I broke a string! My first string of any racquet, badminton or tennis. My last string issue was an undone knot on a tennis racquet. I didn't even notice my broken string until I picked up my racquet for the next game. Could have been playing with it for several points. Duh!
On the weekend, I went to visit Eppie & Taffy's Auntie Hannah in Leeds. She is a very nervous driver and said that if I was willing to drive, she could provide a car for us to visit some ruins nearby.
We went to Bolton Abbey, an old ruin in Yorkshire Dales, seat of the Duke of Devonshire. There are some nice walks as well as the ruins of the abbey. There is still a working chapel attached to the ruins, which hosted a wedding while we were there. After our visit, we stopped at a tea cottage and had Devonshire Teas, though this is not what they call it. Here it is simply known as Cream Tea.
Auntie Hannah took me to a lovely dinner at the Hilton in central Leeds. I had duck. Ha, ha! Of course, I did. : )
On Sunday, we were planning to visit the Bronte parsonage but when we dropped by the office to pick up some Hakubaku noodles for Taffy, we discovered a break-in. A side window had been smashed and the metal grill on the inside ripped out. The whole building had been ransacked and vandalised. We waited for the police to come and I must say, when he did come, he was the most pleasant policeman I have ever come across in any country. My previous experiences with the police have never been good, most of them having a distinct lack of empathy or treating me like a child, telling me off for not having done things correctly. Because there were issues with the alarm and security system not functioning as expected, Auntie Hannah had to stay there until 6pm that evening. At about 1pm, she asked an employee to give me a lift to Leeds city centre so that I could do some shopping before heading back to London and not waste the whole day sitting outside the office. Damn Taffy and his Hakubaku noodles!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Barcelona
I spent Easter in sunny/rainy Barcelona. The forecasts predicted heavy rain for Saturday and Sunday, which greatly affected my enthusiasm for the trip. It ended up being heavy rain overnight on Friday night, showers on Saturday and heavier & heavier rain on Sunday.
All the warnings I had from people before and during my trip about pickpockets and purse-snatchers made me completely paranoid about my belongings. However, I did not see anything that would make me feel that Barcelona was more dangerous than any large city. The transport system was clean, relatively easy to use and efficient. The streets were also clean and not too overrun with beggars (most were hanging around the Cathedral trying to guilt the church-goers into some philanthropy).
I found Barcelona strangely disappointing. Many people have told me that they loved it but it was not as beautiful & interesting as they said. Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, Casa Batllo & Parc Guell are quirky in their design but as they are all very similar to each other, the unusual started to seem quite common-place & unremarkable.
Las Ramblas had a lot of street performers, most of whom were of the statue kind. The best one was a guy who looked like he was running quickly, his tie blown over his shoulder, his trenchcoat flying behind him and his hair all windblown. The Mercat de la Boqueria was alive with fresh produce stalls, food stalls and massive crowds. When I got down to the waterfront, the sun was out and shining brightly off all of the yachts.
I had been to the visiting Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria and seen some of his non-crazy cubism work, which is actually really good. The Museu Picasso concentrates on his early work from his teens to his thirties, which included his traditional artistic education and his Blue & Rose periods. His pencil & ink sketches are also really great. They had a collection of the pottery that he made late in his life, which were weird and not wonderful.
The one thing that exceeded my expectations was the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat, which contained a massive excavated site of Roman ruins right below the heart of the city. There were streets, a wine maker, baths and a laundry, where clothes were washed using the urine of passers-by, who pee-ed into collection amphoras (I love this word, first learnt it in Asterix) that were put in the street (eew!).
On the food front, a colleague of mine who lives in Barcelona gave me a bunch of recommendations. I went to a couple of tapas bars and a restaurant where I had a Catalan sausage & white bean dish and profiteroles. I almost overdosed on a chocolate con churros, the chocolate being so thick & rich and the churros so oily and crunchy.
All the warnings I had from people before and during my trip about pickpockets and purse-snatchers made me completely paranoid about my belongings. However, I did not see anything that would make me feel that Barcelona was more dangerous than any large city. The transport system was clean, relatively easy to use and efficient. The streets were also clean and not too overrun with beggars (most were hanging around the Cathedral trying to guilt the church-goers into some philanthropy).
I found Barcelona strangely disappointing. Many people have told me that they loved it but it was not as beautiful & interesting as they said. Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia, La Pedrera, Casa Batllo & Parc Guell are quirky in their design but as they are all very similar to each other, the unusual started to seem quite common-place & unremarkable.
Las Ramblas had a lot of street performers, most of whom were of the statue kind. The best one was a guy who looked like he was running quickly, his tie blown over his shoulder, his trenchcoat flying behind him and his hair all windblown. The Mercat de la Boqueria was alive with fresh produce stalls, food stalls and massive crowds. When I got down to the waterfront, the sun was out and shining brightly off all of the yachts.
I had been to the visiting Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria and seen some of his non-crazy cubism work, which is actually really good. The Museu Picasso concentrates on his early work from his teens to his thirties, which included his traditional artistic education and his Blue & Rose periods. His pencil & ink sketches are also really great. They had a collection of the pottery that he made late in his life, which were weird and not wonderful.
The one thing that exceeded my expectations was the Museu d'Historia de la Ciutat, which contained a massive excavated site of Roman ruins right below the heart of the city. There were streets, a wine maker, baths and a laundry, where clothes were washed using the urine of passers-by, who pee-ed into collection amphoras (I love this word, first learnt it in Asterix) that were put in the street (eew!).
On the food front, a colleague of mine who lives in Barcelona gave me a bunch of recommendations. I went to a couple of tapas bars and a restaurant where I had a Catalan sausage & white bean dish and profiteroles. I almost overdosed on a chocolate con churros, the chocolate being so thick & rich and the churros so oily and crunchy.
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