Gameboy hunt

My nephew lost his gameboy in a store in Oviedo last friday. Unfortunately he noticed it when the store was already closed. He could see his gameboy lying on the store counter, and suggested we would throw in a window to get it.

On monday morning they had to leave early to get to Valladolid in time for their flight. They delayed their departure until the store would open at 10:30. But Spaniards are never rushed, so the store didn't open in time and they had to leave without the gameboy.


Today I drove to Oviedo on my lunch break to get it. I would send it to my nephew, but he told me he is afraid it would get lost in the mail. So I guess he will have to wait for his gameboy until my parents visit me in October.
Now I can be a Pokemon trainer for a month. I checked it out, but this must be the most annoying game ever made. I don't understand why kids are so obsessed with it.

Anyway. My parents are having a family barbecue this evening in Belgium. Everyone will be there, except me of course. I ordered my other sister to send me a mail tomorrow with all the complaints my oldest sister had about her trip here. I'm curious. We have been gossiping already. :-p

Remember me?

It seems I have been neglecting my site again over the last 2 weeks.
Well, I have been on a trip, sick and very busy, in that order.

Do you remember that we were going on a weekend trip two weeks ago? Well, we spent 3 days in A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela and Caión, and had a great time and wonderful weather. A coruña is a beautiful city, but we had expected more of Santiago.
My A Coruña pictures can be seen here, the Santiago pics are here.

Two days after we got back, I got sick. A high fever, headaches and digestional problems made me lose 2 kilos/4.4 lbs in 4 days. I felt so miserable that I wasn't in the mood for writing a post.

And last week, my sister, her boyfriend and the two kids came to visit us in Spain. It was the first time they visited the area, so we showed them the cities Oviedo, Gijon and Aviles. We spent a lot of time shopping (my sister was ecstatic with the Spanish prices), and enjoyed the local tapas and sidra.
Today, they are heading back to Belgium, and I am back at work. Back to routine.
I read that 13% of the Spaniards long to return to work before their holiday is over. I'm definately not like that. But then again, I'm not a Spaniard.

Guardawhat???

Since we are going on a weekend trip to A Coruña and my car was in need of a revision, I decided to drive to the only Toyota dealer in Asturias, only to find out that it was closed.
No sign on the door, no message on the answering machine. They are probably taking a vacation, but to me it would only be normal that they would put a sign on the door to let clients know when they will be open again.
But since Toyotas never break down, they probably thought: Nobody is going to miss us.


So I went to a local 'Feu Vert' station. How strange that they are called Feu Vert here in Spain, by the way. Spanish people must have no idea what it means.
Anyway, they changed the oil and filter and threw in a free revision of 15 of the most important points of the car.
So now I know that I have to get the left 'guardapolvo palier' changed, but I haven't got a clue what it is! It seemed pretty complicated to explain.

Well, he is getting a little old, my four-wheeled friend. I have no problem admitting that I drive an almost twelve year old Toyota Corolla, although I do know people that wouldn't want to be seen in my car. But as long as he doesn't let me down, I'm not getting another one.
To me, a car is just a transport medium to get from point A to point B without any problems. And until now, my car has never let me down. Knock on wood.

Sign my guestmap

I just found this nice thingy on the internet. So go sign my guestmap!
Just click on where you live and leave a mark. Remember, you can zoom in and you can click on the markers.

Trying not to bend my arms

I've got sore arms. I can't even fully stretch or bend them.
Yesterday I was surprised that they didn't hurt much. But today it has gotten worse. You should see me try to have a drink or even brush my teeth without having to bend my arms. Nearly every basic action involves having to bend your arms! Now I realise that.

Wanna know what happened? Well, until monday evening I wasn't aware that there was a gym at the sports center next to our apartment building. I thought it was just a municipal swimming pool and athletics track. But then I heard about the gym, and I had to go and check it out immediately.


You see, I used to work out regularly when I was still living in Belgium. But since I moved to Spain, I haven't been very active at all, and I noticed recently that my body has started to change. So I decided that I have to do something about it. Luckily I have a mesomorphic body type and I grow muscle very fast.

So I started working out at the gym on monday evening, trying to keep in mind that I had to take it easy, being the first time and all. But apparently, I did overdo it just a little. Well, no pain, no gain!
So I'll just try to avoid any movements that involve bending arms for a while, and I think I'll be fine.

The return

Well, I'm back at work. My holiday is over. For now.
Since next monday is a national holiday, we will be having a long weekend. So Mónica and I have decided that we will be spending the weekend in A Coruña, in the upper left corner of Spain. I already booked a romantic hotel in the area. Now let's hope the weather stays fine.


I opened my mailbox at work this morning, and it looks like very strange things have been happening while I was gone. Clients have been testing the wrong programs, and processes that never fail have been failing. So I can start figuring out what's been going on.

My bloglines notifier tells me that my favourite blogs did not take a break while I was gone. I still have a 1008 new blog entries to read. I'm afraid I'm going to have to skip a few.

And yesterday, 135 people visited my blog. And they all came looking for information about the same movie. I noticed the same effect when the movie was on Polish television a few months ago. So where was it on now?

Enjoying the last couple of days

It's incredible how fast time goes by when you are having some days off.
My week is almost over, but now that I'm writing this post I don't even remember what I have been doing the last couple of days.

Let's see.
On monday and tuesday I cleaned the apartment and the attic. It was necessary, and I thought: let's get that over with as fast as possible.
But by tuesday evening I started feeling depressed, because I had been working my butt off for 2 days, and it didn't really feel like I was having a holiday.
So I decided to get out of the house on wednesday. I had to go to Oviedo anyway for some paperwork, so I went for a walk there, visited the cathedral, looked for the hotel where my sister will be staying at the end of this month, got a haircut (it was necessary) and made some pictures.
After Mónica got home, we went for a walk at the beach and we checked out a beach we had never been to.

Yesterday morning, I went out to explore new places. I was always curious if it was possible to get up the high cliff at the end of Salinas' beach. So I decided to find out how to get there. And it was worth it. The view was spectacular from up above.
I drove on, and went for a breakfast at the airport. I love hanging around in airports, watching people take off for a vacation.
Afterwards I wanted to check out a beach I had heard of in Cudillero, but I couldn't seem to find it. So I drove to the coast and found a spectacular lookout point.
When I looked down from there, I spotted this great looking swimming pool at San Esteban and felt like going for a swim immediately.
So I drove home, waited for Mónica to come home from work, told her about the pool, and we went back to San Esteban for a swim.
We will probably be going back today.