Barcelooonaaaaaaaaaa Part 2

Unfortunately although we had pre-booked our tour bus tickets and the bus ran right past our hotel door, we couldn't use our pre-booking ticket from the hotel, we had to go all the way into the centre of town before we could get on the bus.

So we all jumped in 2 taxis and headed off to the centre of town. Claire had to queue for a while and on seeing the queue for the bus, we walked to the next bus stop resisting the urge to visit H & M and Zara!


After a short bus ride we stopped at La Sagrada Familia. It was hugely impressive, even though it won't be finished for another 20 years. Considering they have been building for over 100 years already - I'm not sure we can complain about the delays to Wembley!

It was amazing, but we declined the 45 min wait to go to the top of the building and instead we wondered around the cathedral and the giftshop.

After another short bus ride we stopped at the gaudi park. It was a bit crowded but was nice admiring the view and the architecture.

Then it was back on the bus and off to the Nou Camp. We did find it amusing that all the guys stayed on the bus and the group of 7 girls got off! We ate our sandwiches on the grass and had a wonder around the huge shop.

Kath and I had a huge strop when we found out that the tours were all cancelled due to a stupid U2 concert. We did have some fun with a flag - but that is a secret so I can't say anything about that here.

Back on the bus to do the rest of the tour, where we sat on the top of the open air bus in the sunshine. It was 35 degrees at 4pm when we passed the harbour.

We got off the bus outside the hotel and had a compulsory stop in Primark before we headed back to the pool.

It was then time to get ready and head off for our night out. Claire had prepared a list of restaurants and I had looked on their website and chosen one that seemed to have a wide range in the menu and didn't seem too bad price wise. Unfortunately, it was not that great. The menu offered was a lot more limited and to be honest a bit boring. Laura and I went for burger and cheese expecting (at €10) to at least get a few chips as well. We were wrong. We got a very rare burger on a riveta with a lot of blue cheese sauce (Which had made the rivita thing soggy!) Louise and Verity had pasta but only got 4 bits of pasta for their €10. The other 3 had enough paella to feed the entire population of Barcelona! So unfair!

After some more drinks, a snack and some glowing flashy rings, the girls headed off to a nightclub. By this point (it was 2.30am) my feet hurt so much I could barely walk let alone dance - so I dropped them off in a taxi and went back to the hotel.

Barcelooonaaaaaaaaaa!

This weekend saw me and 6 girlies head off into the sunset to Barcelona for Laura's first hen party. I met Kath and Claire at London Bridge and we caught our train ok to Gatwick. We met Laura, Verity, Alice and Louise in Wetherspoons where they were polishing off a pink cocktail! After brief introductions and the handing out of T-Shirts we headed off to security.

Everyone was waved through apart from me because my pre-printed boarding pass didn't have a barcode. Everyone else had to go through and I was sent off to a very long Easyjet queue. As I was waiting in the queue I happened to glance at the defective boarding card only to realise Loz had mixed them up and given me the return trip! After a phone call and some begging of a security guard I was back at security meeting my boarding card!

We just had time for a bottle of champagne to calm our nerves before getting on the plane!

I had looked at the best way to get from the airport to the hotel on the web and they recommended the train as a quick and easy way of getting there. They lied. It was a 10 minute walk to the train station (mainly because we walked in the wrong direction because there were no signposts) and then another 15 minute walk in between the train station and the metro. Luckily the metro was airconditioned as we were getting a bit hot and bothered at this point. It was only a 2 minute walk from the metro to our hotel but we had managed to exit the wrong way and ended up with a rather brisk trot through a rather scary looking council estate!

After all this we definately needed the glass of wine in the hotel bar!


The hotel definately made up for the treck, there were huge twin rooms, complimentary robes and slippers, a free minibar and 2 pools.

Saturday we were up early for a dip in the pool on the 23rd floor with a fantastic view of the sea. Then it was off to breakfast. None of us had ever seen as big a breakfast before! They had everything you could possibly imagine, including roasted vegetables, pizza and tomatoes stuffed with tuna! Of course there was also the traditional eggs and bacon as well as fruit, cereal, muffins, pastries, bread, toast, cheese, ham, cured meat, salami and sausages! Having filled up our tummies and our purses with snacks for later we headed back to our rooms to get ready to go out for the day.

Garden Update

I planted a few more plants in the garden.

Our runway

I'm not sure we're going to get many planes trying to land in our garden as our landing lights are a bit feeble!

Dad's Birthday

On Sunday we were invited to mum's for a BBQ as it was dad's birthday. The weather held up mostly and we were able to eat outside. We did have a bit of trouble lighting the candle on the cupcake so dad had to pretend to blow it out for the photo. Funny there is no mention of blowing out candles in the Swine 'flu guide!

A fun morning out with Ethan

This morning we had the pleasure of taking Ethan out for a couple of hours. We went to the Strand at Gillingham and we played on the swings...


We pulled funny faces..


We went down the slide...


We played in the sandpit and I managed to come home with sand in my pocket! We made sandcastles.

We had huge ice creams, that we got all on our faces, but not on our T-shirt!


We counted the boats and saw what colours they were...


We went on the train...


All in all a great time was had by all three of us.


We were going to stop in at the petting zoo in Bobbing and then go for some lunch but a very tired boy fell asleep in the car and so we called Helen and Alan to come and collect him when we got home. He was such a good boy he was a pleasure to play with.

So far so good

My cat defences seem to be working ok, there has not been any digging in the vegetable patch.

However, last night a snail ate 5 of my broccoli seedlings. The guilty party was hurled half way down the garden in my anger. Ollie said this was a little harsh but I don't think so!

Ollie is now convinced that I don't actually want to grow any vegetables, I just wanted something new that I can complain about!

Garden part 3

Although the weather hasn't been as nice this week meaning we were unable to get out and finish the rest of the fence and the decking, spring seems to have fully arrived. My tulips are blooming and my japanese maple has lots of leaf buds. Although my daffodils don't seem to want to flower yet.


My vegetables are coming along nicely in the greenhouse and some of the seeds that I planted last week are beggining to grow.

The ant-cat measures last week failed miserably! They had even managed to dig underneath the plastic tunnel. So this week I have increased the defences with some heavy duty netting, lots of tent pegs and some twine. I'm still not sure how I'm going to weed, or harvest my crop yet, but at least they should get a chance to actually grow now!


The other half of the vegetable patch has also been dug ready for the plants out of the greenhouse and I do have some more netting for then too!

Garden part 2

Last weekend we were so busy! We've almost finished the fences apart from the part around the decking that Ollie scrubbed and cleaned. It looks really nice and clean now and ready to be painted.

We also bought and sprayed the edging for the flowerbed. We also fitted it on Sunday just before mum, dad, nan and grandad came for tea and cakes.


I had to buy a new greenhouse for all the seeds I needed to plant to put in the flowerbed.


My vegetables are doing nicely and I've got little plants growing in all my vegetable trays.


I spent ages digging half of my vegetable patch, sieving and raking up all the stones, weeds and stinging nettle roots. I did find lots of very juicy worms as well! I then planted carrots, cauliflower, spring onion, spinach, beetroot, swede, courgette and sweetcorn. I then put up some anti-cat devices (cds, cans and things that jinge)

My Garden

Fences

A couple of weeks ago we decided to finally paint the fences. I don't think that they've ever been done before and they were looking a bit grey.

We had decided on a Ronseal colour but Homebase and Focus didn't have any. Focus did have one of their own brands in a similar colour on buy-one-get-one-free. So we got 2 tins and set to work. It took us all day to paint 10 panels with one coat (they need 2 coats) and we were exhausted afterwards. We also used one whole tin. (We have about 40 odd fence panels) So last weekend I was back off to Focus to get some more tins while they were still on offer, but they had been discontinued! I did discover that they did the sprayable version also on BOGOF.

2 Sunday mornings later and we've done both coats on the top half of the garden and one coat on the rest of the garden apart from by the decking as we need to do that first. It's so much easier and quicker with the spray! It looks really good already.


Green Fingers?

My seeds are doing ok, and I planted out my petunias in the flowerbed after putting down anti-weed matting. I will have some woodchip down once the rest of the flowerbed is planted and we've just ordered the edging for the flowerbed.

My vegetable seeds are also growing very well. I have broccoli, cabbage and lettuce poking their heads up in the greenhouse and my chilli plants just about starting to grow in the spare room.


I also have some nice spring bulbs flowering.

Midweek Football

On Wednesday we were lucky enough to be invited to spend the evening at White Heart Lane in an executive box to watch Spurs v Middlesborough all expenses paid!

The comany that are providing software for my company have a box in the West stand just by the half way line right behind the dugouts.

We had drinks and sheherds pie before the match which was very yummy. The view of the match from the box was amazing. The only downside was that we were behind a window so the atmosphere was a little muted. We still joined in with some of the chanting, except the one which goes you're support is ******* **** (My Finance Director was there and the bonuses haven't been signed off yet!!!!)

Plus we won 4-0 so all in all it was a pretty good evening!

I spent a little too long in the shop meaning we had to run for our train at Victoria but I finally got my stripy scarf!

The pictures aren't very good, as all I had was my phone camera and the floodlights were reflecting on our window.

Christening Photos

Just a few shots from Zach's Christening a few weeks ago.