Purple shoes and grey skies

Today started unexpectedly with another trip to Locandita for "Speechcraft", a regular meetup where Spaniards can come and get practice and help with public speaking (in English, obviously). It looked like it wasn´t going to happen but there were 2 Spaniards (PJ and Nacho) and 3 Anglos (Richard, me and Julie) so we thought what the hell and did it anyway. Down we went to the meeting room and after a quick "Talk for one minute about a subject given to you" we started the presentations. Nacho´s was his first so he did 3 minutes basically introducing himself. Then PJ told us a story with a moral - his English is really good and he has a voice that Brian Blessed would be proud of!

Then, rather alarmingly, it was our turn! Having had no idea that it was meant to be 3 minutes, nor that "moral of the story" was meant to be the theme, I was reduced to telling a joke! OK, a funny story, and it was something I´d been carrying round in my bag for days just in case. For those who recognise it, it came round by email a while ago and was entitled "Why Parents Drink" - employer calls an employee´s home, concerned he hasn´t turned up at work and has an increasingly worrying conversation with a small child. I won´t spoil the end - if you recognise it, then you get it. If not, you may forever wonder. Anyway, free tapas followed, making it all worthwhile, even if I did throw tomato all over Richard´s shoes.

Then Julie and I had a doing day. I´d found a massive hole in the bottom of one of my lovely red boots so my least favourite thing in the world had to be done - shoe shopping. Fortunately for me, the 3rd shop I tried had a fantastic pair of purple boots, very me, for 20 Euros. Sold! We hit Lush to sort out Julie´s Madrid-ravaged skin (well, actually, we blame the beer). Then we headed to the other side of Plaza Mayor so that she could look at a room she wants to rent for the next couple of months. Now I was expecting a room in a shared apartment or something, but it basically turned out to be a hostal - a double room with a private bathroom, and WiFi. She took it pretty much on the spot. So our planned chores were almost done, just a quick trip to a bookshop to find a book on Spanish grammar that had been recommended.

Then it seemed that the day had barely started and it was siesta time! She headed to hers, I headed to mine - and it started raining! Now that wasn´t meant to happen, certainly not when I was wearing sandals and a T-shirt. I managed to escape the worst of it and headed home to make a giant pan of lentil and vegetable stew. Which hopefully is simmering nicely while I´m writing this.

I seem to be getting alarmingly used to this not working lark though at some point the financial implications are going to hit home! Back to job hunting then.....