March 28th is a pretty important day in the Larcombe/Mead family calendar.  On that date in 2006, two weeks after the due date, Oscar Mead made his first appearance in the world.  You’d think that this date would be etched into our minds forever; unforgettable, totally.
Not so.  This March 28th, Oscar’s third birthday, almost came and went without the slightest fanfare or celebration.  In fact, when we finally realized what day it was, we marked the event with a chocolate bar and a ride on a coin operated horse.  Oscar didn’t …

In part one of this post, I gave some background into my national identity, or lack thereof.  I talked about the elusiveness of the moment in which it could be said that I became Canadian (having been taken to Canada from England as a child) and the decisive moment in which I later realized that Spain was home to a culture that felt like home to me.  What I didn’t do was answer my own question about why my wife and I felt compelled to relocate to Spain despite the …

Recently I wrote a post about my perception of whether or not I am an expat.  I was very happy to read the comments that followed and also keenly aware that my views on patriotism don’t sit easily with many people.  Since writing that post - and reading the comments that it inspired - my thoughts have been returning to the subject of patriotism and the concept of home time and time again and I just can’t help putting them down on paper, so to speak.  (I’ll miss the pen, …

This fascinating, somewhat beautiful image of a virus doesn’t express the enormous frustration that I feel at being laid victim to another illness here in Spain.  I thought that I was healthy and strong; I thought that my immune system was working at peak performance.
Shortly after arriving in Barcelona last year, Katie and I - and to a lesser degree, Oscar - suffered an incredibly virulent stomach illness.  Another one followed, but not as intensely.  Life went on and a few colds andflus didn’t scare us in comparison with those …

It was hard to take Katie seriously while she sported Oscar’s sunglasses, one lens raised jauntily, but, despite her comical appearance, her comment over our pre-lunch snack was undeniably astute: ‘When was the last time you ate anything outside in Canada in January?’
Warmth is something that people from temperate climates take for granted.  Fair enough, I’m sure that I take a whole host of things for granted that others find as joyous and wonderful as I do the warm, sunny days of winter here in Valencia.  I don’t think the …

The bigger the antenna, the more likely it will fall.

Hearing the wind howl throughout the night isn’t too bad, but the sudden, deafening crash that woke us up at 4 AM is something that I’m hoping not to hear again any time soon.