Sushi on a conveyor belt may sound like the coolest experience ever, but trust me, its problematic for guys like me whose appetite has no off switch. Well, the only time it turns off is when there truly is no more room remaining and it becomes too taxing to eat through the pain. Yet interestingly enough, at that point I still managed to fit two pieces of fried eggplant and a plate of broccoli.

This all you can eat sushi place nearly got the best of me last night in Barcelona. I mean at least at a buffet I have to walk around, take in the sights, you know, plan my attack.

But at the restaurant I ate in last night it wasn’t a planned strike and I was on the defensive. I felt like I was Pearl Harbour and the Japanese were coming at me from all sides. Maki Rolls, California rolls, chicken skewers, spring rolls, red tuna, crab, salmon…oh the salmon. There was literally no end in sight. The more enemy plates we knocked down the more they reloaded the belt and sent it kamikaze style towards our table. I felt bad for those tables around us because we were taking from both sides of the conveyor belt, grabbing like two homeless men at anything that looked different from the last thirteen plates we’d finished. At the end of twenty minutes we had a stack of plates emulating the Great Wall and a lower abdomen primed for 3 liters of Peptol Bismol.

I got up from my seat and literally waddled out of the restaurant like a cowboy after a 14 hour cattle herd. You think the moral of this story would be to pace yourself and eat less. Its not.

The moral of the story is to stay away from the noodles, rice bread, and large chicken ball like substances. They take up necessary room that could be used for at least another 10 minutes of gorging.

Lesson Learned.

When I first arrived in Barcelona it was +24 degrees everyday, gorgeous shining sun and not a cloud in the sky. The whole city seemed to exist in a constant state of happiness. But as November and December took shape and the evenings dipped down to the apparently ungodly temperatures of +5 and +7 degrees the Barcelona faithful began to bundle themselves up like it was the first snowfall.

People noticed me walking home from the office at +10 degrees with just a dress shirt and tie and told me that I was insane. They all had a good laugh at The Canadian, “this must be like summer for him”. Morons, I’d think to myself.

As I took notice of the climate’s affects on the locals I realized they were right and that being Canadian certainly did have something to do with my tolerance to cold. You don’t survive the January of 2004 working outside at -35 degrees and and not walk away with something. Besides frost bite and emotional scarring.

I was out taking a leisurely walk today, the sun was shining as usual, a nice fresh breeze was making its way through the streets and I was thinking how gorgeous it was for the 14th of January. No sooner did this thought cross my mind that I noticed a couple crossing the street looking like they were getting ready for snow boarding season in the Swiss Alps. Heavy jackets, scarfs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they had on heated underwear. These people were wearing clothes in +10 weather that I would wear to shovel the driveway with 2 feet of snow.

Overall, I’m very proud to be Canadian, but today was extra sweet.

Its been said that the Brain is the physical part of the body that controls the nervous system and allows the body to function, while the mind is our thoughts, our dreams, our fears, and our hopes.

In actuality this is a semantic argument that for the moment, has no absolute truth, nor will ever be an interesting conversation. Its usually reserved for the kind of people that enjoy discussing who loves their child more and the difference between loving someone and being IN love with someone. All conversations that just turn in circles.

I find this happens more than it should. People rearranging and distorting meaning and reality to fit something more palatable. My all-time favourite of these is when someone told me its “good luck” if it rains on your wedding day. I mean seriously, how is that possible?? If that was true, England would be the luckiest place on the planet to get married.

Maybe these little sayings have their times and places of usefulness but isn’t the reality of life more important? Do we really just want to walk around always hearing “It’ll all be alright” from our friends when things are bleak. I know I don’t. If you’re my friend, give me reality and a different perspective, not a fuckin’ fortune cookie. Sometimes its healthy to look around the say, ‘Wow, things are really shitty right now. And not just normal shitty, I’m talking post chicken wings and indian food shitty.”

Right away, my expectations have been managed, I’m at ground level. I know where I am. When you have people around you just saying what they think you want to hear they lift you to unrealistic levels, which is good short-term, but when tomorrow comes and things are still shitty, you fall hard back to ground level. Sometimes embracing the severity of a situation, gives you a healthy vantage point to move forward from. Gives you a clearer view of the playing field.

Allow me to explain.

Lets say you’ve been fortunate enough to be born into a happy bubble. Great genes, lucky turns at every corner and a supportive perfect family. And I suppose you could insert another semantic battle here; if your life is all gummy drops and lollipops, do you ever truly appreciate it? Or does it take some sort of unfortunate accident, some tumble for you to realize how great things really were? And on the flip side, if someone has been dragged through the mud and emotionally worn down to the nub, I imagine that even the simplest of pleasures would resonate with satisfaction. Ok ok Im busted. I like semantic arguments, and if I ever have children, I will surely love them more.

I’m not exactly sure what my muse was for this post, especially since I haven’t posted in a while, but when these fingers feel like sharing who am I to stop the rush. I suppose it might be some of the simple pleasures I have been taking joy in lately.

Anything from the beauty of a Sunday morning walk on the way to meet a friend (see picture below) or even my ritual after lunch espresso that seems to taste better each day. I think I may have learned that sometimes, its all about the view.

Everyone needs perspective.

So do me a favour. Every now and again when you’re doing something you enjoy; reading your Saturday morning paper, eating your favourite meal, or maybe even chatting with a good friend over drinks, take a break…

…A few seconds (no longer) to flash to a time in your life that just sucked, where you thought to yourself how could things have ended up HERE. Now come back. Take a breath, look around, and I’m sure a smile will paint itself across your face. Because its impossible to know where you are, exactly where you are, unless you understand how you got there.