[22–28 Aug]
We spent the week at my parents' in Granada, where we also met my uncle and aunt. Our friends and neighbours in Madrid C. and her parents were in Granada in those days too, and so we invited them home one afternoon, and we enjoyed the sun and had coffee and pastries while the kids played in the swimming pool. That is the life!
[15–21 Aug]
This week we had an appointment to go and get the passports for both kids issued. That's in case we travel abroad somewhere soon. The Big Brother really has us under his thumb now.
[8–14 Aug]
On August the 8th we were on holidays, and that morning I went for a short ride with my motorbike; I did some nice roads I knew already, and also took the opportunity to take a look at a couple neighbourhoods in little towns near home where we have spotted flats of the kind we might buy some day:
[1–7 Aug]
We took a few days off work and joined our family out of Madrid: drowsy village life, barbecues and basking in the sun in my sister-in-law's garden, bathing in the reservoir, the kids running around in the nude, an industrial-grade refrigerator stuffed with drinks… all that is good, really.
This week I learnt about Tyre Extinguishers, a loose collective with the stated goal of “[making] it impossible to own a huge polluting 4x4 in the world’s urban areas” that encourages “deflating the tyres of these massive, unnecessary vehicles, causing inconvenience for their owners”. I immediately felt ambivalent about it, and mentioned that on Mastodon. The ensuing conversation with my followers pushed me a bit closer to the “that is wrong, man” point of view.
[25–31 Jul]
On the family front, my parents came from Granada to visit for a few days, as they often do (with plenty of delicious food as usual), and we celebrated yet another family birthday.
The kids went to their last two swimming lessons of this school year. Friday was indeed the last day of school. This week we also said goodbye to our cleaning lady of more than one year.
Thursday was day at the office for me, including (free) lunch in the rooftop with colleagues (that's always very nice). My company formally green-lighted that I teach a course about web languages (HTML, XML, JSON, RSS, etc) at a local private university. The subject is part of a two-year professional training degree in web development, and I'll have to be available to students for online tutorials for five hours a week during the entire academic year.
[18–24 Jul]
This week we all went twice to kids' swimming lessons. Saturday and Sunday were for the park and for the shopping centre, respectively.
Like last week, I read something by about Derek Parfit and,
like last week, I found interesting bits,
and the whole thing got me thinking.
This week I learnt about The Thing 🤯.
“Stop sharing simplistic and confrontational political memes!”
[11–17 Jul]
Back home in Madrid.
During the week I ran some errands. One evening I went grocery shopping with Miss Entropy (I always try to make it fun and different for her). Another day I rode my bike to some office in the city centre and handed over documents to apply for a scholarship grant for Breaker of Horses.
And another day I went to get my haircut done while waiting for the car to recharge🔋 at a public charging station. It so happened that duration(haircut) < duration(charge), and since I was forcibly removed from any possible responsibility or chore (by virtue of my being away from home) and all I had to do was waiting, and I had: a) coffee, b) podcasts, and c) air conditioning, I found sudden, if also ephemeral, bliss.
[4–10 Jul]
We spent the week at my parents' in Granada: my brother and his girlfriend were visiting after quite a while away from home, and we didn't want to miss them.
We now have an adapter to charge our EV from a standard AC domestic outlet. The morning after we arrived my dad and I noticed that the extension lead we had used all night was a bit too hot (and perhaps it was limiting the charging power), so that day we went to a store and bought a thicker long cord (for ~€50).
On Friday Miss Entropy, my wife and I went to Parque de las Ciencias, an amazing science museum we have had in Granada since 1995 that keeps on growing in surface, pavilions and activities. Nowadays it even has an aquarium and a little zoo indoors (apart from the old butterfly house). Like last time, I especially liked the live workshop about predatory birds. We all had a good time. Miss Entropy is just starting to be old enough to tolerate an hour or two of interactive museum at a relaxed pace.
[27 Jun – 3 Jul]
On Friday we bought a new light pram to replace our better, older (but also heavier and bulkier) one. On Saturday we relaxed with neighbours and their kids at our estate's swimming pool. And on Sunday we drove to go visit my parents for a few days.
[20–26 Jun]
At long last I fell pray to The Unspeakable:
I was knackered and had mild fever for two days, and then felt funny for another two or three — but that was all. The worst part was that we decided to do the responsible thing, ie letting daycare know about my positive and not sending the kids there for a few days, and so I had to take care of the kids at home in my sorry state. I had at times much help from my wife, but still what I really wanted was to lay down and let the day pass away, not having to look after others.