Saturday 30 April 2011

still sightseeing - by Theo

It's always great having friends to stay. Aside from the chance to catch up, it means we generally make the effort to get out and take advantage of this wonderful capital city we're living in - we may have been here for over 2 years now, but there are still sights we've yet to see. So, with our friends Sam and Stu taking advantage of the long weekend in the UK by paying us a flying visit, we thought we'd head over to the newly opened Manzanares park area in the west of the city.
With rain and thunderstorms forecast we decided to drive to allow for a speedy getaway and a place to dump the coats and umbrellas. Parking with surprising ease just below the cathedral, we walked past the Royal Palace and Plaza de España to one of Madrid's more unexpected monuments, the Templo de Debod. This 4th century BC Egyptian temple was given to the Spanish state in recognition of the role Spanish engineers had played in the construction of the Aswan dam (which flooded the original location of the temple). It's a rather bizarre moment, arriving at the top of the hill in the Parc del Oeste to see an Egyptian temple perfectly laid out with commanding views over the Casa del Campo.

We got Rosie out of her buggy for a walk about (with assistance), but she was more interested in climbing and descending the steps outside the Temple than actually going inside. Oh well. Meanwhile Stu kindly took what he described as the best photo of us that we'll ever see - we're inclined to agree.


Navigating our way down through the park past a rose garden, the Teleferico terminal (cable car), the school of ceramics and the railway line out of Principe Pio, we found our way to the tiny Ermita de San Antonio de Florida. Rather unassuming from the outside, this tiny building, which is next to an equally tiny and unassuming church, is decorated inside with some stunning frescoes painted by the Spanish master, Goya. There was a Spanish school party inside, but it didn't spoil our enjoyment. Well worth the trip.

By now it was getting on for two o'clock and I had to go back and move the car. Leaving the others in a promising-looking restaurant I hot-footed it up to the cathedral through the lovely Campo de Moro park, then drove back to temporarily abandon the car in some dodgy unofficial car park being supervised by two beer-swilling Romanians. Kate, Stu, Sam and Rosie had relocated to the terrace of the neighbouring bar, which was much more reasonably priced and we promptly stuffed ourselves (Rosie included, which was gratifying).

It now being Rosie's nap-time and the rain still not having materialised, a post-lunch riverside stroll was proposed and duly executed. Not much is made of Madrid's river, the Manzanares, which is often barely more than a stream in summer. However, it being springtime, the river was fairly full and flowing swiftly through a much trumpeted new riverside park.

We discovered a rather excellent rope walk play area, which gave us all a chance to release the inner child. The lack of shade offered by the young trees, meanwhile, led us boys to swiftly regret our choice of clothing and footwear (well, we'd thought it was going to rain) but it was still very pleasant to stroll in Madrid's newest green area, with its gorgeous views back up the hill to the palace and cathedral.

After a coffee back on the terrace we all piled into the car, tired and hot but well satisfied. The trip back to our flat gave us the excuse to take a short tour of the sights along Gran Via and Calle del Alcala, which was then followed by an evening of wine and cards and no rain! Que bien lo paso!

Sunday 24 April 2011

Look out, baby about - by Theo

As I had a week off work for Semana Santa, we decided to take the opportunity to head up to France to stay with Cathy and Jean. Rosie was again a superb passenger, not complaining too much and after an early start (7am) on the Sunday we made it to Ste Croix around 6pm with quite a few stops along the way.

Usually I find it very relaxing to be at Cathy and Jean's. It's a pleasure to get out of the city into the beautiful countryside around their old farmhouse and forget about marking or lesson planning for a week. Plus Cathy is an excellent chef and I'm always amazed at how she manages to pull 5 course meals together in a matter of minutes from seemingly nothing. At least one upside of Kate not being pregnant was that she was able to join in with the booze and unpasteurized cheese.
But this trip had a slightly different feel. Jean is sadly not in the best of health and therefore wasn't his usual busy, bustling, ebullient self, which cast a slight pall over the week, although he was still able to guide me (his card partner) to a bulote whitewash over the ladies' team, and join us at a delicious barbecue lunch at Alex and Dawn's, whom we had met the previous summer. However the biggest problem when it came to Kate and I really relaxing and unwinding was our darling daughter; she's just far too mobile nowadays.
When we visited at Christmas Rosie had only just started crawling; it was easy enough to sit with her on a rug while she tentatively moved around. Now, she's on the verge of walking and, with the aid of a helpful hand or her trolley, which we discovered goes off-road, she zooms off everywhere.

Mind you, she still objects to crawling outside (which we're pleased about) so regular shouts or moans from her require Mum or Dad to pick her up and move her to her desired location, indicated by pointing and her ubiquitous new word "dyim" (meaning = there, not there, this, not this, that, not that...).
Indoors she was happy to crawl about, although low steps, uneven surfaces and easily openable cupboards meant Mum and Dad (and Nonna) had to be ever vigilant. Not that we aren't vigilant at home I hasten to add, but this was a whole new level of watchfulness, a Def Con 2 of baby minding, if you will. All this meant that by the end of the day we felt much like our darling daughter - completely exhausted.
Not that she used the holiday to enjoy luxurious lie-ins. Oh no. After lulling us into a false sense of security the first night by sleeping through, Rosie got progressively more wakeful as the week went on, until three in a bed from 4am became the norm.

Still, it was wonderfully refreshing to be out of the city for a few days and spend time with Cathy and Jean - and for Rosie to enjoy some grandparental devotion, which never goes amiss. Now we're all back home enjoying some post-vacation recovery time.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

Wave Mum's knickers in the air like you just don't care By Kate

At the tender age of fourteen months, Rosie has already started taking an interest in clothes. Not in the aesthetic sense, but more as an interesting practical conundrum.

She's definitely forming the right ideas about her own clothes and which part of the body they generally belong to. Shoes are pulled meaningfully against her feet (although more commonly they are pulled off her feet at about the time Mum is ready to take her on a shopping trip or some other excursion); tights and leggings are wrapped haphazardly around her legs and Rosie's arms and head are enthusiastically, if somewhat vaguely inserted into vests and bodies.

Mummy's clothes, however, present an altogether different challenge. Anything with tie chords, for example, are fair game for some serious suction with attendant salivary application. As much as I adore my daughter, I must confess that doing up tie-front cardigans after Rosie's slobbery attentions isn't my idea of a fun parenting moment.

But when she's not practising her architecture or taking in Madrid's high culture, Rosie's other favourite pastime at the moment is to wear my knickers - freshly laundered, I hasten to add - after raiding my conveniently low-down lingerie drawer.

Typically, Rosie doesn't take the orthodox approach when it comes to donning Mummy's bloomers. Nope. Rather than using them as a modesty garment for her nether regions, Rosie much prefers to wear them over her head, as demonstrated below.
I don't think fashion is going to be Rosie's strong point, somehow. Or at least, I hope not. Using cast-off knickers as accessories could be a great, if rather quirky money-saving approach to dressing up. Madonna in her Desperately Seeking Susan phase would probably have approved.

Sunday 10 April 2011

The Late Pass By Kate

The time: 20.15. The place: Madrid. The situation: I was on my way to a gig. I was going on A Night Out. This deserves capital letters because it was the first time I had ventured into the realm of night time entertainment beyond my own front door since Rosie was born more than fourteen months ago.

It wasn't the first opportunity I'd had, but it was the first I had taken up. Because of Rosie's unpredictable sleep patterns and her previous resistance to resettling without a breastfeed, I had always been too reluctant to be out of reach. Also, if I'm honest, there was probably an element of PFB (Precious First Born) there. I think most parents become more blase about leaving their offspring in the care of someone else as they produce more children. But I'm still inexperienced in these matters. Oh, and did I mention generally feeling too knackered to go on nights out?

But Rosie sleeps through more than she doesn't nowadays and Theo has become more adept at resettling her if she wakes up and I've become less neurotic about letting him, so time to step over the threshold and launch myself into the grown-up world of night-time leisure activities.
Except in Spain, it isn't a grown-up world - not until after midnight, anyway. As I walked to catch the Metro I observed numerous wide-awake babies and toddlers out socialising with their parents. By this time, Rosie had been asleep for nearly an hour. Brits like to get their children to bed early, Latinos don't worry about that so much. Their children either sleep later in the morning, sleep more during the day or learn to live with less sleep.

So I watched Anika perform their set at La Casa Encendida, beer in one hand, camera in the other. My friend Rasha was doing some session work with Anika and had kindly added me to the guest list. She had also added Theo, but he had elected to remain at home in charge of Rosie so I could have the late pass.I enjoyed the gig, but being reunited with Rasha was even better. She was an appreciative consumer of some of Madrid's main sights as we walked through Sol and Plaza Mayor on our way to the legendary Chocolateria San Gines, where we continued the business of catching up with each other's news over cups of thick chocolate accompanied by a pile of churros.

By Madrid standards, the evening was over very early. Rasha had had a late night followed by an early start so was more than happy to get some sleep and my body clock is used to being out for the count by eleven, so we were home and tucked up into our respective beds before 01.00.

Many Madrilenos would have only just been heading out the door to meet their friends at that point, but I'm a Brit and a mother of an intermittently-sleeping one year-old so feel I can claim light weightedness with no attendant sense of shame.

It was fun, though.