Dinner on Dejhn in another Dimension

So it is almost the end of term and Dejhn ( a Serbian student of mine, and the son of an Ambassador) invited the class and their wonderful teacher (me) to go out for dinner on him. We went to a lovely restaurant in Plaza Oriente which was very posh indeed with it's Maitre D' and waistcoated waiters. I ate a meal (cod steak in a leek sauce with octopus) fit for a Queen. The prices were steep so I'm glad I wasn't paying!

I have never held a very high opinion of service in Spain, I usually find waiting staff to be rude, useless and well to be fair they are completely crap. Either I haven't been going to the right places or when I walked through the door of the Restaurant Café Oriente I fell through a black hole and came out in another dimension. I nearly died of shock when our attentive waiter ran away with my 'dirty' glass, which as far as I could see had nothing wrong with it. I think he had spotted a slight fingerprint on the crystal! The waitress knew exactly who was having what without asking when the meals arrived, and she hadn't taken our order. We didn't have to wait long, we never had to ask for anything, when they saw that our glasses were almost empty they ran along to fill them up again, I was truly amazed.

I had a wonderful evening, the only problem is that now I don't know if I can go back to eating in 'normal' restaurants. I have been spoilt by the staff at Café Oriente. Although I will need to think anout a change of career if I want to eat there on a regular basis.

Why it is bad to be blonde

I have just managed to do the dumbest thing ever!!! And the only excuse I have is that I am blonde, and I don't always pay enough attention to what I am doing! I was trying to be all sexy with the html so I set up a practice blog to see if I could change the colours and layout and then I deleted it. Only no!!!!!!! I deleted my real blog! I honestly thought that I was going to cry.

I have spent the past god knows how long painstakingly reconstructing my blog from memory and I think that it is almost the same as before. I'm just glad that I have only had the bloody thing for a week! Imagine the damage! These things should be made blonde-proof!!!

Well my 'mare is over for now. The only shame is that I lost my comments (cue Neds, life saver and angel).

Bye Bye Baby

Fun was had by all last night when half of the BLC joined in La Camocha, an Asturian Cider bar, to bid farewell to Miss Ruth Ruthledge who is leaving us to fly home on the 1st of July to a new job and new experiences. Good Luck Ruth.

We ate a huge amount of food, tapas and raciones all round, and I drank copious amounts of cider (which tasted more like Appletise, which explains why I was drinking it like pop and why I felt a bit worse for wear come hometime) The night was hilarious, the waiter managed to drop deep fried baby squid (chopitos) on my head, Nedra was running aournd taking photos of all the busoms in sight (a present for Lewis) and Jake was doing his stand up comedian bit whilst making farewell speeches to Ruth and Dave (who is also sadly leaving us , boo hoo!)

By the time I rolled home at 4.30 I was so tired that I slept like a baby. (and I managed to get through the whole night without having any ciggies! Well done me!)

Trying to beat the cancer sticks

So, I guess that this is all a bit premature because it has only been two weeks, I still haven't been out on the town and had the chance to fall into temptation and I am not know for my will power as far as nicotine is concerned but I haven't smoked a single cigarette in 15 days! So hurrah for me! I am trying really hard to kick the habit. I want to be able to climb the stairs at work without the aid of an oxygen tank, I don't want to come home from a heavy night out to find that my fingers have turned yellow from excessive smoking and I want to save the cigarette money to put towards funding my other addiction, shoes!

Good luck to me, lets hope this time I have more strength of character!

This could be the start of a new addiction

I don't really know where to begin on this thing but I suppose the start is as good a place as any. I came to Madrid in November of 2003 to do a CELTA course with no intention of settling here, (I'm not one for capital cities and I had a dream of going to Japan to make lots of money and brush up on my Japanese) but in the end I fell in love with a Spaniard and here I've stayed.

(before I continue I want to take this opportunity to invite my Huddersfield friends, who believe that Spain is always sunny, to look at the photo I took of Madrid from my living room window in March this year. Just to prove that Spain isn't all sun, sea and sex on the costa)

When I finished the CELTA course I was offered a job in the same academy and I have been there ever since. (Click here to see the British Language Centre where I spend most of my waking hours.) When I am not teaching in the academy, (or racing to complete a SuDoku in less time than Carol Vorderman) I'm at home playing domestic goddess to Jaime. I have become a dab hand at rustling up divine meals and dividing them into tupperware containers for the next day. In my spare time I like to go to an Olympic-size swimming pool in an attempt to shed the many pounds I have put on since coming here.

Nothing much happens here, things are quiet most of the time. The most exciting thing that is happening soon is the arrival of my family on Wednesday. It's that time again when I have to play interpreter and tour guide extraordinaire whilst my folks traipse around the city and Jaime and my dad both tell stupid jokes that they later want translating.

Whilst on the topic of my family I think I will post a picture of my 16 year old brother so you can all see a visual definition of the 2004 British buzzword, chav. Despite what the article and the photo might lead you to believe I have to say that my brother is a lovely young-man and he is only a chav in the way he dresses, something I am sure he will grow out of......hopefully! I should also add that it isn't always cheap to be chav since Adam's outfit in the photo cost more than most of my wardrobe put together. In fact I managed to buy 3 pairs of shoes for the price of his trainers.

If you are intrigued by all this 'chav' talk you can do the chav test to find out how much of a chav you are. Although, I must point out that if you are from the North of England you are at a distinct disadvantage due to your choice of vocabulary! I'm 39%!

Anyway, that's enough rambling for one night. I get the feeling that this blogging business could get very addictive.

Night Night my lovelies. xx

Snow and the Sierra

This is a photo of me and Jaime in the Sierra in March 2005. (Don't you think it would make a great cheesy couples Christmas card??) It was bloody freezing but we had a fab time with Catherine and Clare, falling over, throwing snow and kicking the head off a snowman. (p.s. check out the eighties earmuffs!)

Hello and Welcome

So, against my better judgement I have set up this blog so that you can all read what I am getting up to here in Spain. I hope you enjoy it!