When you wish upon a star...

Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket
Have you ever seen Disney's classic Pinocchio? We saw it for the first time just recently. Liam thinks Jiminy Cricket is fab. He's also pretty impressed about the whole whale-swallowing-Giupetto episode too (so much so that he never fails to unsuccessfully seek out poor old Pinocchio and Giupetto inside the walk-though whale at the Barcelona Aquarium!).
Anyway, Jiminy is definately Liam's favourite because he's the one who sings one of Liam's all-time favourite bedtime songs: "When you wish upon a star"... (we learnt it off Grandad's famous everlasting kids tune CD!)... If and when I figure out how to post sound recordings on this blog, I promise I'll record his angelic little voice singing:
"When you wish upon a star,
makes no difference who you are,
anything your heart desires will come to you.
When your heart is in your dreams
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers doooooooo..."

Bob the Builder

Liam's never actually seen the TV show, but he's got the theme tune on a CD his grandad made for him, has seen the merchandising and somehow he knows exactly who Bob is! It's the first track on the CD, which obviously means that the entire CD is the "Bob the Builder Music", and so we get it all the time: "I want to listen to Bob the Builder, I want to listen to Bob the Builder, I want to listen to Bob the Builder, I want to listen to Bob the Builder, Mammy!!!".... these pestering, whining attempts generally fail, so after a while the penny usually drops and the more persuasive: "Can I listen to Bob the Builder, please Mammy" comes out (often only after some prompting though)... Oh, but if only I had one euro for each time we've listened to that ****ing CD!!!
Oh and if only you could hear Liam's hilarious pronunciation of the word "builder" (/bewlda/ or something like that -very English-sounding oddly!!!!). Has us in knots.

Print it out and colour it in!

Blasts from the past...

From 'The Banana Splits' to 'Mork and Mindy', from 'The Wombles' to 'Blake's Seven'... there all on here!
http://tv.cream.org/specialassignments/themes/1.htm

If you, like most of my generation, overdosed on junk TV when you were a kid -you'll be familiar with most of it.
Theme tunes to take you back!
Enjoy...

Unai

Our close friend and favourite photographer, Unai.
Itchy-feet Unai and Jaime met a good stretch of years ago now whilst working together on the Portsmouth-Santurce ferry. Trapped on board that vessel of ill-repute surrounded by dodgy English sailors and sundry social outcasts, they found refuge in each other's company and stuck together, exchanging tales of travels past and future.
Then Jaime went back to college in Bilbao and Unai moved to photography school in Terrasa. We stayed in touch and eventually our paths crossed over again in Calle Aragó: We had some laughs sharing our rooftop pad, didn't we?
Unai's feet are still itchy and he only recently got back from a jaunt around South Africa taking snaps and lapping up the lifestyle there...
When are you coming over to see our new place and show us those slides, Unai? The wine's waiting to be uncorked and the "picoteo"'s poised and waiting...

Malachy sleeping through it all...!

Liam quenching his thrist at the Festa de la Solidaritat last Sunday

Turtle!

Lupita and Luca

Sua and Chema

David and Luke

Ella doing her own thing!

Hi, I'm Nora!

Visiting cows in Cantabria

Mooooooooo!

Josu, Maialen & Alex

David & Eva's beautiful view

Heyyyy! Come back, wayward sheep!

Cock-a-doodle-doooooooo

La Riti

Little Lola and her Lolly!

Sarah and Hiromi taking it in their stride

The financées!

Aud & Dom
Jaime and I are counting the days to their wedding day almost as eagerly as they are themselves!! Audrey (nuestra niña) and her loverboy Dominic are tying the knot in the completely idyllic fairytale setting of Dromoland Castle in Clare, Ireland (check it out http://www.dromoland.ie/) this October 29th!
They're busy sorting out their new home in London at the moment too so everything is sheer excitement for them all round.
The JamRobbers are going to make a Halloween holiday week out of the wedding trip so the plan is for me, Liam and Malachy to head over to Dublin a few days before the event and leave the lads with Granny and Grandad (who'll be only too delighted to overdose on them for a while) and then I'll head down to Shannon where I'll meet up with Jaime and we'll spend our first two nights BOTH away from our boys... EVER!!!
Will we survive?! Will we be laying awake at night pining for Malachy's little cry? Will we be up at the crack of dawn because we thought that was Liam's voice we heard shout "wakey, wakey, Daddy!"...
But, even more importantly... will I find something nice to wear between now and October?!! (its' black tie!)

Javi

Cousin Leire

Crazy cousin Jon

Auntie Maite

Uncle Gonzalo

Cousin Marta

Lola

Uncle Fernando -our man in Managua

Saioa monkeying around...

Jambrinas in Nicaragua

Uncle Luis in the Pyrenees!

The fall guy

Speaking of falling... How can I be so clumsy?? I could have broken my legs, my neck, my back, my skull!!!!! As it is I'm still sore all over.
It happened yesterday morning (Saturday) at 7am. Liam woke up crying for me and, as usual, I unhesitatingly decided to go and comfort him (never a particularly tough job as he’s a sucker for a cuddle and a kiss and usually takes all of 5 seconds to fall back asleep). It was the first night that Jaime and I had slept on our new bed -located on a 2-metre platform in our new split-level bedroom. The only problem is that the carpenters haven 't quite finished their work yet and the stairs up to the said platform hasn't been put in yet! So we had got up there using a step ladder. I should have got down using the step ladder too. But instead I threw myself head-first in a flailing, banging, thudding lump in a near-lethal hurdle to the floor, from which I miraculously emerged more or less in one piece. When I say "threw myself" what I mean is that I leaned over the opening where the step ladder was, in the dark, trying to turn on the light switch, which I couldn't see, lost my balance and fell the 2m drop to the floor (whacking my arms, legs, head and torso against all sorts of obstacles on the way down.
It has all been very sore. Thankfully, the egg-sized lumps and dramatic-looking bruises on my legs and head are coming down. What hurts now are my ribs. One particular rib. Is getting sorer all the time. Going to see the doc tomorrow.
Why do these things always happen to me??!!

The good news...

The good news is: we've moved! Finally! We took our time, I know, and people are sick of asking us when are we having the flatwarming party (which remains as yet unscheduled, I might add!), but we did it! We're in!
And the great thing is we don't need to notify you of any change of address or phone number or anything, as we're still just next door!
We've emptied the old place out, cleaned, washed, polished and spruced it up (still some painting left to do this week) and we had our first short-term tennants this weekend!!! We're hoping to get most of our custom through word of mouth and will be sending out some mass e-mails with price info and details soon. I'm thinking of setting up a separate blog for the flat too: logging the flow of guests to the flat, adding some pix and anecdotes!
The new flat is looking good, if I may say so myself! We did all the last minute touch-ups in record time and it's amazing how quickly we really feel at home here! It's great to have a separate office and a patio and not to be falling over each other all the time!!!...

The bad news...

We're very, very sad to say that, after the Board of Education draw held on Friday to allocate the pre-enroled applicants to their respective pre-, primary and secondary schools here in Catalunya, Liam didn't get into either of his first or second choices in the first round.
Although we know the system is designed to be fair, we still feel it's sooooo shitty that we had to be the unlucky ones that didn't get their first choice.
It would have been much easier to get into any one of the bigger schools in the city but we had purposely chosen the smaller, more familiar style establishment, meaning that the numbers are low and the places run out quickly!
This is how it works: The board of education randomly assigns a number to each student as they apply (out of the over 130,000 applicants this year). Liam was assigned number 10,774. Then a draw is held in which just one "magic" number is picked out. This year it was number 57,052. All numbers from that number on are correlatively assigned the places remaining in the schools of their choice until the places are all gone. Liam has ended up 6th on the waiting list of Sant Felip Neri, his first choice. It's highly unlikely that 5 enrolments will drop out and miraculously make way for him.
So, we're going to rally around this week looking into what the remaining options are now. Us and all the other "unlucky seconds" like us, that is ... quite a few of our friends included.
Will keep you posted. Wish us luck.

To our visitors...

Hello JamRobBlog visitors!
We sent out a mass e-mail the other day inviting you all to come and view our blog. We got lots of lovely flattering responses from our visitors and we're really chuffed! Thanks!
I've got to be honest here though -I can't be credited for all the fancy web designing: all I did was sign up with www.blogger.com, choose a template, download Hello and start posting texts and pix! Try it -it couldn't be easier! And if you do -don't forget to send us your link!
By the way, we'd love to put you all on here... so, please send us a recent photo (or two, or three -or failing that, an old photo -or failing that just some info or news) and we'll stick you on! (all rights reserved on the footnote comments we add to your posts though!).
Love and regards,
The JamRobbers

Violeta & Martina

Yes! Yet another two lady friends of Liam and Malachy's!!! Laia and Mate have two girls, each of whom are just two months older than our two boys! We've got them down for the same school and are currently waiting in suspense for the results of the placement draw. We live just around the corner and are sure that even if the school draw doesn't come up trumps for all of us, we'll keep the kids in touch (if Violeta doesn't ban Liam for hair-pulling, that is!!).
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Parc Güell

Shay, Carmielia: this is you in Parc Güell! I'm trying to coax you into coming over again soon!!! We miss you!
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Cheese!

And here we all were that day!
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Our big day!

Way back when... Wow! It seems absolutely ages ago! So much has happened since then! This is Jaime and me on our wedding day -April 18th 2002 -almost 9 years after we met!
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Granny,... and Great Auntie!

These glamourous sisters are Liam and Malachy's Granny, Carmielia, and Great Auntie Miriam at my cousin Sandra's wedding a few months back. Carmielia, my mum, has a way of squirming out of having her photo taken, which is why there's not very many snaps of her on here! The boys are mad about their Granny and she's mad about them too!
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Mariona

Mariona has got to be Liam's CLOSEST friend. They've known each other since they were just weeks old (met at our local parent&baby group) , they go to crèche together and hope to go to school together next year too. Liam talks about Mariona all the time. If we didn't know she exists, we'd think she was his imaginary friend becuase he actually talks to her when she's not even there!! When he's playing at home alone with his toys or reading a book to himself, he can be overheard from time to time saying "Do you see it, Mariona?", "Do you like it, Mariona?"...!!
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Bikkies in the park after school... bliss!

Some call them biscuits, some call them cookies, but any kid brought up in Dublin -like me- calls them bikkies!! Kids adore them and this gang ask for them all the time (even those of Liam's friends who know no other English have learnt to ask for "bikkies"!!).
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Crèche goers

When we pick Liam up from the crèche each day, we don't need to make any specific plans for the afternoon if we're not in the mood. If we just go with the flow we inevitably end up in the park or the zoo with a gang of kids from the crèche and their sundry mothers, fathers, brothers, aunties, uncles, grannies, dogs... never a dull moment!
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Park bums

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Rocketman!

Liam flying his rocketship a few months back in Bloomfields Shopping Centre in Dun Laoghaire -my old borough back home in Dublin: http://www.dun-laoghaire.com/ and http://www.dlrtourism.com/
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Jacqui

Malachy and his godmother, Jacqui, at the little man's christening in Dublin back in December. How did your trip to Canada go, Jacqui?! When are you coming back over to see us in Barcelona?
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Sarah and Saoirse

It's amazing: if you take Saoirse for a walk people shy away from her as they pass, in fear that she may be a threat -little do they know that she is in fact just a big softy!
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The beachboys

Séan and Liam on the beach in Barcelona last summer. Graham, Hiromi, Sarah and Séan came over from Tokyo to see us last June (when I was heavily pregnant with Malachy) and then we all flew to Dublin together for a big family reunion! The kids had some great times together -pity Malachy missed it!
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Cousins

Eating apples at the zoo last summer. What was Séan trying to tell Liam, I wonder?!
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Overcrowded bath!

I remember it clearly.
A typical terrible-two's tantrum: Liam roared and roared crying -he did NOT want to have a bath!
Then Sarah appeared at the bathroom door, caught a glimpse of the water in the bathtub, stripped off her clothes and jumped in.
Liam's tears dried up and his face changed.
Then Séan appeared, grinned, undressed and followed Sarah in.
Liam looked up at me, hugged me (as much to say, 'sorry for the contradiction here, mammy') and started climbing up and into the bath after them!
The only difficulty after that was getting them out!
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Los tíos

This was taken back in July just after Malachy was born. It's Uncle Luis, Uncle Nacho and Auntie Saioa!!!
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La abuela!

La abuela de Liam y Malachy! This is Jaime's mum. This pic was taken on her 70th birthday! She seems to be getting younger instead of older!
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