Pyrenees Storm

Pyrenees2, originally uploaded by masepack.

French view of a storm passing over the eastern Pyrenees

Playa

Playa, originally uploaded by masepack.

On the drive home, outside Barcelona

Calpe

So an average day here consists of getting up at 8, espresso and read the news till 10, Simon wakes up, breakfast/sunscreen/lying in the morning sun. Inside for siesta till about 3-4, pick up a kg of prawns at the supermacardo, dine in the sun. First beer/tinto at 5, pub/beach/cafe/restaurant. More sun and drinks til dinner time, bbq/bar till dark, rinse and repeat.

The days were rolling into one until we took a trip to Cartagena last week, amazing beach just outside the fortifications for the port, with gentle surf, a bar and restaurant, super chill.
The drive back however was a little intense as we wanted a scenic route but the coastline road turned into the biggest industrial installation I've ever seen, reservoirs and stacks as far as you could see. Made it to the airport and picked up Michelle who came down for the weekend, headed back home to plan a route for the trip.
Headed up to Alicante on the Sunday, found the beach and dug in for the day.

Michelle suffered the dreaded English lobster tan that's so hot right now so we we kept rolling to Valencia. Past some great coast and some half decent looking girls hooking on the motorway on the way there, arriving at Valencia around 7-8. While in the endless search for parking, some local police tried the old "I'll run this red cause I'm the Police" trick which back fired as a motorbike on the outside lane plowed into them at quite a speed. Dude was not hurt, but when he was over the shock he was laying into the police in a tirade of intense Spanish and threatening arm gestures, it was awesome.
Oh don't turn up in a city without your passport, couldn't get a place to stay once we got there until we got recommended to a doggier place, found parking and headed out. great city, center is pretty small and totally walkable with bars, cafes and restaurants everywhere. Also with it being Saturday in May there were a shitload of weddings, brides and grooms with camera crews were littered around the old churches, had a good perv at some nice gear, great dinner before night photo mission. Turned to custard however due to death of batteries and I returned empty-handed.
Had lunch at the birthplace of Paella, drove back down the coast to Calp (Calpe) which we had seen on the way up with a weird hill called the "Peñón de Ifach" and I wanted to climb it so we got there and started climbing. The limestone outcropping happens to be a giant seagull nesting area and on our approach to the top we were divebombed several times in rather tricky areas, we were almost at the top when one bird took exception to us even though we had moved past their nest and after about 10 swoops I picked up a rock to scare it off, and accidentally nailed it and it dropped down the cliff face. I felt terrible, not only had I killed a bird in it's own nesting ground, but the chicks were pretty much screwed too. But to my defense the path has been there for a long long time and they were super aggressive even though we tried to keep as far from the chicks as possible, dag nabit.
Michelle's camera was on duty but I still wish I could have had mine.

cartegenabeach

cartegenabeach, originally uploaded by masepack.

Went for a drive with Simon and Dave the other day to Cartegena, Spain is nice. . .

Joomla + Beer

So I have managed to set up the wireless network in Spanish and as the weather got a little average for a couple of days I started up a couple of projects. Last year and the year before, Paolo and I started setting up a website called Thinktank Media Co-op as a kind of media distribution channel for underground media and I tried to give him a hand, but as I didn't have a computer I was a little under resourced, as was he. Now times have changed but the website hasn't so I am starting to design and build it onto a CMS framework called Joomla.
I whipped up a quick design and am now attempting to skin it over the Joomla, it should take me some time. But I have a build up and running and by reading job postings online there is a market for Joomla/CMS developers so learning some new skills will be great.

I went to San Miguel de Salinas the other day where I took this photo, a small town outside the city areas where there was a wedding or something that most of the town was attending, all dressed to the nines. Also near the church/bell tower was some homes built into the hills/ground on the side streets which looked really cool, might go back for some photos.
Michelle (my sister) is coming out next weekend to go exploring with me, hoping to make it down to Granada/Torremolinos area or maybe head north and see Valencia. Still no joy on the scooter front, there are all these locals with them but I have yet to see "tourist types" zipping along, so I might resign myself to hiring a car.
Beach day tomorrow!

RIP: A Remix Manifesto

So was raining today (shock!) and I have caught up on some interweb reading and one of the things I want to share is "RIP: A Remix Manifesto" which touches on the changes to many copyright laws that are beginning to take control of or culture.
While I was in Vancouver I was following Michael Geist's website and Cory Doctorow's coverage of the Canadian Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that the US was trying to force through Canada's Parliament and the implications of how copyright is being changed from a form artists intellectual property protection to a way for corporations to build and maintain an iron grip on our culture.

I have too much to say about this so instead, here is the link to the store to buy it (US only), the individual chapters, and for the whole shebang, the torrent to download the movie. (mum get utorrent)

The Prefab Scabs

So I have been in Villa Martin just outside Torrevieja for 6 days now and it feels like I've just arrived. It's 24 Degrees by 11 on its way to 27. After a long drive via Lyon and Barcelona we arrived in the evening and went straight to the pub. I really liked Lyon and want to go back and explore more of France outside Paris, was shocked at the amount of French that I have picked up in the last couple of years, would be nice to keep on practicing.

The place that Simon has is essentially the Spanish version of Whitton, housing projects as far as the eye can see, little boxes filled with old people and families, mostly English, a few Germans and the occasional Spaniard. The only thing that has seemed to change is the architecture and the weather. And as it's not the peak season and the recession and things it's a bit of a ghost town too. Oh well, can't complain. . .

On my off time I'm hoping to get a scooter (which seems to be near impossible) to escape this prefab scab and see some real Spain. The beach is nice, the Mediterranean is salty and warm, but I don't want to come to a new place and lie on the beach. I need to explore! A holiday should not just a change of venue, but a change of lifestyle. It's tough because my job is 10 times easier if Simon stays in his comfort zone (which is rather narrow) and as I like just going and doing stuff without planning, we are loggerheads when we leave in the van.

But I am feeling great, I have a great tan in progress (even if it does have tan lines), I'm getting paid £60 a day just to be here even if I'm not working, and I don't have to pay for my beers at the pub. So here is a little series I'd like to call the "salad bowl tour of the prefab scab".

Arrived

Just got to the house, need sleep. (Photo: out window of hotel in Barcelona)