Recalled to work

As may have been clear, I was in Spain for the last few days, with Joe, Sam and Jess. No bones about it, it was wicked. The flat was beautiful and provisioned with everything you could want from a kitchen, albeit with one of those silly hobs with the hard-to-press non-buttons. And the shampoo was awesome. And did I mention the food? We didn't have a single meal in a restaurant, and you'll hopefully have seen the recipe from my first evening. If all accords to the plan, there will be a set of recipes from these few days made for those who leant us the flat, so I'll see if I can get a copy up here : )

And the music, the dancing, the Alhambra ... sorry for no pictures - my camera was stolen, and the one with all the photos has left its downloady cable in the UK... it's a shame, as i don't really know where to begin with words. Except to say that it was good to be punning again. I have missed it, no lie.

The Alhambra was pretty awesome, - ah, we meant to find out how long it took to carve all the marble walls and wooden ceilings so perfectly. I can see how the hypnotic patterning of Islamic art invokes the infinity of al-Lah, and it is truly stunning. It didn't give a deep spiritual moment a la Ayah Sophia, but then it's a fortress, not a churcheymosquey museum. It did however give gorgeous views over the city of Granada, and further, to the Sierra Nevada. That is a place to hike. Hehe - at work today we were discussing what could go in a future issue of an internal newsletter. Someone suggested good places to hike in Eastern Europe and the CIS. A great idea, I thought. Yes, I know what you're thinking - aren't we supposed to be helping people not be poor/discriminated against/undemocratically governed? Yes, we are. But it seems we are also staffed by people, and like all big corporations have to keep them happy.


Which gently reminds me that I am back in the thick of user-friendlying the website, searching out stories (such as this, comments welcome. You know a country is in dire straits when the UN Resident Representative can give an unscheduled 45 minute interview).

It is acceptable for me and my colleague to confuse the two Spanish verbs to know; it is not acceptable for Microsoft Word to insist that 'people' is a singular noun.

But seriously, I'll be posting some introductory thoughts on development work and the role of the UN and of me, when I get round to transcribing them. For now, this mouthful of blah will do.