day 4

If there' s one thing I'll miss from london it' s certainly its queues. When in the UK you just don' t realize the effort people put into queuing. When leaving London last Sunday, I queued to hand my phone back to the Carphone Warehouse, I queued to buy my Sunday papers, to check in, to go through the security checks, then the passport check and again to buy a sandwich and to board the plane. In all this not once somebody has tried to jump the queue... something you'll never see South of the channel ;o)

Anyway my objective with this blog is also to let you know how it goesovere here. Well, I'm trying to visit as many flats as possible which means having to deal with the worst professional categoryry ever: estate agents! I just can't stand them -at all! Teresa and I have moved yesterday into a flat which we rented for 2 months hoping it'll take us less than that to find a flat to buy. Up to now it hasn't been very successful, but again I've only been visiting for 4 days... That's about it really, I'd rather not tell you about how bad estate agents are, because you all know it. As andrea put it in his comment: "who am I kidding?" I'm just enjoying being here, having a bit of time to get to know the town before starting the new job and have an excuse to go around looking at buildings. That's about it really for now. Of course we try and make the most out of it with teresa and I'm slowly getting used to have lunch after 3pm...

day 3 - a bit of wireless

I´d like to start with a big up to the free wi-fi posse! Now that I´m homeless and connection less I can only thank the people who allow guest users on their wifi networks. I checked and hotels charge up to 18€ for 30 minutes of connection! I therefore decided to go for cheap internet cafe (0.6€ for the same connection time) and it saves me from carrying my laptop -which is a good thing when it´s 30 degrees outside...
Looking for information about wi-fi in barcelona I think I found out (I say I think because the article is in catalan and I´m still not sure I really understand it ;o) that the local authorities did set-up free wi-fi hotspots but were stopped by what seems to be the authority for telcos because of unloyal competition with commercial ISPs. Sad, isn´t it? Private corporations telling the local governments what to do... If you want to see how good you are in catalan, just click here http://www.lamalla.net/canal/digitalia/bitsel_lania/article.asp?id=173446

Anyway, the district of Gracia is now trying bluetooth, not to provide internet access (they´ve learnt the lesson) but to push practical and admin information out to the people. Good, but when you know what can be done with a non for profit approach, brilliant people and a bit of technology check out www.comwifinet.com