Playing with puddles

Rainy day

It rained all day, so we were mainly indoors again, but this time at my in-laws. In the afternoon we made "brunyols", which is our typical pastry for Easter. We did it in the old house, because my MIL can't stand all the mess we seem to make :-)

Paint chaos

We stayed mostly home today... painting, modeling with playdoh and clay, playing with memory cards (I lost to A even though I tried so very hard, I must really be getting old), and watching a movie: The Nightmare before Christmas. I love the lyrics in this movie...
Does it sound like fun? Everything except picking up after them even though they did help... and cleaning paint all over the kitchen floor

This is the entrance of an old town, not far from where we live...

Have you ever tried....

sea urchin roe?
We had some at my parents'
It's considered a delicacy...

The way I see it...

Elections held in Spain last Sunday, with socialist victory, have proved once more that there are two Spains: a traditional, conservative one (in the moral sense, I'm not talking about economics) which will side with the church and still, in many cases, doesn't see Franco as a such bad part of our past (that would be PP), and a more progressive one that would definately condemn Franco's regime... The gay-lesbian marriage thing is just one of the laws Zapatero has brought (Socialists have also passed a law to harden the punishments for domestic violence and protect abused women more effectively, and have improved conditions for the working young people to access housing, given the huge rise in prices.
However, I don't think many people vote for that as much as they vote out of fear, fear of the others... to understand that, we'd have to take a look at our recent past ... Many of our problems still stem from the civil war (1936-1939) which brought a long dictatorship with Franco supported always by the catholic church. Among other things, Franco was determined to erradicate any trace of identity except Spanish, thus Catalan was forbidden (my mom would be spanked if she was caught speaking her own language at school!). In general terms, Catalans and most peripheral Spain fought to maintain a republic and avoid Franco rising to power, while another part of Spain was siding with the dictator, and they won.
We still have these two sides in Spain. Many people vote out of fear. Socialists have played that card: "Vote for us, or they will come!", and PP has played that card too: "Vote for us, or Catalans will rule and Spain will break!" PP has once again used the language/cultural issue, and Catalans have played a big role in Zapatero winning, not so much because they love him, but because we see the alternative as far worse.
The debates on TV didn't help PP either, their leader (Rajoy) actually brought up Irak on the debate, when that was a major factor for their losing elections in the past! That was clearly unwise (in my opinion). So Catalans fear PP and have been decisive in the socialist victory, and the same has happened in the basque country. They have voted more for socialists, and the killing of a former councilman triggered the anger in many people who rebelled against ETA's "recommendation" that they should abstain from voting, and have hugely supported socialists....

So to answer your question, James, the socialists victory is ok with me... but only ok...

Trying to explain this in English is a bit of a challenge...!

ETA had to appear in this campaign and murder again. This time it was a politician not even active, he had been a town councilman some years go but that's the point, those who are have escort, so this man didn't. He was an easy target. I don't understand these idiots... what do they want??

To continue with my pics, A started swimming today without a back float, so this is an important photograph!...

American dream?

H and I were watching the news yesterday and a piece about elections in the US caught our attention. It was about Obama, and a team of reporters had actually interviewed Obama's mother in Kenya. The woman was dressed in traditional African clothing and spoke about proudly about his son. H said "This truly is the American dream...!" We have elections in Spain soon aswell (next sunday) and I think we still need to learn a lot about the US, even though it's not a perfect country either. It would be unthinkable in Spain to have someone running for president with relatives say in Morocco or any other African country. Our society is still quite prejudiced, and not just about people from other countries, in fact nobody could picture a Catalan running for president of Spain, and that would have nothing to do with race or ethnicity. Likewise, there was some controversy when Catalans elected president for our comunity because the winner is not a perfect Catalan. Mr Montilla was not born here, he has Andalusian descent and a Spanish last name. He won though. I wonder if I'll ever see a Catalan as president of the country. We really do have a long way to go...

To continue with my photographic journal (I blame Jessica for that) here's a pic inside my workplace...

Escudella i carn d'olla

Our lunch today was the most typical dish in Catalan cuisine: escudella. It's a winter stew with lots of vegetables, meat and soup that is usually served in two parts, first the soup with pasta (tiny type of pasta) or rice, and then the meat with vegetables seasoned with just olive oil and a bit of salt. I use my mom's recipe, and I prepared two big meatballs with minced meat, egg, garlic, parsley and minced bread, made a soup with carrots, leek, celery, turnip, cabbage and pieces of lamb, veal, chicken and pork. When the meat was soft enough I took it out of the pot and prepared the two separate dishes. It's laborious... and I actually began making it the day before... here are some pics...

This is the minced meat, bread and egg I used...


I used frozen garlic and parsley cubes (that's not in my mom's recipe, she'd say this is not healthy, but this way your hands don't stink of garlic)


This is what we call "pilota" which is made of minced meat. It's actually like big meatballs...


We always cook and season with olive oil


On another note... it's been more than three months since H had his last seizure... I almost don't dare say it...

Just some pics of the day

With C in the elevator...

A snack...

Watching tv...

The view from our terrace

Birthday

We celebrated my dad's 80th birthday...

Saturday

We spend every saturday at my inlaws... Did I tell you they have chickens?

The nursery school

I've been taking C to a very nice nursery school for the past 1.5 years. It's a big place, with nice staff, a spacious class, a dining-room, and C's favorite, a playroom with a house in miniature. They all love it, because they can play house with small beds, a tiny kitchen with a fridge, oven, table, and food (plastic, of course), a closet with an assortment of clothing and shoes to dress up and even a couch and a TV that does not work. When it's nap time, they have a separate room with beds, and the best of all, the nursery school has a big playground. Overall, it's a very nice place and not expensive at all. BUT, it's in the worst neighborhood. It's state-run (there are several in our town), and following a policy of creating good equipments in poor areas, they ended up building this nursery school in this neighborhood. I had never been there before enrolling my daughter there. I just knew about it from the news. When I read the newspaper and find something about drug dealers being arrested, it's always there. Over the years, it has become sort of a ghetto. Mostly gipsies live there. There's so much talk about immigrants and integration, but in there, you'd find a good example of a group of people born in the country who don't share the general rules. There are trash containers on the street, but you can find all kinds of rubbish on the ground, just a few meters from where they should be. I just don't understand it. Is it so hard to walk a few more steps and throw it where it belongs? Another puzzling thing: some mothers take their kids to the nursery school and don't bother to change clothes, so you see them in slippers and pajama walking down the street with the kid. Hmmm... I would be embarrassed but they don't seem to bother. And another habit: eating sunflower seeds and spitting the husk on the ground (is husk the right word?).... I remember when we told our families that C would be going to this nursery school... they were shocked. But we think it was a good decision. My daughter has always felt comfortable in the school, she's happy and I guess that's the best indicator... Anyway, next year she'll join her sister in another school (the one A is attending), it's only 4 more months! The worst part about the nursery school is the drive... it's in the farthest part of town... In the beginning, Hubby drove her in the morning and I would pick her up after lunch, but then he was diagnosed with epilepsy, and I took care of the driving....

Dad, according to C

That's my husband, according to Cristina. She likes to draw her father, nonstop, but he always looks like this. What I don't get is, his legs seem to grow from his head up. And that's not hair on the sides of his head. I suggested it was, but C quickly corrected me. Those are his ears.

That's also hubby, and it's always her next step. The first time she did that I asked "why are you scratching it out?" and she said "Noooo.... I'm covering him with a blanket". Ok.
Looks like an alien to me. But I won't tell her.

There's something on your hair...

I don't spend much time in the mornings trying to make myself pretty. I don't use makeup and I hardly ever wear earrings or any other ornament... but yesterday I decided I looked too bad even for my taste so I tried to make my hair look at least ok. And I even put on a hairclip. Hmm... A red one. I arrived at work, said hello and one of my coworkers said "Nuri, there's something on your hair... something red" Something?? I did that on purpose! It was supposed to look good! All that effort...

Random thoughts

WARNING: Grammatical, spelling mistakes ahead (I don't have the time to check)
I've been quite busy, I can only confirm that I am, indeed, a lousy blogger.
Other than that, no bad news in our household. It's been more than 2 months since H had his last seizure, so we're hopeful... However, the results on his sleep deprived EEG showed abnormal waves. The doctor said those waves shouldn't be there since he is on medication, but did not suggest a change. I guess he won't change his medication unless he has another seizure...
Just yesterday, we were having dinner, and Alicia asked out of the blue "Mom, what if you fall down like dad and it's just me and Cristina, what will happen to us?" It was totally unexpected since we had not been talking about it at all, in fact she seemed completely uninterested. I had tried to get her to tell me how she felt in the park when her dad had his seizure, but she refused to talk and I just let it go. But yesterday she gave me a full account of that day, and she seemed worried that it might happen to me or her... I told her it's a condition her father has, not me, and not her (let's not talk about genetics...) and that she should not worry because dad always recovers completely...

And now for something funny... my SIL went to the doctor because she had rash on the back of her neck. The doctor took a good look at her neck and head and then gave her the news: "ma'am, you have headlice!, do you have children?"
She was horrified. She's close to being a clean freak, her house is spotless, and changes his son's clothes if there so much as a tiny stain on them! The doctor actually explained that it does not mean she's dirty, that kids get them quite easily and sometimes pass them to adults, but she was sooo worried! I checked on Cristina, since the children had been playing together on sunday, and bought a special comb, but no lice or nits... Poor SIL

Party...

I'm going to some kind of a farewell party for my boss. He won't be leaving the company, just changing his office, so we'll see him around anyway. My co-workers have prepared some surprises for him, and even wrote a song! I feel uncomfortable with the whole thing. It looks like a cult boss. Do we worship him or what?? We can have lunch, even exchange small presents but actually SING something to him and have some sort of magician perform for him??? Too much.

Childhood story

Alicia: you know, mom, you don't have to take me to school everyday, I know the way, I can go on my own...
Me: Really?... Tell me, what if you're walking to school and someone driving a car tells you he can drive you?
Alicia: I'd go in the car and tell him where the school is!
she says that smiling, believing that her answer made her pass my "test", but I tell her never to do that, that she should never accept a ride from somebody outside the family. She looks confused, in part because she doesn't understand what some bad person might possibly want from her.


I'm writing this because Buffalo has a post that made me think about something that happened in my childhood. My sister (she was 7 or 8 at the time) once accepted a ride from a man we knew. Not that he was a friend, but he was a familiar face. She started to get scared when she noticed he wasn't driving towards our house. At some point he stopped and kissed her on the lips, saying they could pretend they were boyfriend and girlfriend. My sister was too scared to react. He continued driving and when he stopped again (a traffic light I suppose) she opened the door, jumped out and started running. When she told my mother, she didn't go to the police. Instead, she found out where the man lived and paid a visit. His wife opened the door and my mother demanded to see him. something in my mom's face told her this was serious, and she invited her in but she just told her to get her husband. When he came at the door he barely had time to say anything. My mother slapped him hard in the face, told his wife what he had done and told him she was going to the police. He begged her not to do it and swore he'd never do that to her daughters or any other kid. God knows if he kept his word... but I remember my sister was proud of her mom that night. We all were, even though that's not the type of behavior my dad approves. He would have followed the rational, legal way and gone to the police, but my mom's always been the temperamental one. Do you think she did the right thing? I believe she should have slapped him AND gone to the police, but that was about 34 years ago...

Per molts anys!

3 years ago...

Today: