Cultural attempt II

Started the morning in a mini-photoshoot with daddy attempting to make some arty farty high-contrast photos of me. Not amazing results, but Daddy is new at this - next time we'll try with more light and more contrast.

We then had another shoot, this time little feet and hands, which Daddy has been wanting to do for some time. Mummy went to the gym but wasn't too pleased with the lesson, too light she said.

Walked down to the Prado again - the idea was to see if the queue was as long as last time this time we could at least continue to Reina Sofia as it is open on Saturday afternoons. Cunningly we planned to get there for 5pm, when entrance is free. Ge got there bang on time and amazingly there was no queue. Soon we found out why: the Prado's free entrance doesn't start until 6 on Saturdays. So on to the Reina Sofia.

The first thing we went to see was "The Tower", where you go up some steps while people see you from below and, with the help of some cunningly placed mirrors, it looks like you are floating in a room. Such a shame we didn't take the camera! We could have also done with it a bit later on, when we explored the museum's terraces with great views of Madrid.

We then went to see a photo exhibition, which we didn't like so headed off to the permanent exhibitions to see a bit of Picasso, Dali and Miro. Before catching the bus home we rounded of the day with a drink and a snack at the Diamante smoke-free bar. Then one last photoshoot before heading off to bed while Mummy & Daddy watched a Spanish film, El Club de los Suicidas.

This wardrobe will be the end of us

Had a little walk in the morning and got some new shoes today, and wow are they cool - the other two pairs are too small for me already. We then took a few photos of the fountain in our square. It's a lovely fountain and a great square (especially when the weather is good enough to sit on the terraces) and we need to record our neighbourhood for posterity. We finished the walk at the market, buying some nice goodies for Abuelo: txacoli (a white wine from the Basque Country), asparagus and cider.

When Daddy got back we went to the IKEA that is near a tube stop, deep in the South of Madrid's outskirts, to get the damn bar for the wardrobe. To make the trip worthwhile, and because we saw it while waiting at the checkout, we got me a high chair for my meals in the not-too-distant future.

...And as it turned out, we got the wrong bar! We only realised while joining it with the extension bar we already had - we were supposed to get an oval cross-section and we got a circular one! Will Mummy and Daddy ever get it right?

In the evening I was on Daddy's lap while he eat an apple. We did a little experiment and he let me lick the apple a bit. Gosh it's yummy, can't wait to try fruit in about 4 weeks time!

We have decided I am to have two 120ml formula bottles a day, one before the second feed in the morning and one before the last feed in the evening. Today was the first attempt and was a resounding success.

Bottle at last

We did it! Well, I did it, the glory is all mine. 3 bottles today! Started with 40cl of Mummy's milk to make the shock more bearable, and managed to swallow that down. Also had an early morning bath just with Mummy (drunk a bit of water by accident when I twisted my head unexpectedly).

Abuela (and Abuelo and Bisa) was over for lunch - Mummy had prepared a delicious fabada in the clay pot, instead of the usual pressure cooker - so she gave me another 60cl of formula milk before my next feed, and I also went for that.

Abuelo went back to work and when he came back we started building the wardrobe. Daddy came back late from work (late, as he needs to catch up a bit after so much working from home) just in time for the trickiest bit (adding the roof and joining with the other side) and soon we had finished the main structure. The bad news is that we were missing a piece, a bar Mummy & Daddy actually had in their hands and left behind at the shop as they thought they didn't need it. So we need to go all the way back just for one stupid bar. When the wardrobe was nearing completion a guy from Madrid Recicla came to pick up the old bed, so that's one thing less to worry about.

New bed

Another walk with Mummy in the pouch. I have a tendency to fall asleep 15 minutes before getting home so Mummy has to sit around the house with me still in the pouch for a bit so that I don't wake up. After that the people from IKEA dropped off the stuff Mummy and Daddy bought yesterday.

Mummy and Daddy built their new bed today, and it looks smashing. It took them quite some time so they are leaving the wardrobe for tomorrow. Mummy is hooked on this email community called Madrid Recicla, where people put up stuff they no longer need for other people to pick up (we got my travel cot that way), and put the old bed frame up for grabs.

Bottle still not convincing me - Mummy and Daddy are looking in various books and websites to see if there are any methods they should be using.

Speaking of books, Mummy is reading Besame Mucho, a sort of anti-Estivill hippy love-in method to bringing up babies (Dr. Estivill is the Spanish version of Dr. Ferber, with a similar "let the damn creature scream his head off or even vomit" approach to infant sleep problems). While Mummy and Daddy think Estivill*/Ferber may be a tad on the cruel side Mummy is also hating this book which seems to be the complete antithesis. Its basic premise seems to go on the lines of "you don't see adults needing their parents to fall asleep/ share their toys / drink a bottle / tie their shoelaces, so don't bother doing anything as it will all work out in the end".

* An anagram for Evil List, Vie Still, and nearly for Still Evil.

Daddy's nationality

Daddy is working from home today as he has to do paperwork - he is applying for Spanish nationality. This time round (it must be his 6th attempt by now) he had all his papers in order and they were accepted. He now has to be seen by a judge in a couple of weeks to certify he speaks Spanish.

We met up with Daddy at Abuelo & Abuela's, he had gone straight there with his laptop and was doing important things so we didn't disturb him. After lunch I stayed home while Mummy and Daddy rushed off to IKEA in Abuelo's big car (as it is bigger and longer) for another attempt, this time successful as it's pretty empty on a weekday, to buy a wardrobe (as their dressing room is now my bedroom) and a bed frame (as the one they have is over 10 years old) - most of it arrives tomorrow as it was too annoying to transport.

Then Daddy did a bit more work and we all went home, via the shopping centre to look for some new shoes for me (no luck).

Today's attempts with the bottle have been as fruitless as yesterday's - the little milk that does end up in my mouth I find so disgusting I swirl it around a bit and spit it straight out. Mummy and Daddy take heard in that at least I'm getting to taste the formula milk and I might get used to it this way.

Bottle attempts

I am due to start on cereals soon (when I am 5 months old) so it's time to tackle the bottle again. After a good start when I was young the last attempt was a bit of a failure. We need to get this right as it is pretty hard to put cereals in Mummy's breast, so we boiled some water, put in the formula, and had a go. Bleaj! It tastes awful, plus I hate the teat. I fought it off, horrible stuff! Had to take a little walk in the pouch, where I had a nice siesta, to forget all about it.

Daddy had a pretty nasty hangover at work and has vowed to not touch a drop for a month. He also feels bad for not helping out at the party (or the last few parties for that matter). He is also under the delusion he will slim with all of this, though I reckon he might have to do something drastic like cycle to work. Treking seems to be at a standstill with this nasty weather.

Clay pot

Big lunch party today, we are using a friend's new clay pot (like wot grandma used to use) to cook a traditional northern fish dish and we are one of the only ones with gas cookers.

The pot's owner (not the cook today) has a camera similar to ours and just got a wide angle lens as a present, so we used it to take a quick shot of my new room (which as you can see is so huge you need a wide angle to capture it all). When I am a bit bigger I'll have a big cot at the far end, which just fits snugly lengthwise, and the drawers will be by the door. The room will be purely for sleeping - my play area will be in our big lounge.

After lunch we had a much-overdue Secret Santa (everybody seemed to be busy every weekend until now). By now Daddy was pretty legless and eventualy passed out before 8. Tsk tsk. So when everybody had finally gone Mummy and me had a quiet evening alone.

Passport photo

Tito and Tita went off to the Foro Social Mundial, a NGO forum which aims to put the world right. We went to see the girls who were with Abuelo & Abuela, and Mummy and Daddy stole Tito & Tita's car to drop by their beloved IKEA. I'm beginning to get pretty damn tired of this shop, we seem to spend our lives here, luckily Mummy and Daddy left me behind. Anyways, this time they didn't even go in - one look at the state of the car park told them all they needed to know: the queue at the tills would probably be an hour. So back home they came, in time for my feed and lunch.

Relaxed and digested and also got round to taking some pictures of me for my passport (I have an appointment next week). I was laid down on a white sheet facing up, and Daddy took a few shots of me. He then did a bit of editing to make sure the background was smooth and we printed out some copies on Abuelo's printer on photographic paper.

New sleeping methods

It looked like I was on a roll, but today I woke up in the middle of the night. Maybe it's just a flash in the pan and tonight I will be fine again. Time will tell.

Mummy and Daddy have decided to get a bit stricter with my sleeping. No more staying cotside holding the dummy until I finally fall asleep, we're going to try and wean me off the dummy for a bit and let me cry on my own for a while.

Quite a few new skill lately. Today I actually fell asleep in the pouch looking forwards. I grab everything now, though much better with my right hand than my left. There must be something about my right side because after many of my siestas my right sock falls off. Lately when I am being changed I lift up my legs in the air on my own to help Mummy or Daddy.

Tito and Tita are staying the night - they are celebrating Tito's new job at the Indian restaurant. They dropped by to leave their stuff and then rushed off. Mummy and Daddy spent the evening watching the new Woody Allen film, Vicky Christina Barcelona, which they quite liked. Then we all went to bed (only us I mean - Tito and Tita who weren't back yet).

Daddy at the dentist

Went to visit Abuela by tube this morning and spent the day there. It rained all day, so not much else to do. Mummy and Daddy are grumbling saying they might as well be in London.

Today was Daddy's day at the dentist. His teeth are right as rain as well, but he needed a cleaning session so he had one. He's gone shiny nice gnashers now.

Grabbing

Definitely I've starting grabbing in earnest now. I love dangly colourful things, especially if I can shove them in my mouth to see what they feel and taste like. Also, when Mummy is in front of the computer and I'm on her lap, I like to bang the table a bit and shove whatever is on there onto the floor.

Returned a Christmas present I had received at a shop near home as it was a repeat, so more cash to spend on lovely things for me. Mummy is on a roll with the gym, today was body tonic. She came back knackered.

Healthy Mummy

Another full night's sleep, am I fully back to myself again? Mummy and Daddy sure hope so.

Now Daddy has his driving licence and doesn't leave us every evening while he goes gallivanting away driving around Madrid Mummy can spend some evenings going to the gym, and today was her first day for ages, to go and do a yoga class. She came back very pleased.

In the evening Daddy took this lovely photo of me asleep using his new tripod to keep the camera still as it was quite dark in my room.

Swedish furniture shop

Slowly getting back to normal again - crying less, back to 4h feeds, and last night I actually slept the whole night through, first time in ages! I am begining to laugh a bit more than of late. What's also new is that I have a whole range of interesting sounds I didn't make before, a cross between a nightingale and a chipmunk.

Today we went to out favourite Swedish furniture shop with Abuela to get a few things for my new room: some curtains, a lamp and a hanging net to put all my toys in (plus a few more odds & ends for the house).

Cultural attempt

Weather still not good today, so we decided to try and get cultured and go to the Prado museum. Obviously we weren't going to fritter away out hard earned cash on such banal luxuries, especially when we are in the middle of an economic crisis, so we didn't go until it was 5 o'clock, when the museum is free. Great minds think alike, judging from the enormous queue, so we headed on to the Reina Sofia museum, which is less famous and gets less crowded. We also learned it closes Sunday afternoons, so out cultural attempts came to nothing and we walked back home, using streets seldom explored (by us at any rate).

El Capricho

Lovely long walk today, crossing various parks. The weather didn't look too good to go to the sierra (in fact we also heard the awful news this morning that someone had died in a small avalanche yesterday in an area we've been to before), plus everybody is a bit knackered because I've been waking up in the middle of the night so often, so we decided to go to El Capricho park and from there walk to Abuelo & Abuela's.

El Capricho is a lovely park built by rick folks (the Dukes of Osuna) a few centuries ago, before I was born. We walked around for a bit but realised our original plan, to cross the park and continue onto the next park, would need revising as there is only one entrance. So we had to come out the way we came in and then go round El Capricho to get to Juan Carlos I park. Then across that to get to Juan Pablo II and finally to the lunch table at Abuelo & Abuela's.

Got the car and GPS as evening was turning into night as we were off to a house warming party. The problem with this GPS is that in tunnels it doesn't know where it is, but that doesn't stop it from taking a guess at a few directions and throwing us completely off track. Daddy said it reminded him of the Bolivians they'd met in their South American trip who would make things up in an effort to be "helpful".

So we finally got to the party, with me crying bloody murder because I was really hungry. After feeding I was fine though, in fact I was a very good boy and did a lot of sleeping. Also, we found out I am going to have a new little friend: one of Mummy and Daddy's friends is 8 weeks pregnant!

Wurzel Gummidge

One of my Christmas presents was a lovely knitted Wurzel Gummidge. I really like him and he's becoming one of my best friends. When I'm about to start crying Daddy makes him dance in front of me and he always puts a smile on my face. He's lovely and bright and sort of the same size as me.

When Daddy got back from work today we went down to the Rastro to buy some crampons for Mummy and Daddy (they've been dying for some for ages, and now they have the excuse that they need them to carry me up icy paths). We got two pairs of extra light ones and a couple of walking sticks (for whoever would be carrying me) so now they are really happy. Now they are dying to go to the mountains to try them out.

Sleep in my room

First snooze in my new room! Didn't sleep last night there as Mummy & Daddy were doing experiments with the heater and a thermometer, making sure the temperature was right. But during today their scientific curiosity was quenched and not only did I have my siesta there, but I also had my first night-time sleep there.

Been a bit cranky all day, much more than normal. Those jabs from yesterday sure affected me I guess.

Yearly dentist checkup for the adults this month - today was Mummy's turn. In fact both Mummy and Daddy have been naughty and skipped last year's. The dentist is a friend of Abuelo's so we get free checkups and preferential treatment. While Mummy was being told her teeth were fine I was with Abuela at home. We had a bottle on hand but in the end the timing was so good we didn't need it as Mummy got back before I started to get hungry.

Doctor

I am still underweight, but not too badly (5100 g, 63 cm). The doctor said it might be a good idea to try the bottle after breastfeeding in case I was still peckish. No need for cereals or anything drastic yet - though I'll probably start on them when I'm 5 months old, and fruit two weeks later.

Then they kindly gave me 3 vaccination jabs which hurt loads so I cried. But I'm such a brave boy I stopped crying the moment Daddy picked me up to cuddle me.

Mummy & Daddy (well, mostly Mummy) have been preparing the dressing room to turn it into my room - in the end no flat we've seen so far is good enough for the likes of us. Today we bought a small electrical heater so I won't freeze (that room doesn't have central heating). The room doesn't have a plug either, but the cord fits under the door (thank goodness for shoddy workmanship!) so we don't have to do any major drilling.

Dormir sin lagrimas

Mummy has bought a new baby book called Sleep Without Tears. I hope she reads it quick, because lately I think I really need it.

Over the past few weeks my ears have become a bit more floopy, bloody Daddy's genes I guess. Mummy and Daddy have been going on about how I don't look like either of them, so at last I have a familiar trait now. I'd rather have Mummy's ears though.

Hooray for Daddy

He did it! At last! Daddy is an official driver. He managed to go round in a car for over 15 minutes without running anybody over, so they gave him a licence. Unlike last time he had a lesson on the day, just before the exam, so maybe that helped. Again he had to wait for over an hour until the examiner arrived, which apparently doesn't help steel your nerves, but the examiner was a nice young bloke and didn't put either of the examinees through anything too hard.

Daddy still can't drive though, he has to wait for the provisional licence, plus there is the matter of getting onto the car's insurance. No matter though, it didn't get in the way of celebrations - dinner at the usual celebration place - a really nice Indian at walking distance to home.

Definitely getting to grips (gettit?) with this grabbing stuff. Haven't really mastered it yet, but I'm waving my arms in the right direction. Just need to coordinate it with unclenching my fists and we're home and dry.

Canto Gordo

After a leisurely breakfast we drove to Navacerrada, to the parking spot at Canto Gordo. We were going to walk up the big family-friendly path that goes up La Barranca and later splits up to go to Navacerrada pass on one side and the Collado del Piornal (the pass between the Bola del Mundo and Maliciosa peaks) on the other. Mummy and Daddy one day want to go up to Piornal this way someday, but not today, as Prima is getting too big to spend much time in a rucksack - not so much because of weight as for finickiness. Plus there is too much snow and ice for the last bit right now.

After some dodgy manoeuvring in the car park (because of the slippery ice) we got our stuff together (including Rita la Mariquita, Prima's class mascot - every weekend a child has to take the mascot home and write about their adventures in the class book) and started our walk. I was in my usual pouch, Primita was in Prima's rucksack (we had forgotten her pouch, but she is a big girl now) and Prima was sometimes walking, sometimes being dragged in her sleigh.

We passed by the exit for the Senda Ortiz, a circular route Mummy and Daddy also want to do another day and stopped for refreshments, feedings & rest.

Then we just continued for another short while to get to where the path split in two, and stopped for another round of refreshments before heading back to the car park and then back home to Madrid.

Collado

Today is a Collado day, to go and visit Tito, Tita & the girls (and to celebrate Tito's new job). I was so excited waiting for Abuelo, Abuela & Bisa to turn up in the car that I fell completely asleep in my chair. Daddy then used me as a model (and what a model!) to try out his new tripod.

So the gang arrived in the two cars and we all drove up to Collado Mediano. After lunch we all went out for a little walk to a nice part of Collado we hadn't seen before, full of nice big houses with huge gardens.

We were spending the night there to all go trekking tomorrow, so in the evening we said goodbye to Abuelo, Abuela & Bisa who all drove off in Abuelo's car (we'll take Abuela's car back tomorrow).

In the evening we went to the supermarket to get some food for tomorrow and Daddy had a go parking Tito & Tita's car, which he did quite well. Parking seemed to be his strong point during lessons but the last lesson he had yesterday apparently he was a bit pathetic, so he wanted a little extra practice. I wasn't there but Prima told me he was fine.

So we all had a nice quiet evening at home, watching the cold outside. Primita is getting too big for her "bumbo" chair and I am inheriting it, so we tried plonking me on it to see how I faired. Pretty good I think. I get tired pretty quickly but I can keep my head up for some time. Plus it's good exercise.

Oh, nearly forgot, it's my fourth-month birthday today! You can get so blase about these things when you have had as many month-birthdays as me...

Snow storm

Gosh Daddy is lucky he didn't have his test today as we had a huge snow storm in most of the province: Madrid was covered in white, and the roads were very slippery (though on the other hand it may have been a perfect day to pass the test as you get to drive really slow and you can get away with murder).

We spent the day at home, and Daddy and most of his workmates left work early to avoid getting snowed in and possibly spending the night there (he works in Tres Cantos, about 20km from Madrid central). Apparently there were no buses so they walked to the train station and were lucky enough not to have to wait too long for a train. In the end he could have stayed until his normal leaving time as it stopped snowing and the company buses were perfectly on time, but you never know.

Abuela lunch, friends dinner

Abuela was over visiting this morning for lunch. Later Daddy phoned with the bad news that his driving test has been postponed until Monday, no explanations given. Perhaps it's all for the best though, as it looks rainy for tomorrow. Later in the evening we had some friend over for dinner and a few more joined us for coffee afterwards.

Oh, and today we got the great news that Tito got a new position at the university.

Sales

The official real Christmas sales start today in Spain, so while Daddy went back to work me & Mummy went shopping to see if there was anything worth spending Mummy's IOU-vouchers on. She managed to find a skirt and some trainers she liked.

I am keeping up my crying and 3h feedings, and still wake up every night. Just going through a growing spurt and a bumpy patch I guess.

In the evening Mummy was doing some hilarious things - picking up one of my toys and throwing it. I couldn't stop laughing! Meanwhile Daddy thought I looked so cute he videoed me with the camera.

Epiphany

Today is the epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ which means... presents! The 3 Wise Men gave baby Jesus presents, so one would expect that, in the name of equality, they also bring presents to the rest of us. Good thing they have magic on their side because they have to visit every house in one night.

They didn't visit our house because we redirected them to Abuelo & Abuela's, so that's where we went (and also returned the car). We brought the roscón de reyes, which is a pretty horrible dry cake (though not as awful as it's British equivalent, the Christmas cake) people eat only today. We actually got a cream version, which is slightly more palatable, and a traditional one. Both have a present hidden inside and whoever gets it needs to buy next year's cake.

So the presents were dished out. Mummy & Daddy got their camera... again. And the binoculars we had already used to see the cranes. And a few IOU-style vouchers as things hadn't arrived in the post on time plus nobody seemed to like the clothes in the shops very much (with the crisis we have early sales, at the begining of the sales they try to offload the worse stuff). I got a few clothes which were quite nice though.

I must say I prefer to get most my pressies on the 25th - imagine getting a whole bunch of toys today and tomorrow go to school! Luckily I think I'm entitled to Dutch Saint Nicholas (6th December) British Father Christmas (25th December) and the Spanish 3 Wise Men (6th January).

A last bit of Gata

First thing we did today was go to the cheese factory in Hoyos for the wonderful goat's cheese. It's actually so much in demand you can only buy "one cheese per family", though luckily it's a pretty big cheese. Then we drove to Robledillo de Gata, another village time forgot, all in stone, adobe and wood. The weather was a bit miserable but the village made up for it.

So we drove back to Madrid vowing we'd come back to these parts as we didn't do a single of the walks (of which there are many) and there's plenty more villages to see. Also, a friend's brother is setting up a hotel in the area, not that we need another excuse.

Around the Sierra de Gata

Our hotel is in the village of Perales del Puerto, not to be confused with the mountain pass (Puerto) of Perales, which is where we headed this morning. We made a small detour to see the cheese factory in Hoyos to make sure it would be open tomorrow as the hotel owner had told us it's goats cheese had got first price in last year's European cheese championship. From the beautiful view at the pass we had been told not to go on the small road to Acebo as it was a nasty bendy pot-holed track with nothing to see. Luckily we ignored the advice, as the road wasn't worse than many we'd been on (though we have been on pretty horrible roads) and the sites were wonderful.

From there we drove to Trevejo, a really tiny village of about 30 inhabitants (all seemed over 80) with a small Muslim fort. It was one of those villages time seemed to have forgotten, with not a single modern house. We then had lunch at San Martín de Trevejo (people round here don't seem to have much imagination naming villages) where the roads have small canals of water running down the sides, to feed the various orchards around the village.

As we had time to spare we took a scenic route back to the Borbollón reservoir, stopping at another village, Santibañez el Alto. Today was a very glib show, with most of the cranes on their island by the time we got there, which was a lot earlier than the day before. We waited around in case the cranes had decided to put on a late spectacular, but nope, nothing. Boy were we lucky we had decided to see the cranes yesterday as well!

Cranes

So the plan for this long weekend (Daddy took Monday off as Tuesday is a national holiday) is to go and see the cranes in Cáceres. Not construction cranes obviously, we wouldn't bother crossing two provinces for that, but bird cranes, migrating from northern Europe down to Africa, stop off here in the Sierra de Gata for a few months to take a breather.

We left lateish and at a leisurely pace so, after a feeding stop, it was nearly dusk by the time we got to the Sierra de Gata. This is the time the cranes fly back to their island on the Borbollón reservoir. We had originally planned to go straight to the hotel, but as we were nearby we decided to go and see the cranes today and maybe again tomorrow as they were the highlight of the trip.

We didn't count with getting hopelessly lost while watching cranes fly above us from the car, but eventually we worked out where we were supposed to be and got out. There were plenty of flocks still, coming back to roost and making a huge amount of noise. I had a nice feed while Daddy took pictures and looked through his new binoculars (which technically he's not allowed to use until the 6th, but we'll make an exception).

After the spectacle we drove on to the hotel, which was even lovelier than it looked in the on-line photos we'd seen. The owner was very nice and he talked to us for nearly an hour explaining all about the local area and the sights we had to see (to be honest, we hadn't really done our research and apart from the cranes had no idea what there was to see).

El Rastro

Daddy went back to work briefly today but as it's Friday he was back soon. We all went down to el Rastro to get some Reyes presents (the Spanish hand out presents on the 6th of January, when the 3 Wise Men gave presents to baby Jesus, aka Epiphany). There are loads of mountaineering shops in el Rastro (for Tito & Tita). We also stopped at a big camera shop (for Daddy) and then we went to a nearby toy shop to get a puzzle for Prima, who is an ace at them. You should have seen the queue! We had to abandon that plan.

Mummy & Daddy's friend from Belgium is over so we met up with her and dragged her to another much emptier toy shop. We all had a coffee together and then we had to head off to Abuelo & Abuela's for dinner and car pinching.

Happy 2009!

My first new year! What excitement. My brief view of 2008 was good enough, but now I'm really excited to see what 2009 will bring...

• a new USA president who will fix the economic crisis, stop Iran's nuclear proliferation, stabilise Iraq & Afghanistan, capture Bin Laden, and lower taxes for America's middle class
  
• the Czech Republic takes over the presidency of the Council of the European Union from France, so we'll at last see a bit less of Sarkozy. In 6 months they hand over to Sweden. We also have an election for the European Parliament later this year, where the clueless vote the useless to do the pointless
  
• Vilnius and Linz become the European capitals of culture (yup, we are so cultured we need two capitals for it)
• the Americans are less cultured, so they only have one capital, and this year it's Asunción
• Slovakia becomes the 16th country to adopt the Euro. We may also see the birth of a new currency in East Africa - the East African shilling
  
• congratulations to Austria, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, and Uganda who all get a seat on the United Nations Security Council, a nice little money spinner for them
• the poor astronomers feel a bit down in the dumps, so the world has decided to cheer them up declaring 2009 as International Year of Astronomy. The sun & moon are also collaborating and decided to put on a total solar eclipse round South-east Asia
  
• same goes for carpet makers - 2009 is also the International Year of Natural Fibers
• Microsoft may get their act together and manage to bring out Windows 7 to fix all the damage done by Vista
• good news for Mummy and Daddy: this year they'll see the opening of the Virgin Galactic Spaceport in New Mexico. When they retire they plan to spend my inheritance on going out to space, so all progress in that direction is welcome

Back to more mundane issues: had lunch at Abuelo & Abuela's.