Sunday, December 30, 2012

Steal like an artist, robar com un artiste

Today....well well well, the space station rolled overhead with a Canadian on board, though we couldn't find it.  I am prepared to say that a couple of the planes we saw as it, but I'd be wrong.  Eldest has a dear dear friend over who lives in the UK to her Canada, so they only can get together now.  She is happy.

Me?  The man and I rowed, went to the Picasso museum to see an exhibit about Jaqueline and his ceramics.  Wandered through lovely BCN with the man, and as we had just missed the bus, hung out in a bookstore for a while to wait for the next one.

While there, I picked up, and read cover to cover, Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, hey, he does say to steal good ideas, and credit them, so I didn't buy the book, but I'm crediting the post. (Sorry Austin)  It was good, short, pithy and real.

Take away?


  • Re-institute the drawing a day I used to do, but now I've got to photograph it and post it.  
  • Take drawing materials with me most everywhere
  • Get up earlier and go up and paint.  Period.  Then run.  Gotta get those two things happening
  • Make a calendar to write these up on and cross them off when they are done.
  • Post finished work
  • Commit. (usually one of the toughest bits)
Avui, mira, l'estació espail ha passat per a sobre nosaltres, amb un astronauta canadenc però no la podríem localitzar.  Estic preparada de dir que unes dels avions que hem vist ho és, però seria incorrecte.  La Gran té una molt bona amiga aquí, les només poden trobar aquí Espanya a nadal perquè una viu en Canada i l'altra en Anglaterra.  Estan molt contentes.

Jo?  L'home i jo, hem anat a remar aquest matí, hem anat al museu Picasso per una exposició sobre la Jaqueline i les ceràmiques que va donar al museu fa 30 anys.  Hem anat caminant xino-xano per a BCN, que m'encanta, i que hem acabat de perdre l'autobús, hem quedat en una llibreria mentre esperàvem.  

He trobat un llibre, es diu Steal Like an Artist per Austin Kleon, i diu en el llibre que hem d'agafar bones ideàs, i diu a on les hem trobat, llavors, no he comprat el llibre, però dic a on he trobat l'ideàs. (Perdo Austin) El llibre?  Ben fet, ràpid, concís i diu veritats.

Què he aprés?

  • Recomençar de fer un dibuix cada dia, i a sobre, fer una foto del dibuix i penjar-la.
  • Porta material per dibuixar a tot arreu
  • Aixecar-me més aviat i pujar per pintar, sí o sí.  Desprès, anar a córrer.  Aquestes dues coses han de ser més organitzats.
  • Crea un calendari per notar aquests plans i teixar-los quan son acabades.
  • Penja obres acabades tan per les parets com pel internet
  • Lliurar-me (normalment un dels parts més difícil de fer) 





Saturday, December 29, 2012

Another day, more BCN, un altre dia, més de BCN

I started out in the Roman Tombs in Plaça Madrid...there is a museum there that I had never seen before, and it was good, except I walked REALLY bloody hard into a glass panel on the way out.  OUCH!  

Divendres, vaig començar per les tombes romanes en la Plaça Madrid, hi ha, fins i tot, un museu que no he vist mai abans.  Ben fet, malgrat que em vaig donar un bon cop al cap caminant directament a una mampara de vidre ben dur!  Feia mal.


They used to line the streets with tombs, and a street used to run right through here.  Els Romans van deixar les morts, bé, les tombes a les bandes dels carrers, i hi havia un carrer directament travessant aquesta plaça.


Then to the Cathedral, which I had never been in before cause I don't want to pay to go to a church, but that day, it was free.  BONUS!

Després, a la Catedral, que no he visitat mai perquè no vull pagar per entrar una església però aquest dia, gratuït!  Que bé!

This guy looks pretty disapproving.  For me the very best part was the choir, the wood work on that part of the church was simply astonishing.  Simply astonishing and is why I have included an otherwise quite fuzzy photo below.

Aquest tio, sembla una mica formidable, no?  Per a mi, el millor part de la catedral, per molt, era el coral.  La fusteria que van fer, fa segles, està simplement impressionant.  Preciós.  Per això he penjat la foto a baix encara que no està ben enfocat.



Then the the courtyard of a museum I think someone or other Marés, who did the Christ on the cross behind the alter in the Cathedral.  The courtyard there is lovely and quiet and peaceful, especially after the madhouse of the area around the cathedral.  A relief to relax and sit down for a moment, overlooked by these rather buxom gargoyles. Very odd, I'm going to ask Eldest what they are type of beast they may be, as she is pretty darned knowledgeable about these things.

Desprès el pati del museu Marés, em sembla, l'home va fer la creu principal de la catedral.  El pati m'encanta.  Tranquil·la i maca, més encara desprès de la gentada del catedral.  Pots descansar i seure per uns moments, amb aquest gargoles amb molt de pit mirant-te.  Són estrany, no?  Haig de pregunta la Gran de quin tipus de bestia són, ella té molt de coneixement d'aquest tipus de coses.  



Odd aren't they.    Estrany, no?

Finally, an odd old building, as it would have been before the civil war, I didn't take photos, which is a shame, I'll have to go back, and the Café Opera where I had never been before, but had heard of often.

Finalment, un edifici curiós i antic, com dels anys abans de la guerra civil, sense canvi ni neteja.  Llastima vaig oblidar d'agafar unes fotos, hauré de tornar i al Cafè Opera a on no he anat mai però havia sentit al nom algunes vegades.

Nice day.  Un molt bon dia.

Friday, December 28, 2012

A show about Mesopotamia at Caixa Forum, una exposició sobre Mesopotàmia

The other day we went off to Caixa Forum for an exhibit about Mesopotamia.  Really very good, worth visiting,

Vam anar l'altre dia a la Caixa Forum aquí Barcelona per una exposisció sobre Mesopotàmia.  Fantàstic!  

Mira:  See:





These below are carved out of stone....very cool.


He looks like something out of Maurice Sendak, no?


and here a womble, Tomsk or Omsk?



These were TINY!  Youngest's finger against the glass in the foreground to try and give perspective.


I'd look surprised too if those were growing out of my chin!


Went into BCN again today, and then worked and then a Christmas party.  It is very late, and I am very tired......more later.

Have a great one,

O

Thursday, December 27, 2012

COLD! FRED!!!

Vaig anar a fer bici de muntanya aquest matí, per unes tres hores.  Molt divertit però feia un fred que pela.  He oblidat les guants amb dits tancats i enlloc portava guants de bici amb dits a l'aire lliure.  

Feia tan de fred que semblava que els meus dits estava cremant.  Feia tan de fred que posava els meus mans, congelats, directament a la meva panxa.  Brrrr, però valia la pena.  Brrrrrr.

Went mountain biking today, for three hours, a good deal of fun, but COLD!  I forgot to bring regular closed finger mittens and instead had on cycling gloves with no fingers.

It was so cold my fingers were buuuurrrrrrnnnnnnning, so cold that I put those red, numb frozen fingers directly onto my belly while cycling along.  Brrrrr.  Worth it, but Brrrrrrr

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Bad book. Un llibre mal escrit.

Picked up Dan Brown's Digital Fortress.  One cliche after another, nasty horrid predictable writing, a wonder if got published.

Maybe it would be better in Catalan, a sympathetic translator might have tightened the language up a lot.

Dropped it as agonizing fast.  Fortunately it wasn't a gift.

Vaig començar de llegir Digital Fortress, de Dan Brown.  Horrorós, escrit amb un clixé seguint una obvietat.  No entec com va acabar de ser publicat.  

Potser seria millor en català, un traductor simpàtic potser hagués millorat el text, però molt....i amb molta feina.

L'he deixat amb una rapidesa impressionant.  Afortunadament, no era un regal.  També he descobert que falto molta vocabulari per parlar i criticar de llibres.  Ara vaig a fer una mica d'investigació.


Monday, December 24, 2012

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Singing to the boar, cantant als senglars.

Back when the man and I used to do a lot of canoeing, if we had to do a portage in particularly bear-ish country, we would often sing, to let the bears know we were coming, hopefully avoiding meeting them.

Today the man and I went running, it is boar hunting day today, and I decided that that same old ploy still had some value to it.  Not many boars sing, so the hunters, might...just might, reckon that we weren't boars, and dog-harried and alarmed boars would also steer clear of us.

I can say though that if you want to sing while running, especially uphill....you have to go quite a bit slower.

Fa temps quan l'home i jo fèiem canoa molt, si haguéssim de fer un portatge en una zona amb molts ossos, vam cantar que els ossos pugessin sentir-nos i, amb una mica de sort, evitar de trobar-nos.

Avui, l'home i jo hem anat a córrer i està el dia de caçar porcs senglars.  He decidit que aquest joc de sempre pot fer servir aquí també. No hi ha gaires senglars que canten, llavors els caçadors potser pensaran que no estem porcs  i els senglars mateixos, posats nervios pels molestes dels gossos, ens evitaran també.

Haig de dir però, que si cantis mentre estas corrent, sobretot pujant....has d'anar bastant més a poc a poc.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Bliss, un goig profund

Radiolab has a new show up about bliss.  It opens with a conversation with a guy who walked to the South Pole and back again, solo.  It took him about three months, and he stashed food for himself as he went out for pick up on the way back.  In the video, he has come upon the second last of these caches, and he is hungry, he has been hungry for months.  Here's the link.

That is one seriously happy Norweigian.  It also got me thinking though, about other times when I have been deeply and profoundly happy, blissful.

From watching babies, there have certainly been many moments of replete bliss when I was small, and from spending time with small children, raw joy is most definitely a part of their lives and I remember it being a part of mine, that uncontainable happiness that leaves you drawing breath deep enough to try to contain it, jumping, yelling, skipping....bliss.

I think that this is part of why people enjoy dogs so much, at least for me this is true.  They demonstrate this level of pure happiness on a pretty regular basis, and it is infectious.

I remember feeling that way walking home from the last day of high school. Goodness that was a wonderful feeling.

Many many times with my children.

I remember one day when I was sailing alone in a dingy, nothing special about it, but pure happiness.

Times without number when we were living on the boat.

Flashes in the mountains, though I find I feel that euphoric happiness more often when there aren't so many people around, if not to say when I am alone.

Running upon occasion.

I remember a giant rainstorm and a friend and I jumped and splashed and kicked in the e n o r m o u s puddles on the side of the roads.

I have been lucky to be able to feel so deeply and fundamentally happy so often....

To be able to look up, look around and be delighted in the world.


Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Culture, cultural

Went off with the local walking group for the weekend, we went into Spanish speaking Spain....which was something of a challenge to say the least.  

We visited a church that used to be a Cathedral back in the middle ages....and onwards a bit I think.  I like the door of the church....

Vaig anar amb la grup de muntanya pel cap de setmana cap a Aragó, Espanya que parla Castella.....una repte per mi.

Vam visitar una esglesia que solia una catedral fa molt de temps....m'agradava aquesta porta.


The guide, to me, was utterly incomprehensible, between the echo and her accent I was lost, and then as any of you who have spent time in a place where understanding the language is a challenge will understand, I simply stopped listening.
No podia entendre ni una paraula que deia la guia....amb la seva acent i que resoni l'esglesia.....i si mai haguès visgut en un lloc a on has de treballar per entendre l'idioma, saps com a vegades, simplement, pares d'escoltar.  

This cloister though was LOVELY, and like folks have done for hundreds of years before as well, we found the side with the sunshine and sat on the benches bathing in it like cats.
El claustre és molt maco i com han fet la gent per cents d'anys, vam trobar la cantonada on hi havia sol i ens vam seure als bancs i vam banyar-nos en el sol com si fossim gats.


Those monks had a little too much time on their hands, no?  Really, who designed that.  Qui va designar aquest?  Seriosament.


Lots of carvings.  I don't know if these are in the right place as the whole thing had been razed a couple of times.  Moltes pedres tallades...que han destruit l'esglesia unes vegades, no sé si aquest estan a on haurien de ser....


Walking around town, a little bit that suddenly looked quite Swiss.  En donant voltes del poble, aquest part sembla força suïss, no?


Then we visited a Buddhist monastery, after visiting several cafes to warm up as well.  This was the main entrance, it is a Tibetan style monastery, complete with some Tibetan monks, though the man who showed us around (that would be a bit of a misnomer, as he took us into the main temple and then talked about Buddhist philosophy for over 2 hours) was from Mallorca and started in Catalan, to my delight, but when one (unregistered) hanger-on to our tour commented that she couldn't understand Catalan he switched to Spanish, which I understood about a third to half of, but as I knew about most of what he was saying already, I eventually stopped listening here, had a head bobbing kind of nap in a corner and eventually went out to walk around.  Fine.

Llavors, vam visitar una monastí budhista desprès de visitar unes cafes, feia fred aquest dia.  Aquí a vaix tens l'entrada central d'aquesta monastí tibeta...monjos tibeta inclòs.  L'home que feia la nostre guia era de Mallorca i ens va ensenyar el lloc, però en realitat ens va portar al temple central i parlava per més de dues hores sobre la flosofia budhiste. Començava en català, a mi, fantàstic, però una parella - no un part del nostre grup- va anar amb nosaltres i la dona no podia entendre Català, llavors va canviar per castella i vaig entendre un tercer o mig part d'el que deia l'home.  

Em sap greu, però estic massa cansada per continuar en català i vull penjar les fotos.  Intentaré fer més desprès.


They had these paintings on the road on the way in, which I really liked.




Prayer flags of course,


Prayer wheels


I liked these flags better than the massively printed ones.


That evening we went into the town of Graus in Aragó which is quite small but has a spectacular main square, as it was dark, this is the only photo that turned out OK.


They were also having a truffle festival/tasting, now that's tough, isn't it!
 They were selling them too, only 550€ a kilo, half price!


Then we went to dinner where we were staying.  It was not an improvement.  I have never ever eaten off a tray like this, felt like I was in the military or prison, and all the men who had had to do the 'mili' made the same comment.  Worst food yet.  No that's not true, it's better than the hospital food they offered Eldest.  Though hospital food, does it count?


Next day....the mountains.  It was glories and spectacular, lots of snow, mostly sunshine, the snow at the top was icy, with slopes that lead off to crushing falls, so on went the crampons, that was fun, haven't put on crampons in YEARS!

The group who guided us were very friendly, very open, and quite disorganized.  We even managed to break into several different groups, all of them lost, and all of them going their own way.

New resolve.  Never going on high mountain excursions ever again unless they are guided by someone from our group or a professional. Especially in winter.

A good excursion, but marred by disorganization that with luck did not evolve into a problem, though it could have.





Also somewhat astonished by how close people were standing, all of them in a pack like frightened fish and all talking at the TOP. OF. THEIR. VOICES.  Ya know, mountains are big places and this Canadian managed to feel really very claustrophobic.  They probably all thought I was incredibly rude, but I kept stepping away and standing by myself at a bit of a distance.  Oh. my. god. the NOISE and intrusion into personal space!  On a bloody great mountain no less.

Never again.

Sunday, December 16, 2012

gone to the mtns. vaig anar a les muntanyes

More later after some sleep!  T'explicaré més quan hagi dormit una mica!




Friday, December 14, 2012

Gone walking. Anat a caminar

Que sigui un bon cap de setmana per a tothom.

Hope we all have a good weekend!

Cap de setmana....the weekend.

I am JONESING to go running.  Two days off, one of which included a good 12K or walking and then the bike ride today, and I am so ready to go running again.

This weekend though?  Two days with the local walking group, should be excellent, though not as tough.

Got two invites to go to the mtns today, sadly had to turn them both down, one for tomorrow and one for next Tuesday....with any luck, I'll be able to go with them another day.

Let's hope the economy hangs in there, cause I am mostly having a whole lot of fun over here.

Tinc tantes ganes d'anar a córrer!  Amb dos dies lliures, un dels quals va incloure 12 quilòmetres de caminar i una ruta amb bicicleta avui i ara vull anar a córrer un altre cop!  Boja.

Aquest cap de setmana?  Dos dies a les muntanyes amb el grup de muntanya, hauria de ser fantàstic, però no manarà tant.  

Dues persones m'ha convidat d'anar a les muntanyes avui, llastima que no puc anar ni a un ni a l'altre.  Un per aquest dimarts, haig de treballar i un per demà....amb una mica de sort, podré anar-hi amb els un altre dia. 

Espero que l'economia aquí aguanti, perquè m'agrada molt viure aquí.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Report cards, informes

They eat your life!  Nothing left.

Mengen la vida i deixar res més.

Monday, December 10, 2012

un matí a BCN, a morning in BCN


Saw this in the Boqueria, never seen it before as usually it is full of fish sellers in front of it.  Looks a little Parc Guëll-ish, no?


A SUBMARINE in BCN!!!!



A very tiny sub.  The ones we saw in the US were a LOT bigger.


Don't know what building this is, though I could find it again......




Lovely, no?

And below, we went into Santa Maria del Mar.  Looked up, while sitting cause my body is a wee bit weary today, and look who I was rewarded by!  Never seen it before, but there are little wee faces carved up high in the ceiling vaults.

The camera was not up to the light conditions, I'll have to go back again.



T'was a lovely day.

Catalan tomorrow, I am just too tired and it is past midnight and I have to cycle to work tomorrow morning with 4 hours of back to back classes.

Cheers,

O

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Montcau, la Mola i Mura

Went walking again today......goodness I do adore being out and about and stretching my legs a bit.....

He anat a caminar un altre cop avui......com m'encanta ser al bosc i muntanya, estirant-me les potes

Two friends and I went off to Montcau and la Mola in the Parc Natural de St Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac, which is near Barcelona, sort of between Montserrat and Montseny.

Amb dos amics hem anat al Montcau i la Mola en el Parc Natural de St Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac, a prop de Barcelona, entre Montserrat i Montseny.

A lovely trip.  Una excursió molt maca.

Rocks, pedres


Monasteries, monestirs:


Barcelona:


El monestir the monastery:


Looking up, mirant amunt:



See the smile?  Pots trobar el somriure?



Monserrat:


Al final del dia, at the end of the day:



Truly lovely day.  Lots of walking, lots of talking, lots of views.  All good.  Now sleep.

Un dia, veritablement, preciós.  Molt de caminar, molt de parlar, moltes vistes.  Tot fantàstic.  Ara, dormo.