Part of the madness that is...

Living in Barcelona is definately finding a flat. It was a nightmarish 3 month journey for us to find this place and to be honest it was not our first choice... but now we call it home and we've made it just that. One of the quirks of the flat is the outright lack of emergency exits. The flat is long and narrow and the kitchen is right near the front door... because we are at the top of the building with the terrace on the same level all our windows have bars on them (as security is key)... this however means that if in an emergency, you have no other way out beyond the front door. This is mildly terrifying and now that we have some very precious cargo with us we figured that it needed to be fixed. Wendy's lovely husband Roy who is very handy has been here all day helping grind and fix and install hinges to open the bars on the window to the terrace which will miraculously provide us direct access to the terrace as well as the well needed secondary emergency exit. They boys have done a really great job. My job was mostly making sandwiches and tending to the baby and such.

Next step in our DIY frenzy will be the painting of the terrace and the installation of some pretty dividers to keep the peering eyes of our neighbours out of our house. More for their protection really as it would be to their horror if they accidently caught a glance of us strolling by naked one morning. Then up will go the tarp to provide some well needed shade and we should be in business! Oh wait... we need the kiddie pool which will keep miss S cool this summer and the feet of certain adults cool too!

Before and after photos will be fun... but here is a work in progress one...

Today was filled with good news

It stated yesterday acutally when I received the purlator envelope from my mum a day early. It contained all the paper work I was waiting for, for the British passport application as well as two beautiful cards from mum and sis wishing me a happy first mother's day. Its even surreal to write that... but yes, it was so lovely of them!

Then today my documents from the Canadian Embassy (which application is still in process btw) arrived as well thus finally permitting me to re-send the British Passport application with all the papers I needed!

Then I received an email from Jo Jo's lovely sister Nicky annoucing that she was 12 weeks pregnant! I'm so happy for her and her husband to be! They are due to be married in 3 weeks time. I tell you its sure a sign of the times as everyone seems to have the baby first and the wedding second! Well some of us haven't gotten around to the wedding thing... but we're busy with the passport thing for now so we'll just leave it at that...

Then I saw on crackbook (facebook) that my most favorite Mittul has gotten himself engaged! I'm really really thrilled about that one. I can however guarantee that he and his fiance will be waiting until after the nuputals to produce any offspring as both his and her family's are very traditional. I can only imagine how amazing his wedding will be. Full on Indian wedding! Brilliant!
I'm hoping that the positivity continues... I'm sceptically optimistic!

I went for an hour long jog with the hound this evening... yes my tiny dog definately has the energy for such a grand endevor... it was actually her bolting up the stairs at the end of our jog... so don't think she's not got it in her! I however hope that all the extra pounds I seem to be stacking on lately will begin to shift now I am officially allowed to exercise as I wish again without fear of important female parts jiggling out of place. Nice thought n'est pas? *evil laugh*

With a face full of boob...

One can do no wrong!

I need a scrub nurse!

I'm not sure what one actually is, however after chatting with my neighbour today he casually dropped the fact that his scrub nurse had keys to his flat, I decided that it sounded pretty cool and that I too would not mind having one... perhaps if I too was an orthopetic surgeon, it would be more appropriate to have one but lets not get the little things intefere with my dreams!

The heavens have remained opened here in barca-land for the past two days so when we awoke this morning and discovered that the rain had finally stopped we bolted out of the house with all the troops to go for a walk. I don't quite think Fredu knew what was awaiting him as I took him on our two hour route. The sea was cranking out some fast breaking surf which still did not deter the ever-optimistic surfers... the beaches were filthy, it was quite sad actually as the beach looked more like a rubbish dump. I guess massive storms churn up lots of filth that humans pitch into the sea. I swear I can't understand how so many people just dump their trash on the beach and leave it... Storms like this I guess just un-earth a lot of this rubbish... sigh, I know I know I sound like a grumpy old person...

Sienna has been helping me on my latest painting... to be honest she sort of lost interest after I did the first wash of the base... but its to be expected really as she is only 3 months. Perhaps when she realises she can get her tiny little hands into the paints too, she may develop a keener interest... we shan't rush to that phase just yet.

Too many pictures to upload sort and label... use your imagination a bit in the interim :)