When in Spain...

Today's little quote comes from a visually impaired mole: Change your way of looking at things and the things you see will change.

Living abroad provides plenty of opportunities to see a different take on life, or more frequently in my case, opportunities for misunderstandings and feeling slightly out of the loop. However I'm definitely adjusting to life out here and in the areas where I have yet to get my head around things I like to think the entertainment value is usually pretty high for everyone involved.

Its a great look-working it

I think I'm getting the hang of the gym after the initial 'swimming cap incident' and have been gradually acquiring all the kit that is deemed necessary for an expedition, including flip flops purely to make it from the changing room to the pool. I have drawn the line at buying myself some flippers- the favourite tools of fairly unfit looking people to zoom past me and make me feel inadequate until I see the tell tale plastic fins. I am tempted but if I had any more to take with me I would need to treat myself to one of the little trolleys everyone uses for the supermarket run here. Spain hasn't limited itself to the tartan jobs we see in the UK but has branched out to some pretty rugged all-terrain ones to deal with every eventuality and men and women sport them with pride. I have been a bit baffled by the supermarkets and recently had to do a few laps to hunt down some moisturiser before finding it inexplicably hiding in a locked cabinet whilst more expensive and dangerous items like alcohol and razors roamed free. These long trips have lead me to discover chocolate covered Oreos which is brilliant.

I've found the town's churros van

High security moisturiser cabinet

I have been sampling some classes at the gym. I thought Pilates would be a good introduction, not too fast paced or likely to have loud music. I joined a class of mostly retired (the class was in the morning) ladies attempting to balance on inflatable exercise balls. I was hoping to keep a low profile but was immediately collared by a lady who was convinced I had been to a friend of her's wedding. I had a nice chat with her and she immediately demanded the instructor kept an eye out for me in case I got myself into difficulties. We then all had to go through the rigmarole to attempting to say 'Hilary', not a name that agrees well with the Spanish population. I then had a very entertaining hour watching people fall off their balls and constantly bicker at the teacher that the exercises were too challenging or demanding acknowledgement when they successfully managed to do one. The instructor didn't have a particularly great sense of humour and often got a bit catty with Señora X or Y's whining which made it even funnier. After the confidence boost of Pilates I've risked Spinning which was both fast paced and with loud music, and an instructor who frequently slipped into Catalan without realising. 

I'm still being kept on my toes with meals. In terms of the late meal times I'm acclimatising (also known as snacking when it gets to 7pm and I'm starving) but I'm less on the ball with the Spanish disposition to eat all their food separately. It means you can be presented with a plate of green beans or spinach for dinner, inwardly panic and eat as much as possible, and then the main event will magically appear as a second course. I get strange looks from the grandparents every lunch time for mixing my greens and meat. I was charged with making the boy's birthday cake and went for lemon drizzle jazzed up with sprinkles.The supermarkets nearly tripped me up again as I had to do a last minute dash for icing sugar but found it in the third supermarket. Apparently a niche item over here. It went down well!

My masterpiece

I stumbled across an amazing invention this week-what appears to be a high-tech (most things are high-tech to me) ironing robot. You put the shirt on the robot, he vibrates and somehow magically the shirt becomes crease free. 

So I've been here for a nearly a month and I think I am, as the mole advises, changing the way I see some things so that I'm taking the differences in life here more in my stride or just continuing to find them hilarious or baffling. All of which are working so far! Despite some very impressive thunderstorms it's still warm here and for a 'tough Brit' (who in reality is pretty pathetic about the cold) it's still beach weather. So all is well!

Barcelona city from across the water