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Do you live where you want to live?: I've lived in Carrer de Girona for 20 years, very near Plaça d'Urquinaona. It's a great neighbourhood, with fantastic buildings, wide, full of light and sometimes quiet. Where, however, there are increasingly more businesses installing big air conditioning systems in the inner patios, and the noise, especially at night, and the greenhouse effect, make life unbearable.
Would you like to move? Why and where to?: I would like to live in the countryside, but it doesn't inspire me. I need the city
Do you spend time in your neighbourhood and with your neighbours? Do you have the shops you need nearby (baker's, grocer's, dry cleaner's)?: I spend all my time in the neighbourhood, although I find it increasingly hard to find local shops that I like. The butcher's and the fishmonger's, for example, used to be very good, but they have disappeared to make way for Chinese shops.
As well as doing your daily shopping (if you do it) do you have places and services for all your needs?: There's everything you need, and near my home there used to be very good fashion shops. However, the current Chinese shops have nothing beautiful, and they are full of horrendous products, of the lowest possible quality.
Do you stroll around your own neighbourhood for pleasure or do you go elsewhere?: I stroll around my neighbourhood and reach the Parc de la Ciutadella or the Born, which are very close. And while I am walking around, I get angry when I see the marvellous Modernist buildings, completely covered by graffiti artists, who respect nothing. And I know that Barcelona City Council is making a big effort to clean the façades, but it needs to be accompanied by much firmer treatment against bad public conduct.
Which are your favourite cinemas, theatres and clubs?: I go to the Comedia or Alexandra cinemas, depending what film is on, but always nearby, I only travel to the Verdi. When it comes to theatres, the Novedades, Tívoli and the Borrás are very near. I don't go out much at night. I used to go to tango sessions at the Casa de Valencia and the Cafè de les Arts. I love tango! But now I am doing belly dancing at the Sala Autidi in Carrer d'Avinyó.
And which are your favourite restaurants, bars and cafés?: I go to Las 4 Escinas, in Carrer de Casp, a lot, to the Mussol when I want griddled vegetables, and to L'Hortet when I want to go vegetarian, in Carrer del Pintor Fortuny.
Is there any public area where you like to go, to sit and chat?: I have a fantastic triangle in Carrer de la Palla: the Antropologic, a shop with a cafe, the Caelis, with convent made cakes and liquors, and the splendid pork butcher's next door.
When you have to act as a guide for visitors, where do you take them?: The Barri Gòtic and the Born.
What is the most appropriate, funny or surprising adjective you have heard to describe Barcelona? Which one would you use?: Barcelona has always been a very serious city, and now, in contrast, it has been defined as a "pot-pourri of colours", and it is true that it is becoming a rather mad place. But I suffer a lot when I hear it called dirty, I suffer because it is true, and it's necessary to stop it being destroyed by people coming from elsewhere, who don't care for it because it's not theirs.
Of where, between the sea and Tibidabo, do you have the most memories?: The Raval, where I lived for many years, when the neighbourhood was full of local people, simple but from here. Also La Rambla, where I had two studios. And the streets which were part of my daily route for so long: Carretes, Sant Pau, Boquería, Call and Sant Honorat; I studied painting there with the maestro Esteban Ripaux, and at nine at night my boyfriend of the moment came to pick me up and we returned by the same route.
Which is the best place (a park, a café, a seat in the city) to have a romantic date, or to be able to whisper sweet nothings to a loved one?: The area around Santa Maria del Mar, with enchanting places such as the Barroc and the cafe of the Museu Tèxtil.
What colours or smells, when you see or smell them anywhere in the world, remind you immediately of Barcelona?: When it comes to smells, better not to recall them. When it comes to colours, this rather nostalgic blue which has a touch of grey when it's misty, and the brilliant and fantastic blue of clear days.
When you have had to leave the city for a while, what have you missed most?: On long journeys, I miss my friends and my favourite meals, particularly "pan con tomate" (bread spread with tomato).
Which of the changes that have been made in the city recently are you happiest with?: The opening up to the sea and the new garden areas.
What don't you like, and what would you do to change it?: I don't like the hard-surfaced squares. I don't like the fact that, instead of extending the Litoral park, which is fantastic, there are the immense areas of the Forum covered with cement, so terribly sad. What I don't like is that nobody in this city worries about art, and everybody goes mad about design. But, what design?
Add anything you would like to say, and that we haven't asked.: I commented before that we residents in the Eixample have a problem with air-conditioning units, particularly those of businesses, which are empty at night of course. I want to take advantage of this opportunity to repeat that it is time Barcelona City Council obliged them to respect the norms for installing air conditioning systems.