Into a new apartment not far from our fab location last time. Unfortunately, our apartment luck has run out. This one is not so good and is actually two apartments, one under the other. So we use one for living and one for sleeping. It’s not nearly as modern or nice but no cockroaches so far and that’s a good thing. We also have a big rooftop garden for dinners at night. The water went off for a whole day and we had to call the agency and were possibly going to move out but it came on again, though pressure is terrible. These are the challenges we face as travelers at the mercy of our surroundings! Poor little us! Ha ha ha ha – we are soooo lucky and loving it!
Today we walked to the beach and had lunch on the sand in a little café which was lovely. Girls were playing in the sand and Sienna grabbed the last of Miki’s drink (she had finished her own). Miki saw her and Sienna ran with Miki chasing. S quickly drank the rest and threw the cup. Miki punched her and pulled her hat off with hat and S punched her back. Was a huge scene at the café and was hilarious but they were soooo mad and enraged. Took us ages to tone it down. Everyone watched and were laughing a lot.
We are having a heap of trouble with Miki at the moment, and her tantrums. She’s soo sensitive and goes down at the drop of a hat screaming and on the floor or throwing things. She’s out of control and we’re worried! We are now ignoring her so she follows us a few paces behind screaming all the way down the Ramblas screaming “be nice to me, be nice to me” and crying at the top of her lungs. This happened the 5 blocks home last night with people staring and then up to the rooftop garden where we ate our takeaway. In the end people’s heads were all popping out of their windows at her and we threatened the police which helped a bit. Maybe she’s super tired or something’s out with her, but we’re soooo over it. She gets so fixated on something that is relatively nothing. Eg. Sienna’s square of chocolate was bigger than hers and she goes for ages. Then it turns into mummy and daddy are not being nice and she’s too sad to stop crying etc. Enough to drive you mental.
We took the Tour around on the double decker bus to all the sights and got off for ages at the Temple Sangrada Familia. This is the most amazing piece of art/architecture that we have ever seen. It’s the huge thing that Gaudi designed and spent 40 years building until he got hit by a tram in 1926. It’s still under construction and will not be finished until 2030ish. We took the tour which was interesting as there are so many intricacies within and without and stories to match. It is truly amazing and I can’t possibly do justice trying to explain anything. Trouble is, it’s a catholic church after all and all the religion and talk of hell etc on the tour ruined it a bit. What a beautiful building though.
Went to Flamenco and it was fantastic. The guys especially I thought were the best. B will have to take classes! The dresses as you would expect were fabulous and the girls watched intently. B was pissed off because our girls wore their flamenco outfits and were the only children there and we walked in just before show ( a bit late). So everyone was seated and waiting for show and turned to the door to see us. Nearly everyone there was ooohing and aaaahing and about 20 people got up to take photos of them. They did look divine, if I do say so myself. But B hates this type of attention. They didn’t seem to mind and I didn’t.
Miki was enraptured with the red and white dress with exceptionally long, ruffled train. I looked at B and said, ‘give Miki 2 minutes to ask for one”. Just then she said “Mummy where did that lady get her dress? I want one” I said you can’t buy these type darling. Answer was “Ganma can get me one, I’ll ask her and she can make one for puppy”. There it is. All sorted in her mind thanks to wonderful Ganma. Look out Ganma and start stressing – just kidding.
We had a wonderful Japanese meal afterwards and fell in love with a huge painting they had on the wall. Took a photo and I’m going to copy it at home and put it on the big wall in front of the stairs. I’ve got so much art to do at home. Mosaics, paintings, ironwork!
Can you believe that yesterday was a public holiday for yet another bloom’n saint in Barcelona. We woke up to the hugest crowds again. Where do all the people fit? The streets are all packed and it’s sea to sea people. We were walking down the street in the Gothic part of town at night, and suddenly there’s a huge multi media presentation going on, onto the building surrounding the square. Mind blowing! There’s fireworks every night and those street performers. The girls are now so used to them, that the scary rasta head in a box is their favourite – they call him Mr. Hola (see photos). They were taunting him yesterday and creeping up to put money in and he said to them, I love you – in Spanish accent and “you are so beautiful”. They love him now but he’s the scariest. And the monkey man that Sienna was sooooo scared of, she used to cross the street and put her fingernails in my hand, has now enticed her up for a photo. They even found a “corpse bride” lady who they looooove. We have to go everyday so say hello to our favourite characters.
Had a bit of a drama today with Sienna and a sore wee wee. She was crying and screaming on the toilet so we decided to take her to the hosp in case of urinary tract infection. She was a bit hot yesterday but seemed OK today. We got in quite easily and they were so quick and good which is a good surprise. She had inflammation but no bugs so got some cream and she’s already much better tonight. Lots of water! The Spanish are soooooo clean. The hospital was lovely and so clean and then onto the Metro which is exquisitely clean – no graffiti etc. Daddy and miki got Sienna a surprise for when she had to do another wee wee that hurt to cheer her up and we had dramas with Miki trying to make Sienna do a wee asap as she wanted to give the surprise and Sienna trying to put off going. So more crying and dramas. Bloom’n heck. Would kill for a babysitter but not long til kids club on the boat. Yippppeeeee. Their sleep pattern is about 11.45pm til 10am so maybe they are a little behind in sleep. Isn’t that ridiculous. I hope we can set it back to normal again soon.
Due to be a bit of rain over our last 2 days so will be ready for the ship on Sunday morning. We may be offline for a week and not update the site for a while, but see how we go. See new photos under Barcleona! xxxx
