Catching up!

It's been a quite a while since the last post, but a lot has happened. Here's the rest of what we did in 2012, just to bring us up to date! ;)

In June 2012, we went down to visit Craig and Carol in Sant Carles de la Rapita. They had just arrived back, and we went to go see them before they left to explore the rest of the Med! What a lovely weekend we had.

In July, we went to Marbella to join Sam, Roz and family for a few days of their holiday. Such a beautiful place and such fun we had! Many sangrias and mojito's were drunk! We also got a dive in, which was our first dive in Spain.

In August 2012, we went camping in L'estartit, which is just up the coast. We went on two dives in a marine reserve, which were really awesome! We'll definately go back there!

End of August, I had Smiley and Mich come visit! What a load of fun. We went out and painted the town RED! We hadn't been together since school days! Such a good weekend.

11 September is Catalonia day, so we decided to take advantage of the good weather, and went to the beach!

Toby and Meris were in Barcelona at the end of September. We went to visit them where they were staying, and had such a fun day with them and playing with the kids on the beach!

The last weekend of September was the La Merce festival, which we went into Barcelona for and met a bunch of really awesome people through a friend who was staying with us. Fun party weekend!

October was study, study, study time again! Hopefully for the last time for this degree! We kept quiet, Sean did a lot of work and I hit the books big time. Went to Madrid for exams, 4 over the period of one week, but got them all done and dusted quickly.

November was quiet as well, no skiable snow yet. We carried on as usual!

December, we finally got some skiing in! Always awesome to go over the long weekend of Sean's birthday. But skiing two days in a row is quite tiring for beginners like us! We were completely pooped! Was worth it though, had such a great time.


We left for SA on the 19th of December, and didn't stop partying until we got back in January!!! We managed to get to my brother's 21st in Port Elizabeth, which was awesome. Saw so many friends and family that we haven't seen for ages. Spent 4 days up at Theewaterskloof Dam sailing and camping. So awesome catching up and seeing everyone, but we left needing a rest!!!

Beginning of summer with visitors

Craig and Carol stayed with us for one night before they went back to their boat. Was fantastic seeing them again, and we discussed going to visit them soon.

Lexi and Guy came to visit in May as well. they stayed for a week, but spent a few of those nights in Sitges. We joined them there for one of the days on the weekend and spent it on the beach swimming. And obviously going for lunch and drinks!

There was a public holiday, so all four of us went to Montserrat on the Monday. The other days in Barcelona I went with them to Montjuic, otherwise they explored Barcelona by themselves.

Seems they really enjoyed it here, and we enjoyed having them to stay!

Winter draws to an end...

We went skiing a few more times while there was still snow. We've really got hooked onto the sport, and are feeling confident with our abilities.


In May, we went to France to visit Lynne and Jeff. Was great to see them, and the weather was better than before, although we still braaied in the rain! Spent the weekend walking, picnicking and drinking! Fantastic!

We ended up coming home with a case of wine again - delicious wine!!! We need to go again soon to stock up our Domaine Grier collection, as it's been depleted!

London together

We went to London in March to see Seether open for 3 Doors Down! Fantastic concert, although a little shocking that that was our first live concert since we've moved over here! 

Spent some time with family while we where there...

Spanish Winelands

In March, Jackie came to visit. First of my school friends, which was very special. She only had the weekend free from work, so arrived on the Friday and left on the Sunday. Therefore, we had to make the most of it! Saturday we took a trip to the Penedes region, and went to Torres wine farm and Freixenet Cava, where we had a tour and tast. Lots of fun to do and to experience how different it is from tasting in Cape Town. Very beautiful area to drive through, and it was a lovely sunny day to do it.

Sunday we went into Barcelona and walked around looking at the sights. Found a random place for lunch, where Jackie and I drank way to much Sangria! Good think sean offered to drive to the airport!!!

New friends

The beginning of 2012 was a good start to the year. I got a call from a friend of a friend of a colleague of Sean's, asking if I would be interested in doing an intercambio with a friend of hers. I was definately keen, so I met up with this girl, Judith, and we've become great friends. She introduced us to her friends, and we started playing basketball with them - not that Sean and I are good at it at all, but it's all just for fun. We've been out with this crowd a few times, and it's great to have made some Spanish friends finally.

I've made contact with two other people with whom I've been doing an intercambio as well. Great people, and I really feel that my Spanish is improving because of it!

Skiing with the King (kind of)

Once we were back in Barcelona, we were itching to go skiing again. Sean's friend, Steve, wanted to go up to Baqueira/Beret the last weekend in January, and we definately did not say no to joining him!!! Really beautiful place, I can definately see why the King of Spain goes there to ski! It's a four hour drive, so we went up for the weekend. Worth it! Best skiing I'd had thus far.

The rest of 2011...

The last bit of 2011 was not all that interesting. Except for going to Geneva for Samantha's birthday. Sam picked us up from the airport and we stayed with her, which was lovely. She took us everywhere, in between organising her party! We went to a winter market, had a fondue, drank Gluwhein! Everything you want to do when in Switzerland! We're thining of going back sometime, and fitting in some skiing as well!

Back in Barcelona, as soon as there was snow, we went skiing, just to make sure my leg was good! It went well, and my ski's came off when I fell, which was great news!!!

Then it was Cape Town for the holidays! We really enjoyed that. Sean needed the break. We managed to get a dive in, which is what we really wanted to do! We spent great time with family and friends. Really special spending time with people when you don't see them that often!


It was fantastic spending time in Richard and Bee's new bar - the boys made some pink drinks.

We stayed with George and Corrianne and it was great coming home and then joining them in the bar for a few more drinks!

It really is great to get back to SA every year!

CRAZY EDDIE

Every year there is a conference for the International Federation of Essential oils & Aroma Trades (IFEAT). In 2011, this conference took place in Barcelona. This was a great time for Ed to see a few people and come and stay with us.

He arrived on a Thursday, and he & I took the bikes into Sant Cugat for a look around and a cup of coffee. We came back to cook dinner and get settled, get Ed used to the place, as he was going to be staying for 3 weeks.

Friday morning we went down to get the bikes again, and to our shock and horror, my bike had been stolen. Not to worry, Ed took Sean's bike and went gallivanting around the village all day! He really embraced the Spanish lifestyle of cycling!

If Ed didn't go exploring on the bike, he took the train into Barcelona and explored the city. He even managed to get a surf in!!!

This is a band that he saw and bought a CD from. He seemed to travell around quite a bit, see the city and all of that! It was awesome.

The following Wednesday, Juliette arrived. We picked her up from the airport and brought her home.

I left Thursday morning to go to Madrid to write exams, and only returned the following Thursday. The two of them spent the week attending the conference and keeping Sean company ;)

The last week they were here, the three of us did some exploring of Barcelona together. We went to Montserrat one day, which was beautiful as always! 

On the weekend, we went up the coast to visit family - Enric, Suzy and kids. We drove up and spent the night in Cadaques, then drove to Sant Feliu to have lunch. Sean and I went home and left Ed and Juliette to spend some more time with them. It was a great weekend, Cadaques was beautiful and definately worth seeing.

Their trip came to an end on the Thursday. Amazing time was had and I'm so glad they came to visit and experience where we live!