powlow's stuff + things » catalunya

30th Birthday

powlow — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 10:35:02 +0000

Thursday was my 30th and what a day! It all started with finding my bike completely wrapped in toilet paper, courtesy of Pablo and Cento, at 8 o’clock in the morning. Pretty funny and basically put a smile on my face all day. As I walked out, Pablo was there waiting to see my reaction and take photos. Was made even funnier by an old man standing in front of us on the other side of the road saying “Must of been some damn kids on the way home from the disco!”. Was a really full day as I went to work, had lunch with Cris and had three hours of music theory till about 10:30 at night. This meant I got home about 11 at night only to find 14 people jump out from hiding places (which is pretty hard in my flat) shouting “SURPRISE!”. Was a really good complete day and definately an amazing 30th. I had planned to do nothing! What happened was, of course, much better

Saturday was round two of celebrating my birthday (the day I had actually “planned” to celebrate, which was also a good one. Started off at one with some drinks and then lunch, and we were out and about till about three in the morning, which included a trip to Camp Nou which was great fun, especially since I hadn’t been there yet. I also got a really great present from everyone which was totally unexpected, just like the surprise party.

Thanks to everyone for making it a great birthday which will definately be remembered for many years to come!

Moltes gràcies a tothom per fer que aquest cumple hagi estat molt especial y per tots els regals : me’n recordaré de aquest cumple per molts anys!

Vall de Núria

powlow — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:23:29 +0000

Aquest Diumenge vaig fer la caminada de Queralbs fins al Vall de Núria. El paisatge va ser molt impactant i vaig aprofitar per fer moltes fotos. Molt recomanable!

SCUBA Diving, biking, possible car putting-to-sleep and music

powlow — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 09:57:00 +0000

This weekend Cris and I almost made it to the end of our Padi Open Water Scuba Certificaiton, which we’re now finishing off with the Alpha diving school in Barcelona, but didn’t manage to finish it off due to a minor technicality : my trusty steed (a.k.a. Opel Corsa) looks like its finally given up on me. There was a general engine warning light followed by the engine stopping and refusing to start again. We were on our way back from Tossa, were we’d been doing the first two of four dives we had to do to finish it all off. Anyways, its not the end of the world as this way we get a rest before doing the last two, which we’ll be doing this Sunday, which might not be such a bad thing seeing as the week’s runup to the dives had been mental with long classes, an exam and several pool dives that left us, by the end of the day on Friday after the sea dives, completely exhausted and generally aching. Its quite a lot of fun but the amount of equipment and the weight of it all is pretty mental.

As far as the car is concerned, I’m still talking to the insurance to try and see what to do about the car. Its kind of at the point were if the repair is too expensive, it might be time to send the old Corsa up to the place were my turtles and budgies went, so now I need to find a massive toilet and…

The long easter weekend ended up being quite chilled in the end as lots of resting was done. Still been out on my new bike and getting more and more into it. Been getting a bit more fluid on the downhill tracks I’ve been doing and started getting into dirt jumps a bit, albeit small ones at the moment, and still trying to get my landings dialed proper. Its good fun though and the fact that catching the train and funicular gets you pretty much to the top of the hill makes it all that much easier to evolve as you can keep going back even with just a couple of hours to spare.

Been getting more and more into the home music making and hope to have some more tracks done soon. Still have my tracks pretty much split down what I consider electronic and analogue/acoustic which looks like the way I’ll be going for the time being.

Hope everyone had a good long weekend…

Mountain Biking

powlow — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 09:20:53 +0000

Got me a new bike last weekend and already went off to some mountains to test it out. Going back this weekend. Amazing! Did a little bit of a trail around the Montseny and discovered a site with a whole load of routes (CICLOIDE) so looking forward to going and trying some out. What is obvious is that both I and Cris are what you might call “city folk” and so we need to set out bread crumb trails or something like that to find our way back! Either that, or have a GPS like some people on their bikes…seems a bit excessive though…time will tell.

Català Nivell Bàsic

powlow — Wed, 20 Dec 2006 20:33:58 +0000

Ja tinc el nivell bàsic de català!

Já é oficial! Demorou mas acho que valeu a pena. Acho que agora vou fazer uma pausa e já seguirei com o próximo nivel quando achar que vale a pena mas, de momento, preciso de umas férias das aulas…é lixado estudar outra vez depois de tantos anos.

Pra quem quiser, tá tudo no site do Consorci Per La Normalització Lingüística e, ao menos o nivell basic, é tudo grátis menos os livros. Muito aconselhável pra quem tiver cá a viver…

New Pipes

powlow — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 15:26:13 +0000

I’ve decided that pipe smoking is a good thing and I picked up two new pipes from a place here in Barcelona that’s having a closing down sale and everything is 50% off. Smoking the new pipes made me realize the state the pipe I picked up in the market was in. What was I smoking?! Anyways, the two new ones are excellent and really mellow and comfortable. Think I will only smoke the old pipes at home though and I’ll stick with pre-rolled rollies when out and about. I am definately smoking less thought which is good. Anyways, anyone wondering about pipes, I highly recomend it : excellent way to chill after any hectic day. I’ve even found a good tobaconist with a huge stock of all kinds of tobacco and pipes and you name it. Off for a pipe while I study for my catalan exam…hopefully two weeks from now I will have catalan level B certification!

Collecting Mushrooms

powlow — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 21:02:45 +0000

This weekend ended with going out and collecting mushrooms (a.k.a. bolets) in some woods not too far from Barcelona. It was actually quite a bit of fun and I’ll definately go and do it again sometime. Its not that easy if you’re not quite sure what you’re looking for and clearly you have to be quite careful as two similar looking mushrooms can have quite different effects on your body : one tasty the other toxic or deadly. Still, with a bit of practise you can definately learn and the hand picked ones are the tastiest of course. We did actually get some good ones but we’d mixed them up with some bad ones and so, to be on the safe side, we ended up not eating any of them. But we got some practise and next time we know what to look for. However, this is not something for the late riser as if you get there late there’s nothing left to pick!

After the picking session, we had lunch in a smallish village know for its mineral water. Great lunch with a few plates of the elusive mushrooms : tasty tasty lunch with some strong wine to wash it all down. Good relaxing day with some fresh mountain air. Always good to get away from the city for a bit.

Delta de l’Ebre

powlow — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 22:51:40 +0000

Foi Delta de l’Ebre este fim de semana, um parque natural, perto de Tarragona, na zona sul da Catalunya. É brutal. Um festival da natureza. Não dá pra descrever, vejam.

Week in Calonge

powlow — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 07:15:20 +0000

James, Vicky, David, Mike, Paul Nash, Candice and Paul Duggan where over in Calonge for about a week a couple of weeks ago. Was an amazing time! In the end, David sorted out the house and what an amazing house! We had a big big house with enough room for everyone. The pearl of the house was the swiming pool, with views of the house free mountain-side directly in front of us. The whole place was set up in a way that it felt like you where completely isolated, although there were houses all around you. Really good choice! We were near some amazing beaches and so got to do some snorkeling and the likes a couple of days. Really managed to disconect from the city and relax. Was really good to see everyone and I had a great time. Happy birthday Vicky!

I at the house for 5 days and Cris came along on the weekend too. On Saturday we went to an amazing wedding at what seemed like the end of civilization. Had a really good time at the wedding and there were some amazing country-side/mountain views. I did make some phone calls I don’t exactly remember and danced way too much when the old folks where getting down. Still, if you follow the 1 2 3 you can’t go wrong…;)

Lots of photos were taken and I’ve put them all up in an album : Week @ Calonge

Learning Catalan and No Time

powlow — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 09:40:00 +0000

I’m learning catalan at the moment, with free courses from the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística. I’ve finished the first of three Basic level courses and am now onto the second. At the end of the third course you take a standard exam and hopefully get a recognised Basic Level Certificate. All the basic level courses, and the exam at the end, are free, which is excellent. Now I just need to force people to talk to me in catalan, which is the tricky part

I’m going at it pretty hard at work at the moment, and between work, the course and swiming, I’ve not really had much time for myself. I’ve finally got a new decent camera and have been getting back into taking shots. A mate has a tripod so I will be out and about and sticking photos up very regurlarly now. We’re trying to get going on a project we came up with with the idea of printing up a book at the end : more info on that as we actually get going on it! I’m using flickr and the photos show up on my blog aswell as they are uploaded.

And that’s about it for the moment. Still obsesed with getting a bike but between no time and having trouble finding the bike I want second hand, its been a no go so far. James, the Jones, is here for a 4 day visit next Thursday which will be cool : somehow I think next weekend will be party party