Shopping, eating & the cinema

As mentioned in my previous Mayte (my wife) is currently 3 months pregnant. As her stomach is increasing in size by the day, we needed to buy some clothes. Thus on Saturday we jumped in the car and headed to the new shopping centre (centro de comercial) called Plenilunio.

All I can say is that we have probably found a new shopping centre of choice. It bloody big with a wide range of shops (including a new on me called Saturn which is full of everything electrical, cheap DVD's , CD's and computers so I was happy).

An interesting part of the whole experience was getting into the car park. Now, we left at about 5pm in the after which here in Madrid is considered early as most people eat their lunch between 2pm - 4pm, but the queue to get into the car park was unbelievable. This may have been due to the fact that some reason a perfectly good entrance / exit was closed, and men waving their arms directed everyone 3/4 of the way around the centre, to a roundabout, looping around to back where we started! Oh well.

Any way Mayte is starting to buy some pre-mama clothes, which basically means that it is made of lycra with a big elastic band for a waist band. I have to admit it looks like a good design and something useful for when the beer belly develops in the future.

When in the centre we caught a movie in the cinema. Apart from the screaming kids kicking the back of my chair ( I will have to get used to this as I will soon be an owner) the cinema was pretty good. The seats were big and comfortable and the sound was pretty good (not THX though). The film we were watching was one that I have been waiting to see for a long time, X-Men the final stand (aka X-men 3). It was OK, but lacked something... I think this may have been down to loosing Bryan Singer the director of the previous 2 (very good) films.

Anyway, after the film we got something to eat in the rather exotic restaurant of... VIPs! If you are in Madrid, you know that VIPs are all over place, and is a place that has a set menu of pretty much fast food. To be honest, there is a good selection, and it is always better than McDonald's / BurgerKing.

This pretty much ended the day, as we escaped at about 10pm... to the obvious queue to get out of the car park, DOH!

The big news...

After 3 months of waiting to tell the world it is time to announce the big news in both my and Mayte's (my wife) life. We are expecting our first child!

To say that I am thrilled is an understatement and I just can not wait. At the moment we do not know the sex, but as long as it comes healthy it is all that I care about. And yes, Mayte and I have already argued about names. The current estimated time of birth is the 6th December, so we will be looking at a winter baby.

What was truly amazing was the 3 month ultra sound check that we had last Friday... and I have to admit I was truly moved. To hear the heart and see in detail the baby was amazing! For Mum & dad, as you can not be here to see this, I thought that you might want to see the first picture of your new grandson / daughter :-)

Film Review: The Da Vinci Code

The wife's company paid for use to see the Da Vinci code on Wednesday, so here is my quick critique...

The film in itself is pretty similar to the book, but just seems to lack something. Tom Hanks, in my opinion is not a good choice for the lead as he seems to be... well... dull. On reading the book originally I was expecting some Harrison Ford type character from the Indiana Jones type era, but even I understand he is too old now. The wife mentioned that Russell Crowe may have been better and I tend to agree.

Any way, back to the film... all I can say is that the book seemed better. I think this is because you compose the story in your mind, which allows for greater suspense. I also thought that the direction was a bit messy in the action sequences (fast moving camera cutting in and out of scenes which stopped you from seeing what was going on).

The ending also seemed a little different from the book, and I believe it was a little drawn out... and also missing the important revelation that Sophie's brother was still alive.

In all the film was ok, but I did attempt to check my watch out a few times (not a great sign). I would probably give the film 5.5 / 10.

A new hope.....

No, not a reference to Star Wars.

A couple of days ago I mentioned the eurovision song contest and a rather interesting (if not bloody scary) horror band from Finland called Lordi. Yes you guessed it, they won the whole contest!

I would like to say that my faith in the contest has been restored, but in honesty I think this is more of a protest vote type of thing against the normal cheesy crappy songs that normally win. Also, these guys put on a show and it was certainly more interesting that watching a Russian guy jumping off a piano.

Let hope this paves the way for decent acts to get in on the contest over the next couple of years.

World Cup wallchart

For all the football freaks out there, the bbc has produced a fantastic world cup wallchart available at http://news.bbc.co.uk/sol/shared/spl/hi/football/06/worldcup/pdf/wallchart.pdf

You can now plot England's way to the final (yer right!).

What have they been eating in Finland!

While flicking through the channels on the tv last night I happened to stumble across the eurovision song contest semi finals. From previous experience I have learnt that all the eurovision songs are crap! Not only that, but generally the whole event is a cheese fest!

Last night was no exception, but one act caught my eye. It was Lordi from Finland. As you can see from above, they are good looking lads and I was wondering what they have been eating to have such fantastic skin.

In honesty, these guys put on a show. After 4 hours or so of makeup, having fireworks strapped to the guitars and drums while playing certainly caused a stir. The fact that these guys are through to the final on Saturday may mean that I will sit through the rest of the contest..... but then again, I am sure there is something better else to do.

Well done Barca!

I am an Englishman. I also live in Madrid, thus many people would expect that I would have wanted to see Arsenal win the European Champions League. You are wrong, as I am a Spurs fan, which means that I am glad to see Barcelona win 2-1.

It is only a shame that the mighty Spurs are not in the champions next year, but I am pretty content with the UEFA cup.

1st Blog.... Introduction

Well.... this is my first blog, and I think I should start with a quick introduction.

I am 30 years old, English and live in Spain with my wife. Just over 4 years ago I moved to Madrid from the UK as my company (a big IT company) decided to start up a new euro-centric department. In this time I have managed to find a wife, buy a house & car, see the old department disappear and fill various other roles in the company.

I am really into gadgets (in fact anything with flashy lights), football, films and music (even though I have lost my way a little since living in Spain). Hopefully I will be able to comment on all of these things and more.....