July

After a relatively blog-free period, you'll all be wondering "What did Brian do this summer?". Well...here's July.

As you may or may not know, the school year comes to an end here by Saint John's Eve (23 June) and from then on we had the kids at home allowing us the chance for lots of arguing playing with them. My work situation also changes then as the "normal course" comes to an end and we start our intensive "summer course" for anyone who wants a short sharp introduction to English. What happens, though, is that this course is only in the mornings so I'm free by 14.00 every day, and when we've hidden at home through the hottest part of the day (temperatures reached 38º this summer) around 17.00-ish we can do things with the kids. A couple of days cycling, a few at the beach (a 25-minute drive away), and many afternoons with the kids "socializing" - having friends round, or going to friends. Our daughter also went away for a week-long summer camp at a nearby village.

We also managed to check out a couple of late-night concerts in the annual jazz festival and had a great time at the Renaissance Festival (check out previous years' July blogposts to see what I'm talking about). And we saw an amazing concert by the renowned great Catalan celloist Jordi Savall. Using a 500-year old instrument, he and his small group took us on an amazing musical tour within the amazing setting of Tortosa cathedral. Examples to follow...

All in all, a busy month but providing enough change to our normal routines to be considered "a rest" (you know the saying). A well-deserved and much-needed rest after a very busy, and stressful year, with loads of work and other issues to worry about - which I won't go into here, except the fact that our kids seem to be becoming teenagers 2 or 3 years before the predicted time :)