My football team

While I was at school I used to play basketball. I didn’t have much option because it was the only sport you could practice at school. I ended by loving this sport and I still miss those Saturdays mornings when my friends and I went to play.
 

When we finished our studies, the school didn’t give us any option to carry on playing so we decided to start playing football. Probably, it is the sport everybody can practice and it is easier to make up a team.

I don’t really remember when I started playing but since then I haven’t stopped. We have been able to build a good team with friends from school like Marc, Albert or Joan or others that we have made during our lives like Hugo or Oriol.

 

Really, football is an excuse to keep seeing us, explaining us things and enjoying time together. We are lucky that we don’t do bad and that we win quite often –this season we have started with two victories-, but, as I wrote before, it is not about football is about our friendship.

 

I have to admit that sometimes when we play late I would prefer to stay at home, however, I miss seeing my friends and chatting with them. It has become a tradition, a nice tradition that it would be nice to keep during the next years even we know it is difficult because we get old and we are not so fit as five o ten years before.

 

My matches on Thursday and my football team are two of the things that make me happier. I think it will be very difficult for me to live without them because I really enjoy it. The minutes before the match, the match indeed and the gathering after it.

 

I honestly think not many people keep playing together after they pass the thirties and I have to say that this is one of the best decisions I have ever done. When you get older, you don’t spend so much time with your friends but you can always find a way to see them and remember that they are an important part of your life.

I enjoy weddings

This Saturday, my friends Paula and Quique are getting married. It is the first wedding so far this year (we have three more ahead of us) and I am really looking forward, because I always have A good time when I attend them. 

 

I really enjoy weddings because it is a very nice day for the couple, family and friends. Everybody is happy; there are a lot of details, love and nice stories. If you are in a wedding, you always find something to enjoy.

 

We will start our adventure this Friday. Some of us are going to the town where they are getting married before because it is quite far and we don’t want to rush. I imagine we will have our supper all together before the big day.

 

On Saturday, the wedding starts at 17.30h, but we have to be there at 17.15h. In the early hours we will have to get ready –I have to remember how to tie my tie- and have something to eat. I am sure that Paula and Quique have prepared a great wedding and that we will enjoy it.

 

All this reminds me that next month it will be my second wedding anniversary. Nearly two years have elapsed of one of the most important day in my life. Readers, I give you an advice: get married! It is worth it!

Congratulations, Eibar!

There are a few things in my life that are not subject of discussion. Everybody who knows me knows that I am an Espanyol supporter. It is one of the things that no one disputes me. I always have felt proud of it and I have always clearly shown it, even though we are not a team that wins tittles but we have other features.

However, I have to say that I like a few teams around the world. Athletic Club because my family is from Bilbao and my great grandfather was one of the presidents, Liverpool because my mom’s family is from there and last but not least, Eibar. And you will ask yourselves why I support Eibar. Here is the story.

Some of my best friends support FC Barcelona, but we all started to follow Eibar because we thought that it was worth while what they did. It was one of the smallest clubs in the Second Division but they have managed to stay in said category season after season becoming the team that more times have played in the so called silver division.

It appealed our attention that many of their matches finished drawing or winning by one goal. In Ipurua, their ground, it was very hard to win and even though the way they played wasn’t brilliant, they were able to achieve their aims.

Our interest for Eibar took us to go to Terrassa to watch a match between the two teams. Obviously, the match finished with a no goals draw. For my group of friends, Eibar is the team that put us together.

This weekend, for the first team in their history, Eibar has achieved their promotion to the first category. It is great news for this small team that has been able to fight with other clubs with more money and that have better players.

I think this great news deserve a celebration and my friends and I will have to start thinking in a trip to Ipurua to watch a match. Congratulations, Eibar!

Welcome, Mark!

After my post about My Sweet Things, today I want to share with you one of the best news, probably the best, of 2014: Mark’s birth. Mark is Jordi’s and Miriam’s son, two of my best friends. I know I was supposed to write about my running thoughts, but this news deserves a post in my blog.

Mark was expected to be born next Monday 12th of May, but it looks like he was in a hurry to meet his parents. Las night, Jordi sent me the message we were expecting during these past days. Mark really looked cute in the first photographs his parents sent us.

Jéssica and I are willing to meet our new little friend. We have shared a lot of unforgettable moments during the past nine months and we are sure that we will share more in the years to come.

I hope they enjoy every moment with their son and this experience. They deserve it! Congratulations!

My runner’s friends

I have been running for many years. When I finished school I we couldn’t play basketball anymore, I started running along the Diagonal. Of course, after so many years I have become familiar to some people that, as I do, go out running or walking early in the morning.

‘My best friend’ is this old man who worked for a bank. He is from a small village in Burgos and you can see him walking every morning in his red trousers and green jersey. He is a very nice person. Now he can’t run because he has been operated, but he walks as fast as he can. I remember that during a few months I didn’t see him and I was worried about him, but, fortunately, he is ok.

Lately, I have spoken a few times with another old man that likes to walk. He always asks me about my running shoes and he explains me that he goes to Collserola... I hope he is ok because I haven’t seen him for a while.

I have more friends: another runner that always says hello to me; a very tall man that has a very elegant way of running. I also know ‘Diagonal’, this man who goes running to his job and also participates in some races and, of course, Núria, my teacher in fifth year, that is nearly 60 and you can see her running every morning at 6.30am. There is another woman that was the volleyball trainer in my school that also goes running every morning. I even see Albert Batlle, a politician who did a lot for Espanyol.

After so many years, every morning I see the same faces. Even though they are not my real friends, they are people I miss if I don’t see them and I think what has happened to them. When you go running after so many years, you create your own universe and create some nice relationships with other persons.

My basketball team

One of the things I liked more when I was younger was playing basketball. For the few boys that we studied at Salesianas it was the only sport we could practice. I think most of us would have preferred to play football, but the school didn’t give us the option. And, after so many years, I don’t regret because basketball has been one of the best things in my life. I remember the first match we played. It was against the Jesuitas de Caspe. We lost 69-29 I think, but, as they say in Spanish, we ‘won in the offices’ because they only had five players and you need seven in the minutes. I also remember I scored the first two points of my team; a team that became really good through the years. We were in 6th year and we finished that League winning the championship. We won for about 40 points in the final. We were a terrific team. It was easy to play with my actual friends like Marc o Albert and others like David, Jordi, Miguel, Pedro, Jaume, Pepe or Héctor. I remember training and the matches and I miss it, because playing in a team is something special and you learnt a lot of things. I also remember my coach Sergio Albors, he taught us everything and he built a great team. He had bad temper and once he got annoyed after a match that we won 59-2 (they only scored two free throws points). He said we did terrible! Another day he said we were not doing anything, running... We were sweating terrible! We look each other thinking that he was mad. He always tried to get the best of us and I think he did quite well. I also remember the last two matches we played. We had new teammates like Julio, Emilio, Jordi de la Mata or Emilio. We played the final of the school league and we lost that match. We could have won, but a teammate lost the ball in the worst moment. It was our last official match. We tried to carry on, but it wasn’t possible. It was a shame that the school didn’t do an effort, because I think we could have done well and it would have been good for everybody. That team met a year later to play the last match. We all got together to remember Iván, one of our friends who died in October the 16th of 1999. One day I will write about him, but not today. It was a sad day. Basketball has been my sport.  Now I play football with my friends (Marc and Albert are still there after 26 years) and we have fun, but those days in the school, training, playing, loosing and winning where one of the best of my life. Basketball is a great sport and many times I miss not playing it, however, sometimes in your life you have to step forward. I will never forget those days; they bring me great memories and I think all of my teammates will always remember our basketball team.