Jammies

Jammies

You would think that we would all have a certain amount of similarity about this, but no.

I remember taking a train through China back in 1989-90, and it was a long distance train.  All the Chinese, as soon as they got on the train, changed into their jammies and stayed in them till they got off.  (While smoking heavily)

The Catalans?  As soon as they are home for the day, they get in their jammies.  Aparently everyone does it.  If they're at home, they're in jammies.  This may explain the strangely high prices for jammies here too.

I don't know many folks in Canada who do this.  Teenagers, maybe yes, not when they get home, but not wanting to get out of them in the morning.

Do many of you change into jammies when you get home from work?  I mean, I am told, that they are cooking and eating dinner in their jammies.......

Not exactly a big deal, but odd differences.

Went into BCN yesterday to the Ai Weiwei exhibit.

I've seen quite a few of them (Ai Weiwei exhibits that is), and there is always a certain repetition, but it is also always interesting, he is so prolific (he has lots of people who help him produce too, in the spirit of most of the old Masters as well)

Anyway, here's a couple of shots:

He does a lot of plays on words, which needs some explanation as they are plays on Chinese words.  This is basically how to say F*** You and his country in marble over and over and over again.

Graphic design made into wallpaper commenting on his, and china as a whole's, state of surveillance.

This was very cool.....not because it was art, cause it wasn't really, but because it's his actual table and chairs from his studio and you can sit in it and put your feet up on the table!  Well, he is all about irreverence and sharing, so really, no one could complain.  We did wipe it off afterwards too.

Very cool chairs, Quin dynasty, or in the style of.

From a video of the destruction of his studio in China.  The authorities decided to destroy it 20 days after it was finished.

Ai Weiwei filming the destruction.

The giant pneumatic drills looked like birds, or enormous dinosaurs.

Speaking of dinos, didn't even know this existed, must go there.

Wandering back, we went by this cool building

and looking up

and this one too!

The other day we went to the new Design Hub

In Barcelona, they built the design hub a couple of years ago, and it looked really cool...until the put the finish on it, and the finish is terrible 

Really horrid.  See here! 

However, we went for a visit, it was free that day....

There were three exhibits, a really boring one about design, a really interesting one about fashion and a great one about household objects.

Took a couple of pictures.

This was kinda cool......

This is like 5000 years old, which is simply amazing!

and this looks like Picasso copied it!!!!!

 he was a big copy cat.

Day 1 of 2015

First day of the year, pretty quiet, like New Year's last night.

We didn't want to get grapes, Youngest particularly as they kind of make her feel ill, so we cut up mandarin slices and ate those. Good, and much less of a choking hazard.

What else?

We only have one puzzle, and as my family has a tradition of doing a jigsaw puzzle at Xmas, we've done it several times. In some ways that makes it easier, in others, not so much.  You see, we can visualize which pieces go where quite easily, but as it has been done fairly often, the little nubs are getting rounded and it is much harder to tell if a piece goes in a particular spot.

Also, everyone else seems to have lost interest, so really, it's just me doing it.

Makes it harder too.

This last week has been most productive

Finished one course in the Masters completely!

Got Eldest organized with a resume finished and some job applications in for the summer

Got youngest organized around a t-shirt company she wants to start (more work needed there)

Getting spring organized with timing of events coming up - and some look REALLY cool!!!!

Getting everything in line for one of my jobs, which feels great

Still to be done

• list house to rent it for the summer
• find place to live for the summer in TO
• get funding question answered by the UOC (Masters)
• get British Consulate and Eldest organized re right of abode for her
• finish the other Masters course (this is trickier as it is a group project, and I cannot just finish it cause I want to)

sure there's more but the list is reassuringly short!!!

Last day of the year, 2014

Whew!

Can't believe that happened, and my poor neglected blog!  Going to have to find more time (make more time) for writing here.

OK, today?  They day ended up rather Chuck focused.  It was supposed to be focused on getting the house listed for renting it out this summer, but the dog had to go to the vet this morning.

Day before yesterday the man and I took him on a 15K walk, which was lovely.Chuck however managed to run off a cliff about 15 feet high!  fortunately there was something of a sandy slope at the bottom so he leapt off, then started to roll down the sand, think he did three full rotations before getting up, shaking and coming over to check in on me! 

We kept walking, he seemed fine.

The next day the girls took him for a long walk in the mountains, when they take him for a long walk, it is long in time more than distance as they like to sit and hang out for long periods of time.

He came back and his eye looked puffy. 

Looked puffier over the evening and he started closing it. 

Then he started looking at us through mostly one eye.

I had a look and couldn't see anything, so figured he'd scratched it, and it would be better in the morning.

Not so much.

Off to the vet at 10am as she opened.  He has indeed scratched it, she put in anaesthetic drop, and gave him an shot of anti-inflamatories...he seemed better after that. 

Now he has anti-inflammatory and analgesic drops, which seems to make him feel much better.

Took him for a long walk, and he decided to eat poo. 

Ho hum

Dog day!

Managed to go walking one day!

And it was marvelous...took Chuck and went with some friends.  We were supposed to have gone for a long weekend, but that didn't work out, I had too much homework, which they gave us at the last minute.  Poop.

Anyway, we had a lovely day.

See?

Dog had a wonderful time.....

The views were marvelous, and so was the company

It got narrow in spots....

See?

Chuck got on leash for those bits....

Not down the stairs though, he was cool here.

Montseny:

Montserrat in the distance

With the different trees it looks like a quilt.

Sun went down before we finished.  Short short days.

So little time!

I know I am way to busy when I finally get into my photos and realise how gigantic the backlog is!

So, with no further ado,

I start to open that up and show some of what I have been up to, a series of posts.

Way back on November 2nd, or something like that, Youngest and I went into BCN with a friend to get a tour of the Ajuntament (town hall) there, which you can only visit on specific days, and with a guide.  I have to say that overall, the tour was kind of disappointing, with the exception of one room, though in fact we didn't need a guide to see it if we had just gone up on our own.  Here's some pics:

Youngest and I got into BCN kind of early, so we took some photos, I had always meant to take photos of these manhole covers, and finally did.  Pretty amazing, no?

Some random graffiti:

Xurros!!!!!

6 days, 12 hours, 43 minutes and 15 seconds to the vote!!!!

This room was amazing, the Consell de Cent I think it was called.  Amazing.

A painting, it was OK.

Then as the tour was short, we went on to see other stuff.....

For example here we are in the center of a building where three of the columns from the original Roman temple stand...and where they stood originally!  Cool.

This is a photo of a drain.  It has a stone cover and if you look closely, about 2 stories down, you can see a little river running.

Maybe it's easier here......you don't want to drop your keys or your phone down there.

We went on to the Museu de la Ciutat, which are roman ruins again:

You can see they built it up from whatever other bits and pieces came to hand.

And atop it, this amazing room.

Back November 2nd or something.

Nightwalking

I went walking with youngest at night a year or so ago and she loved it, but we didn't do it again. 

Then last week, when she was upset a bit about - I don't remember what - and we couldn't agree on something to watch on the computer, I suggested going for another walk in the mountains in the dark. 

She accepted with alacrity. 

Then she wanted to go last night....and we went....and I was very tired before, but very happy afterwards. 

And she wants to go tonight. 

We talk a lot, well, she talks a lot more than I do, but that is good too.

Nice.

Incidental learning

I'm doing a Master's online, and it is really interesting and really good and I am learning a ton. A ton.

But there is also incidental learning that is going on.  Part of what my incidental learning involves is working in teams, and also working with groups online, both synchronoulys and asynchronously.

I am primarily a classroom teacher, which means that I work alone almost all the time.  I sometimes have a group of fellow teachers and we may confer on things, but I really never ever work in a team.

So that is interesting.  (in both the good and bad sense)

Add to this the online component, and it being in Catalan and you get a little more deeply into this.  When working entirely online there is no facial expressions, it is much more complicated to develop a sense of the other person, partially cause it is easier to cover up your feelings, and also cause it is easy to misinterpret or be misinterpreted as there is no tone of voice.

Add in the cultural element, Anglos are generally shorter and more direct in emails than Catalans or Spanish speakers, and you can have some misunderstandings develop.

It isn't directly what I signed up for, but it is in fact a valuable part of the learning process.  Things we need to learn.

Can't say it's always fun though.

I have to say that I have also had some pretty good laughs at times too.