Was in the elevator this morning and am wearing a short sleeve t-shirt. Am not sun burnt, but have received some sun and my arms are tannish. Carolyn looks at me and says, "you're arms are all brown and wrinkly...kind of looks like a baguette." Could see her point, but recently she bought a pair of fake glasses with huge rims, which is a fashion trend that I deplore. Am working on a picture of her wearing them for the archive but she is a reluctant poser for (non-selfie) photos so will have to work on that paparazzi style. Have ridiculed her accordingly but she doesn't care what the old man thinks about fashion, and rightly so. Who doesn't have some fashion choice in their past that they realize was ridiculous in retrospect. I lived in the Miami Vice 80's and recall a sweet powder blue linen suit that I had to have.
There is one story that I need to get out in front of and set straight before Paul recants it to all. He and I are driving home from getting a haircut last Saturday and turn onto the small street close to home. This street is very narrow and while it is not one way, it is only one car wide. There is one spot in front of a garage you can pull into to let opposing traffic pass. Am driving in the street past that driveway, at least 70% of the way down, and a dude decides to start down the street in the opposite direction and we get into a Mexican standoff. This is the same spot where someone pulled that maneuver last year and we sat there for 10 minutes looking at each other until the other guy gave up and reversed enough for us to get through.
So now we are about 15 yards from the other end and this dude is right in front of us and we can't pass. There was a small opening on one side that I basically had to parallel park in and he had to do similarly on the other side of the street and we are now window to window about a foot apart. It was unusual that the guy had his window down so I say to him that if waited at the intersection for 10 seconds so we could get past, we would all be on our way by now. Granted, I didn't say it in the most polite way, and he knew some English and he responds with "why didn't you wait". Uh, I was 3/4 of the way down the street before he entered so explained that to him and equated his IQ with fecal matter. We went back and forth, believe I accused him of fornicating with his mother, etc., and as we are inching past each other, he spits at the back of my car. Not a great spit, kind of foamy and it looked like half of it dribbled down his chin. What I am sure he was not expecting was that I am a world class lugey champion. We used to play a game sitting on the bench during Pony league (13-14 year old) baseball games to see how many links on the dugout chain link fence we could spit on and have it dribble down onto. Can't recall the record, but think it was 8 links in the fence. We used to call them "linkers" as in, 'that spit was a 5 linker'. Sometimes they would still be there a week later in crystalized form.
So this guy spits at us and soon see the look of horror on his face as he hears me digging deep to dredge up some phlegm (had been sick recently so had a nice reservoir to draw from) and he reaches for the close window button. Too late, he got the money shot. As we drive away he was audibly losing his mind. I know, not the kind of thing you want your impressionable 16 year old to see, but I certainly did not take the first shot and hope that they both learned a valuable lesson from their experiences.
Big story around here is the election on January 16th for new Taiwanese president. I know I am missing a lot of the hullabaloo with the language barrier, but do understand that they limit the time they can openly campaign to one month prior, which is as awesome as it sounds (the latest GOP debate is currently playing in the background as I type and Cruz/Trump are dissing each other on the birther crap yet again...God forbid they have a meaningful exchange on the economy) The campaigning in town you see is on bill boards and these trucks that drive around extolling the virtues of their candidates from tinny megaphones strapped to the roof. That or they are advertising for screen door repair, hard to tell.
The expectation is that the ruling KMT, which is the party of Chiang Kai Shek that now inexplicably is the party that favors closer ties, and even reunification with, the mainland, is going to lose in a landslide to the DDP, which favors a more independent path. The rhetoric of the DDP candidate is on the moderate side so do not expect any rash declarations of independence, but it totally freaks out mainland China and in every article about the election, the statement that China reserves the right to use force to recover Taiwan if any move toward independence is made. Has the potential to be explosive as most people, and a vast majority of younger Taiwanese, want nothing to do with the mainland, but the anticipation is that they will play ball for now and that time will sort it all out. That is an aspect of the Chinese culture that I admire...play the long game.
And finally, Bowie. The quantity of posts and articles about his passing seem higher for him than anyone else that has passed in recent memory and is a testament to his influence across many generations. People picking from his different music personas and film work throughout his long career. I have two distinct memories of Bowie...first, my sister was more in his demo and was a massive fan in the early 70's. . Can still remember being fascinated by the cover of Diamond Dogs and tripping out while listening to her well worn copy when she went off to college (I was about 12ish). The other was when I spent the year on study abroad in Australia in 1983 and Let's Dance was released in April of that year. The album was massive internationally, but that both the Let's Dance and China Girl videos were shot in Australia, that album blew up there and remember it being played constantly. Went back and watched them this week and they aren't as awesome as I remember...please check out the China Girl video and watch at 1:12 to see Bowie do his Chinese eyes. The head tilt at the end has to be one of the creepiest moments in MTV history.
Alrighty, so for winter break, we spent a week in Spain and then one in Morocco. For Spain, the plan was to visit Barcelona, Granada and Seville for about two days each.
I had never visited Spain before but has always been high on the list. Betty has said for years that Barcelona is the city that she wants to retire to, so it had a lot to prove. Well designed, it did not feel as old as I expected. The architecture in general was unremarkable with the main exception being the buildings built during the Modernisme period of the late 19th/early 20th century. The most famous architect of that movement was Antoni Gaudi and his buildings are the highlight of Barcelona.
We got in midday (after 22 hours of travel) and could not just crash out, so struck out for a walk. We planned our hotel well and were within a 15 minute walk to most of the highlights, so we made Gaudi's second most famous structure, La Pedrera, our destination.
On the way there, we needed to fill up our tanks as airplane/airport food does something awful to the body, so popped into the first tapa joint we encountered.
There is not a straight line in the entire building. Unique and interesting, glad to have seen it, but felt other worldly and not something that is easily duplicated and could be quite disturbing if it was done on a massive scale. On another day, we made reservations to go see his master work, the Sagrada Familia, which is a massive church. He spent the last quarter of his life working on it (before being killed in a tram accident) and they are still working on it (with the plan to finish by 2020).
Have seen a lot of massive cathedrals and mosques (and even more not so massive) in all of the traditional styles, and nothing compares to it. Even the kids, who shudder and openly whine when a church is on the days agenda, were taken in by it.
Our hotel was a stone's throw from the head of La Rambla, which is the heart of the city. A long pedestrian boulevard through the heart of the Old Quarter, was perfect for evening strolls and dinner destinations. Tons to see and do, but felt a tad touristy. The fresh food market in the center of it was a highlight for us.
Another day we decided to do the hop on/off bus. Our luck with the weather on these December/January trips has been phenomenal and we barely needed a light jacket to sit on the open top of the bus. These buses are a good way to get a feel for a city and to see the highlights with narration. Maybe it was that we were just a day into our trip and was feeling the effects of jet lag, but never got the same vibe from the town that Betty has. Great city, am sure that it comes alive in the summer, but had a hard time getting the attraction. Sorry. And the biggest selling point is that it is in Spain so could use my Spanish, but they don't even speak Spanish there. They speak something called Catalan, which bears little resemblance to Spanish, so living there would be s struggle from that standpoint. Betty is still smitten and we decided to visit each other often in our retirement years.
That said, Barcelona had my favorite building of the entire trip and possibly the coolest music venue I've ever seen...the Palau de la Musica Catalana. The concert hall is completely enclosed by glass and is visually stunning in every detail.
I have long been a player of Punch Bug and am sure I don't need to explain that game to you. We as a family have played it as long as the kids have been alive, but over the years, there are fewer and fewer of the Old Bugs to be found (and as a traditionalist, new bugs don't count) so the game has lost some of its luster. On the hop on/off bus day, Carolyn spots a Starbucks and says that is the first one she's seen so far. We then immediately start to see them everywhere and it quickly evolved into Punch Bucks, with the same rules applying whenever a new Starbucks was spotted. A perfect road trip game for almost anywhere...when this sweeps the planet, please remember who invented it
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