juliet: (round the world)
I have spent the week in Spain with [livejournal.com profile] dogrando, which has been very nice. If quite chilly & often damp. The sleeper train to Barcelona from Paris is terribly civilised, with a restaurant (albeit not vegan-friendly) & a bar. Barcelona itself has awesome Modernist stuff (all Gaudi all the time!) and a market where you can get exciting mushrooms for very small quantities of money. We also spent a day at Figueres visiting the Teatro-Museo Dali, which is absolutely awesome, especially if like me you are v fond of Dali. It lives up to the 'Teatro' part of the name with the humour & the attention to setting. I'd love to see some of the more famous Dali paintings in that context.

Then we caught another train down to Cordoba, which is very Moorish and has ludicrously narrow streets which are great for wandering round. Only had a couple of days there before a few hours in Madrid (cold, had lunch at awesome veggie restaurant) & train back to Paris last night.

(I may write more of this later; or I may not. It was all very lovely, anyway.)

The other event of the week was that I was made redundant on Monday, which was at least not a surprise. I am at least still a qualified cycling instructor, so if you (or ppl you know) want cycling-in-London-safely lessons feel free to get in touch for rates!
juliet: (fixie)
08:03 Leave house for schools course in Muswell Hill.
08:18 Just past Tower Bridge, realise have left photo ID & CRB number (both required by school) at home. Phone P for CRB number, but if I go back for my passport will be hideously late, so plough onwards hoping that we can sort something out when I get there.
08:50 Halfway up Hornsey Rise, something goes spang in my knee. Ignore it & press onwards.
09:01 Arrive at bottom of Muswell Hill. Reflect that Muswell Hill should come with a health warning, & specifically this health warning should read "TAKE THE GEARED BIKE NOT THE FIXIE, YOU DOZY COW, EVEN IF YOU DO HAVE TO GET UP 10 MIN EARLIER TO SORT OUT THE SADDLE*". Nevertheless, start riding up Muswell Hill.
09:02 Begin standing on pedals.
09:04 Realise that a) Muswell Hill is about 3 x longer than I thought, b) that it is only getting steeper, and c) that I can no longer turn the pedals even when standing on them. Give up and walk.
09:11 Arrive at top of Muswell Hill, which is bloody hard work even on foot. Dash into newsagents to acquire restorative sugary beverage as can already feel precipitous decline in blood sugar. (Note to self: the muesli isn't cutting it, back to the scrambled tofu.)
09:15 Arrive at school, on time hurrah. School very quiet, and curiously dark.
09:16 Informed by very apologetic teacher that school is shut for the day as their power & thus heating are out of action. No idea what has happened to message to this effect sent to office/emergency phone.
09:20 Lead instructor & I are taken round playground, school, etc by apologetic teacher, then shown the staffroom and offered tea. High quality sofas in staffroom, good stuff. Have gossip meaningful discussion of work-related issues with lead instructor.
10:05 Leave school again. Zoom down Muswell Hill cursing traffic jam that prevents real actual full-on hurtling, spinning out, & other such excitements.
11:05 Arrive home, having made brief detour via Spitalfields Health Shop. Put kettle on.

So, hm, yes. I think I deserve a nap or something.

* Someone nicked the saddle & seatpost off Cepheus before Xmas, & I have still not put the replacements on. I worked out this morning that this is because if I don't put them back on, then Cepheus will stay safely in the house & no one will steal any more things off him. Obviously I need to get over this.

December 2024

S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930 31    

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Tags

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags