In the words of Ozzy Osbourne, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired". I've been ill in some capacity for a month and half now, and I'm just so bored of getting to the end of one illness and another one starting to spin up. None of it's serious illness or anything (imagine how shit I'd be if I actually got ill), but one thing after another is so fucking annoying. Yesterday, my cough got so bad that I couldn't go out. Hadn't slept. Grumpy.
Today, we had visitors and we had to get out of the house! Brought the Canon cannon and shot a few birds. I like birds. The older I get, the more I like birds. They're so small and intricate. Starlings are my favourite, because they're shiny I think, but I like sparrows too.
This little fellow was having a right old shout. His mate nicked a chip and absconded with it.
I like the open market on London Road in Brighton. There's a lady there selling these delicious-looking flatbreads and we've wanted to try them for ages but whenever we're on London Road it's to go to Fatto a Mano. Not this weekend though!
Will I ever tire of watching people make food? I doubt it! She also had this big bucket of dough she was breaking pieces off when she ran out. Who doesn't love a good dough?
And I made friends with this little fellow. I think the owners were annoyed because I stayed petting him for a little too long. He was so soft, though!
When I was a kid, we went on a narrowboat holiday. One morning I got up before everyone else and sat outside with my camera. As I was sitting there, a swan woke up on the water and stretched its wings out right in front of me. I panicked, raised my camera and took the first photo I could.
I waited days and days for the holiday to finish so I could get the photo developed and see that image and, when I did, I realised I'd missed the timing. So, now, 25-or-so years later, I fluked some compensation for it!
Today is Tabitha's birthday. Kid doesn't ask for a lot. I mean, compared to what she gets, she asks for a lot, but compared to what I asked for as a kid she's pretty contented.
She's not really allowed much junk food, so for breakfast she was elated when I bought her this pain au chocolat thing with chocolate sprinkles that she thought looked like mechanical pencil leads. A lady outside the market was giving me disapproving looks for her meal, as she presented her kid with a fruit juice. I subtly tried to draw her attention to the birthday badges. Parenting can be a bit of a minefield.
We then took the bus (unnecessary - everything in Valencia is so close together) to the Bioparc (zoo) and spent a few hours walking around there. She was taken with the lemurs, flamingos and meerkats (who with a soul doesn't love meerkats?!).
Something quite special about this zoo is the midday show where they've trained a load of the animals to do a bit of a performance. I feel like, as an animal lover, I'm supposed to hate this sort of thing, and I don't really love it since these animals are essentially slaves. But left in the wild they're hunted to extinction so it's hard to choose a good side in the real world. Whichever way you slice it, these animals are obviously well-looked-after and as happy as you could expect to participate, and all the kids got a real kick out of vultures flying overhead and porcupines running about the place.
After the zoo, we walked back along the ex-river to The Vurger for a super nice vegan burger (Tabitha chose a hotdog, for some unknown reason) before walking back to the airbnb for some ice cream and board games before bed.
And, just like that, I have a five-year-old. Where on earth does the time go? I remember when our friends James and Hannah's daughter turned five, feeling like that was forever away. Some days I feel like I'm going to wake up and there'll be a five-year-old grandchild running about the place. Note to self: don't waste your life.
I had a bit of a problem with my credit card at the restaurant, which really tested the (already fairly narrow) limits of my Spanish, but I felt super proud to be able to sort it out and make a plan with the server if my card got charged a bunch of times. The Spanish speakers I know are going to be sick of me when I get back. I always want to be speaking Spanish now!
