December 2001 Archives
In Holland the weather is always the subject of the day, mainly because it is never the same as the day before. Last week, the weather has been the main topic over here as well. Not because it is changing so often (I wish it would!), but mainly because it is so bad. For the people who still think that I am in a warm sunny country: you'ere wrong!!! It is f***ing cold over here!!!
It came by surprise. When I was in Holland it suddenly started snowing. And because that hasn't happened the last decades, they are not prepared for it. Therefore it took while before they got all the material from other provinces. As a result, I was forced to spent the night in Barcelona last Sunday, because the road between Barcelona and Lleida was still blocked and it was too late to take the train. Fortunately Carme and Marta were so kind to buy already a ticket for the morning train and to pick me up. Thanks a lot!!!!!!!
At this moment most of the big roads are cleared, but the world is still very white. And to be honest: I am getting quite fed up with this weather. After all, one of the reasons I came here is the sun.
At this moment it is already a week ago since I was in Holland. Yes, I have been a litlle bit busy this week (indeed, I slept a lot).
Anyway, I can say that I really enjoyed my short visit. The wedding of Paula and John on Thursday was really great. But OK, free beer is always great, isn't it? It was greay to see everybody again. And in such an atmosphere, it doesn't matter that the band made all the songs sound like René Froger.
Friday was another highlight, the concert of De Heideroosjes. It was a pleasant surprise that we went with 27 persons. At the busstop I found out that I was by far the oldest: The second (Jos) is 6 years younger!!! At least it shows that I am still young of heart. The body however was having some more problems. I had to go to the side a few times to get some fresh air. The concert was as I am used to.
Satuday and Sunday I have spend with my family (indeed, sleeping again). My room at home has really been transformed by my parents. They bought a new bed for me and removed the old computer desk. A think they want to tell me this way that MJ and I are always welcome.
After hearing a lot of times that having fog every day is not normal, and that it is only the case here in Lleida, I decided to check it out myself.
So last Saturday, MJ and I decided to spend one day on the beach, hoping to see some sun. We woke up early (at least for us), prepared all the stuff for a pick-nick on the beach and got into the car.
Although it was not as sunny as we hoped, the weather was good enough for a pick-nick. We found a nice spot on the beach to sit down and eat our sandwiches and our salad and drink some red wine. In the mean time we could enjoy the view of the sea in front of us. We were just in between Salou and Cambrils. After the pick-nick we walked to Cambrils to get a cup of coffee. Cambrils is a pitoresque little town with a lot of nice shops and restaurants. Unlike Salou, it hasn't got bars and discos, and as a result the atmosphere is much different.
The 6th of December is an important day: it is the birthday of 'Sinterklaas' (yes, I know it is Paul). Every year the old man leaves Spain to visit Holland for a few weeks and to give presents to all the Dutch children. As you can imagine, the Dutch children are very pleased with his visit.
But I have to warn all the Dutch parents: DO NOT TRUST THIS GUY!!!!!!! I haven't found out yet what is wrong with him, but it is a fact that the Spanish people are really happy because he is out of the country for some time. The party here is even bigger than in Holland: here everybody receives an official free day, only because Sinterklaas is out of the country. You can imagine how much they hate him...
To celebrate our free day (día del constitución), I went out with my colleagues yesterday. It is very common to visit a restaurant with your colleagues in December. Before that I visited a pub with two others. I hoped to get to know another pub, but they decided to visit Scrub. OK, it is a nice pub, so I was not complaining.
The supper was really good,although the others were complaining a little bit about the price. Here 4000 pesetas (Fl. 53,-) is a lot of money for a meal, but for me it is a quite normal price. Afterwards we visited some pubs. And yes, the very first one (O'Sullivans) was the one where my sweet darling MJ and here friends happened to be... At 4 o'clock I met here again in River Café. She came to see me, because I had the keys of the car... :-)
This weekend MJ is in Lithuania for a Fimcap meeting. I better say "was", because she is almost back again. In a few hours I will take the car and pick her up in Barcelona.
Of course I could have used this weekend to have a big party (after all, the b**** is gone...), but I decided to have a quiet weekend. Of course I went to drink a beer yesterday, but most of the time I was sleeping, reading, watching television or studying Spanish. Today we also celebrated the birthday of Cristine, MJ's sister.
The weather here is alright. During the day it is sunny, but in the morning and after five (I had to check at the window...) there is one problem: FOG! Not a little bit, but really a lot; sometimes you can see only ten meters. That is also one of the reasons why I have decided to leave really early to Barcelona. The other reason is that I expect a lot of trafic, because this weekend the wintersport season has started. There are some places where the entrance to the pistes was free this weekend (yes, in some ways the Catalans are like Dutch). By the way: did you know that Catalonia has over 300 pistes? Me neither.
