My perfect day in Barcelona, assuming it’s a weekend, as I am lucky in that I love my job, inevitably begins with an early morning wake-up call from my apricot Shar Pei, Coco, whose mission in life is to make sure that I never sleep in. She is efficient in achieving her goal, due mainly to an irresistible combination of a very sweet, yet persuasive personality and an adorable, smushy little face.

Coco, Charlotte’s Shar Pei, with her ‘smushy little face’

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My name is Mat, I’m 39yrs old and I live in Southampton. (I moved down here from South of London 20yrs ago and have stayed ever since).

My first trip to Barcelona was for La Noche Vieja (New Year’s Eve) in 2004. It was around this time that the “no frills” airline boom really started to take off (no pun intended), and quite a number of my then work colleagues booked short breaks to Barcelona via Ryanair’s  Bournemouth to Girona service.

Tying in with this my family normally had a couple of nights somewhere in the UK or France for NYE, so given the great things my work colleagues said about Barcelona I suggested to the family we went to Barcelona… and that’s where my 10yr (ok, its 11yrs and counting) obsession with Barcelona started.

View from the Museu d’Història de Catalunya

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Tom Stade

UPDATE: Venue Change
Now at La Fira, c/ Provenca, 171

I first wrote about the Giggling Guiri back in March. I’d just been to see Howard Marks and had seen Steve Hughes previous to that. Well shortly it’s their last show of the season and if you haven’t been to one of their Barcelona comedy events then I urge you to do so.

Tom Stade is in town for their season-ending show and by all accounts he is worth seeing. And apparently the girls like him though I can’t see it myself.

“TOM STADE: nominated for Best Headliner in the Chortle Awards 2011, people in the UK have finally woken up to this pearl of Canadian comedy who has come and settled amongst them. A comic who likes to do things a little different has won over the British hearts with his brilliant and unique takes on their culture. We catch him on what was supposed to be the end of a total sellout 40 date UK tour which has now been extended into the Autumn with another 30 dates added to meet public demand. The kind of touring reserved only for the very hottest acts in comedy. Sizzling!!”

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Guiri: a term used to describe a foreigner in Spain.
Giggling Guiri: English language comedy nights in Barcelona.

The first Giggling Guiri event I went to was back in October to see the Australian comic, Steve Hughes. He was hilarious. Fucking hilarious as Steve himself might have put it. I’d never heard so much swearing in one evening. Not even from myself on a particularly bad day for Jazztel’s internet connection. Is it ok to swear so much? People will have different views. But I thought he was bloody funny. Read the rest of this article…

“Well! To think of a perfect day in Barcelona isn’t difficult at all. It would all start with one of its many sunny days in which from 7 in the morning, the sun, without asking permission, gets into your bed and invites you to start your day.

I live in the ‘high’ part of Barcelona, and it’s so called because it’s where the peak of the mountain starts. If you continue going up you reach El Tibidabo from where you get the best views of Barcelona and you can also enjoy an aperitif at Mirablau or Mirabe. Read the rest of this article…