I love food and I love shopping. Now for some this might not lead to I like shopping for food, but for me it does. It probably has a lot to do with my childhood which involved my parents and I trooping to the giant Mega Mart once a month for the shop of all food shops. I swear we would spend hours in that place. And honestly, I loved it. The chance to be Supermarket Sweep – to run down the aisles with a trolley, to grab lots and lots of food, to solve clues that lead to the Jackpot prize hidden behind an innocent jar of tomato sauce and of course the giant inflatable fruit that would reveal prizes – would’ve been a dream come true.

My daily routine in Catalan:

Em llevo a les nou normalment.  Esmorzo a un quart de deu.  Em dutxo.  Normalment, treballo i estudio i a vegades, vinc a la universitat.  A la tarda, sopo i surto amb els meus amics.  A les tres, me’n vaig a dormir.

Obviously, I am of course of the most interesting person ever!

Surely a bit of a cliché you may say. However, there is something about all the nations of the world (more or less) competing in a wide array of sports that we probably won't watch until again for another 4 years. I can remember watching the Olympics on TV when I was little – sitting on the floor of our living room watching the Sydney opening ceremony and that odd full body suit. I can remember Salt Lake City and bobsleds and slalom runs! You would expect being from a hot country I would have no interest in the Winter Games but I suppose we did once have a bobsled team!

Now with 2012 on our doorstep I genuinely can't wait!

Now that I’m in Barcelona, I thought I would take a stab at learning Catalan.  So, I thought I could do a little feature on my efforts!  At the moment, we’ve only had two classes which have totaled to a whopping 5 hours.  Honestly, I think it’s going to be fairly intensive – our teacher moves quickly (in a good way) so hopefully I’ll be able to keep up!  I’ve even signed up to an e-learning website that has an interesting group of characters who are also embarking on their Catalan studies.  The thing I’m finding hardest at the moment is the pronunciation – which we spent a good chunk of our last class working on.

Em dic quirkytj.OR Soc la quirkytj. – My name is… OR I am…

Com et dius?  – What is your name?

Next class tomorrow…

Here I am studying so not the carefree life I was living in Madrid – homework and assignments, lectures and seminars have now come back into my life.  Indeed, the fact is I have more free time here than I ever had in Madrid so we shall see how I use it.  I may indeed simply turn into a lazy bum watching too many episodes of Big Bang Theory in my slanket!

As I’ve gotten older the excitement (dare I say hysteria!) has certainly faded away and it has become more a time of yummy food and family, especially as I spend most of my time nowadays in far off lands.  But something that has not changed is my love of Christmas decorations.  When I was little my favourite activities were putting out our ceramic Christmas village each year and decorating the tree.  Indeed, the ornaments on the tree are also things I hold quite dear.  Many have special memories attached to them, as gifts, ones I’ve made myself or ones that I’ve attached certain meaning to.

Here are a few of our more recent additions:

I’m sure you’ll recognise those famous ears and this one does come all the way from Walt Disney World and Germany in Epcot to be exact.

This beautifully decorated egg was picked up in Salzburg, Austria in the famous Christmas shop.

An absolutely adorable birthday present from a friend.

The star on the top of our tree made from old Christmas cards – my 2009 crafty activity!

Toledo is the perfect place for a daytrip away from Madrid but I definitely could have done with more time there, indeed certainly incentive to go back (which I did a few weeks later with Dad…)

I did however buy myself two delicious marzipan fruits which were well worth it!  Apparently Toledo is the Spanish home of marzipan and as a huge marzipan fan it was necessary for me to get my fix!

While wandering around Toledo and getting lost (!) I happened to casually glance up and saw one of those little things that although on the whole is probably very normal but at the same time a pleasant surprise – tiling on the underneath of a terrace.  I looked at a few others as I wondered around and when I realised that others didn’t have any decoration I had that feeling that can only be compared to when you find one last cookie when you thought they were all finished.

Honestly, today is no different, a trip to the supermarket, is not perhaps earth-shattering.  Today is a filler day and why shouldn’t it be?  Everyone partied last night saying farewell to 2010 and all that it gave us and so the following day we spend it in bed.  So tomorrow perhaps or even the day after, we will start 2011 “properly” and by the time December 31st rolls around we have a year, that will no doubt be filled with its ups and downs to bid farewell to.

But I also want to label today a “laying the foundation” day – perhaps a day to send emails to those people you haven’t really spoken to in a bit, or to do some cleaning and for me too a bit of packing…

So 2011 has arrived… bring it on.  Now time to figure out those resolutions…!