A long time coming........

So, I checked our blog the other day, only to find that it’s been almost five months since the last post – damn that’s shocking!

In those five months we’ve been seeing some places and having a load of fun: Cape Town (Josie’s been twice), Egypt and The Red Sea, San-Remo - Italy, Monaco and finally Andorra. Shit, I can’t believe I found time to do any work!!! Oh, talking about work, I ended up going to the UK three times in between as well!

In those five months Spain has won the Soccer World Cup, Summer has turned to Autumn, The Boks look a shadow of the side of 2007, and now it is Winter already. Time sure does fly.

So here goes it with the Blogs…….

A quick trip to the Emerald Isle...and Spain in the Final!

What a busy week! In between packing my bags for my holiday to Africa (okay, Cape Town - but Africa sounds more adventurous) and finishing off a heap of work, I was asked to travel to Dublin for meetings with our production facility in Ireland.

On Tuesday morning I boarded a plane and set off on my travels. The afternoon's meeting went well and we finally retired to the hotel bar to watch the semi-final of the Soccer World Cup between The Uruguay "Cheats" and the much fancied Kaas-Koppe (Netherlands). One of my colleagues, who was also attending the meetings in Dublin, is from Weert in the Nether-regions. So this was an important match for him. As the goals were scored, the Guinness was poured! Damn, the Guinness in Dublin is tasty! As we celebrated a the Dutch win we eventually found ourselves sampling the Irish whiskey and having deep meaningful discussions about the meaning of life and and the effects of the cosmos on the solar system and it's influence on global warming. Okay, we spoke a lot shit and I can't quite remember much of the discussion!

Wednesday was a long day with a high caffeine intake required. At the end of the day it was a successful series of meetings that will hopefully help drive down costs, reduce SKUs, blah, blah, blah!

But, the reason for today's blog was this...........

.....Fame at last! I need to complain to Air Lingus about the spelling though.

The only down side to my return flight was that I boarded the plane 10 minutes before the Spain vs. Germany kick-off, and landed 5 minutes from the final whistle. I ended up missing the entire game, but it was clear that Spain had made it to the final.

This was the scene at Ramblas near Plaça Catalunya where thousands of fans had gathered for the match. The atmosphere was absolutely electric.

Looking forward to watching the final on Sunday in Cape Town.

Weeeeeeeeeee......Mountain Biking in Sant Cugat

One of the beauties of living in Sant Cugat is it's location. We are a mere ten minute cycle from the start of some really great mountain biking trails. Well over a hundred kilometers of trails ranging from a leisurely stroll in the park to near damn impossible (impassable?) We generally choose something in between the two for our regular excursions up the mountain.















What the heck have I got myself into?

Steve and Rachel joined us for this ride.

A view from the top. Well, almost the top!

This way?............ Downhill?............... Please!.........

An old Monetary in the middle of the forest. There are actually a few of these around. Some are still functional and have services during various festivals.

All in all a fun day out on the mountain. A nice way to finish the weekend.

Down to the beach

It's been a month since the last post, time sure does fly past quickly!

The place we went to on the coast is called St Pol de Mar. We went on the train, it took us about an hour or so to get there. The weather was beautiful, definitely worth it. Also lovely to see a different part of Barcelona. I'm looking forward to doing more trips like that!

Drinks just outside the train station. After about 7 copa cavas each, we needed to find a place to lie down!

Then we walked around the town, so lovely!

And went to another beach for drinks:

All in all it was a great day, and we got home tired and happy, with a bit of sunburn!

Since then it has been work, work and more work. Sean actually going to work every day, and me sorting out our medical and such. As well as cleaning and ironing!!! Who would have thought! Then it was organizing tickets to SA and Egypt, which Sean has done. I leave for SA next Friday, 2 July 2010, Sean joins me on the 10th, and we are there until 3 August. We're both looking forward to our holiday. Lots of people to see and things to do! Then he has booked us a trip to the Red Sea for a diving live-aboard holiday in August. Very much looking forward to that. A very long holiday coming up for us now, one which Sean definitely needs.

It'll be great to see you all when we get there, so send us an email and we'll make a plan.

Madrid

So, I know that I have been a bit quiet lately, but I've had exams, so had to be diligent and study a lot. I wrote 4 exams over 3 weeks, and I had to go to Madrid for them. Write at the embassy! What a pain in travelling, not to mention the expense, and being away from my boy! But, it's over for now, so I am glad for that.

While I was there, I did take some pictures, as I walked around a lot in between exam writing and studying! Here are a few:
This is where I stayed...

Arc de Triomphe (seems like there's one in every town)

Painting and playing in the Jardine del Retiro

More park...

And just for Kai, because I thought of him at the time!

Oh, and this is where I really stayed, third floor, room in the corner, shared with another 13 people!

So, because there is NO studying this weekend, we have decided to do absolutely NOTHING! Pure awesomeness! We are going to go up the coast tomorrow though, and put our feet in the Med. Looking forward to that!

Till next time.

Out and about in Sant Cugat

We went out last night for a quiet evening, to the town hall for the wecoming of EU people to Sant Cugat by the mayor, dinner afterwards with Steve and Rachel. Nothing over the top was planned...
During dinner Rachel asked where there would be a Salsa club in Sant Cugat. Well, we were told that there is a karaoke bar! Because that's the same thing!!! So off we went...

Sean and Rachel having some fun along the way

After much searching, we finally found this karaoke place, which had a different decor theme going on.

We sat down to watch the others sing in Spanish. It was entertaining, until they asked us to choose a song!!! By this stage we had had 2 bottles of red wine, and we were on our third drink of the night, so we chose a song!!!

We chose a song for the boys too, but Steve chickened out!!!

All in all, I think a good night was had by everyone. It's not often anymore that I only get to bed at 3am!!!

Sometimes we go to France...

One of the reasons that we are excited to be living in Barcelona is the proximity to Europe. This past weekend was our first trip out of the country! We booked a car, Sean took Friday off work, and Thursday evening we were on our way to visit Lynne and Jeff in France! Left Barcelona at 19:30, and by 22:30 we were sitting round their table enjoying a glass of wine. Good times!

Lynne and Jeff have a farm in a town called St Paul de Fenouillet, near Perpignan, south France. A gorgeous flat attached to the cellar, and a beautiful vineyard just 5 minutes drive away...

Seriously lovely there. Anyway, St Paul is a really small town, the most popular place being this...

Sean and I laughed everytime, but Lynne and Jeff are used to it by now! The whole family of Pousses, would be great if they moved to SA!

Lynne took Sean and I up Gorge de Galamus on Friday morning. It's a church built into the rock. Worth it, for sure. We took the road along the Gorge back from dinner on Saturday night, narrow and winding, only two metres wide in places where the rock overhangs just above the car, it's quite something. Unfortuntely, I didn't get any pics of that, but we will have to go back sometime so that we can.

We drove around the area a lot, and saw a lot of small villages, which were lovely. This one was interesting, named Maury. It was raining, but the murals were fantastic.

There were a few odd attachments to some doors that we saw.

Also, there were Poppies everywhere...

And then there were picnics...

Where we had the delicious Domaine Grier bubbly!!! Looking forward to more of that sometime. All in all, it was a fantastic weekend, with great company! I look forward to many more! Thanks so much Lynne and Jeff.

A bit of our village...

Adjusting to this time is different. We might be on the same timeline as home, but it's 20:30 here, and Sean's not even home yet. OK, tonight is different, he goes to Spanish classes on a Monday, but the other days he get's home about 19:30/20:00. Still light though. This is a pic I took from our balcony at 20:30 the other night.

I'm really starting to enjoy it here, and getting into a routine. It's awesome. For serious.Our little village of Sant Cugat del Valles it so beautiful and we are living in such a gorgeous area that it's all worth it. This is a lovely sculpture coming into the village from our flat.

 Sean and I took a cycle into the village the other day and passed under this bridge:

Well, I thought it was pretty! On the way home it was dark, cos we stopped for a drink, as we do, and the path was lit up by the street light.

Well, I finally took the time yesterday evening to update our digital photoframe. Thanks Paverds! I think Sean's been looking at pictures of Chris for the last 3 months! I added a few (read: 400) of our holidays, diving pics and such. Nice to have our friends pop up every now and again!

Anyway, being the housewife that I am now, which is so weird, best I go prepare dinner for my hard-working husband! Chat to you all soon.