EEEEOOOOOOOO!!!

Que cosas.. hace tanto tiempo que no escribo nada que se me hace raro volver a entrar... y esta vez en Spanish!!!!! Si es que....

Varias cosas me vienen a la cabeza. Todas a la vez, claro.

En primer lugar, la respuesta es no. No me ha tocado ni el jodío reintegro ¿Será posible?!!!??? Bueno, a un primo mío de Avilés le ha tocado 4 milloncitos de pesetas y, sinceramente, poco más me habría alegrado si me hubiera tocado a mi. Le van a venir genial. Pero vamos, yo no he visto ná de ná.

Por cierto, la duda me embarga... ¿Por qué los teclados numéricos del móvil y de las calculadoras son distintos? ¿Eh?














Y ya puestos. Resulta que me he bajado de Internet la serie Galáctica. Pero no, no es la serie aquella del año 78, si no una de ahora. No está mal. En EEUU ya van por la tercera temporada. Los Cylons siguen siendo malos malísimos y el capitán Adama está interpretado por.. ¿cómo se llamaba... ? Si hombre, el actor este que hizo el papel de "Teniente Castillo". Pues ese.

Por cieto, ¿qué habrá sido de Dirk Benedit? En Galáctica 78 era Apolo, aunque es más conocido por hacer de "Fenix" con el Equipo A. ¡Anda! Resulta que van a hacer una peli de esta serie. Si es que cuando falta imaginación....

Christmas Lottery? Please, no more!!!!

Ohhhh!!!! Damn it! I´ve just remenbered I need to go to the ATM to withdraw money to pay the Lottery.
Let me see. One from Tele2, 2 from BT, another one with some friends.. besides I have to buy lottery tikets for some of my parents´ friends -and you know that if you buy lottery for someone else you "have"to buy the same number. Just in case. Can you imagine the aftermath if you don´t buy and it tuns out to be "the REAL ONE"

So, let me see..... One, two, three, four... Oh my god. I don´t want to keep counting. The amount of money is overwhelming. Don´t think about it, don´t think about it!

But, your know what? The last straw is that, every time you go to a restaurant -or whateveryouwant- you are bound to find a (fucking) friend that says "I´m gonna buy that ticket".
And, if this is the case, what else can you do besides buying the same ticket?

At least, it only happens on Chirstmas!

What is about..?

What is about Asturias that so many people find it appealing?

Otro gallego iluminado independentista y luxista declarado tratando de anexionarse la mitad de Asturias y el Bierzo con su "Mapa comarcal" Por cierto, gran oferta, por 8 euros lo puedes comprar en la web. Lo dicho, en este pais no entran más idiotas.

What is about... Bruce Weitz?

I was laying on my bed thinking back when I was a child and, sudendly, I remembered "Cancion triste de Hill Street" (what a funny translation! Isn´t it?)

I am sure that you remenber this serie, and what is more, I am pretty sure that you remember this guy:

He had, how can I say?, an odd and uncanny behaviour... He used to grunt and bite criminals!!! His name is Bruce Weitz and, I don´t know if it is your case, but I don´t remember seeing him again in another film, soap opera or whateveryouwant. It seems he has been working in different TV shows, but not as a regular cast, like one episode in Anatomy Grey´s

By the way, when I was looking for information about this guy I found out Frank Furrillo is working in Break Prison. Next time I see it I´ll look for him.

Do you smoke?

If you smoke and you live in Madrid you are really lucky.

In a nutshell: Madrid allows to smoke in nearly all restaurants and pubs overhelming (o dicho de otra forma, pasándose por los huevos) the national law.

The point that makes the different in Madrid between national bill and "la idea de la Espe" is that from now on restaurants only need a simple screen to separete the smokers room.

So, as I wrote before, if you are a smoker you are really lucky. In fact it doesn´t matter if your partner/collage/friend/neighbour don´t smoke or if they want to eat their chop without breath smoke because there is not gointg to be any different between smokers room and non-smokers room.

And what is worrying is that another "comunidades" could carry out the same idea unbanning smoking in public places.

It is a shame. In fact the national law should be harder. I mean, you should not be allowed to smoke in a restaurant . And if you want to settle a smokers room is ok, but your restaurant should pass a kind of previous exam. Now, thanks to "la Espe", with a screem from IKEA is enough.

Some changes

From

To


To


To

AIDS

Some months ago the XVI International AIDS Conference was settled in Toronto. There was a huge number of different conferences about this issue, not only about medicine but about human behaviour as well.

In a nutshell, this could be the resume:

--> Scientists are pretty pesimistic about the vaccune. In fact, some of them say that it will not be developed until next century. But, how can it be possible? 100 years??!!?? For sure you know that a vaccine is just a weak version of a virus. But, how can you develope a vaccine that has to attack the Human Inmune System? That´s the issue! And even in the case this vaccine works, the AIDS virus tends to mutate frecuenly causing the vaccine to fight it becomes almost ineffective..

--> Scientists are working as well in prevention using the same drugs they use for people that have come down with this disease. The aim is to fight against spreading.

-->Finally, different studies have proved circuncised people are less likely to come down with AIDS. About 2/3 less likely. Mabe it´s because physical issues, maybe because their religion hence their behaviour, but noadays nobody knows nor is able to explain it.

Just maths

"The fertility rate in the EU is 1.47—well below replacement. By 2010, deaths there are expected to start outnumbering births, so from that point immigration will account for more than all its growth. And that average hides countries that have seen an astonishing collapse in the willingness of their citizens to breed. The fertility rate in ISpain is 1.35, which, without immigration, would cause the number of Spaniards to halve in 42 years."

I know it´s hard to say but the point is that we will need more inmigrants, not fewer.

"Collectively we decided not to have children and, without knowing it, we decided to have immigrants,”

An extremely stressful day

Stressful, isn´t it?
I guess this situation deserves a Mus between tennis and Brasil. Doesn´t it?

Eragon

I´ve just started to read this book. It looks interesting. It´s a kind of "Lord of the Rings". You know.. magic, elfs, dragon, witches and so on.

The problem is the vocabulary. I have to consult about 5 words per sheet because, altough you can understand the context, sometimes the unknown word is key...

Here you have some examples:

scent, crimson, maroon, twig, tore, falter, nimbly, deer, glen, flaws, porridge, wary, ravine, tan, moist, slate, fetch, hulking, scoop up, farewell and so forth.

Pito pito, gorgorito....

Tralaría, tralará.

Pito pito, gorgorio, dónde vas tú tan Bonito.

Pim, pam, pum... Fuera?

This weekend is gonna be hard. I have to make a decission..... I´ll make it and, in less than 5 minutes, I´ll change my mind and, in less than 5 minutes, I´ll change my mind again and, in less than 5 minutes, I´ll think back and make a decission totally diferent and, in less than 5 minutes........

I´m pretty sure somefriends of mine will say "You are stupid.. And if you don´t take that oppportunity I cut your head -to say the least-"

The funny thing is that at the end, I will make my decission 5 minutes before the dead line. As usual.

I´ve just arrive..

I´ve just arrived from home. And to be honest, I don´t feel like doing anything. Maybe it´s because is Tuesday, or maybe because I´ve just found out there is something in my live that makes me chew over deep thoughts and that I´m a kind of suspicious person because I tend to be reserved.

Trust in me. .. Everything it´s true. It´s in my horoscope.

Some friends of mime tell me I usally change my mind 3 or 4 times before I make a decision ... Other friends tell me it´s just on the other way... after making a decission I think back and change my mind.. They all say I´m a kind of capricious.

But you know what? IT´S FALSE. I´m not so capricious and it´s not because I´m a only child.
I´m Geminis and it makes me think over past, present and future issues once and once again. That´s all ;-)))

Some people said our future, our fate is written in the stars. ... But the funny thing is that if you look the sky and see the stars (if you can, in Madrid is almost imposible..) you only see the past. You only see things that happened thousands of years ago...

And all this thoughts lead me to Simon Wisenthalt´s old saying: "Wihtout memory, mankind is condemned to repeat the same mistakes"

"The heat is on"

The Economist is one of my favourite magazines. The point is it´s not just about economy, but about all kind of issues. In September you can find a special report on climate change. A really interesting report.. But, what´s the fuss about?

After reading this report, the conclusion is clear: there is a climate trend but nobody knows for sure what is happening.... No worries, diferent reports offer a wide range of predicted termperature rises, from 1.4º to 5.8º by the end of this century.

But there are some facts that nobody can deny: the relationship between CO2 concentration and the rise of temperatures, the relationship that links Hurricanes and sea-surface temperatures, the changes in the Ocean Stream, glaciars melting and, no doubt about it, the human hand.


Antarctica is one of the main data sources. Scientinsts can look for previous episodes of climate change in the ice core. And it´s a fact that the higher the CO2 concetration, the higher the temperature. Another fact is climate has followed a periodic pattern, but CO2 concetration is higher than never before (more than 300ppm) . And even if you are blind, the pattern is clear... "It´s white and it´s in a bottle".

It´s said that "The nature is wise" and we´ll be able to deal with all these problems. It´s said as well that "we can easily adapt to the environment" But this last quote is tricky. Human being is the only animal that can adapt the environment to suit themselves, the world´s other inhabitants still have to adapt themselves to their environment. And who knows... maybe it´s for this reason that we are not aware about the problem that is on the sly around the corner. And like it or not, if the most pessimistic theory turned out to be real, we could never say that it was out of blue.

I´ve seen into the future

Some days ago, I was listening to the radio and, suddenly I saw the future of the Spanish Education System:

The thing is that France is gonna return to the the old days teaching method because almost 15% of the 12 year old children don´t know either how to write or how to read properly.

In other words, they will re-use the old way: "m" with "a" -> "ma"

As you can see, the teaching revolution -that Spain has copied- has been a mess. And I´m sorry, but I have to blame the psychologist and the likes who decided to change dramatically everything because the old ways were "traumatic for the children". Come on!!!! What the hell is that?!?

Me, myself and Irene

Jim Carrie´s black sons talking about Pluto

"-Man, how the hell can they call Pluto a planet ? What motherfuckin' planet has an elliptical orbit ? Man, this shit don't make no sense. Motherfucker ! That motherfucker Vince Foster was murdered ! I told you !

(...)

- Shit, yeah, man. You keep fuckin' around, you gonna get that scholarship to Yale taken away from you. Be stuck up there at Stanford with them goddamn sling-blade motherfuckers. Shit, motherfucker, you be lucky to get accepted to Duke gettin' a xxx on your S.A.T.

- Motherfucker, you know I had the flu.

- The flu, my ass. You had a motherfuckin' aneuryusm gettin' a .

- Aneuryusm ? Man, you talkin' some shit now. Now you see, man ? That's probably one of them lvy League sum bitches now."

Such a knowledge in this wise film has blurred my eyes ;-)

TED conference

"Once a year 1000 remakable people gather in Monterrey, California, to exchange something of incalculable value: Their Ideas"

This is the way all Ted´s videos start. Basically, TED is a non-profit foundation that organized and record conferences. But I´n not talking about simple "talks". The goal is to seek out the most interesting people on earth and let then to share and to spread their ideas.

People like Jimmy Wales (founder of wikipedia), Al Gore, Jeff Bezos, Negroponte, Billy Gates, or Nathan Myrrhvold -Chief Technology Officer at Microsoft speaking about dinosaur sex-, have spoken at TED.

One more point: from www.ted.com you can download any conference for free and everything is legal!!! Nowadays you can´t take this last point for granted ;-)

It was worthwhile?

People usually ask me about my English. "It was worthwhile to be in Canada for 4 months?"

To be honest, sometimes I fell like I have to prove it myself. My time in Canada was great. That´s for sure!!! But what´s about my main goal? Have I reached my "English goals" or have I screwed it up? I guess this is the main reason I want to pass the CAE and I still blog in English (besides the fact if I don´t have any goal in a short-term it would be easy to leave English...)

People say "Why don´t your try TOEFL? Business Schools always ask for a good mark in TOEFL". But you know what? TOEFL piss me off. You have to speak with a computer (puaj!!) By the way, do you know the reason? Because of the Asian people. To pass the old TOEFL you had to study lots of Grammar, writing and listening. And the thing was that Asian people always got high marks... without knowing how to speak!!! That´s the reason why in the new TOEFL you have to speak with the computer. And as I said before, it sucks! If I can´t stand speaking with a voice-mail, how the hell I´m going to speak with a computer that asks me what is my favourite film? No way!!!! :-/

Pluton is not a planet anymore? NO WAY!!

Firstly, after learning the contries and their capitals, politicians decided to change everything (unify Germany, separate Yugoslavia and Checoslovaquia...)

Now, suddenly and whitout asking anybody, scientists have decided to quit the label "planet" to Pluton. Come on!! And now, what am I supposed to do? To complain the exam I failed in EGB because I forgot Pluton?

What is gonna be the next? To change the name of the Oceans? Or maybe the Earth is plain...

You know what? I´ve just decided I can neither stand with this change nor accept Pluton is not a planet anymore. So, DON´T LET THEM TO ROBE YOUR PLANET AND WHAT YOU LEARN WHEN YOU WERE A CHILD and shout with me as loud as you can for Pluton´s status:

"Pluton is a planet" "PLUTON IS A PLANET"

Things I missed when I was in Vancouver

Two little things I missed when I was in Vancouver:

• Olive oil.
  
• El tranvía de Olga Viza.

And things I didn´t miss:

• Gallardon´s buildings, roadworks and the likes.
  
• Summer Hot.
• Spanish politicians making their best -even in summer-.
• Traffic jams.
• ....
  

And now the next goal is..... to look for a job. After all this time, when I find it I guess I gonna go through a beautiful "posttraumatic vacation syndrome" ;-)

PD: Y ahora para la piscina, yepa!!

Ya estoy aquí..

...porque he venido!!

Battle for Spain

"A civil war is not a war but a sickness", wrote Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

The thing is every time I go to Chapters I buy a book. In this case about the Spanish Civil War. It´s said that if you want to read a good book about the Spanish Civil War you have to choose English authors. Why? Because it´s supposed they can remain more objetive than the Spanish historians, who could be moved by political interest or suffer lack of neutrality.

The point is this book has good reviews from El Pais, El mundo, ABC.. so I guess it is worth it. The first version of this work was published in 1982 and this new edition has been improved with new documents from the Russian and German archives. I´ve only read the Introduction but I can´t help it quoting this:

" Yet the Spanish Civil War remains one of the few moderm conflicts whose history had been written more effectively by the losers than by the winners"

And if you take into account that the truth is always the first victim of war... Well, as I said before this book can be worth it.

PD: Tambien, manda narices el comprarme un libro de la Guerra Civil en inglés ;-)

An inconvenient truth

Last weekend I went to the theatre to see "An inconvenient truth".
To be honest, I don´t know if the message is too alarming but the thing is that even if only 20% is true, this planet is fucking off.

For this reason I strongly recommend to see this documentary (better in English version). Al Gore has done a really good work and I give him my hand. He has been able to present the issue in a easy way so it´s not neccesary to be a scientist to understand what´s going on... and what is going to happen if we don´t take care of our planet.

This could be the nutsheel:

• There is a direct relationship between CO2 concentration and the Global Warming.
• The higher the CO2 concentration, the higher the temperature and the shorter the winter and autumn.
  
• If this pace continues on, Artic could be ice free in less than 50 years
• And if this is the case not only the sea level could rise by more than 5 of 6 meters but it could be a dramatically change in the weather because the currents of the oceans could be affected by the new fresh water
  
• Etc, etc....

What's wrong with me?

It seems I've developed some kind of "tech" allergic reaction. Otherwise I'm not able to cacht the point.

Look all these points:

• When I arrived in Toronto my cellular phone died
  
• When I arrived in Madrid from Toronto, my ADSL stopped to work.
• During my flight to Vancouver I broke my headphones.
• One week ago my second headphones ended in the botton of one lake
• The last straw was my digital camera. I destoyed the screem during my scramble to Cypress Lake.
• By the way, one month ago I broke my glases as well - I know my glasses are not really a Tech item but...-

So, what am I supposed to do now?
Should I expect my laptop is gonna be ripped in London when I go back to Spain next Friday?

Cypress Peak

Here I am. New hike with Wanderung... To be exact, it wasn´t a hike but a Scramble. What difference does it make? Scrambling is between hiking and climbing. In other words, is more difficult and the goal is to reach a peak. For example, with this scale Muniellos is a hike and Perdiguero is a scramble. With my own scale I´d say Cypress Peak is "only for fieras".


And what can I say about this scramble? Awesome.
15 k, 1400 meters gain elevation. Only a few minutes were spent in the trees. The route ascends a large boulder slope followed by the fantastic views of all the peaks and glaciers that surround the Squamish River Valley. And I have to say pretty dangerous as well. In fact the guy who organized this scramble strongly advised us to bring a helmet because of the rocks. But the effort was really worthwhile. Do you see the second photo? Cypress Peak is the peak you see on the left.

And you know what? We were 11 people in 3 cars, but to arrive to the botton of this peak we had to ride a big american four-wheel drive vehicle for 15 km (all together at same time) that the organizer put at our disposal. Awesome, isn´t it?.

By the way, I´ve never said before how these hikes end. It´s easy to imagine... in a Pub with a beer in one hand and a hamburguer on the other What did you think? ;-)

PD: No, we didn´t get lost but I broke my camera at the beginning. Well, it seems to work but the screem is dead. In fact, all this pictures were shot my way -this camera hasn´t got visual len- but they look cool.

It´s raining.....

It´s been raining the last 2 days. Everybody is pretty upset and it seems I´m the only one that likes this weather....

















The trick is that you only have to thing about the weather that you have to suffer in summer in Madrid: hot like hell, drought, lack of water, nights without sleep... Suddendely you realize you feel relieved and you don´t really miss the hell of Madrid.

For sure this opinion would´ve been totally different if I lived in Vancouver ;-)

n th Hiking

Wanderung again. In this case we hiked "Goat Mountain". Almost 1400m elevation gain in 13 km. Pretty hard but it was worthwhile. That´s for sure.

In this photo you can see "Coliseum lake", which is in the base of "Goat Mountain"

And you know what? In this hike we didn´t get lost. Yes, I know, hard to belive but true (yeah!!)

The Tipping Point

Chapters is a big book store that you can find in all the cities of Canada -and I guess in USA as well-. Honestly, I love to get lost myself in this store. You know I can´t stand with crawded rooms like supermarkets and the likes -that´s the reason I don´t like "La casa del libro" in Madrid-, but I am able to be in Chapters for hours.

Besides there is always a Starbucks inside this store, so you can choose a book, ask for a coffee and start to read it. And if you don´t like it you only have to put it back in the bookcase.

The thing is that everytime I go to there I buy a book. I allways find something interesting. The last one was "The Tipping Point". When I saw the tittle I was sure that I have read a good review about it. But I didn´t realize what this book is about until I read the back cover. "The tipping point" is the moment when a little change, idea, social behaviour crosses a hot point and spreads everywhere making a big different. "Just like a sick person can start a epidemic of the flu".

One good example: What was the tipping point for "Jarabe de palo"? No doubts it was the Ducados ad. and the worth of mouth -by the way, do you remenber when most of people though "La flaca" was Juan Perro´s? .. maybe this misunderstunding helps as well.

It´s easy to see that in business, in life, in relationships... we always try/avoid to reach the tipping point. It always makes the different between sucess and failure.

By the way, don´t ask me if I liked the book. I´ll read it when I am back in Spain.

Mexico´s presidential elecction

Some days ago I asked to a Mexican guy what the hell was happening in Mexico. I´m sure you know the issue: Obrador has challenged the count and claims the presidential elecction has been a fraud -only 240.000 votes (0,6%) difference -
To make a long story short, this guy told me that the real problem is that "Obrador clings before hand he will refuse to accept the final result even if a recount confirms Calderon´s victory". And, if this is the case, how can Mexican people relay on Obrador, his idea of democracy and lust for power?

I´m getting used to.....

Honestly, I´m getting used to American-Canadian Cafes.

Yes, I know, it´s supposed there is nothing like the Spanish Cafeterias. It doesn´t matter where ever you are, you allways will be able to find a cafeteria and to ask for a "cortado, con leche, solo, cortado corto de café, con sacarina..."

But the thing is that when you want to stay alone for a while - maybe relaxing or maybe just reading a book- the Spanish cafeterias are not the best room to stay. And I´m not talking about the likes of Starbuck´s but the likes of Jave Café.

Java Café is a small and cozzy café settled in Broadway Avenue where you can just relax reading a book in a comfortable armchair and listening to Pop/Blues music.. And what can I say about the desserts? My God! The triple-chocolate-muffin must be a sin because it tastes too good to be free of side effects.

Ice Cave

Near Edith Cavell there is a small glacier and sometimes nature is capricius...
Can you see the black point on the botton of this photo?


Well, that the entrance of the ice cave. Awesome, isn´t it?

Stone trees?

There is neither trick nor cheat.
So... How the damn can such a trees grow up in a stone wall??!??!??

- This photo was shot in Rampart Creek-

The bear didn´t eat me

After the 10 days-trip in the Canadiam Rockies I only can say one thing: Awesome!!!!!!
The environment is pretty beautiful: lakes, mountains, waterfalls, glaciars....



And you know what? I didn´t meet any Spanish. Only people from Australia, UK, Holland, Germany, Switerzland and even from Croatia. In conclusion, when it comes to travel to USA or Canada people from the south of Europe seems to be frightened... maybe because of our fucking English -the English of people from the north of Europe is so brillant that we look idiots by comparision-. By the way, Australian accent is nearly uncomprensible. I needed almost 3 days to get used to it -they didn´t pronounce the "r" sound so a "Beer" becomes a "Bee" and the "a sound" is like de Spanish one so the say "Spain" or "again" instead of "Spein" or "agein"-

And yes.. We saw a bear with 2 cubs. The funny thing is that if you see a car parked besides the road, it means there is an wild animal near. In fact, this bear-view caused a trafic jam because all the people wanted to shoot pictures from their cars. Can you see the cub?

Let´s rock

Tomorrow I´m going 10 days to the Rockies... Yahooooooooo!!!!
So, I guess I won´t be able to blogger anything until my return to Vancouver...

Yes, I know... Sometimes it seems the only goal of this kind of post is to grow in you some kind of envy. And you know what? You are rignt! ;-))))))

By the way, If you don´t have any notice about me in the next 15 days, call up the Spanish Embassy in Canada. I could have been wolfed down by a cute-big beer..... ( I´m not kidding)

Let´s rock!!!!

Even kids need to be dried and....

... and Totems need to be repaired

Find the rule!

Imagine you work for the Post Office Services. How do you know where to leave the envelope? Yes, you are right. Number 3, even number 1, are clear.. But, What about the rest of them?


By the way, these boxes belong to the float houses in Granville Island, which was an industrial park that was transformed into a Public Market. This is the awesome view from the harbor -the view is behind the Swiss girl, salidos!!!-

A Canadian Bear

Trust him!!! Obviously, it cann´t be a bear ( Bears haven´t got horns, idiota!)
It´s so cute!!! Cuchi, cuchi, cuchi....

And a Canadian Beer

For a beer is imposible to be more "Proud of being Canadian"

Something is wrong?

For sure you know Warren Buffet has decided to give most of his money away to the foundation created by the only man richer than himself. All this money will help make the world a better place and, no doubts, this is a loadable task. The likes of "Mr. you are fired" should take note...

But the thing is: In the Toronto Public Library -see photo- there are some computers that have been donated by Gate´s foundation. In the other hand, one of the tasks of this foundation is to improve the resources of Public Schools in the pourests regions of USA.

And I wonder, shouldn´t this task be government´s responsibility?

What the hell is that?

Neither football, nor politics.. but something has lighted a fire under me. In fact, for sure in this world it is impossible to fit in more idiots (spanglish?)

I am really upset. Have you seen the ideas that PP are trying to trasmit to the Spanish society? It´s not uncunny you can see behind all this campaing: ETA-not alQaeda- put the train bombings in Madrid. Because of this, PSOE won the elecctions and as logical consequence PSOE is going to give up the terrorists.

Sorry, I must be a fool because either something is wrong or I don´t catch the point.

And the last straw has been the famous new "adverstisment" where you can see a rose with a snake. How can PPadicts say that PSOE and ETA are the same thing? The failure to measure this kind of "pitch" is devasting for the society. To be honest, I´m absoluted convinced PP doesn´t give a shit about any task in order to try to win the next elecctions. Maybe they think "If PSOE overhelms ETA, they will win the next elecctions so.."

And what can I say about the talks?
I would say that thanks to the police&political&people presure ETA is close to defeat. And maybe this will make your teeth grind but the point is, even to formalice that defeat, PEACE TALKS are neccesary. Like it or not, TALKS are always neccesary after a war. And this task is gonna be long and hard and PSOE can´t walk alone. I´m not saying that PP has to pat PSOE on the head, but this negotiation will last years and the blind refusal to back the talks will turn out to be big problem when PP win the elecctions -I said "when" and not "if PP win" because I assume PP will win next elecctions because anda que el PSOE lo está haciendo bonito-.

And it´s OK. I´m braced for the likes of PPaddicts that cling against the peace talks with ETA and who believe not only I wrong, but I have betrayed dead´s memories. But you know what? Even PP negotiated with ETA without a ceasefire and AVT didn´t complaint about it. Have that in mind before say anything.

29th Vancouver Folk Music Festival

This weekend was the 29th Vancouver Folk Music Festival. It was settled in Kitsilano beach and, as usual, the view and the enviorement were awesome.

7 scenarios, more than 40 folk groups, an incredible organization, and more than 900 volunteers. Can you belive it? There were different committees with different responsabilities: Security, enviorement, kitchen, administration... In fact, this festival only goes on thanks the volunteers.

I was enrolled in the "Perfomer Services Tent" And to be honest, until I got there I didn´t find out what the dam it was about. My goal was to deal with perfomer´s problems like "I need a new badge" and that kind of things. By the way... Badge? What the hell is a badge? Now for sure I know it ;-)

One thing. In the end Corquieu didn´t come (cajondiez) As far as I know, there were some problems with the flight. It is what it is... But even without Corquieu, it was worth for me to be there -at least I didn´t lay out a $120 ticket-

It must be true....

... because I read it on the Internet

Subject: THIS IS NOT JUNK LETTER. BILL GATES IS SHARING HIS FORTUNE
Dear Friends, Please do not take this for a junk letter. Bill Gates is sharing his fortune.
If you ignore this you will repent later.
Microsoft and AOL are now the largest Internet companies and in an effort to make sure that Internet Explorer remains the most widely used program, Microsoft and AOL are running an e-mail beta test.
When you forward this e-mail to friends, Microsoft can and will track it (if you are a Microsoft Windows user)for a two week time period.
For every person that you forward this e-mail to, Microsoft will pay you $245.00, for every person that you sent it to that forwards it on, Microsoft will pay you $243.00 and for every third person that receives it, you will be paid $241.00.

Si no reenbías esta información a todos tu hamigos te kedarás filivustero y sufriras migrañas el resto de tu bida. Hademás se te caherá la poya, te kedarás calbo, tu móbil dejará de funcioná, tu labadora quemará tu ropa, tu microondas perderá hagua y te bolberas maj feo que el jorovao de notredan. Ha mi primo segundo por parte de mi tío havuelo le pasó... Tan cierto como ke soy profesor de literraturra ispana. Palavra de onó.

Grouse Mountain

Just 20 minutes from downtown you can find one of the Vancouver´s attraction: Grouse Mountain. To get the peak, you can eithar take the Skyride or climb the mountain. Of couse, I climbed the mountain: 1 hour and a half.
Honestly, it was harder than I expected . I was kind of beat so I took the Skyride to go down.

The funny thing was that there were warnings about a bear that was sawn a couple days ago. But there were no "instructions" about how to deal with this kind of "challenge". In sum, in this rim of nature you can ended your days in the stomach of a awesome- cute-bear.

PD: One day in Toronto I asked for a Canadian beer, and the bartender answered: "I guess in British Columbia". With a spot of imagination you would see the reason ;-)

Are you on the mortgage?

Oh my god!!! Have you seen the soar of interest rate? It´s frightened.

It seems it´s gonna increase until 4-4.5%. It´s supoussed this rise is to keep the inflaction at bay, but if this is the case I´m afraid that lots of people will have to sell their houses because they will not be able to withstand such a interest rate. (And no, you can not blame on left-wing neither Zapatero)

And what it´s worst, like it or not the brick can loses its value. After a boom a plunge always follow. You can see precedents in the UK´s housing market.

The decline in borrowing costs over the past 8 years has encourage lots of families to buy unaffordable houses. An the point is that houses are more overvalued than they were at any other past time. Nowadays -if you are lucky and you can afford the monthly payment of your mortgage - you need a hyper-long term mortgage. In the old days our parents not only were able to buy a house in less than 10 years, but they were able to raise us as well.... and often only with our father´s income. So, either something is wrong or I´m not able to catch the point.

Maybe the petrols price could fall and the rise of interest rate could plunge too. Maybe we could win the lottery or even we could find a extremely-well-paid new job. The thing is that I´m afraid all these situations are againts all odds but, who knows what´s in the store for us?
;-)

Delusion of a big washing machine

Look, if you try to achieve "The American style of life" it´s suppoused that you have to pursuit happiness in the form of big cars, big houses, new technology items - by the way, do you realize how quick this kind of stuff loses its value?... it´s shocking!!!- , incredible ineficient washing-machines that waste 150 liters of water every time you use it...

But, to achieve all these goals, maybe you have to work around the clock. And the funny thing is that, the most you pursuit the "happiness" in this way, the more you sacrifice what is really important. We already know the dark side of relantless work is less spare time to be with your family, friends, your health... But sometimes we are not aware about it because we´ve just forgotten it.

Giving this situation, maybe the question is not longer only "Are you happy with your life?"; it´s also "Are you able to be happy without buying a big washing-machine or are you always looking if the grass is greener in the other side ?"

But the point is that "the Spanish style of work" is even worst that the American one -or at least "that the Canadian one"-. For example, in Canada almost all people leave their offices about 5:00 PM. Even there are shops that close the doors about 6:00 PM. Can you imagine?

Think again leaving your office about 5:00 pm. Can you imagine?

Sometimes it seems we are suppoused to stay in our office overworking - or maybe with nothing to do- because your boss is still there... And don´t dare leave the office until a prudential hour.. otherwise " What could your boss and co-workers think about you?" The problem is we often mix up "to work efficiently" with "hours".

Let´s be honest, IT SUCKS. And if this is your case, your job and your live turn out to be like an American Washing-Machine: extremely inefficient.

Sawns Falls Loop.

My second trail with Wanderung.
In this case, we hiked the "Sawn Falls Loop". It was about 20 km with a elevation gain of 1200m. Hiking time: about 8 hours.

The path is in an old forest where you can find some small and beautiful lakes like this one (Lindsay Lake).

After leaving this lake we encountered snow, but much of it had melted away in the hot of the last 2 weeks.

We ascended the Eagle Peak as well. From this peak you can see a really awesome view. The problem was that the day was so sunny that my shots seems to be blurred and burnt (cajonodemo!!)

PD: Yes, of course, we got lost (again). It´s to die for -it seems everytime I go outdoors, I get lost-.
PD2: And there was a little accident.. I was just cracking jokes and I fell into Lindsay Lake (12 feet deep). Fortunately, there are not photos about it ;-)

Proud of being Canadian

Saturday, Canadian Day

Once you are in Vancouver, you realize that Canadian are really "Proud of being Canadian". Maybe it´s because of the people who work hard to meet the standards to become a citizenship. Those people who make Canada a beautiful land of diversity by complementing this landscape with different cultures.By the way, some days ago I asked my teacher whether there was going to be an Army Parade. He answered "An Army Parade? Of course Not. They are in Afganistan" After this, he smiled and added "We are proud of being Canadian, but we are not like the Americans... Canada became as a nation peacefully, quite unlike USA. They became an indepedent country after an armed revolution"

My first hiking in Vancouver

The thing is that there are some "on line" Hiking Clubs. For example www.wanderung.ca
To make the story short, Wanderung is a mailing-list that allows its members to reach out for people to go hiking. On Wendsday I received a email from a canadian girl asking for people to go to Buntzen Lake Reservoir. I answered "ok, lets go". In the end, we were a group of 5 people and the point was that the girl who organized the hiking put his car at our disposal for free. The path, whose name is "Diez Vistas", was amazing: 15km, 4 hours. Yes, of course, we got lost. But only half an hour...
This is the view from the first "vista". From this point you can see Vancouver and Mount St Helens that is about 300 km right from here. Homework : "What is Mount St Helens?"

And the best thing is the path ends in the Buntzen Lake where, of course, we swam and sunbathed as well. By the way, I though I was out of shape, but no way! :-)

PD: OK, I´ll be honest. I confess yestarday I skipped my classes, but I don´t regret anything about it except the fact that I could have enrolled this club before. It was fun and only fun

No news are good news?

When you are abroad, you realize that only thanks to Internet you can be informed about Spanish news. In fact, Spain doesn´t exist in Canadian newspapers.

But in the other hand, I don´t care about it at all. My Spanish news intake was so high that I need a rest. Do you know what I mean?

Besides the fact the news are a bit repetitive -to say the least-, the type of information covered is focused on negative stories. And I´m sure most of us are addicted to the news. Excuses like "I read several newspapers to get perspective on what´s happening" are just poor excuses.

In conclusion, you are becom¡ng distracted from what´s important by reading about what is not.

I already know what Politicians are gonna say. I already know TV shows nothing but scandal, murders, wars. I already know most of the news are inconsequential. Maybe It´s time to turn my back on news. Maybe no news are good news....

Familia Castañón

A memory for Igor Medio and Carlos Redondo

Vaya por dios!!!
Acabo de enterarme que 2 mienbros del grupo Felpeyu han fallecido en un accidente de circulación en Alava cuando se dirigian a Barcelona para ofrecer un concierto. El resto de los integrantes resultaron heridos.Felpeyu es uno de esos grupos de folk asturiano que podríasmos definir como "imprescindibles". Una gran perdida...

Corquieu in Vancouver

Corquieu is one of my favourite folk music groups. They are from Ribadesella, Asturias.
They started to play in 1998 and despite their youth they are pretty good. You can find more information in www.corquieu.com from you can download some of their songs in mp3 format.

The point is that all these years I´ve been trying to see them in a live concert. And due I live in Madrid I wasn´t be able!!! And just now I´ve discovered they´re gonna play in Vancouver next month!!!! Can you belive it?

For sure, this time I´ll attend a date.