Friday, December 8, 2006

Barcelona, bouncers and boogers

Well here are my choices today, I could whine about my kids who are getting to be adolescent FAR TOO YOUNG. Expand on hilarious contributions made to the world by enthusiasts, or talk about my day. Hmmmmmmmmmm.........since it is my blog, I vote for all three.

My eldest daughter was given a book of CHINDOGU by my Mom, and what a hilarious hit it was. It is unfortunately stored with everything else on the boat in a steaming cow field in rural inland florida, but that is another story. Chindogu is the fine Japonese art of inventing unuseless things. Truely these are amazing and hilarious. They have a babies onesy with dust mop sweepers all over the tummy so your crawler can clean up as they go. They have signs you hang off a special hat so that when you sleep in the subway people can wake you up at your stop. They have a special gulf club that you can attach laundry to, so you can dry your laundry while working on your line drive (is that the right sport?) There is another laundry line for the car. There is a roll up pedestrian cross walk. Road too busy? Just roll it out and they all stop. I could go on, but it is hilarious, and totally put together by those fringe type enthusiasts. I am sure they must have a newsletter. I should subscribe.

OK... went into Barcelona today, the husband has one of his countless days off. Indeed he only has to go to work two days this week! So in the spirit of really getting to know our new country........we went to the Egyptian Museum. I know, go figure. The elder child is mad about any myth/story from ancient times and was very enthusiastic, and since it was also near our bus stop and it was rainy......... Unfortunatly, my numerically not yet a teenager child is giving every sign of being a teenager in attitude. I thought I had a couple more years before this started....*whine* OMG will I make it? How long will this last. I have one friend whose child is almost exactly the same age, and we keep e-mailing each other stunned by the sudden change in our children. Urgh. She is wonderful, my daughter that is, don't get me wrong, but now and then.........I'm certain she would say exactly the same about me.

After the museum, we are sitting our poverty stricken selves on a bench in downtown Barcelona... don't get me started on the money right now. (OH well, here I go) We've finally gotten ourselves sorted out, you know numbers, accounts the works, when the husband's workplace pays him one day late, on the first not the thirty first. With a cheque. That's a friday. The bank is closed. (See previous post) It is closed all weekend. I go in on Monday and deposit the cheque. No problem. The money hasn't appeared by Wednesday (a holiday) so I go into the bank on Thursday, in the morning while it is still open. Seems they hold the cheque for three business days. Well. Got the cheque on Friday. Deposit it Monday, count Tuesday, Wednesday is a holiday, count Thursday, Friday is a holiday, Saturday and Sunday don't count, we may see it on Monday. I may add that the rent DOES come out on Sunday, holiday or no. So the pay we got on the first, (should have been the 31st), we won't see until maybe the 12th. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Anyway, back to the story, we are sitting our cash-flow supressed selves down on a stunningly beautiful bench, all curves and tile work with this amazing 100 year old iron lamp standard attatched watching the beautiful people go by while eating tuna-on-bread and oranges. Such is life. There was within spitting distance a gucci store, an armani store and a chanel store. Also a VERY ritzy hotel where the other people go. You know the ones who live in fear of their credit card accounts, but put up a good face in public. The girls noticed that EVERY ONE of the women who went into the hotel or stores had dyed hair. The hotel also had a doorman all dressed up in tails and a top hat with gold braid and the works. The only problem is that he looked like and carried himself like a football hooligan, or one of those less intelligent security guards you see that you wonder how on earth they managed to hide their criminal record long enough to land this gig. Very bizarre. He is doing a credible job of scraping and bowing to the dyed, nipped, tucked and well dressed crowd and their less polished......shall we say hubands, I'm sure some of them were. And then up came a mini-bus. Well captain doorman just disappeared. Apparently he doesn't do his thing if you don't come in your own cab. This crowd (Russians we believe, and what stunts did they pull to get the money to stay in that joint?) were definately not going to get the red carpet. We weren't sure why.....just the mini-bus? We'll never know.

Oh Oh Oh, some guy is outside my place having the ugliest hacking coughing and spitting event. I will mention that I am TWO floors up. This is unbeleivable. he must be leaving a small green slimy pool out there, wait, I have to look. He's still standing. Blowing his nose, I am glad to say in a handkercheif, hope he does his own laundry. Wow. Prefer the church bells.

Sorry if that grossed you out.

4 comments:

Undercover Mother said...

Okay. You can't put the check in via ATM, is there some kind of hold on it or something? Do they wait to credit it until they get it from the bank of origin? My accounts would be in upheaval, and they already are at any rate!

Still, if you're going to be poor, you're poor somewhere interesting at least!

oreneta said...

Yeah they wait for the bank of origin. In Canada it would be ten days, but here, it is funnier as it is a small town, and they could lean out the door and talk to the bank of origin......

Angel said...

that totally grossed me out. green slime....yum.

sounds like you need a good glass of wine, a book, and some peace and quiet.

oreneta said...

Single glaze windows have a lot to answer for, one day I'll post about the dirt bikes, and when my language skills get better, I am sure I will be learning things that way as well.