Greetings, You Pikers!

Okay, I'll Admit it -
Your Humble Scribe is not exactly clear on what a "Piker" is, except that it is some variety of minor insult <consults his Collins Concise Dictionary> - ah!  I see it is a colloquial expression from South Canada, meaning a "mean person, a shirker, one who will not face up to a challenge."

Not one of these ...

     It derives from Pike County, Missouri, and that's all there is about it.  Perhaps recourse to my "Brewers Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" is called for.
     For surely you are up to the challenge of reading YET MORE about the cultural delights of Barcelona?
     Of that, more later.
     Yesterday I spend the day in-store, at the Oldham branch of my enormous yet anonymous employer (whose identity you will no doubt guess correctly if you have more than five neurons firing in sequence).  The deal was that I'd spend time with some of the managers, seeing the outlay on the shop floor, behind the scenes in storage, following some of their processes.  This would be reported back to colleagues in the office, those unfortunate enough not to go visity.
     One of their admin functions was being able to search for stock, and see 1) If it was "In-Range" or on the shelves, and 2) If they'd ever, ever stocked it.
     You can guess Conrad's first question: "Mangosteen!  Do you stock mangosteens?"

On the scene with a mangosteen

     No, was the answer.  Not stocked now, nor ever.
     Oh well.  Second question was rather more serious: "Do you have Loose-leaf Darjeeling tea in stock?"
     Yes: yes, they did.
     FIST-PUMP FROM CONRAD!  At last, and at a reasonable price, too.  Art?

Nope, not enlarging them, as then you'd be able to read the store's name

      Those six packets were rapidly removed from the shelves, and later this afternoon I shall brew a pot of tea from them.   

     Lest you think I was idling, skiving, fiddling or diddling, let me tell you I spent a couple of hours writing up my notes.  Art?

The note what I wrote

      Done in the studious environs of Oldham Library, which is right next to the store.  Disturbed only by the intermittent and then continuous whining of the fire-alarm test, which was a bit wearing at first, until one's mind blanked it out.
     Now, time to put the motley on a gurney and push it through a car-wash naked!

 Oldham Beer Festival
By wild coincidence, and in a good way, Conrad noted the sign on Thursday morning that indicated this Festival was taking place over Friday and Saturday.  Conrad was also in Oldham on Friday (see above for those with shockingly short memories).  This is what a more posey author would call "Serendipity".  I call it a splendid opportunity.  Art?

The motley crew

     Note that most of these attendees are no longer in the first flush of youth.  Also note that here are several hundred people quietly enjoying their beers, without any unseemly raucousness or rowdiness.  Drinking beer as a social event and ensuring charity gets a share of the monies: one felt almost obliged to attend.  Art?

Oldham's longest bar for this weekend

     I tried several different varieties and my favourite was Donkeystone Greenfield's Vanilla Stout, which was remarkably nice.  After having had about 8 varieties I headed home, or I'd not be able to find the Bus Station.  Oh, and here's the glass you get:

NOT DISHWASHER SAFE!

     There is more of this occasion, as once more the Coincidence Hydra came to snack on my hindquarters, but we shall go into that later.

     Time, methinks, to go put the oven on.  Back shortly!
     Aaaah, Darjeeling, how I have missed thee!

Now For M.N.A.C.
Which stands for "National Museum of Catalan Art".  Art?

The view from the front step.  Not a bad prospect.

     Again, this was a stop Your Humble Scribe was interested in, rather than Darling Daughter, who nevertheless dutifully tramped round two-thirds of the museum.  Art?

MNAC from outside

     We traversed the "Romance and Medieval" section first, where there were lots of frescos and murals transplanted from their original home with great care and attention (we saw a video of the long, painstaking process being undertaken).  Art?

"Absis de Sant Pere de la Seu"

     A slightly blurred example.  We saw an illustrated manuscript -

Remember - all done by hand!

   This is probably and literally someone's life's work, given the embellishment and gold leaf and pictures added in.  You can imagine a clerical artisan  finishing one of these tomes after thirty years continuous work, loudly exclaiming "William Caxton?  Lightweight! - this invention of his, it'll never catch on, never," except in Catalan.*

A mythical beast?

       I don't think I noted what this one was, though to these eyes it resembles a gryphon.  "Griu de San Pedro de Alanza"? perhaps.  It's definitely not Catalan monumental stonework, because that's what this is -

     Apologies if captions are a bit unrevealing, but the translations provided were in French, Catalan and Spanish: English was a rara avis indeed, which might mean that us English-speakers are comparatively rare visitors to MNAC, or - this being winter and still the "off season", they only come out in summer.

Now to go take those pies and potatoes out of the oven!
You Could Do This In Barcelona ...
One of the hilarious activities Darling Daughter and myself got up to in Barca was pointing out things they did there that simply wouldn't fly in Gomorrah-on-the-Irwell.  That bike used as a display stand for a flower-box?  It'd be stolen or vandalised or both within a day - and so on.
     Now, you recall that mysterious boxy object that a brace of First Bus inspectors placed in the Bus Station of Babylon-Lite?

There it stood -

     By Friday said boxy mechanism had gone, which Art will now illustrate -

The now sadly solo, stolid stanchion**

     It has, of course, been stolen, because if it had fulfilled it's purpose then, why, that brace of inspectors would have been back and taken the whole thing with them.



*  Which they speak in Catalonia, surprise surprise.
**  It may not technically be a stanchion: work with me on this one.