Stop the clash

Saturday night update

I spoke to Mike late last night for the first time since Saturday night (see last post) and apparently, although i still have no recollection whatsoever, we took the guitar and accordion on to the street and wailed some David Bowie and Leonard Cohen. We supposedly attracted a group of girls, but for the wrong reasons, they were trying to get us to stop for ruining the songs ...haha :)

Catalunya Argentina

It's 11am. I've just got in. I've no idea what happened last night.

Yesterday i picked Mike up and took him to the Camp Nou so he could experience it's delights before he returns to America next month. The game, the last of the season, was Catalunya versus Argentina. Xavi, Iniesta, Bojan, Puyol were all missing, as was Carlos Tevez for Argentina having won the Champions League final with Man Utd on Wednesday, because they were with the Spanish team preparing for Euro 2008. The game was more like a training session and the ground was pretty empty with just 42 thousand spectators but it was still one hell of an experience. The national pride shown was spine tingling, not just from the Catalans but also the Argies. I thought the Brazilians were quite something with their samba bands and carnivalities when I saw them at Wembley last year but the Argies were not to be eclipsed as they too fiesta-ed in their bands before, during and after the match. They were united yet split into two sections - one red and white (River Plate) and one yellow and blue (Boca Juniors), represented by tshirts, flags and UMBRELLAS (it as a beautifully sunny day!!). It was quite incredible to see the two parties divided by colour but united with national pride in such a way. I cannot imagine the same happening in England, say 5000 Chelsea fans all dressed in blue alongside 5000 red Manchester United fans cheering on the national team (let's leave out the happy carnival atmosphere as that would never happen!) - it would just result in red-faced, bloated-bellied fisticuffs.
Despite only being a third full the atmosphere was greater than I've sometimes experienced with a packed crowd watching Barca. The 'match' finished 1-0 to Argentina, Mike got to see the current number one team in the world and the best/second best (delete as appropriate) player in the world, Messi. (I'm still in no doubt...Ronaldo has had the benefit of the world shop window and the greater stage, but on the ball it really is no contest...and given Ronaldo's brilliance that's quite something eh.)

So after the football we went to Mike's house, via the shop for a big bottle of rum. We made some pasta and set about making music. The last thing i remember is wailing Starman accompanied by guitar and accordion. Then I woke up this morning on his sofa to find another guy sleeping under the table (not Mike!) and a burn on my thumb. Who knows, anyway I hope to find out more later but I have managed to successfully navigate my way home on a bike in the pouring rain, to an empty room with just a note from Rose saying she's worried sick and now at work..eeek.

campiiing

I finished my Spanish course yesterday. I am now a quarter of the way through the 'intermediate' level of Spanish (apparently!) I got home around 5pm and Rose and I decided to go on a brief camping excursion. We looked on google maps for a place not too far away (as she has to work tomorrow and thus we only had one night) but with some green-ness. We chose Garraf and wow what a choice! It was a place, only 30 minutes from Barca, with no shops, no tourists, only one bar (part of the village sports club which shut at 10pm) and beautiful views. As we searched for a suitable place to set up camp we were approached by a man who told us of a good place beneath a cliff looking out to the sea. He told us that everyone in the village knew each other and so there would be no problem with leaving our things lying around if we wanted to wonder off. He also told us about the fact that there were no shops and advised us to visit the next town to fill up on supplies. However it was getting late, around 9pm (with the last incoming train at 10pm), so we decided to just go to the solitary bar instead. With just the lady working and a tv for company we ordered beer, coffee and bocadillos, which she made fresh there and then. Rose then had the very good idea of ordering two more to be wrapped in tin foil for the following day.
After finding out more about the lady and Garraf we wondered to the point recommended by the man we met previously. It was dark. We walked through massive plants. It was quite scary. Then we came to a clearing, a shooting star cometted into the atmosphere and took 5 seconds to disintegrate. It was the biggest one I've ever seen, wide and long (and I stayed up to watch the meteor shower last summer so have seen some pretty big ones). We set up Rose's new tent for the first time (that's another story - the week before we had exchanged her old one for a more practical one at a sports shop, despite having used it!) in the dark below a cliff looking straight out at the sea. We then sat on the rocks and looked out. It then seemed as though seven hours had suddenly passed as we saw what looked like the sun rising on the horizon! We couldn't understand what was going on, then we realised it as the moon! It came up from the horizon, a deep orange glow, exactly as the sun does. It was quite magical.
The following morning we woke, spent more time on the rocks, then packed up and walked five minutes to the beach. We slept on the sand in the sun before setting off into the mountains. We only got to the foot of them before deciding we had neither the time nor the energy to explore properly so instead just checked out the village and returned home.
We are going to randomly pick places from the map to explore with the tent on a more regular basis now.

camping

It's May 3rd, the last few days here have been fiesta time for the 1st of May, so I went camping. 40 minutes up the coast on the train (for e2.60) to Arenys Del Mar - the birth town of Cesc Fabregas.

the eye of the storm

We've just said goodbye to Ruby, Bella and Aimee - Rose's two sisters and friend - having had a lovely week with them which flew by. We left the house in the darkness of 6.30am this morning and took them to the bus station where we bumped into Chris and Jenna, 2 of Rose's class mates from school! They were catching the same bus to the airport. We then wandered to a cafe and enjoyed a coffee and croissant while the sun rose. Now back at the flat the sun is fully up and shining brightly, we have a few hours to freshen up again before going back to the station to welcome Colin and Kp for the weekend. Tonight we're off to see the Shout Out Louds:

earth hour

a bit late to post this perhaps but we are just under 3 hours from earth hour

follow on...

to follow on from my post earlier today, please click and sign the petition in a stand for human rights
If Madeline Mccann's support fund website can reach 58 million hits in the first 2 days, then surely 1/58th of that can be reached here...!

Free Tibet or find Madeline?

I'd like to express some thoughts going round my head about what i can only see as an apathy in our society.

The issue of Tibetan suppression over the last 5 decades has hardly raised an eyebrow around the world beyond those few who genuinely follow the campaign and have found out for themselves the terrible issues that Tibetan people face and have faced daily for the last 49 years.
However, i don't blame the general public for not going and 'actively looking for problems with the world' -not many people would want to find problems. Fair enough, but that's not to say people don't react to problems, they do - just look at the Madeline Mccann issue. So why has an issue where 1000s of people are being tortured to death not received anywhere near the public hype that of one girl going missing?
-I think the answer is that people are not actually apathetic in their reaction to events, just ignorant, and through no fault for their own. The apathy lies with those that choose what to place on the public stage -be it the world media or governments.

I don't really know where I'm going with this - first I was going to write about how sad it is that it takes violence to finally bring the Tibetan issue into the public eye - how a race, one of the most peaceful on earth, has had to resort to violence (against the wishes of the Dalai Lama) as the only way to possibly bring about change to a regime under which they are forced to live their extremely suppressed lives.

The fact that this violence has finally made the world prick their ears up a little to what is going on is, i think, what I'm struggling to get my head round. Why was there no media attention before? Human beings were being tortured every day, still are...by a country holding the Olympics this year(!!!). Only now, when those being tortured finally go against their beliefs in order to fight back, do we hear about it.

I find it very hard to comprehend how a cause such as that of Madeline Mccann can not only create such mass hype but also mass support, when the torture and murder of innocent, peaceful human beings on a daily basis by a brutal dictatorship that rules by the greatest use of propaganda ever experienced (to the point where it is hard to distinguish it from the original 'Big Brother') only hits our screens when the oppressed fight back (after 49 years of trying to maintain their peaceful beliefs).
I find the balance between the two absolutely astonishing and, to be quite honest, disgraceful. Of course, I'm not suggesting for one second that I'm pro the kidnapping of young children. It is great that we can use 'people power' to make things happen, but we need some perspective.

Grrr, I'm really struggling to put across what i'm trying to say. Perhaps it's best just to copy and paste the email i sent that made me come and write here in the first place:

it's a shame that the only way to make things happen seems to be by the use of violence but it appears to be working.
at the end of the day, if short term violence and deaths brings to an end years of daily torture it may be worth it but it's just a shame that people don't pay attention to things that go on unless there is conflict. i think it's an absolute disgrace that the madeline mccann thing managed to gather the attention that it did. if half of that attention were focussed on the tibetan issue or similar ones then so much more could come of it!

I'm only going to heaven if it tastes like caramel.

Back again

Well...it's been a couple of weeks....sorry...some highs and lows in that time.
The major lows have been in mourning the loss of my great companion Dock. He had such a great time in his life on this planet and so my thoughts of him have all been happy ones but of course it's always sad to lose one who's been with you for most of your life. I'll never forget him.

Since then Tottenham lifted the Carling Cup...that was great ...i watched it in a pub with my new lillywhite friends...Chris, Zico, Adam, Neil, Marco, and one blue...Buster...ha how we laid into him :). It was a great afternoon. I waited to watch deadly Ledley lift the cup before bombing down to camp nou for Barcelona v Levante. By the time i got there the first half was almost over but i still managed to see 5 of the 6 goals in Barca's 5-1 thrashing of La Liga's whipping boys.

Celtic were in town this week too. It was horrible! Thousands of drunk Scots swarming the city. They were families walking the streets passing bottles of alcohol between themselves - from grandad to mum to dad to son aged 10...carnage!

We visited Park Guell last weekend. Ha that was quite funny - we got the metro then started walking and overshot the park by about a mile and ended up walking up a large hill on the outskirts of the city. It was really nice, there were very few people up there and we found a graffiti artist hang out at some ruined buildings at the top. We did make it to Park Guell later on. Rose had been before but it as my first time and it really is quite magnificent. Unfortunately we arrived too late for the museum so that will have to wait for another day.

Then yesterday our Bicing cards finally arrived and in celebration we took our first ride, an exhilerating one, to the sagrada familia as the sun was setting. See here to learn about the beauty of Bicing. ...and note also that since that article the Bicing empire has expanded rapidly and there are now over 3000 bicings in the city and 270 stations! So you can get from anywhere to anywhere in no time. In fact...right now i'm going to take the bicing for another little trip to see a bit more of what's around...adios!

day four no more

intensive learning day 4 = hit the first rock. having completed 5 weeks of the course in the first 3 days, i could take no more information in today. after one and a half hours of trying at the library I gave up and came home....then enjoyed a beautifully creamy and thick hot chocolate on my balcony in the warm sun!

Meanwhile top news in the city is that high speed trains have finally arrived here (last major city in Spain to be connected).
-Yesterday the first high speed train arrived from Madrid, 699km away in just 2 hours 45 mins!

A full article is here

intensive course day 2

My studying is going very nicely...better than according to plan.
I have had two disciplined days of learning 10am-5pm and managed to get 2 weeks worth of the book under my belt just today! So i am now '3 weeks' through the course after just two days. -And already I feel a better grip on the language.
I could actually feel my brain hurt at times ...a feeling I haven't had since school! Actual learning again! I can't wait for the end of next week when I will have got through the whole book.

More poo please / 2 week Spanish course

So it's true...you DO get good luck if you get pooped on by a bird.

Right now I'm on the bus on the way back from Zaragoza. It was a fun weekend with Steve and Rocio which started with some amazing chocolate con churros in a bar that was so packed that we couldn't get a seat, and that served nothing but chocolate and churros:

The weekend included two very tasty Thai curries (one prawn, one chicken) cooked by Steve, sightseeing, football and the usual giggles that come when in the company of the old boy. ...and my luck came, just when i was hoping for it:

I went along to Zaragoza's La Romareda stadium to see if i could get a cheapish ticket. Knowing that the cheapest official ones still being sold were €75 i didn't hold out a great deal of hope. The touts were offering between 70-80, as well as trying to sell me one fake ticket for €45. Fortunately i didn't fall for it. Then, like a ray of light on a grey day, a tall, well dressed, young guy came through the crowd. I spotted him approaching a tout and realised he was looking to sell a spare. They apparently offered him €20 to which he declined. Steve and I then prized him away from the touts, who were now offering a whopping €30, and asked how much he wanted. He asked for €60 and showed us the ticket - IT WAS FOR THE BEST SEATS IN THE HOUSE, worth €100! We kept with the tactic we had prepared for and practiced with the touts which was that I wasn't that bothered about the game and I only had €40 euros on me. The guy came down in increments of €5 until 'realising' that i really did only have €40 (although I had €55 in my wallet!) and sold me the ticket for our nice price of €40. What luck! When I got in I couldn't believe it, I was right behind the players tunnel on the halfway line. It was amazing. I was half of spitting distance from the players' benches, to Ronaldinho, Henry, Messi etc etc etc. I won't bore any non-football readers any more but for those interested my 'report' on the game (including the pictures and videos i took) is here.

For the next two weeks I have set myself up with an intensive Spanish course ...My OWN course! Using a 13 chapter Spanish book I am going to give myself 2 weeks of disciplined learning. I intend to have working hours of 10am-5pm with an hour lunch break in which I will complete one chapter per day in either the park and local cafes. I will start tomorrow, take Sundays off and thus complete the final chapter 2 weeks tomorrow. I'll continue with some web work in the evenings but won't worry about getting a job here until my course is complete. The fact that I'm living with Spanish speakers will really help I think as I'll be able to put each day's learning to the test every evening. I'm pretty excited about the prospect of being able to converse at a higher level in two weeks time.

Right, we're nearly back in Barca, I think I'll go and sit on my balcony when we get home in the hope of more presents from above...

Weekend trip

We had a great day yesterday - picnicing in the park and exploring more of the city.
We're off to Zaragoza today for the weekend to visit Steve and Rocio! Barcelona are playing there tomorrow night. Steve has a Zaragoza season ticket. Tickets are expensive but i'll see if i can use my new found bird poo luck to try to get one at a good price from a non professional tout (i.e. see if i can find someone who has a spare ticket for a friend who couldn't come and is just trying to make a little bit of money back on it!)
...whether i manage it or not will determine the truth of this bird poo luck myth...!
We'll be back Sunday night
xxx

good luck?!

i was just sitting on the balcony with my laptop.
a bird flew by and emptied his load onto me and the laptop.
apparently that's good luck.
hmm, i think i'd rather make my own luck thanks mr bird!

Little update on the latest goings on.
Friday we got our NIE numbers - allowing us to get work officially. So we'll be looking for jobs this coming week. Last night we went to see Datarock - see below. Today we had a picnic on Barceloneta beach then watched a funky latin street band on the way home.
Now it's 2am and I'm wide awake...I really need to sort out sleep pattern.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOCK!

The best dog in the world is 17 today! Happy birthday old boy :)

Gratis!

Brilliaaaaaaant
Tonight I'm going to tell you about the non stop free furniture market in Barcelona.
Basically each area of the city has it's own designated evening of the week where people can legally leave their unwanted household items on the street. These are then picked up by the local authorities and taken away at around midnight.
It might sound like it would just be old tat that's thrown out but a lot of the stuff thrown out isn't at all decrepit or useless. Quite a lot of it in fact you'd pay a fair bit for in antique shops in England -especially if you go to the richer areas on their designated night. ...So for around 4 hours before midnight, every day of the week, you can pick up some useful bits and pieces around the city.
Wednesday is the night for our area and, on my walk to watch the England game at my new local, i saw loads of good stuff being ousted. I rang Rose and got her to pick up a nice bedside table/drawer piece, and then on my way home found more delights in the shape of a lovely chair for our room and a sweet cocktail cabinet. Fortunately the cocktail cabinet was on wheels so i plonked the chair on top and wheeled it home.
Earlier this week we had been to Ikea to buy various things for our room. We'd already been told of the wonderous free markets so waited to see if we could pick anything up on the streets before buying furniture, and tonight we did exactly that!

In other news, despite my desire for an all English football 'team' to be inclusive of the manager, I can't help but like how Fabio Capello is going about the start of his reign. Here's my rather boring ratings for tonight's starting XI:
James 7
Brown 5
Ferdinand 6
Upson 6
A Cole 5
Bentley 9
Jenas 7
Barry 5
Gerrard 8
J Cole 8
Rooney 8

Finally. On our 16th day. We have rain!
For our first 13 days here the weather was incredible...pure sunshine and not a cloud in the sky. The 14th day brought a couple of clouds but mostly sunshine. And now, at 11.30pm on our 16th day, water has finally descended upon us.
We were thinking of going to the opening day of the carnival tonight, just as well we didn't. Instead we intend to go on Tuesday night to join the 1/4 million people dressed up on the beach of Sitges for the carnival's 'best night'.

Yesterday we moved into our new house. We slept in sleeping bags last night in a skeleton room and today we began decorating - we've painted the walls clean white so far and are intend to paint minimalistic colours on top. It's very exciting and we're very happy to be here. The people we're living with are all really nice and the location couldn't be better, as I previously described.

Last night we went to see Plastic Operator at Razzmatazz - a club that is basically 2 warehouses joined together and split into 5 main rooms as well as plenty of 'joining' rooms. It's MASSIVE! The band came on at 3am and we danced merrily along to their pretty melodies. On the way home (a 15 minute walk from Razzmatazz) we were hungry. Unlike kebab time in England that meant chocolate con churros time! -off to the 24hr hot chocolate and churros (sweet dough sausage style sticks deep fried and coated in sugar) stall - which is very conveniently on our route home. Next Friday it's Datarock and Alterego at the same venue - will be a bigger gig...sweeeeeeeet!

Not sure how i managed to write all that as I'm shattered right now. Early bed time... Hasta Mañana!

criticise me!

I am going to begin writing reports on the football matches i go to in the hope i might get to a standard of writing where I'll be able to submit articles to online magazines.
In order for me to be able to do this I thought I'd post my 'write ups' on here and ask people to critique my style. I would be very grateful of any feedback because I think the only way for me to realise any possible potential I may have is for me to receive constructive criticism from others. Cheers and here's my first:

Barcelona 1 - 0 Villareal

I'm going to make a bold suggestion, I'm going to put my head on the line and offer, in all sincerity, that Lionel Messi is God. So many people worship to a 'god': a creator of miracles, a healer, a supreme being, but what do they hold as evidence of supremacy for such worship? Belief? I believe, but I believe because I've seen. -Tonight. Tonight, with my own eyes I saw the miracle worker, the healer, the supreme being. Lionel Messi is, without doubt, the greatest talent on this planet.

Few magicians can deceive so many so called 'equals', on an even playing surface, so many times over. Few tap dancers can move their feet so quickly and few ballerinas with such grace. Few weavers can lace and intertwine their way so intricately through such tight (and mobile) gaps. And certainly no one person can do all of these in tandem, barring my Lord, Lionel Messi. And what makes me love him even more is his attitude. Players find it hard to get near him and when they do they often foul him, to which his response is nothing more than to get back onto his feet and get on with the game. There's no play acting with him, no complaining to the referee, just a shrug of the shoulders, a shake down and an eagerness to get the ball back at his feet. Brilliant.

At the final whistle of Barcelona's 1-0 Copa Del Rey Quarter Final win, Messi was one of 3 Barcelona forwards jubilantly walking off the pitch having given a masterclass, with exception only perhaps in the finishing, to a Villareal team lacking the quality that some of the names on their team sheet may previously have promised. The other two forwards, who before little Lionel's arrival, tussled for the accolade of World's Greatest, are but mere disciples to the boy wonder...and they know it. Ronaldinho Gaucho and Thierry Henry must wonder where this shining light has come from as they struggle to play alongside one another. No he's not from the skies or the outer limits boys, he's from Argentina and he is able to play alongside both of you!

So Ronaldinho beat Henry to that crown of world's greatest for two years running and in that time I would have told you that Ronaldinho was in the same class as the footballing kings Maradona and Pele. I have seen Maradona DVDs and I have seen Pele DVDs, and Ronaldinho at his best certainly is of very similar breed. Whether or not he recaptures his best will determine the length of his legacy. The Nou Camp crowd certainly hope he does. Eruptive chants of 'RONNIE RONNIE' as he came off the bench to warm up substantiated their belief in his ability. On the pitch, however, he was noticeably a little off the pace (perhaps inevitable of one returning from injury) but nevertheless didn't fail to provide a few little gifts of magic that epitomise his lore, especially when combining with His Holyness The Lionel Messi.

Barca had already secured the deciding goal on 41 minutes courtesy of a Thierry Henry header from a free kick won by Messi. It was a mazy, full pace run from his own half to win the free kick and make Pascal Cygan's name the first in the referee's book. No less than two minutes later Messi was at it again, and if the last one was mazy then this was jinking through a labyrinth of yellow shirts to be brought down only a few yards from the box by that man again. Cygan was off and Messi got up to take the free kick which was acrobatically turned round the corner by Villareal shot stopper, Diego Lopez. 'MESSI MESSI' (they're not the most original round here) was the chant at half time.

The second half saw much of the same as the first, except for Robert Pires who was sacrificed at half time to patch up the Cygan-less defence. Barcelona had the lion's share of possession and played some beautiful football but perhaps just lacked in a top quality finisher in the abundance of creators. The master creator, needless to say (though i take much pleasure in doing so again) being Lionel Messi, gave one reminder that he is actually human in the 76th minute by missing a penalty won by Bojan Krkic.

Of course only after a career can a player be truly judged but I do believe that Messi has been blessed with more talent than the 3 kings. My god is a mortal who doesn't walk on water but he makes me and thousands of others walk on air.