Gaudi with a side of tapas

Last October, I went to Barcelona for a hens weekend. I was sick the whole time and the most memorable part of my trip was the excruciating pain in my ears as we were landing back into London, and the curse of Heathrow - circling in a holding pattern for over 30 minutes.

So this time round I was fighting fit and we managed once again to squeeze soooo many things into the 2 days. I told Panu that surely making me walk this much was some form of abuse, especially the hike up to Parc Güell, but man was it worth it, and definitely the highlight of my trip.

I really didn't notice it last time, but the entire city has touches of Gaudi speckled in every corner. From the Parc, to La Pedrera - Gaudi's most famous apartment block, to just random buildings which obviously had the Gaudi touch.





























One thing I did remember from my last trip was the La Boqueria markets, on La Rambla. If i fell so madly in love with it while too sick to blink, it must've been something! And it's just as I remember it. The food, colours, smells - it was all amazing. And lucky we went on Saturday because I loved it so much I wanted to go back on Sunday, and it was closed! Blasphemy!


Well a closed market doesn't stop me, does it? We proceeded to stuff ourselves with paella and tapas, so much so that i couldn't lay down to sleep and when I did eventually doze off, i apparently snored like the good little pig that i am!



















Overall an awesome trip, and I even learnt that churros is breakfast food!

More photos here.

contemplating a move...

... so i've been blogging for oh my god, almost 5 years now. i started on xanga, whose restrictive nature forced me to find refuge elsewhere, and hence i landed on blogger. after four solid years with blogger, i'm feeling the distinct urge to stretch my blogging legs and get my own domain.

i've started shopping for a good web publishing tool - there's always Frontpage, or Dreamweaver, both costing a small fortune. I've also been recommended Wordpress by mchyl, and noticed that a number of blogs I love are also powered by Wordpress.

i'm this close to giving Wordpress a go - is there any other advice out there?

as for hosting services, I'm keen to go with Blue Host.

the man himself, Eric Clapton

Last Wednesday night, Panu and I headed to the Royal Albert Hall to experience the man himself, Eric Clapton, in concert. To be honest, I didn’t know what to expect because I’m usually very easily impressed by big sets, big costumes and tacky pyrotechnics and here I was thinking, what’s this guy gonna do with a guitar?

Well, well, well. He put me right back in my box. There is a reason why this guy is in his 60’s and still a certified rock star, the least of which is his out-of-this-world ability to jam that guitar (both acoustic and electric) like he has eight tentacles on each finger... which is all self-taught, by the way. And his voice: sexy and gravelly, dark chocolate smooth, effortless, mesmerising and tantalising. I would be totally turned on if he wasn’t so old.. cos that’s just kinda wrong.

He played all the classics – Layla, I Shot the Sheriff, Wonderful Tonight... but what actually topped my night was his soulful rendition of Somewhere over the Rainbow, which left me a little weepy, though I don’t really know why... it was just brilliant.

Incidentally his band is also just a little bit jaw droppingly phenomenal. These guys could all be superstars in their own right.

a few more piccies here.

pippy

Went shopping today to get another pair of converse All Stars©, and came back with a cute pair of Rocketdog Pippy flats instead. Quite cute, not very me, but I hope to grow into them!

2.5 years

This coming weekend, Panu and I will have been going out 2.5 years. that's 30 months! i know this is barely a toddler of a relationship in some of your worlds, but for me, this is a record. i wouldn't exactly call myself a commitment phobe, but it appears that i have a tendency to freak out in perfectly good and normal relationships just after the two year mark (if i actually get that far) and more or less make a run for it.

I know some close friends were holding their breath when Panu and I hit two years... and watched closely for any signs of a complete meltdown for a month thereafter. But 6 months on, I think we're fairly safe. He still makes my heart skip a beat, and nothing, seriously nothing, speaks to my soul like a hug from him.

I'm going to sound like I'm preaching here, but there are two relationship myths that i think are true. One is that yes, you do need a few duds to appreciate what's good. and two? you absolutely need to find yourself, before you can find your other.

I'd been in a number of relationships before stumbling upon this one. And no matter how much I feel like I want to erase some memories, I eventually learnt that actually, those memories are what makes me me. Painful as some may be, the spectrum of experiences I've had has shaped who I am today, how I empathise with others, and more importantly helped me learn my own strengths and fragilities. I dont have to imagine how it feels; i know how it feels to fall in love, to fall out of love, to break the heart of someone who loves me, to have my own heart broken by someone i love, to rebound selfishly, to learn to live on my own, and to learn to love being me.

And the path to these lessons, while excruciating at times, i would not trade for anything else in this world. So after all of that, in 2006, Panu and I got together in the most scandalous of ways ~ hooking up at a work conference. *Hah*. It had to be done. And to say i haven't looked back since would be a lie.

The year I spent soul searching and learning to really love being myself was the best year I've ever had, and I will tell that to anyone who'll listen. I had my bachelorette pad in Newtown, Sydney, i was working hard and playing harder and really couldn't give a flying f*** what anyone else thought. It was a hard year to give up, and when Panu and I got together, I really wasn't ready to let it go. For the first few months, it did cross my mind to break it off and go back into the wonderland which i had created, but wow am I glad I didn't.

I can't even put it into words, but I am happy where I am. I'm not a romantic, nor am i an idealist, and I don't say "I love you" often enough, if at all. But as my boss (who is my friend and knows me better than a lot of other people) so insightfully put it: "well, you're living in London aren't you? If you didn't love him, I guarantee you wouldn't be here." Actually, it doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

So for now, at 2.5 years, I'm cruising along. I'm in no rush to get to the altar, although I'm so clucky I may as well be a chicken. But we'll see, time will tell many stories... and even I'm interested to see how they pan out.

hypochondriac?

this week has been a sniffly one for me. sniffly enough to give me a little pink nose, not quite enough to be declared a cold. and with swine flu fever still out and about courtesy of the media, here I sit at my desk, with my anti-bacterial hand gel (and second tube in my handbag, just in case), my anti-viral kleenex (which cost way too much but i found out too late), my multi-vitamins, my clarityn.. oh and junior mints, cos they always make me feel better.

slowly turning into a hypochondriac.

the shopping man

ok, seeing as I just posted about panu's new love for cooking, i'm now in deep fear that an alien has abducted my boyfriend and replaced him with every woman's dream man. So really, fear yes, complain no.

reason i say this is because yesterday, panu added a significant asset to my current register. he bought me... my very first Burberry Trench Coat. I call this an asset because seriously, in some countries, you can totally buy a house with that coat. Hell, you could probably buy a small country somewhere! but anyway, he offered to buy it, I almost objected, almost, but immediately came to my senses and just accepted gratefully!

Everyone's asking why he bought me the coat - was it my birthday? no... was it a special occasion? no... is he feeling guilty....? well i hope not! I think it was really because I have been painfully, tearfully longing for this coat for the better part of the last year and haven't been able to justify buying it for myself. And yesterday we went to Burberry on New Bond Street and I stupidly tried on the coat, and fell so massively stupefyingly in love all over again.

I wanted to buy it, but decided not to and I was in so much angst walking out of the store that really, you would have thought that I'd just said goodbye to my child or something. He couldn't take it, and herewith, proposed to buy me the jacket. Hey, this proposal was as good as the other one might have been. I promise!

So now I am the proud owner of the new Burberry trench and I love it. I woke up this morning and said good morning to it. Sad, but true.

Whatever the aliens have done, I love it!

the cooking man

While I was in Oz for five weeks, Panu had an enlightening moment and realised that I did "everything" around the house. I'm guessing what he was really thinking was 'what? clothes/sheets/towels don't wash themselves? Meals need to be cooked? you need to buy the food to cook? and the floors don't clean themselves?? WHAT THE F***.'

I think he did the bare minimum laundry, changed the sheets literally the night before I got back, and I dont think he touched the floors, but in order to not die of starvation, he had to cook. And cook he did... and surprisingly, he loved it.

So one thing he's really taken to since I've been back is cooking. He's been cooking not once, not twice, but several times a week. And I tell you what, there is nothing sexier than a man who cooks *rrooowwwrrrr*

And it's so refreshing having someone else cook, and eating something different. I have to admit for the first couple of weeks, I didn't know what to do with myself. I'm used to the routine of coming home and cooking, or gymming and cooking. Now I have the extra time, I'm just wasting it watching Peter & Katie, but what the heck, it's me time.

Let's hope this isn't just a phase!

when in Rome....

Rome. with its impressively untouched ruins scattered haphazardly throughout the city (because anywhere else, these would have been flattened and turned into shopping malls at least five centuries ago), its beautiful inhabitants and their animated expressions, and its impossibly tasty italiano cuisine, Rome stole my heart within the first day that I was there.

i really did love everything about Rome. in fact, so far it tops my list of most favourite European cities, maybe only next to little weedle Brugge, but Brugge is like a block compared to the city that is Rome, so that's hardly fair. But really, so many things about Rome just pure and simply blew my mind, including...

1) the ruins, big broken ruins, just literally scattered everywhere. instead of bulldozing it down, they build around it. and just when you think there aren't any more ruins, look! more! the Colloseum, Palatine and Roman Forum.. these hold so much history that it is so close to being unreal, but when you're there, you know it's real. And it is truly humbling.




















2) art... on the ceilings. and the sculptures. my general thought was 'how the f*** did they do that?!' ~ not just the Sistine Chapel but hundreds upon hundreds of other impressively painted ceilings, created by geniuses when they were in their early twenties. I don't only feel humbled, i feel down right useless.





















3) and the food. the food. savoury and sweet alike, i had enough to last me a week. each day started with a buffet breakfast at the hotel, followed by at least three or four gelatos, and numerous serves of pasta & pizza. piglet.





















my favourite part of the trip? probably having lunch right outside the Pantheon, but there are so many memories, squashed into three brilliant days.

more photos here. or did you notice i created a travel photo-diary strip just over on the left?