Hi, all:
I usually only share reviews here, and I warned you at the beginning of the summer, that I would close comments and might not be sharing as much content as usual, at least for the summer.
There were several reasons for that. First, I wanted to share some of the things I’ve been doing.
Some of you know that I volunteer at a local radio station here in Barcelona (Spain). It is called Sants 3 Ràdio (the neighbourhood where my mother lives is called Sants, although the radio station covers the district of Sants-Montjuïc, much larger with several neighbourhoods in it), and it started over 25 years ago (we’ll celebrate the 28th anniversary soon). Incredibly enough, a few kids (they were teens and were going to school together) started the project, which has grown and grown since. This local radio is very involved in everything that goes on in the district, and apart from a few paid staff (I think only 4 or 5, who work there daily, look after the sound system, and deal with all the paperwork, permits, and all), all the rest of us (about 150 people, on and off) are volunteers. We participate in many things that go on: local fairs, parades, cultural events, sports… You name it, we’ll be involved in one way or another. And we also publish a news portal, El 3, where some of the reports included in the newsprogramme are written up with photos, so that people can also “see” what is happening.
One of the big things is the local festival, la festa major (the radio broadcasts in Catalan, by the way), and during that week, live programmes are being broadcast the whole week, with visits to the streets that are decorated for the festival and reports about the events taking place. I thought I’d share links to an article about the Festa Major and also some videos the editor, Pau, put together including some of the stuff happening and what we’d been doing. I hope you enjoy it.
This is a collection of photographs of the streets of the neighbourhood of Sants (el barri de Sants) of Barcelona, where I live, showing the decorations for the annual festival (la Festa Major) in honour of their patron saint, Sant Bartholomew (Sant Bartomeu), whose day is celebrated on the 24th of August. This year the festival lasted from the 24th of August to the 1st of September.
There are also full articles (in Catalan) in El3, the newsportal, about the festival, with plenty of pics, but I think that is the one that gives a good sense of how the streets looked like. There was a full programme of activities in each street and some that were organised jointly in other spaces (children’s games, popular meals [paellas, botifarrades, hot chocolate for the kids, meals where the neighbours brought and shared their dishes…), dancing, concerts, movies, treasure hunts…)
Tweets from Pau (the editor of the radio station, whom I’ve been working with for a while now) including summary videos of the activities every day of the festival. They are fun and worth watching! (And if you’re bored or want to see more pics of what we were up, if you check his Tweet feed, there is plenty more, and, I appear in many of them. Not a pretty sight, though, but you’ve been warned!)
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
So, there you go. You have some idea about what I’ve been up to, at least some of the time.
The other big thing has to do with my mother’s health, and it will be something long-term. It is difficult to know how quickly things might evolve, but depending on how things are, I might not be able to share so much content and might close comments if I feel I might not be able to answer in a timely manner. Do not worry if you see that happening. Life is as it is.
I have one request, though. I know about Alzheimer’s disease from a medical point-of-view (I am a medical doctor and worked as a psychiatrist, including some periods working in old-age psychiatry, some time ago), but I am more interested in information from the point of view of carers. I know you are all readers and you read about a large variety of topics. I don’t mind reading personal accounts, non-fiction, fictionalised narrations… I have started reading some books (books in Spanish would work for me as well), and I have plenty of articles and reports to catch up on, but I would be grateful if you could recommend anything about Alzheimer or related to it that you have read personally and found useful, or somebody you know has recommended.
Many thanks for reading, for following, for always being there, and remember to keep reading, keep smiling, and always, take care.
Just Olga 