Granollers

Sunday

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

Today……..I didn’t sew the curtains, I didn’t go to Barcelona for the Indignats demonstration, I didn’t study Catalan for my exam on tuesday, I didn’t succeed in sending a blog post from my ‘smarter than me’ phone.  I also didn’t manage to speak to my sister or any of the friends I tried to ring, I didn’t eat lunch and I didn’t run or do yoga or the 20 sit-ups that I imagine doing every day.

I also didn’t smoke – it’s been more than a month now!
Today………I went for a walk with Duna through the quiet streets in the centre of town and ended up having two coffees and a chocolate pastry while reading my book in the sunshine. I watched hundreds of people stream out of the church and wondered what they had been doing. I also spoke to my brother, cooked lentils for supper, washed the floor, started reading yet another book (now 5 at the same time) Women Who Run With Wolves, watched the news in Catalan and hardly understood a word. And I wrote this post here, hopefully with a drawing, which I will do now!
And that, said John, is that.

In Transition

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

Settling down here again.
Yesterday we went on the bikes to see the Fira de L’Ascenció in the Parc Firal. I hadn’t thought of having a celebration of Jesus’ ascension to heaven but it is a big festival here. One of the important aspects of the ascension is that Jesus levitated to heaven in his mortal body – he didn’t change first into something more spiritual. When you think of this it must have been an incredible and miraculous sight!
The Fira de L’Ascenció was much more down to earth.
We were greeted with stetson wearing line dancers and Irish music – Whisky in the Jar. There were hundreds of people selling things from cars to wooden sheds to sausages

  And more sausages

 As usual I found the idea of the Fira much more agreeable than the crowded noisy reality with some poor farm animals being gawped at and tickled by hordes of children.
There was a lovely stall selling honey from the Pyranees but we’d had enough of the commercial side of L’Ascenció by then

 So we went back into Granollers centre and watched the dismanting of giants in the Porxada


Nestled behind the displays were rows of tidy tents housing the Granollers acampada.
Calling for something different – for change!

Choosing a Book in the Library

~ Kate Wilson ~ 6 Comments

A friend in London mentioned to me that there are some famous Catalan crime writers who have been translated into English and who are worth reading.
I decided to have a look in the library and try to get one in Catalan

  I didn’t know any names so I asked the women who work there and who are usually very friendly.
” Can you help me?  Who are the most famous Catalan crime writers? The ones everyone wants to read and who have been translated into English?’
The answer – blank looks, shrugged shoulders, ‘No se’
Do you think that is strange? Perhaps crime fiction is more a British fascination? I could name you at least 10 crime writers in English while they couldn’t come up with one.
No problem. I love libraries and feel totally at home when I’m there. I started to go along the shelves looking at every book – except the ones on the bottom shelf which I am too lazy to bend down to!
But it’s not the same as looking in a library in the UK

1.     Some books are in Catalan. Some are in Castellano. Some are translations from other languages.
2.     There are helpful pictures on the spines so you can concentrate on the genre you want – I looked only at the guns and the Sherlock Holmes silhouettes

 3.       Once you find the genre, you look at the authors name – PD James – no. Ian Rankin – no. Francisco García Pavon – no because it sounds Spanish. Javier Calvo – that sounds promising and yes he is from Barcelona but no – it’s written in castellano! Some Catalan authors write in Spanish to reach a wider audience. But more and more the original version is in Catalan.     Teresa Solana – aha! She sounds interesting.
4.       Now I get to the part where I actually pull a book out of the stack. Ignoring large fat ones, I look at the first sentences and decide if it will be possible to get the gist without using a dictionary.
5.        Finally I decided on this one – the author is from Menorca and that is where the action happens.

Fifteen minutes before the library closes for lunch they begin to pipe music in through speakers on every floor. The first time this happened I thought someone had forgotten to turn off their mobile phone and was surprised that noone started to Shush!!! 

Granollers bits and pieces

~ Kate Wilson ~ 1 Comment

I remember one day in Penzance a woman came into Fields Chemist asking where she could find a Perfumeria. None of us really understood what she was wanting. Did she want perfume, face cream, make-up?  All of this she could get in Hammers Chemist as well as medicines and toothpaste. But no. She didn’t want those things. She wanted a Perfumeria and couldn’t believe there was no such place. A cultural divide.
Well….here in Granollers ……you can’t walk more than a few hundred yards without passing a Perfumeria. Every time I pass one I wonder how much perfume a town can use.  They sell lots of things except for medicines. For that you go to a Farmacia.

 In the evening the centre of town is full of noise and bustle. People shop and have coffee and walk around with their families, friends and dogs. Duna looks peaceful here but actually I couldn’t relax in the shop as every time another dog passed she got up to bark frantically and yank on the lead. At other times  I looked out to see her lying on her back with a new friend patting her tummy. Men especially can’t resist her and I have many conversations in the street about her age, breed, gender, and name.

 There are lots of places to sit in the streets – so if you are waiting for a friend you can relax and watch the world go by. These benches are designed so you can put your feet up!

Today – thursday – is market day so now I am off to battle through the crowds and practise my catalan vegetable vocabulary.

Bloggy Things

~ Kate Wilson ~ 2 Comments

Today I met up with two nice friends Tiffany and Oreneta who also write about life here in Catalunya.
It is one of the things I like about writing this blog – you get in touch with other interesting people and some of them turn out to live close enough to meet for a coffee. Lots of laughs.
And another lunch at the Baalek!

Afterwards the three of us had a very peaceful walk around Granollers showing Oreneta all the landmarks and points of interest. And we realised that there are LOTS!
Neither Tiffany nor I had a clue how many people live in Granollers – it is something people always ask me but I never know the answer….until now….Oreneta found out that 60,000 live here. So there you are!

Something I feel foolishly pleased about happened today. I have a counter that tells me how many people visit the blog every month and today I reached 500+ visits for April. This is the most I have ever had and somehow it felt really exciting to know that out there are all those people who read what I am writing.
Thank you all for coming here!

Also we discovered that it is really easy to leave a comment even if you don’t have a google account. You just write your message and then tick NAME and send it off. You can ignore where it says URL and all that. Just Name and Send. I know lots of people don’t feel like writing something public and prefer to send me emails and others are happy to read without writing but…. just in case you were hesitating because it is hard –  it isn’t!

News from the gym
I went today and stayed a good hour. The music was great – most of it I recognised from our resident adolescents favourites so I could sing along. Tiffany was there for some of the time which made it much nicer and after she left I had ‘my’ part all to myself so I could wobble and pant in peace.
Great Day!