Butter Dancing, Ooh Lah and these are the Labandas of our lives- Barcelona 2012 (part 3-the last)

Where we left off yesterday: after a late night of dancing at the fair, an experience which prompted my continual question of 'Is this really happening?', we returned to our houses, ready for an early start the next morning.

Seeing the sights with a gentlemen friend

Saturday dawned bright and early and Josie and I were off to Barcelona for a day of doing the tourist thing, seeing sights, taking pictures, and eating nice food. We did plenty of all of those. Probably the most spectacular part of the city is the market of Saint Joseph. It has a wonderful array of every kind of fruit, vegetable, spices, sweets, sea food, sausages. We even overheard a trio of American boys asking a man at the sweet stall if this was 'where we get the mushrooms?' I could only assume either: they were particularly dopey or that the man was some kind of magic mushroom dealer.

As we wandered towards the harbour in the city, we had to wait for the bridge to be lowered as some ships were passing under. While I contended with holding my dress down against a rather blustery sea breeze, Josie spotted something truly remarkable. Her male doppelganger. He was the spitting image of her. It was hilarious. We kept a close distance between us and him as we made our way across and somehow Josie managed to capture a photo of him, in all his double denim glory.

Sunday night paella with the group

 We sat down at a sea view cafe and ate our way through a sizeable ham and mushroom pizza and a refreshing cerveza. The staff were very attentive towards us, saying 'Ah, we will give you our best table!' On the downside, there was a huge queue for the bathroom. Not ideal. After a few choice purchases in some clothes stores, a lengthy search for a Zara store, and a refreshing mix of sorbets (I had raspberry and passionfruit) we made our way back on the train towards our houses.

In the evening, we enjoyed a dinner together and then, as we so loved the dancing of the night before, we made our way back to the fair for another go. Unfortunately, when we made it to the dance floor, a conga line was started and we found ourselves standing alone without a soul to conga with so we made a quick retreat. Plus, there was no more foam. On the plus side, a dead ringer for Dylan from Modern Family came to dinner.

Waving to our fans

We went to see a band perform, accompanied by Eva and Laura. Unfortunately they were a bit too 1980s hair band for our liking, plus they didn't sing any songs I was familiar with. A couple of funny incidents did happen while we were there though. A dreadlocked man holding a tiny dog greeted Eva very familarly so I had to ask 'Is that a friend of yours?' She assured us he was not. It became a game though. There was a man drumming on imaginary drums so it seemed only natural to ask 'Friend of yours?' once more. Two children attacked Josie with some seeds from a tree. They hid out of sight. Josie turned to me and said in a hushed and worried whisper 'I think someone just threw a raisin at me'. I haven't laughed so hard in ages!! Tears actually streamed down my cheeks! The children ran for it out of harm's way and all that remained was the debris of seeds surrounding Josie from many attempted throws.

On Sunday, we went for a trip to a beach near to Barcelona. We were very relieved to have a beach umbrella with us as there were an abundance of tourists going lobster red all around us. Unfortunately, the umbrella moved and just one of my legs got really burnt. As usual. In the evening, after having a time to freshen up, we were being treated to a huge traditional paella cooked by Alfonso.

Getting ready to board the Titanic

Dressed up in our finery, it was such a treat to wear my high heels for a change from flip flops, we mosied over for dinner. The paella was delicious! It's a shame I don't like seafood more but I attempted to try everything and the rice and vegetable part of it was lovely!

It was strange to think at that point that we only had one more week until we would be gone. Watching the aeroplanes from the beach, we pointed out that this would be us in a week. Terribly sad about it!

The gang enjoying a traditional British dinner

Our Disney Channel 'We've done a cooking montage and are now covered in flour!' picture

The last week of class was reasonably stress free as we only had the four children to teach. We attempted a lesson on the United Kingdom and Ireland one day but the only real part of that lesson that was appreciated was when we made shortbread as a class. Let's be honest, I appreciated the shortbread part of class too!  There were many examples of our questionably good influence where we just had to say 'Good Babysitting', as I mentioned in Part 1, and lots of these happened in the third week. Probably the funniest was when at lunch time one day Vicky ate a few drops of Tabasco sauce. Most adults might have said, 'Don't eat any more, it's hot.' I, on the other hand, raised him one extra drop, turning it into a competition. I just like a good competition!

On Thursday, we were very sad to say 'Goodbye' to Marc as he went off to Oxford for two weeks of English school. I went with Eva to the airport to leave him off and it was very strange to not be the first one leaving but to have one of the youngsters leave instead. We've been such good friends since I first went to Barcelona and we've always had such nice conversations about music and television and films. He's always been more of a friend than a student. I was a little emotional because I don't know when I will next see any of them. I really value meeting everybody and hope to see them all soon.

Things soon returned to normal with a trip that afternoon to the mall. We were buying ingredients for the big British dinner we were going to cook the next evening for dinner. Accompanied by Vicky and Fablo, we soon found all of our food ingredients and enjoyed a leisurely stroll around the shopping centre. I bought a Swatch watch and Josie bought another African candle- she just looooves them! A bit of a craze started off while at this mall trip. Josie mentioned Chilli Con Carne (as you do) and the children were like 'What? What's that?' After repeating Chilli Con Carne a few times to no avail, I adopted the phrase for a bit of a song. It was a good way to incorporate another of our latest pleasures. Vicky had a habit of saying 'Ooooh Lah!' as an exclamation of delight or surprise and we had all taken to doing it too because it's really fun to say. Anyway, the new song goes like this:

Final slushie with Laura

Chilli Con Carne
Chilli Con Carne
Chilli Con Carne
Oooooh Lah!

We all took great delight in repeating the song like a mantra the whole way around the mall. Plus, there was cheese shaped like a cow's udder so that needed to be pointed out to us by all three children!!

In the car, leaving Laura to camp in the mountains

The last few days were happening and we couldn't believe it when the final day of class on Friday came to an end and we were finished teaching. We got to work preparing our dinner, which consisted of: Toad in the hole, cauliflower cheese, green beans, cheesy mashed potatoes and an onion gravy. It all went down very well, and dinner was a success, except for the abundance of mosquitoes who were gnawing on our legs like our blood was gourmet cuisine in a fat camp.

We were presented with lovely clothes from Eva and Sandra which we were delighted to receive. My jumper I got, which was a meshed sort of design, Eva explained, would need to have a top on underneath as there would be big gaps. Xavi, the legend that he is, said 'Well, it depends on the occasion.' Haha! After some late night zombie tennis with the children, we bid adieu to our Friday nights.

On Saturday, we were leaving Laura to camp in the mountains in the afternoon. In the morning I went round to Josie's house, attempted to make a quiche, failed, and turned it into a jam roly poly. After a lovely lunch, and two glasses of French sherry, we headed to the mountains to an old Spanish castle where there were an abundance of children. It was strange to also say goodbye to Laura, little princess, and have no children left in the house I was staying in!  Plus, it was strange to be laughed at for our mosquito-bitten legs by several people leaving off their children.Actually, it wasn't that strange. We probably did look ridiculous.

Going to sleep: Josie, Laura, me and Vicky

On Saturday night, I joined Josie and her family for fondue and mojitos. It was a fantasticly strange night of lots of dropped meat, several gollum impressions (mostly by me...), a brief gun fight between me and the boys and lots of lovely food. It was a perfect way to spend our last evening, especially when we were called into the boys' bedroom to see them pretending to be midgets. They were running round the house with Crocs on their knees, riding micro scooters with Crocs on their knees, and creeping around in hooded dressing gowns like tiny brightly coloured Dementors.

As Sunday morning dawned, we assembled, bags packed, everybody said goodbye to, attired in our jeans. It was very sad to say goodbye to Eva at the road side as we drove off. She has been so kind to us every time we have visited, making sure there is nothing else we could possibly require. I hope to see her again very soon too!

We were being driven to the airport by Sandra, Alfonso, Vicky and Fablo (who had to sit on a seat in the boot, next to our suitcases.) It was a strange journey, a bit like the end of an episode of the Hills (mostly due to the pop music and the road and the sun), with the occasional scream from Fablo as he got squashed by our massive suitcases. They brought us the whole way through the airport process, right until the doors of security, and it was a perfect ending that the last thing we heard was a final group rendition of 'Chilli Con Carne, Chilli Con Carne, Chilli Con Carne, ooh La!'

My trip to Barcelona has been amazing, I have got to catch up with all my friends, I have met some great new people, I have discovered many new and strange things to say and do, and I finally have slightly golden skin rather than pasty pasty white.

Goodbye, Sant Cugat, I hope to see you and your lovely, wacky residents again soon!!

Butter Dancing, Ooh Lah and these are the Labandas of our lives- Barcelona 2012 (part 2)

Here we are again. At the start of the second week. I realise I left you with some rather sizeable cliff hangers at the end of yesterday's post and I am sure you are delighted to know that I can now answer at least one of these questions (although rabbit is still an enigma so it won't be that question I respond to!). So now, sit back, grab a large mug of coffee/tea/medication and let's begin the fabled journey into my troubling thought processes.

First off, much to Josie's delight, when we returned to our house on that Sunday from Santa Cristina, she was informed that she would be moving this evening to her new address. So in the evening we went to the other house, grabbed all of her possessions and mosied on over to the next place where she would be staying. Casa de Labanda. We were introduced to the mother, father, and the two sons Victor (Vicky) and Pablo (Fablo)*the author's nicknames. In a rather confusing way, Eva said she was returning to the other house so I went with her as far as the entrance way to the other building, but she then drove off and I couldn't get back into their house because the door had been shut so I just mooched along the pavement feeling like Avril Lavigne and ended up beating Eva back to her house like a disobedient child.

That night, Josie came round and we watched the Euro 2012 football final between Spain and Italy. It was a pretty great time to be in Spain actually, as every time one of the goals were scored, fireworks would light up the entire sky here as people celebrated. We vicariously rejoiced as part of the country. The Spanish team were much more attractive anyway, plus I knew some of their names, so it felt like the right team to support!

Josie and I with little Bea apres-swim

 The next morning a new format of class was on the table. In the mornings I became responsible for collecting a 7 year old, two 8 year olds and a 10 year old from their house each morning, teaching them English for a few hours, supervise their playtime in the pool, let them run wild with my camera and phone, and then bring them home again for their lunch at 2. The journey was usually during hot hot sun but I managed to have a good time while accompanied by Laura. We sang 'Call Me Maybe' with actions the whole way there and back each day, which was the best song around, until we heard this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qTIGg3I5y8. The new obsession then had to be saying 'But you've got COOKIES'.

Josie and I with Carlos, Bea and Iqthea

By the time lunch time rolled around, I was always kind of relieved though to just be with the four other children and Josie. It's kind of exhausting being the constant focus of camera attention. I think I finally understand a little the celebrity mentality of losing your mind a little bit. That didn't stop me from occasionally super pouting and hand on hip-ing in true Paris Hilton style. I couldn't help it, the photographer was the cutest little boy in the world!!

Me and Carlos

Slushie Time L-R: Josie, Laura, Marc, Pablo, Victor and I

Now, there aren't many boys around Sant Cugat who are the same age as J and I so we were rather surprised one afternoon that Marc, Vicky and Fablo were all high fiving a random boy, with his arm in a sling. They chatted for a few moments, in which we were introduced to this boy and I couldn't resist a twirl of my pigtail. Not that he was particularly alluring. I just hadn't seen someone my age in a long time. The next day, as we flopped around the pool like sea lions, we came across another boy almost identical with the earlier met one and discovered that we were dealing with twins. What are the chances! There was even talk of them needing some private English lessons... there was also a friend, clad in a red speedo, shooting us a nice view down the barrel of the gun from the other end of the pool. The swimming pool is a dangerous place when you are as white and chunky as us, particularly when accompanied by a large herd of tanned children. At one point, we provided entertainment for what seemed to be an entire football team on one of the balconies. Some other pool characters: an angry man who liked to shout at the boys in the afternoon when they were all playing football. He looked like Joey from Friends and always looked a bit like he was saying 'How You Doing?' when he smiled at us. There was also a 'super-polite' Brazilian boy called Ougo (no idea about the spelling!) who was constantly greeting us. We were knowingly informed by Marc that 'He's a liar. He says he's eleven but we all know he's thirteen.' Why would someone lie about their age?? Do young people not want to be older anymore?? He was always around. Even when we tried to teach classes, he'd show up.  It wasn't so bad until the children started pretending Josie and I were in love with him and kept trying to introduce us once more to him.

Hank from X-Men

In the afternoons we would go for slushies. The man in the shop remembered us from last year and you could see his face falling when he seen our herd coming from the haze of heat across the square. The photo above is a classic example of the Hank Factor. We all try and epitomise Hank by becoming as blue tongued as possible. It's quite a game.

Being taught how to roll my -rrrrrrs by a seven year old.

 When we weren't slushying with the children, we'd be herded off to the shopping centre or to the city with the assumption that we couldn't possibly be happy just sitting around doing nothing much in our evenings. The main highlights of our trip to Sant Cugat city were when Josie tried to take a picture of the street and a bald man got all up in the forefront and then she tried to take another picture of the same thing and ANOTHER baldy got in the way!! What are the chances?? The other highlight was when we went into a furniture and appliances shop as we tended to do, and we stumbled upon these salt and pepper shakers shaped like those dolls with the eyelids that shut. Josie, picking a set up, said 'Can you imagine if the eyes actually shut when these lie down?' Our loud exclamation of 'Aaaaaagh!' certainly surprised the shop keeper when they were tipped and did in fact look to be sleeping. Crrreeeeepy!

Josie is a bear?

I am a bear?

When we went to the shopping centre we usually meandered half-heartedly through the clothes stores, spent some time -oohing and -aaahing over various furnishings in the Casa home store and then messed around, trying not to vomit when gross men made noises at us. One day we walked past this outdoors shop that had a ginormous cut out of a bear, one of those things where you can stick your head through. We asked each other 'Do we dare?' a few times as we walked past, went for a cursory meander around the store, then thought, 'Can we really embarass ourselves much more than we already have?' and snuck over with camera ready to efficiently take the picture of both of us.  Usually our trips to the mall would culminate with a nice round of 'I Like Spanish Men who...' where we came up with funny people we had encountered and their odd habits. It was a really wonderful game, suitable for which ever country you visit!

Bea, Carlos and I

One night while we were just looking after Marc and Laura, we were making dinner and there was a sudden CHICKPEA EXPLOSION! They started leaping up out of the frying pan and jumping around the kitchen. I quickly tried to re-gather the chickpeas amongst our laughter but one was sitting on the hob and when I reached down to pick it up, it leaped up at me so high that I screamed. The children will be recounting that tale for years to come! We enjoyed an episode of 'Jessie' on Disney Channel (could there have been a more appropriate show??) with our dinner and the chickpeas actually tasted great!

Foam a little foam of me. Ahh word play...

With the arrival of the weekend, I bid adieu to my week of teaching the little ones, feeling tired but pleased to have filled up my camera slightly. With the arrival of the weekend, the city also got ready to have a weekend long fair in the streets of the town. At about 11 o'clock on Friday night, I was doing a crossword and contemplating pjs when I had a phone call from Josie inviting Marc and I to go to the fair with her and Vicky and Fablo. It was fascinating. There was candyfloss bigger than our heads, dodgems, shooting games and....a dance floor. Leaving the children with their friends at the dodgems, Josie and I went towards the dance floor, where we brought out our dodgiest moves while Robbie Williams 'Rock DJ' was playing. For about 15 minutes, it was just us and this other strange pair of women dancing and a lot of people just standing watching us. With the arrival of YMCA and 'Follow the Leader' the crowds perked up a bit and we all started dancing group numbers together in lines, led by women dancing on the stage. Then, suddenly, FOAM came out and it turned into a FOAM PARTY!!! We were all splashing around in foam when 'Dancing Queen' by Abba came on. Tossing foam in the air with Josie while singing along to the music, I felt like we really were Romy and Michelle, and we were really having the best time being possibly the biggest losers there. When the other weird pair of women came and danced with us I suddenly realised 'People are going to think we're all together. Great.'

With this lovely image in the forefront of your minds, I will finish part two. Here's a few questions: Will we return to the fair on Saturday? Will we do anything else exciting? Will I ever explain the components of the title of this blog. All will be revealed tomorrow!

QOTR

Butter Dancing, Ooh Lah and these are the Labandas of our lives- Barcelona 2012 (part 1)

'Sipping our Corona like there's nothing going on' Who is that behind?? Ooooh!

For the third year running, I returned to Barcelona, or more specifically, Sant Cugat del Valles. I have had such good times in the past two summers that I was certain I would likewise have a whale of a time this year. I was not disappointed. I headed off Monday 25th from Leeds Bradford airport, accompanied by my good buddy, Josie E. Campbell. We got on the plane and were bopping along to 'Sexy and I know it', kindly played by Jet2, doing crosswords, and, in Josie's case, sleeping like a baby. Of course, whenever the dreaded trolley was hear coming, I felt the need to feign sleep as an avoidance method.

Josie, Marc and I doing 'Sitting on Da Toilet' face

We arrived to sweltering heat and an customs man saying 'Buenas Dias' with a grin as we were waved through. I sent a text to Xavi, the father of our family, and after a surprising phone call with the suddenly grown up sounding Marc, we cheek kissed all around and were whisked away in the car towards home. It felt wonderful to be back in a place that was so familiar and so beautiful to look at. The familiar view of Hospital General heralded our arrival to where we were going. I had a quick reunion with Nana the dog before we dressed for a pre-lunch swim and a reunion with all of our usual children: Marc, Laura, Tatiana and Marta (who are M and Ls cousins).

The first week's class was pretty uneventful but mid week we did have a lovely trip into Barcelona with Marc and his grandparents. We went to see Palace Guell and the huge market and the Titanic exhibition (which was very surreal to see in Spain!!) We had a lovely time and were quickly getting consumed in the usual flurry of activity that is a trip to Sant Cugat and their whirl wind lifestyle. Mercedes, the cleaner, pronounced me as being 'muy bonito' this year so I was pleased with that! The weekend saw both Josie and I pretty nervous because we were about to find out our final grades for university. We were heading towards the lovely Santa Cristina on the Costa Brava so arranged for Ruthie to text us the grand results because we'd be in the car. The sounds of Spain CD was the perfect remedy for worrying and I soon found my shoulders bopping along merrily. Finding out we had both done great in our degrees only made the whole journey more pleasant.

After a brief stop at the supermarket in which Nana frisked around the car like a lunatic for approx. five minutes, we made it to the house and hear the first sweet sounds of the golf being played on the beautiful gold course abutting the garden. After a quick lunch of fresh bread and lovely meat, we packed our bags and headed to the beach for a day of relaxing. The weather was just gorgeously perfect and we went for several refreshing dips in the sea. On one such occasion, Josie and I were merrily wading in the water when a series of rapid, choppy waves barrelled into us. We consistently attempted to gain our footing only to be knocked back down by the waves. Eventually we were washed right onto the shore like two beached whales and we just lay there laughing at our misfortune, much to the amusement of a dreadlocked man we seemed to have gained as a fan. There are few things in life quite as unfortunate as trying to discreetly empty an abundance of pebbles from your swimming costume. Except perhaps dread locked men. Or fat men in red speedos who survey the beach from their uncomfortable vantage point.

The one serious problem with the beach was as to why everybody sees the need to go topless in Spain. Every direction you were to look, all you could see was naked chests. It was thoroughly disconcerting!!

Later on in the day, we returned to the house for a jaunt along the soft soft grass of the golf course, feeling like the famous five as we were accompanied by Marc, his friend and a dog named Dana (not Big Nana as we called her) or Julian, Dick and Timmy if you will allow! Josie and I sensed the nearby sprinklers had turned on so we ran towards them, shrieking with glee and went for a refreshing run through the good strong jet of the sprinklers. We then played a spectacular game of football with the boys in which we lost (or did we win???) and then, thoroughly exhausted, we felt the need to retire.

The next day was full of similar frivolity. Marc had acquired two new obsessions on Youtube. One was a woman sitting on a toilet singing 'Sitting on Tha Toilet' and the other was watching people do the Cinnamon Challenge. Before the day  was out, both had been attempted by us. We got called into the bathroom by Marc at one point and he was just sitting there, singing the song. It was hilarious! Later on, he pretended to do the Cinnamon Challenge while we filmed it. Thus occurred the first instance of us declaring 'Good Babysitting, eh?' to each other while laughing. The night was a late bed time for Josie and I as we laughed our way through about two hours of lying in bed. This was when we first discovered the strange man in the background of one of our pictures doing an 'Ooooh I like that' face, quite by accident. I attempted to dress like the woman from 'Sitting on Tha Toilet', we took a hideously hilarious picture which has since been deleted but shall always be imprinted on my brain, and drew faces with different facial expressions on our legs. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bje_8Y7KUfM

There was an awkward situation with some nearly consumed rabbit lbeeeeurgh and the following day a sudden storm meant we were bidding good bye to Santa Cristina and heading home. The journey stared off hilariously with Marc holding his arm out the window with a bag of rubbish and I was genuinely concerned that we would be driving the whole way home like this. Oh the relief when I discovered we were merely going to the bin.

The first week of my stay in Barcelona was the beginning of the stuff of legends. There were several unresolved questions though. Where would Josie be living once we went back to Sant Cugat? (Marta and Tatiana had gone away to stay with their dad so we were no longer teaching them and their mother wanted Josie out of her house so she could be alone with her new boyfriend) Would I ever do the Cinnamon Challenge? And why does rabbit smell so revolting when it is cooking??

Join me for the next installment imminently (when I have a break for some food and possibly a sleep)

QOTR