Madrid

That’s right folks, I wrote a long schmaltzy thing about being happy where I am and exploring Italy more blah-boring-blah, and then buggered off to Spain to visit that sister of mine. Smooth.

It was great though, in every way. My sister is a fabulous supportive person and was all over helping me with the ole bucket list – dreaming up a fun new recipe (goat’s cheese, grilled peaches and caramelized red onion salad….It’s a winner) and making me go running. It was actually my first time running with another person, as well as a lovely way to see her neighbourhood. Its ace having someone to egg you on when you’re overcome with the urge to run like a demented person and scare innocent pedestrians, I’ll tell you that for free. And she windmills her arms and hollers like pro.

Yum yum, lovely salad

When not jogging around scoping out bars, we were generally enjoying a mix of touristy and normal madrileño things. It was my first time in Madrid since I went for my year abroad training when I was all of….20 years old, so I couldn’t really remember anything. My tourist hit list was fairly basic – I wanted to row on the lake in Retiro Park, see the crystal palace (same park – basically cheating), go to the Rastro flea market, wander round the centre a bit, and go to an outdoor swimming pool. My wonderful sister and brother in law provided all of that, plus hanging out with some of their friends/colleagues, a hipster brunch cafe, a great Indian takeaway (which I can’t find in Italy, so was craaaving a curry), a gig, lots and lots of beer and literally the best food market experience of my life. Not bad for one long weekend!

The first view from the Metro station in Puerta del Sol – serious government building

Another serious government building, this time in Plaza Mayor – yes, those are frescoes of people committing dire sins.

Slightly less serious – The headquarters of Tio Pepe sherry, opposite the main government offices in Puerta del Sol.

And finally, something fun – Puerta del Sol’s statue of the famous Madrid bear, drunk on fermented strawberry juice from the strawberry tree. Which is of course the symbol of Madrid, because why not.

Us, being fab in Retiro Park. It was 38° but whoever let that stand in the way of going rowing?!

My sister, rowing champion

Liam and I, rowing champion supporters

Rastro flea market

Madrid’s crystal palace. It’s a bloody greenhouse inside but very beautiful.

I can’t really put my finger on what’s different between Spain and Italy. I’d forgotten how appealing Spain is, actually- I realised it when we were running in Sue’s neighbourhood and despite the kinda dingy bars with red plastic chairs, scruffy courtyards and laundry hanging from every balcony, the area has a really welcoming atmosphere and feels like it’d be a great place to live. Pedestrians smiled at us while we were running (pity, presumably), there was the sound of the World Cup floating out of every window, and everyone seems to know everyone in the street. I haven’t felt quite the same sense of fun in Oderzo, but then again Oderzo only has 15,000 people and I’d say half of them are Nonnas. I’ll visit Rome too, and then see how it feels.

PS – the cover photo is a collage of my favourite street signs from the centre of Madrid. Most have a fun ceramic tiles with a picture to represent the name of the street – e.g. two snooty looking women to represent Two Sisters Street, a bear (Liam’s favourite) on Bear Street, a dove on Peace Street …. Liam told me this was the initiative of one of Spain’s past kings, who commissioned them to allow illiterate plebs to know where they are. I love this idea, particularly because some of them are decorated just with a view of….the street itself….which I’m sure even a dozy peasant would recognise without help!

I may have made a big mistake.

Month one of “30 before 30” is almost gone. I’m in yet another airport, reviewing the first big push on getting some good stuff done. So far –

1. I’ve actually read some books at least. I re-read ‘Sense and Sensibility, and made a big effort to finish off two that I had had on the go for ages before – a nerdy book by Derren Brown about happiness and philosophy, and an even nerdier one about metaphor and the mind. Overview – Jane Austen is bitchier than I remembered, I’m stupider than I remembered, and Derren Brown is great and really interesting but didn’t give me the magic happiness formula I was hoping for! 27 to go. It’s a lot but it’s manageable. If I get desperate I’ll add in the trashy chick lit books I’ve been reading on beach days….

2. I have also seen 3 Oscar winners! This month I saw Call Me By Your Name (and cried, it’s excellent), Dallas Buyers Club and Lost in Translation. Having never been that up to date with films I’m using this as a chance to see some of the ones I’ve missed. I’ve got Dead Poets Society downloaded for the flight. Quick poll though – am I the only one who did not love Lost in Translation? I see what they were trying to say about communication but I just found them such irritating snowflakey characters. I dragged my bored ass through it, chucked it on the film list, and hope never to see it again.

3. Also nailed a new salad – the one with tofu, herbs and tomatoes. It’s not very adventurous but it’s a delightful vegan opportunity to feel summery and smug at the same time. My one vegan cooking trick (and there’s only one so far, I’m slow) is cook tofu in a pan that’s definitely going to stick a bit and throw a spoon of veggie stock powder in with it. It comes out a bit sticky and a bit crispy and very very delicious.

4. Maybe the most fun thing so far is that I have registered for the Spanish course. I chose one about how to use game theory in the classroom environment – it’s really interesting. Have spent a bit of time working through the reading etc but I’m not sure how it will play out in the end. To officially pass the course, I have to complete lots of online written tests and also write a learning journal to be marked (yikes!) PLUS make a digital avatar, which I have absolutely no idea how to do. I’m going to give the written work a go when I get back to the UK and have some free time, but after all these years I really don’t know if my written Spanish will be up to it. But either way, the chance to read fun stuff in Spanish and practice it again was the main objective, so I won’t be too upset if I can’t officially get a pass.

5. Am also experimenting with not using Facebook to tell me when birthdays are. I spent ages putting as many as I could remember into my calendar with nice reminders and yearly repeats etc, and the results are so far mixed – got my Uncle’s wrong by two weeks and missed it (awks) and had to anxiously double check all others on Facebook after that. Work in progress.

Apart from that, I’ve managed to book 2 trips to places not on my list, postpone a mountain hike, hit a major speedbump on the road to living alone, and read a forecast that says this year is not a good one for seeing the Northern Lights. I am willing to accept that inclement solar activity may be out of my control – if I must! – but for the rest, I’m going to need to pull my finger out a bit. Or just rewrite the list with things like ‘eat more croissants’.

30 before 30

Like all the best blogs, this is coming to you direct from….an impersonal airport coffee shop. I am 29 and 2 weeks old precisely. Just before my birthday, a wonderful friend asked me if I’d got a ’30 before 30′ bucket list. Separately, another person managed to skewer my conscience and asked me ‘what happened to that blog thing you were doing? Do you even still do that?’ Right, I thought. RIGHT. 2 birds, one stone. So I’ve spent a couple of weeks mulling and gathering opinions and being rather awed by how many of my friends are already bossing their way through such a list. Turns out I am LATE to this particular party. But, I think I need it. I need IN. Because I am airporting my way home from a wonderful visit to London, spent cuddling all my very successful and sorted friends. They’re all so cool and mortgaged and promoted and engaged and pregnant and stuff. I hate them.

So, here’s the plan. If I really have to turn 30 in 11 and a half months, I’m going to do it and be as happy with the person I am as possible. And I’m going to try and make sure I’ve done as much good stuff in my 20s as I can manage. I’m finalising my list of things, and will masochistically document it online to guilt myself into doing at least some of it.

It’s actually very hard to find 30 things that I want to achieve in the next 50 weeks, that are also sort of realistic given the time and budget that remain to me. I have to admit to turning to Google in the hopes of swiping inspiration from more original souls. Which was……eye opening. Entertaining. Fucking WEIRD. This is a very bold move for someone about to make their own list public, I do realise that, but I must say a lot of the ones at the top of the Google results seem to have been written by totally ridiculous made-up people.

For example, who are the people responsible for this type of list –

1. Have a pension pot worth at least £35 squillion. Seriously? Mine is worth £2.50. I just used it to pay for half an airport coffee.
2. Invest in something that always holds value. Original artwork, gold, diamonds. Good idea. You can usually pay in body parts, right? I didn’t want to travel or buy a house first anyway.
3. Own a bespoke outfit. Yes, alright Basil, we get it.

Then there was a type of list that had individually good ideas, but as a whole seemed not to care that it was massively contradictory –

1. Move out from Mum’s house! Fine, in theory.
2. Quit your job! Even if you don’t have a backup plan! Raises immediate questions about how soon we’ll be back with Mum.
3. Go backpacking round Europe! ….with whose credit card?? Mine was company!
4. Set up your own business! HOW I QUIT MY JOB AND PISSED OFF MY MUM RUNNING UP HUGE CREDIT CARD DEBT IN BARCELONA.
5. Stop smoking marijuana. Ahhh, now I understand where this list came from.

But is that person worse than this person –

1. Jump more. Yeah, I really did read that on one list. It spoke to me on a deep level, resonated with my inner springbok….HAH
2. BE MORE RANDOM. Oh, this was my absolute love-to-hate favourite. It was on a list alongside “have more one night stands” and “reclaim the walk of shame…do the STRIDE OF PRIDE” Which are both fine, squintably, but I’d suggest neither work well if conducted on a ‘MUST BE RANDOM HOW CAN I BE MORE RANDOM’ basis. I’d be pretty pissed off if my one night stand did it based on their inner tea leaves or whatever. And what if I stride with pride all the way to Margate by random-accident or something? I’d feel pretty silly then eh.
3. Find a wine that matches your personality. In my opinion this is for the love child of insufferably rich Basil (see above) and good old Miss Random. It would be like becoming a horrific cringy Tinder bio, you know? “Kate, 29, drinks Sauvignon Blanc because like her it’s fruity, rounded and pairs wonderfully with cheese ah hawhawhaw.” Please. Just let there be wine.

Right, I think the hole is deep enough now. I’ll just pop my 30 down here and wait for the knives.

1. Watch 30 Oscar-winning movies
2. Read 30 really good books
3. Go on fun weekend breaks round Italy – Florence, Siena, Bologna, Rome, Naples, Liguria
4. See the Northern Lights
5. Start a lovely Masters
6. Climb another mountain
7. Take a proper Italian exam
8. Have a list of 15 fabulous salad recipes
9. Go to another music festival
10. Write postcards
11. Stop relying on Facebook to tell me when birthdays are
12. Try every gelateria in Treviso
13. Grow something and don’t let it die
14. Dance all night
15. Volunteer
16. Hit – and still be – goal weight
17. Plan a really good birthday
18. Learn to make cheesecake
19. Take a teaching course in Spanish
20. Invest a bit of money
21. Go to Italian cooking classes
22. Find a really good spot close to the new place to watch the sunset
23. Go camping as much as possible
24. Get the gimpy arm looked at
25. Try skiing
26. Live alone, and be happy
27. Own a moka and an espresso set
28. Run a 5km
29. Get a second ear piercing
30. Find a live music place and go. Often.