After reading in other blogs about the apparent rudeness of the Spanish, I started thinking about this too. They seem to bump into you at every possible opportunity, they invade your personal space in queues, the beach, bars and restaurants. But if you watch them in their cars or on their bikes you realize there might be another reason. They obviously spend a lot of money on their cars and keep them clean and tidy as this is an important status symbol. But they also have scratches and bumps all over them. So, if they are not doing this on purpose it has to be something else. ...

After living in Barcelona for three years the thieves finally got me. My wallet got stolen in a bar and I lost a few things, but nothing irreplaceable. But it gave me good idea how difficult it is to get certain cards replaced. bicing card (did I mention that I love bicing?): easy to block and replace online. cost: 4 euro - Zoo Club Barcelona card: you have to go there and get a replacement. cost: 1 euro - La Caixa credit card: a call to block and replace, you have to go there and pick it up. cost: free - Gym card – not replaced yet Next time I try to have even less cards with me.

Very easy and very nice. You get the wrappers from an asia market. The filling consists of beef, spring onions, cabbage, sake, soy sauce, litte bit of sesame oil, pepper. The sauce is: soy souce, sake, rice vinegar, ginger and red chili. Put some oil in a cold pan, add the gyozas, a glass of water, cover it, put on the heat and wait till they look good.

Dave Cornthwaite rode 6000 km on a carbon fibre skateboard through Australia. I probably would have fallen on my face roughly 600 times.

Picked up my social security number today. Nobody in the office could remember how they got theirs, so I had to google a bit around: find your next “Administraciones de la Seguridad Social” office - bring passport - bring N.I.E. I went to my local office at C/Mercader 5, Barcelona. The lady at the desk was very nice and even spoke english. She was a bit surprised that I had a two year old N.I.E. and no social security number.