Driving where?

All the characters that I mentioned (with the exception of the backward sliding mother in the family car) were out and about this morning!  The I’ve-got-a-god-given-right to join the road that you are driving on car owners caused me to take one or two indrawn breaths and the boy-racer was comic-book stupid as he dodged from lane to lane, undertaking, overtaking and generally risking death!

But the sun is shining and it promises to be another lovely day.

One consequence of bright sunshine and living in a city of generous amounts of pollution is the awe-inspiring vistas that you get as you wend your way to school.  My motorway of choice affords generous views of the surrounding hills which zig-zag their way into the smoky distance.  When illuminated by a rising sun they are breathtakingly beautiful - and even the pollution looks good!

Toni has been buys working on his devices to keep a towel on the beach secure from inopportune gusts of wind.  He has now made a prototype and he should be testing it today.  If (when) it works it will be time to take it to a design centre in Barcelona which exists to help people with their inventions and to give advice about their possible development.  I can say no more at present, but I look forward to developments with some interest.

Impulse buying is one of the great pleasures in life.  Visiting a hypermarket yesterday in pursuit of “items” to help Toni’s invention I impulsively bought a new beach towel (I put that down to the psychological effect of Toni’s creations) some Barça shorts (which will have to be taken back today as they barely fit one leg!) and, more oddly, frying pans.

Impulse buying frying pans would suggest a beggared life because, as all know, impulse buys are for those things which do not have a real practical use and about which you feel terribly guilty later.  Frying pans do not fit this concept.

Though, “fitting” is one of the reasons that I bought them.  Storage in the house is at a premium and cupboards are full to overflowing so these Tefal things with, most importantly, removable handles (!) are easily stackable and also have that magic “gadget” element without which purchases are arid and empty.

I have tried to get hold of these stackable frying pans for some time and this is the first time that I have seen them on open display in Spain.  Of course I haven’t used them yet as I have some vague memory of Clarrie telling me that you have to coat them with olive oil first in some mystical way akin to a christening.  This may just be with the fabulously expensive cooking receptacles that she uses and mere Teflon does not merit such loving care.

What I have been able to do so far is to click the handles on and off with proprietorial glee.  I have also ordered some similar saucepans from Amazon.  These things do not (of course) come with lids - which are surprisingly expensive.  There are also plastic clip on lids which mean, in theory, that something can go straight from the cooker to the fridge – minus the handle of course.  These lids are also things that I do not have. 

I have justified the purchase of the saucepans because, for reasons that I do not fully understand, I have got them “post free”.  Which makes everything sensible and reasonably priced.  In a way.

Tomorrow-another trip to Terrassa for the birthday celebrations of the Little One who is now two or possibly three.  I am sure that I will have to contain my fury as I see the presents with which he is showered and I compare it with what I had when I was three. 

Of course, I can remember nothing of what I had for my third birthday; in fact I can remember remarkably few presents being given.  

One I remember with remarkable clarity was when I was allowed to choose an ornament from my kindergarten Christmas tree (a Father Christmas on a sleigh with bits inside that rattled when shaken as you ask) which was on our Christmas tree for the next umpteen years.  I may not be able to list them all but I do remember them in use. 

There was a wigwam of cloth stretched on a framework of four bamboo poles; a scooter; a Dinky toy dumper truck; a feathered headdress (more Red Indian than 1920s Flapper); the March from The Nutcracker Suite; a stapler; books; a Golliwog; a second-hand tape recorder; a xylophone; a small carved dog; a recorder; a helicopter on a long wire with a handle at the end which, when turned, caused the helicopter to fly into the air – and that lot takes me up to the years that I can remember with clarity.

It is sad to think of the multitude of toys lovingly and considerately bought which have vanished completely from my mind.  I am sure if I thought long and hard I could resurrect more of my juvenile possessions – roller-skates, for example pop into my mind – but the amount of money spent on things which have left no lasting impression must be enormous.

As my parents were fond of telling me: when I was one year old they decided against elaborate celebrations because I would remember nothing of them, but they did bow to convention in the Birthday Cake area by putting a candle in a jam tart.  I was, apparently, delighted – and my first birthday lasted until the jam tarts and candles gave out!  How sensible!

All of which makes me wonder about the amount we have spent on Toni’s very young nephew: how long will the present last?  Given the shoddy construction of expensive toys, if they last the birthday it’s a bonus; if they are remembered the day after it’s astonishing.

Ah well, I sometimes think that such purchases are more proof to allow the parents to realize that we care, rather than something which is going to be a lasting treasure for the kid!  And we do get a meal out of it as well!

A vivid memory from a few years ago is of a very young girl who we visited on Christmas Day and she got bored with opening her Christmas presents because of there were too many of them!  Something which I cannot recall from my own personal experience – and I did very well from my parents and relatives! 

Different times, different customs!