Late Summer

Summer is over, it's even been confirmed by our Guiringuito (attempt to transform our urban balcony into a beach bar). We're now officially in 'Edicion Otoño'.

Coast to Coast

Working on a bar for 10 days with my younger brother as supervisor was a slightly daunting prospect. It's been a good few years since my friend and I were tricked into working at a warehouse rave in Manchester. 

Culture Vultures and Free-Range Ponies

London can definitely look pretty good in summer, especially when you're only popping in for the odd day here and there and not having to deal with the hordes of tourists 24/7. It's impressive how slowly people can move whilst still seemingly in a massive panic and dead set on knocking you out with one well-timed rucksack swing. City living is cutthroat.

Country Life

The British Summer experience is definitely underway. Optimistic shorts and jumper (and often a raincoat) combo has been a staple, alongside afternoon tea and scones to keep warm and the odd unexpected day of beautiful sunshine.

Catching Up

Treated myself to British Airways ie not quite such a ordeal with the baggage allowance games at the airport.

1.  I'm back in the UK for summer. I'm using the word summer fairly loosely, or perhaps I should qualify it by saying 'British Summer' as I watch the drizzle outside. 

First Term Completed!

I seem to have survived my first term as a 'proper' teacher in Barcelona and I think the experience has definitely taught me a thing or two.

Escape Artists

We've been enjoying some well-deserved escapes from the hectic day to day life in Barcelona.

Christmas and New Years

Suddenly it was time to hop on the plane and head back to the UK for the first time in nearly 4 months. I had a hectic two weeks catching up with family and friends all over the country and very nearly had a white Christmas! After enduring freezing conditions and frosty decks on the boat we drove into snow up North.

Home Straight

Time has suddenly speeded up dramatically and it's nearly time to fly back for Christmas. Barcelona may have been ready for the festivities a good month ago but I'm catching up now with less than a week in Spain to go! Which basically means I've watched Love Actually and am now feeling fully prepared.

Thanksgiving

I attended my first ever Thanksgiving dinner this Sunday and it definitely didn't disappoint. We all brought different dishes pot-luck style and created a feast.

Making Waves and Human Towers

Smile and give the hard times the boot, life is marvellous.

The Teaching Begins...

You don't know what you're capable of until you try. Throw yourself in the pool!

City Ramblings

The weekend kicked off with 'quiet drinks' in the city which resulted in me getting the last night bus and arriving home at around 5am. 

Back To School

This week my CELTA course (teaching English as a foreign language) finally started and it was time to go back to school! As an aupair you are slightly in danger of feeling like an unfufilled housewife, without the benefit of them being your own children, running around after kids all day. So I was excited to feel more purposeful and productive. The host mum takes photos of Nana the dog in different costumes and assigns them mottos and sayings for her maths classes. I helped with a few new English ones and this one seemed appropriate for this week- time to take charge!

Happy Halloween!

Today's quote seems to be fairly relevant to living abroad and the challenges it provides: Although at times things don't turn out the way you hope, don't stop trying. Usually you won't end up chargrilled like this character and the trial and error is all part of the fun.

Autumn Arriving

The season is finally starting to change in Barcelona.

Sea Life

I've managed to go sailing! 

Visit from the Travelling Gourmet

Today's quote: Work, exert yourself and get stuck in-but above all, enjoy yourself as much as these dancing sunflower seeds.

The weekend started out with a nice catch-up drinks with the local aupairs in my town. The old part of town is picturesque and full of old stone buildings with coloured shutters and tumbling flowers. I'm not sure whether the giant plant pots installed in this stretch were intended to stop cars or just as decoration but it's always entertaining to find yourself caught up in a James Bond style dodging manouevre with a car on a narrow street with the pots adding to the fun. We've found a little bar in the square by the church where we can sit outside and enjoy cheap drinks. Unfortunately the low prices seem to mean even less motivation for the waiter who must have been close to running out of friends to phone by the time we left but at least the customers weren't getting in the way of him enjoying his Friday night.

I've been very privileged to recieve my second visit from the travelling gourmet! Naturally we met over lunch in Barcelona after a wander past the Arc de Triomf and through Parc de la Ciutadella in the sunshine.

Barcelona has a public 'pay as you go' bike system like London.

An electric car show was in action

Fountain in la Parc de la Ciutadella

I think I need to try this Vespa hire company

Lunch was a trip to Blue Project Foundation Cafe, a vegetarian experience specialising in raw food. The menu was a challenge as, despite being in English, there was a fair amount of new vocabulary needed in order to decipher the many ingredients necessary to create a 'Love Sandwich', 'Out of Space Salad', 'Magic Hummous' or a 'Live Sun Burger'. We managed to work our way through most of the menu and it was pretty educational and tasty, delivered in a suitably rustic setting.

Next stop: dessert! We may have already treated ourselves to a three course meal but it was all healthy with equally healthy portions (ie fairly small) so after a little walk some chocolate and churros was called for. La Xocolateria by Oriol Balaguer was definitely to place to go. We had a slight communication issue and thought our order of 8 churros (perfectly reasonable between 3 people) was being questioned when actually we had accidently ordered enough chocolate to keep a class-full of kids quiet for the foreseeable future. Challenge accepted, we got through a worrying amount of it. 

I should have got a better picture to demonstrate the scale!

I especially liked the tiled map on the wall depicting what we guessed would be different historical cocoa trade routes and the performance we were treated to with the 'make your own ice cream' option. The ice cream was flattened on a frozen chopping board and theatrically sprinkled with the chosen topping before being scooped up again. The frozen chopping board came into its own as the ice cream was left chilling for quite a while as travelling gourmet made up her mind.

Then time for a wander through El Born over to Mercat de Mercats Food Festival 2014. This took place just by the Cathedral and the ambitious name did live up to expecations. Just about every time of cuisine was represented and we had a great time grazing our way around. It became very atmospheric as night fell and the twinkling lights came on to light up the balloons flying from the stalls.

Cheeses in ice cream cones

Keeping the fan-weilding stereotype alive

On Sunday I met the travellers in Placa Reial in the centre, stopping for a quick dose of culture in a modern art gallery, before hopping on the metro to Poblenou for a stroll down the beach. Most of the residents seemed to be out and about playing sports. The more tanned the volleyball teams the better they seemed to be, I guess as a pretty direct correlation with time spent in the sun playing. 

Approaching Placa Reial

Placa Reial

I'm fairly sure this is an elephant

Never too young to take advantage of the outdoor gyms!

The unfortunate European love of speedoes was in full evidence at the volleyball

There was just enough time left to fit in a quick stop in a vintage market in La Ovella Negra (the black sheep). This is a large barn-like building housing a bar/restaurant that describes itself as a 'day and night experience'. They hold various events of which this market is one. I was a bit overwhelmed by all the selection on offer so opted to have a quick drink and walk through rather than sift through everything for some hidden gems. I would definitely return when I have the energy to hunt things down!