cake

More cake

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

A lovely family lunch today and someone brought cake!
The one with nuts on top is made from a kind of squash and is called Coca de Cabell D’Àngel’.

Cabell D’Àngel means Angel Hair.
The fruity one has crema inside – no need to tell you that there isn’t much left of that one! They were both delicious.

Interesting family fact of the week……here the word for parents is ‘pares’ which is also the word for fathers. The word for siblings is ‘germans’ which actually means brothers. It is a common mistake for people learning English to ask about your fathers or your brothers, regardless of gender.

Getting closer to Lent

~ Kate Wilson ~ 4 Comments

I have decided to change my diet for Lent – for the Cuaresma.  This will definitely mean giving up cake!
(except when my guests are here –  that would be rude!!!)
So today I made a quick chocolate sponge filled with the home-made nutella from last week.

You can see I am really serious about this! I have till Wednesday to eat it – with help I hope.

Monday and new beginnings

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

My friend Tiffany said last week how she likes to start the week well and I feel I managed it today.
We went for a long run/walk first thing then got the supermarket shopping out of the way before lunch. For once we had all the reusable bags we needed to put everything in and managed to pack them up before the cashier started to serve the next person (a pet hate of mine here where no matter how much you have spent in the shop they still see you as a nuisance if you don’t get out of the way to allow the next person through)
In the afternoon I went to a new drawing class with our friend Dolores. There were eight of us, all women, sitting around a large table and listening to UB40. The teacher Jordi taught us about the proportions of the human body and face and then after practising this, we read a short story and drew from our imagination some of the images from the tale

It is also my first day of trying to eat less. I stopped smoking (yes again!) a month ago and it has led to the inevitable. My plan wasn’t very radical – just to stop when I’m full. So I had only two slices of toast, I left the last raviolis in the dish and I only had one digestive biscuit with my tea. The challenge will come on Wednesday when I meet Tiffany in town.

Is it possible to meet for coffee and not eat a cake?

Virtual Vermut

~ Kate Wilson ~ 8 Comments

So at last we can sit down for a virtual vermut. It’s sunny and hot and I want to enjoy it to the full as I am off to Cornwall again on Wednesday and someone told me it’s cold there!
Sorry about Friday – I don’t know what happened with the blog site but it was impossible to get online. But my friend Bodhi Chicklet was ready with a bottle of bubbly on the right day so I hope you went over there instead!
So much of life seems dependent on technology now and it can really wind me up – only a few years ago these things didn’t exist and I don’t like feeling so vulnerable to the whim of the airwaves. Perhaps they are the new God – we don’t understand them but we try to please them and hope they won’t suddenly knock us to the ground.
I have the feeling that I keep up, but only just. I can’t get my phone to send pictures by email – something which would evoke derisive laughter from the Resident Adolescent, if I dared to ask him for help! And now yet again my  whiteboard drawings are stuck on the phone and I can’t send them here. Not even by Bluetooth……which I am quite proud of knowing about. It still fills me with awe that I can press a couple of buttons and music or a photo will just invisibly move from one machine to another.
If this is how I am at age 54 then how will it be in ten years time?
54 – yes, it was my birthday at the weekend and we went to the Costa Brava.  Sometimes I feel like an innocent abroad, a wide-eyed child who still jumps up and down with delight

I still get a thrill from words like Costa Brava, Mediterranean, Barcelona…..I have to pinch myself that I am here. Must be all those years living in rainy cold climates huffing with asthma and being buffetted by sharp winds. By the way, do you see those small beginnings of muscles on my arms? That’s the gym starting to work……more on that later.

So, when I see a vegetable market I HAVE to look round the stalls

And after shopping, I HAVE to have a coffee on the terrace of a cafe.
The sight of a pastisseria makes me HAVE to eat a cake

and when I find a beach with  sparkling blue green Mediterranean waves, I HAVE to swim

The taste of Orxata makes me swoon although I could have it every day if I wanted

Duna came too and enjoyed the sea, drinking it by the bucket after a long hot walk with the inevitable consequences later that night

Talking of markets and my excitement when I see one – I took these photos in Granollers last Thursday. I love this one of the men’s arms stretching across a sea of fruit and vegetables

These aubergines looked like a painting

Talking of arms…….I don’t know what to do about Golds Gym. I had a really good session last week and also a more tense one. Depending on who is in charge there is music on Flashfm or a combination of videos and music on CD.  If there are videos you get the opportunity to study at close range some of the fantasies of the men in the room. I don’t think you really want to know about this in detail. Perhaps another day I’ll tell you more. But sometimes I am so glad that I am probably the only person in the room who understands the words of the songs!
After one of these not-so-nice sessions I girded my loins to return on Thursday – only the promise that ‘running will make the weight drop off you’ makes me go on days like these. When I arrived the place was almost empty. No videos, no pumping muscles, no stern unsmiling faces to greet me at the door. I did my running – more than 20 minutes straight through. When you get on a roll it feels like you could go on for ever. Like you get into a groove and it carries you along.
No sign yet of ‘the weight dropping off’ me though.
Then, for the first time ever, another woman, who wasn’t Tiffany, walked in. Ok she didn’t look at me or smile and she was young beautiful and slim and dark. But somehow I felt the presence of more oestrogen in the room and it made me relax. I ran another 15 minutes before leaving with more of a strut than my usual scuttle to the door.
When you arrive in the gym this picture greets you

– after that it is all sweat and iron, noise and boys.
Hope to see you next week. We might have to make it a virtual gin and tonic? Not sure where to get vermut in Penzance.

April fool

~ Kate Wilson ~ 3 Comments

Two good things …on a day when I was counting them!

1. The box I sent from Cornwall finally arrived with lots of goodies including a stir fry sauce for tonights dinner with the family. I hope they won’t find the food too strange to enjoy. It’s a good way to send stuff from the UK if you don’t want to lug it over in a suitcase. It’s a door to door service and normally it arrives the next day.  Then it’s like opening a Christmas present as you have forgotten what you sent.
2. The birthday chocolate cake turned out ok!  I am worrying that it’s a bit British with loads of butter and chocolate and a more heavy sponge that is usual here but….I expect we’ll force it down!

I am sending this from my phone and have no idea where the photo will end up. Hope its not on its side like the last one.
Hope your April fools day was good!