Josh in Spain

Raising a child is one of the best experiences a parent may have. It's never easy as there is no manual in how to do it. For us, it has always been about giving him the best any parent could give but within our means. No doubt we spoil him with things we never got when we were growing up but the values that we instill in him are the best values we were instilled by our parents.

We can never claim our way is the best but we certainly try our best. Josh has grown up to be the perfect child, at least to us. He's always curious, always wanting to know more and always willing to learn. We hope these traits will stay with him forever.In our travels, we try to give him variety. Be it adventure or cultural, we explain to him the places that we visit, its history and the ways of its people. Kids are like sponges. They absorb and absorb.

In Spain, around Barcelona, we exposed him to Gaudi, Dali and Picasso. It helps that each place of interest provide books that cater to kids his age to better understand the artists. In fact, he was able to do a Show and Tell about Gaudi with facts that we ourselves never knew before. At least his teachers enjoyed it.

As parents we are always proud of him and we hope he turns out to be a truly wonderful person. At the end of the day, we can only mould him so far but he decides his own fate, as we did. For now, we are very proud parents to a wonderful child. We pray that our next will be as wonderful. We love you, Josh!

Hiatus

It's been a while since my last posting. More due to lack of time rather than lack of activities. Since January, we've been to some amazing places. Easter was spent hunting volcanoes in Italy. The wife dragged me and Josh up Vesuvius, Vulcano, halfway up Stromboli and froze our butts off on Mount Etna. It was an amazing 2-week journey where I counted 40 different forms of transportation from leaving the house till we reached back. At one point, we were in a train that boarded a ship to go to Sicily. That was one surreal train ride. Italy was fun but tiring due to the several places that we visited in a span of 2 weeks. We were in Napoli, Lipari, Catania, Siracusa and then Palermo before heading back to Rome to catch the flight back to Bahrain. We took taxis, jeeps, trains, boats, planes, metro, anything that had a motor, we were on it.

Summer, the family went back to KL leaving me behind in the heat. That wasn't fun at all. I did get to go back for a week for work, though.

We did manage to have another trip, Spain for the Eid holidays. This time, I insisted that it was a 1-city holiday. We settled on Barcelona to have a taste of the Catalonian Country. It was more relaxing where we took in the sights and sounds, in and around the city rather than chasing trains and buses for the next hotel. It was a cultural experience this time where we learned about the works of Gaudi, Dali and of course, Picasso.

We stayed in an apartment very close to the Sagrada Familia. From what we've learnt, the building will only be completed in 2026. Sigh, we just have to come back then...

Of course we didn't just stay in the city. Catalunya is a vast country from Mountains to seaside. Montserrat is not to be missed while Girona has its own character. We enjoyed this but surprisingly the food was not as great as we anticipated, although we do love tapas. I guess we weren't too lucky in choosing restaurants.

For the rest of the year, we doubt there will be any more exotic trips for the family. What I know for sure is that, the next holiday we have, will be a BEAACCHH holiday.

Till then, Ciao and Adios!