Post Holiday blues

Well, not really all that blue to be honest. Things are going well at our respective workplaces and life is feeling settled and more or less harmonious.

While I was on holiday my colleague Hayley worked the last weeks of her notice and flew off to Hong Kong to live her exciting life 6500 miles away! So now I'm following her fun blog called Hong Kong Hayley.

Also happening with our Blogtastic friends, our friend Hez moved to the Outer Hebrides with his wife Becky last year and there they live with their little baby girl Freya and Europe's stupidest greyhound. Well it turns out Hez, who describes himself as an aspiring writer but is rather more than aspiring, has his own blog where he's published his work so I'm bust catching up with that too It's called Cruel Harvest and I'm reading his latest work, The Casebook of Edmund Forrester. It's really good so far!

Technology is also helping us stay in touch with friends and family elsewhere through the wonderful world of Skype. We've been chatting with my cousin Laura in Madrid for the last few months and when I finally bought a little camera for the computer it opened up a whole new world! Since then I've caught up with Gemma Pardo in Barcelona and most recently with Nausheen in New York. It's been marvellous, my heart leaps to think that they feel so near when usually they feel so far away!

Me, obviously

Gemma P

Laura y Erik

Nausheen

A couple of weeks ago we went to ArtsFest with Leon and Teresa; A free annual festival of arts held in Centenary Square in the heart of the city which includes comedians, bands, dance, orchestras, artists and singers. It was brilliant; we saw a solo pianist, a rock band, a brass band, a funk/soul band at the Yardbird, a dj, some short films and the opera and classical concert at the end. We visited stalls, eat an ostrich burger and an icecream, and there was absolutely masses that we didn't see. Was gutted to miss the ballet and the theatre and got lost trying to find the poetry in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, but wound up seeing the Stafforshire Hoard instead! All in all it was brill.

Planning a trip to London with them next - so many things to see and do before they go to live in New Zealand next year - we'll miss them so much!

Finally, at the bottom of our garden today 3 tree surgeons are attacking the trees with some ferocity - visit the blog to find out how it went!

Summer holiday

It was a couple of weeks later that we headed off for a very long overdue holiday. Chicken soup for the soul. We were so knacked that I felt we were virtually dragging our feet through life and it was a real relief to get away.

Click here to see holiday photos

We spent the first 5 days in Cubelles and the last 4 in Barcelona, flying in and out of Reus airport (otherwise known as the chicken coop). We are lucky enough to stay in Cubelles thanks to the generosity of my tiets, my uncle Ramón and aunt Teresa in Igualada, Catalunya, about 2 hours away.

We love the place. It has almost no Brits, not a single translated menu, everything is in Catalan first, it's quiet, peaceful, family friendly and basically everyone in every direction is chilled out and happy. I've never once seen a policeman, or a fight, or a disturbance, or any kind of semi-impolite behaviour (except the old ladies who don't wait to be served in the queue for fresh bread at the bakery - but then that hardly counts). The kids are all out with their parents and family friends and uncles and aunts, and like I was 20 years ago they're just excited about the prospect of being allowed to stay up late and get an icecream after dinner.

We spent every day on the beach, Alex under his two parasols, the biggest variety being varying the time we spent on the beach. One day it was the afternoon, another day it was the morning and afternoon with a siesta back at the flat in between, another time it was all day with a packed lunch on the beach... The biggest difficulty of each day consisted in deciding which beach accessory to take and who would carry the cool bag. Life slowed down to Cubelles pace... just thinking about it makes me happy.

On the beach

We wandered across the river to discover a whole new section of the town that can only have been built in the last few years. Thank God the authorities are keeping to their original rule - no more than 4 storeys. One day as we walked along the new Paseo at around 8pm there was a table of yound girls, around 11, selling home made bracelets. Alex bought me one for a euro and the girls were so excited (they were only asking for 35 cents each) that we got an excited cheer as we walked away. They were so sweet! Points for being motivated enough to get together too, I hope they sold lots more.

Basically, we eat like kings, slept peacefully (even though Alex's feet hang off the end of the short bed) and felt fully relaxed by the time we arrived in Barcelona.

I was particularly excited to stay in Barcelona because I had never stayed in the city before, and even though I'd seen it on endless day trips I didn't really understand the geography of the city. Alex had his reservations but was willing to have a few days there and try it out. He wasn't sure he'd like it as much as Madrid. It's true, our visit to Madrid had been difficult to beat. We had enjoyed Amsterdam but not as much as the Spanish capital and even I had mu doubts. I'm happy to report it was ACE!

We had a wonderful time walking round, exploring the Barri Gotic, la Rivera, la Ciutat Vella. Neus and Edu came to visit us andgave us a guided tour and we also went for a drink and a meal together. It was fantastic to see them. And then Gemma P and husband Fran also popped in to say hello.

Edu Neus me and Alex

Fran Gemma me and Alex

The photos taken of us are taken on the hotel's roof - we had a bar and a swimming pool. I was a very happy girl. I must say I tried to make the most of it. I spent a few hours on a couple of afternoons sat by the pool danging my legs in the water and reading a book. I read 4 books in 9 days; Sense and Sensibility, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The White Queen by Philippa Gregory. I loved it!

Tinc que dir les gracies per les esforços de la meva familia, L'Edu i la Neus, La Gemma i Fran, i sobretot els meus tiets amats per ajudeu-nos tenir unes vacances moltíssim relaxants i feliços. Van ser estupendes. L'Alex i jo estem sempre pensant dels nostres vacances catalans i sempre tenim anims per un altra cop! Cada any que tenim que decidir-nos on anar ens encontrem sense poder pensar d'un altra destinació on estarem tan felices. Es com estar a casa un altre vegada, i jo sempre tindre la sensació de ser una catalana, encara si es una Catalana sense manera de parlar catalan...

Van ser vacances estupendes - They were wonderful holidays!

August-September

Well I say, it's been a bit of a while since I last updated but it's been a busy old time and we've had lots of fun. So here we go.

I got back from Gemma Pardo's wedding and 2 weeks later we went to Bath for the wedding of my old uni flat mate Hannah and her lovely fiancee Jonathan. Theirs has been a real love story and it was a huge pleasure to see them get hitched. The wedding was entirely them, thit is to say it felt completely unique to them. Jonathan lives in Bath which is where Hannah and her two boys have now moved to and the wedding was in a beautiful little church in Upper Swainswick, overlooking Bath and the beautiful surrounding countryside. (Click for a link to this beautiful little church).

The ceremony was done very sensitively by a lovely priest (Valerie Howes) who proved that a church wedding can be joyful, glorious and all without thrusting religion down everyone's throats.

The bride had been brought up the steep hill from Bath in one of the groom's 'fleet' of 6 ancient, semi-decrepit Citroens, and after the photos and the obligatory confetti attack of the happy couple they drove away with a bang back down the hill in the direction of Bath and Jonathan's house. All the congregation followed and congregated again in the open plan setting of the Reeves' new home where Jonathan's nephew and his friends were very professionally dolling out canapes and seemingly endless glasses of champaign. Everyone milled, mingled, and munched until the ushers carried out another of their duties and began to sweep us all out out of the house and towards the little village hall. Myself and Alex walked with the bride and groom and Jack and Oscar (the real best men) to help steer the boys in a roughly straight line and away from the park amid calls of 'Can we go play mummy...?

Hannah, looked an absolutely stunning bride, and all the more for at least appearing sunny and relaxed even while juggling her guests, sons and a dozen other considerations. Jonathan was exactly himself, in a suit, happy, relaxed, floppy haired and delighted with his bride.

Click here for Wedding photos

Laughing at the Best Man's speech

Myself and my friend Sam had travelled up the evening before and we'd helped prepare the village hall and then made the most of the evening by visiting Bath. We'd taken in the sights and eaten out and it was really good. Alex, poor love, had had to work and he joined us at the University halls of residence where we'd elected to stay, literally 15 minutes before we were due to go to the church. The hall was light and airy and quite cute, we all sat down to a curry and then Jonathan endured a ribbing to end all others by his Best Man. The speech was lengthy, but I was too busy laughing to count how long it went on for.

After the puddings came the music and the dancing and it was midnight before were turfed out, somewhat worse the wear thanks to a free bar.

It was an emotional, but beautiful day