corriendo como un pollo sin cabeza

So it's been an interesting few days. Let's start at the end.

I'm sat in my flat! I have a flat! Let me repeat that I have a FLAT! I know it may not seem much to all you aboded londoners but after the flat hunting process here the fact that I have a roof over my head feels like winning an oscar (I'd like to thank my spanish teacher and the Barcelona metro system and loquo.com, and especially my familly and god without whom women like me would never have had the chance to get such an important role..

It's cool. It's a little on the old falling apart dingy and characterful side, which anyone who ever visited (or for that matter lived in) my flat in london will know makes me feel right at home, but it's big, it has a roof it's supercentrico (right next to pla st jaume in the old city) and most importantly I'm legally allowed to sleep in it.

If anyone has ever flathunted using loot or gumtree or the like, you know the score. Now try that while staying in a pension you can't afford for much more than two weeks, and you're having to do all the phonecalls and emails in a language which but for the grace of a long holiday in america is totally alien to you. And ofcourse you're in a beautiful foreign city, which means you stay out late every night anyway, and then wake up early... You get the picture.

All I can say is it's been interesting! I've seen hovels and palaces, walked up more flights of stairs than I care to remember, waited in the cold for estate agents and had to play strange mind games with the other six people he booked to view at the same time. I think I've been to every stop on the Barcelona metro (which I absolutely adore, no-one ever apologises for trains being stuck under leaves and there's a beautiful countdown that gets the next train right to the millisecond) and met a lot of very nice and very odd people who I couldn't dream of living with.

By Wednesday night I was ready to collapse! I simply couldn't cope anymore. No-where was right, well except for this place which I had reservations about and was worried would go really quick. I've got to be honest, I'm still fairly sure I could do better.

What changed everything was getting a phonecall from lorena and rosa. They're these two lovely graphic designers who work in this cool office in Gracia (the Barcelona equivalent of stokey imho). I'd never actually met them, but I'd exchanged emails with there co-worker who'd tried to get me to commit to renting this office based on a few photos on the web. I had assumed it had gone (she kept telling me they had to sort something out now!) but I got this lovely phonecall saying it was still available and if I wanted to come and see it ..

I dropped everything. The thing that was worrying me the most was how hard I was finding it to work out here. The internet cafes are relatively expensive (if you factor in the insurance for stolen phones etc) and miles apart and I was beginning to wonder if with the flat hunt I'd ever manage to earn any money out here. This was perfect if the office worked out then I could relax and look for places slowly, safe in the knowledge the money would be coming in.

It worked out and I relaxed. The office is supercool (it seems super is the spanish equiv of mega for you welshies) and funky and the girls are extremely sweet and NO ROS I DON'T FANCY THEM (well maybe one of them). I rented it on the spot and chilled out loads, so much so that I realised exactly how exhausted I was making myself with the flat hunt and decided I never wanted to see another place again. I took this place and fell asleep instantly.

I woke up and went to a gig. It turned out to be a very famous band (mirror in the bathroom??) playing to a group of expats in a half full pub. It was great. I got wholly drunk and went home and fell asleep.

Today I moved (never ever ever wheel handluggage over cobblestones unless you have the co-ordination of a jazz drummer) and did my first days work and learnt the spanish for adsl router (It's router de adsl). And now I'm sat in my new flat writing this.

Oh and my flatmates semi famous (you will have heard of him if you like the weird avant-rock he plays).

Is there a lesson he. I don't know, maybe it's more important to be settled than right.

Anyway more love at you, and don't worry as soon as I make proper friends out here I won't be bombarding you all.

XX Danny