Oh yeah we're back! Sorry (as if you care) about the break in transmission. There are valid reasons for this and as usual with anything I have to apologize for, Alex bears a lot of responsibility.
Last weekend was busy. The highlight was a trip to a karaoke bar which was strangely located in an underground car park. I didn't sing as it was a three hour wait for your turn. I'm not adverse to karaoke but after three hours the vital drink and interest levels have tipped too far. Also it may have started a minor diplomatic incident. Spanish karaoke is really different. In many ways superior, no lads doing oasis songs but then there were far more people taking themselves incredibly seriously, call me a puritan but some of the dance moves were just filth.
My new teenage class has completely transformed my week. Not only do I now spend a lot more time on buses, thanks to Kevyn my knowledge of Scottish football has improved, but it remains fundamentally pointless. Most of all I have to act like a proper teacher. They are a lovely class of four all of whom are very good. On a completely unrelated note I told a student earlier today that no one uses whom anymore and then look theres one just there in the last sentence. Am I out of date or a bad teacher? Probably both. Anyway, these four kids are to sit a difficult and official exam in the summer. Is it mission impossible? I mean, the parents are watching, we have to do a year (often 2) year course in five months and I don't know anything about grammar. It's going to be tough but I think we can pull it off. I just sent an email about them at 12.09am, working after midnight, never question my dedication!
I have also been sick. My body and I hate each other. It choose the worst possible time and hit me right between the eyes. I have been waiting for weeks for my appointment to get my new NIE number and I missed it as I was being sick. To make it more inconvienent Alex had already arrived at this point. Without my NIE I'm also not entitled to sick pay for the day I missed on Saturday. I solidered on into my class on Friday but was told I couldn't go to class as I looked like a wreck, I was told to start class and calvary would be arriving. It didn't and I was there three hours later. Fortunately my students were very understanding and largely left me alone. It's basically gone now except a cough which can only be described as whooping. It won't die and annoys Julia no end. It's also led me to drink an oceans worth of orange juice. I think my body must have a sponsership deal with Don Simon juice. You win this round body but I'll remember this next time I walk past a Mc Donalds.
And now for the main reason. Alex. Alex and Andrew arrived on Friday and it was wonderful to see them both. I was rubbish and sick but that didn't stop Alex getting me drunk, it was his fault, on a school night. But this was no drinking holiday, oh no. Saturday despite sickness was tapas and then to the Reina Sofia to see Picasso's Guernica. While Sunday was a trip to the Prado. I scoffed at the thought of being able to do the thing in a day but I was made to eat my words as Sunday turned into a mammoth session of classical art. It is such a beautiful gallery. It did get less classy later as in a bar Alex informed me we were being thrusted at by a male prostitute. I got to see their hotel, no relation between the prostitute and the hotel, which was awesome. I made myself look a bit stupid by sitting down in a swish bar and somehow making a large metallic crashing noise. The waiter couldn't resist telling us there was something wrong with us. He really has no idea. It was a really good weekend, I expect the rest of you soon, though not now as there is a strange girl staying here at the moment. She has my duvet but seems harmless enough.
The other damn exciting news, though I can't say its distracted me from anything, is the purchase of a proper Spanish grammar book. I am literally bursting with good intentions. I have been spurred on by two things. Number 1 is my rubbish Spanish and number 2 is that one of Dad's friends at home has started learning Spanish at home and I need to stay a good way ahead of him. I attempted the first exercise with Mike in the cafeteria at work. It was basic stuff, about the gender endings of nouns (the same thing my Spanish intercambio scolds me about) and we didn't realise at first that the key to completing the excerise was using the noun endings correctly. We sat there thinking this could be fucking anything before looking at each other with disgust and self loathing when we realised what we were missing. Once past that obstacle we did get 100%, there was much fist pumping to everyone else in the cafeteria's confusion and irritation.
Talking of confusion and irritation I should stop here before your levels of each become unbearable.
love love love x
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