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Swamped
Hello, yes, I'm back, did you miss me? Holiday was lovely, thanks for asking - more later. At the moment I'm still trying to work out how on earth I catch up with you lot...
My theory was to set my friends page to 'journals only' and happily scroll back through everything. The problem with this theory was that by the time I'd got 100 entries back, I was still only on 6th September. So my new theory is to use my profile page and just click on each of your journals in turn and skim through them. So I'll definitely get through Becky and Chrys's okay, but unfeathered and xwingace, you may have to excuse me if my typing skill are not up to much later on. I also plan to put all fic links in one place and read them over later.
If anyone has some recs for me, that'd be great - there's no way I'm getting through all the comms. Not with my sanity intact, at least. Doesn't have to be fic - just fun and fandom that you think I might enjoy.
I cannot recommend Menorca highly enough. The entire island is a UNESCO bioreserve, which means they have to be incredibly careful about building in sensitive areas. It's still a very traditional place, where all the shops shut at 1pm, so everyone can go get their long lunch and have a siesta, then everything re-opens at 5. The people were mostly very friendly - the tourist information person wins the award for 'most contemptuous look' - and they endured our attempts at Spanish with good grace. It's a much less touristy island than Mallorca, and all the better for it. They pretty much confine the tourists to big complexes on the south and west coasts, which leaves the capital, Maó (or Mahon, in English), to be a 'Menorcan' city rather than just a tourist trap. They speak a dialect of Catalan, rather than Castillian, and the two are very different in some ways, although reasonably similar at the basic level.1
We had a lovely apartment in a town about twenty minute's walk from Maó, called Es Castell. The windows all looked out onto Maó harbour, which is the second biggest natural harbour in the world (after Pear Harbour). The sea is incredibly clear and there are lots of little bays off the main harbour, which is full of boats of all shapes and sizes, from the biggest cruise liner to the tiniest fishing boat.2 Es Castell itself is very small and sleepy, which suited us just right. The only drawback with it was that it was rather exposed to the wind. And they have a lot of wind in Menorca. In winter, the Tramuntana, blows from the north and would pretty much sweep the island into the sea if it wasn't for all the thick walls keeping the soil in place. It got pretty windy for a few days, so that the boats were rocking on their moorings, even in the sheltered harbour, and the noise at night was unbelievable.
The town has a few shops and little cafes, but most of the restaurants are concentrated on the bigger of its two bays, Cala Fons, which had a lovely view, although we found that if we didn't want 'tourist food' and didn't want to pay a small fortune, meals had to be chosen carefully. We had a rather dodgy pizza one night3 but found a great restaurant, built into the cliff wall, where we had a lovely dinner later on in the year. If you like fish, welcome to heaven.
For the most part I just sat and read4 or sewed - Hellene's gift is coming on nicely, although it may be a Christmas present at this rate - or listened to the radio. The apartment had a Sky box, which, to my utter joy, received Radio 4. I also caught a cold on our second day, which meant I spent 24 hours lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself, but apart from that, I was fine. And I'm sure the keen eyed among you have noticed that I don't mention writing in the above. There's a good reason for that. I didn't do very much. I edited a piece that's been bugging me for a while (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
crystalshard, miss_zedem, it's coming your way soon) and made a start on another, but I really needed the break. Plus, my handwriting was getting worse and worse and there didn't seem much point in writing if I couldn't read it later.
And that was pretty much it! I will picspam you all later with lovely pictures of Maó. I'm afraid some of them have us in them, but you'll just have to put up with that. In closing, I should just mention the flight home. There is a reason seats on charter flights are cheap. Oh good grief. There had been lots of children on the flight out, but they'd been very well behaved (or rather, given the age of the children, the parents did a really good job) and apart from some wailing at take off and landing, it was fine. Coming back... Well, my thought processes were running along the lines of: aeroplanes are not adventure playgrounds; seats are meant to be sat on, not bounced on; if you jump about in the aisle, the cabin crew will run you down with the drinks trolley; feeding children pringles, chocolate and coke is not the way to help them stay calm on a flight; if you don't bring toys for them, children get bored. Then there was the toddler who started wailing half an hour before landing and was still going at baggage reclaim... My ears are still ringing. *grrrrr*
1. For the linguists among you, the major difference I noticed was that Catalan has kept the 'o' after consonants where Castillian has adopted a 'ue' - eg porto instead of puerto, bon instead of bueno, moll instead of muelle.
2. Balearic fishing boats are a very distinctive shape, with a sunshade rather than a main sail. Picture to follow.
3. Of the depth of the pizza, 1/4 was base, 3/4 was greasy cheese...
4. Yes, I finished Harry Potter. Rather than create my own, rather superfluous review, I shall be hunting round to comment on all of yours.
Today is for catching up on chores, washing, LJ etc and trying to get ourselves sorted for going back to work while hanging onto the holiday spirit. So I'd love to hear from you all, let me know how it's going and what you're all up to!
It's good to be back :D
My theory was to set my friends page to 'journals only' and happily scroll back through everything. The problem with this theory was that by the time I'd got 100 entries back, I was still only on 6th September. So my new theory is to use my profile page and just click on each of your journals in turn and skim through them. So I'll definitely get through Becky and Chrys's okay, but unfeathered and xwingace, you may have to excuse me if my typing skill are not up to much later on. I also plan to put all fic links in one place and read them over later.
If anyone has some recs for me, that'd be great - there's no way I'm getting through all the comms. Not with my sanity intact, at least. Doesn't have to be fic - just fun and fandom that you think I might enjoy.
I cannot recommend Menorca highly enough. The entire island is a UNESCO bioreserve, which means they have to be incredibly careful about building in sensitive areas. It's still a very traditional place, where all the shops shut at 1pm, so everyone can go get their long lunch and have a siesta, then everything re-opens at 5. The people were mostly very friendly - the tourist information person wins the award for 'most contemptuous look' - and they endured our attempts at Spanish with good grace. It's a much less touristy island than Mallorca, and all the better for it. They pretty much confine the tourists to big complexes on the south and west coasts, which leaves the capital, Maó (or Mahon, in English), to be a 'Menorcan' city rather than just a tourist trap. They speak a dialect of Catalan, rather than Castillian, and the two are very different in some ways, although reasonably similar at the basic level.1
We had a lovely apartment in a town about twenty minute's walk from Maó, called Es Castell. The windows all looked out onto Maó harbour, which is the second biggest natural harbour in the world (after Pear Harbour). The sea is incredibly clear and there are lots of little bays off the main harbour, which is full of boats of all shapes and sizes, from the biggest cruise liner to the tiniest fishing boat.2 Es Castell itself is very small and sleepy, which suited us just right. The only drawback with it was that it was rather exposed to the wind. And they have a lot of wind in Menorca. In winter, the Tramuntana, blows from the north and would pretty much sweep the island into the sea if it wasn't for all the thick walls keeping the soil in place. It got pretty windy for a few days, so that the boats were rocking on their moorings, even in the sheltered harbour, and the noise at night was unbelievable.
The town has a few shops and little cafes, but most of the restaurants are concentrated on the bigger of its two bays, Cala Fons, which had a lovely view, although we found that if we didn't want 'tourist food' and didn't want to pay a small fortune, meals had to be chosen carefully. We had a rather dodgy pizza one night3 but found a great restaurant, built into the cliff wall, where we had a lovely dinner later on in the year. If you like fish, welcome to heaven.
For the most part I just sat and read4 or sewed - Hellene's gift is coming on nicely, although it may be a Christmas present at this rate - or listened to the radio. The apartment had a Sky box, which, to my utter joy, received Radio 4. I also caught a cold on our second day, which meant I spent 24 hours lying on the sofa feeling sorry for myself, but apart from that, I was fine. And I'm sure the keen eyed among you have noticed that I don't mention writing in the above. There's a good reason for that. I didn't do very much. I edited a piece that's been bugging me for a while (
crystalshard, miss_zedem, it's coming your way soon) and made a start on another, but I really needed the break. Plus, my handwriting was getting worse and worse and there didn't seem much point in writing if I couldn't read it later.And that was pretty much it! I will picspam you all later with lovely pictures of Maó. I'm afraid some of them have us in them, but you'll just have to put up with that. In closing, I should just mention the flight home. There is a reason seats on charter flights are cheap. Oh good grief. There had been lots of children on the flight out, but they'd been very well behaved (or rather, given the age of the children, the parents did a really good job) and apart from some wailing at take off and landing, it was fine. Coming back... Well, my thought processes were running along the lines of: aeroplanes are not adventure playgrounds; seats are meant to be sat on, not bounced on; if you jump about in the aisle, the cabin crew will run you down with the drinks trolley; feeding children pringles, chocolate and coke is not the way to help them stay calm on a flight; if you don't bring toys for them, children get bored. Then there was the toddler who started wailing half an hour before landing and was still going at baggage reclaim... My ears are still ringing. *grrrrr*
1. For the linguists among you, the major difference I noticed was that Catalan has kept the 'o' after consonants where Castillian has adopted a 'ue' - eg porto instead of puerto, bon instead of bueno, moll instead of muelle.
2. Balearic fishing boats are a very distinctive shape, with a sunshade rather than a main sail. Picture to follow.
3. Of the depth of the pizza, 1/4 was base, 3/4 was greasy cheese...
4. Yes, I finished Harry Potter. Rather than create my own, rather superfluous review, I shall be hunting round to comment on all of yours.
Today is for catching up on chores, washing, LJ etc and trying to get ourselves sorted for going back to work while hanging onto the holiday spirit. So I'd love to hear from you all, let me know how it's going and what you're all up to!
It's good to be back :D