travel – Page 13 – don't confuse the narrator

unwinding

I’ve been up in Catalonia all week, doing some English consultancy and support for a client.

I’m used to working from my own studio and it had been ages since I last spent a full week working in someone else’s offices.

I ended up doing far longer hours than I had expected to and although there was plenty of time to eat and sleep, I don’t seem to have done anything else at all.

I am back home now, but I definitely need some time to untangle my thoughts.

Once again, I’ve sat down at the computer today without any ideas about what to write. My suitcase is lying on the sofa behind me, too full for me to close it; my desk is almost hidden under an assortment of papers, cables and chargers, and shoes and sandals are liberally scattered across the floor. So far, none of the work stuff or shoes are in the case, which is a wee bit worrying, and nor is my ticket among the papers.

There is clearly still a lot to do if I am to catch my train in a couple of hours time.

So I’ve found an eight-year-old photo which fits well with the idea of travel, as well as being fairly topical – it was taken at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta in 2005. (Why do I have a complete set of 2005 photos on my laptop? Might this tendency to hoard give an insight into why my case won’t shut?) This year’s festival starts on Thursday.

Now I must fly. Though not in a balloon.

a little bit of this…

One of the basic foods that I miss when in Spain is bread.

They do eat plenty of bread here, but it’s mostly white – a sort of faux baguette – and has no more flavour than I would expect from cotton wool or cardboard.

Other than the incredibly expensive pan artesano on sale in the village square some Saturdays, there is, however, one type of bread here that I like.

Since I buy it at the cut-price supermarket, perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that it’s cooked from frozen dough rather than made on the premises. It’s labelled as pan 6 cereales – six cereal bread. I was a little taken aback, though, when I read the ingredients list more closely: Continue reading “a little bit of this…”

drop by drop

Well, I’m back in the pueblo and the weather is wet and wild. Yesterday evening there was a brief pause in the downpour, though, and I managed to take a few pictures. (As always, you can click each photo to see a larger version.)

I love the way the raindrops and buds work together, but I need to practise more to get the pictures I really want. A little sunshine might help, too.

closeup of early buds on plum tree with raindrop

“all ye need to know”

One problem with travelling is that half the time you don’t know what you’re looking at.

I am probably less familiar now with the flora and fauna of the UK than with that of Spain, and I have no idea what the tree I photographed this morning was.