Have you given up yet?

Hello folks. Yes it is me again from deepest darkest Brizzle. And what a fortnight it has been. We have been to London and Barcelona too, jet-setters that we are. I hope noone is recording our carbon footprint to throw back in our faces.

C&O had a few days to see Brizzle, but C still wasn't 100% so didn't see much at all. O did have a bit of a wander on occasion. J took them to Bath and to Wells, and they particularly enjoyed the latter as it was where the film Hot Fuzz had been filmed. They discovered a huge book warehouse in the countryside out that way as well which I will have to explore some time.

On Tuesday we flew to Barcelona. We were up at sparrow-fart to hop the Ryan Air flight so already tired when we got in, but the weather was nice - sunny and about 15C. C&O caught some sleep while J and I wandered around some of the sights. We went on to the Cathedral roof for a view, admired the palaus (palaces) lining the narrow streets and walked down to the Marina to sit in the sun. No sign of Health and Safety there - the piers have no barriers, and the ones on the bridge were about knee high. The city has plenty of wide boulevards as well as the barrios where the buildings are packed in cheek-by-jowl. It was also very clean, and I'd have to rate it one of the nicest cities I've been to.

The next day we all slept in before heading up the road to one of the Gaudi houses, Casa Battlo. I love his architecture. It is so different, very clever, colourful and of such a high standard of work. Absolutely amazing. As a small example, he uses graduated colours in the central light well, knowing that the stronger light at the top washes the colour out looking up, so stronger colour would be needed there than at the bottom. I'll talk about the Sagrada Familia later. We then admired some more examples of modernisme in the vicinity, though we missed one of his other major works, Casa Mila (La Pedrera) further up the street. We dragged C&O down to the marina, Port Vell for a late lunch in the sun then strolled back via some shops. J, C&O wandered off shoe shopping, while I hunted down the parts for an amazingly simple but useful 'monopod' that anyone who takes photos might like to use.

Non photographers should skip this section. You need:

• a 1" bolt to fit the tripod stand hole on your camera;




• a length of string from the ground to your eye level + 6-8" for knot tying;




• a large washer or long bolt suitable for standing on.

1. Tie one end of the string to the bolt, the other to the washer.




2. Screw the bolt into the camera.




3. If you stand on the washer and pull the camera up so the string is tight you will all but eliminate camera shake in the vertical plane, while still have freedom of movement in the horizontal. A possible variation would be to make a loop and stand in it with your feet apart. This should give even more stability.

This wasn't my idea of course but I have tried it and aside from you possibly looking like a dork, it is very effective. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Af3aJ2kviJ4

We had a reasonably early night though J and I wandered through to La Ramblas as the shops were closing. We were only a block from another example of modernisme, the Palau de la Musica Catalana. The next morning we were up and away a little earlier because we'd decided to take the hop on-hop off tour bus. We passed by half the sights on the basis we would return to them later but stopped at the Park Guell, another of Gaudi's 'works'. This was a fantastic park in the true sense of the word, very colourful and with very few straight lines to be seen anywhere. A curiosity that wasn't inspired by Gaudi were trains of caterpillars making their way goodness knows where, each holding the tail hairs of the one in front. Sadly the trains had often as not met cycle tyres or boots with predictable results.

O wanted a market so we got back on the tour bus and continued for a while. Sadly the market we'd picked was more food than goods so we didn't stop long. We must have been in the worst area for lunches in all of Barcelona, but eventually settled on kebabs for the blokes and something healthier for the ladies. We waited at the bus stop to get back on the tour, only to see the bus disappear down another street. It turned out the route had been temporarily changed but as we'd got off before the commentary told us we didn't hear. They could have put a sign on the bus stop don't you think? Anyway, we circled around some of the Olympic Games venues, past the beaches (though we didn't get off for a paddle as it was rather chilly in the wind), past the Zoo and back to very near our apartment. It wasn't a bad day, but again the hop on-hop off side of things is seldom used...

We went to an 'all you can eat' buffet for dinner but the food was so unappealing we didn't stay, instead settling for Mexican. There was some debate about the need to tip, with me on one side and the other three on the other. They were all wrong of course.

On the last day I really wanted to see the Sagrada Familia, and we did, only I took longer than the others who all buggered off to La Rambla without me. Gaudi was a genius. The engineering was based on the curves formed when you droop a length of string (hyperbolic? parabolic? carbolic?), and the whole church was designed using these loops, with appropriate weighting to reflect stress loads, then photographing it and printing it 'right-way up'. They tried to draw likenesses from nature in aspects of his designs but stretched it a bit I thought, when they used the DNA helix which was rather before his time. Bloody marvellous. Shame about the cranes, but Photoshop will take care of some of them... I joined the others on La Rambla where they were oohing and aahing over the animals in the pet shops that line the street.

We got the bus back to Girona and were home by 9pm. I think I've mixed up the periods in Bristol before and after Barcelona, but it doesn't matter. Essentially they did a bit of this, and a bit of that, and if you want precise details check Js blog. We did enjoy some good weather though, and wandered up to the bridge on the weekend, as well as taking the harbour ferry for a short trip down to the Great Western.

I had to work for the bits in between, and it hasn't been a great fortnight. Of the reports I ran I f%$ked up three with silly mistakes that ruined our team stats. Very disappointing, and I figure I may have to give my pay rise back at this rate.

On Tuesday night we drove up to London to be closer for the early start C&O had. T had put closing check-out time as 4:20am when that was the opening time, so we were a little peeved at having been up so early. Nevertheless, they got away, with bulging bags that only just squeaked under the weight limit. And no tears were shed!

J and I stayed in London for the day, J wandering around the sights (literally - she walked for miles!) and I at the IWM watching war footage. We both had good days in our own way.

Back to work and more problems, though not of my doing this time. Then on the weekend J managed to apply the old bamboo shoot torture to herself - see her blog for graphic details. We had a quiet one other than another stroll around the lock area of the harbour, where we actually caught the main gates opening. All for a motorboat, so not as exciting as it might have been.

J's been piling through the books, including Anna Karenina, at a great rate. Meanwhile I've been plodding through the British Official War Histories for Italy, and a few others of similar ilk. I've been mapping places and events on Google Earth. Bloody good programme that.

Tonight we won a long standing battle with the previous supplier of electricity to our flat by threatening them with the Ombudsman. Actually I think we just found a reasonable person on the other end of the phone. We finally got a figure we thought acceptable, and in fact lower than expected, so paid immediately. It just highlighted that they make the figures up as they go along though... (If only Col Blimp was as reasonable. I'm waiting for him to send the fees document through to Ws fax, after pointing out that the Privacy Act requires them to. A small step forward I hope.)

Dad's wedding invite arrived yesterday. 15th March in Riwaka if anyone wants to gate-crash. 8-)

For those of you who like my shots, follow this.

Adios