April (1)

April came and went so fast that it felt like the proverbial blink and and you miss it . Is it totally true that the older you get the faster times seems to pass. Although my dad tells me that it feels slow again once you pass your 70's. Wait and see. I just hope I'll still be bloggin by then...

I've been very busy in April. There's the usual stuff such as working, taxiing Patxi to his rugby practices and games, keeping the house going and so on and there was also some extra and very good things. All in all, a very good month. Few pictures, though, pity but I keep forgetting the camera even though I love to post pictures here.
Let's see...

I have to start writing about my students, sometime they say the funniest thing or use the cutest turn of phrases and we're really have a good time in class... at least I have a good time. From now on I'll start writing things down to bring here. I promise. No names of course.

On April I started going to yoga. There's a place just on the corner of my block, literally a few steps from my home and I was meaning to start going there since we moved here but for one reason or another I never did. Then "the husband" noticed a sign saying that they have a special offer and they were not charging joining fees for April so I had to join them. No more excuses.
There's a selection of classes doing different things and so far I've only doing Hatha yoga, twice a week and I'm really enjoying it. I don't even break a sweat but my abdominals and the muscles in my upper arms were hurting after a class or two so is not hard to figure it out that this is somehow working. Is also very relaxing and I appreciate that as I don't really know how to unwind and every little thing in life affect me a lot. Everybody have to wear white clothes in the class, which I though was a bit weird, but it does look really peaceful.
I discovered that I'm actually quite flexible and I'm no trouble crossing my legs with my knees on the floor and stuff like that, but, to my surprise, I've got no sense of balance whatsoever. I cannot even stand still in my two feet with my eyes close without swerving badly. And I'm not talking about wild strange yogi posture, no sir; while everybody in the class can stay peacefully still in one leg as in the picture, you can see me wobbling with my face contorted in concentration, tongue out and all, trying hard not to fall and failing miserably time after time.

I'm really going to try keep going as I can see yoga working just right for me.

We also went to the cinema in April, something unusual as movies are dubbed and we don't like that. We went to see Persepolis, and I mention it here because I know is on the Arnolfini in Bristol right now, so please go and watch it as is a gem. Is mostly a black and white animation of the story of an Iranian girl growing out in the 70's and during all the downs and downs that Iran has being through. Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, is a great inside into the culture and also a great entertainment. We loved it. "the husband" then downloaded the comic book in which the movie is based by Marjane Satrapi and I'm thinking of buying it as is comic as its best, with a real and moving story.

On the 19th and 20 of April there was a Fair of the earth in one park in Barcelona and as it's a annual event, I wanted to go and check it out to see if we may do some advertising of the local Freecycle group that I opened. Definitely next year I'm going to try and do some advertising of freecycle as the fair is all about recycling and green issues.
The fair was the usual mix of long-haired people badly playing drums, green activists, save-whatever stands and lovely hand made crafts for sale, plus great ethnic food from all over the world (including Argentinean barbecues!). What really surprise me was a solar oven that people can build by themselves with scrap of mirrors or polished metal. It looks like a parabolic dish and it work by concentrating sunlight into a point and thus heating whatever you need to cook (see picture with the cook and the oven which looks like a box of mirrors). this is great for those part of the world where people need cheap reliable energy to cook, usually people cook making fires with wood that people (mostly women) have to walk for miles to collect or by cutting trees and the deforestation takes place. (In refugees camps women are particularly vulnerable to attacks when they have to leave the camp looking for wood to light a fire)
Then I learned that a German guy created a blueprint to make affordable and cheap cookers and donated its copyright to humanity, so poor people can build a cheap solar cooker or over.
I think that this could work beautifully in sunny poor places like where I'm from in Argentina. Well... thinking about it, I'll love to have one here in very sunny Sabadell... maybe I can build one and use it on the terrace at the top of my building to barbecue... Oh, how I miss having a garden!!

By the way the freecycle Barcelona group is growing and working really nicely, and we've got more than 500 members so far and people are exchanging things and keeping them out of the landfills. To find a group in your area, please check here:
http://www.freecycle.org/group/?noautodetect=1