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Go Karting in Cardiff
Posted by daveb on December 11th, 2007
Just before jetting off to Ireland for Ben & Aileen’s wedding, Squiffy & I managed to squeeze in a spot of go-karting in Cardiff — thanks to a gift voucher that SQ’s parents had given to us for Christmas last year! (Thanks to SQ’s Mum & Dad.)
As we were booked in during a mid-week afternoon session, I wondered who else might be there. The answer? No-one. We had the whole track to ourselves. This was great as it allowed us to work on our driving techniques without the worry of colliding with anyone else (except each other) — fundamental, if you know my poor driving track record…
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Wales: A mock Christmas with my family
Posted by daveb on December 10th, 2007
Immediately after Ben’s stag do in London, I whisked myself off to Wales to spend just two days with my family before heading over to Ireland for Ben’s wedding preparations. I hadn’t seen my family for about five months and it was really great to catch-up with them — including my sister (who is in Abu Dhabi, UAE) via Skype.
This year will be the first time that I’m away for Christmas day, which is an important family day for us. As such, we held an early “mock Christmas” instead — all the decorations were out (including 8 various sized Christmas trees) and my dear mother even cooked the traditional meal with all the trimmings! (Thanks Mum, it was delicious as always!)
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London: Ben’s stag party
Posted by daveb on December 7th, 2007
One of my closest friends, Ben, is getting married soon and he’s asked me to be his best man. As a nice send-off out of bachelorhood, I took him and fifteen of his mates around London for a weekend of, well, drinking: I had previously asked Ben what he likes–perhaps paint-balling, rafting, go-karting or other suitable wet/muddy/pursuit–and got “sit around a table with my friends in a pub and get drunk” as his response.
We packed a lot into the weekend: boozing, karaoke, curry, Chelsea FC stadium tour, comedy club and full English breakfasts.
To my London friends (who weren’t at the stag): Please excuse me flying under the radar and not making contact with this one — unfortunately, I was way too strict with my travel times and ended-up not being able to meet-up with any of you on this occassion. :-(
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Incompetent crew
Posted by daveb on December 4th, 2007
Squiffy is already a fully-qualified, super-shiny day-skipper; allowing her to sail pretty-much anything, including big yachts. I, on the other hand, am nothing more than Incompetent Crew. To level the playing-field, I thought that it would be a good idea for me to learn the basics of sailing as our round-the-world transit will undoubtedly involve a bit of sailing.
I’m starting off my learning in a dinghy as a) they’re a great way to learn the technicalities of sailing, b) they have a certain sense of urgency about them and the quick-thinking-and-reactions that I’ll have to learn will be useful as I move up to bigger, slower boats and c) nobody from the local sailing club would let me helm their yacht…
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My first Spanish omelette
Posted by daveb on November 23rd, 2007
I’m having so much fun cooking on a full-size stove, that I thought a I’d have a go at making a Spanish omelette. My camper-van omelettes were fairly well received, so this is the natural progression. Alas, I got a little over-excited with being allowed to put onion into a dish (SQ doesn’t much like them) and put in way too much; two whole ones to be precise. Suffice to say that I overcooked it too and burnt the base.
Still, I turned it over to disguise the black bits and the punter didn’t have a clue. It only took a single bite to confirm my fears. Lessons learnt:
1. Don’t put two whole onions into a Spanish omelette.
2. Turn it over sooner than before.
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I can never think of the right words
Posted by daveb on November 22nd, 2007
Last night, The Squifter and I played Scrabble. This is the first time that either us had played this game in many, many years. Working with computers may pay a a fair bit more than English teaching, but it doesn’t help one iota when playing a real-world board game. Imagine watching a chess-master playing two short, thick planks of wood, and you’ll get the picture. I had difficulty mustering anything over three-letters (she even allowed me the word ‘bra’–five points–to speed up play) and spent the entire evening throwing cheap wine down my neck in a excuse to blame my pathetic results on alcohol.
It goes without saying that I got absolutely thrashed at the game by my dear girlfriend. How was I ever supposed to come back after she played her first word, using all seven letters available on her rack, scoring seventy points?
I’m going to code a Scrabble-helper program on my computer before we play again…
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Super shiny new bicycle for daveb
Posted by daveb on November 21st, 2007
Today I bought a bike. I bought a bike!
I saw one in the car boot sale yesterday that was, perhaps, a touch too small for me. Rather than buy it on the spot, I wanted to sleep on it so told the seller that I’d be back the next day.
The next day, the seller was nowhere to be seen. Probably a good thing, I thought, as I haven’t a clue about bikes and had still not decided between the car-boot one (for €40) and a new Decathlon model (at €99). At least this made my decision easy.
Off I toddled back to Decathlon positively foaming with excitement at the prospect of owning a bike. Let’s me be clear here: To many others (Squifter included) a bike is just a bike, it gets you from A-to-B. Not to me though: It’s a metaphor of a personal challenge that I recently overcame.
It seems like I’m the only person in the whole town that wears a helmet — and all bicycle helmets make a person look like, well, a helmet. But I don’t care because I’m riding my bike.
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Getting the goods
Posted by Squiffy on November 20th, 2007
The free English papers did have some useful information, including an advert showing the location of a large car boot sale held every Saturday morning. “Perfect”, we thought, “maybe that’s where we can get a used bike each”. So off we trundled. What greeted us was a pile of tat in worse condition than I’ve ever seen at any English car boot, and that’s saying something. There were scrap bits from cars, very very old clothes and heaps of tangled cables.
However, amidst all the junk was a mini treasure: A fold away bike in half decent condition. Dave was not taken with it for himself, so I had a test ride around the car park and liked it. It only has 3 gears but I never use more than that anyway. Doing the deal in Spanish was difficult and even though I walked away once, the old man selling it stuck to his guns for the amount he wanted. After a second ‘walk-away’ I managed to knock him down by 4 euros, but he was definitely a better bargainer than I. Anyway, I’m happy with my 10% discount, 36 euros beats Decathlon any day! Dave is still hunting…….
Things are coming together quite nicely and we’re really excited about building a life here, even if it is only for a few months. Today we managed to navigate the ins and outs of mobile providers and now have a Spanish Orange sim. We also rented a mailbox (post here doesn’t work like it does in the UK). We plan to spend the next week discovering the local area and looking for some casual employment. Should be fun…….
PS weather is lovely.
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Excited exploring
Posted by Squiffy on November 19th, 2007
This morning we woke up early with excitement and headed straight for the local tourist info office, armed with a long list of questions about the area. After grilling the poor staff for half an hour, we came out laden with maps, Spanish school leaflets and brochure after brochure on things to see and do. Next stop was the Eroski supermarket, to stock up on provisions – oh to have a fridge! We managed to resist the ‘British’ aisle on this occasion, but I wonder how long it will be until we’re buying custard creams and the like!
Having filled Yoko full of food we drove her the short hop to Decathlon to check out their range of bikes. After his recent ‘re-learn to ride a bike’ experience, Dave is very keen to acquire a set of wheels on which to explore the area. Unfortunately, a quick scan of the local papers and message boards has left us thinking that second-hand bikes are hard to come by, so a cheap new one is the next best option. Or so we thought. Even in Decathlon they’re not that cheap, so the hunt is still on.
Exhausted by the evening, we enjoyed the luxury of curling up on the sofa to read the free local English newspapers and had a giggle at the expat news. Typical stories included tales of woe from readers trying to get cable TV installed and articles on the difference between clementines, mandarins and tangerines. Just in case you wondered.
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Salt and vinegar crisps: Oh, how I’ve missed you!
Posted by daveb on November 17th, 2007
It’s taken three months and four countries to find salt and vinegar flavoured crisps. I’m over the moon!
I’ve never found anywhere else to have the choice of flavours that Britain enjoys. Why is this?
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