Happy Fathers Day (In Spain)

Today March 19th "San Jose" is Father's Day here in Spain. This celebration is not as comercial as it is in the states. Here, gifts are not often given although everyday that is changing and Spain is copying a lot of the American holidays such as Halloween.. As if they didn't have enough holidays here..
Father's Day here is celebrated with the family gathering and a nice big lunch or dinner, what else?? We celebrated with Matt this afternoon and the kids made him lovely paintings...

So, Happy Father's Day to all those fathers out there..from all of us here in Spain.

photo google

Our 11th Wedding Anniversary

Saturday March 8th we celebrated (well, with the kids, the colds, work etc...not really celebrated) our 11th wedding anniversary. We passed the 10 year mark now we have 9 more years to go to pass the 20 year mark.. Not sure about him as he would have to comment himself but the past 11 years have flown by.

We've had good times and bad times, health and sickness, children and problems, and through it all we are still here. Although marriage is something you need to work at, I'm very happy at the moment and hope that we can continue on this journey together...

We hope to be able to celebrate it later in the year with a mini vacation.. Just the two of us.. We will see..

What documents Do you have???

Like I always ask don't laugh when you read this.. but in this case, you will not be able to help yourself!!

Lets see, how do I start.. I first need to remind everyone that my fathers friend gave us his old car as a gift. It is an older Citroen but runs great and for what we use it is perfect. Ok, now you also need to know that he gave it to us last November and the insurance ran out in December and we just haven't gotten around to getting new insurance because neither Matt nor I have a Spanish drivers license (remember this fact) so no Spanish insurance company will insure us and International insurance is very expensive so we were trying to figure out a way around it. The car also needed to have its yearly inspection, of which I wrote about our experience in an earlier post..Ok got all that so far..

Well, Matt decided to take the car to work yesterday and also decided he needed to make a phone call while driving .

I received a call from Matt yesterday afternoon letting me know he had been stopped by the police and that he had no clue what they were saying to him. The policeman got on the phone and asked me if I could tell Matt to please show him, the car registration, insurance, inspection paperwork and a drivers license. I acted dumb and said he should have all that in a case in the car....a few minutes later he gets on and tells me ok, I found the car registration now do you have the inspection paperwork? I told him about how we had failed the test and need to go back....he then asks me do you have insurance and I say...ummmm yes, no,, not sure..he tells me no problem I will check in the computer..he comes back on the phone and tells me...NO, you don't have any insurance now, could you please ask your husband to show me his drivers license...gets back on the phone and asks me..does your husband have a resident card..and I start to explain how he lives here and in the states and is an important music composer and travels a lot.....he then tells me..

Ok maam.. I stopped your husband because he was talking on the phone while driving, he has no valid drivers licence, no insurance and the car has not passed the inspection....and I say...umm..yes??? He then tells me that because he is a lover of music he is going to let him go!!!! he said he could have easily towed the car, giving us a ticket for everything and even have taken him to jail!!! He just asked that Matt drive the car to a nearby place park it and get insurance.. He said he would pass by Matt's recording studio in a couple of days to make sure we have insurance...He said I should be there so I could show my drivers license HAHAHAHAHAHA..

photo flckr by so cal metro

Starting the New Year

It is only the second day of the New Year and there already many new exciting things happening. The first very exciting thing is Matt's upcoming concert on Friday January 4th where he will be on stage with his new muse Estefania Gralla for a Christmas concert. I will report on that this weekend.

The second very exciting thing is our upcoming trip to Miami on February 4th, we will be there until February15th. Our nephew Tristan's baptism will be February 10th and I'm the proud Godmother. In this trip we will be taking the kids to Disney compliments of my papa!!! They are so excited, everyday they ask me when we are going to Miami to see Yayo and Abi.

The other very exciting thing for me is an upcoming trip to Paris January 25th to see a fashion show, it is a one day trip for work but my dream of being in Paris and to attend a fashion show combined is way too much for me.. Thanks to my bosses Fernando and Julia for this wonderful gift.

Ok, not too bad for the beginning of the year..

Andrea Bocelli Show in Lajatico Italy

I'm not sure if you all know that the main reason we went to Italy on our vacation was because Matt had been working there for a while as the Music Director for the soon (October) to be released Andrea Bocelli DVD special from PBS. We took advantage and met him there.

In our photo gallery you can see a couple of the rehearsal shots I was able to take. The show was in the Teatro del Silenzio in a town called Lajatico (the middle of nowhere). They had planned to record two shows so my mom and I were going to take turns taking care of the kids while the other saw the show but on the night my mom went they cancelled the show due to very strong winds so i told her to go the next night and that I would go to the rehearsal..so even though I didn't get to see the actual show, the rehearsal sometimes is even better. I was able to hear Bocelli sing along with one of my favorite singers Sara Brightman.

Matt did an excellent job, it was very impressive to see him directing the entire thing..My mom loved the show which you can all see in PBS soon.

Matt in his Studio

So far in this blog I don't think I have mentioned poor Matt yet. We are both so busy with things sometimes I forget he is even here. He has been working nonstop in his new studio , it is actually a recording studio called Audiogenia, where they are in the process of building him his own mini studio. It is in Alicante about 15 minutes from Playa San Juan, where we live. So he goes in to work around 10 am and doesn't come back until past midnight...

He is currently working on two projects. The first is with a young singer called Estefania, she is amazing and the second is on a show with Bocelli in the Teatro del Silenzio in Italy on July 5th. we are actually all going with him so we can see a little of Italy.

So, there you have it a quick Matt overview. I'm actually going to start a blog just for him and his music stuff, because there is a lot to share there.