Author: Kate Wilson

Election Day

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

Today was voting day in the Catalan elections – for the Catalan parliament. I don’t have a vote but went along to see what happens at the voting station. It was a beautiful autumn day

The streets were empty because it was a Sunday perhaps to make sure more people are free to vote and also no need to close schools for the day. ( I know that is part of the fun in the UK but here there are already so many days of fiesta)
I am just beginning to get my head round the political parties – they all have very long names which end up being acronymised. CiU  PSC ERC PPC and the lengthy ICV- EUiA and many more smaller ones.
The streets have been festooned with posters of the leaders and their slogans.


 At the polling station there is a long table with all the possible parties to vote for.
Each paper lists the candidates for one party only.The voter takes a list – only one – and puts it in an envelope then drops that in a box. You vote for a party – the list names all the candidates in one party and the ones at the top are the leaders who will definitely get elected.

At the moment it looks like CiU have won the most votes but without a majority. So they can decide to govern an a minority or form an alliance. Artur Mas will be president and so I’ll be seeing a lot more of him on TV. Sorry there is no photo – I don’t know what happened to it as I’m sure I took one.
There are 3 possible coalition partners. Thanks to this web site for helping me understand it all a bit better – in English. Now to watch the discussion about coalitions – that will be a good way to learn more. Here there are so many levels of connection and separation – there is the question of independence as well as the obvious differences between left and right.

How to Build a Castle

~ Kate Wilson ~ Leave a comment

Get a group of people wearing same colour tee shirts to form a huddle and hold hands tightly.

Put a few more on top of the first ones shoulders with arms linked.
Red head scarves help but are not compulsory. Sashes around the waists are vital.

Get a few more to scramble on top, using the sashes as ladders.

Wobble around a bit and go back to the beginning if it doesn’t feel totally right.

Listen to the man at the bottom who is shouting instructions.

Add another layer.

Don’t think too much about those down at the bottom who are providing the base.

It can all get quite intimate.

Add some more layers.

Once the music has started you have to continue.


Just when you think it can’t go any higher
Add another layer
Now send up some small children to climb over the summit.

Don’t look down!

Here’s another one with different coloured tee-shirts.
 To read more about the Catalan tradition of making human castles click HERE
Or watch this BBC film.
I have been in Catalunya for almost a year and a half but only saw my first human castles last Sunday in the Porxada in Granollers. Is this a record?

How to Beat the Alien Blues

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

There’s no doubt that living in another country sometimes is lonely. There are so many things that are easier to do when you speak the language, know who to ask, can make a phone call without having to practise first.

Things I have found challenging but which I have succeeded in doing include
•  buying cheese from a cheese counter and asking to taste first
•  going to the dentist for an emergency filling
•  having my hair cut and coloured
•  visiting a gynaecologist
•  teaching tango classes in Spanish
•  driving the car alone around town

Things I still find challenging so have put off doing include
•  sorting out my liability insurance so I can practise acupuncture
•  phoning the appropriate agency to find out why I have not been given a health card
•  opening a bank account
•  looking for somewhere to rent out of town that has a garden
•  driving a bit further afield alone – to the beach for example

Perhaps these things seem silly – you wouldn’t find them tricky – or maybe you would have other sillier things that would stump you. But in the end it comes down to confidence and sometimes when you are feeling a little alien it can be the small things that get to you. Like today the little girl laughing and pointing at me when I passed on the bike – I felt the wheels wobble along with my sense of belonging.

So what to do?
1. Accept
Yes I am different. Here amongst all these brown-eyed dark haired people I look like an alien. I can’t hide it so better to walk tall and proud.

2. Keep it in Proportion
When something shakes you, don’t let it bring down the whole building. Maybe I looked funny that moment on the bike, big bag of Catalan books on my back, frowning as I tried to weave between all the children and parents coming out of school. It doesn’t mean I am a total freak – old, fat and ugly!

3. Remember there are people who love you
Today I was feeling alone and vulnerable but there are people in my life who like me, who smile when they see me, who want to spend time with me. Without this backup support it is normal to feel fragile.

4. It is Normal
In a new life, living in a different culture, surrounded by voices speaking another language it would be strange if you didn’t sometimes feel like an alien. The important thing is not to take it too personally – there will be days when everything lifts and excites you and others when there seems a conspiracy to defeat you. In some ways I AM different. I have had to change some habits, to modify the way I behave. After all it is my choice to live here and….when in Rome….
The good thing is that here I have an excuse for feeling like an alien – when this happens in the UK perhaps it means that I really do come from Mars!

5. Find a Cake
Today I wobbled on into the town centre, noticed all the people meeting and greeting friends and family, decided not to run for home, went into a cafe and ordered a coffee and a cake. I didn’t have my camera so can’t show you how delicious and beautiful it was but…..it was soft and sweet, on top was a layer of yellow creamy custard and the woman who served it started to chat with me about learning Catalan. I cut it into small pieces and ate it slowly, remembering how lucky I am to be here.

PS For the sake of the blog I went back next day and took a photo of the same cake!  Before eating it.

What things do you find a challenge in another country?

Amma in Granollers

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

For the past three days the Indian spiritual teacher Amma has been in Granollers. A large sports centre was transformed into a place to meditate, listen to Indian sacred music, eat fantastic curry, and of course to receive darshan. Amma is known to many followers as Mother and she travels the world blessing people with an embrace. People queue for hours to kneel in front of her, lay their heads on her breast and be hugged.

 I went on the last day, cycling straight down through town.  The sports centre is at one end of the long main street and we live at the other. In the distance a mountain, rising like a massive breast with a nipple on top seemed to beckon me to meet the Mother.

On arrival I felt my usual discomfort at some of the paraphenalia of ‘spiritual’ events. The circus was in town. People dressed in white,  stalls selling over-priced jewellery, a sensation of being in a market place with pushing and jostling seemingly no different than in Granollers weekly market. One part of me expected people to be more loving and generous, not to elbow to the front of the queue or to stand chatting at the top of the stairs so you couldn’t get past. Another part of me resisted the temptation to judge and belittle. Have I come here looking for something? And if so what?

The darshan room was enormous and almost full.  People were shopping and chatting and moving about, but there was also someone else there – small and still, sitting at the front, hugging people. The queue leading up to her stretched out of the hall, every few seconds it moved forward as the hugging progressed and the flow towards Amma continued.  I watched what was happening on overhead screens where you could see Amma closeup.

Over and over again the same action. Each hug lasting about 7 seconds. She was surrounded by helpers who guided the process so that it never stopped. People queued for hours, they arrived at the front, they knelt, helpers pushed their heads down onto her chest – not always so gently it seemed and I was reminded of open-air baptisms where the face is submerged in the water.
Over and over again. I looked at books, I went and ate a wonderful masala dosa in the restaurnat, I sat and meditated in the great hall, I fell asleep for a while as I hadn’t seen the notice prohibiting sleeping in the darshan room……and each time I returned my gaze to Amma, there she was, still hugging. It was incredible how she could keep smiling and making this intense physical contact.There was something very moving about the repetition, the simplicity of the thing.
There were musicians playing, people milling around and many volunteers helping with food and tickets and guiding the long queues of people waiting for darshan. I was feeling tired and decided in the end not to go up for a hug.  It felt good to be in the room – watching the flow of people and flicking my eyes between the screen which was showing Amma as she worked, and the real Amma who was often obscured from view. The real and the virtual Amma.

I got very excited about the food and actually ate two masala dosas on the same day. It is my favourite Indian food  and I used to eat it every week in the Keralan restaurant Rasa in Stoke Newington London.  There was lassi to drink and samosas and little coconut sweets. I felt rather guilty that the food was such a highlight for me and that I didn’t queue for an embrace but after all isn’t this what mothers do? Feed you and hug you? For some reason this time I chose the food.
Final impressions
It felt good to have such an international event happening here. Granollers can feel rather conventional and stuffy so I enjoyed the exhuberance of colour and different faces, new music and spicy food. The town is a commercial centre for the region and this injection of spirituality felt important. Generally the social hub of Granollers is in the main shopping streets.  This time there were thousands of people coming together just for a hug.  And I am now thinking that next time she comes I will join the queue.

Is there anything you miss?

~ Kate Wilson ~ 7 Comments

People often ask me what I miss about Cornwall. After more than a year in Catalunya I am getting clearer about my answer although probably it would change depending on when you ask me and on who is asking! I am back in Penwith for a week. It stirs you up coming back and at the same time you have so much to do that you hardly have time to sit back and think let alone feel.
Here is my answer for today and I’m not including the obvious answer – friends and family.


It is not easy to buy flowers in Granollers. Not just a normal ordinary reasonably-priced bunch of garden flowers for the house – which I like to do every week and used to do here when I lived in Penzance.  The florists in Granollers have posh flowers and houseplants and they are expensive.

I really really miss second hand shops and charity shops. They don’t seem to exist in Granollers. I miss being able to rummage through books and china and clothes. I also miss having somewhere convenient to take things I want to get rid of. What do people do with their old stuff?  Dump it?

Here is the wonderful Honeypot in Penzance. Not only is it a great place to meet friends and to watch the world go by but they have fantastic food. There are always several vegetarian dishes. This day I had delicious sweet corn fritters with a spicy sauce and cornish potatoes and salad. I just wish it was easier to find vegetarian food in restaurants in Catalunya. Interesting, tasty and spicy vegetarian food.

I love the cliffs here – I love the landscape in Catalunya too but what is lovely here is that I can drive for no more than ten minutes along quiet country lanes and end up here.
And of course I miss my dogs – two border collies who can bark too much, don’t really know how to behave in town, sometimes growl at strangers but are intelligent and loving and beautiful. I want to pack them in the van ( which by the way broke down as soon as I arrived here) and take them home with me to Granollers. But what sort of a life would they have without a garden? And what sort of life would I have with three dogs to walk twice a day in town?
Tomorrow I go home, I say goodbye to my dogs and my house and the cliffs, rain, wind and mud. I feel I am going home – I look forward to arriving back in my life in Granollers – so much awaits me.  Each time I make the journey it is another letting go, another chance to make the decision and to say Yes. But it is complicated and making the choice doesn’t mean that one is better than the other. Just different.