“ A Moment of silence, emotion and Wild Beauty*”

I’m a sucker for a magic moment. 

In counselling it can happen when you and your client suddenly reach an emotional depth around an issue and you both suddenly feel that connection with a look that brings you up short. 

Sometimes it’s an experience that awes you. 

My first steps into La Sagrada Famila literally made my heart soar

Mary trying to run fast to say hello after my holiday break

The lisping choir and Metropolitan Orchestra playing Nocturn was one such moment.

The auditorium lights went off suddenly and the music and voices filled the space

And you where left with the experience without self consciousness  

Why do I like Dinosaurs so much?

 

Jurassic world Rebirth is much better than the last two movies in the franchise. Its a taught, romp with effectively two teams of protagonists in peril. One scientific and mercenary ( led by an impressively buff Scarlett Johansson) and one family and cute ( led by an equally impressive Manuel Garcia-Rulfo )

British director Gareth Edwards, likes his dinosaur set pieces, and with Spielberg touches everywhere provides a new twist on the genre with wonderfully tense flourishes.

Jonathon Bailey is cute as a button as the obligatory dino expert, who cries when he sees his first sauropod, wide eyed Audrina Miranda is the cute spunky kid who had the most sexiest dad this side of the Atlantic..

Indeed for me , Manuel Garcia Rulfo in his sexy shorts made the film for me…I’m still drooling

Sunday

I’m working all day today

So nothing profound today
 

You Couldn’t Make It Up

The mass of staff and trucks trying to sort out our new plane

Our Iberian jet never left Madrid

We sat on it for a bloody age until an engineer was called and after much scrambling up and off the aircraft we all saw him stand on the runway and give the pilot a cheerful thumbs down 

The passengers gave a collective groan and our already sad psychi was effectively described by a German woman in business class who stood up and shouted “ ve arr fooked!!!”

We sat on the plane for another two hours until a replacement aircraft arrived right next to us

Then the pilot ( an impressively calm Spaniard with the look of Charlton Heston ) told us we had to get on three airport buses in order to embark the new airplane even though it was only 50 feet away

We duly got on the buses , which did a sharp circle only to arrive at the empty and functioning aircraft some 60 seconds later.

We stood on the buses another half hour until the new staff arrived on a minibus

Then galloped back to our new seats with the dignity of 150 teenagers at a school disco

Ruth and I got the giggles

Then we had to wait for the baggage to be transferred and a slot on the runway

We laughed some more,

Our return journey had equalled our first, but we had the best of times!

we got home well after midnight.

I was due to complete a twelve hour shift today and thank the lord for my friend and colleague Katrina , who has stepped in and kindly done my shift for me . 

I cleaned up Bun and Weaver’s stomach heaving little tray and went to bed exhausted around 12.30 am

Leaving my luggage in the car, 

And some happy times in my memory 

Say goodbye and Graduation

 Both of us are sad leaving. Coffee and plain churros for me, chocolate and fat churros for Ruth.The city is preparing itself for Pride and the parade will bisect Atocha where we were staying and where we now feel we know. 

We said goodbye to the house Martin chicks on our balcony

And had a short wander

Before sadly turning for home

What’s app has been busy

My graduation was yesterday and my name was read out

My Uni Group sent me this photo as a way of including me

Food and Choir

 At dawn Ruth went foraging in the relative cool ( 32 degrees), she found The San Miguel Market, where we ventured out for breakfast at 10 am. The food was glorious

The lisping choir Talia Grupo were in fine voice. Their selection of hits from Eurovision were inspired and sometimes incredibly moving. I will post a few pieces when they arrive on line but will leave you with this rehearsal piece of Fairytale a Eurovision winner for Norway in 2009.

The auditorium gave the orchestra and choir a standing ovation which held three encores

One of which I videoed ( you can video an encore btw)

After the concert we had garlic prawns at the market followed by beers in the square as the rain pelted down as it has down every evening at ten pm

Lovely

Culture and Heat

 The Reina Sofia Museum was a cool haven , as was our 2 hour breakfast at a little cafe just beyond Plaza Major. Ruth and I  are lucky as we love people watching, cafe sitting and not overdoing things in bloody hot weather. Guernica by Picasso was bigger than I thought, and was suitably drab compared with his contempories’ works.

Dali’s Girl at the Window ( an early work and rather haunting)

The Adorable Joseph de Togores’ Paraja en la playa

Guernica

Tonight we ate seafood paella, croquetas de jamón Serrano and drank beer on the square and watched diners in the next outdoor restaurant get soaked as a wonderful thunderstorm overwhelmed their rickety  umbrellas

I’ve had a lovely time so far…I’ve really needed to be away ….ive needed to feel more than a mere student or an old nurse or a 63 year old singleton …travel lightens you, it nurtures you….and tomorrow we go for a mooch around the food market nearby then the highlight lisping choir concert in the evening

How lucky am I ?

A Fat Spider-Man in The Sun

 

It’s been a nice day so far.

The apartment is very dynasty chic circa 1989 with Queen sized beds and door knocker Charles Dickens would be proud of. 

The plaza Major is a 16th Century Plaza, filled to the gunnels with the cries of nesting house martins

We sat outside last night and the umbrellas of the cafes misted their patrons with a cooling water mist which was as blissful as you could ever think possible and this morning we watched the birds for an age before going out for a long breakfast

Even the Spaniards are saying it too hot so we shopped for essentials ( gin, Diet Coke , aeoli, ) and are cooling in the air co before the Regina Sofia and a walk at dusk around the great Pond in Retiro before dinner.

I’ve seen it all when we ambled back in the heat

A tubby Spider-Man braving the soaring temps just outside the apartment 

Hey ho