Wednesday 13 January 2010

Barcelona most of December....

It’s been a peerie while since I updated this old blog….. Partly due to joining face book and mucking around with that, partly due to not being able to get anywhere near the computer since Alisha discovered Barbie.com and mainly due to just having too much fun! Today I am stuck in the boat with Kaylee who spent the whole night last night spewing. Poor Alistair woke up the first time with her spewing over his head! Not a nice way to wake up. Anyway here is the blog…..

We have made firm friends with the other boats wintering along the pontoon with us now. There is a Dutch couple called Ingrid and Ton in their boat Xelha which is beautiful and they made it themselves!! Wow. They have been sailing around the med for 6 years now and are a fountain of knowledge for us, we will be grilling them before we leave in the spring! Next to them is Fergus and his Irish party boat called Spirit of Australia, we call it the party boat as it is always full of Irish men, or French women and there seems to be a free flowing tap of Irish whisky in there! Next along and our immediate neighbours are Mike and Toni and their boys Alisdair and Andrew onboard Elysian, another small world coincidence there is that Alisdair was working with a yacht chartering company in Greece last summer with none other than Magnus Johnston who did the Yachtmaster course at the NAFC at the same time as me two years ago! The last over winterer is Kristor from Sweden who has a big catamaran at the end of the pontoon. There are three other boats, a huge Italian catamaran and a local yacht and a ‘club boat’ which means it is taken out by various club members and as anyone boaty can imagine having the boat next to you being tied up and steered by people who don’t own it is not the best neighbour to have! (imagine loose halyards banging away all night, being bashed in the side as they ‘manoeuvre’ into place)

The main diversions in December has been numerous sprees and a lot of sight seeing as we thought we better familiarise ourselves fully with the city before the onslaught of visitors began at New Year!

We were invited over for dinner at the local Shetlander in Barcelona Marvyn Johnson (from Bells road.) His girlfriend Gemma who is from Barcelona had laid on a lovely three course meal and we had a great time getting to know them. Gemma gave us a run down of Catalonian history which was very interesting as I must admit to being fairly ignorant on European politics/history. We had to say goodnight before we wanted to but it a long way back on the metro with a couple of changes which are best done without too much wine aboard! Alistair noticed Marvyn has a Takkamin (not sure of spelling although I should be as it has spent about a month on our boat) guitar and made him promise to take it down to the party we were planning the next weekend…..

Alistair’s birthday was at the beginning of Dec and the girls and I had a fun trying to bake the first ever cake in our little gas oven. I opted for a packet mix as I couldn’t figure out which flour to buy in the supermarket and managed somehow to pick a lemon cake. It made no difference how the cake tasted in the end as the girls entirely drenched it in purple icing, marshmallows and sprinkles!



Ali’s birthday began on the night before when we invited Richard a long term crew member of Fergus’s boat over for a few drinks, feeling a little rough Alistair managed to smile whilst the girls bounced on top of him singing Happy birthday the next morning….

We invited Toni and Mike from next door for some cake and coffee in the afternoon when the girls got back from nursery which we had on deck as it was nice and warm even though it was the beginning of December.



That night we took the girls up to see the Magic Fountains as we wanted a quiet night before the party we had planned for the Saturday! The magic fountains are huge fountains just off the Placa Espanya where the water is coloured and makes different patterns in time to the rhythm of music. We managed to take a wrong turn when we got off the metro and walked the whole way around the Placa which is a huge roundabout. This did not amuse the girls at all and we were going to call it a night when we saw the fountains (if only we had looked behind us when we came above ground!) The girls were entirely mesmerised I thought they were going to end up in the fountain at one point, the pictures and video clip don’t do it justice but if you ever come to Barcelona at the weekend make sure you go and see the fountains. The music however was a little odd at times, ranging from classical to eighties pop and atmospheric trance music Annie Lennox being the first song to greet us as we walked up the avenue. There is a video clip below of the fountains. The Barcelona art museum sits behind the magic fountains and is all lit up too with light beams projecting out into the night sky.


The next day was party day and we had invited Marvyn and his girlfriend Gemma over for dinner before the party started to try and fill our bellies so we would manage a major night! Gemma wasn’t feeling well so we invited Kristor over to eat her portion, the wine was flowing freely through dinner so we soon abandoned the idea of pudding in favour of more drinks. It is amazing how you revert back to form when in the company of other Shetlanders! The boat soon filled up and it turned out that nearly everyone around here drinks straight whiskey, We had a couple of bottle of malt onboard which disappeared in a flash before we had to raid Fergus’s whiskey store! I got a bit too tipsy to remember to get out most of the snacks I had stored away but it was OK because Fergus’s girlfriend Margo came over with a big pot of sausage rice at about 3 am!


The night was a great success with lots of guitar playing and singing, it became apparent Marvyn is a bit of a professional entertainer as he can keep playing all night unlike Ali who falls by the wayside after a certain point as any of our neighbours at home can vouch for!

One particular memory of the night was a rousing rendition of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ Ali and Marvyn on guitars Richard on lead vocals with a back up cast of all of the rest of us and table beating for percussion!

It was a fun night although I was brought sharply back to reality when Kaylee got up it being 7am and I hadn‘t managed to get to my bed yet….. Amazingly they had slept through the whole thing a talent they have demonstrated on a few occasions since then! Poor things having silly parents like us.

The rest of December passed by with some sight seeing, we went to the Sagrada Familia a huge cathedral designed by Gaudi which is still under construction only to be completely finished in 2030. The architecture is ‘organic’ which appears to mean that most of the inspiration for it comes from things found in nature, much of it has similarities to plants, honey combs etc. We went up the lift in one of the spires which gives you a great view of the surrounding area. Kaylee wanted to go back down by the stairs so I went with her which was OK at first as we had a wall at either side of us but about half way down (30 metres up) the interior wall disappeared and there was a hole all the way down to the bottom. Not good if you don’t like heights like me! We managed to get down by me going backwards one hand on the rail and the other firmly around Kaylee’s wrist and her following me carefully, it was a bit gut churning, my legs felt a little like jelly when we got down to the bottom. The other side of the building is a huge prtrayal of the nativity scene all in stone you could look at it for ages and pick out different bits, if you didn't have two grumpy little girls with you that is! I liked the building but Ali thought it was unnecessary crazy architecture which only had the aim to be different, I suspect there are many who would disagree.

A few more quieter boat parties up and down the pontoon occurred about twice weekly through the month, we soon learned that if you open a bottle of spirits around here there is no point in expecting there to be any left the next day! It is always drunk to the bottom thankfully for me I have been abstaining (from spirits) and so was feeling a lot better most of the time than Ali who definitely was not abstaining from anything!

The girls were going to a small nursery which to be honest is the most disorganised place I have ever seen but then maybe that’s because all I have to compare it with is the excellently run Whiteness nursery. This place has a similar amount of kids some quite young but the staff to child ratio is about 1 to four and still they apparently managed to leave a three year old in the park…… and this is a fee paying nursery…. Shetland has a tip top education system and nobody can dispute that!

The real party season started when Brian Leask and Marie Fullerton came through from Marseilles where they have their boat Enjah berthed for the winter. They have a blog too, here is the link : You will get another account of their visit to Barcelona there and probably a few more photos, hopefully none too incriminating!! Marie does the blogging for Enjah and I can only read in awe at her attention to detail as I have usually forgotten most of what has gone on b the time I come to write! Marie and Brian stayed with Marvyn and Gemma and arrived at our boat on Tues the 22nd Dec to discuss the Christmas dinner, all we managed was to drink the boat dry of rum once again and the boys even polished off the bottle of French aniseed liqueur Marie and Brian had bought us for Christmas……. It was a great night swapping sailing stories and singing before all the boys fell by the wayside…. I could put up a video clip for this but I think this photo gives an impression of what the evening was like!


We had a bit of a panic the next day as Marie and Brian had left their van in the marina car park as we get a space included with our berth and it is supposedly secure…. When we left the boat we saw that the van was gone and couldn’t believe they had driven it across Barcelona in the state they were in. Ali went along Marvyn’s on the way to Alisha’s dentist appointment and Marvyn informed him they had not driven the van home. OH NO we thought it must have been stolen! We couldn’t get Brian on the phone so we concluded his phone must be in the stolen van, I was despatched to the marina office to ask if there was any way it would have been towed away, no was the answer so the office girls got the security guys to start looking through the video tapes. Half an hour later…..Ali phoned to say panic over, they had actually driven the van around the marina to cut the walking distance as it was raining and Marvyn just couldn’t remember…. I quickly ran back to the marina office to apologise profusely and explain what a bunch of drunken idiots we all were! That was embarrassing to say the least!

Christmas eve was spent purchasing the last pressies/Christmas dinner and we felt fairly prepared by bed time with only a couple of things to attend to whilst the girls were asleep……

There was great joy on Christmas morning once the girls finally woke up (as usual I was awake way before anyone else too excited to sleep thinking of their reactions to what Santa had brought!) They were delighted with their haul and understood that Santa knew they are living on a boat and so only bought smallish things that can pack away easily when we set off to sea again - thoughtful guy that he is;-)


Marie and Brian had given the lasses cocktail dresses for the Barbies which caused great delight as did the Shetland flag from Tess and Dennis Enjah’s other crew members it had a pointy stick which they used to play musketeers with.



We got on with preparing the dinner until we were summoned for pre dinner mince pies with rum butter, shortbread and a glass or two of sherry on the deck of Toni and Mike’s boat next door. Yes I said on deck it was a lovely sunny morning and actually quite warm I was sitting with just a tee-shirt on and didn’t feel cold, or was that the sherry?!

We returned to finish off cooking the dinner, we had bought a stuffed turkey crown as it would fit into our tiny oven and were surprised to find it had cooked through so at least we wouldn’t be poisoning our guests! Brian and Marie arrived a little after we expected them so we quickly go stuck into the starters, fizzy wine with grenadine to turn it a festive pink (a drink discovered first at Frank and Lesley’ 25th wedding anniversary last year another good spree!) We got stuck into the dinner which Brain and Marie were very polite about but as far as I was concerned it was all a bit burnt or cold but it was as good as we could do with two small rings and a tiny oven! Marie had taken the pudding over and after a small break we munched our way through that too the lasses miraculously regaining their appetites!

We put in a Skype call to Frank and Lesley’s house where Ali’s mum and dad were for Christmas dinner it is a great thing to be able to see and speak to people so far away. Alisha gave a great performance of ‘Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer’ to all at Twatt.


Marvyn arrived just as we were serving after dinner coffees and so Christmas descended into another night of singing and mayhem from then. Ali went over and got Ingrid and Ton from their boat as they usually go home for the festivities but had decided to stay as the weather reports for here were a bit dodgy.

We had a good night with more singing and guitar playing Ali and Marvyn now really complementing each other on each song. The only problem was that we don’t know enough of each song to be able to sing them properly (except for Marvyn who can sing and play the EXTENDED version of ‘this is the road to hell’ by Chris Rea and boy is it extended!) Marvyn and Marie did ‘Rowin Foula Doon’ but he refused to play the Up Helly Aa song for us - too cheesy apparently! The night got later and later until the others decided it was time to get a taxi home which unfortunately we couldn’t get by phone and so they set off to get a taxi from the security guard at the gate who wasn't there..... So they all stayed at Port Forum for the night until the metro started running again and we gave them coffee and toast to fortify them for the journey home in the morning.

Boxing day was spent feeling a little rougher than usual but we watched Snow White that the girls had got from Santa and I think I enjoyed it as much as they did! The boat was fairly flying around with the swell all day and making us all a bit dizzy but we probably deserved it.

The next night we invited Toni, Mike and the boys over for a wee dram which thankfully was a quieter night even after Marie and Brian turned up after walking the whole way here from Gracia!

My brother Richard and his partner Carrie were arriving the next day and we went up to Marvyn and Gemmas for a lovely Spanish style buffet lunch Gemma had made. We all walked up to Park Guell which is near Marvyn and Gemma’s flat. It is a park designed again by Gaudi and is really quite amazing, my camera ran out of batteries so look on Enjah’s blog if you want to see any pics. We walked up to the top of the park which was exercise enough for me but Marie had run to the top the day before! Kaylee walked Anouk (Marvin’s Alaskan Malamut) to the top of the hill or rather Anouk walked Kaylee!

We went on the trek across Barcelona to get Richard and Carrie which involves the underground, an overground train and then a bus between terminals we managed to be very jammy with the trains and got into each just before it left meaning we didn’t have a half hour wait for the next as that would have made us late. The lasses were up to ninety hanging over the barriers at arrivals waiting for ‘Uncew Wichard and Auntie Cawwie’ - Kaylee still can’t pronounce Rs or Ls. After some hugs and kisses we made the trek back to the boat which takes just under two hours as the airport is at the opposite end of Barcelona from the marina, stopping only to buy a few celebratory beers!

We had a couple of drams to welcome our guests but not too much as we had major sightseeing to do!

I think that’s enough for now the next entry will have all the gory details from New Year’s Eve, this boat has never had so many people onboard! Also some pics from the parade of the Three Kings here in Barcelona on the 5th a truly amazing spectacle.

Ali’s mum and Dad and Daniel are here now and we are all hoping none of the rest of us pick up Kaylee’s bug as there are seven people on board and only one small toilet, not nice if we all start spewing! We are off up to the French Pyrenees at the weekend to do a bit of skiing. That should be interesting as I’ve never done it before and neither has the girls but we’re game which is half the battle and gravity should help out too!