THE BEANS, FADOS & BRITISH LEGENDS IN LISBON

I must ride with my Beans to defend what was, 

and the dream of what could be.

Excalibur, Thomas Malory

The Beans, King Arthur & The Round Table Knights

Today, The Beans have enjoyed another wonderful day together. It's very difficult for The Grandma to write a post today because although she knows that it's the end of a season, it's also the beginning of another one full of hope, effort and common help in the distance.

The Grandma has tried  to share her knowledge with The Beans during some months and she's very happy with the effort and commitment demonstrated by all of them. Listening to old stories, remembering personal memories, talking about literature, history or music, she has tried to cheer them to start again in the wonderful adventure of learning. 

Download King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table

Without temporal goals and without pressure only with the idea of enjoying every moment and giving the best of everyone; without the obligation of demonstrating anything, only with the intention of having an open mind to discover new cultures, countries and stories, The Beans have demonstrated that they are ready to confront whatever they want if they have the strong idea of doing it and the most important, that they are not alone in this difficult and long way to find a success route that determinates the closer future. 

It's very important to trust in yourself to be ready to get over the difficulties but it's also very important to know and reaffirm that you are doing this travel rounded by your special family, fourteen different people with different characters, points of views and origins  but with the same objective: learning new things every day and enjoying every moment, because it's not important where they come from but where they are going to arrive. 

One day, a Bean will come, and the sword will rise... again.

Excalibur, Thomas Malory

Every member of the family has offered her/his colour to a multicultural family that has been able to work very hard every day. Every one of them is important and necessary because The Beans are a sum of all of them and they have left his/her footstep in this wonderful family that is called to do something fantastic in the closer future. Teamwork is the secret of their success, feeling important as a part of a totality and being missed when you're not with them, this family has shined a light in every colour of our hearts.
 

That's no way to say goodbye

The Grandma is sad and staying in Lisbon is a good way to try to change this sadness to joy. She loves fado and admires Mísia, one of her favourite female singers. They have a lot of things in common: both of them are adult, both of them have a life full of incredible stories, both of them have common Catalan origins and both of them like poetry and literature. The most importance difference between them is that Mísia has one of the most incredible voices around the world, and The Grandma has big ears to listen to her fados.

More information: Ancient

Some people say that The Beans don't exist and all is a legend although all the legends have a true base. These same people explain that this legend has been transmitted from generation to generation in an oral way across the Via Rubricatus towns with different versions talking about different families with different surnames: The Collins, The Addams, The Holmes, The Poppins, The Bonds or recently, The Beans.

Princess Leia and R2D2

All the versions of this legend have points in common, a reduced number of people who worked very strong to find something they thought they have lost: trust in themselves and force to continue fighting; an old woman with an undetermined age over the 90's, very rich, who loved explaining old-fashioned stories and was a fan of the Middle-Age, -especially Ramon Llull and King Arthur novels- and contemporany fiction like Star Wars films and The X Files Series; and who tries to follow their teachings. 

From Ramon Llull, she learnt to think and question things without believing in official versions; from King Arthur, the value of the Round Table: honour, courage, loyalty, teamwork and enough imagination to create their own universe to protect themselves from the enemy; from Star Wars, she learnt to fight against the dark forces; and from The X Files to not give up searching the truth.

This is not the end, this is the beginning of a new season because the best is always ready to arrive.

Ask ev'ry person if he's heard the story;

And tell it strong and clear if he has not:
That once there was a fleeting wisp of glory
Called The Beans Family.
The Beans! The Beans!

Camelot, Alan Jay Lerne

Fado is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best. But even that information was frequently modified within the generational transmission process that made it reach us today.

Although the origins are difficult to trace, today fado is commonly regarded as simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain traditional structure. In popular belief, fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor, and infused with a sentiment of resignation, fatefulness and melancholia. This is loosely captured by the Portuguese word saudade, or longing, symbolizing a feeling of loss, a permanent, irreparable loss and its consequent lifelong damage. 

More information: Mísia Official Website

This connection to the music of a historic Portuguese urban and maritime proletariat: sailors, dock workers, port traders and other working-class people in general, can also be found in Brazilian modinha and Indonesian kroncong, although all these music genres subsequently developed their own independent traditions.

On 27 November 2011, fado was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. It is one of two Portuguese music traditions part of the lists, the other being Cante Alentejano.

More information: UNESCO

Try not to become a man of success, 

but rather try to become a man of value. 

Albert Einstein

THE GRANDMA RETURNS FROM ANDORRA LA VELLA

The Grandma has returned to meet a new family

The Grandma has returned. After some months of living alone after saying goodbye to The Bonds and since September, 20 when she suffered an incredible attack and left to publish on her blog. 

She is on fire again and she's ready to start a new journey with a new family.

She's going to leave Andorra la Vella today, her hometown where she has been skiing and visiting her old neighbours and friends.

Tomorrow, December 18, The Grandma is going to join with a new family: The Beans. She doesn't know a lot of things about them, in the same way that they don't know anything about her but MJ and M have been preparing the possibility of starting a new journey together, a journey plenty of adventures, good feelings and unforgettable moments.

She's very happy to start a new life with a new family because she has great memories about her past ones: The Collins, The Addams, The Holmes, The Poppins and The Bonds. She hopes her new family accepts her as a new member and they can travel around the world, discover new cultures and learning a lot of English.

Welcome to The Grandma's Logbook again! We follow...

Europe started out with six countries; 

three small countries and three large countries. 

Jean-Pierre Raffarin

THE LEGEND OF THE GHOST OF A GRANDMA IN SANT BOI

The ghost of The Grandma in Sant Boi

There's a legend, an ancient legend that people from Sant Boi tell from grandparents to grandsons. It's a story about a ghost of a mysterious woman who appears  in a roundabout, near the entrance to the city.

The legend says she's the spirit of a Grandma who had survived the most incredible events of the 20th century, even she had survived to die burnt but one day, meanwhile she was driving by car, she decided to jump out through the window and stay in Sant Boi forever and ever.

Nobody never knew why she did it but the legend says it was very difficult to her to live separated from their families: The Collins, The Addams, The Holmes, The Poppins and The Bonds and she decided to join her spirit to them for the rest of her days.

Legends are material to be moulded, and not facts to be recorded. 

Hervey Allen

THE BONDS: THE FAMILY WHO CAME IN FROM SANT BOI

Selfie near the Church of Sant Baldiri in Sant Boi

Today, The Grandma finishes her current posts in this logbook. From now, she's going to write about her new family: The Bonds. 

Tomorrow, The Grandma is going to be in Sant Boi where she's going to meet her new family: sixteen new members.

From tomorrow, December 27 until March 7, The Grandma will share her new family affairs here and she will explain their adventures everyday. 

Welcome to this new family. Lots of luck and tons of effort to offer in this new project. Welcome to The Bonds and thousands of memories about The Collins, The Addams, The Holmes and The Poppins. You're an eternal part of The Grandma's story.

More information: The Official James Bond 007 Website

Come on Bonds, the History is waiting for us!

 I don't regard James Bond precisely as a hero, but at least he does get on and do his duty, in an extremely corny way. 

Ian Fleming

LURDES HOLMES IN THE CATHEDRAL OF SEA: ACTION!

Lurdes Holmes in Santa Maria del Mar, Barcelona

Today, The Holmes have received news from Lurdes. 

She's working in a new project in Barcelona. She's a main character in a historic film, a beautiful story about the citizens of Barcelona during the XIV century and how they built one of the most incredible buildings of the city.

The Grandma, who is still in Belgrade, has received the news with emotion and happiness. She's very proud of Lurdes and very happy for her. In her youth, The Grandma worked as a tourist guide and she remembers clearly how people enjoyed when they discovered the secrets of the cathedral of sea: Santa Maria del Mar.

More information: Promotors de capelles i retaules a Barcelona (s. XIV)

It's a great honour for The Grandma sharing this information of one of the most important free guides nowadays, our Wiki:

Santa Maria del Mar (Saint Mary of the Sea) is an imposing church in the Ribera district of Barcelona, built between 1329 and 1383 at the height of Catalonia's maritime and mercantile preeminence. It is an outstanding example of Catalan Gothic, with a purity and unity of style that is very unusual in large medieval buildings.

Santa Maria del Mar, Barcelona

The first mention of a church of Santa Maria by the sea dates from 998. The construction of the present building was promoted by the canon Bernat Llull, who was appointed Archdean of Santa Maria in 1324. Construction work started on 25 March 1329, when the foundation stone was laid by king Alfons III of Catalonia, as commemorated by a tablet in Latin and Catalan on the façade that faces the Fossar de les Moreres.

The architects in charge were Berenguer de Montagut, designer of the building, and Ramon Despuig, and during the construction all the guilds of the Ribera quarter were involved. The walls, the side chapels and the façades were finished by 1350. In 1379 there was a fire that damaged important parts of the works. 

Finally, on 3 November 1383 the last stone was laid and on 15 August 1384 the church was consecrated. In 1428 an earthquake caused several casualties and destroyed the rose window in the west end. The new window, in the Flamboyant style, was finished by 1459  and one year later the glass was added. The images and the Baroque altar were destroyed in a fire in 1936. The chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, adjacent to the apse, was added in the 19th century.

More information: Santa Maria del Mar

From the outside, Santa Maria gives an impression of massive severity that belies the interior. It is hemmed in by the narrow streets of the Ribera, making it difficult to obtain an overall impression, except from the Fossar de les Moreres and the Plaça de Santa Maria, both of them former burial grounds. The latter is dominated by the west end of the church with its rose window. Images of Saint Peter and Saint Paul occupy niches on either side of the west door, and the tympanum shows the Saviour flanked by Our Lady and Saint John.

Details of iron workers on the main door

The north-west tower was completed in 1496, but its companion was not finished until 1902.

In contrast with the exterior, the interior gives an impression of light and spaciousness. It is of the basilica type, with its three aisles forming a single space with no transepts and no architectural boundary between nave and presbytery. The simple ribbed vault is supported on slender octagonal columns, and abundant daylight streams in through the tall clerestorey windows.

More information: Santa Maria del Mar, Museu d'Història de la Ciutat

The interior is almost devoid of imagery of the sort to be found in Barcelona's other large Gothic churches, the cathedral and Santa Maria del Pi, after the fire which occurred in 1936 during anticlerical disturbances. Amongst the most notable of the works destroyed at that time was the Baroque retable by Deodat Casanoves and Salvador Gurri.

According to the art historian Josep Bracons, the basic unit of measurement used in Santa Maria del Mar was the mediaeval foot of 33 centimetres. Measured in this way, the side chapels are 10 feet deep, the width of the side aisles is double this, while the central aisle is four times as wide, that is, 40 feet. The total width of the church is thus 100 mediaeval feet, which is also equal to the maximum height of the building.

I don't know if it will be the best temple in the world. 

I assure you that it will be unique. 

The Cathedral of Sea

JUNE, 15: THE HOLMES DAY

Today, The Grandma has received some fantastic news from Cambridge. 

While The Poppins were still visiting Washington DC in their American trip, The Grandma came back to Barcelona last Saturday to stay in the last concert of Amaral in the Catalan capital. Although, The Grandma is a great fan of this group, the real reason of her return was being in the city to wait news about the Holmes' Cambridge exam.

The day has arrived and The Holmes and The Grandma are excited after the fantastic results and marks of this unforgettable family. For one hand, all members of the family have reached a Cambridge Certificate and for other hand, Manoli and Núria Holmes have reached another Catalan Certificate.

The Holmes are plenty of happiness and they want to share it with the rest of the families, especially with The Poppins, the next family who is going to certificate in Cambridge next month.

Finally, The Holmes are celebrating Rosa's wedding anniversary in a private party in this moment.

Congratulations Holmes! You're fantastic, unforgettable and eternal!

More information: Cambridge University (PET)

It is an old maxim of mine that
when you have excluded the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable,
must be the truth.

Sherlock Holmes, The Beryl Coronet

A LETTER TO AN OLD FRIEND (I)

Bruce Springsteen

Dear Bruce,

We’re here together again. It has been a long time since you arrived here in 1982 and I saw you by first time. These memories in an old indoor stadium next to the magic mountain which would be Olympic years later are unforgettable. You’ve been always with me. You’ve been my best partner when I was alone in a road, in a new city, in a new adventure. You can’t imagine how I have changed listening to you.

People say that music is universal and I agree but, in your case, you’ve joined the best sound of an incredible band with the most beautiful and strong lyrics. I can’t pay attention to a song if I don’t understand its lyrics and I don’t love a song if these lyrics don’t say anything to me that make me think.

You’re my conscious even in the best moments. You’re this voice that keeps me alive, with my feet on the ground looking around and pressing my teeth strongly when the world becomes more and more difficult to understand it and when staying in it is a question of surviving and fighting every day.

I would like that, tonight; you dedicate some songs to my families. They’re good people who are trying to improve their English knowledge and although you’re not the best for listening (dear, you close your mouth too much when you sing), you’re the best poet and the best ambassador of dignity and hope.

Today, I’ve spent some hours with The Holmes. They had an important appointment and they’ve done a great job, because the most difficult is having courage enough to do things, even when you know that you’re against the wind. It has been an enormous pleasure staying with them again. How many memories!  When I was with them, I remembered The Collins and The Addams two incredible families who shared the same experience.

Nowadays, I continue my travel with The Poppins. They’re another good and hard-worker family with a great sense of humour and they’re incredible artists. Tonight, they’re in Stockholm. They’re going to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest. They have more possibilities but, like with the other families, they must believe in them. They must be strong and persistent and they must trust on their future. We can’t know what is going to happen tomorrow but we can fight the future. We must do it.

Well, in a few hours we’re standing together again. Only one more petition: please, play Bobby Jean and Thunder Road for my families and me.

Kisses…

More information: The Official Bruce Springsteen Webpage

It's a town full of losers, and I'm pulling out of here to win.

Thunder Road, Bruce Springsteen

THE HOLMES: GLORY DAYS

PET Exam

The Holmes have joined in Sant Boi to close a circle. Some months ago, this family started an incredible trip which has finished today. 

Life is difficult and sometimes it can be a little complicated. This is the main reason because of it hasn’t been possible to join the whole family. Three of its members have chosen different ways and today it has been impossible for them staying there.

The family has done its last step in this first trip but not the last. In fact, this trip is the final of a season but the beginning of a future plenty of possibilities, hope and new objectives.

The Grandma, who was in Edinburgh with The Poppins, flew directly to Barcelona to stay with them in this important day. After three hours of intensive work, they finished their exam and joined again to celebrate it.

It has been a beautiful day for all of them. The Grandma was excited to see them again and discover that they were as funny and fantastic as always. They’re a fantastic treasure for The Grandma, who is very proud of her four families.

Today, it has been only the beginning. Tomorrow, must be the continuation of this hard work until they reach their objective.

Come on Holmes, you’re great and you know it!

 We just sit around talking about the old times,
she says when she feels like crying
she starts laughing thinking about.

Glory days, well they'll pass you by
Glory days, glory days.

Glory Days, Bruce Springsteen

EUROPOPPINS: LIVING A CELEBRATION

Today, The Poppins have spent a great day preparing the Eurovision Song Contest. After doing some exercises of vocabulary and thinking in the origins of Friday, 13, they have been talking about some famous people like Vlad Tepes, Jack The Ripper and Enriqueta Martí. Next, they have composed some beautiful songs which have been sung by all the members of the family.

It has been very difficult to choose a winner song but after an amazing re-count, Lulú & Jennifer Poppins have won the Poppins’ Contest. By the way, tomorrow, all members of the family are going to stay in Stockholm defending their songs with all the heart.

More information: Sovereign Order of Malta

The Grandma has decided to follow some important artists and has borrowed some lyrics of her family’s songs to create her own one. Here it is:

If you want a better place…

Ooooh! Help me!

We’re enjoying a lot!

If you're a prisoner of your plans…

Ooooh! I'll be on time.

Life is beautiful.

Well, well, are you happy?

We should loveeeeeeeee

Together, the world is better!

The family is flying tonight from Edinburgh to Stockholm while The Grandma is returning to Barcelona because she has a meeting with her other family, The Holmes, who have an important appointment tomorrow morning.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

George Washington

WELCOME TO THE POPPINS!

Magic arrives

The Grandma has returned home. She has spent some days in Panama but now she’s preparing all things to welcome a new family: The Poppins.

Tomorrow, fifteen new members of this new family will start another adventure during more than two months. The Grandma wants to remember with all her heart her other families: The Collins, The Addams and The Holmes and she hopes that this new family spends good moments and learns lots of English.

Good luck to everybody and welcome!

 But then one day I learned a word
The biggest word I ever heard
And this is how it goes, oh
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

Mary Poppins & Bert

PANAMA: FORBIDDEN TO FORGET

The Grandma enjoyed a great dinner with some members of her family last Friday. She was happy of seeing them again. The Holmes are fine and this is the most important thing for her. There were some big absences. Luisa, who is in Las Vegas playing poker; Geni, who is in a secret mission in some secret place; Manoli and Lurdes who are filming the next movie of Star Wars; Mila who had an important performance in Paris and M. Carmen, who is totally missing.

Yesterday, The Grandma had to travel to El Porvenir in Panama to pay attention to her business and now she’s in this country, hometown of Rubén Blades, one of her favourite American singers, who sings incredible songs like 20 de diciembre. She doesn’t know when she’s going to return with her family because of the importance of this kind of business but she'll try to enjoy her trip and not forget. Forbidden to forget.

Although the future is not very clear for The Grandma, she continues in her effort of helping her lovely family. Today, she offers them some listening to practice and prepare the next exam.

BBC-Talking business

Y prohibieron la conciencia, al prohibirnos el pensar.
Pobre del país que ve la justicia hecha añicos
por la voluntad del rico o por orden militar. 
Cada nación depende del corazón de su gente. 
Y a un país que no se vende, ¡nadie lo podrá comprar!

Rubén Blades

THE GATHERING. IN THE END, THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE

Highlanders, Scotland

After centuries of duelling to survive against others like him, an immortal Scottish swordsman faces his final opponent: a bloodthirsty barbarian who has chased him across time to 1985 New York City, where they fight for the Prize: the spiritual ability to know everything.

The Grandma has been visiting Scotland these last days. Homeland of Sean Connery, Robert Louis Stevenson, Arthur Conan Doyle, a special person for The Holmes, Walter Scott, Annie Lennox, Rod Stewart or Amy MacDonald, Scotland is a country where History and Tradition are mixed creating an incredible atmosphere.

She has had a meeting with Connor MacLeod, an old friend of her. After talking about the beauty of Scottish Highlands and the last studies about the existence of Nessie, they were to a bagpipe concert.

Today, The Grandma is in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. She’s enjoying Scottish hospitality and buying tonnes of Scottish herbs, her favourite drink.

Despite of this travel, The Grandma continues in her search of new material to The Holmes. In this case, again, to prepare the listening part, some audios about Express English. 

BBC–Express English

Who wants to live forever,
Who wants to live forever,
Forever is our today,
Who waits forever anyway?

 Queen