A weekend whirl

The weekend has passed in a blur of not doing much at all, really. Friday evening was spent in sociable fashion, first in a bar in Pueblo Neuvo with various colleagues of Theo, then in a barrio kebab house with the lovely Jero and Jose. Except this kebab house was a lot more civilised than those we knew - and tended to avoid - in Bristol. There were tables where you could sit down and eat your kebab (or falafels, in our case) and you could buy yourself a beer. I drank some sort of yoghurt, lemon and salt drink on Jero's suggestion and actually, it wasn't too bad.
On Saturday, we spent a few hours wandering around central Madrid and admiring the Royal Palace and Plaza Espana in the snow - before the cold sent us scuttling into a cafe in an effort to avoid our ears falling off.
We then had a typically Anglo-Saxon afternoon, joining our flatmate Pete and his cheery scouser friend, Paul in a bar to watch Northampton overcome Pete's team, Leicester in the rugby. Pete and Paul stuck to coffee and sparkling water, having both gone continental, if you ask me. Theo was the only one who indulged in a beer and that was only a cana. This sort of thing could do serious damage to the British drinking reputation abroad.
Despite having the whole of party-mad Madrid on our doorstep, we elected to go back to la casa after the match, get out of the cold and settle down to home-cooked dinner and a DVD. It actually felt rather luxurious.
Today, Sunday was another largely lazy day - apart from a stroll around the local park (which included the opportunity for a snowball fight - won by Theo, more for persistence than accuracy) we mainly relaxed in the flat, chatting with Pete and Alex in passing, writing our Christmas thank you letters, doing some lesson-planning (Theo) and playing a bit of guitar (me).
Tomorrow we're both off to work, in my case doing some training with a company who will then find me some paid employment, all being well. Yikes, an actual Monday.