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Back to the grind! (with Paella!)
So I woke up to a beautiful morning today, the sun was shining, everything was nice. The bed was cozy and I didn't have a hangover, so what caused me to wake up so early? Ahhh, the upstairs neighbor was clomping around in her cowboy boots and blasting some 80's music. I guess since the construction workers aren't cutting tile at 8:30 (!) in the morning outside my apartment door on the weekends, she's decided it's her job to wake me up instead. It wasn't so bad, usually the construction guys are jack-hammering the old tile/marble stuff off the cement, and that is noisy as heck! Quite possibly the noisiest apartment I've ever been in. Still, it was a nice morning and my roomate, Mario, wanted to work on his bike. He's always pushing me to do something or other to his bike, and today it was maintenance day. Yippy for me! We walked over to the garage where he rents a stall and I proceeded to get some work done while he watched and asked questions and applied European logic to changing oil, removing body panels, you name it. Phew. Here I am working on a 650 Honda Dominator replacing the turnsignals in front after removing the side fairings. It's quite an ugly bike when it's naked, but then, I thought it was pretty ugly to begin with. Ahhh, the snobbery of a guy without a bike! I changed the oil and filters, fed and bled the brakes, general stuff. Actually, it felt really good to be getting some work done on a bike since I've technically not been working for a couple weeks. It's not that my hands missed it, I think it had something to do with my self-worth.
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Here's a neat thing about the garage. It's so small that even compact cars have trouble maneuvering through it and into their stalls. So they installed this cool, rotating platform in the center. People pull up, get out, spin their car around, and then park. I'd never seen anything like this before but I didn't get a chance to fool around with it on the bike. I can see it now -- coming home on the bike and losing the front or the back because of the ground spinning, haha. "I don't know what happenned, the column came out of nowhere!"
forgot to add that the center car (the red one with the vertical reflective license plate) is only 50cc's! 50! And it was jam packed full of gear! I can't wait to see something like that on the road trying to leave the stoplight.
After a couple hours in the dungeon (el garage), we went home. Mario's girlfriend, Thoci, was preparing lunch for the house and I was hungry! She's a strange girl, with a very animated style of speaking. Furthermore, this is the longest skirt I have seen her wear (and she comes over several times a week). I took this picture to show everyone the Muppet Babies stockings she was wearing.
Still, Thoci cooked a great meal. Valencia Style Paella!! This was my first authentic paella and it was fantastic. I could eat it everyday. It had mussels, clams, octopus, prawns, shrimps, lots of goodies! Two glasses of wine, two helpings of food, and I was ready for a siesta!
Boo-YAH! *We don't need no stinkin' burgers*
Though fries are quite common and popular here in Spain.
More cool roadsters from the streets. This one had a neat tank that was half chrome, but the rest of the bike was filthy! yuckO!
Side shot of the Cagiva Planet. You can totally see the monster influence except for the frame.
Well, the weekend flew by and I'm headed out to the Pyrenees later this afternoon. It's a 500 KM drive in a
tiny car that displaces .65 liters. 650cc's! It motors along pretty well, for a FIAT, and even has power windows, locks, stereo, and AC! Here's a picture of some drinks I had at a Tiki Bar in downtown. The straws were three feet long! It was alledgedly a Hawaiian themed place, but was strictly stuck in the tiki tiki days and the locals here don't know the difference.
