We've been to Calahorra again, walking along the Road Of Fear. (Would you walk 3km along the hard shoulder of an "a" road? No. Sensible people don't do such antics. So why am I doing this?
Because the bus to the city stops at 12.30 and starts again at 3.45.)
We walked this time to the big supermarket, which does some exciting things that you cannot buy in San Adrian. Like teabags. Actual Twinnings Earl Grey tea, which I am assured is better than the Eroski Basic teabag that Welshyis currently working through.
And. In my humble opinion. It is well worth paying 4 quid for a tiny pot of peanut butter. God how I've missed peanut butter. And how glad I am every day that I smuggled out my Marmite.
We also shopped in the "World cuisine" section and purchased some more pickled onions. Whooop!

There is a pet shop also in the Big Supermarket. I lusted after a Senegal parrot who came to the bars and nibbled my fingers and threw some shredded newspaper at me.
I had a conversation with a Mynah bird with twisted feet and wanted to rescue him and take him home.
And Welshy fell in love with a black and white cocker spaniel puppy. Bizarre from someone who hates dogs. I did not like my role reversal of pointing out why we couldn't get the puppy. The costs involved. The commitment. The fact that we do not know if we can have pets here or how we'd get it to England if we have to go home. Especially as we'd be going back to Mothers and she has put her foot down over puppies in the past. Plus buying puppies from a pet shop is wrong.
But my resolve is weak....
No. A bird is better, a bird is less commitment. A bird is easy to care for, a bird can move into my aviary once we go home.
Except said birdies here are rather expensive. I could pick up a cockatiel at home for about 15-20 quid. There? 80 Euro. Just a slight mark up.
Senegal parrot friend? nearly 800 quid. Didn't dare ask about the Mynah bird.
No. As much as I miss animal company, its best for all if we are strong and do not purchase.

Last night me and Welshy comsumed two bottles of "summer wine" = Red wine and lemon fanta.
Come 1am we needed more alcohol so we hit the streets and headed for adventure.
We made friends! Some random drunk cousins. Some random camp guy, who showed us off to the barlady in the Agora, who previously laughed at my attempts to order hot chocolate and I had two men (both obviously very gay) take me to a toilet, where we discussed Madonna.
"You speak English! Like Madonna!" etc.

at 4 the bar stopped serving until a policeman came and took someone away - lack of Spanish meant I had no idea why.
We left at 5.45 and it was still jumping.

Went to bed, woke up at 7am to watch the Wales Rugby game. Then slept till 2pm, then got up and listened to the CAFC radio coverage. Then slept again.

Ready for adventure now although Welshy who didnt sleep is starting to flag. Also I think we made a vague drunken promise to return to the bar between 1-2am to meet one of those guys sisters who spoke English.

Not sure we're gonna go though. Feeling a bit poor.

Last Night welshy was closing the window when he cried with panic...

"What is that? Its a monster! Its a gecko or something!" And then retreated to the safety of the kitchen.
It was indeed a gecko hanging out on our windowsill. A tiny half-an-inch long baby gecko. 
"Kil it!" He demanded. "Before it gets in th house!"
I was so busy laughing I failed to get a decent picture of the baby and then ushered it away with a piece of paper.

Apparently it takes 4 trees and 3 hours to open up a bank account here in Spain. The amount of paperwork we had to sign!
It was ridiculous!
I'm sure the last time I opened an account in England I was in and out of the bank in 30 minutes after having filled one form out! Now I only have 10 minutes before I need to scamper to "Lazer" Hopefully we will get paid soon. Am starting to feel a little bit like Old Mother Hubbard!

How on Earth am I expected to run a proper lesson when my boss sticks his oar in, panders to little children and tells me to abandon my lesson plan and make shit up on the spot so they get to do what they want?

As well as our range of children and teenagers on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays we have an evening class or "conversation club" with adult learners. I took my first class last Thursday and I found it quite traumatic, I had to bluff my way through some grammar. They are all far more demanding on your time than the kids obviously and I found it hard to strike the right balance. 
I have just come back from an early morning lesson with the boss of "Lazer" a metal cutting company which has branches all over Spain. I am not sure if he manages it all or whether just the San Adrian branch.
So I was a bit nervous, especially after last weeks adults. It went ok however. He seems a really nice guy but he likes the sound of his own voice and it is hard to get him to be quiet and listen to you. He told me of a place nearby that has dinosaur fossil footprints so hopefully when we get paid (which should be sometime this week) we can go and visit.
Tomorrow I am to go to Lazer, after we have set up our bank accounts and meet some more top guys there and do some English with them.

Many people will be suffering today. Last night was the anniversary of one of the Bars opening.
So it was partytime until 1am when we went to bed. Woke up at 3 to realise someone had an accordian and there was bad spanish singing going on.
At 8am I woke again and they were still singing along.
I fear some people will have terrible headaches this morning.

Can never again be called clumsy after welshy manaqed to break two glasses in 20 minutes while we were arranging a late night covert mission to empty our bins.
Worst thing was that one of the glasses contained all my Lemon Fanta/Red Wine combo and now the floor is disgustingly sticky.

Todays main adventures in the rock and roll town that is San Adrian, has been an Art contest. Amateur artists have had easels up all over town and now they have gathered them all outside to await the judges verdict.

There is a tattoo parlour that only seems to open when children need to be enticed with Sweeties....

Today we learnt that it is bad to take your rubbish out before 10pm at night. In case it attracts flies and starts to smell. Explains all the filthy looks we get walking down the road carrying our refuse.

Yay! CAFC Win! I discover baking powder making a successful Victoria Sponge Mk2. (looks like a brick, sponge still doesnt taste like English Sponge) and I'm watching Strictly Come Dancing.

More children shout "Hello" at Welshy than me. This makes me very, very sad.
Why does nobody love me?

When will mosquitos stop sucking my blood?!!! I will have none left soon! Or malaria. One or the other.

The Sun doesn't bother to get up here until nearly 8am! And its only September! - Ok well the end of! 
At least thats something in UK's favour, although Spain is also balanced out by it not getting dark till 8.30-ish

There is a class of two 6 year old girls that I take once a week and Ed the other day. They originally started off as sweet and innocent but have now turned into shedevils. The last time I took them they refused to do any of the reading that I had designed for them, then they refused to play any of the games I had. So I asked them what they wanted to do and they said draw, so I said no as this is English and not Art class and I refuse to be dictated to by 6 year olds.
Anyway it ended in me making them sit in silence and not do anything as they went on strike and wouldnt answer me in anything but Spanish.

This week I decided that I would try to win their favour by making the lesson more fun, so I brought a cheap fishing game, (you know the kind where they have magnets and you try and attach the magnet to the fish) and some cheap letters and I plan to get them to fish for the animals once we have learnt their names and then they are to use the letters to spell out the names. EG "SHARK" "TURTLE" "DOLPHIN" If that doesnt win them over I don't know what will!

WEWENTONAWALKTODAYANDISAWAGREYHORSEY!!!

Today we headed to Pamplona early to register me and Welshy at the tax office to become official residents of Spain. Reassuringly I was told that this was a huge Basque area and we had to leave the car open so it can be checked for bombs.
We registered easily enough and then were set free to explore. We were told that the only bus back was at 8.30. It was now 10.30. We were very glad to discover this wasnt true and we could get back at 4.30.
So armed with a map, our first task was to find some brunch.
Of course with Welshy's special diet this was harder than planned and we went in and out of two or three places before finally getting somewhere to cook for us.
We wandered about the large department store as it said it contained Osasuna goodies but that was a bit disappointing, we found the book floor sold naff English books and we saw Geronimo Stilton, beloved by Spanish kids everywhere and the first page looked easy enough so we got it, and then sat in another bar nursing a drink each for an hour trying to descipher it. It quickly became apparent it was harder than that first page.
We did a bit of sight-seeing, found a statue commerating the bull run, and an exciting sweetshop that sold pickled onions!
After a small problem we managed to get the bus and return home!
Pamplona sum up? Ok if you have a car and dont have to rely on a long wait for a bus! Lots of shops if you're into that kinda thing. There seems to be a lot of old things to go see but it was a bit hot to get out from the shade of the city so thats a good reason to revisit.

San Adrian's 13th annual Ludo tournament starts soon. Just 20 euro to enter. Rock and Roll.

worry that you are ready for bed at midnight when ..... Kids are running about with abandon" Tweets Welshy.

The other night when we went out, we came home at 2am, feeling that was a good time to be getting in and congratulating ourselves.

All of my lessons had gone well so far this week. However Today went a bit tits up. Well two were good and the other two were a writeoff.
First bad class had just rowdy disruptive teenagers in. I battled and lost for their attention.
The second bad class had just two 6 year old girls in it. Previously they had been lovely, sweet, almost cute.
Today they turned into monsters! They refused to go and do any work set, so I gave them the option of other stuff which they refused.
They only wanted to draw. When I said they couldnt. They then went on strike. Refusing do do anything and only speaking Spanish.
With 10 minutes left I felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall. So I made them sit in silence. Childish I know but I was completely at a loss of what to do with them!

Today I had my first attempts at teaching! I think they went ok!
MY first class was with a 16/17 year old and a test of his reading comprehension. To be honest I forgot to test the understanding. But he clearly followed the football review and he seemed to be into the Robin Hood story. Am sure he followed it though. 

Second Class and I prepared a getting to know you quiz that I would play with the other class afterwards.
These were I guess early secondary school aged. It was fun, although I realised that I hadnt bargained on the fact that the quiz wouldnt fill an hour. So we played again, which left us with 10 minutes to kill. Luckily they had been messing about a bit, so I made them get their books and sit in silence writing down the rules.
Then as they failed to complete the task I made them wait in silence for the last few minutes.
One girl had been good so I let her go at half past, but the other two who had been cheeky, I told them that they were going to have to wait for my other lesson to finish. This upset them.
"But we have football! We have dance!"
Tough.
I dragged it out for another minute and then let them go. 
I like the idea that I may get a reputation for strictness. The other calss went pretty similarly, but the game lasted 50 minutes. This was a primary aged class and they too are a bit loud. So I went through the same pattern with them at the end.

Hopefully it will make them think twice about behaviour. I'm sure it was just a test the new teacher out kinda thing as they're all pretty good kids really from what I've seen.

Today was the 3rd day off in a row and I was really fidgety. So I convinced Welshy that we should walk to Calahorra, its only 3 or 4 miles away. The weather wasnt brilliant but at least it wasnt hot so win win.
We thought there was a path amongst the undergrowth at first but that then led us into a farm where some angry dogs shouted at us and we had to scramble up a bank and onto a rather busy looking road of fear that took us the rest of the way into town.
Once there we found the train station and then set off on a fruitless hunt for either a pet shop or a bar that might be showing the premier league games.
Calahorra was dead however. Didnt help that we arrived during siesta-time. So we had a traditional spanish meal of Burger King, failed in an attempt to get the bus back and ended up walking along the road of fear home.
It was village sports day or something so we watched some of the local kids and our students race 50m down the lane, I had a vague attempt at a chat with one of the parents. Mostly conducted in mime.