All good things must come to an end and for me that time has come. What I am now hoping is that one good thing can be followed up with another good thing, since that’s why I’ve made the decision to finish with my life in Barcelona. After saying farewell to my workmates almost two months ago (Hi guys!) I’ve had a bit of a rollercoaster ride in all senses of the word. Of course I enjoyed a brief visit home before returning to Barna to get my last glimpse of beach-life with good coffee, crisp beer, beautiful women in abundance and the ever-shining sun. I had a ball - not a care in the world and my finicito or final pay check that served as my pocket-money for the well overdue holiday from late evenings and early mornings. Staying in Cubelles, I was able to get familiar with Sitges, Vilanova, Cunit and (hombre!) PortAventura. Possibly the coolest place I’ve ever visited for going and having a laugh. It was also the first time I’d ridden on a rollercoaster and if I’d heard that Dragon Khan was the only one in the world with eight loops, I may not have made it. In a nutshell, FUUUUUUUUUUUCK!

That period of living in paradise without responsibilities of a job has also since come to an end and I’m back in the world of binge-drinkers, players on the pull, bad driving and bloody cold air. On the up side, you can live on what you earn so it’s not all bad. As for earning, that’s something I’m in the process of starting again. With a few opportunites in the pipeline, and after having done interviews in Galway and Dublin, I reckon I won’t have time to run down my balance to zero before I’m on the ladder again. There has been some spectacular news of late but I’m afraid it deserves a post of its own. More on that later folks.

The last couple of weeks have been hectic. Who would have thought that not having a job would leave you with so little time to do the things that seemed routine before! And another thing, now that I don’t have a fixed connection where I’m staying, why in the hell is it so hard to find somewhere that you can use the web without having to deal with a sticky keyboard or a dodgy mouse?

Between Galway, Dublin, Sitges, Cubelles and Barcelona I may not have been able to add to the blog but I have been busy getting some wonderful snaps that will soon feature here. I’ve also managed to track down some of my college projects that will be suitable for the web and they’ll be up in the sandbox before you can say gillipitxi. Take it greasy!

A quick note to say that the trip to Pamplona was fantastic and that photos will be forthcoming just as soon as I get a chance to sit at my own computer. Right now I’m at a Cyber Cafe in Sants, after a great Shish Tawok in the Lebanese restaurant next door. To fill in some details, I got back from Navarra on Monday night around the stroke of midnight and spend all day yesterday in a complete panic trying to move stuff out of the old aparment and in to the new. To do so we rented a PepeCar and after a wrong turn in the north of Barcelona central, were under pressure to get back in time not to fall victim of the €80 fine that I’m sure they must make a killing on. After some hairy moments we got parked and paid in time to go shopping afterwards. So after a bloody manic day running around, Maika made my birthday a whole lot better by getting me my very own PSP, with of course, GTA!!

I’ve just about gotten the sand out of my ears after the trip to Roses and it’s time to pack the bags again for what’s sure to be an interesting trip to Pamplona. Pretty much everyone’s heard of the place or at the very least, the main fiesta of the Pamplona calander - San Fermin. Anyone still in the dark should know that I’m talking about the bull run that goes on every morning for eight days of July each year. As the popularity has grown among Italian, American and other tourists, so has the dread of the locals, to see what used to be a relatively enjoyable week turn in to a beer guzzling, pintxo munching, bull teasing infestation. In recent years, a usual sight would be drunken idiots sleeping in the locals’ gardens or on the very high murals where they could (and have) fall to their peril. To cheer themselves up, the owners of the houses like to get up at dawn and spray as many of these lost souls with cold water as they can to see if they’ll wake up and do something typically stupid!

However, as dreadful as this sounds, those who have grown to resent the main celebration of San Fermin have some comfort in the fact that there is a another date on the calendar that brings the spirit of San Fermin, but not the tourists (yet). This ikle version, otherwise known as San Fermin Chiquito goes on for the weekend and doesn’t feature the encierro (bull run), which believe it or not, is not the only thing to this fiesta! Scheduled for the 23rd and 24th, it just happens to be when I’ll be there, so I’ll get the photos up as soon I get a chance to take them. (d’uh)

Living in Barcelona has its advantages but like most relatively large cities, you end up running from place to place and there just isn’t much opportunity to relax. Yes there’s a beach beside the city, but unless you’re a guiri or have never been to a beach in your life, it sucks. Apart from the contaminated water, the strange stains that the sands seems to leave and the occasional infestation of jellyfish, it’s always overflowing with sun-worshippers so finding a peaceful spot normally takes half a day.

That’s why we took advantage of the long weekend to get out of town and travel up the Costa Brava a little. Roses or Rosas used to be a charming seaside village until the seventies, which saw an influx of tourists, hotels and apartment blocks. That said, the change of pace was worth the trip and I took a few snaps that I’ll post in the coming days.