So here we are another week on, and I was thinking how settled the kids are here after only 3 months.
It could be that Wonder Woman’s family are also here and the kids all know each other from Holland (feels like a lifetime ago we where all there), it could be that they have settled into the school so well and everybody there has made them very welcome (kid 1 has apparently been swapped in the night for one who enjoys school, loves learning the languages, Spanish, Catalan and French and also does homework as soon as he gets in from school – but I’m not complaining!).
But I think most of all it’s that there is so much for them to do here, and they do get a lot more freedom than they had in the Bahamas. For Example, Kid 1 goes every morning, before school, on his bike to pick up fresh bread from the J.A.S Bakery and does all the talking in Spanish – this would never have happened in the Bahamas, mainly because there was no local bakery for bread but also because we wouldn’t have let him go by himself on the pot-holed roads with all the wild dogs running about. Both Kids love being left on their own while we pop out on a Friday to our local bar for a quick sherbet (quick point – I have no idea why it’s called a sherbet but it sound better than saying we’re going for a beer again), and will often beg us to go out so they can stay home alone watching DVD’s and munching crisps!! (Another quick point – since we moved they haven’t watched any TV as, well how to say this delicately, Spanish TV is not the best in the world - it’s great they read books or play outside).
As for kids activities in Barcelona there is a huge choice from the Kids Aquarium, Zoo, IMAX Cinema, Barcelona Football Club and of course the Tibidabo Fun Fair to the beaches, boat rides and cable cars (not for those scared of hights!!) But for my kids what they are enjoying most is playing field hockey.
They are both playing for Barcelona which means they get the full kit – that’s one set of training clothes and one set of match clothes – for free!! Hubby went into a depression the first time he saw them because as a life long Arsenal fan he couldn’t believe that the first full kit they wore was for Barcelona!!! Kid 2 is only wearing it because it’s a hockey kit and not a football one, not that there’s a lot of differences except for one thing – the skirt.
Ahhh the skirt hubby had just got over the shock of the shirts when he saw the belt ooops I mean skirt. He said the classic father line of
She’s not going out in that
When kid 2 said of course she was it’s what they all wear and she’s not wearing football shorts!! Hard for him to argue with a 11 year old when their right (especially when she’s got him wrapped round her finger – think DeeDee with attitude!).
Anyway the upshot of it all is twice a week we go to Pau Negre for hockey training and weekends are either playing matches or going to watch the A Team of Barcelona – as they are the kids trainers. Last week it was a draw against Madrid with Barca scoring in the last minute to draw level – all very exciting - phew feeling more Catalonian (?) by the day.
