Via ferrada

Went off with some new friends and climbed a Via Ferrada....BEAUTIFUL!

A via ferrada is one that has steel safety preinstalled, chains and cables and footholds for the more technical parts of the climb.  I am sure there are purists out there who scoff, but you know what...it was seriously fun.

We were in Montserrat, and ended up at the mirador at the very stop...where I had seen folks appearing up the mountain side once before and thought...how very cool!

Well, today, it was Youngest and I who got to be cool, and it was AWESOME!

The photo below, we're part way up and looking to where we're going....

Looking back down, the furthest point is the previous photo

View of Montserrat

It's called the Teresina, it's 8K with 450 meters of elevation.  Fun.  The descent was scree, Youngest didn't love that part.

Attacked by a dog!!

No, really!

Well, the bag on my bike suffered, fortunately I didn't get a scratch.

I was riding near where we live on the bike, not even going all that fast cause there was so much water on the road I'd have drowned....and a REALLY BIG dog...something like a Pyrenees Mastiff or  Great Pyrenees...BIG! 120 pounds big, appeared down the driveway of a stable, barking, ran up to me and set it's teeth into the bag on my rack, just behind my butt, and pulled.  As in pulled the whole back of the bike sideways and the bag half off the rack.

Fortunately, it backed off a bit when I yelled, so we were stalemated for about 5 min, with me yelling at it, and it barking at me.  No owners, of course.

Finally, it decided that I was not going anywhere and went further away.  I stood around a while longer, they will chase you if you move, and had a debate about trying to walk into the stable, with the bike....which I could put between me and him if I had to....

It let me walk up the driveway (?) and I - finally - found someone who worked there.  The 'senyor' was sleeping.  Just as an aside, if you have a stable, shouldn't you be up before 7:45?  Just saying.

Anyway, I told him what happened, walked the bike back down the driveway, and slowly road off.

I eventually reported it to the police, showing the cop the multiple holes in my bag - not realizing until later that he had actually punctured through a semi-rigid plastic folder and the paper inside it and out the other side as well.

Not dull anyway!

I do have to say that I have gone past there before, and I've never seen the dog out, so something weird may have happened today, by the same token, another friend who has ridden there for years warned me that the dog was dangerous! 

Good gracious, never ever boring!

New on the bucket list

MUST go to Cappadocia.

Must.

I wanted to put up a single picture, but I am not sure I can find one that, well, seems to do it justice. 

Must go.

See? 

Turning down work

Honestly, if I could clone myself.

I currently have 5 jobs.  F.I.V.E.

And I got offered another today.

Lets see, I work for three different language academies, mornings, mid mornings and evenings more or less respectively.  Cool.

I work as an examiner for Cambridge exams, intermittent, but good for getting jobs, and makes me a better teacher along with bringing in some money from time to time.

Plus I work in Canada as a teacher of teachers, mostly summers with a bit of work month to month during the year.

All good.

Today I got a call offering me a couple of months substitution teaching in a high school.  The pay is good, the hours are fine, the students are big fat brats.  Big fat rich brats.  This school is well known for having truly pretty awful kids.  Not all of them, but a pretty big portion, lets say more than 50% are obnoxious. 10% truly horrid.

Ho hum.

Also it is a 2 month substitution with no hope of further employment, and it's a job I wouldn't want.  One of the things I like about my job(s) in the academies is that there is a HUGE variety of students and levels, I teach 4 year olds and retired people, I teach super prim rich women and young adults who dropped out of school have dreads and more tattoos than I care to count and I teach every level from beginners to people that are nearly fluent.  It makes it really interesting.  A high school does not offer this sort of range.  They are all much the same age, much the same level (mediocre to low) and have much the same interests.  Monoculture, more or less, with a few neat kids that are mostly keeping their heads down till they make it out of high school and can get on with all the fabulous ideas they have.  We know who we are or were.

Currently, I make fair money - just enough... just -  in a job (well 3 jobs) that I generally like and that I am, frankly, very good at, as I have been told this week by both some of my employers and a number of my students.  If I took this position as a sub, I would have to quit at least one of these jobs which also may impact on my employability next year. 

Ho hum.

Ultimately, I feel wrong bailing out on the work I have and the students I have now. It feels crappy.  And I like them. 

And I need work next year.

Still, it feels very strange to turn down work.   Very strange. 

Wonder how much I will twitch tonight instead of sleeping.

Chuck vs Psycho cat

The man took Chuck out for a walk this morning, pretty normal, but on a narrow street up behind the house...they met psycho cat.

Now Chuck is afraid of cats.  His usual technique though is to ignore their existence.  He averts his eyes, moves away from the cat and goes by with as much speed and dignity as he can muster.

This is what he did today.  There was the cat, all arched and puffed up, he crossed to the far side of the street and looked away, but she came. after. him.  He apparently screamed like the man has never heard him before. Utterly terrified.

The cat took three or so runs at him, hissing and yowling, him screaming and running, the man hoping around too.....

Finally the man yelled at the cat enough that it let them go by, but his Chuckiness had no trouble relieving himself once they got to the park later.

Scared *less he was.

Poor pup.

Still kinda out of date

My plans for the Easter weekend got fairly destroyed, a combination of issues, but fortunately some friends invited us to go down to a place they have further south in Catalunya, and it was lovely, we even managed to get in a bit of walking.

Note:  Next year, I will not be working Mondays if I can possibly help it.  I have barely walked at all this year, and it is getting me down.

We went up a hill and found a castle.  It was a good hill and big hill and a lovely bit of climbing.

We came back down the hill, there were cliffs on the way that we walked past.

Further down the hill there was a tank where water from a spring gathered, we cooled our feet, and found tadpoles,

and fish
 

They also do a lot of dry stone work here.

On a later side trip, you can see that youngest came, and that she has big feet.

What we climbed earlier that day:

on this little trip though we managed to find some caves!

and a butterfly,

and a snake I didn't get a picture of, they claim he was an adder, and it could be, but I'd be surprised.

More caves:  we were very good and only poked our noses in, thought they looked really interesting.

Sun going down over new grape vine shoots and distant mountains.

out of date

went walking about two weeks ago, but it has been hectic.....

so here's a few photos from back then!!!

It is one of the few places in Catalunya that is kinda wet. Though we were also deliberately following the rivers for part of this route.

The rivers are also diverted into these canals for irrigation, we got to walk along them for a while too.  Seriously cool.

Saw some hot air balloons

Waded across a river, (very cold)

Saw a wee shallow cave

Visited an old castle

Saw an old church.  I love this face.

walked down a river bed, this is supposed to be moss, but I suspect that the guy upstream has siphoned off all the water, so the moss is dying.  Doink.

Swam!  No photos!  The water was SEriOUSLY cold!!!

And we saw some cows.

Lovely day, made even lovelier cause youngest came!

shopping

Went into BCN today for a number of reasons, among them, Youngest wanted shorts....we kinda didn't do to well.

we did find some amazingly ugly clothing though...check this stuff out!

Wanna go running in that space suit?!?!?!?!?

Finished!

The sun was too strong when I took the picture so it's hard to see the balance of colour well.....but it's lovely. And big. 

I'll put up another picture that has a better balance of colour. 

Have a look at the man's hands at the top, it's BIG!

Small signs of improvement?

The economy here is Spain is bad, very very bad. 

Lately though, there have been a few small signs of improvement.  A few.  But still.....

The place around the corner that sells prepared food has started selling truita de patata again, this is like an omlete, but bigger and full of potatoes.  It is also something that EVERYONE can make at home, so if folks are going out to buy one?  They have some disposable income.  It has been several years since they were selling these.  Still, it's only occasionally, but still.

The architects I know are getting a tiny bit of tentative movement.  A small renovation here, a minor adjustment there....but things have been completely dead for several years, so even these small jobs are a big deal.

Finally, I am starting to see furniture out by the garbage bins.  When we first got here, there was a lot...the garbage has depots on most blocks, rather than it being picked up at the end of the street, and if you have furniture you don't want anymore, you put it out by the bins.  Used to be quite a lot, indeed a lot of our furniture when we first got here came from the bins.  Then there was NOTHING...not a thing.  Now, there is a tiny bit.  Really exceptionally crappy stuff, but a tiny bit nonetheless.

Here's hoping!