Eating fresh anchochovies, croquettes and squid, with a litre of Spanish beer, in the sun, with the squawks of the native parakeets is a lovely experience. During the day we walked miles over those two days. Not just in 2d either, we also climbed to the highest tower in Gaudi’s Cathedral – a very scary experience for me. Not only were the safety standards far less rigourous than anything I’ve ever seen before, but I was climbing the trecherous stairs with a scary piss-taker (Andy) who kept pretending to fall over the side, and the world’s clumsiest person (Tony) who did his best to put me at rest before nearly killing himself. It was great to reach terra-firma afterwards. Regretfully I was persuaded to sing the theme tune to Blakes 7 after this without realising, until far too late, that Dave was videoing it on his all-too-clever camera. So, I will always be blackmailable from now on…
In the evenings we walked miles between bars and generally laughed our arses off. The place was full of stag and hen nights, however we chose not to adopt their policies of reinforcing the stereotypes of the English as a bunch of drunk, threatening fuckwits. Sadly, we failed.
On the subject of stereotypes, it would appear the Spanish are quite proud of their outrageous animal abuse reputation. After seeing the third stall of parrots in disgustingly tiny cages in La Ramblas I couldn’t take it any more and fucked off with tears in my eyes. Michele would have gone postal.
It was very odd to be with old schoolmates on a holiday. The last time we all went on holiday I was 16 and the venue was a canal boat on the Warwickshire ring canal. Despite the fact that we have all changed beyond recognition, nothing had changed. We laughed, argued, drank and overall had a great time. I needed a holiday so badly and didn’t even realise it. This was perfect. I deliberately didn’t check my email until monday, despite the billion or so cybercafes about the place, and it really helped my state of mind. The only problem was Michele: I missed her and Humph so much.
It’s nice to be home, but crap to be back in the deadlock of New Cross/Work/Penury. And work was really unforgiving today. So busy with so many tedious jobs… fortunately there are quite a few colleagues under similar pressure and we can get together after work in the Union to drown our sorrows.
