Today's the National Day of Catalonia. I'm celebrating by eating carquinyolis and listening to traditional Catalan songs - I've been trying to remember the dance to L'Hereu Riera, which is one of my favourites and I used to sing solo on the choir as a child, but I'm having issues with all the hoping. I'm reminded of Stephen with his espardenyes and sardanes after church XD-

I've been feeling quite patriotic of late (even though, right now everything is going horribly wrong here, from politics to culture; we Catalans basically suck) and I'm bummed that I still don't have a senyera, the Catalan flag, to hang from my window.

*The line is from our national anthem, Els Segadors which is very silly with all the reaping = freedom stuff, but at least it wasn't wholly concocted by some middle class twat with too much time in his hands, but has some historical meaning instead.

I'm finally back on track, apparently. Have had my computer for more than a week, now, but I had troubles with the graphics card and the drivers and, in the process of fixing them, a big old screen which weights some good 12 kg fell on my leg. I didn't think much of it at first, but after a couple of days I started having blood circulation problems made worse by the heat and PMS and the blow got worse. In the end, the doctor at the emergency department -who looked A LOT like Robert Picardo (this had me and mum giggling for some minutes)- recommended short walks in the evenings and resting in bed during the day. The swelling and the ugly purple colour have faded considerably, now, and, although it still hurts a bit, I decided it was time for me to sit in front of the computer for more than five minutes on end again and write something here, even though, apart from the injury, there's not much going on.

- I've been employing myself with:

a) My Aubrey-Maturin audiobook listening. I'm with Desolation Island, now.

b) A continued spree of medieval social history readings (if I ever go back to uni, I'll go for medieval stuffs again, even if it means having to master the dreaded paleography) + Charles Darwin: Voyaging which I took from the library and has me completely hooked.

c) A meticulous observation of my neighbour's chickens and ducks (no, I don't live in the country; yes, they are in his back garden).

d) More watching of Star Trek TOS than should be healthy. The life sized Spock behind my door (it was removed a few years ago, even though it had lived there for more than 10 years, and put back in its rightful place last month) is smirking at me. He knows I'm obsessed!

e) German learning mp3 courses (for the lulz, really, because they are meant to be merely an introduction to the language but I have too much fun with them, because they are so weird and unintentionally funny) and Italian grammar workshops.

- Also been trying to avoid:

a) The heat (and failing until yesterday, when the weather turned nice, cold and Irish all of a sudden)

b) The news. With all the José Tomás and bullfighting exaltation shit, the San Fermines, the Catalan politicians being stupid and sucking up to the Spanish government on loop, I got so angry I decided not to turn the tv on at least until August (caved only this afternoon, because an especially Spike centric episode of Buffy was on).

There you go. That's really my average summer, actually, although I must be careful and keep my rate of 2 outings a week (or more) despite the heat if I don't want my agoraphobia to get worse.

P.S. OMG! Mum just brought up sharpiefan's parcel with the Master and Commander OST!

*kisses it and jumps in the seat*

Thank you, my dear, you are a star.

Today is Sant Jordi! Go out, buy books and roses for your loved ones and be as cool as we Catalans for one day.

Going to try to go to Barcelona, now. Wish me luck!

Take a look at the spiffy costume Colin Morgan was wearing for the The Paul O'Grady Show Panto (it was Pinocchio, Merlin Colin was playing The Cat):



How cute. He almost could be on Cats. ( He made some magic, too, just like Mr. Mistoffelees! )
And now look at Jo Brand who, right now, is my favourite fairy person ever:



That was the first Panto I ever saw and I must say it was funny. Also quite enjoyed Sheridan Smith's appearance (I do have a soft spot for all Doctor Who companions who aren't Martha Jones) and the whale.

*In case you are wondering, Els Pastorets is the typical Catalan comical nativity play. We all have done it (I was Garrofa from Pitarra's version for a couple of years before I got breasts and couldn't play a boy anymore).

Well, it's been confirmed: Donna is awesome in every language. She even said Ten is "escanyolit*" (she stole my phrase!), and then she wanted to "donar-li un mastegot*". LOL! She sounds hilarious in Catalan. And very sexy, too.

*luvs 'er*

*I'm the worst translator ever but escanyolit means something like "meagre", "slim" or "skinny" in a sort of informal, funny way. Donar un mastegot means er... "smack him"? "slap him", perhaps? I don't know, Catalan expressions sound really silly.

EDIT: Para la xerrameca (could be "stop babbling")? Ni de conya, marcià ("no way, Martian")? Oooh, that's too good!

EDIT II: I didn't mention it because I'm stooopid but, obviously, I'm watching The Runaway Bride on the Catalan telly.

Sergi Zamora snogged Roger Pera*! My very first slashy OTP comes true 14 years later!!!!

*is officially dead*

*for the non-Catalan readers those two guys played Eddie and Mickey on our version of the musical 'Blood Brothers' called Germans de Sang

P.S. Yes, I'm still around. Unfortunately, my computer died on me a few days ago and keeps sorting itself out only to die again a few hours later, so I'm busy playing Dr Frankenstein with the thingie.