Miro Museum

Today we went to see the Miro Museum, which is on the other side of town, the side we haven't yet been to. We went to the information desk at the top of La Rambla to ask which bus to take and they advised that it was best to get on a train, so we did. Once we got to our first stop we had to get a bus to get to our final destination. The girl at the information desk there was very helpful and pointed us in the right direction.

We got onto bus #50 and carried onto our destination and the museum was closed! I was not impressed at all! And proceeded to get adjitated. Both people at the information desk told us where to go and we successfully arrived at our destination but you would have thought they would know when the museums where open. They are NOT open on Mondays.

Not a good day really, not impressed with Spanish customers services. As the rest of our days in Barcelona, they are planned and filled with the things we haven't yet seen, which means we wont be able to go back to see the Miro museum. It isn't the most important things on our list of things to see but since we where in the area of Spain it was a great opportunity to see something you wouldn't be able to see everyday.

So we went home and walked round the area in the city centre looking in the shops we hadn't seen before and we had an ice cream. We got to the end of La Rambla and Andy bought some tickets to go into the wax museum, which was horrible. All the way round I was convinced that one of them was going to move and touch me..

Parc Guell and Casa Mila

Today we went to Parc Guell. A park made by Antonio Gaudi for Eusebi Guell. I have actually dreampt about seeing this park. As I have said previously Gaudi was my main influence in college so I have only ever seen his work on TV or paper.
We got bus #30 to our destination and we walked around the park taking lots of pictures of all of Gaudi's work, we then turned a corner after following a path and at the end where the two little cottages with the tiled roofs. Fantastic! Couldn't believe what I was seeing! After all the years of studying his work I was now stood inside it. I cannot put into words how I felt while walking around the park, so I wont..

We got back to the bus stop to go onto our next destination, Casa Mila. Again I was stood outside the building and I couldn't believe I was there! We got some tickets to go inside to see more of his work and to get onto the roof. Some building/restoration work was going on, so we couldn't see inside the building from the roof top.

On our way back towards home we found Casa Batllo, which in my opinion is one of Gaudi's best buildings EVER! But we had a long day and where hungry, so we walked back into town in search of pizza, which tasted great by the way.

Today has been the best so of our holiday so far. Made my dreams come true..

Zoo de Barcelona

This morning we looked through the books we had brought with us and decided to go to the zoo, which we walked to, following our little map. We arrived and it seemed to be an OK looking zoo. We walked around it for the next 2 hours to see all the animals. A few of them had a little hair loss and some looked board but they are common traits of a zoo. They had dolphins in a big tank, 4 adults and 2 babies and next door they had a little show which two of the adult dolphins did tricks to amuse the audience.

They also had a gorilla enclosure which seemed to have wood over parts of the glass and the seats in front of the glass were cornered off, you couldn't sit down to watch these animals play. We noticed a large silver back running towards other gorillas telling them who was boss and at that point noticed that the glass was broken, which looked like the silver back runs at the glass if people get too close. On most of the enclosures it had a sticker saying NO FLASH, but most of the people visiting the zoo that day either couldn't read or just ignored the signs. Just so you know, Barcelona Zoo was the home of the Albino Gorilla called "Snowflake", who died from skin cancer in 2003.

Once we had finished our little tour of the zoo, we carried onto see the Arch de Triumph and took some more photographs. Today is over cast and started spitting but as it was so hot we were not bothered.

Barcelona

We left for our holiday at 4:00am from our house to get our plane at John Lennon airport in Liverpool. I was quite excited as Antonio Gaudi was one of my main influences in school and college. I couldn't believe that I was actually going to see the work that I re-created and studied for most of my education years.
The flight was good and we arrived at Barcelona airport where we had to ring Salem who we had to meet at the apartment so he could explain where everything was and give us a set of keys. The apartment was ok, the bed was raised in the air and you could only enter it by climbing six stairs which lent against the wall. It's quite hard to explain about the bed but basically it was a very compact apartment. Most rooms were very small but just enough for us for the next week and a half.
Over the next couple of days we took it slow and just walked round to find out where everything was that we needed and to just have a look around.

Updating One's Self

This seems to be a lot harder than I thought it was going to be..
There is so much I want to learn about but just don't know where to start. So I wrote a list of all the stuff I wanted to learn about and the list became huge! I realised I needed to worked out what was most important to me as a Designer. I also realised that to keep updated you need to read those magazines that you buy (don't just leave them on the side and get to them when you have time, make time!) and the newsletters that you subscribe to as these help a lot. You don't have to read everything, just the things that are relevant to you and what you want to do.

I also found an article that helped me along with my decision.
Basically the article told me that I shouldn't become OK at everything, but become the best at a few things. If you take everything on board your not going to be able to give enough time to it to become any good at it.

So I have chosen three main things that I want to excel in. They are: Accessibility/Usability, Design/Photoshop, CSS. But I realise that I also need to start learning a new language. PHP is appealing and there are a few tutorials in these magazines that I buy so when I have a minute I'm going to have a go at some of these tutorials and see where it takes me..
Wish me luck and let me know what you think of PHP if you use it..

No Time

I'm really sorry! Lately I have had no time to do anything on my own sites. I have been doing some good stuff, so I shall let you know what I have been doing over the next few days as people keep saying to me why haven't you updated! So below this post, I will now inflict my last months worth of life on you and have a read about what you guys have been up to..

Red Hot Chilli Peppers

Tuesday 11th July 2006
Manchester M.E.N

Red Hot Chilli Peppers : Stadium Arcadium Tour

Met Angela and Pat again in Manchester City Centre where we had a subway for our tea before we went in to see the Chilli's. Angela and Pat bought me a ticket for my birthday which was very nice of them! Thank you..

I have been waiting to see these guys for the last ten years and now I finally get to see them. Some people say they are not good live or have a bad attitude when they are on stage, but this gig was BOSS! and the rocked! They played the majority of their new album which is really good and the final song was "Give It Away". Over all they where a.m.a.z.i.n.g!! and I will definitely go to see them again and would recommend anyone to go and see them.

We had a great time! And got the T-Shirt..

Engagement Party

Our engagement party was held at our house in the garden as well as in the front room for the football match. It went well I think. I was too busy running round making sure everyone else was ok. During the day I think I had 1 glass of wine and a spoon full of spinach and pine nut pasta, but that's what happens when you have these things at your house. I was still cooking up to 2:00pm in the afternoon and guests started arriving at 3:00pm so they could save their place in the front room to watch the match.

When I went to pick my sister up she had a big surprise waiting in the kitchen for me. The surprise was my Mum who had arrived from Corfu the night before to make sure she was here on our special day! There were a few tears all round but it made my day and I'm so pleased that she came.

We got some good photographs and the little guest book was signed by most of the people who came, so all in all I think it was a success. We ate the left overs for the next few days which was good because I had been cooking for the last two days and didn't really want to do any more cooking for a while. I took some food into work for my team who seemed to enjoy the cheese and pineapple sticks and the engagement cake.

So I would just like to say a big "Thank You!" to everybody who helped out, the people who was able to make it and for the presents we received.