Aerial View of Castellón

Hola again!

I've found an aerial view of Castellón! This is sort of centred on my apartment block.

Find the biggish park in the centre-right of the screen.
There's a road at the top of the park; follow along it (not turn) to the left.
There's a big road after the first T-Junction. That's Avenida Casalduch
If you cross over that the next cross-junction you get to has a really thin road on it (it's black on this map). This thin black road is my street!
The Aparment block's in the top left hand corner! Mint eh?!

Here's the link to see it if you want!

Castellón Map

Ben xxx

Pomegrantes aplenty!

Hola All,



Just eating a pomegrante at the moment! It's alright. I like the flavour of them, but the faff you go through to get all the fruit out, and for the juice you get off them, it's not really worth it! But hey ho!! Get them free off Nieves, so I thought I might as well eat it!!

Random day at work today. Mercedes was well giggly. She was telling me how she'd once put a tiny amount of weed into a massive soup she was making and her son ate two bowls of it. He was 16 at the time, and she said it kept him quiet until he got the munchies at about 3am or sommat daft like that and then raided the fridge!

The still want me to do the 68 page translation... I've done a bit, but not as much as I'd've liked to have! I'll see how far I get. If they win the contract, I'll have shed loads of translation work to do. Mercedes was angling at getting me to do some market reasearch and marketing for FT when I go back to the UK. She said they'd obviously pay me, and I'd like the money, but it'd be too much work, and too much hassle in my last year. Hopefully I'll be going back to The Lowry.

Jonathan e-mailled me today (hi guys!) and told me that they'd employed some new people. They don half seem to be going through them like Billy-o!! It was nice to hear from him, and hopefully we'll all be going out en masse on 3rd January. We shall see what goes down!

Lorna text me too the other day and I'm gonna see about going doing sommat on New Year's Eve. Mark's pulling his face (hello dear!) but he's coming whether he wants to or not! lol

Well, must go!

See you later Blanchettes!

Ben xxxx

PS Watching Little Britain 2 on DVD @ the moment; I love Bubbles! She makes me cackle!

"Call me Bubbles dah-ling! Everybody does!"

*fingerclick* "Cham-PAGNE!!"

How big is yours?

The girls in the office have just been cackling about the length of some
porno actors cock...

They asked me, 15cm, is that too big?

What can I say?!

¡Traducción CATASTROFISMA!

Yes truly a "Translation of doom!" 68 pages, and that's just ONE document!

SAVE ME NOW!

I feel ill... AND JAMES BLOODY BLUNT'S ON AGAIN!

Frost-Trol England

Well, If Mercedes had her way, I think she'd have me doing a FT England!! She's decided that she's gonna get me to ring loads of Supermarket companies in the UK and speak to them about tenders etc. for when they buy fridges. Haven't got the foggiest idea what to do!!! I think she was angling at getting me to do marketing things for her when I get back to the UK, but I can't! I know hardly anything, which she said didn't matter as long as you have a good head on you. Which sometimes I do - as long as it's not polluted with Double Vodka Red Bull!! lol! They think I'm all serious and quiet - they simply haven't seen me drunk at 2am dancing my baps off to Kylie around a pole/Mark/Lorna & Martin/Jonathan/Random object in Cruz/Essential/Poptastic! lol

Speaking of which I browsed though the pages of Essential's gallery from this weekend. Here we have three drag queens:

1) Random! And just a little bit slutty!

2) Dramatic! (I quite like the pose of this one!! lol)


























3) Plain SCARY! Can you imagine seeing that while your drunk! She's the door drag! How those drugged up queens can even get past her without freaking out, I'll never know!!! lol

















Whose your fave drag?!

Well, that's enough randomness for now! Only 3 more weekends and I'll be back!

PS It's my birthday on 16th! Yay!! I can have a party on my own!! Well, I'm going to Barcelona with Mark, so it'll be fun!!!

Ciao for now!

I love you all, you're all fabulous!!! Cham-PAGNE for everyone!!

Ben xxxxxxxx

#All by myself...#

Hey anyone who reads this (if anyone!)

Heather is still in Barcelona, so I've been sat at home all alone again! Not so bad, I can slob out more than usual, and I've got the laptop in the front room, which I wouldn't normally do out of politeness.

Watching James Bond: Die Another Day on Antena 3. Dubbed into Spanish, but I've put on the teletext subtitles to help me. The leccy went off again today, and to be honest it's becoming totally un funny. Today, the only extra thing I had plugged in, i.e. not including the fridge, water heater etc. was the fan heater. I've not had it on tonight, but I'm feeling a bit warmer tonight. Perhaps I'm getting used to it!!

Mark tells me today that he recieved his train ticket from Alicante to Barcelona today which I sent registered. I've still not heard from the Tax Office about my P85 tax rebate, which you can get if you're moving abroad for a long amount of time. Heather's got her £400, and she applied after me!!! Grr! I've sent letters, and as usual, nothing has come back. I'll have to browse for a phone number later or sommat.

Well, enough random ramblings! I've decided that I'll go out for a bit this Saturday, if Heather wants to come or not is up to her! I fancy dancing like a tit and getting drunk!!!

Ben xxx

Sunday, Sunday

Well, this week has been absoloute madness at work. Basically, Marián went on holiday to Galicia for a week, and Frost had Joana attempting to do her job. She tried really hard, but it was really hard for her to do it, as she had to search for the prices on a HUGE Excel spreadsheet which is called gordo which literally means "fat one". And Boy is it fat!! I had to do all sorts of stuff that Joana would normally do and I didn't have a clue!! I usually do all the Mercadona orders, but I had to do the International and Other Spain orders too, which aren't that different, but I felt I had to check everything 3 times so I didn't balls up!!

I ballsed up an order for Nadzhya in Moscow though. I seem to have highlighted the wrong colour on the form that Joana gave me to do. I got the feeling she wasn't too happy!! But the order was wrong anyway, as she had been put down for 240 price display holders, and she only wanted 4!!

On Thursday, Heather mum and dad arrived, and they went out for a meal etc. Heather and her mum cried at the train station apparently! Bless! We all went to Valencia on Saturday, and eventhough I promised myself not to buy anything, I spend about €65, which isn't too bad. I got two nice tops from Zara Men and a pair of Pyjamas from El Corte Inglés, as it's gone SO cold at night!

As we've got no heating in the flat, it gets very cold. Eventhough it's inside, we have floortiles, thinly glazed windows, and none of the doors or windows have those little insulation brushes around them, so a lovely draught comes in!! So we got a hot water bottle each from a Chinese Shop (only €2 - bargain!!), and we've decided to swap the room around in the flat. So now we have the huge long unit next to the shelf unit. The telly's stayed on the long unit, and the table is now underneath the window, along with the coffee table, which I'm none too chuffed about as I used to put my legs up on it, and seeing as we don't have a couch, I now have to sit bolt upright in the chair. They aren't easy to slouch in!! We can't have the coffee table there though, as it would get in the way. FOOK!!!

Been all alone today, so I awoke at 12, with the BLOODY ANNOYING WOMAN NEXT DOOR WITH HER MÚSICA ESPAÑOLA BLARING!!!! And she were singing along, which made it shite! So, anyway, I ate random shite for dinner (lentils on toast and a crisp butty!!) and watched the Simpsons all day. I've had the fan heater on too, and all of a sudden the power cut in the flat again, so I had to trundle downstairs in my new PJs and overworn grey tartan slippers and flick the trip switch in the basement. Hopefully, it won't go again, but I've turned the fan off just incase. So I'm using my hot water bottle to keep warm.

I've been reading some blogs online that I haven't read in a while, and I like to hear what people have been getting up to! Now I'm watching Los Hombres de Paco on Antena 3, but I can't truthfully say I follow it, nor like it. Too random for my liking. But like much of Spanish telly, it last forever, about 1½ hours for each episode. I'm gonna wait for Mire Usted as it's a random political piss take. Well, I like it. Sometimes it's random, but it's better than this. One moment their being held hostage in a bank heist, and now it's someone singing a random pop song. Then it'll go to a car park meeting and then some passionate kissing scene. Totally odd!

I've had some bad news from Mark too. My little hamster, Nublita, has died! *sob!* She was so cute with her little fat body and little face. She loved to run around in her ball and run in her little yellow wheel! :-( Not a happy bunny. We only really had her 7 or 8 months and I'll miss her when I come back. I like hamsters. They're easy to look after, and they are nice to hold and will soemtimes happily sleep in you hand. So Mark will sort her out, which will involved an undignified trip to the bin. When I was little, I used to bury my hamsters when they died. Mum told me she used to find their little skeletons when she did the gardening. She's random!

Well, I'm gonna be off now. Not actually had any tea, so I'll have a snack before I go to bed. Let's hope this week goes quick!!!

It's...

...6 days until we decorate the flat for Christmas
...10 days until I go to see Carmen in Gijón
...19 days until my birthday, and seeing Mark, and going to Barcelona!
...26 days until we go home for Christmas.
...39 days until I come back to Castellón

Well, that's all folks!!!

Ben xxxxx

I'm DEAD Laaaaaaaaaazy *Cristina Aguilera Bo'Selecta Stylee*

Well, I've been dead lazy of the past few days at work and not updated my blog. Hoever, something mental will probably happen and my e-mail will send some mental e-mail as a post.

I've had a good week really! It's been nice and busy at work, and I spend a while gossiping with Gema, Carmen and Cristina the other day. Isidoro has offered me the chance of going into that office as it seems a lady called Patricia isn't coming back to work for Frost now, so I could sit where she sat which is opposite Carmen, who makes me laugh! Plus they speak more Spanish in that office. I'm going to ask Isidoro if I can move over after Christmas, but still do the same work that I do now. Which I think will be proper bo', and everyone seems friendly in that office...

We have a puente 8-11 December, so I'm going to go up to Asturias to visit my friend Carmen and meet her boyfriend Nacho. Hello Carmen! I know you're reading this!!! :-D

So yes, I'm travelling after work on from Castellón to Tarragona at 7pm, getting the connecting Trenhotel at 11pm which takes me straight to Gijón! It's cost an arm and a leg, but it'll be worth it! Plus, I said to Mark before Icame here that I wanted to visit Carmen. She used to go to Salford Uni as an ERASMUS student in our first year. She had Portuguese with us and I used to talk to her loads! 2nd year wasn't the same... it was more boring!!!

The snag is the journey is 12 hours, and coming back it's 14! I'm travelling to Gijón on the Trenhotel though, so I'll be able to sleep!! Coming back I go via Madrid and it'll be fun I'm sure. At least I don't have to cross Madrid: the train to Castellón goes from Atocha where the Talgo from Gijón arrives!

Well, I've got some good tunes spinning on my MiniDisc at the moment. I found Long Play x4 on my Hi-Fi, so now I can have MDs with 300 minutes of music! Well good! Currently, my faves are:

Gay Bar (Electric Six)
Wake Me Up When September Comes (Greenday)
Danger! High Voltage (Electric Six)
Call on Me (Eric Prydz)
Proud (Heather Small)
Tengo la Camisa Negra (Juanes) < Spanish Music!!!
Hung Up (Madonna)
Flawless (The Ones)
Smile Like you Mean it (The Killers)
Run (Snow Patrol)
Tripping (Robbie Williams)
Starlight (Supermen Lovers)
Flawless [Go to the City] (George Michael)
Crying at the Discotheque (Alcazar)
I Like the Way you Move (Bodyrockers)
DARE (Gorillaz)
This is the World we Live in (Alcazar)

They're my faves at the moment!! And Alacazar are camps as tits!!! lol

I'm going to Barcelona on my Birthday (16th Dec) with Mark, which will be really nice! Only 3 weeks off! Isidoro said I could have the day off, and he told me the dates for Christmas. I'm now home 23/12/05 to 05/01/06, so hopefully in all those days I'll be able to go out and get wrecked!!! Yay! I had to change my flight, which cost £25 more, but it's better as now I'm coming home with Heather on the same plane and train, so we'll be able to sob to each other at the fact we're leaving England behind for ages!!! I think I'll be back there for Lindsay's wedding in April, and I'll be going from Lisbon f'that one!

Well, I'm gonna skidaddle off to bed and have a sleep!

Ben xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The Power of...

Well, we've just recovered from another power cut. Only 30 seconds this
time!!! Crazy though, and rain has gotten heavy again! I half expect to see
Noah's ark going past, saving all the factory workers!

Random Town Name of the Day = VILANOVA Y LA GELTRÚ

Ben x

Disaster StrikesCastellón!

Well, been awa for the weekend, which was nice. I went back to Manchester
to see Mark and my family, as well as going to go and see Little Britain at
The Apollo in Ardwick. Little Britain was very very funny, and I loved it
to pieces! Make me titter all night!

Then we caught the bus to Swinton and had a curry in the Far Pavilion. My
god, curry there is *so* nice! It's even nicer when you've not had one in
months! I couldn't eat it all though, and some nobheads came in creating,
so we went and paid the bill and walked home.

Then on Sunday morning we went to see Nana Pauline in hospital. She seemed
ok, not as bad as I thought she would be. Her speech is slurred, and
sometimes she seemed a bit distance. She was a bit upset too when she saw
me, I guess because she hadn't seen me in months, and she may have thought
that she never would again. She was all tearful too when it came to me
having to go home. Like I said, I'll see her at Christmas. She's only 66,
so she should be ok, touch wood!

A couple of days before I went home, it had rained for ages in Castellón,
29 hours of heavy torrential rain. They closed the roads near the factory,
and we had to try and find a different way home, which was a pain in the
ass. It rained all weekend (apparently) and it's rained like mad since 7
this morning. There was some forked lightning all around us, and as the
factory is right near the mountains, we get the full force of it all. All
of a sudden, the electric went off. We had to sit in near-darkness for 15
mins. Then it came back on again, then went off for two minutes, and it's
been on ever since. The lights keep flickering though. The rain was
horrendous, it was worse than water coming from a shower! So the roads
flooded again, so we weren´t able to go home at dinner and had to get
butties from a small café nearby.

I think it's all ok now though. But we'll see if the rain holds off!

Ben xxx

Here comes the rain again

Well, it's been a busy few days. Verónica, one of the Spanish tutors at
Salford University, came to visit me and Heather. We had quite a good time:
we talked about the placements, tried to find a restaurant etc. Then
yesterday we went with Nieves and Isadoro to a restaurant for dinner, and I
had paella and sea bass (lubina), which was ok, but a bit too bony for my
liking.

The day before yesterday, at about 3pm, a cold wind started to blow. This
is all after having 25º heat for the whole of autumn so far. Then,
yesterday morning at 5am, the rain started. And it's not your usual
Manchester Drizzle Rain that you can get, it's full on heavy (and sometimes
torrential) rain. Well, you should see the state of Spain when it rains!!!
The place falls to pieces! All of the new roundabouts they built have
flooded, there's a dip in the trunk-road outside Frost-Trol that no-one
thought to put a grid/drain into. The grids that *do* exist are
overflowing, and there are rivers of water coming out of all the parks, as
no-one thought to put grids in the park either. How random! I went home
with Joana, but as the trunk road was flooded at the dip I just told you
about, the Police were directing people down the "Caminas" which are tine
little side roads, like tracks really. Try to imagine the East Lancs being
diverted down a road the width of King Street in Manchester. No fun. So we
decided to go further North and get on the other trunk road, which is
higher up, and thus has no problems.

This morning, Nieves told me that her car wouldn't start last night, and
that the factory workers had to help her jump-start the car. So she decided
to take her husband's 4x4 to work, as if we were off roading int'bloody
Amazon!!! It's only RAIN! lol makes me chuckle! No, I suspect the 4x4 will
work better in very wet weather, so it's better really! It's 9:15, and it's
easing off a bit now... we'll see what transpires!

Well, gonna go and do some work. Good old Sergio has given me a new
keyboard with a proper wrist rest on it, so now I can throw these packagine
air pods away!!

Ben xxx

Verónica T-48

Bom dia,

Thought I'd throw in some Portuguese for a change. Verónica, one of the
tutors at Salford, will be visiting Castellón on Thursday. She's visiting
Heather first at 11am and then me at 1pm.

I hope she'll be ok, and that she won't get angry at us or anything.
Apparently, she previously wasn't too happy that the previous girls lived
together. Not sure. I think I've learnt more, and that my Spanish has
improved. Let's hope Verónica thinks the same too!

We got our gas last night too. I came back and two orange bottles were
either side of the dorr! Best sight I've seen in a while! Mª Carmen
(landlady) came round with an electrician and he looked at the leccy. I
think they have found what it is so they can fix it. Then we'll be able to
have the hot water *and* the washing machine on at the same time! Wow! Well
into the 21st Century! lol. Paid our rent of €510 and we had bills of €28
between us, which isn't too bad considering we've been there two months.
That's €7 pcm - bargain!

Well, gotta go!

Random town name of the day = HOSPITALET DE LLOBREGAT

Chau,

Ben x

Knackered again!

Hello all,

I'm well knackered. Found it hard to wake up and get out of bed this
morning, but the Frost-Trol beckoneth. Ye olde dot matrix printer has once
again pissed me off with its banal attempts at printing. Today, it managed
to seperate the counterfoil paper into two sets of two sheet paper, and
then promptly printed everything through the first set of two onto the
other set of two which made it all back to front. I sorted it in the end
though.

Been doing a translation on HFC gases and an propsed EU ban today. Riveting
stuff, lol. It gives me practice though. The only thing is, it keep
repeating the same sentences over and over and over and over and over
again. "Legal uncertainty" and "different national safety laws" are
favourite sentences too. It has been written in Belgium, I'm guessing
Flemish due to the way some of the sentences are constructed. It's like
German in a way, but they don't speak German in Belgium, but the speak
Flemish, which is basically Dutch, which has similar traits to German.

Anyway, only half way through, so I'll do that tomorrow, then I've got
another one on the same theme to do.

The butane gas still hasn't turned up yet. I've had tuna and sweetcorn
salad for 4 days on the trot now, and although it's quite nice, I just want
to have some hot food! We bought loads of veg etc. that's going off 'cos we
can't cook it. If it hasn't arrived by the time I get home, I'm stomping
off to the Repsol shop to have a rant.

Random Town of the Day = ELX

Ben xxx

Hung Up

HOLA YE COMPLETE SET OF BASTARDS YE!

Well, I managed to get to Repsol in time to buy two new bottles of butane for the cooker. Joy! It ony cost €20 for both bottles! Bargain gas!

Well, I'm listening to Madonna's new choon on the radio, Hung Up. I have to say that it is a mighty fine tune. Madonna sampling ABBA's Gimme, Gimme, Gimme! - You couldn't get camper if you walked down Canal Street in a pink lycra top with flashing fair lights in your hair! I'm sooooo glad that Madge has come back into the fold since her American Life period. Although I saw what she was doing and understood what she was standing up against, you can't really dance your baps off to it in Cruz on a Thursday night! No, I'm well excited about her new album, and if her first song is anything to go by, it'll be mint!

Some other faves of mine at the moment are the random remixes I found on t'web. A Boney M. megamix, which is also as camp as Christmas Elves (look at the piccies!), and a disco version of Enola Gay, which is a weird song when you listen to the words, but also a good tune.





Well, it's still 26ºC in the daytime here in Castellón. Clear blue skies for the most part, but the days are getting shorter, and we put our clocks back Sunday just gone, so when I come home it's dark. I don't think we have winter properly in Spain!! I love winter, this heat does your head in after 2 months!!! Going to beach to top up the tan this weekend. The Spaniard think we're mad!

I went on Shaz's blog and saw the photos of the 31 Barrfield Road Crew's Halloween party! I wish I could have gone. As I told Shaz on her blog, the only time I ever got dressed up for a halloween party, I went as a paella. Stuck rick all over me and everything!! We had a housewarming once, and the theme was board games, and I went as Busy Buzzy Bumble Bees. Remember, you had to wear a headband with a magnetic bee on the end of it and pick up little balls of coloured pollen? Meh, I know I'm not crazy!

My skins's gone bad all of a sudden. I HATE IT! Am I destined to constantly have bad skin? When will mother nature let me be?! Surely puberty has ended by 21?! Perhaps it's just tiredness and stress? I'll rub some moisturiser in and see what happens!

Well, tomorrow is Friday, so it'll be party time again! NOT! We always wanna go out, but we're too nackered. I could live with it one or twice though! We found the discos, now all we need is the energy!!

Well, going to bed!

See y'all soon, and leave comments for me to chuckle at!!

Ben xxx

What's Cookin'?

Well, nothing is cooking!! Last night, 5 minutes before the end of making
tea, the bottle of gas connected to the cooker ran out! HOW RUDE!

It seems that a lot of flats here in Castellón don't use gas from the main
network, but get bottled gas. Strangely enough, there is a big gas
distribution depot next to Frost-Trol, but they're too heavy to carry,
plus, we've got two empties!! Marián helped me on the phone, as I couldn't
understand anything of what was being said to me! We're going to try later
on, as the one we go through to was an automated service. This again proves
how random Spain can be at times! You never hear of it at home. Bottled gas
for your oven? Well, the one we had was partly used, and it lasted us 2
months, so two more should last us until we leave. I hope. Bloody thing! I
knew it was running low, as the flame went a bit yellow, and I thought to
myself when I put the wrapped chicken breasts in the oven "that bottle'll
run out - just you watch!". And lo and behold it did!

Work ok today. It's better when I'm more awake. When I'm tired, it drags,
and I get dead sleepy when putting the orders into AS400.

It's Mum's birthday tomorrow, so I'm going to ring her up and sing happy
birthday to her like an eejit!

Tra!

Ben xxx

Random town name of the day = BENETÚSER

Dotty

Ye olde dot-matrix printer has started working!!! #Angels sing from on
high#

Good old Sergio! He can fix anything!!!

Mega Bank Holiday

Hola,

Hope everyone's well! Well, this weekend has been a nice relaxing one. In
Spain, they keep the same day for all their bank holidays, they don't put
them onto a Monday like we do in the UK. This week, the holiday was on
Tuesday, so what some businesses do in this case is let all the staff have
Monday off too. So, I've had four days off! It's been well nice!

Mark came and visited this weekend too. We didn't do much (there isn't much
*to* do) but we had a good time in each other's company! It's nice just
being with him for a weekend! God, it's like Trisha "HEAR ME NOW! IREY!
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE, AN' PEAAAAAAAA!!!!" So yeah, I took Mark to
Alicante Airport on Monday morning, and came back at about 3pm. I changed
my train from the Euromed to the Talgo, which is just as posh, but stops
more often, so it takes 3 hours, as opposed to 2½. However, there was an
old gypsy lady on the train with her granddaughter, and she had this mad
toy with her. Not sure if you've seen one.... It's a sort of hamster wheel,
with a plastic ball inside, which inturn has a rattle-like thing inside it.
All this is on a stick, so said child can push it along the floor making as
much noise as possible. She was also wafting it about her head, making shed
loads of noise, and the granny thought it was sweet. IT WAS *NOT* SWEET -
IT WAS EXTREMELY IRRITATING!!!! I don't mind children making some noise on
trains, afterall, they're bored as sin, and need something to entertain
themselves with, but this was taking the biscuit! I withstood it for 25
minutes, then I had to take advantage of RENFE's free earphones and at-seat
entertainment system, whose music was depressing enough, without having
just said goodbye to your boyfriend for a fortnight!!! lol. Turned the
volume up, blocked out the child, read my book, and panicked when I thought
I'd missed my stop. T'was all ok though. We were just turning around at
Cabanyal...

ANYHEW, this morning is mental as usual. I had a random e-mail in my inbox
from some random, an entertaining picture from Shaz of some big woman's
arse painted up as a Jack o'Lantern, and a "funny" from Peter. Ulí's
running about like a blue-arsed fly having to sort more stuff out. How he
doesn't have a seizure, I don't know! I don't think I could do his job...
He and Mercedes are going to Hannover in an hour anyway. I'm sure he asked
if I wanted to come, as Walter is ill, but I didn't want to say yes in case
I looked like a tit.

Also, ye olde dot-matrix printer is once again being a royal pain in the
arse (in this case Camilla P-B). I've tried to print the mountain of orders
off that I've done, but the bloody thing just won't initiate. Either it's
throwing a strop at me for some reason, or it's just plain crap. I vote for
the latter.

The Paella Valenciana went ok. I made way too much of it though, and now
it's sat in the fridge, waiting for me to eat it. It was nice though, but I
need to change some things in my method and recipe, so it is just right!
I'll stick a piccy on later.

Well, I'm gonna go battle with the printer again. I'll see if Sergio (I.T.
teccy) is in to see if he can help me with it!

Até amanhã!!!! <<< Portuguese - I'm *so* multilingual... lol...

Ben xxx