Carnavales 2010

This year for Carnival, Beza and I dressed up as John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The best thing was I didn't have to buy anything for the costume. Luther went dressed as a white sheep.

It was pretty fun but at about 1.30 am, I took off my sunnies because I couldn't see very well and developed an allergic reaction to all the wigs I was surrounded by. There was John Lennon's wig, Ned Flanders wigs, Nadal wigs... My eyes started swelling and itching like mad and after about half an hour I decided I couldn't stand it any more and had to go home.

Before Carnival, we had a Chinese New Year dinner. I was under the impression that we were supposed to eat long noodles at Chinese New Year, but apparently they're traditionally eaten at birthdays. I even did a powerpoint presentation for my classes telling the kids that at Chinese New Year Chinese people always eat noodles and fish. My mum corrected me just after dinner, when we'd just finished eating, when she rang to wish me happy Chinese New Year.

We also ate fish and uncut spinach but I think I cheated because I bought pre-washed, packaged spinach that already had some of the stems cut off.

Had a nice Sunday- told Beza that according to Chinese tradition, you can't cook or clean on Chinese New Year, so we left a sinkful of dirty plates and ordered takeaway.

Farewell 2009

It snowed about two weeks ago in Logroño. Enough to make snowmen and snowballs. I made a snowball as a present for Beza and put it in the freezer, where it still is. Maybe in July we'll take it out and throw it, by which time it'll probably be ice and hurt a damn lot.

Beza and I went to Barcelona on the long weekend at the beginning of December. It was nice to get away from Logroño just for a few days but I'd forgotten what it's like to be in a huge city with a big crush of people. And Sydney never feels so crowded because the streets are much wider and it's more spread out.

Tomorrow is the last day of 2009 and I'm feeling ambivalent about my year. Was it a good year? Did I become wiser and did I learn anything new or was I too busy having fun? Or did I not have as much fun as I should have had?

Here are five highlights:

1. Beza. There many wonderful people in the world but it's not often that we get to know one well or the extent of their wonderfulness.

2. Travelling with my parents. During the month-and-bit we travelled together, I was reminded of how great my parents are and how much I love them. It's easy to forget when you're far away from someone how important they are to you.

3. Camino de Santiago. It was like being a turtle, where you carry your house on your back. And the only thing you have to worry about is the blister on your toe.

4. My nephews. I got to spend time with them in Sydney and they're hilarious little people. And I have a new one that I'm excited to meet.

5. Our flat. There are only two places in the world where I feel comfortable peeing with the door semi-open- my house in Sydney and my flat in Logroño. And we have Methuselah.

I suppose having five highlights is good. Some people only have three and call it a good year.

Some bummers include:

Total neglect of my writing. I haven't even written as many blogposts as I'd like.

Death of our two goldfish. Surprisingly traumatic.

Not being able to attend the wedding of my first close friend to get married. It made me sad that I couldn't be as involved in the lives of people who matter to me because we're in different parts of the world.

One lesson I learned:

When in doubt, make tasty food.

Kings Of Convenience and codeine

Two Saturdays ago, we went to a Kings Of Convenience concert in San Sebastian that was awesome. Afterwards we went for pintxos.

Started back at work again last week and after just one class (the other class was on an excursion) I started to feel sick. Luckily I didn't have to work on Tuesday so I rested, but after Wednesday, my cough came back and my head started hurting.

On Friday I invited a few friends over for sushi and teriyaki skewers and on Saturday, Beza and I went to watch Millan play ice hockey. We went to one the Sunday before as well and his team won both matches, yay! I always think the players look like animals in a pet shop window, when they're penalised and have to sit in their little boxes for two minutes. Kind of cold and depressed with messy hair.

Then on Sunday I woke up feeling like I felt when I first started getting sick ie. horrible. I measured my temperature and had a slight fever so I went back to the doctor and he gave me more codeine stuff.

I took the medication before going to work and about an hour later felt incredibly dizzy and sick in the stomach. They were like the flu symptoms I experienced two weeks ago, which I attributed to the virus but which I now suspect are from the codeine. Then I went home and threw up. Very unpleasant. Beza bought me these pills you can take which line your stomach and stop you from feeling queasy and they've sort of worked but I've been put off taking my medication.

I think I would rather have a permanent dry cough than feel like I'm about to vomit.

I've also had this constant headache that only goes away when I take panadol. (And then comes back about four hours later). On Sunday I woke up at about 3 am feeling like mini people were banging on my head with their mini hammers. I hardly ever get headaches and they never last long but this one's been bothering me for more than a week now. My dad said he's got the same thing, a constant headache, and he never gets headaches either.

I think it's a particularly malignant flu this year. I blame the children for giving it to me and their parents for sending their germy kids to school.

Sickness in the house

We are both sick. On Sunday, I woke up with a massive headache but I thought it was because of the beers I drank on Saturday night (we went to an Oktoberfest party), even though I only drank a few beers in four hours.

Then I started to cough and my temperature went up. So on Monday I rang school to say I couldn't go and went to the doctor's. He prescribed me a cough medicine (with lots of codeine), a paracetamol (with lots of codeine) and an antibiotic that was ridiculously expensive. He also told me not to work for the next six days. Beza kindly went and bought my medicine for me because I was too sick to get up and when he came back from work at 6.30 pm, he said he was getting cold shivers and his muscles hurt.

The next morning, he also woke up with a fever. So he called work to say he couldn't go and made an appointment for the doctor's. We spent the day on the sofa sleeping with Flight of the Conchords on TV in the background.

His doctor gave him the rest of the week off as well and since then we've hardly left the house. Luckily neither of us have had much appetite so we haven't run out of food yet.

By the way, the sofa in the photo was free (and is very comfortable). We found it on the side of the road in our street one night. At first I was worried that someone had died in it and that's why it was getting chucked out, but then we discovered a big rip in one of the cushions, which we've covered with a big piece of fabric.

Methuselah and pets

When we first moved in to our flat in September, we bought two little fish. One was black with googly eyes and we called it Hoover because it used to suck up the stones at the bottom of the fish bowl instead of eating its fish food. The other one was orangey gold with black fins and was adorably round (ie. fat). We called it Glitter because it was nice and glittery.

Hoover used to hide behind the plastic plant and when Glitter swam by, it would leap out and chase after it. They got along very well.

Anyway, about five days later Glitter went to meet his maker and the next day Hoover followed him to fishy heaven. I was devastated. I fell into a deep depression. Was it my fault? Were they just too young? Did they not like us? Why? Why?

On the 1st October, we bought a turtle. Beza wasn't too keen on a turtle- he said they were depressing to look at, but I told him they were less predisposed to death.

We called him Methuselah, in the hopes he'd live as many years as the biblical Methuselah. The first few weeks he didn't eat anything. I'd throw in a mini shrimp and it would be floating there the next morning. I'd change it for a fresh shrimp and the same thing would happen.

He started getting skinnier between his carapace and his neck started getting wrinklier and he seemed to be sleepy all the time. So we bought him a water heater and about a week later, when I threw in a shrimp, he turned around, looked at it and chomped it up. It was the highlight of my week.

Now we've started giving him ham and fried pig snout as well, which he seems to enjoy. This morning he ate 12 mini shrimps, which, being the size that he is, is about the equivalent of 12 good sized bread rolls for humans.

One night I accidentally turned off his water heater and when I went to feed him the next morning, he swam really slowly and stiffly, like he was half frozen. It was pretty cute.

The mystery of the missing residency card

A note on white stockings: Today on the way to the bank, I saw a woman strutting around with very sheer white stockings with a spirally pattern. She looked like she had some weird skin disease on her untanned legs. Does anyone really think walking around dressed as a skin disease is attractive? It's like people who wear skin coloured tight clothing- it just makes them look naked. Not nice.

Anyway, back to my residency card. I wrote a post back in April about the lack thereof and two weeks ago, I finally discovered what happened to it. I went to the Foreigners' Office (the 'fo I like to call it and yes it does sound, quite appropriately, like you should add a 'mo' at the beginning of it) to renew the card because you need to do it every year. The guy at the office, who was quite nice, asked me for my old one so he could photocopy it, to which I replied that I never received it.

He looked at me horrified and asked 'But what did you do when the police stopped you in the street?'

'The police, um, have never stopped me in the street.'

He scurried away to the back office and presently returned with an envelope and his manager/senior. Apparently they'd sent it to the wrong address because back in 2006, more than two years ago, I lived in the same street, but at a different number and they never bothered to check if I'd changed address. Which I had, and which I'd written on the form. And the kind person who lived at my old address had returned the letter to sender. And the manager/senior had the gall to ask my what I was so busy with that I hadn't bothered to come in to check the status of my card. To which I indignantly replied that I'd been several times and every time, they'd told me there was a delay and it would be ready soon. And by then it was almost time to renew my card anyway, so there was no point.

The woman was like 'Well, we sent it to you. Look, here's the date stamp.' Obviously it doesn't matter that they sent it to the wrong address. They could send it to Mongolia and it would be my fault if I didn't receive it.

So. I am now awaiting my renewed card. Fingers crossed for that one.

PS The good news is, you need to pay an admin fee on the pickup of the card and since I never picked it up, I didn't have to pay it.

Hello, goodbye Taiwan

Taipei International Airport: Stepping off the plane was just like my first experience of stepping off a plane in Taiwan when I was seven. Hot sticky air and suddenly, as soon as you enter the terminal building, a rush of coolness and the smell of air-conditioning.

For some inexplicable reason it made me feel really homesick. though for which home I don't know. I had a mini panic a few days ago, when I realised I'd just settled back into things in Sydney and already it was time for me to leave again. I always thought it would get easier with every time you have to leave a place, but it seems to get harder. It's because now I know that your family and friends matter the most and while you can bring memories, photos and souvenirs with you, those family and friends stay put. Being in Sydney and speaking to Álvaro via skype with a webcam, and being able to send messages makes me so glad we live in these times and we're lucky enough to have this technology, and that we don't have to catch a five week boat to travel across the seas.

Still, I feel privileged to have such great friends both in Australia and Spain. Managed to catch up with most of the people I wanted to catch up with in Sydney, and ate lots of tasty food. Also hung out a lot with my nephews. Oliver has become very preppy, with his woolly Ralph Lauren vests and his babycinos, but in a cool way. I was quite sad to say goodbye to him this morning, but I like how children don't seem to be aware that when you leave, you could be gone for a long time. They give you a hug, say goodbye and run off to do their own thing.

Next stop Bangkok (for an hour).