I’ve just finished The Truce by Primo Levi (thanks to Carter for the recommendation) which follows on from his first book If this is a man, in a continuation of his of his experiences in German Concentration Camps. It takes off from the day of liberation and describes Primo’s 10th month repatriation trip and as a result has a much happier tone to the hard hitting tales from Monowitz. Levi’s writing is descriptive and observant, yet with no trace of hatred towards the perpetrators can be seen, something that Levi describes well in the afterword. The more I read about…
On Sunday morning we drove South to Oliva for the start of my Catamaran Course, a birthday present from Espe (I’ve loved Dart catamarans from a very young age, and use to dream of owning one). We were due 3 hours tuition on Sunday and 3 hours on Monday. Espe had looked into various courses but this one ended up being the most convenient. Others had stated that I’d have to take a normal sailing course before climbing aboard a cat. Likewise I had been declined the use of a cat in Thailand, as the owner stated that sailing a…
On Friday evening we left Alcobendas at 5pm after another dental check up. Our destination: Alaquas, Valencia. Our route, the one with the most twists and turns. Having been so fed up of Spanish Motorways of late, I decided we were going to reach Valencia avoiding motorways. We completed the whole trip on nice roads with no inconsiderate Madrileños winding me up and managed to avoid traffic jams completely. We took the N320 via Cuenca as recommended by Philippe over a year ago. We missed our intended turn after Cuenca and found ourselves in the hills again with yet more…
Over the last year I think I’d forgotten how much I love music and how much it does for me. Just tuning into the radio more and listening to some new albums has left me feeling great. On Sunday night I took Espe down to Cafe Central for a bit of Jazz. We were treated to a performance by an Argentinian singer and accompanying band, who were later joined by two guest singers, each of which had stunning voices capable of bringing out emotions in people. Amazing stuff. While on the topic of music, for those that don’t know, it…
I meant to post this up last week. I listen to Gilles Peterson’s BBC Radio 1 show most weeks, but last week’s show really was something else. With music from the likes of Karizma, The Heritage Orchestra and Ben Westbeech I was hooked… Then came Zero DB. Wow! It’s been a while since music has moved me physically, especially in my own front room. Top marks to these boys. Their best track had to be a remix they’d put together of a track called El Fantasma de la Libertad. Filthy beats and heavy bass lines, but by far the best…
This post was originally called Rickshaw Run Meet and was half written until last night. I’ve had a pretty shitty week, after the disaster that was the Rickshaw Run meeting that I organised and then several immensely busy days at work. I found myself being stitched with cases continuously ‘cos everyone else in my team is scared on taking cases on a particular range of products. Where would they be without me? Anyway, on a positive note, I spent last night with Alberto, Pete, Leo, Liz and Paula in a kind of post Mongol Rally meet up. We started in…
Despite an relatively cool summer for Madrid in August, once into September the temperature shot up into the 30s again. Highest official recording this week was 39 I think. This made sleeping difficult again, but last night we were treated to a spectacular storm. It is raining again now and it has dropped to a reasonable 28 degrees. Seeing lightening flash across the skies, I couldn’t resist trying to get some pics with lightening forks in them. This is something I’ve been wanting to do ever since seeing some spectacular storms in Austria as a kid. Once again, the Canon…
Its been a quite eventful uneventful week if you know what I mean. I had four innoculation jab at once last Thursday morning. Not the most pleasant of experiences, but it is all in preparation for our trip to India for the Rickshaw Run. They injected me with such nice things as Japanese Enciphalitis, Meningitis, Tetanus and Typhoid fever. I’ve got do go back for some second doses this week and I haven’t even started on Hepatitis A or B yet… Joy. On Thursday evening I met up with Lavinia a few beers and some tapas. Lavinia was my first…