Australia

Here we are in Australia. It all started with me finishing work still at the airport before leaving, but then I got business class seats. GREAT. I picked up Tanje and Noel from Bangkok 3 weeks ago. We had a bit of time and we went downtown. Big mistake because it was jammed. Back to the airport and we arrived to Sydney 6am. The arrival was shocking. Australian authorities are the most assertive I have seen. Dogs, regular checks, and paranoia about anyone trying to smuggle anything, QUARANTINE was the word all around. Sydney is super beautiful specially the water front and the opera, which is officially my favorite building in the world. We spent a few days mostly in the business district and around the seaside. We went to see whales, fantastic. It is awesome that they were just a about 4km from the harbor, and the ocean opens as soon as you cross the cliffs narrow.

Then we went to Cairns and spent a few days exploring Kuranda, Palm Cove and Port Douglas. The beaches from Palm Cove to Port Douglas are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. We saw the mangrove, the rainforest and the fauna, wallabies, cangaroos, koalas, cocodriles. The best was the trip to the coral reef. Where we spent the whole day. This was by far the best underwater experience I ever had. There was more diversity and colors that in the caribean or in Thailand. I saw a shark, Barremundi, hundreds of amazing corals and fishes.

Now we are in Melbourne, visiting Karoliina, Tanjes sister, and his boyfriend, Phillip. We went to see top of the highest residential building in the Southern hemisphere. And yesterday we went to Phillip island to see seals and penguins.

This weekend we go to the Great Ocean road and next week leaving to Honk Kong.

Tia Pilarin y Tio Manolo

Reunion in Alcaniz

Noel & Pablo

Family meeting Spring 2008

Spanish Flag day

Noel witnessed the Spanish Flag day in Saragossa

Noel presencio la jura de la bandera en Zaragoza

Captain Hook

Noel dressed like captain hook for the anniversary of the kindergarden.

Noel se vistio de Capitan garfio para el aniversario de su guarderia.

Trecking day in Nuuksio in Spring 08

My 36th birthday

Noel's new bike

Noel's first time skiing

It happened in Söll. And he loved it.

Fue en Söll y le encanto.

Noel and Emmi boarding to Austria

Neol y Emmi listos para subir al avion que nos llevaria a Austria para esquiar.

Noel and Tanje sledging

Noel first time sledging

La primera vez que Noel baja en trineo solo.

Noel cross country skiing

This has been the warmest winter in the history of Finland. But every chance there was a snowfall we went out with Noel. This time we tried for the first time cross country skiing in Paloheina.

Este ha sido el inviernos mas caliente de toda la historia de Finlandia. Asi que cada vez que nevaba cogiamos a Noel y saliamos fuera. Esta es la primera vez que Noel probaba esqui de fondo.

Behind the scenes

And this is how we made it happen. Xavier as master mind and me and Sebastien as his assistants.

Barcelona the grand finale

And we invited the singing girl, Iida to come next day to our booth to sing for Valentine's day. This last one, nobody took me seriously. But we did it and it was awesome. Xavier could not react when the girl came and starting singing. Christian could not believe it and then asked the girl for a song with no more reference than "Sting" and "Sun". He almost felt down when the girl guessed at first the song. Christian said "That is the best search engine ever". And the time froze at MWC for a few minutes.

and part 3

And then we started to talk to the barman, who just happened to be a former cook himself and had work at el Bulli with Ferran Adria. He told us about his plans of opening a innovative cocktail place using some of el Bulli techniques. Then David the cook and the barman engaged in an improvised exercise of prototyping vodka caviar and amazing caipirinhas. The barman closed only for us the place. Sebastien passed out.

And part 2

I opened the door and there was nothing but a barman, a few candles and an amazing voice coming from the end of the bar. There there were two girls, one of them was the assistant of the Finnish pavillion where we had the booth. The other was singing to her. We got in and We invited them for a few drinks in exchange for a few songs.

The barcelona story, part 1

It was Wednesday night we went for a dinner to Cerveceria catalan, where we ate for about 5 hours non stop. Chris loved the seafood. We bumped into some friends from Finland who stayed for a few drinks, Brian came stright from the airport. A couple of Swedes from Accenture gave us a bottle of wine on return for a a hint on the hottest club in town. It was 2am and we head south via the oldtown to find the take the last drink, but everything was closed. And then in the middle of the narrow streets of the old city we found a door with lights.