Back to the frenzy that is Barcelona in its normal state. I wake to the roar of engines and machines in our patio de manzana and go to the balcony to check. Oh great! They’ve come to clean off the obscene graffiti that appeared over the holidays in the playground below.
Later, mid morning, I [...]

Problems with the neighbours – with the comunidad de propietarios, or in more colloquial terms, the escalera de vecinos. The owners’ association or ‘staircase of neighbours’ never fails to elicit groans and horror stories from everyone who has ever lived in a block of flats in Spain here (and not only in Spain).
The escalera de [...]

Buenos días, Feliz Año, Bon Any, and welcome to the In The Garlic blog.
Apart from washing my face and drinking coffee this morning (oh, and eating a stale madalena), kicking off this blog is my very first action of 2008.
A madalena is a typically Spanish lemon-tanged cup cake or what in my Manchester childhood [...]