sashinka | observation orientated, with a twist of lime | a blog

(posted by Mike)

Ah, Barcelona.

I came here expecting a bit of a doss day: quick meeting, one hour tops; write it up; get it agreed; toddle off to enjoy the sunshine and the 32 degree heat. Scarcely worth my coming over, but it would have taken forever to resolve all the issues by e-mail (they wanted it done one way; we wanted it done another).

As it turned out, the job in hand took me all day, loads of re-writes, Ah But What Ifs, Good Points, Hadn't Thought Of Thats. All conducted inside a heavy-duty industrial plant near the airport, with equally heavy-duty security (passport checks, armed guards, the works). With everyone from factory workers to office bods clad in regulation blue, I was the only person in the entire compound in suit and tie - but better to be over-dressed than inappropriately casualled, in my experience. You never can tell.

After work, a cab back to the swank hotel off the Ramblas, followed by a pleasant hour in the Placa del Bonsucces round the corner: nursing my beer, idling through the Herald Tribune, dodging the showers of frilly orange blossoms, doling out Euros and cigs to accordionists and down-and-outs, trying (and mostly failing) not to goggle too conspicuously at the endless strolling, strutting, swishing, sliding parade of loose-limbed, economically clad Glories.

Then a desultory mooch round the Modern Art museum. As ever, the building's the Star, the exhibits yawningly, unyieldingly tiresome. (Room after room of creatively typefaced, oh-so-rad Dada/Futurist pamphlets, of the sort which impressed me to hell as a wannabe avant-garde teen.)

A late night flight back in a few hours. Wonder if O-Zone will be playing in the cab again, as it was on my arrival last night. Ma-i-a hi, Ma-i-a hu... Ubiquitous summery Europop - you gotta love it, really.

It's still way too unfashionably early for dinner... but needs must. Adios, Sashinkies.