7th-9th october
workshops · physical theatre · improv games · dining under the stars · eco-living · river swimming · yoga · hill-walking
the weather is looking great for this event, hooray! i thought october might be pushing it a bit but temperatures are still in the high 20s and last weekend we were in the river at sunset… if you want to join a small group of us for fun and laugher there are still places available!! click here for info and to reserve your place
local swim spot
They would never manage to do it because they are the most useless and lazy beings on the planet.
Here’s the story of my plans so far….
The architects worked very hard to prepare some excellent diagrams and plans and had them ready in May 2010. Civil servant 1 had to put 4 pieces of paper in with the plans and send them to the planning office in Teruel. One of these papers involved him typing something. Not only did he fail to put in the necessary papers but the whole project took three months to arrive at the Teruel office.
In Teruel another civil servant opened the project saw the papers were missing and sent back a letter asking for more documents. Unfortunately he also was unable to request the correct documents, so after hassling civil servant 1 to do the correction and repeating the three month wait for him to send it to Teruel again the project application was still not complete.
A year into the process and we received a second letter from Teruel saying we still had not included the correct documents. This time an architect who works part-time for the council checked our project and helped us get the actual correct documents sent.
By some miracle we only had to wait two months for a reply this time (lets assume that was because everything was correct so the civil servant passed the envelope on to his superior instead of doing something complicated like replying). So in June 2011 someone finally opened the dossier and looked at the plans. At which point they immediately found that there were several things which didn’t comply with a law passed in April 2011 and sent it back “unapproved”. It didn’t even get registered as an application for planning permission for 18 months because of those damn lazy fools and since then the law has changed.
fecking marvelous
congratulations to saskia and marcel who were the first couchsurfers to actually arrive at the land, and to me who managed to drive all the way to Mora without using the brakes to pick up our other guests steven, susie and ryan. (one day i will learn to change my brake pads before they wear out and start ripping up the discs).
our first stop was the river where there was whooping, jumping, nakedness and some free fish therapy (not on the naked bits). Predictably we got back just after dark to put up tents and cook our huge veggie dinner. It hasn’t rained at the land for ages – the track is turning to dust – so when the bbq decided to have it’s own mini firework display i was surprised and pleased that it didn’t start a forest fire.
at dinner we realised that i’d actually met ryan before – at the nowhere festival – and it turns out his job is making very beautiful eco furniture out of reclaimed materials
http://www.ryanfrank.net/
. after dinner susie gave us hula hoop classes down at the bar, the moon was just coming up and gave enough light to see one anothers’ flailing arms. susie you are welcome back any time to give workshops on hooping and making hoops.
quote of the weekend: ryan on sleeping outside “the moon was so bright, i kept waking up thinking ‘damn would someone switch off the light in this room’” and the LED hoop in the tree didn’t help his confusion when it randomly switched itself on from time to time.
sunday was windy so a great day for walking up some hills. not a great day for playing frisbee on top of them, but we didn’t lose it.
second favorite quote: guy in the bar at caseres after being asked if the bus was likely to be on time “well sometimes it comes and sometimes it doesn’t”. it did.
and right now i am back in barcelona absolutely gutted about the letter i just received from urbanismo saying they have denied my planning permission. i’ve actually only just stopped crying. has it really taken them a year to notice that there is a “cubierta plana” (flat roof) on the plans? could they not have made the criticism about that last time they got back to me? or maybe even after the first time they read the plans while they had them from easter to october 2010?
i have no clue what happens now about this. hopefully the architect does.
put the biscuit on your forehead. using only face movements get it in your mouth. (tip: you have to put it chocolate side down to get the required friction)
i started friday sweating in barcelona and finished it with cold feet in a sleeping bag in a ger. i prefer the ger. especially when i cosied up with an extra duvet zzzzz
saturday was absolutely the last time i’m getting sucked into thinking the “feria” at Valderrobres might be any good. if you want luminous pink bracelets made of telephone cable, or shoes for old people then it’s fine, otherwise it’s rated as slightly less entertaining than spending a rainy afternoon sheltering at boodaville.
on the bright side “falgas“, the hardware store that sells everything, was open. i lost gary in their maze of rooms, the shop assistant took me down and up then out onto the street to a shed next door where he opened up a room dedicated to plastic objects, such as tarpaulin. it comes in camouflage green these days and at only 6 euro for each 3×4 sheet it is now being employed at the land to hide…. well pretty much everything. thus leaving me officially tidied up from the party. it only took me 3 months. (that doesn’t include handfuls of cigarette butts that are still out there and the second toilet – which someone said was left in a rank state. i’m hoping that whatever was disgusing then will be infinitely better a few months later. it’s on the list)
nature sightings : 1) on a little hike down to the river near Valderobres we met a snake in our path. he was more scared than us because he had just over half a mouse hanging out of his jaws. i don’t think he could have moved if he wanted too, but we instinctively stood back, then went the long way round 2) badgers trying to run fast, in the dark down the track . i didn’t know badgers hung out in my valley
this weeks new activity : snorkelling in the Rio Algars. yes, it is quite green, but you can see where you are going and explore under the rocks then scare yourself when you see an old tree trunk, or your own hair.
gary wants me to also inform you that he saw a brown mouse which scurried. and he entertained himself with his own joke “what looks like wood and smells like wood? wood”. can someone else come with me next weekend please?
do you know what this is? (you can find the answer on the blog)
the prize : 24 free (cold) beers at boodaville festival 2012 
to enter : oooh there are many steps, 1) leave a comment on the blog 2) email me with the answer 3) i’ll put all the correct answers in a hat and pick a winner on the 1st october
so we have a few people signed up for each weekend and they are definitely going ahead…. live music, silliness, improv games, great food, sunshine, river swimming, hiking and more….
check out the details on the link below and get in touch… places are limited to 10 in each weekend group
