Day off

Had big plans for today that I was really really looking forward to...and they got cancelled.  We were supposed to be kayaking on the Ebre with a bunch of friends, and it is a big muscular river.  My back is still quite dicey, the man has a cold and the forecast was for rain all day and up to 45 k/h winds....possibly against the current.

As your kayaking skills are, shall we say, limited, we bailed.  Better part of wisdom it seemed.

So, today, quiet.  Had a two hour nap, lost one of those nasty black toenails, painted a painting, that I think will be finished and read a whole book.  Also went climbing with Youngest, which given the back at the moment, meant mostly watching her and getting on the wall briefly amidst a cloud of swear words...figure it's better for your stomach than ibuprofen!

Will post a picture of the painting if I get around to it....and now I'm off to watch Big Bang Theory with Youngest.

Into BCN tomorrow......I hope, if it doesn't get canned due to the rain.  Catalans hate getting rained on, to make a generalisation.

Can tell I don't live in Wales

The weather today, 8 degrees, 45 k/h winds, some rain (max 20mm)

Everything grinds to a halt.  The lunch (admittedly a barbeque near the beach) got cancelled, the kayaking trip is going on, though without us, we don't have the experience nor the skirts nor them clothing, and I have bailed on the trip into BCN too....sitting by the fire.

Getting wimpy in Catalunya!!!

Into BCN again

Checking out modern architecture today.....

This hotel was designed by Jean Nouvel, who did the Torre Acbar in BCN, but also did the Museé Quay Branley in Paris, which I adore!!!!  Strangely he doesn't have it on his website.....you'd think you could pay someone to keep that up to date.

Anyway, it's a pretty cool building and was pretty darned empty when we were there.  I imagine that when there's a big trade fare on.......it's kinda not in the center of the city.  It also much have cost a BUNDLE!!!

This is the building we went to see, some kind of hotel...pretty cool design...

This building is next door, a sort of unexpected surprise.

The original one, this architect, I am told, likes to work with print on glass, I think it is kind of fancier than just print, but it doesn't seem like it is destined to last.

This one is by a Japanese architect, and is likely to feature again next week!

I like it.

The surprising other building, I like the geometry of it...

See?

Back to the original goal...the other three sides all have that white palm tree top shape, while this has cloud pattern and is open in the middle, filled with trees and plants!

See?

We went up to the terrace, the advantage of looking and speaking like you come from abroad, is that people believe that you come from abroad!

Nice pool, no?

This however is stupid.  This is what they have for railings....it goes up to about 6 feet or 2 meters.  NOT POSSIBLY LEGAL...it can easily be climbed, and if you look, it would be quite a big fall.

We wandered in some of the central section as well....pretty no?

On the left are the bedrooms, a little tricky to figure out which is yours!

Another neighbouring building, not as elaborate, though I like the work with the red, blue and green.

And as an aside, seen quite randomly in another part of town.....some more traditional architecture.

Hope you enjoyed it!

Just a dog walk

I've not got so much time for walking the dog this year, and so it seems more special again.  Took the camera along one time....

It is lovely to live here.

Seen in the woods:

Here's something more bucolic for you all!!!

Some random photos from TO

Clearing out the photos on the computer, and came across these.....

tossed in these nasty photos of my toenails after that overnight race.

Youngest figures you need a tough stomach to read the blog lately.  She may be right.  At least I haven't taken updated photos of those nasty kinda loose toenails!

Mountain biking

Went mountain biking with the man today.  I do a fair amount of cycling these days, back and forth to work every day, about 14K with nearly 200M of climbing every day.  Not a ton, but not nothing either.

I have not, however, ridden on trails for a very long time, I'm thinking over 20 years.  Till today.

Ooof

It was actually a lot of fun.  Anyone with any mountain biking experience would have died a thousand deaths watching us, but we had fun.  Part of our anticipated route turned out to be too technical for too long, so we bailed and took another route, that I had walked a couple of years ago.  Turns out I don't remember climbs well when I've walked the route.  THAT BABY WAS STEEP!  and LONG STEEP!

oOOOFFFffffff

It was great though...as we were debating our final route down home, we had two choices, the way we came up, which would involve no further climbing, or another route, which had the benefit of being different.

I had climbed.

At one point we saw the goats!  There's a big herd that wanders around and provides milk that is made into lovely cheese.  The dogs were working the goats, they had headed the wrong way and we could hear the shepherd, or goatherd I guess calling now and then, and the dog was rounding the goats up, no barking a muffled low whine kind of noise, and off they went....

action shots below.  If you look carefully, you can see the dog in both of the photos.

Shower time!!!

Youngest's hands

See, she's taken up rock climbing. More like she has been taken up by it.

Can you say obsessed?

OH my feet!

I went walking today, with a friend.  We had a perfect day, the weather was spectacular, the route was gorgeous, we did 50K...

my legs are a little tired....

the problem was my shoes.  OH my feet!!!!

I wore these shoes which I have worn running and they are great for going running for an hour or so.  GREAT!
I went walking for 12 hours or so.

They weren't great.

The initial problem lies in that mesh.  See the mesh?  Covers most of the shoe and lets in VAST quantities of sand.  VAST

This in itself is an irritant, but when you couple it with insoles that are perforated, with little tiny perforations over the entire shoe....what happens is this.  The sand comes into the shoe, it gets embedded into these tiny holes by my feet as I walk, particularly under the spots with the most pressure.  Then what happens is that as I walk, the insole, as it should collapses a bit under my foot to provide cushioning.  Sadly the rocks and sand do not.

The effect is walking for 50K on 50grit sand paper.

My feet are DESTROYED!

I have never had so many blisters.
Never.

After one really big one (that covered about half the ball of my foot) exploded - and that was an interesting sensation, I removed the insole, but then the shoe was too big and blisters appeared in places that had been fine up until then...

OH my feet!

Scooter

One thing to understand here is that scooters, those skateboard-y things with a handle to steer with and a brake, are the domain only of children and teenage boys up to about 14.  Exclusive domain.

So the thought of a middle aged woman riding one is very weird, but you know what?  The suckers are super efficient for travelling in cities.  Fast, small, easy to get on and off of, you just take them into the stores and public transit...light and easy to carry...a dream.

So, Monday morning, when I was going to go into BCN....I had a logistical problem.  Normally I ride my bike to work a village or two away, but if I want to go into BCN I have to leave the bike at work, go in, go back to work, get the bike and ride home, rather than just go home....an issue as I have to work in the evening as well.  So, the bike is out.

Then there is the bus.  None leave early enough.

I was thinking of running to work, showering on the beach and going in, but it was all a little involved. Showering in the dark on the beach, having to bring working clothes when I run and then wet smelly running clothes into BCN...meh

Then I thought of the scooter!  YIPEE!!!!

I did have one minor accident....

OUCH!  And some bruising on the other leg...

Despite that, it was a complete success and I will probably be scootering my way around BCN again....especially on a Monday!

Cheers!

O