Photos of the house from the man....

They're working on putting in all the channels for the wiring and the pipes.  They had to connect it up to the street of course, so they had to take the sidewalk apart to do it, I'm not in love, but it's OK,

This is not OK at all.  It is, I believe, right in the living room as you come in the door.  It is a sewage drain. Even if they put it into the wall, like all the others, they cannot repair the tiles in the vault.  They can replace, but it will not look the same.

Very unhappy messages went out.

Very.

So easy

It is, in so many ways, so very very easy to be in TO.

I have seen five different sets of friends in two days, plus family, a bunch of acquaintances and all the folks from work.

It is really wonderful seeing everyone.

I am still formulating the Catalan phrases I will need as I approach situations, and then don't need them.  I am finding I am stuck in the Catalan word for the English one I want, which is partially a jet lag job...

I had an honestly lovely evening.  A friend's kid had a soccer game, and after watching SPAIN'S BIG FAT WIN!!!!!, I was more than willing to go and watch some more.  Friends all over the place, the sun going down over a giant field with 6 different games going on at once and friendly open chatting people everywhere.  Kids from all over the world all playing the beautiful game together.....


Easy.


Like falling off a log.


I was at work today, and my co-workers kindly lived with the game playing quietly in the background when the Spain - Portugal game was on, one woman even gave up her desk cause she had Adobe Flash and my computer didn't....we were in an informal meeting, but a meeting nonetheless, and I was talking at the meeting, and doing some work on one screen while keeping an ear on the game on the final screen...the announcers voice started to go up in that telltale pitch of excitement and I switched screens JUST IN TIME to see Spain's goal.  


I leapt out of my chair yelling, then stopped.  Explained Spain had scored, and told them I'd just sit down again now.  


Very humorous...


on another note, I am starting to worry seriously about the canvas a day project.  I think I am five days behind now...hmm.

Bringing a gun to a knife fight.

His Chuckiness woke me up at 1:30 am this morning.  Right around his normal walk time in Spain.  7:30 am!  We should be out there by now!!!


How to explain jetlag to a mutt.

Cicadian rhythms are a pain.

I tried ignoring him for a while, and then remembered the nasty looking meal I had had to feed him the night before.  Good pet stores are not open on a Sunday night around 7pm.  Hmmmm, I thought to myself, mayhap this is playing a wee bit of havoc with his innards.

Heaved myself out of bed and staggered into the darkness.  Chuckbacca was unphased by the relative darkness and gleefully sniffed his way around every little blade of grass.  Yummy!  In his defence he peed a great deal, so it was not entirely wasted, and I did manage to get back to sleep again, till he woke me at 8am.

We went for another walk later.  While we were out he found a lady dog.  She was unaccustomed to the thoughts that were running through his male, intact, non-neutered doggy mind.  Hi there Sugar!  Play here often?

We went home.

Third walk.  We met another intact male.  My usually wimpy non-dominant dog figured he could take this one.  That Canuck bigger-than-Chuck dog may be intact and all, but he ain't used to those GIANT Spanish part-pitt intact males.

Piece of cake, thought my valiant and normally pacifist Chuckalicious.

After we pulled them apart (read Chuck off the other bigger dog)...?

We went home.

He's having some fun it would seem, no?

Tile choices

We are thinking that we may do a part of the house with a different choice of tiles....and our contractor sent us to this site, where they make decorative tiles.  It will, undoubtably be expensive, but as we are only doing a few meters of it, not too bad.....

It is seriously fun to play with, go to the site, here.

Click it into English, unless you're feeling adventurous, then click on 'design panel' unless of course you want to do it in Catalan, in which case you'd have to click on, 'panell de design'

Chose your basic style of tile, there is 'avant-guard/puzzle', classical and geometric.  Once you're in there you can change the chose the patterns, change the colours and see how it would look all laid out.

Kinda cool, especially if you aren't paying.

Whew...how many days was that?

What a day!


I swear we squeezed about four days into yesterday alone.


We started off going shopping in BCN for shirts for Eldest, Youngest and I got some too....then we went off to Poble Espanya, and didn't go, the entrance fee was exorbitant....


SOOOOOoooooo back down to Caixa Forum, where they had a fantastic exhibit of photographs...by Jacques Henri Lartigue..they were utterly delightful!  Movement and flight and action...he must have been massively talented and had the most willing family.  They seem to have spent half their lives jumping off things.


Home for a break, then Youngest and I went off to the beach...why don't I go more often?  It was a delight, I even had a short nap!


Home, then walked the dog in the mountains, another delight...with both kids too.....


Home, then watched the Spain - Chile game...which Spain won...it was safe, but very boring for the last 10 min....they advance though anyway....Inesta got a sweet goal, and the Chilean goalie made a very bad mistake for the other...oops.


ho hum.


What with all that, no canvas yesterday, nor today either.......maybe tomorrow I'll get three done?

House update photos.

OK, I said I'd post some updates on the house...the photos are a little tricky as the sight lines are all fairly short...I'll see what I can do.

Went by this morning...here is the new facade of the house, you can see Youngest's second window and the wall at the front of the terrace.

Below is the new window in our room, complete with shaping that we fought for, and got...though I thought we'd just get the arch over the window, the builder gave us the chamfering (is that the right word?  I think so) at the sides.  Happy me.

Our room from the doorway.

The view down the hallway to Youngest's window...I've shown a couple of  versions of this before....this is the most current.  Overhead is the underside of Eldest's loft extension....the height of the underside of the terrace.

Below is inside Eldest's room, which is almost impossible to take a photo of, as it is a verticalville kind of room and will have four different levels by the time all is said and done.  This is the wall where her ladder will go up to her loft, and the brick wall is the outside of what will be the bathroom that the man and I will share.

View from Eldest's room, through their bathroom, into Youngest's and out her new window.

Youngest's room, with the bathroom and stairway walled in.

The upstairs space off the terrace...we'll put in railings before we move in.

A view of the new terrace.  The bench on the other side is wider, and we're going to paint in the fall.

I have to say I am a little antsy about leaving it all for two and half months.....the man will be here for the first half anyway, he'll be sending photos to keep us all up to date.....

Fingers crossed!

BCN tour

We went into BCN today to the Marine Museum for a visit to two new exhibitions, one of Russian painters from the 20th century and the other is called Portraits of the Sea, by a variety of Catalan painters.

We started at Plaça Catalunya, like most folks do and worked our way down through el Raval which I adore.

This is beside the Boqueria, but you normally don't really notice them as the market is so entrancing that these near Greek temple columns....which are lovely indeed...where are we anyway?

If you peak between the columns, you see the crazy pig!  Today is Sant Joan so everything is closed but the museums and some restaurants.

I love this church in el Raval, so varied and it has a Mother Teresa's group of nuns feeding the poor every morning out of it.  It is a delightful mish mash of about 15 different architectural styles and epochs.

In the museum was this, odd and fa gracia it is amusing.....look carefully.

I wouldn't mind living in a house like this for a while, just step out your door and your at the sea.....

Painted by one of the Russians.... I ADORE this one.

ADORE IT

Then we had a slightly lavish lunch at the restaurant at the museum....mmmmmmmm.......if you are ever in BCN and need a delightful oasis of calm, the courtyard and café at the marine museum is hard to beat.

peace, rest, tranquility....kinda.

I am finished work here.


AAAAAaaaaaahhhhhhhhh......

The lull before the storm.

It would seem more like that if it weren't St Joan.

Seems rather more like....hmm, the battle of Stalingrad.

um, what was I going to say?

Good news:  We're going to get money back on the taxes here!!!!

I got up at the wee small invigorating hour of 6:30 this morning to sort more papers, and got my reward tonight by burning the ones we don't need.

I'm all temporarily deaf again, due to ear wax I think.

We are part of the clan in some quarters it seems, locals, so to speak.,  We, totally by accident, went into our favourite local restaurant for lunch, REALLY late, because the electrician was at the house with the contractor till 3pm.  Went in half way STARVED, as I didn't get a snack at 11 today as I had to run to Eldest's school for her book list, that they don't hand out till the last day, when only the kids who have to resit exams to maybe pass them come....Eldest couldn't go, she was at the dentist's yesterday and had to get her mouth frozen.  Then she went to eat and took a big chaw out of her lip.  Big fat inflamed and nasty looking this morning.  Wow,  that was a run on sentence wasn't it.

Note to self, sleep more.

AnYWHOO

We went in there, and a BIG boo hoo  they are closing!!!!!  She's only worked there for 50 years...seems young no?

They took our photo, we wrote a letter, service was crazy slow, and it was a delight.  Seems we're regulars.

You know you're in Spain when your eleven year old comes home at 11pm.

Eldest says my posts are getting boring lately, supported by dropping readership and comments....sorry folks, crazy busy leads to crappy posts....what can I do.  I'll work on it, m'kay?

We had every. single. single. piece. of. paper they asked for the taxes.  Every last one.  I seem to be getting the hang of it now, bring everything you might need, and more.

Youngest is worried, because two of there three friends at school are going to switch schools next year.  UH OH.

I'm worried too.

Chuck isn't.  He doesn't get it.  He just knows his hip is itchy.

Good news from Eldest's school, her partial reading list....in Catalan, John Wyndam The Day of the Triffids, Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals and something else, I can't remember what.  In Spanish, Laura Esquivel's Con Agua per Chocolate, or Like Water for Chocolate.  Plus something else reputed to be dull.

I am in the midst or enrolling both kids in on-line English courses.....hope that works out well.

I seem to be destined to do five canvases a day on the weekend and none in the week.  :-(

Got a little hate on for the electrician who spray painted all over parts of my house that are NOT going to be painted.  I am not too happy at all.

We are thinking of letting the guys work on the house in August when we aren't there.  I am feeling antsy, especially after today's spray paint debacle.

Chuck now has an itchy neck.

Can you say stream of consciousness?  Seems I can.

I still can't hear out of my left ear either.

Chuck is sending me telepathic messages that I should drop everything and scratch his stomach.

Maybe I should.

Photos tomorrow, promise.

For our sins...

Now it's time for the Spanish taxes.

Wish us luck.  We're off to the 'gestor' tomorrow, the bag of papers I'm bringing is fixing to outweigh a small child.

Wish us luck, m'kay?