November 2004 Archives

(more pics)

Thanks in part to a friend's slightly snide comment, I impulse bought a pair of shoes at Gatwick Airport, throwing out my last pair of impulse bought shoes (I bought those in Lanzarote). I am now on top of a mountain in Barcelona with bandaids on my feet.

I admit to a problem buying shoes. I binge-buy my shoes -- which is not to say I buy many shoes. Instead, I spend hours, days, months, trying shoes on and not buying them. This drives everyone around me mad. Finally, I get so fed up with myself that I buy a completely random pair whether they fit or not. I don't think I've ever bought a pair of shoes I like. I am convinced the perfect pair of shoes is out there somewhere. These, judging from the bandaids, are probably not them.

I didn't walk up the mountain, in case you are tempted to take the shoes' side and point out that mountain climbing in new shoes is bound to result in some kind of podiatric discomfort. I rode the Peu Funicular and then walked (admittedly uphill) over to where I am now, Tibadabo. I plan to take what I assume is the Grosse Funicular (it looks much bigger) back down. There is a beautiful cathedral-like thing here -- the Sacred Cor. It is another character flaw of mine that I seem incapable of absorbing any historical information about things that I see while traveling. All I'm sure of is the name and the fact that it's pretty and on a big hill overlooking Barcelona. There's also an amusement park attached to it, clinging to the side of a cliff.

This I think is very cool. It's not entirely clear whether the amusement park is run by the Church but I hope it is. It's a great marketing ploy. Imagine a couple of teenagers out on a date. They ride up the funicular, their minds firmly on sin.

Speaking of sin, that phrase itself sounds depraved: "up the funicular".

Anyway, up the funicular they go. They run off into the amusement park and climb into the roller coaster on the edge of the cliff. It lurches dangerously over the precipice and they comprehend just how fragile their brief organic life really is. As the roller coaster turns the corner they are confronted with this imposing House of God with a statue of Jesus on the roof. And suddenly they realize, "OmiGod! If I don't remove my hand from where it is now, I'll be headed straight for HELL!"

It's brilliant.

Of course, a more secular minded teenager might use the threat of death to his or her advantage, (hee! hee! "SECular") and use the couple's impending doom to justify a quick non-church-sanctioned conjugation. "Had we but world enough and time…" Yada, yada, yada.

The same friend who believed I would never bring myself to buy another pair of shoes, had a phrase for this, "Carpe Babum". Loosely translated, this is, "Seize the Babe!" But I'm sure he never rode a cliff-side church-owned roller coaster. If he had, perhaps he would have realized just how important the sole is.

Well, actually, she was born at 10:10pm on 4 November. They cut her out of my sister with a knife as the winds swept over the frozen tundra in Edmonton, "Gateway to the North". She weighs 7lbs, 1oz. Not my sister, of course, who, last time I saw her, must have weighed about a million pounds. She was huge! Of course, that was before they dragged another human being out of her belly.

The kid is named Gracie. I'm pleased with this. I was first told she was named "Grace" which I'm not sure I really like. It's kind of... well... girly.

Gracie, though, that's a cool name. Gracie has tons of friends and climbs trees and plays sports and eventually gets a job as one of those people who reconfigure the matter transfer beams between Earth and TMR-1C.

I dug out my scanner last night to scan something for the old matrimonial unit and thought I'd throw a couple of my old treeplanting pics on to the web. Work has been getting me down a bit lately and so I thought it would be handy to have a reminder of how much better my current job is than my old one.

There's a lot to be said for working indoors.

More old treeplanting pics