Editing Girona FM interview on 25 Feb 2025

Let's get to know you first before we talk about Girona Buddies, just so the people have an idea of who you are. So, where are you from originally? 

I'm from England. I've been living here in Girona for seven years 

Right, seven years. And what made you want to settle in Girona? 

So, I met my girlfriend in Montreal And I was volunteering as a night watchman in a hostel And she was there learning French And we got together And that was 12 years ago And she told me she was from a place called Girona. And I'd never heard of Girona.

She's actually from here? 

Yeah, that's why I'm here.

Oh, wow, okay, okay And so, have you got family? 

So, I have two kids. And they're going to listen to this. 

Do you want to give them a shout-out? 

I'm going to say hello. Hello, Navin and Ben. Hello, Navin and Ben. They're aged two and seven. They're the greatest kids. I have to say that because I'm on the radio. But they really are. They're really nice.

Excellent, excellent So, that's cool, okay, excellent So, how did you come up with the idea of Girona Buddies? 

Sure! Here's the text with punctuation added for clarity and readability:

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**15:54**

So, it wasn't me who set it up. It was a... Maybe I should start from the beginning.

So, I moved here seven years ago. And for the first six years, I didn't have any friends, actually. I had no way to meet people. It can be tough.

Yeah, and my girlfriend told me about this thing called *Girona Connectors*. I went to a couple of those events.

Yeah, shout-out to Nastia, who was on the show a month ago.

Yep. And then, like, so last year, I saw a Facebook post from this girl called Denise. And it was something like:

*"Hello, you! I've just moved to Girona. If you're looking for friends, and you want to go out for a coffee, then just give me your phone number, and I'll add you to a WhatsApp group."*

Okay.

And there was a photo of her. And then, underneath that, there were, like, ten comments, and everyone was enthusiastic about joining this group. And at the bottom was a link. So, I clicked the link, and I joined it.

And it was called *Costa Brava Buddies*, and there were already 50 members. And they were talking about—at that moment, when I joined it—talking about going to a picnic in the park.

**Right, so this is about a year ago?**

Yeah, this was February 26th.

**Okay, so you're also celebrating a year.**

Yeah, we're a year old.

**Yeah.**

It was a coincidence, yeah. We celebrated together.

Yeah, so I went to this picnic, and there was a bunch of strangers sitting in the park, on the ground. And I think there were four or five people. And it was a cold day, and we were just sitting on the mud.

But Denise was there—this girl from this Facebook post—and she, like, welcomed me. And this guy from Andalusia gave me a plastic bag to sit on, so I didn't get muddy.

And they had a bunch of, like, food in the centre in Tupperware, and they shared it with me. And it felt nice.

It was a bit surreal, sitting there on a Saturday in a park with strangers. But gradually, more people came. And in the end, we were about 15 people.

And there was a guy from Peru, and a woman from Belgium, and a woman from Croatia. And we were all from different countries, and I was amazed. Because I'd been living in Girona for so long, and I had no way to meet these people.

And I felt like we were all the same. That we had no way to meet each other until Denise had made this group.

And so, over the next few days, people kept using this WhatsApp group.

**And we... So that's how you keep in touch? Through WhatsApp, yeah?**

Yeah. *Girona Buddies.* It's a group of WhatsApp groups.

**Okay, a group of WhatsApp groups.**

Yeah.

**Alright, we'll get into those later on.**

Okay, cool.

**And how many members have you got right now then?**

Right now, we have 386 members.

**Wow.**

I was wondering if Ryan, you wanted to be member 387?

**Wow, talk about being put on the spot there.**

Of course.

**Okay, okay. What about Abby, you gonna ask her?**

I don't need to be asked, guys! I'll come along for, you know, a picnic. I mean, come on, that's like the best thing.

**Cool.**

Okay, so it's not just picnics that we've done. We've done hikes, gone to restaurants...

**Yeah.**

And we've played—people have played paddle together. I don't play paddle, but I've heard they do it together.

**Okay, so there's all sorts of different activities that people can do?**

Yeah. There's... So we have 40 different subgroups.

**Wow.**

And people have told me that's a lot, but...

**It sounds like a lot.**

We have hiking, food, cycling, climbing, game night...

I think I've seen that. Yeah, we're gonna get into that in a little bit And we'll also talk about... But you're also on Instagram. And I think people can get in touch that way too. But first let's continue on our journey through time with a little bit of music. Okay, Paul, we'll get back to you very soon and talk about all the events he organises and how you guys can get involved if you want to. This is an iconic song from the 60s though. This is The Who with their song I Can't Explain.


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What a classic tune with such as sixties sound to it. Let's continue. 

Welcome back to L'Alternativa on Girona FM 92.7. And in case you're just joining us now, we have Paul from GIrona Buddies with us today. Now let's back to what we were talking about, because you said it was called Costa Brava Buddies, how did you change the name and how did you take over?

So, I don't really think of myself as, like, taking over the group. But I asked if I could help Denise out, because she had to leave Girona. She was going to Germany for the winter to go work at a ski resort.

And I asked her, "Would it be okay if I organized some events while you're gone?" And she said that would be great. And she made me an admin of this WhatsApp group.

And so, when she left, we were about 120 people in this WhatsApp group. And the first thing I thought to do was to change the name, because Costa Brava Buddies seemed too general. 

And if it's based here in Girona, it makes sense.

**Exactly, yeah, you think the same as me.**

Of course, absolutely. We have similar minds.

So, I changed the name to Girona Buddies. I really liked the word "buddies" because it implies friendship.

**Of course, of course. Because you were saying that you're on Instagram, but you've only been on Instagram for a short amount of time. So in those earlier days, how did people get involved? How were they able to find out about that group and participate?**

We were just inviting each other—each other's friends. And so, after we did the name change, then we opened a Facebook account, an Instagram account, and now we have a Meetup page as well, which is about two weeks old, to try to get new people coming.

Because the idea is to have it as inclusive as possible, and to grow it as big as possible. And it's been growing so fast, especially in the past month.

**Yeah, well I went to your last meetup, which was in La Rosaleda, in La Devesa, in the park there. It was just on Sunday last. And you had a great crowd there. I'd say, what, between 25—maybe 30—people there. So would that be a typical turnout for one of your events?**

24:19 Okay, let me tell you this. So, three months ago, I think four people came to this social event that we do on every other Sunday. And a month ago, we were about 12 people. And then, two weeks ago, we were 20 people. Oh, okay, so it's exponentially growing. It keeps growing, yeah.

24:41 Wow, you're on a roll then, that's great. And then, in two weeks, we have our next social event. We've just decided where it's gonna be.

24:50 It's gonna be in Parc del Migdia. Okay, what happened? I don't know how many people are gonna turn up. It might just be me, I don't know. But I suspect it's gonna be quite a few people. And everyone is invited. 

Yeah, of course. That's the nice thing about it. So, I think Instagram is the way that people keep in touch with these things most these days. So, what's the name of your Instagram account? 

25:09 So, the Instagram account is Girona Buddies, which is B-U-D-D-I-E-S, Girona Buddies. And if you wanna join Girona Buddies as well, we've made it really easy. Just go to tinyurl.com, slash Girona Buddies. Okay, and then they can find out all the information from there.

You can join straight away. Okay, brilliant, cool. We'll get back to you in a second.

25:53 Let's move into the severities now. We're gonna highlight this cult classic from B-52s, the epic and ridiculous Rock Lobster. 

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Alrighty, welcome back everybody. 

27:58 The unmistakable sound of the B-52s with their 78 hit rock Lobster. Alrighty, we're celebrating our first birthday here at La Alternativa and we're going to give away that 20 euro voucher to spend at Hors Categorie, a bike friendly bar and restaurant in the heart of Girona. a big shout out to all our lovely followers who participated and went into the draw and a big thank you to our friends at Horse Category for sponsoring Josep and his team you guys are awesome if you don't know the place make sure you drop by because their food is amazing they have a great selection of craft beers and the atmosphere is very cool and to make sure there are no shenanigans or tongos we're gonna get we're gonna have the innocent hand of our guest Paul from Gerona Buddies choose the winner we have a lot of balls here can you hear the shaking give that a shake and choose a number please here we go well we've already dropped one on the floor one is just falling on the floor what have we got 21 21 Abbey who is the winner of that 20 euro voucher to spend that horse category 21 is drumroll leadership for you leadership for you awesome I believe I know who that person is we're gonna find out your name and we're gonna announce it very very soon yeah congratulations indeed for more giveaways stay tuned and follow us on Instagram our pages alternativa dot Gerona FM very soon we will have some more great prizes to give away including a voucher to spend at McKiernan's Irish Bar in Gerona massive thank you to them but more on that later it's our first anniversary as we said and that got us thinking of some other famous people who also have or had or would have had their birthday at this time of the year I've got a couple of ones to to go through guys on the

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Kurt Cobain was born, the legendary Nirvana frontman. And on the same day we have Rihanna and Olivia Rodrigo. Okay, there you go. 

That's a cool trio. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So they've all made their mark. 

And also born this month on the 21st of February, Nina Simone, legendary. The late and excellent George Harrison on the 25th of February. And both on the 26th, Fats Domino and Johnny Cash. 

Amazing. Very, you know, great, great time of the year to be born. 

30:36 What happens if you're born on February 29? 

That is a very good question. 

You just age slower than everyone else? 

I think you age the same, but you only count, that would be a belated birthday. Well, this is what we were saying before. I believe because apparently I saw something like this. 

And on Facebook, you couldn't actually choose the 29th. So when you're putting your birthday in, so you actually you have to choose either the 28th of February, or the first of March. I don't know if that has been rectified now. 

Or what would you I think I'd choose the 28th of February. Yeah, because it's the same one. Because like if you skip a whole, you go to a different month. 

Yeah, it's like, anyway, cool. And now to round off the 70s. Here's a great party track to sing along to a message for all of us to keep going no matter what. 

Here is Queen with Don't Stop Me Now. Don't stop me now. If you want to have a good time, just give me a call.

Don't stop me now. Cause I'm having a good time. Don't stop me now.

I'm having a good time. I don't want to stop at all. I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars. 

I'm a collision course. I'm a satellite. I'm out of control. 

I'm a space machine ready to reload. I'm burning through the sky. 200 degrees.  That's why they call me Mr. Fahrenheit. I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars. I'm a collision course.  I'm out of control. I'm a space machine ready to reload. I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball, don't stop me now, don't you wanna have a good time? 

Queen with Don't Stop Me Now, and now it's time to see what's going on in Girona. What's going on in Girona? And on Saturday the 1st of March, Girona Est will host a lively morning of rhythm and talent at the Cazadas Arts, starting at 11am the Black Music Big Band and its associated projects including the Black Music Choir and Emerging Talents will bring music to the community. It's also free, so open to all, set in the creative environment of Mas Ramada. And join the enchanting Venetian Carnival spirit, we forgot to talk about Carnival guys, with a concert featuring Vivaldi's music. That's on Saturday the 1st of March as well at 6pm in Lauditori de Girona, they will host Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. Dani Espasa conducting that one. This ensemble brings freshness and emotion to the stage delivering a 17th century Venetian experience. And you can take part in a mask contest to fully immerse yourself in the atmosphere. It's 15 euros, but it's only 3 euros if you wear a mask. All right, and I did mention this on the last show, but I love it so much. From the 13th of February to the 23rd of March, Girona will be filled with the best in soul, funk, blues and reggae as the Black Music Festival returns for its 22nd edition. Highlights include the Black Music Picnic on the 23rd of March at Parc del Mezdia, that's perfect for the whole family. But of course there are concerts every weekend, so check out the full line up at blackmusicfestival.com and get your tickets. One of the standout acts for me is these guys, Lawrence, an 8 piece soul pop band made up of lifelong friends and musicians, led by the talented sibling duo Clyde and Grace Lawrence. They're playing at La Mirona on the 28th of February, that's definitely something you don't want to miss. Of course, all this and more on the official Ajuntamenta Girona agenda, girona.cat forward slash agenda. And don't miss the next Girona Connector meet up at Hors Categorie. Abbey last night of course was another success with a huge crowd, plenty of mingling and meeting eh Abbey? Oh absolutely, always. And if you want to know, if you want to get to know someone new, check out Girona Connector and of course Girona Buddies, we have Paul with us from Girona Buddies, we've got another song coming up and then we'll be back with him to find out all about his news. Let's move into the 80s now, in full effect, let's go proper party mode with this absolute classic, you know it, it's Bon Jovi's Livin' on a Prayer. 

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Welcome back to L'Alternativa That was the iconic sound of Bon Jovi And this music, what does it mean? It means that we have Abbey's book recommendation of course What have we got today? Well we have a centenary alert We've got Virginia Woolf and Her Mrs. Dalloway Which was published in 1925 So this is very apt I think Because I've chosen this Because on the 1st of May this year Vintage Books are re-releasing Mrs. Dalloway To celebrate 100 years And they're going to be using Vanessa Bell's original artwork on the covers Now for those of you who don't know Vanessa Bell was a painter And also Virginia Woolf's sister So it's very important here Anyway to the book So sorry to interrupt So Virginia Woolf, that wasn't her real name? Yes, yes Oh but I mean of course you know there was A marriage? When people get married they change names Okay, sorry I forgot about that No it's to be fair Like we have lived here for too long And people don't change their names here right? So I think that's a fair thought To go through your head there Okay, thank you We'll cut that out Okay Anyway This is the story of a single day in London In the early 1920s And it's really hard to pinpoint Sort of one protagonist But of course Clarissa Dalloway is one of them She's a society figure Giving a party in the evening So again, celebrations And the other main character Is a shell-shocked soldier from the Great War You could also say that London itself Is a character With the hustle, the bustle The traffic and the shops And the narrative is punctuated By the chiming of Big Ben It's all this stream of consciousness Which I hope that kind of got in there a bit And it's fascinating Because Clarissa doesn't ever meet Septimus Warren Smith, the characters But he does have a huge impact on her And I won't say what it is Lots of surprises No spoilers No spoilers And so through memories And this stream of consciousness We meet many of the characters And their thoughts About the nature of love Imperialism War The depths of relationships between humans So it's really just so good It's vivid and nuanced You know, Virginia Woolf Packs it with visual images So I would say Go and treat yourself To a shiny new edition To celebrate a century Of this intellectual delight Of a classic Wonderful Thank you very much, Abby That was great Excellent And as a reminder We have Paul, of course From Girona Buddies We're chatting about the history Of the group That it's a WhatsApp-based group mainly That people can follow you on Instagram Girona Buddies But basically the idea Is to get involved And to be able to participate In so many of the different subgroups That you've got Whether it be sports Whether it be musical Whether it be board games, for example Do you want to tell us a little bit about Just very quickly The different types of groups that you have? 

43:38 Yeah, so it started with just one group And that was the main chat And in that you could talk about whatever you want But now we have 40 We have one for free cycling We give things away for free One for finance and bureaucracy advice An LGBT group A group about sustainability We have a dog club And the nice thing is that People, they can organise things themselves And some of the groups People use to give advice as well So if you have a question about Where to take English-speaking driving lessons in Girona Or where you can find a weird Peruvian fruit That no one knows about Or if you've lost your NIE Then you can go on to one of the groups And ask and someone is going to know Because we have almost 400 members And we have such a diversity of people That in about an hour you can get an answer To any of your questions 

44:42 Well, amazing So talking about the people in the group I don't know if you've done any stats But where are the people generally from? And what language do you guys use the most? 

So the language we speak in is English Because it's the international language That we can all understand But if people want to talk in Catalan Spanish or any language really That's completely fine as well 

So what about the nationalities? Are they mainly English people? Or you said there's probably people from South America Even locals, right? 

This is one of the amazing things That there is no one single nationality It's such an international thing We've got people from Canada Colombia France Germany Greece Ireland Italy Netherlands Peru Russia Spain UK Hungary Luxembourg And we had one girl join from Zimbabwe And it's like people from all over the world Here in Girona they can join 

Excellent, excellent Thank you so much Okay, cool We'll be back to you in a second Let's continue our journey through time Of course, we've got a bit of music to play We're hitting the 90s now This is from 1994 From Green Day's first album Dookie This is Basket Case 

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I do. She is in our group and she's called MaryLynn Parnell. 

Wow, there we go, congratulations. So that's all hers and prior to that we collaborated with the best bar in Girona, Bagels and Bears and now we're teaming up with the one and only McKerdin's my favourite bar in Girona to have a pint of Guinness watch the rugby or football and enjoy their weekly live concerts and jam sessions If you want to participate in our future giveaway with McKerdin's then just follow us on Instagram at alternativa.gironafm How many times can someone say that in one show? Check out the post and go into the draw Alright, now Paul from Girona Buddies On, off air now you were telling us about the a really touching story and I'd like our audience to hear about it you were telling us about one of the groups that you made and one of the experiences that you've recently had so what happened? 

50:11 So, I have slight autism and last year I was trying to find a group for adults with autism in Girona and there isn't one it doesn't exist and I was thinking of creating one but if I had I wouldn't have had any way to invite people and I don't think anyone would have come but in Girona Buddies I set up a neurodiverse subgroup and two people joined that day we met up in the park and it was so nice that we could meet up and talk about autism stuff and now we have 12 members and on yesterday we had our third meetup in the park and one of the members just got diagnosed with autism and we met up and celebrated his autism diagnosis and it makes me feel so nice that this group 

51:07 that's fantastic, that is so touching you should be proud because you're bringing these people together and now you have a connection 

that's the idea, we're bringing people together we have a dog club which only existed two weeks ago people were posting pictures of their dogs in the main chat we set up a club we don't want that we don't want those dog pictures somewhere where we don't all have to see them let's create a subgroup and they met up in the park last week for their first meetup and they were all so happy to meet people who have dogs as 

Well that's the whole point of having a friendship that you have something in common something to share you're bringing those people together well done ok cool are you guys ready for a game? go on, what is it? alright, here we go you don't have to play against each other, you can play together if you like and you guys at home, you can also play as well we're going to listen to the start the first few seconds of some very famous songs and let's see if you can guess which one it is ready guys at home too? Arnel, play the first song what was the flow? ah, ok firestarter the prodigy yes, well done alright, we're ready for the next one song number 2, Arnel somebody told me you have a girlfriend by the killers I love the killers, one of my favourite bands you got that within seconds give the guys at home a chance alright, we're going to move on now with song number 3 oh it's got to be the chilli pepper yeah, which one? give it away, give it away, give it away now you were worried I was, I was like, what is it, what is it? I know it, but what is it? they said, oh we're not very good at this, we're not going to get it well, 3 out of 3 these are all really great choices in song drawing oh thank you I didn't want to make them too difficult pass me the 4 please Arnel, song number 4 the people at home have got it the people at home have got it I said I was bad at this game I have no idea, sorry well, we're going to have to listen to it a little bit longer then oh, people are going to be thinking, like screaming at their radios I can hear it as well it's going to kick in now come on I'm terrible with names Dire Straits right Arnel money for nothing there we go, Dire Straits, money for nothing about 3 out of 4 in there it's not terrible alright, we've got one more the last one, please bit of an intro on this one Cold Lake Glocks I got it Cold Lake Glocks oh the coming in it's hard just waiting to get in singing you oh you oh you oh Cold Lake Glocks as Paul guessed correctly that was actually from our album of the week last show, of course well, that's us almost all done and dusted, guys big thank you to Abby Jones for coming in once again yeah, well thank you very much and to all us Jubilarians oh, she used the word got it in there yes, a Jubilarian is a person who is celebrating something so that's us today you've been listening to La Alternativa the best radio programme in English in Girona without a doubt and Paul from Girona Buddies thank you so much for joining us you just want to add one more thing because we're going to play a song that you guys chose so in Girona Buddies we have a making music group and we meet every Wednesday and park them each day and play guitar together and out of all the songs that we play we picked this one we voted for this one as the song we'd love you to play well, that's awesome we're going to play it for you now it's Los Hijos del Sol, Cariñito thank you for coming in and I hope it all goes well with Girona Buddies thank you so much for having me I've had a really great time here, Ryan and Abby and congratulations on your first birthday hey, thank you so much thank you everyone for joining us I hope to have you back next time rock on and adeo ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh The radio of Girona, Girona FM, the communicative space of the city, Gironese 92.7 FM, proximity information, news, interviews, reports, reports, listen to all our programming on the card and be informed of what you're listening to.