Summer Heat Delirium: Beaches, Beaches, beaches...

Hola again

It's now been two weeks and I haven't updated at all but to be honest I haven't really had the energy. During the day I don't really log onto the internet and I 'work' til four Mon-Fri. I say 'work' because it isn't really work what I do! (I'm currently sitting in the lounge typing in front of a Spanish soap – more later – and it's ten past eleven. I only woke up an hour ago!). Anyway, after four I usually try and get out of the house...dinner is usually between 9:30-10:30 so by that time I'm ready to crash out in front of my computer and watch something (no time for blogging!).

So after my traumatic flight incident, I woke up the next morning quite leisurely and freely. (Remember 10:30 my time was 9:30ish English time so I am excused).

The kids showed me around the house and the 'campo' which I guess means field or something in Spanish. (It has only just become apparent to me how little vocabulary I actually have, although I am capable of having a fairly decent conversation en castellano).

They have four dogs (I know) a dozen chickens and some fish-to-be in the 'estanque'-to-be (pond). They also grow stuff like peppers, sunflowers, tomatoes, onions, etc. If I lived in Mallorca I'd definitely own a campo with four dogs and my own produce with that sun in the sky!

So anyway, the day was pretty chilled, I have to say. This experience has it's stressful moments (more later) but compared to Gwendal and Ronan (my two year old French twins from Nice) this au pair experience seems like a dream. Marina is almost eleven and Sergio (I know :) ) is almost thirteen. So they can dress themselves and cook their own lunch for themselves, which is more than I can say for the last kids I babysat.

I'm supposed to be speaking in English to them but the reality is that they don't know a huge amount (or maybe they know more than I think they do but they're hiding it very well) so in practice we speak Spanish. Which is good for me. Although they talk. so. Fast. Or maybe it's not even that – maybe it's that they MUMBLE a lot! (haha in my dreams – really I just have no idea what people are saying half the time – the other half of the time they are speaking Catalan – more later).

But anyway I stay at home with them til about 4 (when the mum comes back) and we intermittently play Mario Kart, eat meals, go in the pool and watch (I'm ashamed to say this) Spanish soap operas.

I've counted the TVs in the house and so far I've seen 4 (but there may well be another upstairs in the parents' room).

So Spanish soap ops...! A lot dirtier than 'Enders or Coronation Street! Also cheesier. People are always seducing each other or sleeping with their friend's husband/boyfriend/lover and then occasionally two men will have a rather camp fistfight. And the seducing knows no age limits. There are 60-year-olds in bed with each other! And when it's not about sex it's about stealing something or deceiving people in other ways.

(Actually I found out what it's called: 'Aquí no hay quien viva')

I was a little worried at first that they might not be appropriate for dear little innocent Marina but to be honest there's not much I can do about it even if I tried, they're too old. With Gwendal and Ronan, I was often able to control them (in a non-fascist way of course) when it came to things like TV, toys they wanted to play with or places they wanted to go. But with these guys, I can't really order them about, because A) I'm not good enough at Spanish to maintain a full blown argument and B) they'd probably start a revolution if I tried to tear them away from the beloved TV.

That being said, we do other stuff like 'holiday homework' or But I am there to stop chaos being wreaked I suppose. Sometimes I just go outside and read or Skype someone if they're just being sloths but I try my best to initiate fun activities (hmmm....like puzzles).

So aside from Casa Marina and Sergio, I have explored the city Palma a little bit too now. I've met some au pairs online and we all met up for drinks and went out on Friday night. Now THAT was fun :D

But here's Palma:

I had images of Palma town being by a beach somehow, so in my head I was gonna order a ginormous paella and pitcher of Sangria by the beach, with the marina of yachts behind me, Cannes style. However we couldn't find the beach. And it was a pizzeria. So we all ordered pizza. And water. Which cost three euros. Which is the price for water everywhere, including clubs. Can you believe it?! Charging for water in clubs....!

Here's more of Palma that I took:

But having said all that, Mallorca is definitely not too shabby. It's not quite the Cote d'Azur (for me, NOTHING can compare to the fabulousness which is Nice, Antibes and Cannes) but it has some amazingly unspoilt beaches, even at this time of the year.

On the first weekend I went to Alcúdia in the north bit on Saturday, which was nice. It reminded me more of places like St Laurent de Var or Valbonne/Mougins in the Cote d'Azur (inland French Provençal towns). It was very cute and a lot less commercial than Palma, which is like Nice.

Sunday went to some gorgeous beach with the family and all of the 'primos' (cousins). They seem to have a lot of them! Anyway, more beautiful water and sun.

I got spectacularly sunburnt on the chest after this weekend of tanning.

But at least I have got a tan!

This week has been fairly uneventful. I am hoping that photos will do justice to this relatively mundane update, because really life is good but very mundane it has to be said.

I have just finished reading my holiday book 'Eat, Pray, Love' which was surprisingly enjoyable. I bought it in HMV for 49p the week before I left. I was pretty sure that it would be a bit woolly before I read it: the plot is this, the main character who is divorced and not content with her life sets out on a quest to find peace and balance by visiting three countries in year, four months in each.

Hmmm....apparently Javier Bardem plays the Brazilian love interest! :D

First she goes to Italy; eats a lot of food and learns Italian. That was quite a fun section of the book for me as it was about Europe and was almost what I did in Nice when I was au pairing: ate a lot and learnt French.

Secondly, she goes to India and stays in this place called an Ashram and learns about meditation and prayer through Yoga. This part of the book was the most 'spiritual' and yet I found myself really bored and not enjoying it. I think it's because the fundamental aims of meditation and prayer through Yoga are sort of unclear to me (I didn't really understand if it was about seeking union with oneself or union with God, whatever he represents in Buddhism/Hinduism) and a lot of it felt, like believed earlier, woolly. Anyway. It was very interesting to learn a bit more about Yoga – I think I may have to read a bit more deeply into it elsewhere to understand the aims and practices, but in any case I think I'll stick to church.

Thirdly (the best chapter!) she goes to Indonesia to learn about balance pleasure and devotion. There she meets a selection of fun and witty characters; a really old Asian medicine man who can't remember his age – whenever he mentions an event in early life she asks him 'What year was that?' to try and work out his age but then he just says 'Don't know, maybe 1920?' which for some reason made me crack up every time.

Anyway maybe the reason I enjoyed the chapter about Indonesia was that it seemed more like Thailand than India and I think I enjoyed reading about how the Balinese did things in life (she lived in Bali). I've never been to Indonesia but a lot of the characters reminded me of Thai characters I've met over the years!

She also falls in love with a man from Brazil, so basically it's a very happy ending and because it's a true story it seems to make things better because so often real stories don't have happy endings. It's inspired me to write a book about travels and different cultural experiences!

Well anyway, I've started a new book now by a well-know Spanish author, Carlos Ruiz Zafón. The book is called 'Marina' ironically! It's ok, bit tricky sometimes because my vocab is limited but

basically when I don't understand something I just keep going, it's the best way to learn more.