I just had the worst Christmas of my life. Worse than when my brother and sister both got new bikes and I got an Enya CD, worse than when I worked as a waitress on Christmas day until 3pm, worse than that because I expected great things.
I don´t know why I expected great things to be honest, we´re currently hauled up in my father in law´s house, feeling like teenagers, jumping up from the sofa everytime the front door opens, and not very much like an adult, married couple.
But anyway, i´d been looking forward to Christmas for a while, we´d have fun, spend time with the family, have a few drinks and just enjoy not having to work or think about the new house for a few days (two months down, two to go!)
Then I got sick. It´s not surprising really, working with kids, 1/3 of them having bronchitis, or laringitis or faringitis or something along those lines the past two weeks, my job has basically been ferrying kids back and forth checking temperatures.
So after a few days of feeling a bit crappy, Christmas day on Santa brought me a headache that lasted three days, swollen tonsils, aching joints and of course a temperature of 37 degrees.
While everyone was off enjoying their Christmas dinner with the family, I was alone in bed with a bowl of baked beans and Modern Family on Netflix.
On top of that, I was súper emotional, missing my family, the British Christmas, British TV, Christmas decorations! A plate full of prawns and some half hearted mistletoe does not a Christmas make...
Now it´s two days later, and i´m still not 100%, but trying to focus on better things, putting this Christmas behind me knowing that 2017 is a new year, with a new house and hopefully some other new beginnings for Mr and Mrs Millennial. More in the New Year.
Merry Christmas and Feliz Navidad
Tuesday 27 December 2016
Monday 21 November 2016
New Beginnings
We just signed the contract for our new house, we won´t actually be moving until after Christmas, probably in February but i´m already Pinterest crazy. I have so many ideas, i´m mentally ripping down walls, painting, choosing tiles and dreaming about filling up those temporarily spare bedrooms with beautiful Spanglish babies!
In the next few weeks and months i´ll be sharing my ideas with you all until we get the keys, and then the fun begins!!
In the next few weeks and months i´ll be sharing my ideas with you all until we get the keys, and then the fun begins!!
Sunday 13 November 2016
A New Project
So i´ve been "off the radar" for a few weeks, that somehow turned into a few months while we VERY quickly sold our flat, moved into my father-in-laws and bought a new house.
We had the idea to sell our flat in August, it was a very trendy attic in the north of Madrid, I would describe it as bachelor pad with girlfriend accents, which is exactly what it was, and we were fine with that until we got married and started talking about having mini-me´s.
We estimated it would take around 10 months to one year to sell our flat, based on location, size, price etc. We uploaded photos to Idealista, and within 24 hours we had a buyer!
SHIT. We had a buyer, and no house to move into! Luckily my father-in-law has space in his house for us, and ever luckier for me it´s four minutes walking away from where I work! BONUS!
So we quickly packed up our things in boxes, rentes a van, said goodbye to the flat and moved the spare room at my father-in-laws, where we have time to relax, and save some money while we kept looking for somewhere to live.
Most Spanish people live in flats, we lived in a flat, almost everyone we know lives in a flat, but we´ve decided to buy an end of terrace three bedroom house which me, as a person so unused to living in a flat that I could easily have a panic attack every time a neighbour gets in the lift with me, am thrilled about!
I´m doing all the important work like making Pinterest boards and dreaming about colour schemes, woolen couch throws and laundry rooms while Mr. Millennial is doing all the boring work like talking to the bank and paperwork...
I´ll keep you updated on the move, which should happen at the latest by the middle of February and then let the decorating begin!!
We had the idea to sell our flat in August, it was a very trendy attic in the north of Madrid, I would describe it as bachelor pad with girlfriend accents, which is exactly what it was, and we were fine with that until we got married and started talking about having mini-me´s.
We estimated it would take around 10 months to one year to sell our flat, based on location, size, price etc. We uploaded photos to Idealista, and within 24 hours we had a buyer!
SHIT. We had a buyer, and no house to move into! Luckily my father-in-law has space in his house for us, and ever luckier for me it´s four minutes walking away from where I work! BONUS!
So we quickly packed up our things in boxes, rentes a van, said goodbye to the flat and moved the spare room at my father-in-laws, where we have time to relax, and save some money while we kept looking for somewhere to live.
Most Spanish people live in flats, we lived in a flat, almost everyone we know lives in a flat, but we´ve decided to buy an end of terrace three bedroom house which me, as a person so unused to living in a flat that I could easily have a panic attack every time a neighbour gets in the lift with me, am thrilled about!
I´m doing all the important work like making Pinterest boards and dreaming about colour schemes, woolen couch throws and laundry rooms while Mr. Millennial is doing all the boring work like talking to the bank and paperwork...
I´ll keep you updated on the move, which should happen at the latest by the middle of February and then let the decorating begin!!
Friday 26 August 2016
Summer Lovin´ (or not so much)
I´m going back to work next week, after six long weeks off I´m definitely looking forward to getting back into it, meeting the new kids, having a proper routine again, BUT I´m not looking forward to waking up at 6am, having a class full of crazy kids every full moon (yes that does happen!) Or staff meetings (The bain of my life)´
But I can´t help but think that I should be making better use of my summer holidays, last year I spent most of my time dying from the heat, laid on the sofa in my pants, and I vowed not to do that again this year, which I haven´t thank God but I still didn´t do a great deal.
I had great plans, I was going to do Yoga every day (which lasted about a week) I was going to learn French (yeh that didn´t happen either) I was going to write, write and write. I had visiones of me sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop every day writing THE book, you know THE Book, the one that we all have inside, that everyone says they´re going to write one day... One day...
Well so what did I do... We had a week in Portugal, which was incredibly beautiful, but I actually have no idea what i´ve done with the other five weeks of my time, cleaning, cooking, sitting in my husband´s office scouring pinterest for recipes and house decorating ideas most likely.
The trouble is that in Madrid in July and August, the heat is so unbearable that everyone leaves. Everyone goes to the beach. EVERYONE. Businesses close, your friends are gone, 90% of the people that you see in the street are tourists. And because we generally have one week away with the Spanish fam, we´re in Madrid the majority of the time and it´s BORING here in summer!
It´s too hot to be in the street, or in the house, or anywhere that doesn´t have aircon, no-one is here, there´s only so much internet searching and Modern Family watching you can do before your brain turns to mush.
So yes, i´m probably the only one counting down the days before I go back to work, but it´ll probably only be a few weeks before I´m counting down the days until the next summer holidays!
But I can´t help but think that I should be making better use of my summer holidays, last year I spent most of my time dying from the heat, laid on the sofa in my pants, and I vowed not to do that again this year, which I haven´t thank God but I still didn´t do a great deal.
I had great plans, I was going to do Yoga every day (which lasted about a week) I was going to learn French (yeh that didn´t happen either) I was going to write, write and write. I had visiones of me sitting in a coffee shop with my laptop every day writing THE book, you know THE Book, the one that we all have inside, that everyone says they´re going to write one day... One day...
Well so what did I do... We had a week in Portugal, which was incredibly beautiful, but I actually have no idea what i´ve done with the other five weeks of my time, cleaning, cooking, sitting in my husband´s office scouring pinterest for recipes and house decorating ideas most likely.
The trouble is that in Madrid in July and August, the heat is so unbearable that everyone leaves. Everyone goes to the beach. EVERYONE. Businesses close, your friends are gone, 90% of the people that you see in the street are tourists. And because we generally have one week away with the Spanish fam, we´re in Madrid the majority of the time and it´s BORING here in summer!
It´s too hot to be in the street, or in the house, or anywhere that doesn´t have aircon, no-one is here, there´s only so much internet searching and Modern Family watching you can do before your brain turns to mush.
So yes, i´m probably the only one counting down the days before I go back to work, but it´ll probably only be a few weeks before I´m counting down the days until the next summer holidays!
Wednesday 3 August 2016
Some Things That Make Spain TOTALLY Different From the UK
Two years ago exactly I arrived in Spain. In fact about this time (12pm) I had landed and was waiting for my suitcases to come out of the door on the conveyor belt of handsoffthatoneismine and sweatyhandsheartracing doom.
I came on a six month TEFL internship with two suitcases and around 800€ in cash that I was so terrified of losing or having it stolen that I kept checking every five minutes that it was there, which in hindsight probably make me either look like I has around 800€ in cash in my bag, or a terrorist with some kind of exploding purse.
As I landed on that hot day in August with my address written on a piece of paper to give to the taxi driver and enough Spanish to ask someone how they are but not enough to understand the reply, little did I know that all my dreams of travelling the world teaching English were about to come crashing down VERY rapidly, for less than three weeks after my first day arriving in one piece to the most disgusting flat i´ve ever seen I met the man that would change my whole outlook on life.
When I met my husband, I decided instantaneously that this was the guy for me, that all my dreams of country hopping, living out of a suitcase, never having to worry about anyone but myself popped, but in a good way. I lost the need to travel, I stopped in the first country I went to. I also used to be the girl who never wanted to get married and never wanted kids but I suppose my sister was right when she told me "wait until you meet the right man" because here we are almost two years after we met, married and I very much do want kids...
It hasn´t been all fairytales and looking at life through rose tinted glasees though, there are tonnes of diferences between the UK and Spain that i´ve had to get (I haven´t got) used to, here are just a few...
1: KISSING
In Spain it´s custom to give two kisses, one on each cheek. Men kiss only women but women have to miss everyone! I HATE IT Being a Brit, we are not used to kissing and when we go somewhere are there is a group of people, friends or family usually we say Hi and wave in general to everyone, maybe you kiss your parents, or give a hug to your best friend but we don´t kiss 20 people hello and then AGAIN to say goodbye!
2: LATENESS
I hate being late, I´d rather be an hour early than a minute late. This doesn´t seem to bother Spanish people though, we´re going to have lunch at 2pm, so the guests arrive at 2.30/3pm, we´ll start the meeting at 5.30pm so obviously i´m sitting alone until 5.45 when the other people start to arrive and we start the meeting somewhere between 5.45 and 6pm. Come on people I wanna go home!
3: PAPERWORK
No-one has told Spain that computers can hold a lot of information and that most of the annoying things that we had to make appointments for and wait in queue´s for in the past, well we can do those things now online. I´ve been here two years, it took me a year and a half to get around to registering that I live here, I had to go four times to get my national identity card because of all the paperwork I had to take, and trying to get a metro card was like trying to get a passport!!
4: FEVER
People are obsessed here with having a fever, if you sneeze someone will ask if you have a fever, if you have a headache someone will ask if you have a fever, if you cut your arm off, i´m pretty sure that someone will ask if you have a fever! And I work with children, I take at least one every day to see if they have a fever! And if they have a rever they go straight home, however, if they vomit, but don´t have a fever, well drink some water and back to class!
5: MEAL TIMES
In Spain we have lunch around 2-3pm (we have been known at home to have lunch at 5pm) and dinner is around 9-10pm. My family can´t believe this, being from the north of England they are strictly Tea at 5pm tupe of people. And I was too and although I spent my first few weeks here in a constant state of either starving or stuffed, you do get used to it.
I came on a six month TEFL internship with two suitcases and around 800€ in cash that I was so terrified of losing or having it stolen that I kept checking every five minutes that it was there, which in hindsight probably make me either look like I has around 800€ in cash in my bag, or a terrorist with some kind of exploding purse.
As I landed on that hot day in August with my address written on a piece of paper to give to the taxi driver and enough Spanish to ask someone how they are but not enough to understand the reply, little did I know that all my dreams of travelling the world teaching English were about to come crashing down VERY rapidly, for less than three weeks after my first day arriving in one piece to the most disgusting flat i´ve ever seen I met the man that would change my whole outlook on life.
When I met my husband, I decided instantaneously that this was the guy for me, that all my dreams of country hopping, living out of a suitcase, never having to worry about anyone but myself popped, but in a good way. I lost the need to travel, I stopped in the first country I went to. I also used to be the girl who never wanted to get married and never wanted kids but I suppose my sister was right when she told me "wait until you meet the right man" because here we are almost two years after we met, married and I very much do want kids...
It hasn´t been all fairytales and looking at life through rose tinted glasees though, there are tonnes of diferences between the UK and Spain that i´ve had to get (I haven´t got) used to, here are just a few...
1: KISSING
In Spain it´s custom to give two kisses, one on each cheek. Men kiss only women but women have to miss everyone! I HATE IT Being a Brit, we are not used to kissing and when we go somewhere are there is a group of people, friends or family usually we say Hi and wave in general to everyone, maybe you kiss your parents, or give a hug to your best friend but we don´t kiss 20 people hello and then AGAIN to say goodbye!
2: LATENESS
I hate being late, I´d rather be an hour early than a minute late. This doesn´t seem to bother Spanish people though, we´re going to have lunch at 2pm, so the guests arrive at 2.30/3pm, we´ll start the meeting at 5.30pm so obviously i´m sitting alone until 5.45 when the other people start to arrive and we start the meeting somewhere between 5.45 and 6pm. Come on people I wanna go home!
3: PAPERWORK
No-one has told Spain that computers can hold a lot of information and that most of the annoying things that we had to make appointments for and wait in queue´s for in the past, well we can do those things now online. I´ve been here two years, it took me a year and a half to get around to registering that I live here, I had to go four times to get my national identity card because of all the paperwork I had to take, and trying to get a metro card was like trying to get a passport!!
4: FEVER
People are obsessed here with having a fever, if you sneeze someone will ask if you have a fever, if you have a headache someone will ask if you have a fever, if you cut your arm off, i´m pretty sure that someone will ask if you have a fever! And I work with children, I take at least one every day to see if they have a fever! And if they have a rever they go straight home, however, if they vomit, but don´t have a fever, well drink some water and back to class!
5: MEAL TIMES
In Spain we have lunch around 2-3pm (we have been known at home to have lunch at 5pm) and dinner is around 9-10pm. My family can´t believe this, being from the north of England they are strictly Tea at 5pm tupe of people. And I was too and although I spent my first few weeks here in a constant state of either starving or stuffed, you do get used to it.
Saturday 23 July 2016
Namaste
So, while my house might be an absolute tip! (a combination of it being too hot to clean and me being lazy) i´m taking up a couple of new hobbies while I have six weeks off work (The perks of being a teacher)
As you will have seen if you follow me on Twitter I started doing a 30 day yoga challenge. Days 1-4 shakey start but I was proud of my achievements, then day 5 NO! There is no way in hell I could do anything the girl was doing and I started to think, hmm, maybe this isn´t for beginners...
So I searched yoga for beginners on YouTube and it came up with this video I highly recommend it if you´re thinking about starting some yoga practice. Adriene explains everything really well and I felt I was actually doing the same as her and that my body was actually in line as i´ve never felt before (this is the third time i´ve "started" to take up yoga)
I could do with some tips though, if anyone has any idea how to stop your hands slipping while doing downwards dog... or do I have overly sweaty hands?! Please tell me other people have this problem!
My other new "hobby" well it isn´t really a hobby, is, i´m learning French. I surprised myself (and everyone else) at how quickly I learnt Spanish so I decided to give French a go, I know i´m not going to be as fluente in French as I am in Spanish because I don´t live in a French speaking country but my sister in law is French so when I get to the point where I can speak I can practice with her.
I´m using Duolingo which is great, because you can do as little or as much as you like a day and you can use your computer or your phone, and it´s FREE!! And who doesn´t love a freebie?!
And now that i´ve done an hour of French practice and 20 minutes of Yoga, I suppose I should get on with cleaning the house right? Or maybe I´ll wait for Mr Millennial to buy me the new Dyson that I am dying for (I´m definitely old!) which I think will be sometime around the 10th of never...
As you will have seen if you follow me on Twitter I started doing a 30 day yoga challenge. Days 1-4 shakey start but I was proud of my achievements, then day 5 NO! There is no way in hell I could do anything the girl was doing and I started to think, hmm, maybe this isn´t for beginners...
So I searched yoga for beginners on YouTube and it came up with this video I highly recommend it if you´re thinking about starting some yoga practice. Adriene explains everything really well and I felt I was actually doing the same as her and that my body was actually in line as i´ve never felt before (this is the third time i´ve "started" to take up yoga)
I could do with some tips though, if anyone has any idea how to stop your hands slipping while doing downwards dog... or do I have overly sweaty hands?! Please tell me other people have this problem!
My other new "hobby" well it isn´t really a hobby, is, i´m learning French. I surprised myself (and everyone else) at how quickly I learnt Spanish so I decided to give French a go, I know i´m not going to be as fluente in French as I am in Spanish because I don´t live in a French speaking country but my sister in law is French so when I get to the point where I can speak I can practice with her.
I´m using Duolingo which is great, because you can do as little or as much as you like a day and you can use your computer or your phone, and it´s FREE!! And who doesn´t love a freebie?!
And now that i´ve done an hour of French practice and 20 minutes of Yoga, I suppose I should get on with cleaning the house right? Or maybe I´ll wait for Mr Millennial to buy me the new Dyson that I am dying for (I´m definitely old!) which I think will be sometime around the 10th of never...
Sunday 3 July 2016
Melting Pot
Madrid has turned into an inferno!
I´m sitting here writing this in my pants and a vest top, swigging back water like it´s going out of fashion, dreading the fact that tomorrow I have to go to work, wearing a uniform! Trousers and a polo shirt is hell in summer in Madrid!
Just two more weeks... Two more weeks of work then I have six weeks off. Which sounds amazing and to be honest in England it was but last year we spent one week in England, (Nice and cool) one week in Portugal (Nice and cool) and I spent four weeks dying and sweaty in a house which seems to be hotter than outside, and no air con, only a fan to blow the hot air around.
This week we´ll have to abandon the upstairs of our loft and decamp to the living room, sleeping (trying to sleep) on a blow up bed with the balcony door open and a bowl of ice placed infront of aforementioned fan to ty to cool the place to below 700degrees!
For all of you who are thinking of leaving the UK for somewhere with a bit of sun, THINK, and I mean seriously THINK about it before you take the plunge. We Brits are not cut out for two months of 40degree heat!
I´m sitting here writing this in my pants and a vest top, swigging back water like it´s going out of fashion, dreading the fact that tomorrow I have to go to work, wearing a uniform! Trousers and a polo shirt is hell in summer in Madrid!
Just two more weeks... Two more weeks of work then I have six weeks off. Which sounds amazing and to be honest in England it was but last year we spent one week in England, (Nice and cool) one week in Portugal (Nice and cool) and I spent four weeks dying and sweaty in a house which seems to be hotter than outside, and no air con, only a fan to blow the hot air around.
This week we´ll have to abandon the upstairs of our loft and decamp to the living room, sleeping (trying to sleep) on a blow up bed with the balcony door open and a bowl of ice placed infront of aforementioned fan to ty to cool the place to below 700degrees!
For all of you who are thinking of leaving the UK for somewhere with a bit of sun, THINK, and I mean seriously THINK about it before you take the plunge. We Brits are not cut out for two months of 40degree heat!
Monday 27 June 2016
The Elephant in the Room
I waited a while, for it all to calm down really before I decided to sit down and write my feeling about the Brexit. Not only as a British person, but as a British person living abroad.
When I moved to Spain, a little under two years ago, I didn´t think that one day there would be any kind of worry, I mean i´m European, countries in the European Union have the right of free travel within the EU. I couldn´t imagine that the UK would leave.
Up until the moment when I woke up on Friday morning and saw the angry, sad, and extatically happy posts on my Facebook wall from my friends and family back in England and Scotland, I still didn´t believe it. The first words I said to my husband when he woke up was "They´ve left" Just that. Nothing more, nothing less.
That day, while everyone in England was dealing with high emotions whether they were happy or sad or angry, venting on social media, shouting ridiculous comments in the street at each other, or quietly sitting at home watching the news unfold, I went to work. Of course everyone wanted to know how I felt, what this would mean for me, for British people in general, and also a little bit of worry and fear at what this would mean for Spain (their elections happened yesterday) and for the rest of the EU.
I felt very supported here, my Spanish family are great and they all called or texted to see if this would affect me, and how I was feeling. I felt loved because at the time I felt sad, sad that this had happened, sad for the people who voted to leave with good intentions, only to feel regret the next day when the truth about the leave campaigns lies came out.
I felt, and still feel that David Cameron did the WRONG thing by resigning, that he talked in his speech that everyone has to pull together, and we have to make the country great blah blah blah, it turned into blah blah blah when he revealed that he wouldn´t lead the country through this. David Cameron is NOT a leader. A leader leads, and supports his or her people through good times and the bad. My personal thoughts are that he threw his toys out of the pram when he didn´t get his own way.
I am also left with a feeling of being disconnected from the UK, I hope it´s a temporary feeling but right now I don´t want to go back. I had felt for a while that maybe in the future we would go to live, at least for a year in England. Right now I don´t have that feeling. I have no urge to even visit the country where I was born while the people are turning against each other in the street for fear of what is going to happen to the country.
I hope that in a few months, this will blow over and everything will go back to being normal, that the people living in the UK will remember that very annoying and persistant parase "Keep Calm and Carry On" right now it has never been so relevant.
When I moved to Spain, a little under two years ago, I didn´t think that one day there would be any kind of worry, I mean i´m European, countries in the European Union have the right of free travel within the EU. I couldn´t imagine that the UK would leave.
Up until the moment when I woke up on Friday morning and saw the angry, sad, and extatically happy posts on my Facebook wall from my friends and family back in England and Scotland, I still didn´t believe it. The first words I said to my husband when he woke up was "They´ve left" Just that. Nothing more, nothing less.
That day, while everyone in England was dealing with high emotions whether they were happy or sad or angry, venting on social media, shouting ridiculous comments in the street at each other, or quietly sitting at home watching the news unfold, I went to work. Of course everyone wanted to know how I felt, what this would mean for me, for British people in general, and also a little bit of worry and fear at what this would mean for Spain (their elections happened yesterday) and for the rest of the EU.
I felt very supported here, my Spanish family are great and they all called or texted to see if this would affect me, and how I was feeling. I felt loved because at the time I felt sad, sad that this had happened, sad for the people who voted to leave with good intentions, only to feel regret the next day when the truth about the leave campaigns lies came out.
I felt, and still feel that David Cameron did the WRONG thing by resigning, that he talked in his speech that everyone has to pull together, and we have to make the country great blah blah blah, it turned into blah blah blah when he revealed that he wouldn´t lead the country through this. David Cameron is NOT a leader. A leader leads, and supports his or her people through good times and the bad. My personal thoughts are that he threw his toys out of the pram when he didn´t get his own way.
I am also left with a feeling of being disconnected from the UK, I hope it´s a temporary feeling but right now I don´t want to go back. I had felt for a while that maybe in the future we would go to live, at least for a year in England. Right now I don´t have that feeling. I have no urge to even visit the country where I was born while the people are turning against each other in the street for fear of what is going to happen to the country.
I hope that in a few months, this will blow over and everything will go back to being normal, that the people living in the UK will remember that very annoying and persistant parase "Keep Calm and Carry On" right now it has never been so relevant.
Wednesday 15 June 2016
It´s Difficult.
Living in a different country to the one you were born and grew up in is difficult, you´re away from everyone you´ve ever known, your family, your friends (who you slowly lose touch with no matter how many promices to visit) and unless you choose an English speaking country, you also lose your language, your culture and a lot of the things that you identify with being you.
It´s difficult.
My life, although it has a LOT of wonderful things in it that I am eternally grateful for, my amazing husband, my job, a beautiful house, the fact that I now speak two languages (more or less) and lots more, it still doesn´t take away the fact that it´s difficult.
At work, I speak in English, but most of the time with three year olds, it´s a lot of: "sit down" "be quiet" "go to the bathroom" "stop hitting" and the old saying "Use it or lose it" is completely true, I´m forgetting English words, every so often a collegue will ask "How do you say..... in English" and I struggle to find the word although I know what it means, sometimes it comes back to me in a few minutes, sometimes in a few hours, sometimes in a few days, sometimes never... It´s difficult.
Outside of work I speak Spanish, for more than a year me and Mr. Millennial have been speaking exclusively in Spanish (although he speaks English) and with his family and friends too, I speak Spanish. When in Rome and all that. But it´s difficult.
I find myself frustrated, upset, angry, and more when i´m lost for words, when I can´t find the word in Spanish or a way to explain what I mean. Or when everyone is talking at once and i´m not quick enough to join in the conversation. I fear talking to strangers so much in case we don´t understand each other that I don´t even like shopping in case I have to speak to a shop assistant. I feel a tightness in my chest and have to repeat the phrase about 20 times in my head before I can aproach someone, and all the time hoping I understand the response.
Don´t get me wrong, I don´t regret for one second my decision to move to Spain, it was the best thing i´ve ever done in my life, I met my husband two weeks after moving here, as if the stars had aligned and my life made sense as cheesy as it sounds.
I also love that I can speak another language, little by little i´m getting there and I know than in another year or two I won´t have the language issues that I have now (or think I have) it´s a practice makes perfect thing. Speaking with my husband I´m the most confident Spanish speaker, I speak fast, using slang, talking in different tenses, the works, because I have no fear, if I say something wrong it doesn´t matter, he corrects me, I learn. Simple. I don´t have that confidence with groups of people or strangers. It takes all my courage to speak to the parents of my kids at the end of the day.
I don´t make new year resolutions, it´s too easy to break them, so i´m making a new life resolution, to solee my confidence issues, to speak to as many people in Spanish as I can, to panic, and sweat, and blush uncontrollably and not give a shit because the other option that I have is to stay at home for the rest of my life with only my husband to talk to, and as much as I love him, I think I need to make some other friends!
It´s difficult.
My life, although it has a LOT of wonderful things in it that I am eternally grateful for, my amazing husband, my job, a beautiful house, the fact that I now speak two languages (more or less) and lots more, it still doesn´t take away the fact that it´s difficult.
At work, I speak in English, but most of the time with three year olds, it´s a lot of: "sit down" "be quiet" "go to the bathroom" "stop hitting" and the old saying "Use it or lose it" is completely true, I´m forgetting English words, every so often a collegue will ask "How do you say..... in English" and I struggle to find the word although I know what it means, sometimes it comes back to me in a few minutes, sometimes in a few hours, sometimes in a few days, sometimes never... It´s difficult.
Outside of work I speak Spanish, for more than a year me and Mr. Millennial have been speaking exclusively in Spanish (although he speaks English) and with his family and friends too, I speak Spanish. When in Rome and all that. But it´s difficult.
I find myself frustrated, upset, angry, and more when i´m lost for words, when I can´t find the word in Spanish or a way to explain what I mean. Or when everyone is talking at once and i´m not quick enough to join in the conversation. I fear talking to strangers so much in case we don´t understand each other that I don´t even like shopping in case I have to speak to a shop assistant. I feel a tightness in my chest and have to repeat the phrase about 20 times in my head before I can aproach someone, and all the time hoping I understand the response.
Don´t get me wrong, I don´t regret for one second my decision to move to Spain, it was the best thing i´ve ever done in my life, I met my husband two weeks after moving here, as if the stars had aligned and my life made sense as cheesy as it sounds.
I also love that I can speak another language, little by little i´m getting there and I know than in another year or two I won´t have the language issues that I have now (or think I have) it´s a practice makes perfect thing. Speaking with my husband I´m the most confident Spanish speaker, I speak fast, using slang, talking in different tenses, the works, because I have no fear, if I say something wrong it doesn´t matter, he corrects me, I learn. Simple. I don´t have that confidence with groups of people or strangers. It takes all my courage to speak to the parents of my kids at the end of the day.
I don´t make new year resolutions, it´s too easy to break them, so i´m making a new life resolution, to solee my confidence issues, to speak to as many people in Spanish as I can, to panic, and sweat, and blush uncontrollably and not give a shit because the other option that I have is to stay at home for the rest of my life with only my husband to talk to, and as much as I love him, I think I need to make some other friends!
Tuesday 7 June 2016
Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot
Summer is officially coming! Or it´s here, I never know. But one thing I do know for sure is that Madrid just got about 10 degrees hotter almost overnight!
This isn´t like England hot either, nor is it like the heat you get on the beaches of Spain. This is dry, no wind, just hot air blowing in your face, middle of Spain HOT, that makes your knees sweat and you´re cursing your job for having a uniform!
And over the next two months, it´s only going to get worse!
When I first came to Madrid I didn´t understand when people told me that in August Madrileños leave. They get in their cars, or board aeroplanes and they get the hell out of here! Well now, entering my third summer here I get it. Madrid is Hell in August, especially when you have no air conditioning and you´re forced to resort to "tips" off the internet like placing a bowl full of ice infront of a fan, wearing a dama T-shirt and sleeping with the balcony door open, just so you can sleep at least half the night before waking up fearing you´ve peed yourself before you realise, nope, it´s just sweat!
We haven´t quite reached the sleeping downstairs surrounded by ice, and wearing wet clothes phase of summer just yet but it´s getting close! Really close!!
Time to book our hols to England I think!!
This isn´t like England hot either, nor is it like the heat you get on the beaches of Spain. This is dry, no wind, just hot air blowing in your face, middle of Spain HOT, that makes your knees sweat and you´re cursing your job for having a uniform!
And over the next two months, it´s only going to get worse!
When I first came to Madrid I didn´t understand when people told me that in August Madrileños leave. They get in their cars, or board aeroplanes and they get the hell out of here! Well now, entering my third summer here I get it. Madrid is Hell in August, especially when you have no air conditioning and you´re forced to resort to "tips" off the internet like placing a bowl full of ice infront of a fan, wearing a dama T-shirt and sleeping with the balcony door open, just so you can sleep at least half the night before waking up fearing you´ve peed yourself before you realise, nope, it´s just sweat!
We haven´t quite reached the sleeping downstairs surrounded by ice, and wearing wet clothes phase of summer just yet but it´s getting close! Really close!!
Time to book our hols to England I think!!
Thursday 2 June 2016
No Bun in this Oven
Right now, as I type this, one of my friends is in labour. It´s funny because until I met Mr. Millennial I never wanted the whole marriage and kids thing, I have 11 nieces and nephews, I work in a school and I never saw it as being part of my future, in fact I came to Spain as the first step on my journey alone around the world teaching English. I came here to do a six month TEFL course, met my husband two weeks later and never once thought again about travelling further. (without him anyway)
I don´t know exactly when I changed my mind on marriage and babies, but I know it was pretty soon after we met... I remember seeing him with our niece and thinking he´d be a great father.
And here we are, recently married, waiting to get the go ahead that we can go to the hospital to visit our friends and welcome the new baby to the world, and i´m trying to work out if it is an amazing thing to have kids, or if everyone tells you it´s great and rewarding and everything else but is it for everyone? Is it for us??
I´ve been asked probably a hundred times or more since the wedding (a mere TWO MONTHS ago!) when we´re going to have a baby, are we thinking about it? Do we want kids? when? my mother in law even thought I was pregnant when we suggested having a family lunch one Sunday! Also it doesn´t help that I work in a school and all the five year old girls think that getting married automatically means you become a mummy, I get asked almost every day if I have a baby yet and if not, do I have one in my tummy? and if not, when?! I hope i´ve explained that it doesn´t happen like that, and that first we have to decide if we want to have a baby, then when, and then it has to grow for a really long time. Five year old girls really aren´t all that patient!
The thing is, I went through about a year of really wanting to have a baby, I love my husband, I know he´ll be an amazing dad and I wanted us to grow our family, then we got engaged and I still wanted a baby, I probably mentioned it at least once a week! (God I must have been annoying, but he married me anyway!) Then we got married and... I calmed down a lot. (which Mr. Millennial is really happy about because he kept telling me to wait! Haha)
Also our sister in law is pregnant, his brothers girlfriend. It´s their second baby so the pressure is kind of off right now, and the kids in my class are REALLY annoying right now, there are three weeks left before they leave for summer and they´re tired, and we´re tired, so i´m re-thinking the whole let´s have a baby NOW thing. When you´re surrounded by three year olds all day, it´s kind of nice to be able to go home, put the telly on and not have to keep someone else safe and fed and clean... What am I saying, i´m married, I do have to do all of those things when I get home, but at least Mr. Millennial can wait five minutes or half an hour for dinner, whereas the kids in my class can´t even wait two seconds for me to give them a snack!
All I know right now is that we´re enjoying being married, and babies are on the back burner, at least another year free of nappies and vomit and screaming in the night, but it won´t stop me enjoying the cuddles later when our new nephew arrives!
I don´t know exactly when I changed my mind on marriage and babies, but I know it was pretty soon after we met... I remember seeing him with our niece and thinking he´d be a great father.
And here we are, recently married, waiting to get the go ahead that we can go to the hospital to visit our friends and welcome the new baby to the world, and i´m trying to work out if it is an amazing thing to have kids, or if everyone tells you it´s great and rewarding and everything else but is it for everyone? Is it for us??
I´ve been asked probably a hundred times or more since the wedding (a mere TWO MONTHS ago!) when we´re going to have a baby, are we thinking about it? Do we want kids? when? my mother in law even thought I was pregnant when we suggested having a family lunch one Sunday! Also it doesn´t help that I work in a school and all the five year old girls think that getting married automatically means you become a mummy, I get asked almost every day if I have a baby yet and if not, do I have one in my tummy? and if not, when?! I hope i´ve explained that it doesn´t happen like that, and that first we have to decide if we want to have a baby, then when, and then it has to grow for a really long time. Five year old girls really aren´t all that patient!
The thing is, I went through about a year of really wanting to have a baby, I love my husband, I know he´ll be an amazing dad and I wanted us to grow our family, then we got engaged and I still wanted a baby, I probably mentioned it at least once a week! (God I must have been annoying, but he married me anyway!) Then we got married and... I calmed down a lot. (which Mr. Millennial is really happy about because he kept telling me to wait! Haha)
Also our sister in law is pregnant, his brothers girlfriend. It´s their second baby so the pressure is kind of off right now, and the kids in my class are REALLY annoying right now, there are three weeks left before they leave for summer and they´re tired, and we´re tired, so i´m re-thinking the whole let´s have a baby NOW thing. When you´re surrounded by three year olds all day, it´s kind of nice to be able to go home, put the telly on and not have to keep someone else safe and fed and clean... What am I saying, i´m married, I do have to do all of those things when I get home, but at least Mr. Millennial can wait five minutes or half an hour for dinner, whereas the kids in my class can´t even wait two seconds for me to give them a snack!
All I know right now is that we´re enjoying being married, and babies are on the back burner, at least another year free of nappies and vomit and screaming in the night, but it won´t stop me enjoying the cuddles later when our new nephew arrives!
Sunday 22 May 2016
I Heart Glenn Doman
This weekend I was a little... Well, shall we say peeved at the fact that we had a course at work which meant having to stay until 8.30pm on Friday and from 9am until 7pm on Saturday (It was originally supposed to be 6pm but overran by an hour!)
I´m not saying I was very happy at being at work half the weekend, in fact I was definitely NOT happy about it, but in the end the course was very interesting (although intense!)
I work, as a teaching assistant in a private bilingual school in Madrid, my class is a class of 18 three year olds and in three years old, we teach everything in English. The course in question was Early Stimulation (which lazily i´ve translated directly from "estimulación temporal", but probably has another name in Enlgish)
So as I sat down at 5.30pm on Friday, after having been working since 8am that morning, I was ready to be bored and even more peeved, but when the teacher started talking about Glenn Doman and his methods on teaching babies and young children, using a range of exercises to develop the body and flash cards to develop the mind, I started to pay attention. This was interesting!
Glenn Doman was a physical therapist who founded, in 1955 The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (Sounds like something out of X-Men right?!) Well, this was originally a non-profit organisation to help children with brain damage, to develop their full potential as the name suggests, using the exercises and flash cards to develop their brains and bodies as much as possible, rather than just leaving them to a life stuck in a wheelchair or a hospital bed unstimulated.
In the 1960´s they began to use the methods on children with no disabilities aswell and the results were pretty amazing!
All over the world centres are using the Glenn Doman methods to develop the minds and bodies of children to their fullest, training teachers, schools and parents in how to develop the minds of children everywhere.
Unfortunately a lot of the exercises have to be done between birth and two years to awaken the areas of the brain, such as exposure to language and my children are three and four years old. We can teach them languages, of course, they are learning English and doing an amazing job I might say! Also I only started to learn Spanish almost two years ago and since a year ago, outside of work I only speak Spanish.
However, there is a point in a childs life (at around six months) when the brain stops being able to distinguish the sounds from different languages which makes pronounciation so difficult when learning a language later in life, which is why Spanish people have difficulties pronouncing English words begining with an S, followed by a consonant, because these words don´t exist in Spanish, they always have an E at the begining, like Spanish in Spanish is Español and Spain is España. Also it´s difficult for English people to pronunce the letters J and G in Spanish which have a very throaty sound which doesn´t exist in English, but from zero to six months, the brain is able to learn all the sounds, which is why it´s the best time for language esposure, not necessarily to learn other languores but to develop that part of the brain to its fullest.
I am dying to use my new found knowledge, and yes, of course there are some of the methods that we can use in the classroom, such as crawling, which sounds a bit daft but is very important in a childs development, but until me and Mr. Millennial decide to have baby millennials i´ll just have to wait for the rest!!
I´m not saying I was very happy at being at work half the weekend, in fact I was definitely NOT happy about it, but in the end the course was very interesting (although intense!)
I work, as a teaching assistant in a private bilingual school in Madrid, my class is a class of 18 three year olds and in three years old, we teach everything in English. The course in question was Early Stimulation (which lazily i´ve translated directly from "estimulación temporal", but probably has another name in Enlgish)
So as I sat down at 5.30pm on Friday, after having been working since 8am that morning, I was ready to be bored and even more peeved, but when the teacher started talking about Glenn Doman and his methods on teaching babies and young children, using a range of exercises to develop the body and flash cards to develop the mind, I started to pay attention. This was interesting!
Glenn Doman was a physical therapist who founded, in 1955 The Institutes for the Achievement of Human Potential (Sounds like something out of X-Men right?!) Well, this was originally a non-profit organisation to help children with brain damage, to develop their full potential as the name suggests, using the exercises and flash cards to develop their brains and bodies as much as possible, rather than just leaving them to a life stuck in a wheelchair or a hospital bed unstimulated.
In the 1960´s they began to use the methods on children with no disabilities aswell and the results were pretty amazing!
All over the world centres are using the Glenn Doman methods to develop the minds and bodies of children to their fullest, training teachers, schools and parents in how to develop the minds of children everywhere.
Unfortunately a lot of the exercises have to be done between birth and two years to awaken the areas of the brain, such as exposure to language and my children are three and four years old. We can teach them languages, of course, they are learning English and doing an amazing job I might say! Also I only started to learn Spanish almost two years ago and since a year ago, outside of work I only speak Spanish.
However, there is a point in a childs life (at around six months) when the brain stops being able to distinguish the sounds from different languages which makes pronounciation so difficult when learning a language later in life, which is why Spanish people have difficulties pronouncing English words begining with an S, followed by a consonant, because these words don´t exist in Spanish, they always have an E at the begining, like Spanish in Spanish is Español and Spain is España. Also it´s difficult for English people to pronunce the letters J and G in Spanish which have a very throaty sound which doesn´t exist in English, but from zero to six months, the brain is able to learn all the sounds, which is why it´s the best time for language esposure, not necessarily to learn other languores but to develop that part of the brain to its fullest.
I am dying to use my new found knowledge, and yes, of course there are some of the methods that we can use in the classroom, such as crawling, which sounds a bit daft but is very important in a childs development, but until me and Mr. Millennial decide to have baby millennials i´ll just have to wait for the rest!!
Monday 9 May 2016
Twitter - Is Tweeting Still a Thing??
I used to be a big fan of Twitter, long before I discovered Instagram and Pinterest, my main go to´s were Facebook and Twitter. Then, I don´t really know what happened, I got bored or forgot my password or something but I stopped Tweeting and kind of forgot all about it.
Until today! Well let me tell you first of all that i´ve suffered a bout of Karma and i´m sick. Karma why? Karma, because I was making jokes last week about how Spanish people always say you can´t go out when it´s cold or you´ll catch a cold and get a fever and be really sick, and every time you mention that you have a headache or you cough in the vicinity of a Spanish person they will more than likely hand you a thermometer!
Well this for me is very funny, as someone who has never taken her temperature... probably ever before, and being from the North of England I don´t really believe that going out in the cold is going to make you sick, but here I am, after my lovely weekend away with a stinking cold which I suspect is sinusitis as my head has been killing me all day too, not great when you have a class full of three year olds to deal with, and no, today i´m not laughing at people asking me if I have a fever! (Which I don´t by the way, no such luck, back to work tomorrow!)
Anyway, so I thought, in a moment of feeling sorry for myself and needing a distraction, that it would be a good idea to start a Twitter account, so you can find me over there too @millennialhwife That is if i´m not too out of touch and people do still Tweet...
Until today! Well let me tell you first of all that i´ve suffered a bout of Karma and i´m sick. Karma why? Karma, because I was making jokes last week about how Spanish people always say you can´t go out when it´s cold or you´ll catch a cold and get a fever and be really sick, and every time you mention that you have a headache or you cough in the vicinity of a Spanish person they will more than likely hand you a thermometer!
Well this for me is very funny, as someone who has never taken her temperature... probably ever before, and being from the North of England I don´t really believe that going out in the cold is going to make you sick, but here I am, after my lovely weekend away with a stinking cold which I suspect is sinusitis as my head has been killing me all day too, not great when you have a class full of three year olds to deal with, and no, today i´m not laughing at people asking me if I have a fever! (Which I don´t by the way, no such luck, back to work tomorrow!)
Anyway, so I thought, in a moment of feeling sorry for myself and needing a distraction, that it would be a good idea to start a Twitter account, so you can find me over there too @millennialhwife That is if i´m not too out of touch and people do still Tweet...
Sunday 8 May 2016
A Weekend Away - Spanish Style
What better way to finish a particularly stressful week (one that ended quite dramatically with a horrific downpour that turned the street into white water rapids) than a weekend away! Long overdue and very much needed!
We packed a suitcase and picked up my husbands brother and his girlfriend and off we went to a little village about two and a half hours from Madrid called Trujillo.
It´s nice and all and I love being away from Madrid and from home for the weekend (still getting used to living in a loft rather than a house with proper walls and doors!) and Trujillo is beautiful, we stayed in a Parador which has no translation but it´s basically somewhere like a castle or a monistary that they have turned into a hotel so that they can pay for its upkeep... but it´s when we visit the villages of Spain that my English side comes out...
Well, maybe not my English side, maybe it´s just me but I don´t find visiting castles and churches all that fun... Sorry Spain!
It´s something the hubby is used to, he knows i´d rather be sitting in a cafe eating chocolate cake, or in a square drinking a beer but when we´re with other people I have to keep schtum and go along for the ride, I managed to get out of the guided tour, only because it was cold and about to rain and Mr Millennial was tired so we stayed in our room but when we were re-told the history of the village when the in-laws got back it got me thinking.
I know NOTHING about history!
I know this sounds like a trivial thing, and in the grand scheme of things it´s not really that important, but almost all Spanish people that I have met know a lot about the history of their country and of other countries, and Mr Millennial is a bit of a history buff, but I know nothing about Spain, or England or any other country. My knowledge of history begins and ends with the fact that Henry the eighth had six wives who were Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Divorced, Beheaded, Survived and sometimes I feel a little bit.. Well... Stupid.
So my mid-year resolution - i´m making that a thing - is to learn more about history, in particular Kings, Queens and at least a brief history of Spain and England so that I can join in on some of these conversations.
It can be frustrating at the best of times trying to explain something in another language, one that you don´t know all the words to express yourself. You don´t lose your intelligence but you lose the power to be able to show it at times. Luckily my Spanish family is very patient with me and the hubby more or less understands what i´m getting at!!
So while I go and attempt to memorise names and dates, here are some photos from the weekend, enjoy!
Tuesday 3 May 2016
The Name Game
My Facebook page has been filling up recently with articles about weddings. Not inusual, as it´s now spring, we´re officially in wedding season. Usually this doesn´t interest me much but seeing as i´ve just got married some of the titles have caught my eye, especially those on the topic of name changing.
I understand that changing your name after getting married can be a difficult decision, you´ve had your maiden name for your whole life, it connects you to your parents, brothers and sisters, other family members... But please don´t drop the F-bomb when talking about why you don´t want to take your husband´s name!!
Being a feminist should not be the reason why you don´t want to change your name after marriage. We all know that men don´t own women anymore, and i´m getting tired of the abuse that men get from these so called feminists that can praise a woman for posting a naked photo onto social media, UNLESS said woman is steriotypically beautiful with big boobs and a tiny waist (How stupid was all the Kim Kardashian hate?!)
The poor men of today can not be blamed for what men did in the past, nor can the mayority be blamed for how very few men treat or think of women.
Feminism can not be the excuse. You can not say: "I won´t change my name because I am a feminist and not owned by my husband" because if you feel like that, you could say: "I have to have a name which is completely unrelated to anyone in my family because I am not owned by anyone"
It´s the exact same thing. Your surname at birth is usually that of your father (and your mother if she changed her name after marriage) so are you owned by him?? NO!!
My personal opinion is that my surname shows which family I belong to, who are the people who I love and who i´m closest to in the entire world, which is why I chose to take my husbands name after we got married, and I didn´t have to, here in Spain women DON´T take their husbands surname after marriage, they keep their own and the children take their first surname (they have two) from their father, and the second from their mother.
This can cause a lot of names like Juan Fernandez Fernandez popping up but it´s the tradition here, such as traditionally in England women take their husbands surname.
Sure, hundreds of years ago it probably was to show possession, but times have changed and I for one am proud to use my husband´s name, we are a family, and when we have children they will take, as is traditional here both surnames, they will have a Spanish one and an English one, something we have discussed as I am quite happy to relinquish my surname and use both of my husbands, but he would like them to have part of their English herritage in their names too.
I completely agree that everyone (women and men included) has the right to choose whether they keep their surname after marriage, or change it and take that of their new husband/wife, or to change it in any other moment of their life. But don´t think badly of your new husband, don´t say you won´t take his name because you are not owned by him, it doesn´t make you sound like a strong and independant woman from a Beyonce song, it makes you sound like a paranoid bully. Men are not the enemy, and if you felt like that you surely wouldn´t have married one in the first place.
Rant over. Sorry feminists...
I understand that changing your name after getting married can be a difficult decision, you´ve had your maiden name for your whole life, it connects you to your parents, brothers and sisters, other family members... But please don´t drop the F-bomb when talking about why you don´t want to take your husband´s name!!
Being a feminist should not be the reason why you don´t want to change your name after marriage. We all know that men don´t own women anymore, and i´m getting tired of the abuse that men get from these so called feminists that can praise a woman for posting a naked photo onto social media, UNLESS said woman is steriotypically beautiful with big boobs and a tiny waist (How stupid was all the Kim Kardashian hate?!)
The poor men of today can not be blamed for what men did in the past, nor can the mayority be blamed for how very few men treat or think of women.
Feminism can not be the excuse. You can not say: "I won´t change my name because I am a feminist and not owned by my husband" because if you feel like that, you could say: "I have to have a name which is completely unrelated to anyone in my family because I am not owned by anyone"
It´s the exact same thing. Your surname at birth is usually that of your father (and your mother if she changed her name after marriage) so are you owned by him?? NO!!
My personal opinion is that my surname shows which family I belong to, who are the people who I love and who i´m closest to in the entire world, which is why I chose to take my husbands name after we got married, and I didn´t have to, here in Spain women DON´T take their husbands surname after marriage, they keep their own and the children take their first surname (they have two) from their father, and the second from their mother.
This can cause a lot of names like Juan Fernandez Fernandez popping up but it´s the tradition here, such as traditionally in England women take their husbands surname.
Sure, hundreds of years ago it probably was to show possession, but times have changed and I for one am proud to use my husband´s name, we are a family, and when we have children they will take, as is traditional here both surnames, they will have a Spanish one and an English one, something we have discussed as I am quite happy to relinquish my surname and use both of my husbands, but he would like them to have part of their English herritage in their names too.
I completely agree that everyone (women and men included) has the right to choose whether they keep their surname after marriage, or change it and take that of their new husband/wife, or to change it in any other moment of their life. But don´t think badly of your new husband, don´t say you won´t take his name because you are not owned by him, it doesn´t make you sound like a strong and independant woman from a Beyonce song, it makes you sound like a paranoid bully. Men are not the enemy, and if you felt like that you surely wouldn´t have married one in the first place.
Rant over. Sorry feminists...
Thursday 28 April 2016
Becoming the Best Mujer Española
One little piece of information that you need to know about me if you´re reading this blog is that i´m an English woman, but... a Spanish wife...
Let me explain, my husband is Spanish and we live in Madrid, outside of work I NEVER speak English and i´m trying to be the best spanish wife (or la mejor mujer española) that I can be.
Part of this is learning how to cook all the typical Spanish dishes that will make the hubby happy and impress las señoras.
So I decided to start my Spanish culinary journey with an Empanada de atún! It´s basically a tuna and tomato pasty but it´s pretty delish so I gave it a go.
Now i´m not going to give you a recipe here, it´s pretty simple to make and you can easily do your own google search, plus i´m more of an inventing things and chucking it all in kind of a cook than the weighing out ingredients kind, but here are a few photos to prove I did it, and that i´m on my way to becoming the perfect Spanish wife!
This is the filling mix, and although it doesn´t look that appetising I promise it´s full of yummy things! (Tuna, red and green peppers, onion, garlic and tomato)
Next, you fill the pastry and put a hole in the middle, which i´m guessing is to let out steam and so it doesn´t blow up in the oven. (by the way i´m pretty impressed with the edging on my pastry, all done with my own two hands)
And here is the finished product, served with vegetables and cauliflower rice (which is basically cauliflower whizzed in the blender until it looks like rice)
I think I did a good job with my first ever empanada, the hubby said it was "muy rico" (very tasty) and he even ate two pieces and took some to work today too, but I think after letting out my inner domestic goddess yesterday i´ll go back to chucking ingredients into a pan tonight...
Monday 25 April 2016
Adulting is Hard
Remember being a kid and thinking how nice it must be to never have to go to school, to be able to stay at home all day watching Sesame Street and eating biscuits (because that´s of course what all adults do isn´t it?) or going out to work, which seemed really cool, where you could have an office with a big swively chair and a computer for doing lots of important writing.
You could drink coffee from a styrofoam cup and wear smart clothes, you could have control of the TV remote and the power to send people to bed.
Ah yes! Being an adult must be amazing!
Until you are one...
Work sucks almost as much as going to school, and it´s even worse if you happen to have chosen to work in a school!
You have to do things like pay bills and rent, wash clothes and clean the house!
Why don´t we wake up one day with all the knowledge that we thought our parents had? Maybe they did know everything and our generation - the millennials - we´re the stupid ones who don´t know how to grow up, maybe we really are the Peter Pan generation, or maybe, just maybe, our parents were blagging their way through adulthood too and we never realised...
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