another life dream…completed!

Skiing Kenneth

Ever since I can remember I have wanted to try snowskiing. And despite living near ski areas for much of my life and vowing every winter to do it, I never did. Until now, that is. As a Christmas gift to myself and my family, we spent Christmas Eve at the Xanadú indoor ski park in the outskirts of Madrid. And it was awesome!
We hired an instructor for the first couple of hours and then had a couple more hours for independent fun (and falls). And yes, there were plenty of falls by D, José and myself. But overall I we were all really impressed with how well we did. We even had a few goes at the big slope before we were done. (Against the recommendations of our instructor who in general did not recommend that particular test for first-timers).
And because my child is such a social butterfly, we met a couple of young men one of whom was also a novice. He, Gonzalo, wound up hanging with us and the four of us pushed and challenged each other on. A great time was had by all and I think D is already hooked. As for me, if I get the opportunity to do it again – especially outdoors – I will. But if not, at least I have fulfilled a lifelong wish. Now on to bungee-jumping!
Photos

take a hike

José and I took advantage of the holiday on Monday (Día de la Hispanidad) and went hiking at Cotos in the Sierra de Guadarrama above Madrid. I discovered that I am much more out-of-shape than I thought. But we had a great time and enjoyed some beautiful scenery and fresh air. And the old-time train which takes you into the mountains, was fun.

And now that José is back living in Madrid, we hope to be able to do a lot more of this type of thing.

Olympic fever

Congratulations to Rio de Janeiro on winning the 2016 Olympics. And to Madrid for the strong second place finish. Frankly, that’s just the way I wanted it. After having lived in Atlanta during the run-up to the 1996 games, I have no desire to live in another Olympic city. Just headaches. And higher prices.
I did, however, go to the celebration that was taking place to watch the results come in. After all, Madrid throws great parties and it was only a few blocks from home. And the hope and suspense was tangible and exciting.

new page

In case you didn’t notice, there is a new tab above. It is labeled ‘Doodles’ and highlights my ‘artwork’. Check it out.

naked in the streets (again)

Once again I participated in Ciclonudista, Madrid’s annual bike ride and protest. The intention is to increase visibility of cyclist and demand more facilities such as bike lanes and rack in the city center. And the nudity is symbolic of how exposed we feel to traffic. This year José joined me as well on his new little, slick folding bike. There are pictures for those brave enough (or foolish enough) to look.

José’s birthday party

Here are the pictures from José’s birthday party which we had at home last Saturday. He was celebrating his 34th year. What a baby!

K

zipper boy

K is healing fine from his recent accident and surgery. He says he is walking around with a big zipper on on his shoulder what with the row of staples they put into him. I just wish they could do an operation on his attitude. Teenagers!

my birthday celebration

Thanks to all of you who helped me celebrate my birthday (or rather birthmonth as I plan to celebrate all month). The gifts, emails, cards, calls and text messages were all appreciated. And especially to those who came out to the party at my house. We had 30 people eating drinking and dances, and I think an excellent time was had by all. Definitely by me. See the photographic proof.

baking out a storm

It has really been a long time since I wrote about cooking. So here goes. 
I’ve actually done a little baking lately. First, for Thanksgiving I decided to make a sweet-potato pie. That’s something I hadn’t done in years. Mostly, because you can’t buy ready made crust in Spain and I had never made a crust from scratch. Well now I have. And it was damn good if I do say so myself. And without rolling pin no less. I used a large glass to roll out the dough. Interesting let me tell ya.

And the past weekend, I spent the whole cold, stormy Saturday in my pajamas and decided to bake a cake to 1) help past the time, 2) help heat up my cold flat and 3) satisfy the sweet tooth I’ve developed after the aforementioned sweet-potato pie. And as I do with everything I cook, I invented as I went. It was basically just your plain cake except I had some wild berry flavored yogurt that was quickly approaching it’s drop dead date. So I through that in the batter. (It smelled like blueberry muffins cooking). And to top it off I made a simple little glaze using apricot jam, orange juice, honey, cinnamon and a little plain yogurt to take the edge off the sweetness. It actually turned out quite delicious. (Or else, you’d have never heard about it, right)?

gone to see my baby

I made my first trip to Frankfurt to visit José this past weekend. I was there from early Friday evening to Sunday evening and it was a very nice experience.

Because José is staying in a small apartment-hotel provided by his employer we had to stay in a hotel. And it was a nice one in the financial district. As the main train station, to which I arrived from the airport, is also in that area, that’s all I saw the first day. And I had the distinct impression of being in Dallas, or Charlotte, or Nashville or any other generic American downtown. What with all the skyscrapers and cars. But the next two days we toured the historic center (both blocks), the Main River area and the central shopping district and it felt much more European. More like Brussels or Rotterdam, for example.

In general Frankfurt is nothing special, but I had very low expectation and so was pleasantly surprised. And besides, I just wanted to spend some time with José regardless of the location. So quite frankly, Hell itself would have probably sufficed.

We ate well, but not very German. José loves Japanese but had never been to one of the places where they cook in front of you, so we did that on Friday and on Saturday we had Indian for dinner. However we did have some bratwurst, potatoes and sauerkraut from vendors in a plaza on Saturday afternoon. (I like meat cooked very well so I’m always a bit hesitant with food in northern Europe). And other than the overuse of raisins, the pastries were quite good.

All in all, a great experience. See the photos