This destruction is just disgusting.*

[bending_sickle]

You may be acquanted with one of the major tourist attractions in Barcelona. It's architectural, as most such sites are, and by Gaudi, obviously: Parc Güell. At the entrance is the instantly recognizable mosaic-lizard fountain. I still have a picture of my brother and I sitting on the lizard when we were little, back when you could still touch it without getting whistles blown at you by guards.

Yesterday Some Idiot took a crowbar to it resulting in the destruction of its mouth.



Some things should be beyond vandalism.

I just can't fathom why someone would do this. It's like taking The Little Mermaid Denmark's head (which they've done twice). How can people do this? I mean, they can't even claim political reasons. It's a tourist mecca, an innocent little fountain...

I do not get it.


After hearing that news yesterday afternoon, I went to pick the kids up and chatted with their gran a bit before being left to our own devices. The kids were having cookies in the kitchen, playing around with "guns" (a bendy-ruler and a plastic calper), when, after creaping out into the living room (there were beasties lying in hiding), one kid rushes in and closes the kitchen door.

So what?, you say.

Oh, nothing, except that the parents forgot to mention that there's no bloody doorhandle.

I was not pleased.

So there I was, locked in a kitchen with two kids of 4 and 5, with no phone and no one coming in for 2 hours. There was a momentary "holy shitcicles" moment when I confirmed that we were, indeed, trapped.

Then I got to work at the door with a knife whilst being cheery, knowing that the kids would only worry if I did. There were a few comic moments of the kids trying to help out, suggesting wire hangers and even magic. (We tried out a few magic words, waved our arms a bit, but to no effect.) Then I got a spoon and tried to twist the little runty metal bit that was keeping the door locked. Then, after a few false Giving Up moments, I jammed the spoon between the door and the wall and tried to force the doorjam thing back and into the door.

*click*

*pry*

*elated squee*

Surprisingly, we didn't all rush out of the kitchen. (The whole shebang only took 15-20 minutes.) The kids, who'd by now sat down in their itty-bitty chairs, were made to solemnly promise to never close the kitchen door again. Then they went to play with the cars while I regrouped my thoughts in the living room. Then I went over to do the whole *attentive hovering* thing as they played and I read Act 1, Scene 1-4 of Macbeth.


Add to that my dream about getting a call that mom's dead and grieving over it, then going to my brother in the TV room to complain that he ate all 3 pairs mocassin slippers only to find him munching one, and you can see how these past few days have gone.

ETA: As a side-effect of my trying to transfer files from the office computer to a CD, you can now download William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell", read by Johnny Depp. Enjoy**. (Limited to 100 downloads or 7 days.)


* Carolyn Battaglia
** I've yet to listen to it.

Comments

[evadne-noel.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, I love Gaudi, and vandalism like that cheeses me off.

Your kitchen story is hilarious.

[bending-sickle.livejournal.com]

It even had a sort of "light-hearted fun" atmosphere to it, floating over the low-pressure clouds of panic.

Re: Gaudi, I was shocked to find almost no google links regarding the news, and little news coverage here in Spain. (Though, there was a death in the royal family, which sucked in all the attention.)