Well... it's all over folks
The bike is gone... Alfredo's locks remain. Guess the bloke was really as horrible as we thought and apparently has re-stolen the bike. Sigh. A new bike for eric it will be.
I hope he enjoys it (the theif) and I hope all the karma he deserve finds him swiftly.
4.9.09
The lock-off continues...
The person who "stole" the bike finally got the note we left for them on the bike... I told Fredu to leave his mobile number on the note... Low and behold the 'new owner' of the bike rang yesterday... in a hail of expletives he screamed down the phone that he had found the bike in the street and that it was his... all in English of course. Because we live in Spain yea? The note we left in Spanish... the guy didn't speak it. Lucky him that Fredu does speak English.... Now we have a complete impasse. The guy won't remove his lock and Fredu won't either... Eric, the actual owner of the bike (who had been lending it to Fredu long term) is now involved... he's searching now for documentation that proves the bike is his! The police are going to be involved soon but who are they going to believe???? I think they should play the trump card that the theif guy doesn't speak spanish and get the cops invovled and if he can't speak, he can't tell his "i found it on the street story"... Seriously do we need this sort of insanity?
Clearly there is no point in even asking that question. It is my life after all... the answer is always a resounding YES.
The person who "stole" the bike finally got the note we left for them on the bike... I told Fredu to leave his mobile number on the note... Low and behold the 'new owner' of the bike rang yesterday... in a hail of expletives he screamed down the phone that he had found the bike in the street and that it was his... all in English of course. Because we live in Spain yea? The note we left in Spanish... the guy didn't speak it. Lucky him that Fredu does speak English.... Now we have a complete impasse. The guy won't remove his lock and Fredu won't either... Eric, the actual owner of the bike (who had been lending it to Fredu long term) is now involved... he's searching now for documentation that proves the bike is his! The police are going to be involved soon but who are they going to believe???? I think they should play the trump card that the theif guy doesn't speak spanish and get the cops invovled and if he can't speak, he can't tell his "i found it on the street story"... Seriously do we need this sort of insanity?
Clearly there is no point in even asking that question. It is my life after all... the answer is always a resounding YES.
3.9.09
Only in Spain...
Would someone steal your bike.. then lock it up at another bike rack 200m away with another lock... So in response, Alfredo bought two new locks and locked them to the bike and left a note for the person who had stolen his bike to please remove their lock and give him back the bike... it's a lock off baby! No movement yet. The bike still sits there with 3 locks on it (2 alfredo's and 1 of the theif)... One more day and he's just going to saw off the other lock... it's funny this, not only because it's absurd... but because this is the second time this has happened.
Last year Alfredo's bike had a broken peddle. He noticed one day that the bike was gone. He was sad but hey ho such is life in this mad city... Sunday morning rolls around and we're all walking to the park and low and behold there is the stolen bike broken peddle and all... locked to a rack approx 100m away from where it was taken from... new lock of course. So we promptly went to our local bike renting shop which was a few metres away and asked if we could borrow some lock cutters. Remember we are in full family mode... pram, baby dog in toe... they gave us the cutters and right there in the street we stole the bike back. Theiving family unit baby!
It's the madness that makes you just that little bit crazy when you live here... It's kind of a banana republic in many ways... but I suppose in the end it's the recklessness that adds to the charm.
Would someone steal your bike.. then lock it up at another bike rack 200m away with another lock... So in response, Alfredo bought two new locks and locked them to the bike and left a note for the person who had stolen his bike to please remove their lock and give him back the bike... it's a lock off baby! No movement yet. The bike still sits there with 3 locks on it (2 alfredo's and 1 of the theif)... One more day and he's just going to saw off the other lock... it's funny this, not only because it's absurd... but because this is the second time this has happened.
Last year Alfredo's bike had a broken peddle. He noticed one day that the bike was gone. He was sad but hey ho such is life in this mad city... Sunday morning rolls around and we're all walking to the park and low and behold there is the stolen bike broken peddle and all... locked to a rack approx 100m away from where it was taken from... new lock of course. So we promptly went to our local bike renting shop which was a few metres away and asked if we could borrow some lock cutters. Remember we are in full family mode... pram, baby dog in toe... they gave us the cutters and right there in the street we stole the bike back. Theiving family unit baby!
It's the madness that makes you just that little bit crazy when you live here... It's kind of a banana republic in many ways... but I suppose in the end it's the recklessness that adds to the charm.
30.8.09
There is a secret time here in Barcelona
It's usually near the end of August when most people are smart enough to leave the smoldering heat of the inner city and head for the beach and enjoy summer... The streets are significantly more empty than normally especially up town. It's quite the peculiar thing as many shops simply just close down for 4 weeks and happy announce they'll be back after their holidays. It's funny because in one way the city empties out and then in another way the floods of French tourists arrive. This year because of the delicate economic climate there are lots of Frenchies, a few Italians but very few northern Europeans and even less Americans... But the beautiful thing about remaining in Barcelona during the summer is that for a small few moments you feel the city is just a little bit more 'yours' than it normally is. I suppose that because all of the locals are gone (or it feels like they are) that you are the closest thing to being a local... makes you feel kind of like for once you maybe fit in.
The morning bus rides to work will soon return to normal... the darkness is slowly creeping back into my morning routine. The alarm goes off at half six but my brain is not quite ready to compute the fact that it's starting to still be dark then. Work is sufficiently manic to make the hours in the day zoom by. In fact last week I felt like I looked up from my desk and it was Thursday already!
The impending baby rush is a pink one. Miss Vero and Miss Karen are both having little girls. To say I'm thrilled for them both is an understatement. Now if we can just bear the wait until seestor and bryan have theirs in Dec we can try for a hattrick... but they like the surprise and are thus going to wait to see if they too have a girl.
We ventured out very early yesterday morning with the ever enthusiastic Chiara and Nacho egging us on to be brave and actually atempt a day at the beach out of town. We were at the train at 8am to head off to the costa brava. We trained and bused it and then bused it some more and we arrived to Cala de Sant Francesc at around half ten. What a lovely place. It boggles the brain as to how much money you would need to have one of the massive houses that shroud the cala. It's really lovely and we had a fabulous day. Bravo to them for helping us make it possible with all the baby acutraments that we need to have with us to allow us to be away from home. It's not a trip for the faint hearted... and the transportation system isn't too sympathetic to people with baby prams but with 4 people we did it! And for the record... all those locals that are missing from Barcelona... they were all in Blanes. I think we were the only foreigners there!
Cala de San Francesc - trust me there were many more people there!
It's usually near the end of August when most people are smart enough to leave the smoldering heat of the inner city and head for the beach and enjoy summer... The streets are significantly more empty than normally especially up town. It's quite the peculiar thing as many shops simply just close down for 4 weeks and happy announce they'll be back after their holidays. It's funny because in one way the city empties out and then in another way the floods of French tourists arrive. This year because of the delicate economic climate there are lots of Frenchies, a few Italians but very few northern Europeans and even less Americans... But the beautiful thing about remaining in Barcelona during the summer is that for a small few moments you feel the city is just a little bit more 'yours' than it normally is. I suppose that because all of the locals are gone (or it feels like they are) that you are the closest thing to being a local... makes you feel kind of like for once you maybe fit in.
The morning bus rides to work will soon return to normal... the darkness is slowly creeping back into my morning routine. The alarm goes off at half six but my brain is not quite ready to compute the fact that it's starting to still be dark then. Work is sufficiently manic to make the hours in the day zoom by. In fact last week I felt like I looked up from my desk and it was Thursday already!
The impending baby rush is a pink one. Miss Vero and Miss Karen are both having little girls. To say I'm thrilled for them both is an understatement. Now if we can just bear the wait until seestor and bryan have theirs in Dec we can try for a hattrick... but they like the surprise and are thus going to wait to see if they too have a girl.
We ventured out very early yesterday morning with the ever enthusiastic Chiara and Nacho egging us on to be brave and actually atempt a day at the beach out of town. We were at the train at 8am to head off to the costa brava. We trained and bused it and then bused it some more and we arrived to Cala de Sant Francesc at around half ten. What a lovely place. It boggles the brain as to how much money you would need to have one of the massive houses that shroud the cala. It's really lovely and we had a fabulous day. Bravo to them for helping us make it possible with all the baby acutraments that we need to have with us to allow us to be away from home. It's not a trip for the faint hearted... and the transportation system isn't too sympathetic to people with baby prams but with 4 people we did it! And for the record... all those locals that are missing from Barcelona... they were all in Blanes. I think we were the only foreigners there!
Cala de San Francesc - trust me there were many more people there!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
