin Luis who is a member of a private club that owns the undercroft. Just about all the family and many friends were there and while the kids played upstairs, the grown-ups had even more to eat (pan con tomate, jamón, manchego, etc) and drink and we had a wonderful time just talking into the small hours. Fotos to follow…Â
Here’s an excellent piece of commentary from the BBC’s economic editor Evan Davis about the economics of Scottish independence. Anyone would think that today’s election is about independence, but of course it’s really just to elect the parliament and any vote on independence regardless of who wins the election today, would be a very long way off.
I just heard the great news that my cousin Eileen and partner John are going to be married next year. Congratulations to you both - we’re delighted! We’ll definitely be up for the wedding (hope it’s not too cold!)
We’re still living out of cardboard boxes and waiting for the builders to move out (at least of our main flat). We reckon that the carpintero has a coupled of days left, the lampisterÃa a couple of days (including fixing a nasty niff from our toilet (ironically called inodoro in Spanish), and the pintador has about three days left. There are lots of little snags, but nothing majorly wrong. All in all we’re delighted with the way the falt has turned out and it also seems to have turned into a bit of a “show flat” for our interior designer, Mey. Pictures of the finished article will shortly appear on the main web site.
We’re sitting in the middle of lots of boxes, and the painters haven’t finished everything yet, but we have actually moved. Fairly painlessly thanks to the very efficient (but expensive) removal team that arrived with a crane to take furniture out of the old flat. Unfortunately because the facade of the new flat is covered in scaffolding for a face lift they had to manhandle the delivery, but so far we have not discovered anything broken or missing. We’re still getting used to the new kitchen appliances, showers etc and had a shock horror with the internet connection not working last night, but everything seems to be going well now.  More updates to follow…
If it weren’t for the Barcelona number plate, I’d swear that this is my Uncle George on the Quad bike. We’ve seen a few of these in the city recently - I guess that they are easy to park!
We went to the Palau de la Música on Thursday night to see Robert Fripp and the League of Crafty guitarists. This concert was part of the 18th annual Guitar Festival that is held in April in Barcelona. Last year we saw a great performance from John Williams at the Petit Palau. Sadly, the hall wasn’t sold out - maybe half full, and a lot of the audience were a bit fidgety with the Soundscapes performance from Robert Fripp. There were a couple of people behind me who kept talking and a lot of people (including me) didn’t really “get” the music. Whilst the volume and effects of the sounds produced from one guitar are technically impressive, I personally don’t feel that it’s suitable for performances - really more for ambient music. When the League of Crafty Guitarists (10 acoustic guitar players) joined him on stage it was another matter though. At times the music they generated was spectacular. We also found that despite having good seats we couldn’t see Robert Fripp during the performance as he was hidden behind his amplifiers and loop-back equipment. We enjoyed the evening out, but I think that a lot of the audience were puzzled by the music.
The Palau de la Musica is a fantastic modernist building built by LluÃs Domènech i Montaner and if you ever get a change to attend a concert there I would highly recommend it. They also have a fantastic bar area for pre-concert tapas, cava and cafe and a top-notch restaurant which we have tried once. It’s just a 5 minute walk there for us, so we’re a bit spoiled.
I haven’t posted anything for a few weeks, so a catch-up is long overdue. We had a wonderful week with Edmund over Easter. The weather was truly awful (by Barcelona standards) and it rained every single day, but that didn’t dampen our spirits! We paid a visit to the Natural History museum - Edmund absolutely loved looking at all the specimens including the biggest crab that I’ve ever seen. He has also now developed a keen interest in hobbits, and we’ve got some figures from Games workshop to paint together. He has also become the Bop-It champion in the house. We had a lot of fun playing games, and a visit to Cirque du Soleil on his last night, which he absolutely loved. He couldn’t stop laughing at the clowns. The weather in summer will be a lot better, so next time we can head for some of the outdoor fun including some of the wildlife parks.
We spent the following week in London doing up the flat ready for renting out again and it was wonderful to catch up with friends Esther and Mark, Miguel and Gareth, Binta and baby Kenza. Isabel has now become a master plasterer (pladurista) and of course we had the mandatory dinners at Monty’s and Maxim’s in Northfield Avenue. The weather in London was a little better than in Barcelona, but we’re back to normality now and the sunny spring days and balmy evenings have arrived in BCN.
The flat renovation is coming on more slowly than we had hoped, but we expect to be able to move in on 27 April - we can’t wait!