"Feliz" Navidad...

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

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!