Back from Spain

This is my first real post since I got back from Spain.  Had a great time but it was a very quiet holiday, really. Not much partying to be had. (Apart from one mad night which involved copious amounts of cocktails and some ill-advised dancing.  And neighbours at the door at 4am.) 

My plan had been to go and get an awesome tan before coming back home for my cousin's wedding but the weather wasn't all that great.  Nice enough for most of the time but the night before I was going to go to the beach there was a storm - thunder, lighting, the works... - and we got soaked. And then the next day was kind of cloudy so we didn't go.  Never mind, I went a kind of golden brown so that was good enough in the end.  Probably better for the skin, too!

I went for lunch with my friends to this cool Colombian restaurant, and it was really tasty!  Lots of good eating!  We also went to see the Shakira concert, which was good fun, though I hadn't been a huge Shakira fan before we went.  In the end there were about 7 of us there and she put on a really good show.  We all went to celebrate my friend Fran's birthday - he was dying to see her, so me and him went along during the day to camp out and get a good space in the queue.  When we arrived there were already about 100 people there waiting, so we set up camp and waited it out through belting sun, rain, and clouds for about 5 hours!  It was worth it though cause Fran was so excited.  Here's a pic of him just after we arrived and marked our territory, well prepared with sun hats, parasols, water, beer, munchies, and iPods:

One day whilst I was there I hopped off the bus on a whim and had a wander about a market that I'd just passed.  It was all painted in bright reds, oranges, and yellows outside and I just couldn't help myself!  So I went in and bought myself a quarter kilo of cherries for 90 cents, and they were so good I almost couldn't believe it!  I'd forgotten how amazing the sweet cherries are when they're in season and I scarfed almost the whole lot as I wandered about looking at the other stands.  I couldn't eaten a kilo, I'm sure, but I probably would have paid for it later! 

Some of the other things I forgot I liked about Spain:

1.  Fountains all over the place.  In the tiniest, grubbiest of squares, you'll often find a fountain.  Or on a roundabout, or in front of a bank or official building.  And they're always turned on, and they're always immaculate - no rubbish thrown in, nice clear sparkling water.  And most people don't even notice them because they're all over the place.  Well, I always did, even when I was living in Spain, cause I love them!  And here's one just in a normal roundabout in a quiet street I walked down.  Lovely!

2.  Buildings in lovely colours.  I don't know who chooses the colours to paint buildings, if they're colour co-ordinated, or if the council just got a good deal on coloured paints, but everywhere you go you see rows of buildings all painted different colours.  Some of them are bright, vibrant colours, others are pastels but they all look fresh and clean, and make wandering about a wee bit more cheerful.  Here's a building that caught my eye in the Russaffa area of Valencia.  I loved the balconies, as well as the nice paint job...

One more thing to tell you about, and that is:

3. the trees!  There are trees everywhere in Valencia, you can't walk down a single street without seeing them and there are loads of different kinds.  The ones you notice most, I guess, are the orange trees.  These are everywhere, and they're all full of giant, heavy fruit.  Quite often you'll see an orange splattered on the ground where it's fallen out of the tree, though I've never seen anyone get hit, yet.

If you walk around at twilight then the orange blossom starts to open and the air is filled with this incredible heady scent that lingers and seems to envelope you as you walk about.  It's a wonderful smell, and is maybe the strongest memory I have of living in Valencia.  I used to walk home from my work at the school at 10pm and, passing a row of orange trees, I would smell this incredible blossom and feel very content.  Even after a hideous class, of which there were many. 

This time, I didn't get a photo of an orange tree, but I did snap a couple of palm trees, which are also all over the place, even in the middle of the city.  This photo was taken at the beach, and these are the big tall palm trees rather than the wee fat ones that look like pineapples, which are actually more common.  I love this photo though, perfectly timed intersection by Fran!

Of course there are things I hated about living in Spain, too: bank queues, supermarkets (the stupid layout, the lazy, slow staff, the massive queues, the fact that there's no express queue...), people quite conversationally informing you that you've gotten fat or had a bad hair cut... but never mind that for now, this post is about some happy memories, so I hoped you enjoyed  photos! 

And if you're looking for a new holiday destination on the Med, you could do far worse than go to VLC.

Holiday!

That Madonna knew what she singing about alright, holidays rock!  How do I know?  Because in approximately 39 hours I will be jetting off to sunny (it better be sunny!) Valencia for a ten day spree!  Saturday morning I'll be hopping a flight to London and after the Hours Of Boredom In Stansted Airport (of which I am now, unfortunately, a connoisseur) I get another plane to Valencia.

In the interest of saving money I decided to only take hand luggage and this leaves me with the interesting challenge of making sure I have enough to wear for ten days and nine nights in a small suitcase weighing no more than 10 kilos.  So far I'm about 3/4 packed and I'm at about 7 kilos though I still have to stick a few things in.  The key, dear reader, is all in mixing-and-matching it up.  Loads of nice separates but nothing goes in unless it can be worn with at least two other items on the list.  Also, a few things like jumpsuits (hurrah!) and was-maxi-now-midi (thanks, belt) dresses are whole outfits in one go! 

Having obliging pals to put you up and provide towels and other stodgy space-stealers is also recommended.  I have a lush pair of new wedges to grace the pavements of Spain, too.  From New Look, and with a much appreciated 20% discount, here they are.  Crafty New Look don't seem to let you copy pics off their website so you'll have to go and have a swatch.

I'm not always convinced by wedges, especially when they become so ubiquitous over the summer months, but I love these - they're like my lovely shiny spike heels in a similar colour, but done down for summer.  It must be said that wedges go well with maxi dresses, especially when you're vertically challenged like me, and this lovely nude colour really lengthen the legs.  I think they'll go with everything and (fingers crossed) be comfy for hitting the cobbles in search of Sangria!

In other news...

The beautiful Grecian dress I got for my cousin's wedding was a bit small in the waist (bloody vintage!) and it needed altered a bit, despite my gym efforts.  Well, I was terrified to have it taken out in case it ruined the drop of it and the lovely shape, but I'm happy to report that I had a shorter zip put in the back which means I can do it up fully now, and not only is it now a perfect fit but you would never even know it had been altered.  The woman that did it is a lovely lady called Andrina and you can check out her alterations website here.  It took just one week and was a very reasonable £8.  So there you go - don't throw out your favourite trousers after a summer of excess - just get them altered and have another slice of cake!

Monday, Monday

Even when you're not working, Monday's are a bit crap.  For some reason I woke up in a bit of a bad mood this morning and it hasn't really gone away all day.  I think I'm just tired; even though I was knackered yesterday I couldn't sleep til about 2am and then I was up at 8 to go to my volunteering at the Glasgow YWCA.  So, early night tonight, I guess.

I applied for a job at Glasgow airport, so I'm really hoping I get an interview for that, cross your collective fingers, please!  The closing date for applications is the 1st April, so I guess I'll have to be patient. Hmm.

On the way home from the YWCA this morning I bought a nice wee bag, and a pair of shoes from (shhhhh!) Primark.  I don't usually buy anything in Primark cause the stuff is such bad quality and everyone wears the same things, but I did see a wee satchel-bag that I really liked so I went in and bought it, and I saw a nice wee pair of Nautical-style ballet pumps so I bought them too.  I'll take some pics and post them here, whenever I get around to it!

I'm loving all things striped at the mo' - I found a tshirt in my room that wasn't mine (maybe my dad's or my brother's) but it's white with narrow navy stripes and it fits! So... it's mine now! Score.

It's been a good few days for cheap clothing gains.  We had the Glasgow Feminist Network funday on Saturday and part of what we organised was a clothes swap - there was just a table with a mountain of clothes that people had brought along and you could rummage through and help yourself. I got two skirts and a dress, love it!  I'll post pics of them, too.  I'm wearing one of the skirts today but I discovered (after leaving the house, of course) that the zip is a bit unreliable, it keeps falling down! I think a wee pin will be enough to sort it out, so I'll keep the skirt.  It's a lovely green shade with black graphic roses printed on.  It's quite short and it has pockets. I love skirts with pockets for some reason! I guess I just love being able to slouch my hands in my pockets as if it were a pair of jeans... but actually it's a pretty skirt. Best of both worlds.

We also watched t he animated film Persepolis and it was great, I'd really recommend it to anyone, and I'd like to see it again.  It's about a wee girl growing up in Iran during the time of the revolution and war, and then life there afterwards, but there are some funny bits and the animation is so lovely.  It also has a sweet soundtrack!

Tomorrow is *sigh* jobcentre day.  This last week has been slightly better on the job-searching front, I suppose, I've found a few decent-sounding jobs that I think I have a good shot at, so I've gone for those.  And I've found some really crap sounding ones that I can do so I've gone for them too. 

Lisa and Emma, in Valencia

I think at the end of May I'm going on holiday to Valencia, so I totally can't wait for that.  The flights are uber cheap so, Spanish air strikes not included, it should be good!  I'm hoping to get just over a week there, and I'll be staying with Lisa and/or Emma, so it'll be party and beach central!



Bakewell Tart

In very happy news, the lovely MM is out of hospital in London and will hopefully be heading back home very soon!  I think I'll bake a cake for the occasion.  Lemon drizzle cake, and coffee cake have been requested so I'll see what I can do.  One of the woman at the GFN meeting said that my baking was 'wonderful' - she was talking about my Bakewell tart (if you're interested in the recipe, you can get it here) before she knew it was mine.  Talk about chuffed!  She said I should do it professionally.  Well... I dunno about that but I'm still happy to give some new ones a go!

Good Morning, Baltimore!

Working again today, 12 - 6, which is good cause it'll give me an extra 2 hours (I was meant to be at 2) to make up for the 4 I lost at the last min on Monday.

There's a list of things to do today, so I might get fired into them straight away (well, after a coffee, of course) and get them out of the way.  I think HM is popping in today to get some wool and knitting needles for the Sit and Knit A Bit thing.  Remember folks, it's not too late, you can still do a square and send it in!

Haven't really woken up yet and don't know what I'm talking about!  But I just read an email from EW saying she going to come over and read my blog and I realised I haven't posted anything for a couple of days, so I thought I'd better come up with something!

We were round saying bye to MM last night, which was pretty sad. She's away to London for the day today, and then back on Sunday to start more treatment.  It's always hard seeing her go, and last night was no exception.  She's still being so strong and brave but it must be getting harder and harder for her.  Hopefully after this last round of treatment things will settle down more.  All positive thoughts will be gratefully received...

If I've time today I'm going to try on the dress from work (safely stashed in the back so no evil customer can get it) and if it fits and it's not uber long then I'll just buy it for Lyn's wedding in June.  Then all I have to think about is getting out to Valencia for a week beforehand to get a good ole beach-flavoured tan!  Any excuse to get back out there... I've been slowly but steadily convincing KM to come with me, and the flights I've seen so far are fairly cheap.  Plus we'd be crashing at Party Central, LT's flat, which is must cheaper than hotels etc.  Even though we might end up spending the same amount of money on Cosmo ingredients.   Money well spent, no doubt about it!

I haven't even opened my curtains yet but it sounds like it's raining outside.  In terms of usage vs. money paid for them, the purple wellies I bought in my first week after I moved back from Spain ('ARGH! Rain! I forgot about this stuff...waterproof shoes, macs, brollies, aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!') have been a total winner.  I just take my tiny fold-up shoes in my bag to wear at work and wear the wellies to get in.  Nothing worse than working all day with soggy socks and trews.

Right better go and get showered, today feels like  day for a hairband in order to avoid washing my hair.  You gotta love those days...

Oh yeah, seeing as today is officially Beer Thursday, if anyone fancies a pint about 6pm tonight in the west end or town, give me a shout!  Good times.