Well Holmes, I think it's a mixed paella...


These last two weeks everything has been pootling along quite nicely really.
I'm getting on fine with my job, I'm contentedly surrounded by fine people and I've also got my Christmas holidays booked. Life is being a good chap at the moment.

Sure there are improvements that could happen. I could have a nicer timetable that bestowed more semblance of an evening on me. I could have a beautiful girlfriend who was unaffected by my aforementioned timetable. I could have any amount of holiday I wanted, whenever I wanted. I could sculpt myself into the figure of Adonis at the click of my fingers. But not everything can happen.
1. Enjoy the little things in life
2. I bought a new coat. That made me happy.

It's starting to get cold here. Well, comparatively. Last night the heavenly horde decided to evacuate the clouds onto Madrid. As a result of this celestial supersoaker fight, everything's a tad sodden today and I ashamedly admit that I've not left the arid confines of my flat.
In order to 'get in shape' I've started walking to work every morning and walking home every evening. It's almost 6km a day overall. It means I have to leave a touch earlier and get back a touch later, but it's good for the old Corpus Darracottus. After all, I don't want to be laughed away from the mistletoe now do I?

Let's be honest to ourselves, no one worth the title Homo sapiens (and I know many who aren't) diets at Christmas, or thinks 'hmm, should I have another spoon of brandy butter?'. If they do, they don't deserve Christmas. Jesus didn't die on the cross for people to be shy of second helpings. The Three Wise Men didn't traipse half way across the world so that people would decline another mince pie. Eat. If you can, eat. Eat a lot, and enjoy it. That's the point. Well, one of the points. There's also family, friends, etc etc. What I was getting at was that I want to prepare myself somewhat for the culinary onslaught that is Yuletime. Hence the walking.

Sushi. Sushi's good. Expensive, but good. On Saturday we (four teachers) took a metro to the South of the city - about 45minutes away - to a big shopping centre called La Gavia. We went to a restaurant called 'Asian Kaiten', which is Japanese for 'Asian Conveyor Belt'. I was told of this place by a former student of mine. It's a sushi buffet for £12.50. A sushi buffet. For £12.50! This is why we went. My student was telling me how he had been there with his friend and managed 11 plates off the conveyor belt, while his friend had annihilated 35. Well, I like a challenge. We sat and revelled in the ability to keep taking things of the belt. It was like a bunch of kids in a sweet shop having been told they could take as much as they liked. Albeit this was mostly marine and ricey in nature. My results were: 22 plates (could have been more but I hampered my progress by having a separate plate of normal buffet food), a stomach ache and painful internal organs. After the buffet we went round a very busy IKEA where a combination of highly irritating Spanish shoppers and a fuzzy sushi head bequeathed me with a migraine. The highlight of the day? Without a doubt the small Japanese waitress coming to our table over and over again to clear away our plates with an exasperated, and I think slightly impressed, 'es mucho', leaving her lips.
We also celebrated one of our Talking Point teacher's birthdays with a large, drunken, groove-infested house party. I firmly refused to dance until dem crazy Beach Boys leapt out of the speakers. It's nice to let your hair down sometimes. Just beware of cameras.

This hasn't been linear. But then if it was you'd no doubt be bored. If you complain, I'll throw the empty can of Kolsyrad Parondryck Swedish pear cider at you. And you won't like that. You won't like that one bit!