We gave in yesterday and bought a TV. We've lived without a television for three months, but when the opportunity to buy a great TV for cheap presented itself we took it. Even though we haven't had an actual TV in the house, we/I haven't lived entirely without television shows. I've still been able to keep up with a few of my favorite shows via Casttv.com and Brodie watches some videos on PBS.org, but I definitely don't do the kind of mindless television (computer) watching that occupied WAY too much of my time prior to moving to Madrid. While cooking, folding laundry, washing dishes I'd turn on the TV just for noise to fill the quiet and make mundane chores bearable. I really don't want to go back to that kind of robotic TV watching - it crowds the brain. Our main hope is to watch Spanish TV to help reinforce our Spanish, improve our vocabulary and of course to watch DVDs that we aren't able to watch on our lemon of a MacBook Pro. Moving on....one thing I still cannot get used to are the restaurant hours here. Restaurants open at 1:00 p.m. for lunch (at the earliest) and then close again at 4:00 p.m.; they re-open at 8:00 p.m. and then close again around 11 or midnight. This generally isn't a problem unless it's a Sunday when EVERYTHING but restaurants are closed and you want to eat between 4 and 8 p.m. Well, this is exactly what happened to us yesterday. Our schedule was off because I ate some bad mussels that woke me up at 6:00 a.m. After getting sick, Kyle had to get up with the girls while I tried to sleep. Anyway, we finally made it to coffee and breakfast at around 11:00 a.m. so we didn't even think about eating again until 4:30 when we realized that all the markets and restaurants were closed. For this family of hungry hippos few things are more terrifying than the thought of not being able to eat anything for an entire four-hour window and no clear options at the house. Seriously, we were in a full panic when Kyle pulled out the peanut butter at the back of the cupboard and we made do. I'll note that the reason the peanut butter was at the back of the cupboard is because this stuff is like gold for us Americans here in Madrid and I like to hog it all to myself. We have to buy it at a shop that specializes in American foods and it costs - are you ready? - NINE DOLLARS. Luckily Brodie isn't a fan! This week I plan to stock the pantry with enough food to feed a small family of hippos. The posted picture is how I found Sabine in her crib on Friday night. Too cute.
Monday, February 1, 2010
TV and Near-starvation
We gave in yesterday and bought a TV. We've lived without a television for three months, but when the opportunity to buy a great TV for cheap presented itself we took it. Even though we haven't had an actual TV in the house, we/I haven't lived entirely without television shows. I've still been able to keep up with a few of my favorite shows via Casttv.com and Brodie watches some videos on PBS.org, but I definitely don't do the kind of mindless television (computer) watching that occupied WAY too much of my time prior to moving to Madrid. While cooking, folding laundry, washing dishes I'd turn on the TV just for noise to fill the quiet and make mundane chores bearable. I really don't want to go back to that kind of robotic TV watching - it crowds the brain. Our main hope is to watch Spanish TV to help reinforce our Spanish, improve our vocabulary and of course to watch DVDs that we aren't able to watch on our lemon of a MacBook Pro. Moving on....one thing I still cannot get used to are the restaurant hours here. Restaurants open at 1:00 p.m. for lunch (at the earliest) and then close again at 4:00 p.m.; they re-open at 8:00 p.m. and then close again around 11 or midnight. This generally isn't a problem unless it's a Sunday when EVERYTHING but restaurants are closed and you want to eat between 4 and 8 p.m. Well, this is exactly what happened to us yesterday. Our schedule was off because I ate some bad mussels that woke me up at 6:00 a.m. After getting sick, Kyle had to get up with the girls while I tried to sleep. Anyway, we finally made it to coffee and breakfast at around 11:00 a.m. so we didn't even think about eating again until 4:30 when we realized that all the markets and restaurants were closed. For this family of hungry hippos few things are more terrifying than the thought of not being able to eat anything for an entire four-hour window and no clear options at the house. Seriously, we were in a full panic when Kyle pulled out the peanut butter at the back of the cupboard and we made do. I'll note that the reason the peanut butter was at the back of the cupboard is because this stuff is like gold for us Americans here in Madrid and I like to hog it all to myself. We have to buy it at a shop that specializes in American foods and it costs - are you ready? - NINE DOLLARS. Luckily Brodie isn't a fan! This week I plan to stock the pantry with enough food to feed a small family of hippos. The posted picture is how I found Sabine in her crib on Friday night. Too cute.
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I keep trying to read your post and then have to scroll back up to look at Sabine. Oh. My. God. Much too cute. I think I would have woken her up for a squeeze.
ReplyDeleteLOVE her. She kind of looks like Stella did at that age in that photo.
ReplyDelete- L