Castelldefels--The "Land" of Sun, Sand and Sea
I spent my Saturday afternoon at Castelldefels, a neighbouring beach town near the Academy today.  Had a really good time soaking up a massive breeze, happy kids running around and great company.  It was predominantly a time of contemplation and serious thought as I spoke to Federico about training plans for the rest of the year & 2011.

Eitherway, here is the wonderful day in pictures:

The journey started with a very smooth ride on a surprisingly cool, cold bus.  What a contrast to the maddening heat.  Given my penchant for sitting in front (read: seats reserved for oldies!), I had an old granny across the aisle for company.  What caught my eye was how sports talk was on the front page.  We almost never see that in Singapore.

Totally psyched! :) Essentials in handbag: 1. Camera, 2. MP3 player, 3.Academy card and key (red tag), 4.Pink velcro wallet stuffed silly with coins.  Hence the bulge.

Passengers.  Sliver of arm included.  Sunlight streamed in and molested our skin.  It felt... lovely.

When we finally got to the beach, there was hardly a cloud in the sky.

And, to my surprise, also many women going around bra-less!!  Case in point: one on the right.  Castelldefels, I found out from Federico was a topless beach(!!!)  I felt so shy.

He, however, remained nonplussed.

And eventually persuaded me to strike a pose.

It was a lovely day, afterall.  Hard not to smile.  There were lots of interesting things to see, like topless women, hot lifeguards,...

Even Buddha did a guest appearance.  As you can see, he loves getting his lips tickled..! Hahahaha.

Sun-spent, we spent the bulk of our time under the shade.  My settings must've been wrong on my camera because this picture ended up overexposed.  Still, it was so bright, I was squinting throughout our whole conversation.  We had some serious talking to do, but given the sensitivity of the subject, Federico remained calm, focussed and easy going.  It was genuinely heartening connecting with.

Unfortunately, we spoke for so long that I started seeing yellow!  Need...to...PEE!  We headed down to a pub and the WC was one of the strangest I'd ever seen.  Here you have the toilet bowl....

Now spot the flush!

The bar where we stopped for toilet break was small and quiant.  We had "clara"--the Spanish version of shandy, and a plate of peanuts.  I had to fight him for the bill--and when he finally acceded, was surprised that it came up to only EUR5!  Time passed so fast, I realised I was late for my night-shift at the bungalows.

Thankfully, Federico's friend was picking him up, and just as I was looking out for my next bus, a big-ass, shiny Land Rover rolled up by the bus stop.  Top roof down, a grisly stubbly man leaned over from the driver's seat.  Federico introduced me to Javier, his Argentinean friend who big-heartedly offered me a lift back to S-C.

On one level, it was pretty damn cool driving back in a shiny big-ass Land Rover with two handsome, manly Latin American men.  I suddenly felt shy and very young, but they still got me laughing quickly.  Javier frowned when he saw me whip out my camera.  "You are taking pictures??"  I grinned sheepishly.  "Wait for me to smile!"  He turned his head a full 180 degrees and flashed a big grin at the camera while driving.  God I almost had a heart attack!

All in all though, it was a pretty kick-ass Saturday evening spent at the beach, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  To more for the rest of summer!