I'm back

Hiya. I'm back from the Old World. Oli and Lily are still there until next Wednesday, so until then I'll be partying.....

Actually, I'll be doing some organizing 'round the house and starting on some New Year's Resolutions:
Continuing to learn to knit
Learning to sew
Writing a book (like everyone else our age)

We spent three days in Barcelona and had a great relaxing time. Lily stayed with Oli's parents those days. We had a lot we wanted to do but each day something kind of came up and was so nice that we shed our plans and just went with the flow. On the first night we thought we'd go out partying but were so tired and not into it that we went out for tapas at 9, made a meal of it, then took a looong walk round the dark city, stopping for a coffee in our infamous Glaciar bar in Plaza Real. No one was around at all because everyone was busy with the holiday...and because no one goes out until midnight normally. We went back to our friend's place, played some play station 2 football, and called it a night.

On day 2 we met up with my friend Noelia and spent most of the afternoon snacking, walking, eating and talking. She had some great advice about living in and around Barcelona and also had some fun toys for Lily. We also learned that Spanish people use the term Murphy's Law....El Ley del Murfi. Day 3 we finally checked out the sun roof on our friend Timo's place and realized it was amazing....overlooking the city, warm morning sun with a cool "winter" breeze. We spent several hours eating breakfast and chilling up there before making our way out to Castelldefells (the city, not the beach), which we realized is a hell hole we do not want to live in.

Beyond that, Megan and Marty made it out to Buckleigh House (the Seeley home) for Christmas Day and stayed over for a couple nights, so they got to take part in the Boxing Day tradition of getting pissed. It was really great to see them and it's a shame we didn't get to meet up for New Year's.

On the 31st Oli went and played a football match in the rain with his bros and some other people. Lily and I went to watch and Lily had fun kicking an orange around an adjacent pitch. She made 5 goals. That night we stayed in Oli's hometown Godalming, avoiding the trek to London, and had a great night out with the Milford Kru. By the bye, Godalming is where The Holiday was filmed, and we rang in the New Year on the very street where Cameron Diaz and Jack Black's drama unfolds in the film.....impressive, no?

Otherwise, it was wonderful to see Lily and her cousin Hannah Kim together. They were very wiley pals, working out ways to mess with the washing machine and to get into the boos cupboard. Naughty babies.

And finally, thanks to Lisa and Ray for taking care of us :) We ate like kings and queens as usual. We do, however, need a Balderdash rematch so I can defend my title.

Oli has the camera in the UK still, so if he reads this and has the time, maybe he can post photos.....