Big town barista

Yesterday I trotted (well drove carefully and steadily) along to Göteborg (Gothenburg) to have my course in baristaship.  So I don't just thrown things at the coffee machine and hope for the best. I did want to take the train, but they don't run after 8.30pm (WHAT!!) and the course finished at 9.

I thought I'd go a bit earlier so I could do some art galleries and some shops, as I was visiting the 'city'.  Managed to find a parking space, after a bit of getting lostness brought on by G being so small (compared to London).  I overshot my turning off the motorway, thought I'd gone miles out of my way, turned down a street in roughly the right direction (Karin's guide to finding your way - point the nose of the car/bike/human sort of the right way and be prepared to wander a bit).  And there I was! Amazing - I think I'll get an invoice for the congestion charge in a day or two and parking cost 190SEK, though...

Anyway, I mooched around the National Gallery, had lunch in the restaurant there (ha! they think they were pretentious! Pah, come to London if you want to see pretentious!) , wandered the streets and visited a couple of cafes (study visits, of course).  Only just got to the time of the course and I wanted to go back to the forest.  Enough of the city already.   It was sort of 'been there, done that' and near enough everything after London is a village anyway, so I might as well be in a real one.   Don't get me wrong, I love Göteborg, (more than Stockholm, sorry), and it would be interesting to visit megacity other than London, but I'm done with the people and the traffic and need to wear hats and beards inside. 

The course was fab.  Interesting and fun, I'm really good at lattes but need more practice with my froth for cappuccinos.  I'm also looking forward to making an elk out of the foam for when I enter the next national barista competition (NOT!).  

The way home was not so much fun, though I still drove carefully and steadily, also, in addition, very, very slowly.  It started snowing and I've never driving on a motorway, when it was impossible to see where there was a road, let alone where the road markings were.  There was no way I was overtaking anything, especially as it was getting worse and worse, so I was very glad when I lodged behind another slow car and then another came in behind me etc etc, so we convoyed at 45km/h, whilst being roared past by lorries and idiot volvo owners.  It was fun seeing the skid marks further up the way.  Snow stopped completely when the motorway stopped in a roundabout and the road was perfectly clear.

Next step - buying a machine.

Holidays

Hello, we've been on a holiday.  To those of you who want to point out that the whole of my life is a holiday, I say 'pah!' This is the first time in 5 years when the most responsibility I've had is to choose a white or red wine with the lovely sizzling skewer of meat and vegetables on the table before me.  We fetched up in a little hotel in a little bay in the south of Gran Canaria, chosen mainly because there were no white plastic chairs in publicity.

This doesn't mean to say that I haven't been learning, of course.

1) 4 books were almost not enough.  Unfortunately, I got a humdinger of a cold from the Danes, so books by Nobel prize winning scientists were not going to cut it in that situation.  If you're interested: Ragnarok - AS Byatt (fab), Dead Man in Depford- Anthony Burgess (very good writing, but didn't like), Thinking fast and slow - Daniel Kahneman, (excellent),  Act of Creation - Koestler (didn't finish cos of virus infiltration)
2) White Rioja is really, really good on a hot day.
3) The 80:20 rule really does work.  If you are at all body conscious, do NOT go to a resort with lots of Swedes. 80% will look and dress better than you. If they are Danes, 80% will be better dressed than you, but dumpier.  If you go to a resort patronised by Brits, 80% will be dumpier and worse dressed, so best to do that.
4) There is a Marks and Spencers in Las Palmas!!  Hurrah and lots of t shirts and ready meals.  Saved us a fortune cos there was a microwave in our hotel room.  Marvellous idea, a mini-kitchen in a wardrobe.
5) We are officially middle-aged.  We went on THREE coach trips, yes, three... We did redeem ourselves slightly with two local bus trips, but still.... all we needed was a thermos flask....
6) I absolutely LOVE Gran Canaria.  We are seriously considering moving to Teror, because one has to live in terror....  No but seriously, I may close the cafe for a month next January and move to the south of Gran Canaria, possibly Mogan or Porto del Mogan and write.  Graham can bring me tapas and white rioja at regular intervals, so he'll have something to do.

Ahhh, holidays....

The view from 'our' sunbeds