- Find school for oldest child √
- Find a home √
- Get a local number √
- Open a bank account √
- Get furniture over from Berlin – massive fail
- Find some time to eat out, rather than eating sandwiches for 3 meals a day – ditto (massive fail that is)
So some things have been working better than others. We found a house to live in but then somehow the movers can’t seem to get our furniture over to us until the middle of October. Consequently, I’ve re-entered negotiations with the agent of our short term rental.
One can tell the Spanish were ruled by the Moors for 700 years because everything is a negotiation. That I paid the asking price on my short-term rental has been a matter of incredible hilarity among my acquaintances here. I am now trying to negotiate another 10 days, it would be funny were it not that my failure to get good results would mean the twins, Layla and I would camp out on a piece of left over AstroTurf (did I mention my new garden is clad in AstroTurf?) in our bigger-than-we -wanted-it living room.
If I ever feel like I am about to dabble my toes in the pool of self-pity at trying to manoeuvre this large move all by my lonesome (with my surely-by-now saintly mother), I take a moment to think about Elisabeth Luard. Elisabeth Luard who took to the cork forests of Andalusia with her 4 (*four*) children. And who when her husband, Nicholas, ran into a spot of trouble with their finances (prompting them to sell the family car) made do with a donkey.
In comparison to that time and what she surmounted things are fine.
I feel at home here. Today, I helped an older woman climb the biggest hill in Sitges with two bags filled with what I can only presume were antique cannon balls. I did it because having been raised in the mediterranean myself, such a thing is normal. And because the flurry of pleasure attained from truly helping someone is more gratifying than a new pair of shoes. When, after 15 minutes of trundling up the hill on another sunny day, we arrived at her apartment – she planted both hands on my shoulders and two wet kisses on either cheek.
Afterwards, I went for a café con leche and croissant (€1.90) at Cañateca. 
CAÑATECA
Francesc Gumà 6-14
08870 Sitges
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Tagged: Barcelona, Cañateca, elisabeth luard, Sitges
