As repeatedly mentioned in my last blog post, one of the highlights of my trip to Valencia was the second evening spent with my friend Roberto, during which we set up and messed around with with a load of lights! We installed the spectacle in the back patio of his grandparents’ house, and I was sure to take as many photos as possible to document the evening – so prepare for a very visual post!

I previously touched on the fact that Roberto has also been fascinated with lighting from a young age, and so he has also amassed an impressive collection of lights and lighting paraphernalia throughout the years. Despite this rare similarity, the two of us have a slightly different approach: I have always been intrigued by designing a lighting ‘show’, and have therefore collected a range of disco/theatre lighting; whereas Roberto is more interested by Christmas lighting and the technical side of the whole affair.

This means that, to kick off the evening’s shenanigans, a real treat laid in store for me: boxes upon boxes of lightbulbs! Some of these were very old and undoubtably very rare, and I could barely contain my excitement as I took on the job of opening the boxes, testing the bulbs, and then sorting them ready to be put to use.

As I spent my time gleefully testing lightbulbs in a corner, Roberto put the final touches to the system of cables we would use to hang up the lights, and then we set about installing a custom system the he had created. This consisted of two strings of what otherwise seemed like standard lightbulb strings (like this), but with a difference: a homemade dimmer sat in the centre of each string.

I’d love to dive into the technical details of how this works, but for this blog post I’ll just summarise that it meant that we could control every fourth light. This allowed us to use four colours of bulbs and control each colour individually along the string, something we achieved by using the same DMX system I used for my K’next Castle and Autokara projects!

Some of the lights had come all the way from the US.

Once we’d set up all the lights and connected everything together, we fried up chorizo and potato that we’d bought, throwing together a dish that we invented on the spot. This we then ate whilst waiting for the sky to fall fully dark, popping some music on and enjoying a glass of wine as the evening wore on.

Things really became interesting once we were plunged into near complete darkness, with only the moonlight illuminating part of the patio when all the lights were switched off. It was then when we could finally appreciate our afternoon’s efforts – after a slight hiccup regarding the voltage transformers needed to power the 110V US lights (in Europe we use 240V), that is.

The web of lights illuminated the remnants of our evening meal.

Anyone who knows me will, after having seen the photos so far, know that I was absolutely in my element here. To those who don’t know me so intimately: this is what I dream of doing every day for the rest of my life, however strange and niche it may be!

There’s plenty more photos, though, so I’d better crack on! You’ll notice in the photo below that we also integrated two LED spotlights into the system, which are positioned just in front of a black hole which is actually the access to the loft I explored in my previous post.

As it grew late, Roberto headed off for a shower, and so I had half an hour to mess around with the lights by myself. I sat myself behind the DMX control panel, popped on some atmospheric music, and engaged in my favourite activity in the whole world: lighting design. This consisted of mixing colours to create moods, making the lights ‘dance’ in sequence with the music, and general buffoonery such as flashing everything on and off at once. It was bliss.

I really cannot stress how beautiful it was to be sat in good company, disconnected from the outside world, and surrounded by lights. This evening, along with the rest of the tomfoolery that we engaged in during my short stay in Valencia and Caudete de las Fuentes, made for a truly blissful holiday of relaxation and contemplation.

Once again, then, I feel obliged to say a huge thanks to Roberto and his family for being so generous as to let me stay in their flat and family home. We’d talked about meeting up in Valencia to do all this for some time, but actually being there in the middle of nowhere and reconnecting with a childhood passion made for four days of chilled enjoyment beyond anything I had imagined.

That said, I hope you liked the photos, and I look forward to bringing you all my next blog post, which may just turn out to be something a little bit different to the usual programming – I’ve yet to decide. If not, I’ll be back soon for more updates on another crazy summer in my busy life!

At the end of my last blog post, I mentioned that I had a plan to head off somewhere to spend the long weekend (el puente, as the locals call it), but that my plans weren’t fully finalised. In the end, however, I did manage to organise a carshare at the last minute and headed off to the chosen destination: Valencia!

After first visiting the city alone last year, this time I was met upon arrival by my friend Roberto. He’s currently back in his native city before he returns to Madrid next month to start a new job, and so he was able to put me up in his family’s flat for a couple of nights. I say a couple of nights, however, as our plan was to split the weekend into two, spending two days in the city and two in a small village in the Valencian countryside.

The first two days which we spent in the city of Valencia can be summarised quite easily: we did next to nothing! Discounting an excursion to the pharmacy, a shop to pick up a birthday gift, and an attempt to find bus times to said small village, we spent the first 48 hours cooking, moping around, and chatting away to some of his friends who came over.

After much drama trying to find the bus times for our trip out to the village, we eventually (after power-walking through the horrifically humid midday heat) boarded the bus out to where we’d be spending the next couple of days: Caudete de las Fuentes. We’d be staying in Roberto’s grandparents’ old house, now used by the family for the occasional escape from big-city life.

Arriving at the tiny village, our primary concern was grabbing some food in order to throw together an evening meal, and so we wandered through the dainty streets and to the little village shop. It did, in a way, remind me of my home village, Worsthorne, only that Worsthorne is at least within walking distance of the next big town. Walk out of Caudete de las Fuentes, however, and you can expect to be walking for a good few hours before you come across much else!

With some food in the house – which was gorgeous, I have to say, but more on that a bit later on – we dragged out a stereo system, poured ourselves a glass of wine, and spent the evening listening to music in the back yard. It was a lovely evening, made even more relaxing as I had decided to leave my phone on airplane mode for the weekend such as not to be disturbed at all.

The sun set as we listened to a selection of jazz, acoustic, and even some Édith Piaf.

As the evening wore on, the extreme nature of Valencia’s summer climate reared its ugly head, and the sticky heat quickly turned into a biting chill. Luckily, said extremes didn’t affect the interior of the house, as its walls are solid stone and a good few feet thick! This meant that we were able to comfortably finish our drinks inside, after which we both headed off to bed.

The following day, we had two main activities lined up: exploring some abandoned houses on the outskirts of the village, and setting up a system of lights in the back yard. The latter was of great interest to me, as those who know me will know that I have harboured a deep fascination and appreciation for lights and lightbulbs my entire life.

Over the last few years, with university and then work life taking over, I haven’t really had much chance to explore said love of lighting – except through lighting up a castle my dad built and integrating lights into a university project. Imagine my joy, then, when it turned out that Roberto has also spent the majority of his life tinkering around with lighting!

I shall, however, leave the story of our lighting creations from that evening for another blog post – there’s certainly enough photos to warrant it! For now, however, let’s stick with what we got up to during the day…

In preparation for the night’s lighting spectacular, we ascended into the amazing loft space where Roberto stores all of his lighting paraphernalia. We weren’t to actually take anything out of it until the evening, but it was a staggering space to be; poking around amongst boxes and boxes of lightbulbs, electrical knickknacks, and a plethora of old tools and oddities.

This collection of crosses in the centre of the loft was somehow rather unsettling.

Once I’d taken my share of photos (there were many, many more than just the ones posted here), we returned to the house and rustled up a spot of lunch. After this, we headed out and through the winding streets towards the day’s first activity: exploring an entire neighbourhood of abandoned houses.

Roberto explained to me that the houses began to spring up in the early 2000s, with the development concieved as a luxury neighbourhood for guiris (that’s us, by the way, the English). He explained that construction began in the years leading up to the 2008 financial crisis, when pretty much any property which was built was immediately snapped up.

Unfortunately, none of these properties were ever finished, with work being abandoned as Spain suffered the brunt of the crash. We also discussed that it seemed like a strange and perhaps foolish decision to attempt to create such an extensive complex of large dwellings within such a tiny and isolated village.

As we wandered around one of the phases of the development, a particular piece of graffiti caught our eye, the one in the photo above. Although the dieresis (the two dots over the ü) may look rather germanic and suggest that the word could be German, it is indeed used in Spanish, with the word “vergüenza” meaning “shame” or “disgrace”. The connotations of such a word being slapped across the bricked-up entrance to an abandoned house designed for expats aside, me and Roberto noted how it was rather interesting to see that the author had taken the time to include the dieresis over the ü.

From here, we wandered downhill and to the second phase of the abandoned development. This was a much more expansive and complete set of dwellings, larger in size and generally much more advanced in their construction. Many were nearly complete, and we gauged that a few would have even been fully completed if they hadn’t been gutted for valuables and/or generally trashed.

By far the eeriest part of this area was to be found to the rear of the properties, where a recessed private road would have allowed access to the subterranean garages of each of the individual houses. The opening now served as one huge rubbish tip, littered with everything from abandoned mattresses to the broken ceramic remains of bathroom fittings that had evidently been thrown from the floors above.

With the heat of the day getting to us, we eventually made back for the house, where we’d an evening of hanging, wiring, and generally playing about with lights awaiting us. This had to wait, however, until after a panicked visit to the village shop: we didn’t want to be left without supplies that evening and the following day! (It may be worth noting that in rural Spain, shops and the like tend to close mid-afternoon on Saturdays and do not reopen until Monday.)

As I said earlier, I’ll leave the whole tale of our evening’s escapades with the lights for a separate blog post (don’t worry, it’ll be the my next), and once I’ve done that I’ll pop the link in here…

Seeing as we’ve skipped the Saturday evening, we pick up on Sunday morning and with the drama of how we were going to get back to Valencia on time for me to catch my carshare back to Madrid. The plan was that one of Roberto’s friends was going to give us a lift back to the city, but the times seemed increasingly tight, and I was understandably concerned about missing my 5pm car back to Madrid seeing as I was working at 8am on the Monday morning!

Through a stroke of sheer luck, however, it turned out that the driver of the carshare would be picking up another passenger from a town just down the road (15 minutes in a car, but like an hour on foot) from Caudete de las Fuentes. With a sigh of relief, I arranged to be picked up from there, and me and Roberto headed out for one last wander around the village, where the most interesting thing I found was this gorgeous handwritten sign – you’ll probably know by now that I’m a sucker for a nice bit of manual typography…

After we’d returned home, Roberto’s friend turned up, ready to drop me off at the service station which the driver of my carshare would be picking me up from. The three of us hopped in his car, waved Caudete de las Fuentes goodbye, and were launched headfirst into the second Ollie-searches-for-his-ride-back-to-Madrid drama of the day: how to get into the petrol station?

If you read the above sentence correctly, you’ll know that the difficult bit wasn’t finding the petrol station – we’d followed Google’s directions to a tee – but rather how exactly I was going to walk into the place itself. We arrived at the service station via a rural backroad, and found the whole complex was surrounded by two rather tall wire fences. No problem, we thought, we’d just have to circle the place until we found the entrance.

Well, it turns out that these motorway service stations really, really don’t want anyone gaining access who hasn’t driven in straight from the motorway itself, meaning there was no way for us to drive into the place. Great!

We had, however, managed to squeeze the car into the space between the two fences, and so there was only one barrier between me and my destination. What’s a guy to do then? Jump over the fence, of course!

The attempt you see above, although amusing, wasn’t successful in the end, and we eventually found another section of the fence where the wire had been somewhat flattened and which I could clamber over.

Once I’d successfully broken through the perimeter of the promised land of the service station, I said goodbye to Roberto and thanked his friend, Pablo for driving his car over questionable undergrowth and allowing me to clamber all over his bonnet – I owe him big time!

Bringing to an end my rather action-packed journey, I strode into the service station’s restaurant hoping that nobody had noticed me stumbling through the undergrowth along the slip road in order to get there. I sat down at the bar, ordered myself a well-deserved beer, and turned airplane mode off on my phone in order to reconnect with the world and tell everyone about my dramatic final hours in Valencia!

In conclusion – and in stark contrast to the journey back to Madrid – I did have a lovely few days disconnecting and relaxing in both Valencia and Caudete de las Fuentes, and I can only thank Roberto, his family, and of course Pablo for putting me up and driving me around during my stay. I hope to return rather soon!

Since I returned from Germany nearly one month ago, it’s been a rather busy few weeks at work! In between colleagues heading off on their holidays and projects wrapping up as clients head off for the summer, we’ve all been busily working away, and so I’ve not really had the chance to sit down and update my blog.

This busy period meant I had to leave work late for a few days, but this did bring its benefits. The garden and are around my office was a lovely place to be to watch the setting sun, I was able to hitch a lift back home with my colleague Luis, and being around after hours wound up giving me an idea…

With one of the busiest weeks wrapping up, I had the idea of inviting my friend Bogar to the office to spend a Friday evening relaxing in the pool. This would be a lovely time to catch up, and a great way to unwind and feel like I was on holiday after a taxing few days.

After wishing my colleagues a good weekend and wrapping up a few bits of work before turning off my iMac for the weekend, Bogar rocked up at my office, and we cracked open some beers and snacks that I had bought earlier in the day. I gave a quick tour of the office, including the as-yet-unused underground rooms, and then we returned to the poolside for a few hours of snacks, gossip, and splashing around.

Our little pool party was a lovely way to relax and welcome in the weekend, and after grabbing the bus back to the centre with Bogar, it was time to spend said weekend alone at home. Something I love doing to unwind is a spot of cooking, and a sudden craving for a risotto and a boxful of leftover mushrooms in my fridge meant that Saturday afternoon’s meal had been decided for me.

Watch out, there’s a wannabe gymnast on the bus.

I have to say that I was very proud of the result, especially seeing as it was my first shot at making a risotto. I’m not the world’s biggest fan of rice, and so it’s not a dish I would normally consider, but something had evidently planted the seed in my brain to trigger such a random craving!

The day after, I decided to actually leave my house, and met up with my friend Leo in the city centre for a drink. Braving Madrid’s summer heat, we had a lovely catchup sat at an outdoor terrace, after which he was kind enough to invite me to a delicious burger meal in a nearby spot. He always knows the best places to eat!

This weekend just passed has also been a rather quiet affair, with a lot of cooking, chatting with friends, and even a little trip down the lake in order to kick back a little. This relaxed schedule also sets the tone rather nicely for this working week, as I’m only working for three days before a much needed 5-day weekend!

Of course I shall be trying my utmost best to make the very most of the upcoming long weekend, but my plans are still not 100% concrete, so I shan’t share anything on here just yet. Rest assured, however, that either way I shall be back with updates on whatever it is I eventually get up to…