Tag Archives: food

Sicily

Just got back from two weeks in Sicily. Lots to see and food to taste. Was an interesting trip and its still not very overtly turistic which is always nice. We basically went round the whole island which is much bigger than it seems. Cannolo is the word! I’ve put together a map of our major stops : some routes have been altered to make the map look better! Photos up soon…

30th Birthday

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!

Xmas and New Year

What a xmas and new year’s this year!

Update with photos soon… :)

Occitania

This weekend I was in Occitania with Cris and, Dabintxi and Sofie. It was a really good idea and I definately had a good time. We stayed in a really amazing bed and breakfast in the country just outside a little village. The house was really cosy and we had breakfast on the table each morning with homemade jam, fresh bread and mandarines from the tree we could see through the window while having breakfast. The house was really big and we had it all to ourselves which was great. They also had some horses out back. Excellent place. It was actually really close to Barcelona witht the trip being about two and a half hours.

We spent the weekend visiting villages and sampling the eats and drinks of the area. We did a bit of walking and even ended up in a market on Sunday where I finally got myself a pipe. I got a small Ropp pipe from some fishermen types in the market and yesterday I got some Borkum Riff tobacco : Original and Cherry Cavendish. After a good clean out, I’ve been firing it up in the park near work. And then at home at the end of the day. Really good to just relax. Bring me my slippers!

What was obvious from the weekend was that I tend to get a bit “excited” behind the wheel and so I going to try and minimize car driving from now on! I’ll supply the car but some else will have to drive as of now. It’ll be better for everyine involved that way. :)

Anyways, excellent weekend and definately one to repeat.

Short Ropp Pipe

Collecting Mushrooms

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.

Férias em Tugaland

Acabo de voltar de férias em Portugal. Fui com a Cris e dois amigos de Ibiza. Foi um espectâculo : alugamos uma auto caravana e fizemos a costa toda desde da fronteira com Espanha no Algarve até a Lisboa. Foi a primeira vez que tive numa autocaravana e vale mesmo a pena. Aquilo é um luxo : tomavamos banho todos os dias num duche normal, tems sanita e tems uma cozinha com forno e frigorífico. Muito fixe. E claro, a cena mais fixe é que podes dormir mais ou menos em qualquer sítio : várias noites adormecia com uma vista do oceano atlântico pela janela que estava aos meus pês. Brutal. Muito recomendado. Pro ano tou a pensar fazer uma cena parecida mas em vez de ser só Portugal e para baixo de Lisboa, fazer a peninsula iberica inteira! Quem curtir a ideia que diga qualquer cena.

Ainda tivemos ums dias em Lisboa em casa da Anne e ainda deu pra ver algums dos usual suspects. Até fui a um concerto de More Than Hate…parece que foi de propósito :)

Como sempre, é fixe tar em Portugal e ver a todos que chego a ver. Um gajo até fica com saudades de tudo e de todos!

Ainda não descargei as fotos da camara mas quando fizer uma escolha das melhores das fotos de todos, já meto aqui um slideshow.

Porridge is THE breakfast

I’ve recently made porridge my breakfast of choice and what a breakfast! Its pretty easy to make and its got all those vitamin and amino acid type things in it. I make it only with water, no milk, as I’ve decided to avoid milk completely when possible (humans are the only species to drink milk past infancy : yes I hear voices). Anyways, its an excellent breakfast, good for you, cheap and heats you up on cold days if you eat it 1 second after its made. You can also let it cool off a bit for those hot days. I was having a cake thing for breakfast everyday but mount powlow is not getting any smaller, and so the switch. :) Usually mix it with some chopped fruit for a vitamin kick first thing in the morning. Obviously, after that I have an expresso coffee and a fag, so its not all healthy but hey, its pretty good! I’ve managed to halve my smoking recently which I’m quite proud about, seeing as it was a bit out of control and unnecesary. Anyways, what do you have for breakfast?

Noite de Música

Ontem foi noite de música! Tive com o Dabintxi e primeiro tivemos no miscelanea a ver os Izu : era um gajo a mixturar con computador e umas controladoras, outro gajo que tocava baixo y trompete e também mixturarva, outro a cantar, uma gajo a tocar flauta e um gajo a mixturar video em directo. Muito bom mesmo. Notava-se uma influência hardcore do vocalista mas lembrava Jazzanova, mas mais sujo, e com partes drum and bass, partes mais duras, partes muito calmas. Granda mistura.

Depois fomos jantar ao Guixot, onde nunca tinha estado, que, ainda por cima, está ao lado de uma zona onde ando bastante. Bocatas e crepes, salgados e doces, e mais. Come-se bem e é barato ainda por cima, que aqui, é dizer bastante :)

Depois de jantar, fomos a uma festa reggae numa casa okupa, de massive sound que levam uma beca já a organizar festas por aqui. Ontem era a festa after do concerto de Gentleman e tava cheio. Muito bom e o sítio era brutalmente grande.

Grande noite!

IZU @ miscelänea @ bcn

Riot in the Streets

What a scoop! Riots in the streets of Barcelona! Serously though, there was supposed to be a botellón in Barcelona yesterday, in the Rambla del Raval. Instead, ended up in some rioting, lots of broken windows and some fires. James is here visiting for the weekend and we went down to check it out. Was quite mental to see the police in full “darth vader” getups. All the accesses to the Rambla were cordoned off by the police and they weren’t letting anyone past with alcohol. By about 1 in the morning, people were running from the police and lots of people got batons to the arms, neck etc. Rubber bullets flew. Bins were burned. Police cars driving up and down the Ramblas, round the Plaza Mayor.

Crazy

The day after we meated it up a bit and went for a quietish night of pool and drunken conversations. Was good to see James.

jones77 + powlow meating it up

Fim de Semana de Calçotada

Este fim de semana foi a calçotada na rua Mozart em Grácia. Já sou Amic del Carrer de Mozart, que significa que posso beber mais barato nas festas de Grácia, que este ano não vou perder porque é uma granda festa de bairro! Os calçots são uma especie de cebola daqui que crescem com um metodo especial e depois são churrascados. Quando chegam à mesa, vêem pretos. Tems que pelar-los e depois comem-se com molho Romesco. Muito bom! E depois claro as imprescendiveis “botifarras” ou salsichas e molho de alho, tudo com xibecas e vinho tinto com gaseosa. E isto claro na rua, a fechar uma rua ao transito. Boa vida…

Calçotada al Carrer de Mozart