The Unsung Genius of Valls

You know that botifarra (the Catalan spelling, pronounced bootiFARah) is a sausage.
Well, for many years I believed that the Campionat de Botifarra held at the Festa Major of the village in the Solsončs where we used to spend our summers was a botifarra eating contest. 

Barcelona Virtual City

"In 4 kilometres, stay on the left.”
“In 200 metres, join the motorway.”
“In 300 metres, take the 5th exit off the roundabout.”

I was in a taxi coming in from the airport. The recorded Spanish female voice - I have translated its monotone utterances for benefit of readers - droned on and on. It sounded like Telefónica’s answering service.  Brilliant, I thought. Instead of having to take your eyes off the road, the sat nav gives you spoken instructions.

Except, as I gradually realised, they bore no relation whatsoever to our position on the road.

Between a Drought and a Wet Place

Hi from Manchester, where I’m visiting my mum.  It’s been raining endlessly and as you probably know, many areas of the UK have been seriously flooded, including parts of Summerseat, the village where my parents used to live.  It’s difficult not to feel homesick for Barcelona, even though that lovely springlike warmth that everyone was enjoying when I flew out is really a source of concern: climate change, depleted reservoirs, drought. 

Escape Over The Bridge

Escape Over The Bridge

I’m warning you now: if you think that December is an ordinary working month with a bit of extra shopping and a few days off for Christmas, think again. Here, December is about as productive as August, when the whole of Spain grinds to a halt. You simply cannot expect to buy a house, get a new kitchen put in, renew your driving licence, make an insurance claim, see a doctor, give birth or do anything much in August, and December is going the same way.

Sagrada Familia

What’s such fun about living in Barna is that the tourist sights are woven into our everyday lives. We don’t go to see them: we go past or through (or possibly under or over) them as we rush around leading our frenzied lives. 

Have you heard the Catalan expression ‘anar de bňlit’?  Barcelonans (and people from the other industrial towns like Terrassa, Sabadell, Matarň etc) love dashing around, being horribly busy, having lots of irons in the fire. It’s their life blood. Ask them how they are and they’ll say, breathless with pride: “Vaig de bňlit!” literally, “I’m going like a bullet.”  This zooming around all day (and much of the night) includes not only work, but also shopping, social life, voluntary work, cultural activities, hobbies, chauffering children, sports...  you name it.  This is what life in Barcelona is all about.

But one class of folks who are definitely not de bňlit are los funcionarios - government employees. (In Catalan, funcionaris.) And with so many administrative layers of bureaucracy - municipal, autonomic, provincial and state - there are an awful lot of them.