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’s about time that I start writing about the wines of Valencia - no more waiting for the right moment to start. It’s a huge topic and I’ve been putting it off just because it’s a daunting task. But the putting-off is over. Little by little I’ll learn to expertly navigate the viticultural landscape of this beautiful region and, of course, share all that I learn on-line.

Oscar, the nearly-three-year-old gourmand, has taken to the idea of going to the market - in this case one of Europe’s largest, the Mercado Central - on the way home from school.  Today he was particularly insistent that we go buy some strawberries and some fish.  What could we do but oblige?
Of course, Oscar isn’t very specific about his definition of fish, so he was perfectly happy when we bought some langostinos - prawns.  Well, I say that like it’s a simple matter of translating the word but, like most …

My first breath of Spanish air, I breathed in Barajas airport in Madrid.  I was surprised to find that air carrying the smoke of countless cigarettes.  For a young, sheltered Canadian it was unheard of that people should be smoking inside a public building.  The guards with machine guns were also smoking, which was a real oddity to say the least.
Since that day in 1997 things have changed somewhat, but not as much as I would have thought.
On January 1st, 2006, new laws came into effect that restricted the smoking …

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 …