to be a druid....

As briely intimated on this blog not so long ago, Stonehenge to me is truly a bunch of rocks. Say, just for an example, that I'd been a druid a little good while ago, I might have been willing to alter my take on the topic. Maybe this place indeed is a mystic place where the weird and the wonderful materialised and people got enlightened with the ways of the magic.

Yahdi-yah and blah blah blah. I've said it. Merci beacoup!

On another note, and still referring to the previous entry by my beloved Xinola, it is really nice to receive some family visits. You might want to ask me later and in particular after the visits, if it was such a fulfilling experience. For the moment being, nevertheless, I'm thrilled to bits.

Xinola's aunt will be an interesting case. Not least because we dont share a common lingua but also for the reasons outlined below. My personal perceptions and feelings towards England have changed so dramatically within the duration of my 'visit' that I'm not sure what and how I could elaborate. For Xinola's aunt, however, we'll be looking towards showing some real English things and not just London. One should not misread this, I actually really like London, at least to visit every now and then that is...

Then the following entrance to our little house on the prairie will be my brother, contemplating his passage through the years. 40 of them, to be exact. My plan was to take him to the Kop (if you dont know what this is, there is no need to know) but this has proved to be a formidable task and in this case a task of a financial kind. 200 pounds for a bloody ticket!!!!! Me-not-get-robbed-in-clear-daylight. Honestly, you can get these cheaper but only if you belong to a supporters club, are an CEO of a MNC, or just happen to be in a right place at the right time. Unfortunately for my brother, netiher of this applies to me. I'm sure we'll have a good time still and we'll be able to make the most of it.

My retired parents have also decided that it is a good idea to see the countryside in England. This, me thinks, should be quite straight forward. They are retired, they know how to spend time without really having anything to do. That's why I'm not worried. We'll just have to wait and see.

Then there is something else. Recently I've been going through a lot of emotions. I need to figure out how to go ahead with my working life. Work really sucks and even if you're getting paid and all, it still sucks. How could I find a passion for something and then the will to pursue it? What do I need to do realise that this has to be done? All questions, no answers... Shit.

I'll leave it there.

Another Autumn Begins

This autumn is bringing some new things over. We are living in the countryside, which seems to suit me quite well since i am a kindda loner. We are expecting a few visitors to come over, my aunt from Mexico (who does not know a word of English, truly); Nygard's bro to celebrate his 40 at a footy match; and my parents-in-law who have time to do anything they can because they are retired. That's cool I guess.

My aunt is coming only for a week, and she is arriving this weekend. She has never travelled outside her home country, so i cannot begin to imagine how she actually feels about going all the way across the pond just to come to an island. Well, she does not see it this way, that's a fact. She is coming to Europe, to London. Hum, we begin there with some misunderstandings, in a way she is coming to Europe, but not really. On the other hand, she will be visiting London, but she is not 'coming to London' solely.

I don't know if you have had any relatives from abroad with little understanding of places, who enjoy misplacing the setting where you actually live. Yes, I know i am being silly and rigid by giving attention to this, but when I have actually gone home and met friends of my relatives and they had asked me 'how is your life in London', i said that I don't live in London and then they asked 'where then?', and the interest is lost. It is like meeting someone who confuse you with a famous person and then realises you are just not the person and drops the attention off you. Well, not that it matters, but it happens. It's an ackward gain and loss of unwanted attention.

Yes, many lay people do only equalise England to London. Unless the person knows about football or history or music, which can make a conversation slightly better and they can be able to recognise that there are a couple of other places of interest in this country. Really, through the years it has been a process of learning that there is no need to bother oneself with explaining to people that England as well as London are more than just the Big Ben and the deceased princess Di. There are pubs, pop music, fish&chips, the controversial countryside, chavs, pop culture, TK Maxx, terrible junk food culture, celebrities, Misters Blair and Brown, Ales, did I mention pop culture? Better skip this for the average tourist. They don't want to know about England, they want to visit England and take as many pictures as possible to show that they had been in 'the sightseeings and tourist attractions you must visit'.

This means that with my aunt I will be going for the first time ever to the Buckingham and Kesington Palaces and will take a london tourist bus. Gosh, oh gosh. Hahahahahaha, that's all i think about me and this adventure. I wanted to top it up with a quick visit to Stonehenge, but Nygard looked at me weirdly and told me off that idea with "it's just a bunch of rocks". I agree with him, but well, everybody who travels to England gets to go to bloody Stonehenge, but not my aunt. She is gonna go to the East Anglian countryside, which we like quite a lot.

Other thing that is finally coming up for me is the feedback over my thesis draft!!! This week i'll learn about what needs to be done and will get my hands on it as soon as 'humanly' possible.

Moving on

Lately no one has had time to add communiquees into this blog. It is not that we are experiencing coma, it is just that we haven't given ourselves time. On the other hand, there have been few things going on in my life which haven't allowed me time to sit down and to write about anything.

After a fantastic summer trip to Suomi, on the next day back in England, we had to move house to the country side. This should last for a few months only, however it implied so many arrangements and dealings with landlady, new people, utilities companies, finding our ways in the new area, etcetera.

An interesting thing was not having internet at home. I first thougth i was going to die without interenet, how could i live without being able to communicate? Well, the telly gave enough info so i didn't need the internet for that. The contryside gives the necessary relaxation to look for that in the internet. And the little need to work on the PhD made me realise that at any given time, i could easily give up internet.
Today has been the first day i have the connection at home. And just because i need to do some work, it is that i have had the pc on since the morning.

Being without internet at home while being at home without going out for a week, taught me something. That although internet is really handy, it is not as necessary as I first thougth through my own experience of it.

The only thing i felt a bit funny about is not being able to read the news. You might think that i am a lazy cow not buying the papers from a newsagent. However, my neighbour village does not have a newsagent. 30minutes walk just for a pub and a deli shop, which is fine with me at the moment.

I have also lost one of my sources of income. It was to be expected, but i was holding the hope of keeping it just for the money. This means that money-wise things will become a bit stretch.

Things to wait for during the autumn imply mainly, submitting the PhD thesis and teaching. Nygard wants, for once, to do a couple of trips, and now i feel like i can't do anything anymore. No money, no will to travel, just want to get done with the PhD. This sometimes blinds me from the pleasures of the life i have been forming with Nygard. Come on, now i don't even care for theatre, not even much film watching.

I am waiting, have been waiting since mid July for feedback on my first draft. That is all that is in my head. In order to move on I need to get started with the final work, and I don't even know how much time this will take me. But I am still waiting to be able to do so. Meanwhile, time elapses...

Moons change, weather evolves, life begins and ends, scientists discover a cure for skin cancer, the crocodile hunter died while shooting one of his documentaries, Nygard is semi-ill, my aunt is planning to come over for a super-fast visit, a friend is about to leave England for good, deers have begun running on a field nearby.

I want to move on with the cycle too

Call it 'El Nino', 'Global Warming', whatever...

... and these images from Mexico City yesterday, say it all. As we know Mexico is a country with more or less different climates through its different regions, but it mainly enjoys of tropical weather. As part of the different climates, hail storms and snowfall take place, respectively, during the summer and spring in high places such as the diverse sierras of the country and Mexico City. Yesterday, instead of the normal summer rainfall, a heavy hail storm in combination with a rainfall happened in the city and these images are really unbelievable.

The images are borrowed from the newspaper 'El Universal' online: http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/noticias.html

Hot, hot, hot...

Yes, it's been a scorching summer so far. Not that we should complain I guess. In fact, it has been so nice and warm for the past weeks that the summer really feels like summer. I just got back from the pub after having lunch outside in the beer garden and felt the sun burning on my back. Absolutely fantastic.

We are about to go for a little holiday to Finland and our plan is to do a little hiking and perhaps some white water rafting as well. Eastern Finland is a naturally very beautiful place and my memories are so distant that I'm very excited about our little trip. Of course, there's also the compulsory family time etc to be included but hey, can't really avoid that altogether can you.

Another little treat for me will be meeting with my old football team again. We'll be getting together in my old hometown and then playing a friendly against another local team I think. After getting totally trashed by some 4th division fat club, we head towards the main event - sauna, drinks and a meal. Everybody's been asked to bring some old photos and videos of our games so I think this could be hilarious. I'm just hoping that everybody's still doing well.

Anyway, that's that about the holiday. It just needs to arrive now...

Workwise it's really been mad. Entire June was as busy as it gets here and it proved a challenge again. Now, I'm faced with a new kind of challenge, if I accept it that is. My boss has offered me to take one of our departments under my direct management and obviously this would come with a little pay rise too. Tempting but also very challenging as they are struggling a bit in this department under current management. Maybe this could be a chance to use some creativity and imagination to bail them out of the situation they've gotten into. We'll see about this later as I'll have to make my decision early next week.

So, long time that I've written and the usual blah blah about being lazy kind of applies. However, I'll just hold to these thoughts for now and get back to you once I've decided on my near future.

'til then...

La Lucha Libre

Have you ever come across Mexican free-style fighting (lucha libre)? For instance, with El Santo Enmascarado de Plata (The Silver Masked Saint)

If not, you could try in your spare time to learn about it, however i am not sure how much of reading could help you to understand what this is all about. In Mexico la lucha libre is a whole cult sport in which semi-fit and less-than-fit men fight against each other wearing customs. Over four decades ago, if i am not wrong, the cult for the luchadores (fighters) was so big that many films were made out of their adventures.



Yeah, fighters sci-fi films, such as El Santo Vs the Monsters, El Santo and Blue Demon agains the Vampire Women, El Santo Vs the Werewolf, etc. etc. I think that when I was a child, I spent the afternoons watching those films.

Ok, even if you haven't come across all this cheap sort of fun and nonsense, many other have. One of them seems to be Jack Black and the people who made 'Napoleon Dynamite' (which is a great film). They came with the idea of a Mexican-Scandinavian orphan who lives in a village or whatever marginal place in Mexico with some priests or monks. And in order to, perhaps, save their home, he becomes a fighter...'Nacho Libre', so I assume that it will be a kind of funny film with many touchy moments, in case it resembles the emotional style of 'Napoleon Dynamite'. Goodness me, will it bring memories from my childhood of watching luchadores films?



Ha, I don't think so, that is why i really want to see this.

Why bother if I am not there...

Hi, recently the presidential elections in Mexico took place. Right, who gives a peanut when it comes to Mexico either for football or elections. Well, for football I understand, you see, they played quite bad, shameless sad game they had. However there was some spark that made me recover from my frustration. In their last match, the Mexicans played very well, to a great level showing that they wanted to remain in the competition. Still they lost, but even then I didn't feel, like the English, that it was the end of the world, the end of humanity as such and that only barbarians will descend upon us. I actually felt that the Mexicans gave a good game.

Now, about the elections. Why to give a damn if I don't live over there? Why would anyone reading this would care? There are no reasons for anyone to care about Mexican politics, unless they intend to migrate from deep south america towards gringolandia or Canada. It would only matter to those who believe in some sort of fair trade, organic freelance farming, managing to keep with a simple way of life, enjoying freely of the natural scenarios, along with other of the positive things about that country. Anyway, what i wanted to communicate is that for once in a lifetime of elections, the results are way to tight between the two main candidates. The difference between them is of only and only one per cent. However that one per cent favours the candidate that I do not support, who surely will become the fucking president. What is surprising about this elections is not only the result, but that some ballots are being counted, from yesterday onwards. Would that really change anything? Me and the rest of the Mexicans will see.

Patrick Guilbaud's - Dublin

I promised to post a review of this experience a good few weeks ago and still have not been able to deliver.

To start with, I was very nervous about entering the realm of gourmet as having next to no experience from such places, I really did not know what to expect. Once we had our booking confirmed the previous day, we took a cab to the restaurant feeling quite nervous still. Mine, and Xinola's concerns were soon swept away as we were directed to a small and very comfortable waiting lounge.

The owner of the restaurant welcomed us with a firm handshake and a smile, which I thought was a nice gesture. We were soon asked if we'd like a drink before ordering and as we had agreed before, we ordered a glass of vintage champagne for each. This was served swiftly and tasted as I expected a good-quality blanc de blancs champagne from 1996 would.

As we toasted for my birthday the menus were brought to us. We agreed to go for the three course lunch menu and the owner himself took our orders. Next to visit us was the sommelier who brought over the wine list (btw, 72 pages and about 5kg). Instead of delving into the extensive list we asked the sommelier to recommend a wine for us.

We were guided to our table and the first impression of the restaurant just took another step up as the space was completely isolated from the hustle of the street, offering instead a nice and light space with a pretty view to the rear garden. The waiter brought our champagne flutes for us and we sat down to wait for the first course. First, however, the wine was presented.

We followed the sommelier's recommendation for a light Burgundy white. Even without tasting the food, the wine was really airy and fruity and we both agreed to like it.

Instead of receiving the starter first, we were offered a selection of breads and butter. These were all tasty and especially my herb and tomato miniroll was delicious. As we nibbled our bread, the appetiser was served. Now, picture the stereotypical little arty gourmet portion and you can start to have an idea of this appetiser. Consisting of seared chicken, apple salad and plum sauce, the appetiser did a good job of waking up the appetite together with the remainder of the champagne. The service was very professional and most of the waiters were French, which added to the experience.

What followed next was quite interesting - the waiter came to clean the table after the plates for the appetisers were taken away. He used a little metallic spatula to wipe the crumbs from the table. This was quite funny at least for me...

Xinola's starter was a Lobster bisque with truffles and I selected a risotto with parmesan and semi-dried tomatoes and black olives. Both were divine, if a bit salty to our liking. Whilst enjoying our starters, wine and water glasses were filled as needed.

After the starter the main course arrived just in perfect time. Xinola's monkfish looked like a nice piece of 'meat' and my slowly poached chicken looked good too. The fish was apparently very good and the chicken benefited from morel mushrooms and a yellow wine sauce. Very good indeed, if a bit salty once again. At this point I also realised that my concern about not having enough to eat was unnecessary. There was plenty to eat in fact.

Once again the table was cleaned with the same funny tools and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. The wine was excellent with the food and this was turning into one of those experiences you'll always remember.

Desserts were ordered from a separate dessert menu and what followed was very nice. Xinola opted for a selection of French and Irish cheeses and I chose a black fig crumble with milk and almond sorbet. When the cheeseboard (or a trolley rather) was brought over, we were amazed. There were at least 30 varieties of cheese, varying from mild bries to extremely potent goatcheese and gorgonzola. An appropriate selection of crackers was served with the cheeses. Very impressive and more importantly, extremely tasty.

My dessert was very tasty as well. The sorbet was exquisite and the fig crumble was great as well. By this time I was quite full already.

Once we finished the desserts they asked if we wished to have some coffee or tea. We had some coffee and it was served with some petits flours (or something like that), which are little cakes and cookies etc. Very nice touch in the end.

So, we payed the bill and thought: what the hell just happened. It was a trip on to the 'other side', a trip that we'll always remember. Was it worth it? Definitely.

I hope that this makes some sense to give a good idea of the place, but I also have to apologise for forgetting some details. You can now rest and take a sigh of relief for I'm not going to pursue a career as a food critic. I just enjoyed it and would definitely recommend the place if someone would ask. In fact, I'd like to go again one day...

Some of Life's Things

While the last week was fantastic, weather wise, today began with a gloomy approach and mad showers and rain all day long. Well, again I decided to begin talking about the weather because that is one thing I just felt now when I came out from the library in my way to the computer lab. A little shower interfere in my enjoyment of the outdoors.

I don't complain though. This rainy day was certainly needed in the island, particularly because for the last few months there has been an ongoing campaign for a declaration of a draught and the banning of hose pipes. Not more wasting water in the gardens some might say. The other day, my friends' landlady was commenting, over a Sunday's bbq and after she had fetched her own, quite big and varied garden for a charitable occasion, that people don't want to water their gardens with the residual water from home appliances. I really didn't ask what did she mean with that and if she water her huge garden with soapy water. I didn't think so.

Today I was talking with some of my colleagues, which is not so common to do because I am most of the time away from the university. The two of these colleagues were quite disappointed at the university and in particular at the department in which we 'study'. Both of them have been unlucky enough to experience negative situations with their supervisors, admin people, graduate school, etcetera. While I listened to their stories, I felt that there was something not too unfamiliar in them. To a great extent I have had similar experiences, for instance, the lack of supervision throughout the five years of my degree. However, I never made a point out of that to anyone else that was not close to me. I had never commented about that issue just for the sake of gossip as these two colleagues of mine are doing.

With this I am not saying that I don't like to complain, which is an activity I don't mind engaging myself on a daily basis. Nonetheless, I rather do it with a purpose of exposing my own-whatever-self, instead of exposing other's failures. Well, I have to admit I don't mind making statements about the fucked-up Mexican government, the oligarchies, the catholic church, my family, bad weather, etcetera. But there was something in my colleagues' voices that I didn't quite get right. What was their point for letting me know about their conditions? So I could gossip about that to others? Well, if that was their aim, so I did when the conversation with my friends included some topic about the department in which we studied and certain particular senior lecturer that we actually dislike. This lecturer is the one in troubles with one of my colleagues about which I was talking earlier.

What am I trying to say here today? Actually nothing in particular, just filling up a gap in information about the things that are going on in one of the lives of the contributors to this blog.

Please, accept my apologies if the information that I have dared to put here is unnecessary for you to bear with.

'--- Blog to become a film'

The title comes from a little article from The Guardian (published yesterday).

The blog in reference is an acclaimed blog created by a man from Baghdad during the initial invasion in 2003. And, I didn't know, that it has been already turned into a book. Ok, that is cool, but how astonoshing? What can that mean? What can that represent?

First thing I think about is the publication of correspondence letters (from famous writters, philosophers, politicians, etcetera) and the films made about them. Those are things from the past. And part of that past was the relevance of the life of 'publicly-important' individuals.

Something of the present is the significant attention that 'publicly-non-important' individuals can get. Other thing of the present is the change into virtual communication, and its significance for the people (with access to it), and its different meanings and consequences. This other aspect also comes in many different shapes, and it is taken into the extreme that many many of the those unknown people become known by their displays of information in virtual spaces. Other extreme is the outstanding 'celebrity' culture in the UK, where persons who were unknown yesterday turn public with the blink of the eye if they just happen to shag, snog, date, or know something about some publicly-important-one. Yet, this last condition is not only a thing of the present, it is a thing of the past too, however it is aided by the increasing access to means of communication.

I am not sure of how I actually see all that, but so far I find it very interesting and as happening way too fast. The speed is one aspect that I actually cannot comprehend just yet. But I will leave it here, because I don't want to get too serious here.

Let's better do some mental wanking. Can you imagine the whole of incoherences from the imposibility of the next happening?

'Electric Vihta Blog to become a film'

Oh Lordi

World, or at least Europe has gone mad, it's official now. Eurovision song contest has long been a lame attempt to raise some feelings for one's nationality. Funny that, as if people in their countries on this continent already would not possess those feelings. Europe is a very diverse continent with rich and complex cultural mixture and the peoples of Europe have always known this and stuck to their own countries with some exemptions of course so that the point of such contest still remains very unclear to me...

However, Lordi, with some nice assistance from their record label, caused such a stir even before anyone had heard any of the songs that few were left in darkness about their mission - to rock the stagnant and largely pointless contest. To be honest, it was about a time for someone to really do this and to question the necessity of such thing on the whole.

Well, I can't really say that much more about the song or the band except that as for the rest of the contestants, it had some more comedy and showbusiness value than most and therefore, it won. Oh, just maybe, there's also a helluva big group of people around Europe who happen to like monsters and semi-hard rock too... or not?

On another note, I will be turning 30 next week and will be visiting the city of Dublin with Xinola Mon-Tue next week. The highlight of the trip will be a meal at Patrick Guilbaud's restaurant. More on that next week once we're back. I'll write a little review of a place that I've never even thought that I'd be visiting and I am of course talking about the restaurant here.

Mad world, and it's only getting crazier as we get older....

Hard Rock Hallelujah, make your bets

This morning, waking up to the Chris Moyles show as usual, a strange out of a cavern sound was put through the radio. It was the Finnish Eurovision Song Contest entrance: Lordi and their Monster Rock.

If you haven't heard the song or seen the video, I recommend you to do so if you want to be part of this anticipation to that ridiculous contest. This goes months back...

Few months ago, Nygard showed me the Finnish entrance to the Eurovision. It was cracking at the moment, and we kind of felt sorry for the Finnish nuisance. Yet, just yet, if most of the people think that Finland will be the most annoying competitors, actually I think the whole show is meant to be that. I would be surprised if people have forgotten the horrible performers from Greece...

The anticipation for the contest is bigger this week. For example, two days ago, in Scott Mills show, they were asking the audience to mention their favorites to win. Someone called and mention, if I'm not wrong, the Romanian entry and they played the song, which sounded as usual clubbing shitty music. Right. Then someone else called and asked for Finland's entry. People were cracking, again by the embarrassment, and played the song.

I know my point is not clear as usual. I intend to raise a case against all odds and claim that although Finland is the entry said to earn ZERO votes in next Saturday's context, I am almost sure that someone will give at least one vote. I am almost sure that if this should happen, a major embarrassment then will be for the UK because three years ago it did not receive a vote whatsoever. Having a slight idea of the Brits, they will recall the time when they didn't win a vote at all, and will try to find explanations for why something like the Monster Rock received at least one vote and why 'Gemini' did not receive even a laugh.

Does any one want to bet that Finland will get a vote? I say, they will get at least one, for the sake of an honest laugh.

Travel stories...

As promised, here's a little travel diary of our recent trip. I'll keep it simple and add a few photos to illustrate some key locations....

Our first day travelling was quite a long day, made somewhat worse by a guy in seat 34K in front of me, who had the seat fully reclined for the entire 11 hour flight. I'm not complaining for complaining's sake but I'm quite tall and it's not very comfortable to try to relax for such a long time in a tiny cramped space.

Another slightly negative note to add was the so called fast bag drop at LHR. Yeah, do the online check in and drop your bags and you're off, right. In an airport such as Heatrow, there simply is nothing fast, apart from the first class passengers hurrying their way past you to the fast track luggage reclaim and migration control...

Apart from that, the journey went well and it was nice to arrive to D.F. with a hint of daylight left. The skies were clear with little pollution and we could see the volcanoes surrounding the city nicely.

The first weekend we spent in a city called Puebla and also visited some surrounding towns for Aztec ruins. Very impressive. Puebla itself is a nice and vibrant colonial city, at least for my eyes. The weather was great and the process of sunburn did not take too long to get started.

The great thing about Puebla is Mole Poblano. I've never tasted anything so voluptuous, sweet, bitter and hot at the same time, gorgeous! Made with several ingredients ranging from plantains to various chillies and roasted sesame seeds, this truly is a Mexican dish at its best. And this was the best I've tried, ever, and I've tried a few...

After the weekend we took an early Monday morning flight to Cancun (for cheap flights, check Volaris). Landing to Cancun International was rather interesting as we could see from the plane the damage done to the jungle by the hurricane Wilma.

Our destination wasn't Cancun itself but a little island called Isla Mujeres (island of women), located apprx 10km from Cancun in the Caribbean Sea. We've actually visited this place together once before and I fell in love with it immediately so we just had to go back.

Isla (as everybody seems to be referring to it) is a quaint island of some 13,000 inhabitants and a small abudance of tourists. Fortunately, there are no franchises (ie. McDonald's etc) on the island and the tallest building is limited to three storeys. The abundance of tourists is not overwhelming at all, on the contrary. We felt the place very peaceful, especially in comparison to the previous time as that was the peak season (xmas-new year).

Highlights of Isla definitely included snorkeling and beach (which you can see on the right). Holiday as ordered... Including some delicious food from the Loncherias.

From this little paradise our journey continued towards Veracruz state. 16 hours on the bus is not necessarily an ideal way to spend precious holidays, but for some reason I didn't mind. At least I had more space on the bus than I had on the flipping plane.

In Veracruz we had a wonderful time meeting family members and just literally taking it easy. Xinola already posted some pictures from Veracruz and I'm sure you can appreciate the beauty of the place from the photos. Very nice indeed. I've always had a large soft spot for nature and wildlife and Mexico definitely has some great places to explore. If only one had more time and money...

Some more beach and delicious food and it was time for me to head back to UK and boring office life again. Xinola still had some extra days with her family which she, hopefully, enjoyed whilst I headed back.

It's a shame that nice things must come to an end... Anyway, this was a great holiday during which I managed to read a couple of books and truly relax well. Can't really ask more for from a holiday, can you?

Maradona's worst nightmare

I hope that you can access this advertisement. It has been in the news in Latin America because it is about the football god Maradona and the bad effects of drinking to much Guarana, a Brazilian drink.

His nightmare is about him playing for the Argentinian football archenemy: Brazil.


http://www.lanacion.com.ar/anexos/Video/06/31776.asx

Veracruz' Pics II

This is my second installment of Veracruz. This is part of the sierra (mountain system) of the province, located in Huatusco, between Cordoba and Xalapa.

On that day we climbed a small mount, but the thing is that the mount begins from the town centre. This means that part of it is very much populated and urbanised, as many places in this part of the sierra of Veracruz. I am only showing the green parts of course.



Below we can see some of the very beautiful view from one side of the mount.

Veracruz' Pics I

This is the mangroves and palm tress route towards Jicacal in the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The boat ride costs £0.20 one way. Of course they use quite small boats and fill them up with people who carry loads of stuff with them to spend the whole day in Jicacal.



This is Jicacal on a windy and wavy day. Although one can bring its own food and drinks, one can order some freshly caught fish and they prepared it as one wishes. There are caguamas (beer bottles of one litre) and loads of snacks to buy. The day goes quite fast in this kind of place.



This is the first of the two posts I offer on some contrasting things that Veracruz has to offer. Since Veracruz is not on the Caribbean or the Pacific, it is a place not so famous among the common European tourist. Therefore, I have the pleasure to show you some of my favourite places there. Still, I have to admit that there is so much for me to explore in that province, which I intend to do little by little.

Holidays - the end

The title says it all. It's all over for this spring break. I will write a little trip report from home once I find a moment but wanted to quickly acknowledge that we're back from the tropics and all's well and good, apart from being back at work.

Mexico is a great country with great people. This was my third trip and not once have I felt uncomfortable anywhere (if you don't count the tiny microbuses and colectivos in which I feel a little bit less comfortable). Maybe I've been lucky or maybe having my better half from that part of the world has helped me. You see, it's quite common to see the exact opposite too amongst the tourista. People complaining and whining about pretty much anything and anyone in their way. I guess there's no way of satisfying everybody is there?

Anyway, I will write more once I'm home with some photos maybe... It seems now that the world has not stopped rotating nor has the office stopped working while I was away. So, back to work it is then, unfortunately. For now, the holidays are over.

Muted

Right at this moment I can't think of anything more silly than music videos. Unintentional comedy in music videos sems to be without any boundaries.

I made this discovery earlier this week when I went to the gym. They have tv screens in front of the exercise bikes, and if you are using one of those bikes you get to plug in your headphones. If you don't have a headset all you can do is to watch the screen and pretend you hear something.

But anyway, what struck me was that the videos are absolutely awful. There was not a single female artist or group who weren't desperately trying to get rid of all their clothes before the end of the video, whilst sticking their asses on to the camera. Now, don't get me wrong, I have nothing against beutiful women, or their asses, but these are MUSIC videos, not ads for Victoria's Secrets.

And then there are the rappers. Sweet Jesus! Fur coats in the desert, fur coats by the pool. And, of course, jewellery that even Liberace (see picture below) would reject for being too gay.


There must be some web based tool for all wannabe rappers to make their own videos (choose from a selection of over-sized shirts, bikini girls and ridiculous ways of crossing fingers) because they all look exactly the same. Exploring the possibilities within the genre is clearly not a cool thing to do.

I'm not even going to get started on the solo male artists... Awful, is all I need to say about that.

Honestly, I don't know what's wrong here but it seems that there are no good music videos at all. But more worryingly, it seems that the songs that go with these videos are even worse. The radio gets crappier by the day... And now I really have to stop before I start sounding like a real old git!

Soul Inc.

I just heard this on the radio, and decided to cash in instantly...

Apparently someone in China wanted to sell his soul to the highest bidder on the internet. Well, the problem was that the company providing the e-commerce service reckoned they needed proof from "higher authority" to guarantee that the person was in a place to sell his soul and would be able to deliver the goods.

That's when it hit me: Goods and services my arse! Souls are where the smart money is in the new millenia. So, Electric Vihta is proud to present SOUL Inc. The first company on the net to provide assurances from higher authority that you are eligible to sell your soul. With a nominal fee we will provide you with all the doccuments you need to sell your soul.

Imagine the possibilities: you can buy a few extra souls and show off, or make a bit of cash by selling your own.

C'mon now soul sisters, make me rich!

P.S. According to reliable sources (South Park) Japanese people don't have souls, so don't be fooled by cunning fraudsters offering discount Japanese souls.

Holiday of a kind...

While Nygard and Xinola are downing Pina Coladas and relaxing under the Mexican sun, I'm having a holiday of a different nature...

In order to finally finish my studies I have taken two weeks off from work. In this time I'm supposed to dive into the disturbed mind of probably the single most repugnant caracter in human history (no, not Berlusconi or Lukasenko, we're looking for a 20th century German dictator here), and then resurface with a balanced account of how it all went wrong. A task, that seems to me to be deeply ironical in the first place. Well, I only have myself to blame for the topic of my paper.

Anyway, after that paper is written, I can finally say good bye to the wonderful world of academia. Not much of a change really, since I've been working pretty much full time for the past few years while claiming to be a student to save a few cents in museus entries etc. Sad, I know, but there you go.

As you can probably tell, I'm not exactly packed with energy and enthusiasm when it comes to finishing my studies. I mean, a person who rather writes a blog entry about having to write something else is hardly a prime example of the kind of academic determination needed to bring one's studies to an end.

Right, back to work (i.e. sulking, cursing, and utter unproductivity).

N and X, I leave it to you to come up with something positive and life-affirming for this blog.