i’ve spent a whole lot of time wasting time on the net. mainly reading, about tech, about mountains, about photography. cramming more information in there. harriet thinks my laptop is the ideal bed, but only when i am trying to use it!

but i have also been a little active. no visits to the beach, i think i will do enough of that in cadiz next week.

on tuesday i cooked a lasagne from scratch, and it was delicious, and super cheesey, my belly shows growth!

but on wednesday marta went to work. she’s not too happy about it, but who would be after a 5 month holiday?

so i went to montserrat not the Caribbean island but the monastery/mountain slightly inland from barcelona. i was a fool and not only left the gps at home, but didn’t even think to look at the map. i drove past the mountain on the way to andorra, and thought i could find my way there unaided. so i ended up with a tour of central barcelona, and many traffic lights!

the mountain is very interesting, and the reason i went was to walk, not so much to visit the monastery. i’m told that excavations centuries ago unearthed a statue of the virgin mary and the monks build their refuge there. i was going to walk from the base of the mountain, but since there was no information online, i couldn’t find a route to start from so rove to the monastery. very touristy! but i made for the summits (there are funicular railways but that takes the joy out of it) and went to the further higher peak. very nice warm day, but it was hazy, so no great views. i made my way to the other side of the mountain, where the lift goes. i made my way down. i had a quick look around the new monastery. there are even hotels built up there! but i missed out the main attraction, the caves built into the mountain by the monks, purposely. i will make another trip back there and walk the entire mountain from the base to the caves. it’s the only large mountain so easily accessible.

to find other routes, i will have to enlist marta to search the net, or invest in some books, or wait until i get to the alps.

yesterday i walked from badalona to barcelona, about 20km and took some photos. i ended the evening in a bar with a transsexual and a couple of others. so it was nice to socialise, and made me feel like i was in london in a way.

i feel i’ve missed much socialising this summer, but i think it is relative, because i have done a lot, even though it isn’t like london. it’s great to have new experiences and do new things.

i’m thinking about buying a kite, so that i can learn to kite surf!

some flickr pics of mine:

i’m off to seville to meet ben, harry and amy on monday and stay in cadiz for a few days, so more sun sun sun!!

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so i haven´t bene doing much. i wake up, walk a bit, look for things to do.

mainly i spend the day trying not to move unless it´s worthwhile, because otherwise i sweat a bit. i´m glad i´m not a big swaeter, because i think it would be horrible here.

the most productive things that i have done are book some flights.

on the 8th i am flying to seville to meet harry ben and amy to spend some time on the beach at cadiz. so life as usual, except stronger sun, so need to get some stronger cream.

i return here on the 16th, only to fly to england on the 17th. i´m flying to manchester. dad wont collect me until the evening of the 17th, so i have to find something to do with myself for a day.
then we are going to go walking in teh lake district, so some cool weather which i can´t wait for!

then i´m back here the 21st.

harriet has an appointment with the vet on the 25th. and then maybe i will make a move. unless i have to make another vet appointment. i want to get harriet her passpiort as soon as possible.

i had a serious look into buying a car,
so to register a car in spain and get licence plates will cost over 3000euros!
cars in spain are more expensive than say germany.
cars are nicely cheaper in germany and switzerland.
if i really feel i need a car when i get back to switzerland, i will get one there, as most other countries will be difficult to get my own insurance in.

cars wise i was looking at audi a4 estate diesel 4wd, as this looks the most sensible option. i can afford a nice one, but do i need it.

needless to say i will forget about that for now, and hope that the rover does it´s job.

more flickr updates to see:

here

fin.

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so i have been a little busy since i last updated. we haven’t had a good wifi signal here for a while.

i have sun bathed on a nudist beach. i much prefer being naked on the beach, even if it is with a friends family.

i went for a walk to a castle. and on the way home rescued a homeless kitten

she is beautiful and cute, and friendly, and always wants feeding!
the vet says she is in beautiful shape. she had worms and bacteria, but they have been cleaned up. she is in for her first vaccination soon. it will be a while before she is a ok for a passport, in the spring she should be ok to travel to the UK.
but she will join me in the mountains this winter.
it’s a little peculiar being vegetarian and buying meaty stuff!

we finally sold granny and grandad’s house which is great that it is out of the way.

marta and i went to andorra. do not go to andorra it is horrible. the mountains around there are nice. but andorra is a tiny cramped country, steep mountains with it’s valleys filled with horrid shopping centres selling overpriced crap to thousands of smokey tourists.

i have finally managed to get up to date uploading my photos of my travels and life to flickr. it has taken me 8-9 months to get back to this state, but i’m sure i will fall back when i get moving again! it helps to upload pictures that are 1024683 rather than 3888×2592, much quicker!

so have a look at a few:

so we’re off to the beach now, woo!!!

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i’ve been uploading photos.

marta has returned from menorca.

i’ve been catching up with blogs i watch.

i’ve been eating rice.

i’ve found interesting things:

5 million lego pieces used to make a boulder for an Indiana Jones scene recreation:

old people fencing (press photo for more):

some of mine:

anne:

me and marta in mataro:

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today has involved many explosions, some pleasant,a nd some not.

at lunch time i hurt myself a lot! i made soup and the bowl i poured it into exploded, couldn’t handle the tastey mushroomy godness soup! or the heat.my heeart is racing, argh! got cuts on my feet and burned thumbs and shins. eeeeeeeeep owch!

so as a result i didn’t feel much like going out. there isn’t much to do on sunday, just lazing on the beach.

so i’ve started watching batman. i’ve been beaten up by marta’s rabbit. and i let it out of teh cage twice, evil evil girl! i’ve uploaded some more photos:

damn alignment!!!!!

and lastly i watched the fireworks. so ow the Mataro party is almost over for the year.

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the origins of sata claus (quoted from wikipedia):

“The origins of Joulupukki

One interesting theory about the origins of Joulupukki and his flying reindeer, comes from the aboriginal Sami people of Lapland. In the forests there is a common poisonous mushroom, Amanita muscaria that is red with white dots. The shamans of Sami used to feed this mushroom to the reindeer, whereby the intestinal tract of the reindeer would filter out the poison, but leave the intoxicating substances. The urine of the reindeer would then be collected, and used as a hallucinogenic by the shamans. The shamans would often have out-of-the-body experiences and fly in the sky, returning through the chimney hole of their tent or cottage to their bodies. This shamanistic tradition would nicely explain the flying reindeer, the use of chimneys, and even the red-white colouring of Joulupukki.”

interesting.

so today was hot hot hot, well it felt like it. yesterday i got reading my book,a nd spent a long time reading it, i must have read over 200 pages of it. i couldn’t put it down, and i didn’t go to sleep until after 2am because of it.

i will not start another book until i have found a job. i probably wont read if i have a job, due to lack of time.

so today i woke up just before lunch, and wandered to the beach to sleep some more.

marta’s mum is great she cooks food and leaves it here for me to eat.

so i’m off out with marta’s mum and mum’s boyfriend to teh town party, and maybe out later, but i don’t plan on being out too late, i’m taking no money. and i wish to go to barcelona to continue my job hunt, earlier in the day, to avoid having to walk or move in the heat.

photo i took in sweden of an old volvo, now hotrod with flames paint job:

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so i’m sun burned.

this morning when i walked past the mirror i notice how white my legs are compared to the rest of my body, well my thighs and arse are white as snow. i even took photos, for my 365 days.

so yeh my legs are tingly, serves me right for thinking my legs were so white that they’d reflect the sun!!!! i also have photos i just took, to show the after. these will all be online at a later date for all to laugh at!

no luck with a job yet.

excitment adventure:

i like to explore, i walk when possible because i like walking and exploring. i don’t fear getting lost, i don’t fear getting attacked, so it is rare than i feel the need to move a little quicker.

today i felt the need to move a little faster.

i walked to vilassa de mar to catch the train, 6km. took a short cut by a supermarket hoping to get to the beach. there is a stretch of 2km here where there is no beach, just rocks, and people don’t usually walk there. but i could at least see a road beyond this field. since there were cars and people at the other end i assumed that it was a well used short cut.

however when i got to the other end of the field i found it was all men, and they weren’t going anywhere. i could see that the road was 10m away from me by now, but up a steep slope and past a fence, but when i realised that all of these men were walking around in the trees and in this tunnel, all of whom were part naked or fully naked, i realised it wasn’t where i wanted to be, and rushed up this slope and to the road.

i finally got to a tunnel to the beginning of the next section of beach to see that the tunnel they were going down went to nothing but sea. no nudist beach!

so on my way back i went a slightly different route, but still cut by teh opposite side of the field, i felt it was safe as a cyclist was doing the same. but as i was a 1/4 through the field there was a tree with 2 men under, both naked and one masterbating.

i came across this once in london on walthamstow marsh while i was exploring.

eeep is all i can say! hehe.

this photo i took way back in may in berlin, i love it. so much so that it’s been my comuter background since:

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so today turned out pretty unproductive.

last night i spoke with dad online, and then just as i was about to head to sleep nic came online, so for her it was afternoon and me it was morning already, so i got to sleep late, so woke up late, and spent today uploading to flickr, researching jobs, reading about history, and checking out gadgets.

i have a plan set for tomorrow and places to visit. i’m not so comfortable about cheating the train company, but not paying, whether it’s a fear of getting caught, or morals, it doesn’t matter, but hey it’s spain and everybody seems to do it. i find it hard to take in, how open people are about stealing in this country.

so a photo: (anne in our hotel room in the Qbic hotel, within the Amsterdam World Trade Centre)

i saw indiana jones in copenhagen, thought it was pretty crap, but am now downloading hulk and batman. funny how i find this acceptable, but i grew up with this, as i guess do spanish people with their lifestyle!

good night

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this is mainly for dad, as i know you read this. but here are the photos from the day of granny’s funeral:

the montage:

and the photo of us looking smart:

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so i got back from denmark friday.

i loved it,
5 weeks living in a tent,
4 weeks picking strawberries,
hanging with many breton people,
accordion playing,
parties,
rain and cold,
sun and hot and tan,
danish people,
danske,
ice creams,
much food,
cakes,
most beautiful beaches,
swimming in cold sea,
bicycle riding,
working hard,
practicing french.
i really liked denmark and may spend some more time there in the future.

i’ve put on weight, at least one ice cream every day in denmark, means maybe 50 ice creams! and in copenhagen 2 cakes a day for a week. i need to exercise!!!!!!!

for now, i have uploaded more pics to my flickr, go see! they are from ages ago now, but little by little i will catch up!

i’ve completed my verbier winter, and started my road trip. most of my photos in verbier were for my 365 day project, meh.

so tomorrow i start to job hunt, as i have no money.

ideas:
help martin finish building his boat before winter.
pick grapes in france. (mis september to end of october)

but before i can do anything i must work a while here as i’m uber broke.

before winter i must return to london to get my snowboard gear.

also i promised to take nic to climb a mountain somewhere in europe. for this i am looking for other who wish to join.

i’d quite like to see some people in brittany also.

finally i will most likely return to switzerland for the winter, for money reasons mainly as pay is so much better there.

i miss people in london and want to see them!

on a side note, i have managed to get my computer connected to a network here at marta’s, and i love my computer lots, the web and computers are finally advancing to a reasonable point for using the internet.

i’d like a small computer or device with wifi for using on the move. i have no money but can dream. ideas are:
htc diamond, phone like iphone but with more features.
ipone 3g.
asus eee pc, mini pc no bigger than a primary school note book (A5).
cowon q5w, media player.
all of these are similarly priced £200-£300. all could fit into my bag.

also i learned that i need a portable hard disk, as travelling and taking photos causes problems when memory cards are full. another thing i must save for!

tak.

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