Mountains, munchies and multicultural gaming

Dear Sam,

I'm on a roll - It's less than a decade since my last post on here and I'm already writing another one! So "What's been happening in sunny (and yes, it is still sunny!) Sabadell?" I hear you ask...well this...

Where's Watery?

I woke up early Sunday morning with my mind on the mountains; Sabadell is surounded by a kind of mini mountain range and so I made it my business to go and get all up amongst it. I packed my back - crisps and hobby paraphernalia included, and set off for the mountains...Gandalf! I want to see mountains again....oops, sorry that was Bilbo.

There it is!

Anyway, I made my way past the water tower, which seems to be the one and only tourist attraction in Sabadell, according to the locals that I've spoken to, and on into the tree covered, red dirt-laden hills that huddled around my city.

At first I was just following the main road and trying not to get mown down by the myriad of cyclists that seemed to keep popping up on their morning flurry around the countryside, but I soon came to a small drit road leading off the main road and headed down into the scrub and what looked remarkably like bamboo, certainly reedy style plants of some variety. The track wound higher and higher as I was passed in both directions by cyclists and runners sporting various levels of fatigue-face. I'm fairly sure that one of them had already had a heart attack but just hadn't noticed and so on they 'ran'.

I'm late...I'm late...

It was incredible to get out of the city and back to a bit of green (and at times, ochre, yellow, blue and brown - you know, nature type colours...). I came across a couple of old-looking buildings, gradually making their way from being places to live into becoming impromptu plant pots for the local vegetation and then turned left onto a dirt road that looked like it had been made by a tractor which had tripped over its own shoelaces and wound down into a cool leafy valley type arrangement as I made my way towards Pedra Santa, a place to which I did not end up going...almost on purpose...


While trundling down this leafy boulevard I happened on an almost track leading of in what looked like a very Alice in Wonderlandy direction and so obviously had no choice but to follow it. This led to a scramble around the hillside, lunch on a tree-stump next to a castle and an eventual 25km total circuit before heading home to meet my friends for homemade dumplings and a game of Los Colonos de Catán...I'd tell you more but I'll let the snaps do the talking.

Barcelona Nights and Sabadell Days

Dear Sam,

I can officially say I've had a Barcelona night out! Settle in and I'll tell you all about it...

I headed into Plaça Catalunya and met up with Felicity, one of the other new teachers from FIAC and self-professed owner of absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever, with the goal of going to the Asian Cinema festival and getting up to my elbows in some culture. We had a bit of a wander and found ourselves by the Arco de Trionfo, shortly before completely failing to go and see and Asian films...we did, however make it to the Chinese supermarket, where I bought some oyster sauce, fish sauce, Sichuan pepper and (here I got a bit excited) the iced tea that I used to drink in Shanghai.

From there we headed to meet up with Nuria, another fellow newbie and generally lovely person, for dinner - a Vietnamese affair, consisting of rice noodles which featured onions that had clearly been soaked in angel's tears or something equally heavenly as they were de-freakin-licious! For afters we shared a chocolate mousse with mango coulis, which was so rich it would have made Bill Gates blush.

After this second very Asian but in no way film related event, we headed to meet some of Nuria's friends at a club to celebrate somebody or other's birthday...by grinding about in a basement to system of a down, the who and something rappy...let's say the music was mixed...

Fortunately my worries about to get back to Sabadell were allayed as we passed the 5am mark, meaning I could take the morning service train home, crossing the morning commute on its way past. I arrived at Sabadell estacio and got home and into bed just as my alarm went off to tell me I should be getting up. Needless to say I did the techno version of telling it so sod off and slept until 1pm that afternoon. The sky looked blood nice though!

 My sunday wasn't a lost cause though; through the fog of not much sleep and too much beer (and a bit of honey rum, which is, by the way, insanely tasty) I managed to summon up the energy to make DaoXiaoMian - my favourite type of noodles...FROM MOTHERFLIPPING SCRATCH!

Smashed it!

Getting round to it...

Dear Sam,

Much like my time in China, living in Spain (or Catalunya!) has been fruitful in a variety of ways; none of them related to writing my blog. Despite that face that I only work evenings, I just haven't got round to it. However, now I'm back!

Quick updates: My flat is fantastic and I've colour-coordinated it to within an inch of its life. I also been reliving the glory days of China by making dumplings from scratch for my housemate and me - why ever not? I've been a skeleton butler-type dude for Halloween at school - scaring teenagers becomes me it seems. Oh, and just because I'm me, I've bought another musical instrument....it's a Cajon AKA box drum...be careful when asking for more than one as cajones sounds a lot like something else in Spanish...put it this way asking for more than one would be a ballsy request...

Planes, trains and matriarchs...

Dear Sam,
 
I have successfully infiltrated Catalonia (not 
Spain; the difference has been explained to me several times...at 
length...with no small degree of passion) and I don't think anyone 
suspects a thing:
 
My journey begins just as my sister's wedding 
ends. Having donned the tweed waistcoat of the 'Dave of honour' in the 
ceremony and successfully obtained a brother-in-law, lovingly known as 
'brolo', I turn my sights towards Europe. That is to say proper Europe, 
the one with all the fashion sense and accents and such. First stop is 
the train from York to London, via a bacon sandwich, and then the 
Eurostar to Paris, braided plastic chairs, red wine and cigarettes. 
Admittedly missing the Eurostar delays me somewhat but all is well once 
tickets are rearranged and cousins are told to stop badmouthing the 
staff, who are explaining very pointedly that they are only trying to 
help.
 
Paris is, as expected, well up to the task of delivering a
 small café with chairs on the pavement, in prime position to watch the 
fashion show that is Parisians on the move, while enjoying a glass of 
wine.
 
Woken by my alarm, I unfurl myself from the sofa bed and 
fall into and back out of the shower and put my body roughly in the 
vicinity of some clothing - taxi drivers are not so kindly disposed to 
nude fares after all.
 
At the airport, and fully clothed, I 
discover the I'm overweight, or at least my luggage is. 3kg to the tune 
of €35. Fortunately a combination of smiling sweetly and looking 
confused seem to be the housewife's remedy to extra charges and I get 
away Scott free. Emphasis on the free.
 
My first impressions of 
Barcelona are that it is an airport. As that is all I see of it before 
boarding my train I order to arrive at work a few hours later. As luck 
would have it I meet a Senegalese chap (people should say chap more) who
 needs help figuring out how to get to the north station in Barcelona. I
 have no idea and ask a family who seem local and the aforementioned 
chap and I are immediately taken under the wing.
 
I say bye bye 
to Bay Baye Sene as he is shooed off in the direction of his train by 
the mother hen and then make my way with the brood to the train for 
Sabadell amidst ernest warnings of 'Cuidado! Cuidado!' and vehement 
gesturing to my pockets. The  thieves like train stations apparently. I 
meet none, a several and arrive in Sabadell just in time to get 
completely lost in a maze of small streets...

(N.B. Not having had access to WiFi for the last fortnight, this is not 

exactly breaking news...I'm writing from the climbing wall as it is...

more to come...eventually...)