Wow
Yes. It was as beautiful as it looks. Details and pictures to come. Just let me recover for a couple of days...

Waterland (Postcards from Barcelona03)
The girl sits on a staircase that leads to the warm up pool. She is wearing one of those professional long bathing suits, black and NASA-looking. Her hair is still wet from the race and she stares at me without actually seeing me walk past. Once inside, i hear the mid-morning audience yelling and cheering for a man splashing in the water with his tense muscles.

A security guard informs me that the rules and regulations to get to my office have changed. Again. I take a 5 minute detour and go through the press tribune. A japanese cameraman is smoking a marlborough. He looks guilty. I wink. Two teenage girls are painting their faces orange. Their dedication strikes me. I reach my office.

I turn the television on and watch the competitions. I see the big floating pool on the tv set, but i hear the rest (the commentator, the roaring of the audience, the splashes) live, through my open door. I look up from my computer flat screen. The girl swimmer has finished her warming up and she walks past my office, giving me a blank stare that none of us register. It's just another regular day at the World Swimming Championships.

Balance in perspective
I would like to dedicate this moment of relaxation to LaunchCast, who has made it possible for me to actually smile and hum a tune while i pretend i'm not nervous anymore.

Working away from your office, far from your city, is always a little strange, so you can imagine what it's like when you're trying to accomplish a million new things you'd never done before. So maybe i'm picky, stressed out and overwhelmed, but listening to my travelling radio has changed my perspective.

I'm putting badges together while the odd swimmer+trainer walk on by, enjoying their own moments of relaxation an hour before the races start.

Today, i've had two nervous breakdowns (one caused by co-worker, one caused by incompetent security guard) and about three laughing moments. I think that makes my overall balance to turn out in positive numbers.

The final countdown
It was announced a long time ago and i still can't bring myself to believe that the day is almost here. Yes, boys and girls, Dixie is going to pull this thing off with her Argentinian man: they're tying the knot next week. She sent us an email today that began with these words: "I'm leaving town to attend my wedding...".

So the final countdown has begun. It's hard to picture one of my best pals walking down the aisle, but i know she does it because she believes both in the ceremony and in the step she's about to take. I feel proud and afraid and weird and amazed, all at the same time.

P.S.: Of course i'll keep you posted on the uncensored gossip right after the 26th.

Places
There's something peculiar about me and places, just as there is something disturbing between me and the stuff i obsess about. This city, Barcelona with all her designer buildings and bizarre urban models, was my 'paradise lost' until i came here for the last time, not even three months ago.

That trip was probably a mistake, but it felt good to be alone and lonely, and not even that funky rain will take that away from my mind. Barcelona showed me her roughest side then, and i've been running away from that memory ever since.

Now, alas, i have returned, for work and for a long time. The sun is out, the routine is hectic enough to not let me notice what i really don't want to see, and Barcelona is trying her best to win me over again. She's doing a good job, but i told you i'm weird about places, the same way i'm a maniac with my little obsessions.

There are some corners in this city i don't want to turn, many roads i don't want to rediscover and a couple of bars i could probably do without. But the heart is beating in this place, and i could never say no to something so alive.

Splash

This is fun and tiring. I'm learning everything there is to know about water sports and i believe i'm making the most of it, but i'm aware the big days of work are yet to come. I just want to say the people here are extraordinary and the view (especially at the waterpolo matches) is exquisite...

See ya!
I'll be getting on plane tomorrow morning and God only knows when i'll be able to crash into my blog again, so i'll leave you with a little glimpse of my ambivalent being until the right moment comes along. You can tell i don't have a telly or many books at the new studio. I'm doing an awful lot of playing with the cam.

See you in Barcelona...

A room with a view
So it is tiny, but i really like strolling around the building and l love looking out the window...

Important things
I fell down Morgana's stairs yesterday. Twice. No, i had not been drinking. My body aches. But that's not the most important thing about yesterday, it's only the one i keep remembering unwillingly. I saw a French film on Saturday with F and we both laughed hard. Still, that's not what i'll remember about Saturday when i look back on the day. I have a tendency to never mention the important things that take place while i'm busy being clumsy or terribly social.

Thus, i could keep going and tell you about the awful heat that kept me awake the best part of last night, but not say anything about those nightmares that held my breath even in my sleep. Or talk about the beautiful restaurant my girlfriends took me to yesterday, ignoring the fact that i was feeling dizzy and low and too alert.

Never happy with what we have. Only happy when it rains.

Red energy
She was one of my all time favourite so called classic actresses. I could watch 'Bringing Up Baby', 'The African Queen' or 'The Philadelphia Story' over and over.

Katharine Hepburn had the thing. The flair, the style, the energy and the kick ass look that said "here i am, like it or not". Plus the hair. I tend to respect red-haired power women, Rita Hayworth-Gilda being on the top of my list. Nicole would probably make it to the Top 20. Then there was Hepburn's love story with Spencer Tracy. The way she walked down the 40s decade wearing slick trousers. She surely had that thing.

When i travelled to Quebec with the intention of staying for a whole year, i carried about seven books in Spanish with me. I knew i would buy and borrow lots more while i lived there, but i wanted to take stuff i was ready to re-read.

I've forgotten some of the titles, but i know one of them was Virginia Wolf's A room of one's own and another was a goog biography of Katharine Hepburn. Don't ask me why, but i'll always have a thing for that woman just because the facts of her life accompanied me during one of the most memorable moments of mine. Fair play to her red energy.

New life, old problems
I finally got the keys to the little hole in the wall i will be calling home in a matter of days.

It's a wee little appartment but it's in a lovely palace so i think i can still apply for the princess job.

I was looking at it today: the four walls, the redimensioning of my mind, the peace and quiet... and then i started thinking about all the shit nice stuff i have to buy for the new place. I need an economist to help me out. Actually, i need a bank owner. Or anyone slightly royal who's willing to take me under his wing and cover me with platinum coloured credit cards.

My new life, as usual, begins with a few of the old problems.