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Archive for the ‘holidays’ Category

20051226 Christmas Holidays, day 3: stay!

On this third day I have just made simple things. One has been throwing old items to the bin. Luckily for the level64 guys, I have found some 5.25" floppy disks and rigid boxes and I will bring that stuff to Barcelona this week, so AMB can forward it to Almighty God. It's wonderful to see that material being used! My best wishes to level64 crew :)

I also have been doing nothing and idling around. Basically I sitted in the balcony and enjoyed the good weather (13 degrees). Ok, it's not enough for dressing just a bikini but it's very warm in comparison to the -4 degrees that London has been experiencing past days.

Finally, I wrote about what I did yesterday, as I suppose you have seen.

Christmas Holidays, day 2: an abandoned granary

abandoned granary

On the second day I went to do some photographic exploration in the countryside. I found an interesting semi-derelict building. I thought it was completely abandoned but when I came inside I discovered it wasn't like that. Anyway, I continued taking pictures of everything that seemed interesting and then ran away as fast as I could. In any case, it was difficult to be "caught" as it was 25th of december and people stay home with their families instead of going outside to enjoy that glorius sun.

Curiously, I tried to make these pictures long time ago, but when I arrived there I found to my surprise that I didn't had batteries in my camera, so I couldn't take any picture. Luckily this time it was different, and I was able to shoot more than 90 pictures! :-)

20051224 Christmas Holidays, day 1: white christmas… in the pyrenées only

pirineos

Ok, so I finally arrived to Spain, after loooooong queues at Gatwick Airport (just three open desks for checking for Berlin, Belfast, Geneva, Madrid and Valencia… doesn't sound good!). Then almost an hour of delay -including the weird travel we made from the South Terminal to the North one, then more delays for getting my suitcase at Valencia. Seems like they didn't empty completely the tape from suitcases belonging to the previous flight. So they had to remove first all the remaining ones before allowing ours to enter the building. And gosh! they didn't look like working.

Also, the supposed to be automatic door didn't work properly. Someone had to force the door with a screwer.

This kind of things makes me feel ashamed of being spanish. And I didn't even try to go to the toilets. I didn't want to be welcomed with the characteristic unpleasant smell of spanish public toilets.

Then we had to walk a long path to arrive to our car. As you should know if you are willing to travel to Spain, there is a high probability of finding construction works wherever you go. These works usually are quite annoying and are very badly signalled, as in this case. They were refurbishing the parking and it was quite complicated to get to and from it, specially if you go with big luggage items.

Anyway, we managed to go out from there and find our path (a bit of femenine intuition and common sense works wonders!) through the motorway, and finally arrived home.

This evening we had a little walk around to have a look at the city and see how it changed since last time I was there (it's been almost a year since then). They have demolished lots of buildings (people doesn't refurbish things in Spain, they destroy everything and then start from scratch) and have even built a SUPER UGLY shopping center. It should have been called the Cement Delight - imagine a big mass of grey cement without any aesthethic taste in its shape, which doesn't look like agile but as a "big something", stuck in the middle of a neighbourhood, without any relationship with the decorations of surrounding buildings.

I really hate that contrast each time I come back to Spain. It's really disgusting. Each time you come back, you find there's something else which has been removed from your personal history. That building which had a nice icecream shop where you treated yourself on summer, has been demolished. That garden where you played, has been replaced by a public parking. And the list could continue forever. Of course nothing is forever but we really don't need to destroy all our memories, do we?

Anyway, time to go bed. I just slept like 4 hours today and am really tired!


20051201 Es demasiado pronto

No sé qué sentido del tiempo tengo, pero me da la impresión de que el resto del mundo está en una dimensión diferente a la mía, donde el tiempo transcurre más lentamente que para mí.

Y lo digo porque he estado avisando a gente de que voy a estar en España estas navidades, para que luego no vengan con la excusa, ya tantas veces escuchada, de que no pueden quedar cuando bajo porque ya han hecho planes, y ahora me dicen que ya me confirmarán, porque ahora es demasiado pronto.

¿Pronto es un mes del cual se trabajan dos semanas en España? ¡Pero si para mí hace nada aún era septiembre!

Luego es cuando llega la semana antes y llamas y te dicen, oh, pero ya hemos quedado para ir a N (donde N puede ser desde un Zara, a tomar café con la prima de la amiga de la hermana de no sé quién). Y tu piensas que al Zara pueden ir en cualquier momento, y que la prima esa, aparte de ser una insulsa, la tienen ahí al lado todo el año.

A lo que quiero ir a parar es a que, encima de que te tomas la molestia de avisar y tal (cuando lo lógico sería que la gente fuera detrás de tí y te preguntara impacientada si vas a volver porque tienen muchas ganas de verte por navidad, sobre todo después de dar tanto por saco con que te has dejado la millor terreta del món para irte ahí arriba con los hijos de la Gran Bretaña), o no muestran el menor interés, o directamente no hacen acto de presencia, o ni te llaman para disculparse por las razones anteriores.

Todo esto, teniendo en cuenta que si bien es más fácil viajar ahora que antaño, sigue siendo un coñazo bajar a España: levántate pronto para coger el avión y no perder un día entero por coger el avión a mediodía, coge el tren o el autobús para ir al aeropuerto, factura, pasa los controles, espérate a que anuncien tu avión, sigue las flechas, busca un asiento, deja tu equipaje de mano, haz caso a la azafata, espérate dos horas como mínimo (2:30 si vas a Valencia), sal del avión, recorre pasillos, presenta tu pasaporte, recoge la maleta, busca un taxi o tren o bus para ir a la ciudad…

Puntos extra de coñazo si vas a Valencia, porque el avión tarda más y los taxistas parece que han salido de la Escuela de Taxis Pepe, donde no se saben el callejero y tienes que guiarles tú (aunque ni te acuerdes de las calles ya).

Vamos, que no es como coger un tren de Cercanías y plantarse en el pueblo. Y parece que no se valore en absoluto.

La verdad es que sienta bastante mal y da muy mala impresión. Después de esos feos que la gente hace, siento la irremediable obligación moral de no hablarles nunca más, pero como no soy rencorosa se me pasa y se me olvida. Pero todo tiene un límite, y yo estoy demasiado ocupada como para perseguir a personas ocupadillas… (también conocido como ¡que os den!)

20051130 christmas tour

So here are the dates!!

  • 24 dec london -> valencia
  • 29 dec valencia -> barcelona
  • 02 jan barcelona -> valencia
  • 08 jan valencia -> london

Plenty of time for seeing old friends, relaxing, tourism, and doing nothing too…