Palm Sunday

Today is palm Sunday, or Domingo de Ramos and in still the very Catholic Spain is, of course, the excuse of another big fiesta. On Palm Sunday, in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as the Episcopal church and most Lutheran churches, palm fronds (or in colder climates some kind of substitutes) are blessed outside the church building and a procession enters, singing, re-enacting the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.
My visiting friends left us to babysit their adorable baby girl (who's having her siesta right now) and went to mass.

Since last week you could buy a palm to take with you to mass so you can have it bless by the priest and then take it home until the next year. (Our downstairs neighbours kept their last year palm in their balcony).
Of course, there were loads of palms to be bought in every shops, from the main supermarkets to the small seasonal shop around the corner. I call it "the seasonal shop" because is basically an empty shop that sells whatever is on season; for Christmas it was trees, logs and decoration, fancy dresses for Carnival, and now they're selling palms.
There's a variety of palms as I've never seen before, some are knitted in very elaborate ways and are quite beautiful, some are just very plain and my neighbours told me that they buy a simple one and knit it in a special way that's been in the family for generations. There's also big ones and smaller version, such as this that can be pin to a lapel.

A Spanish rhyming proverb states: Domingo de Ramos, quien no estrena algo, se le caen las manos ("On Palm Sunday, the hands drop off of those who fail to use something new"). Before the advent of consumption society, Palm Sunday was a day to wear new clothes or shoes, according to the possibilities.

The most famous Semana Santa tradition in Spain takes place in the south, specially in Seville where you have this huge processions with the cofradias' members carring the dying Jesus around town, dressed in long robes and pointy hats that remains me of the KKK. Very dramatic. You can see the whole thing on TV, actually you can see it too if you have sky because they have TVE with is Television España. Not a cheery sigh, mind you, at least not until Sunday when we're back to celebrate and eat another lovely Easter mona as the one here.

This is a good time to visit Spain. Altough the weather hasn't been that good later, it was raining almost everyday since my friends arrived and they're joking that all my writtings about Sunny Barcelona are just a ruse!!

My friend Esmeralda suggested to add more pictures to each entry of the blog, to make it more attractive so... what do you think?

Guest!

My dears friends, Esmeralda, Hans and their baby Esme are visiting us!
They're going to stay for a few days with us and I'm very happy to have them here and show off about Barcelona.
Their visit made us realise that we're not prepared for visitors despite having an extra room. That room is now where my desk and computer lives but it can well be a guest room, and we're going to need it when my mother-in-law arrives next month as she's staying for a whole months and cannot sleep with P. So we'll have to find another place for my desk and stuff.

We'll have some time to do all the changings rooms' stuff next week because more or less the whole week is taken as a holiday. P's having a sort of mid-term break and most of my clases has been cancelled as my students are going out.

New Harry Potter's cover.

I'm soooo looking forward to read the final book of the Harry Potter series and here is the cover, which was presented recently.
I've enjoyed reading the whole story, each and every book, and P. and I shared the books and loved the movies. "The husband" is one of the few people I know who remained untouched by the story.
Of course, I've already bought the book at amazon, so, with any luck we'll get it before is in the shops here. Keeping my fingers crossed!

This is Spain!

This is a true story as it was reported by "the husband".
He was waiting for his bus at the bus stop when a car parked just touching the bus lines, ok. Then a second car appeared and parked actually on top of the no-parking-bus lines on the street totally blocking the way for the bus to stop and pick up passengers. "The husband" harrumphed to himself but said nothing as there was still some room to catch the bus on the zebra line.
But then a third car appeared and park on the zebra crossing, and then "the husband" couldn't resist any longer and approached the driver and calmly said the Spanish version of "listen mate, parking is not allowed here for a couple of reason: first, people need this to cross the road and second: we need this space to be able to get into our bus". The guy got off the car, looked around and then shrugged and as a way of explanation say "but, mate, this is Spain!" then turned and left.

"The husband", a very patient and calm man, smiled, shrugged off and went back to wait for his bus.

A few minutes passed and a car stop, looked at the people waiting at the stop and the driver said: "are any of you guys going to the Autónoma?" (the university campus where "the husband" works)... both "the husband" and another guy said yes to which the driver reply: "well... I'm going to the math department there, so, if that's on your way, I can take you there and save you the waiting".

"The husband" said that this was an enlightening experience for him as he finally understood what "the Spanish way" really means. It gets on your nerves sometimes, but it can also make your life easier, just follow the flow. Very Zen-like. ("the husband" not the country)

Easter eggs and Monas

This week I started to see Easter eggs in the bakeries and supermarkets. Here, the tradition includes the eggs and something else called Monas de pascuas. To start with I couldn't understand the meaning because "monas" means "female monkeys" in Spanish.
However, today I learnt that Mona is a word coming from the Arab “munna” which means gift. The Easter mona was a sweet bun with a hard boiled egg baked into it and which was traditionally given by godparents to their godsons and daughters. You can still find the traditional ones in some bakeries.

The egg-decorated pastries tradition was overtaken in the mid twentieth century by chocolate with which fantastic figures were created to call children’s attention. Each Easter Monday, godparents, specially Catalan, give children this fantastic delicacy.

In Catalonia, where the tradition has become a great event over the years and specially in Barcelona, a city famous for its designers and great taste in everything, it has become the chance for master chocolate makers to show off their art and knowledge, exhibiting their most incredible creations. Some are internationally acclaimed, such as the late pastry cook and chocolate sculptor Antoní Escribá (new shop) or OriolBalaguer whose creations are true chocolate art jewels as you can see in the pictures here, they look even better than the bejewelled Fabergé eggs. (a click on their names will take you to web sites with more information about them).

That sort of designs are at the very top of the Easter eggs industry and are accordingly very pricely and not to be founded in my local bakery. However, even the local bakeries here in Sabadell are showing off beautiful or funny creations to tempt everybody, from images of football idol Ronaldinho with his Barcelona Football Club shirt to the Teletubbies and everything you can think of in the middle, you're totally spoiled for choices. As you can see in the last picture taken from one of the local pastisserias here in Sabadell.

This is another tradition that we're happily going to embrace!!

Dealing with bureocracy

Allegedly, Napoleon said that England was a nation of shopkeepers. He probably meant it as an insult, but for me is one of Britain's virtues and I miss that above many other things. I love to shop in England, online, in Malls, in chains, whatever... is a pleasant experience, you're allowed to browse 'till you drop, exchange no reason asked, pay with whatever you happened to carry with you and the post is reliable and fast if you want to use ebay or amazon or whatever.

The whole concept of business seams to be different here.
Let's start with the concept of time, which here is definitely not related to money in any way. Time is more of a relativist idea, very Einstein's, meaning that nobody really cares about time, so the delivery man will say that he'd arrive between 9 and 12 am and you can be waiting for ever, the same with your GP: they give you an appointment card with a date and a time but that's only a sort of guideline regarding the time that your GP will actually see you. As for my students... some are better than others and I'm always on time to start my class... only to be left waiting there for ages, there's one group which are always at least 30 minutes late each and every class. The worst bit is when they call and cancel the class in advance, because if the class is cancelled with more that 24 hours notice I don't get to charge that, so I miss my earnings.
That's the only thing I really dislike about being my job, because it means that even when my time is always taken since the beginning of the month, I never know for sure how much I'm going to make at the end of it.
That's why I'm still searching for a more stable kind of job.

Then there's the horrendous costumer service when shoppers are treated as a nuisance and that's even before they need some help, so imagine trying to complain about whatever problem!!

When we first moved to our rented flat, we got a phone with Telefonica, it took them for ever to connect us and the service was total crap, we complained and nothing was really solved so we moved to another phone provider. We were asked why and we told them and we thought that'll be the end of it. No! Now we discovered that they were taking money from our account to pay for a commercial phone (much more expensive that a family one) for months even though we did not have a direct debit with them!! I don't even know how they did it. They took around €1.000 and now they refusing to give our money back! They say they investigating the matter and that can take forever. We're considering going to the ombudsman but we cannot even find one!!!
I do believe that the employees at Telefonica did that on purpose to us after we complained, as a sort of vendetta. Because even when (and there's still a big if) we solve this, nobody on Telefonica is ever going to be penalised, it's nobodies fault and we got all the trouble.

Now I find out that I want to return the lovely MP3 player that "the husband" bought for me. It's totally gorgeous but it doesn't have a radio and doesn't run with Linux (the operative system that I use in my computer instead of Windows), so I want to change it for another one. I'm bracing myself here because it's long an uncomfortable enough if you want to exchange something in person in any shop so to exchange something that you bough online and got by post... I don't even want to think about it.
There's a reason why people here don't shop online and even ebay is only just starting here. Actually, there's probably more than one reason as we're sure to find out soon.
"The husband" e-mail the company and they're ok with the exchange and say that they'll contact us to agree on how to do it. That was yesterday and I'm still waiting. I'll let you know about this.

You've been... breathalised!

It happened recently when I was going to work and the police stop me and asked me to take the test. It was around 3pm, which here means just after lunch for most people. The idea is to catch those driver who had just finished lunch and taken a few glasses of wine with it, because the local perceived wisdom is that wine at lunch doesn't really count as drinking and driving.

Lunch here is a lengthy business and something that people take seriously. Most jobs actually close from 1pm to 4pm to allow people to go home, have lunch and rest a bit before going back to work until 8pm.
Most schools do the same and most children actually go home to have lunch and a siesta before doing the second half of the day. My son is one of the few who stays at his school for lunch and he enjoys 3 courses plus dessert and then he plays with the other "unfortunate" kids whose parents work full time. The menu is rather good and very healthy in a Mediterranean style, most days they start with salad or some sort of vegetables and always some fruit for dessert, always fresh seasonal products from the local market freshly cook (Jamie Oliver's idea of heaven). I think he has chips once a month or something like that. P enjoys the food (he's never been a picky eater) but he's looking forward to the next school year when he'd be able to go home for the siesta.

People who knows me, knows that I don't drink much alcohol anyway, so this was sort of police time being wasted on the teetotaler. In any case I didn't mind, it was my first, so it give me something to write here and I had plenty of time for my class (I'm almost always on time and is my students who keep me waiting because they cannot humanly understand the idea of starting the class on time... Spanish time is really at least 15 minutes behind any other normal idea of time). Whatever. My test was ok and they didn't even check on my driving licence!! With all the troubles I went to get it!!

Look at this!!

I'm on my own most of the day and I'm totally hooked to my MP3 player. Is the one thing that I carry with me wherever I go and the one thing that I'd be lost without. I listen to all sort of stuff, from podcasts to the BBC, from FM local radio to music, from audio books to unpublished books read by their author, you name it, I listen it at some time or other.
I had my for more than a year now and it's starting to fail. You know how this things are, just like mobile phones they're not designed to last for long, they're supposed to be almost disposable. I hate that, I think is a waste and bad for the environment but... that's how things are.
Luckily "the husband" is very clever and every time my Creative Zen MP3 failed he managed to fix it, rescuing the thing from the rubbish bin and me from the loony house time after time.
However, now I started to use my MP3 player for my classes and I do need it to be reliable for more than just my own entertainment. So, I was talking about buying one for months but fretting about them being still too expensive and so forth.
Today, totally out of the blue, I've got a parcel with a lovely, purple, slick, tiny and totally gorgeous Sony NW-A1000 MP3 player. It's so tactile, all rounded, and the design is totally awesome. I'm in love. And I haven't even tried it yet!!
"The husband" just bought it for me, no reason.
He's totally the best.

I do like to be beside the seaside!

Sunday was such a lovely sunny day that we decided to go out to the beach. It was a bit windy and the water was cold for our taste; think Cornwall in July, great for any Brit, too cold for spoiled us. However, it was great to just lay down there, under a lovely warm sun and watch the kite surfers in their wetsuits. There were loads of them, as the weather is nice, sunny and windy and the beaches are still empty of swimmers and sunbathers.
(The picture here is not mine, it's just to show what kite surfing is for those who don't know. I'll download mine as soon as i have some time)

After a couple of hours we went an visit some friends and had a good time chatting and drinking mate.

As a family we had a big discussion yesterday. In the UK was mothering Sunday, so I told the guys that I expected a present. Then "the husband" realised that here in Spain father's day is on the 19th of March (St. Joseph's day), so he should be the one getting the presents. At the centre of my argument was the fact that we're having a British calendar in the kitchen, so it's easier to see the days there. "The husband" think that we should follow whatever the rest of the country where we're living does. Then I argue that in any case St. Joseph shouldn't be father's day as he's not Jesus' dad anyway, but we're not believers anyway so that was totally dismissed.
The final decision was, of course, P's because he's, after all the only Englishman in the family, and the only son anyway. he decided that it was father's day that we should celebrate because he already made a present for his dad at school. He's very down-to-earth and practical, our little one.

In any case, it doesn't really mattered because we all went to a lovely restaurant and order whatever we fancied and we all had a lovely day, which is the whole point of it, isn't it? to celebrate family.

However, I still want a new MP3 player for the next whatever celebration. OK?

Saying goodbye is always sad

Who is sadder when you say goodbye? The one who's leaving or the one who's staying?
This is a sample of the more philosophical questions on my mind. Nos very deep as you can see.

A friend of ours came to stay with us for a few days before going to live in Brazil for good. She's Brazilian and she and "the husband" known each other since they were teens; they met in a lovely village by the sea in the south of Brazil where both their parents owned summer flats. They lost touch with each other and by total chance met again in Bristol during the 90's. I meet her and her late husband when I was pregnant with P. and we all became friends.
Tim, her husband, was a genial and lovely Welshman with a wicked sense of humour. In a sense, he's the first blogger I knew because when he felt ill, he used to keep all his friends updated about his fight against leukemia using e-mail. His very last e-mail was the saddest thing in the world, because it was still all filled with hope, and he sadly passed away a few hours after that. That was around 5 years ago.
Miriam is the bravest person I know and she's been an inspiration for me because of the way she faced adversity and overcome with enormous dignity what was a hard blow in her life.

She's been talking a lot during the past years about what to do with her life. She's like me in that we both need new challenges and goals. (I think that it can also be said about Deb B. too). She sold her house in Bristol around the same time we sold ours but she wasn't sure about what do to next. Finally last month, she decided to go to Brazil to be closer to her mum and siblings.
That's a big move and I can totally understand what a big deal this is; she's being in Bristol for the past 18 years and most of her friends are there, plus a lovely boyfriend. She doesn't have children but has two lovely Bichon Frise doggies that we used to dog-sit when she went on holidays.

So, she and her doggies stayed with us for a few days and it was great to have them around but also it was really sad because although we do love Brazil is very unlikely that we'll go there often. We really don't know if we see each other again, although we do hope so. In any case we'll keep in touch by e-mail and I know she reads this blog from time to time. I did try to encourage her to write her own blog, so we can follow her experiences in Porto Alegre (a city called Happy Port can only be a great place to be, don't you think?). She's planning to buy a flat overlooking the river and maybe a country club cottage for weekends. British pounds can go a long way in Brazil these days.

I took her to the airport just yesterday and it was very sad to see her going. Very selfish, I know, because we'll miss her a lot and I will also miss Pippa & Poppy, her dogs.

It's sad lo leave a place you loved but it's also sad to stay and see a friend going away.
I wish Miriam all the best in her new life in Brazil and do please let's keep in touch.

Red Nose Day

P. and I are going to be watching the red nose day today, as we do every year. I'm very proud of P, as he's giving most of his saving to the charity.
Don't forget to donate today! Here is the link if you'd like to do it online.

RED NOSE DAY!!

Wind donoughs

That's my own translation of the name of the traditional sweet thingy that we're eating this days. "Buñuelos de viento". They're made with flour, butter, eggs, sugar, a touch of anise seeds and cinnamon, deep fried and then powdered with sugar. They're very seasonal and you can only find them in shops from now and until the beginning of Easter's week. They're incredibly light and when you bite them they feel like little, mostly empty, bubbles of sweetness, as if they're made from "wind" (not that the end result of eating them is wind, as P. asked).

I discovered them yesterday in the bakery and asked about them. The lady there already knows me and she always gave me a sample to try of everything together with an description of the ingredients and, if necessary, the season where you suppose to eat them. That proves to be a very successful selling strategy as it usually results in me buying a bunch to take home and share with the guys.

This is the link for the recipe in English.

I'm very bold in the bakery and I try most things there, but I'm still in awe regarding the fishmonger. They have an amazing variety of fish and sea food there, I wouldn't know where to start or how to cook those things, I couldn't even name most of it! I just quickly pass in front of it, taking glances at the goodies as I go. The fish are artfully presented in a bed of ice and some of they are still alive in water (lobsters). From time to time they're sprayed with a fine mist of water, so they look ever so fresh and tempting. If I only I knew where to start!

Are you there?

Just want to ask you to write questions, suggestions and so forth in the messages board, I'm running out of material to write about!
I always answer the comments, and, please, do not forget to sign them!

A mother's worst nightmare

For a couple of hours I didn't have a clue of the whereabouts of my son and I felt all those cliche feelings: the longest hours of my life, sick with worry and I was about to die.

"The husband" and I gave the poor kid conflicting orders on what do do after school. I wanted him to go straight home because I had a class cancelled and "the husband" told him to go to his office because he totally forgot that I was due to be at home.
On top of that the kid say that his bus was latter that usual, although in retrospective I suspect that he stayed a bit longer playing and missed his bus. I just don't want to dig further into the true story.
The fact was that P. was late to arrive either home or my husband's office and I was sick with worries. To try and distract myself I watched TV but, as it happens, it was the news and a 7 years-old boy disappeared yesterday in Canary islands... talk about synchronicity!

The poor kid has a 45 minute commute each way to school everyday and with both parents working and his sport commitment, the schedule of where to go after school is ever so complicated!
Plus he's got his absentmindedness from his dad.
Life is going to be much easy when he goes to a school near home from next September.

We are the champions!!

I mean P's rugby team. They're the official champions of their age group of the whole of Catalunya!!
This morning we went with to the local championship in the lovely seaside town of Tarragona, a bit south of here, more or less 2 hours drive away. The weather was great, it started a bit chilly in the morning but it was so sunny that it got increasingly warm until we ended up in t-shirts. However, it was never uncomfortable because of the sea breeze. A lovely day for the kids to play and for us to spend outside. What a world of difference from rainy and muddy Bristol's rugby!
And play they did! They were a sight to behold, (well... I am an over-the-top proud mum!). They won all the matches they played but one and that was a draw. At the end they got more points than every other team and the did win the championship!!
The kids really fought for it and they play as a team instead of fighting between them for the ball as sometimes they do.
It was a great day out and I know I'm going to have a raspy voice all week long now, I couldn't stop cheering up! (luckily for me, my son's still in that age when he's not embarrassed by a over enthusiastic , Banshee-screaming, pom-pom waving mum).
Of course, even the catering food was good. The kids ate for free and the parents payed only €6 for a meal ticket that included 2 choices of salad and 4 choices of barbecue (local Catalan butifarra sausage, standard sausage, chorizo criollo - Argentinean style! - or beef burger) plus 1 drink (soft drink or beer) and dessert (ice-cream). All yummy, of course.
We're still elated by the victory and as dirty as we could be, after all that seating on the floor and jumping around, plus with very red noses as I didn't realise that we need sun cream even though is early March.

Oh, what a perfect day!

It's beggining to look a lot like Christmas!

Thanks to the post office.

Today I received a note from the post office that they tried to deliver a parcel and they couldn't because there was nobody at home. So I went to pick it up and found a lovely box filled to the brim with chocolates, sweets and a wonderful book! All courtesy of my friend Anja, who lives in Germany and is the sweetest girl ever!
We're very grateful. The guys got their share and they did grunted their appreciation and thanks while they were munching away with glee.

The best part of it all was the total surprise which only adds to the thrill. She sent us the parcel just because she loves us and it feels GREAT!

What I find totally uncanny is that she always manages to do this when I need a boost. How does she knows it? and well in advance!! I felt loved and now I'm terribly grateful. My friends are all over the world but here and I miss them all, but this does bring her a lot closer!!

Thanks a lot!!

Not too bad

Yesterday I had my third assessment with Steve. It also was the first class with a new group of bankers and I was, of course, very nervous. When I finished my BA I swore that never again I'd submit my self to the indignities of having to undergo an exam... and here I am.
Never say never, is the easiest way to look like an idiot!

Whatever!

I did prepare the lesson and all the material, making sure to have enough batteries to play the tape, photocopies of the first lesson of the book that I'm planing to use and so on.
I had to juggle things a lot in order to take this class because Tuesday is training day for my son and it was the day that "the husband" has the car. My son's school is 45 minutes by bus from the house and he travels by bus, then he had a quick snack and off we went in the midst of rush hour so the motorway was in a standstill. It took us 45 minutes to reach his club when it usually takes us 15. Luckily I left the flat with time to spare and the Bank's building is just 5 minutes from the club so I was on time for the class. That's important because Steve is a stickler for punctuality, and rightly so because students are paying us by the hour. If they're late, which most are here because they work on Spanish time, that's ok but we cannot.
I have the utmost respect for single mums, specially when their charges are young. "The husband" is totally supportive and he often goes out of his way to take care of our kid needs but even then it was hard sometimes. Now, as the boy is getting older and more independent, things are easier, but I can't wait for the next school year when we hope he'll attend a school nearby.

Back to the class... I even tried to learn the student's name in advance but that was no help because Steve gave the wrong list of names anyway so I started the class based on the totally wrong information. It wasn't my fault but his, so it didn't bother me much and the class went smoothly enough. We'll see soon enough what does he thinks of it all. There's definitely a lot of room for improvement but... fair enough... I'm just starting.

I've bought a dock station for my MP3 player, with 2 little speakers in eBay. It cost me a fraction of the price of buying it locally, even including the P&P and it arrived this morning. The idea is to use it with my MP3 players instead of the old-fashioned tapes that I'm currently using for my students to hear part of the lesson and that are wearing off fast. Now I have to figure out how to make MP3 files from the tapes...
I also plan to take some public radio podcast for more advance students to listen to different voices. BBC news are great material, but there's also loads of much more informal podcast that will make great material.

OK. I'm off to work.

Programming little minds

"The husband" started teaching our son a computer language so he'd be able to program stuff. I privately though that the kiddo was far too young (he's 10) for that but I let them be. And I was totally wrong. The language is not a "kid-language" but a real one called Delphi and "the husband" started teaching the little guy how to create shortcuts so that his laptop writes "hello" when he turns it on.

After a few hours "the husband" came back to the living room and he said that he was totally blown away by the ease with which young and mostly empty minds can learn and get the information when they really want to. "The husband" just gave the kid some pointers and he just run away with that, solving problems and thinking in tune with computer logic.
And this is, mind you, the same child who is far too lazy to write properly or do all his homework! There's not child genius here, just a motivated and curious child.
If he keeps like that we'll have a hacker pretty soon!

Part of what is expected from me in Steve's agency is too keep updated their interactive web page with learning material for students. I'm trying to learn how to use a program to create graphics and interactive quizzes that students can use to learn and build up knowledge. I've no problem with getting ideas, but the programming part is driving me crazy.
Now I'm thinking of getting my son to learn to use the program that I need to use, so that I'd give him the ideas and material and he'll then build the web page! He can then buy for himself his beloved Wii.
Of course I could pay him for that, or is that child labour and thus not allowed? I need to check labour laws in Spain.

Friendship is....

We all have friends but for the most part we cannot remember the exact moment when we found one. Mostly because friendship are ongoing processes: you meet a person and, with time and shared experiences, such a person became a friend.

Well. I think I've found one today. Isn't that magic?

I actually meet this lady a few months ago. She takes her children to the same rugby club where my son goes. "The husband" meet her before I did and after seeing her a few times he told me that I had to go and talk to her because we have tons of things in common. I did go and talked to her and she was friendly and nice enough and we certainly had a lot in common but it wasn't until today that we sort of click. The chat went a little deeper, a little further and, my gosh, we do have a lot in common.

We're from the same place with strong links to the UK (she married into that, I've just feel in love with Bristol), she lost her mum almost a year ago, she also lost a sister and have another one back in Argentina. She likes to read and now she's a bit embarrassed to admit that she's into chick lit latelly (hehehe!!) plus she also prefer to read in English. She doesn't have a feeling of belonging here, not to anywhere. She's funny, articulate and clever. She loves music and is forever planing to one day learn to play an instrument. And, last but not least, is the extremely odd fact that she's forever planing to start doing some yoga but never find the time, energy, whatever, to actually do it. That was creepy!

Now I have to introduce her to podcasts and she has to make me wear some make up and she'd be my doppelganger!!

Shortlisted!

Wow!!
I've got an email from Editorial Planeta, the publishing company, saying that I'm shortlisted for the post they advertised. They asked me to fill and send a questionnaire and told me that they're going to invite me for an interview soon.
I've got butterflies in my stomach now!

Post mortem

Steve's a sweet. We meet today to do a post-mortem of the last class he attended, the one that I totally "efed" up. He didn't fire me today! Instead he sat down with me and told me that all new teachers do have some problems while explaining grammar at the beginning of their careers and that he really think I'll get better.

My little monster inside me whispered: "oh, boy, he really is desperate for teachers then". My little angel slap the monster off my shoulder, while remained me that it wasn't that bad.

He then went on (Steve, not the angel), to give me a few pointers and "how-to" and I'm very grateful because I'm actually learning on my feet here and all input from a pro are very welcome (and needed).

Now that I can analyze what went wrong with that blanking out in the class I think that there is, after all, such a thing as over-prepare something. That is a first for me. I never really though that such a thing as "over-prepare" actually could do any harm, it was in the same league as when those (usually thin) people say "I forgot to eat sometimes!". Yeah, sure! I could never forgot to eat, quite the opposite: I may actually forget that I already ate and go and munch some more! And I certainly never, ever, studied or prepare something so much as to ruin it. But I did this time. I over-prepare it, in the sense that I really wanted to do my best in front of Steve and prepare the class as if it was a play, so I had this sort of script in my mind and when the students didn't give me what I expected as a cue... well... I shut down.

From now on, I'll prepare my lessons well but I'll strive not to be Little Ms. Perfect.

Still employed.

I think I still have a job... just.
I've just had a brief chat with Steve about this month payment, account number, payslip, taxes and so on and he mentioned that I'm going to start having 3 more extra hours from next month (2 classes, one with one person and the other with 8, all intermediate), this time at the Bank.
He also said that he's going to be there to introduce me to the big class next Tuesday. Then, I said that I hope it'll go better than the last one he attended and he said "ahhh!... we need to talk about that".
I can write a whole entry here about the ways Brits can use the "ahh!" exclamation. To start with, the way Steve pronounced it, it sounded as it has 4 syllables and was so charged with meaning that you can feel it entering your brain. Maybe that's my imagination going wild... don't think so.
Anyway... we agree to meet tomorrow to talk about the incident. What does he expected me to say? I know I totally messed it up and I'm still kicking myself about it. If I could, I probably would fire myself. I don't think he will, though, they really need another reliable and qualified teacher and they're hard to find. But I bet I'll be on probation for donkeys years now.

I don't want to go so he can tell me off. I feel like I'm back to primary school and I hated primary school!
We agreed to meet tomorrow.

Total disaster!

Yesterday we went for a walk in downtown Barcelona. Just a stroll down the Rambla (the most loves street in Europe according to one survey in the Guardian), a stop for lunch at a local restaurant where I ate grilled cuttlefish, divine. I actually though that it was squid the first time I saw one but the taste is slightly different. Apparently they're more closely related to slugs and snails than fish or squid, a fact that fascinate my fact-finder son. If you ever see "sepia" on the menu, ask for it, just grilled with a dash of lemon, really delicious.

It still amazes me that we can take the train and in 45 minutes we're in the centre of such a beautiful town.
On our way back we stop at the ATM machine to get some cash ans we had quite a shock to find that we were out of money. Last time we checked we still had there all of our savings for P. that we're still deciding where to put. It was a nasty shock to see our account empty and that almost ruin a wonderful day. I could hardly sleep at all!

So, I've just had a tough Monday.

I'm starting to have more teaching hours and Mondays are by far my busiest day of the week. I start at 8am and you know that I'm most definitely not a morning person, so I truly struggle with my first class anyway, but today it was worse because I was itching to go to the bank and see were all my money was.
After my first class I just went straight to the bank to complain about the disappearance only to be told that all our money was transferred to a special account. It took a bit of time to find out that the very helpful but brainless new girl in the branch opened a special saving account for our money without our agreement!! I mean, she mentioned to me that there were a few accounts that were giving more interest but we wanted to place the money in some sort of a local ISA and we were still searching, and she though that she was doing us a favour.
I just wanted to kill her. She gave me a total fright.
The banks here are totally crazy and unpractical; on the one hand, when you open an account you have to ask to get a card, otherwise they're not giving you one; but then they do move your money as they please because they want to help you get some interest.

With that mystery solved I could carry on with my busy day. And god knows it was busy. On top of the classes I have to go from one side of the valley to the other and I do hate to use the motorway, as it stressed me a lot, but that's the only way to be on time to all my classes. So but the time I was going to my last class of the day I was pretty knackered and totally forgot that my boss was due to attend it!

Damn it!
I swear to god that I prepared today's class. That doesn't mean much because I'm an atheist but I did prepared it!!
I checked the grammar and made sure to know all there is to know about countable and uncountable nouns, there is vs there are, any and some, all inserted in the context of the workplace. Beautiful. I even had a few offices pictures so I could point to prompt my students to create sentences such as "there are 2 computers in that office". I even checked that my tape recorder's batteries were charged.
The class started smoothly, my students were (for the first time ever) on time and my boss was there sitting in a corner jotting away on his notebook. The intro went fine and I got the students to produce good enough sentences as we remember what we did in the previous class. Then I introduced the new subject and everything went fine until I started doing the grammar bit when I started to mumbled something or other... and soon enough I was talking utter nonsense and getting my students (and even I) totally confused. I totally panicked, couldn't explain the difference between any and some and finally went quiet, then I said, "ok, Steve, help me out here, please".
He did took it from me and with looked to me as terrific ease untangled the grammar knot I've made and I felt a total idiot. Then he handed the class back to me. I picked the pieces up and went on with the class as planed and he left soon after that.
As soon as he left I laugh the situation off and my students were totally supportive and said that nobody does his or her best when you have to do it. Funnily enough, the class went on smoothly after that. Of course!!

Now I feel like sending a text message to Steve saying: "do I have ANY job from now on?" then at least he'd known that I know how to use the wretched thing.
Back at home "the husband" was totally supportive as ever and he said that nobody would be as hard as I already am with my own performance;, he said that I take everything far too seriously and that all and every teacher has to learn the trade and mistakes are inevitable. He's a dear and I feel a lousy teacher.

Now I'm off to sleep. Luckyly tomorrow is a quiet day and I'd be ironing and shoping all day long. I do need a rest.

Strawberries!

Can you believe it? Fresh strawberries in February!

Every greengrocer in town and, of course, the supermarkets, are starting to sell strawberries. They look ok but I'm really trying to buy seasonal and local products to be more in tune with nature, plus they're cheaper and better quality most of the time. Whatever, the strawberries looked tempting and the prices were increasingly cheaper but I though that it was far too early for strawberries so I was bravely resisting the temptation to buy what I though were cheap imports from a third world country.

Then on Saturday I asked the very nice girl at the greengrocers around the corner if the strawberries were local. She said that actually local, they aren't, but they are from Murcia, which is local enough for me as it's a province in the same country just a few hours drive down south. She said that this winter has been really mild and that they're a bit earlier than usual but only a month or so.
So, my conscience assuaged and in peace with my green good intentions, I bought a big wooden box of them. They were pretty big strawberries and they smelled strongly and fresh and they did taste divine. By the time the guys were back home from rugby I've already started and they loved them too.
We had strawberries with cream, milkshake, on their own, with a dust of sugar on top, you name it. We had a pink weekend!

dream job?

(Ladies at Filton Lib. I miss you!!)

I don't mind teaching English but I'd like to work in a nice fix place (I think that all this travelling around with a big bag of books will tired me after a while), as part of a team (this is quite a lonely job) and in my ideal world that job also has to be part-time and well paid. It also has to be something related with books, languages and using my brain.

Well. I fully believe that any future starts with a dream and the creation of a goal so I daydream a lot. Then, I try the best I can to search or create possible ways toward my goal.
One thing that I do most everyday is to check a couple of web pages with jobs adds. Today there was one that looked pretty good.
There's one famous (in the Spanish world) publishing house called Editorial Planeta (check their website) and they placed an add today. They're looking for somebody with a language degree in English or Spanish (my BA's in both), with good level of both these languages plus Portuguese and Euskera (the language of the Basque country, which I don't know at all), good writing skills, some experience in publishing (I've got the Oxford dictionary on my belt), capable of working as a team and computer literate.
I think that's me!! Or that could be me if I learn some Euskera...
Whatever.
I sent my CV with a nice cover letter as soon as I saw the add, and some hours latter, when I was back from work, I've got an e-mail saying that they got it and that I'm already shortlisted but also saying that the process may take at least 4 weeks, so not to worry to much.

Now, I'm checking the add and it says that they have 85 applicants and it's already closed to more applications. That is popular because it was up there for less than a day!!

The funny thing is it doesn't really say precisely what kind of job is, the wording is quite vague, something about needing a teacher who can answer phone queries and work in the creation of teaching material. It's also a part-time job but it doesn't mention the salary.

So... now, to wait and hope for the best. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

CV's results and reflexions on languages

Wow. Having a CV out there in the net is really working as 2 separate agencies contacted me asking me for an interview for teaching jobs. The demands for EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers for adults is enormous and increasingly so as this is a sort of international language and up until now it hasn't really been taught in schools here.

I'm not sure how it works in the rest of Spain, but here in Catalonia there's a feeling that the Catalan language is under threat of disappearing and the local government (after a sort of devolution such as the one in Scotland here they're quite separated from Spain) dedicates loads of resources to maintain the Catalan language alive. That's all very good for diversity and local culture but in an increasingly connected world monolinguals and people that are proficient only in a minority language stand at a disadvantage from others.
I'm proficient in 2 languages and quite ok with a third, but still struggling to get the job I'd like here because I lack a fourth! (in order to working the local library one must to be proficient in Catalan).

My son attends a local school where the main language is Catalan followed by Spanish and a few hour a week of English. I think is only fair for him to know the local language if we're going to live here but not at the expenses of our other 2 languages, which happens to be on the top of the most spoken languages of the world (Chinese is the first, then English and Spanish the third). So, I'm starting to think that we'll try and send him to a bilingual school when he starts high school in a couple of years time, so he can be really proficient in the economically strong languages. That's expensive, so we've been saving for ages and are willing to make sacrifices to get as much opportunities for him as possible. I think the poorest people are those without any chance of choosing in the making of their own destiny.

All this reflexions on languages started because I've just read that yesterday the UNESCO declared the international mother language day and that there are nearly 6,000 languages and half of those are considered to be endangered. I'm all for keeping the diversity in the world, and I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and learn Catalan, even when I could go on without it as some Spanish people do here. However, I'm not willing to linguistically isolate my child. The more languages the better.

And, going back to the job offers, I declined both, because they're offering me the same as I'm doing, ie. to be an itinerant teacher and if I'm going to change jobs will be for a more stable one. But, I'm still searching for a more convenient job.
Anyway, I'm having more teaching hours starting next week.

The burial of the sardine

That's the name of today's fiesta. The picture here is in a museum in Madrid and it's called "the burial of the sardine" from Goya.

I missed the show at the central square here in Sabadell because I was working but the fiesta is actually called the burial of the sardine and it marks the end of carnival. Some said that the tradition is really ancient, from pagan times and it was incorporated as part of Catholics closure of carnival (another pagan tradition).

To make matters more confusing, there is the figure of a sardine, but it doesn't get bury but burned as you can see in the other picture taken from the local council website.

In some villages there's a tradition that are a sort of open air panto. The sardine is taken to be buried (cremated) and is followed by his widows (actually men dressed as women in black), the priest and his helpers. Then the devil enters and tries to take the sardine and is stop by the police (not the real one), then a mock fight ensues, the widows and the police restore peace and the sardine is finally burned.

After that people used to go in droves to church to the Ash Wednesday mass, where the priest mark a cross with ashes in people's forehead and remain everyone that "we came from ashes and in ashes we will turn" or something to that effect. There's a church nearby and it was packed when I return from work so the religious part of the tradition is still very much alive.
The Spaniards play hard but also pray hard. (pun intended)

Another excuse for a fiesta!! Nevertheless, we're going to shove pancakes tomorrow and we'll eat them with some maple syrup that we still have from USA. We're truly citizens of the world!

General complaints

Today my students cancelled 3 hours of lessons. This month there's been loads of cancellation, so far more than 13 hours gone.
I'm currently working with 2 agencies, with different policies regarding cancellations. In the first agency they said that classed cancelled with more than a day in advance are not to be charged. The second agency said that the teacher has to offer alternative days to recover the missed time but all classes are to be paid regardless. My problem is that I've got more hours with the first agency, so when my students cancel, I don't earn any money. That's resulting in my monthly earnings fluctuate accordingly and I have empty hours in which I feel I could be doing something more productive.
It's hard not to take it personally, as I spend time and energy in preparing my classes. And is definitely the worst part of a job that I quite like.

I'm still looking for a more stable sort of job but I'm handicapped by my lack of the Catalan language as most jobs required at least a basic level of it.

So, I went to the local council to find a Catalan course for immigrants as I've heard loads of politicians on the news talking about the need to integrate immigrants and the value of the language, etc etc.
Well, the council does run free Catalan lessons for foreigners but the timetable is totally idiotic, there's classes only during working hours, so you cannot work normal hours and attend the classes at the same time. I complained and then I've been told that most immigrants are not supposed to be working yet as they don't have proper visas to do so; thus equating immigration with illegality. (A bit of what some newspaper do in the UK when they talk about "asylum seekers" when they mean immigrants). Then, after talking a bit, the person that gave me the information told me that for her I'm definitely not an immigrant because a- I have a British passport and b- I'm Argentinean. She mean that British here hardly ever even try to learn Spanish, let alone Catalan, because they usually live and work within their own community and that Argentineans are not really immigrants either because we have the same cultural background (I also think she meat racial as well). The girl meant all this as a sort of compliment to me!!

I was, and still am, flabbergasted.

I've always known that there's a fine line to distinguish an immigrant from an expat, I had that in my introduction to this blog! But I never expected to be that thick, meaning that the difference is bot blatantly racist and discriminatory and stupid, total nonsense. It reminds me of Winnie-the-Pooh "wrong kind of bees", apparently I'm the wrong kind of immigrant for the person who timetable the classes.

Sometime ago I suggested in this blog that the Argentineans are perceived here in some ways as the Indian community in Britain, now I've changed my mind and agree with "the husband" who once said that we're perceived here in the same light as Australians are in the UK: a sort of long lost cousin, a bit foreign, with funny accent and words, but part of the family anyway.

Whatever. Now, I have to choose between working or attending the classes. Or wait to see if they change the timetables next term. Or I could go to another town and check there. It must be another choice, I've just have to find it.

Carnival!

During the past few days it was a common sight to see people walking around in fancy dresses, mostly kids, a few selfconscious teens and some adults (maybe teachers? since P. told me that the teachers at his school were all dressed as dominoes) but today it was the official carnival day with parades and all the party that this town can muster, so almost all children and many adults were dressed up and that's just the normal people who went to see the parades.
The picture is the actual poster from this carnival in Sabadell. Is, as usual, very pretty and colourful.

The parades were due to start at 4pm at one end of the city and finish at 6 at the other end. This being a Latin country... we were one of the few to arrive to the central square, and we arrived at 5PM!! Anyway, we had sometime to have coffee with the traditional Carnival cake (there seems to be a cake for every occasion here, and so far, all delicious).
First to arrive were the families with toddlers and babies almost all dressed up. So cute!! Everywhere you look they were tiny babes in pushchairs and cute toddlers dressed as in those cute calendars.
Then most families arrived, almost all the children were dressed, from some odd stuff like a family of popcorn bags (all 3 of then, including dad) to families dressed matching each other (like the Beckhams do) as the characters of Wizard of Oz: dad was the no-brain scarecrow, of course, then mum was the tin-woman, a little girl was Dorothy (P. point out the shoes were brown, thus, wrong. He knows movies) and the toddler brother was the cutes lion ever.
The array of dresses in the crowd were lovely, from the typical pirates or red devils for boys to princesses and fairies for girls, then TV characters (spiderman to pokemons) and all sort of stuff.
The last to arrive, fashionably late, were the teens, some dressed up some ... well... you're never sure with teens these days. :) In this crowd the dress were more gear to impress the other sex, with the girls dressed as cat women and boys dress as... well... boys!
The crowd in itself was something to watch. So we just strolled around looking and trying to figure who or what they were.

Then the parade arrived. First the police opening it with 2 bikes, not even policeman are serious here, and those 2 were obviously local boys as they were waving around and getting some back slaps from bystander. That alone remind me that we are, after all, living in a smallish town!!
The first 2 lorries carried the small children and babies, all dressed up and looking quite puzzled as they don't have a clue as what's going on. It amazed me that no-one was crying, even though the music was quite loud, and i saw at least one that was totally asleep, fancy dress and all!

Then there was a bit of everything, from a Chinese dragon followed by geishas (?) and some sort of imaginary animals of some sort, to a Trojan inspired group with horse and all. Of course, all dancing load Latin tunes and dancing as if the were Brazilians anyway.
My favourite was a group of people dressed as nuns, guys and girls, dancing to tunes such as "like a virgin" and doing all those hands-in-the-air stuff that is mostly seen in those American evangelist programs. They were hilarious.

As it seems to be the custom, there were some sweets tossed from the lorries, but nothing like in other fiestas, but, of course, they were also busy throwing confetti all over the place.

What amazed me the most was the fact that all sort of ages were involved in each and every group. There was not one group with just young people or just oldies, all groups has such a mix of ages that it was lovely. you could see sometimes a mother and grand-mother dressed alike and dancing while the husband was a few paces behind banging a drum or the younger boys were doing something else, such as running the dragons between the Geishas, who will playfully smack them with their fans as he passed by. Look at the lady of the picture here!!

Another thing that is unusual is that nobody was drunk. No beer cans all over the place and overflowing rubbish containers, not one person that I could see that even looked drunk. Is not that people don't drink here, if anything they probably drink more wine than in England, but they drink it in another fashion, and they definitely don't need alcohol to have fun.

Of course the parade finished well past 8pm and then I know that a band started playing in the central square and the party just went on.
We decided to go home just after the parade, I was feeling miserably during the whole weekend and when I arrived home founded out that my blood pressure was terribly low even for my usual low standards. No surprise there that I was on the brink of passing out and with a killing headache.
"The husband" reminded me that my GP already told me that I need to exercises regularly and that I was meaning to start yoga for the past month or so. I hate it when he's right!!
Here I don't walk as much as I used to in Bristol, and my fitness is going down the drain and it was only a matter of time before I started to feel the consequences.
If this doesn't motivate me to go and pay for my yoga tomorrow, nothing will do it.

Get the party starting

P. went to school yesterday dressed in a English devil costume . It took me some time to understand what he meant when he told me that he wanted to go to the school carnival party dressed as an English devil. He has to show me one in a TV program that he watches, Raven, where there's some characters that are the demons and they're dressed as inquisition monks, something like the picture here.
After I understood what he meant, it was easy to find a brown Monk habit with a large enough hood to hide his face. There were selling fancy dresses for children and adults all over town.

Is the tradition here that in Friday before Carnival weekend, all children go to school in fancy dress after lunch (most children go home to eat lunch). P. stays and eat at school, so he had to take his fancy dress with him. So, when everybody is back at school they parade, starting with the youngest and everybody clap, them they have a fiesta, with dancing music. The oldest kids, 11 years-old, have to take a dummy with them. No idea why.

Of course, during the whole week they didn't talk of anything else and P. was very exited because it was his first carnival ever and he reported that it was great fun, even though nobody guesses what he was supposed to be, his schoolmates kept asking him if he was Death himself.

It was really nice to see all the kids going home after school in fancy dresses all over the place, very colourful and cute.

The most incredible news today

Officials paint mountain green

Local government officials in China have been criticised for spraypainting a barren mountain face green.

Laoshou mountain, near Fumin in Yunnan province, was left an eyesore by quarrying.

But instead, of re-foresting the mountainside, forestry officials hired seven workers for 45 days to spraypaint it green.

Nearby villagers have been driven from their homes by the strong smell of paint, reports City Times.

They claim the workers told them the work was being done to improve the view from a newly-built government building.

Local businessman Huang said: "At first I was glad to see the green mountain, thinking the government was paying more attention to the environment.

"But then I noticed the great contrast with the surrounding mountains."

Another villager complained: "We thought the workers were here to spray pesticides before planting saplings. But it turned out to be green paint."

New approach to motivate myself

I was searching for one of those motivational tapes such as Paul MacKenna's I can make you thin; something in the lines of I can make you pay for your yoga but no luck. Then I founded a podcast that's called "motivation to move", as usual, it's been marketed to people who want to lose weight and a bit on the fake-positive just-keep-going American style, but once I'll get over that... who knows.
I'll give it a go and let you know.

Valentines

There's a big discussion out here regarding Valentine's day. Some say that is one more foreign festivity invading and competing with local traditions. A sort of globalization menace.

(There's a tradition to give roses and a book on St. George's day here in Barcelona, so Valentines sort of compete with the local day of "lurve". However, there's many shop windows decorated with a Valentine's theme but nothing like St. George's.)

Others say that is a purely a commercial day, geared up to sell whatever seems romantic. And even some other people will embrace whatever just to have an excuse to party. So, this being Spain, loads of us are going out for dinner. Whatever. It's just nice to go out to eat here.

PS: No, so far in the day I still didn't go to yoga. Maybe I am lazy and knowing myself I'm not willing to pay €100 for just one class because I'm not going to go but once.

Mind games

Ok. for the past few days I was playing all sort of mind games with myself.

Firstly, I refused to buy my favourite magazine UNTIL and UNLESS I joined and started the yoga class. Then I got increasingly anxious because it's a foreign magazine and the shops in downtown Barcelona only stock a few and they sell quickly sometimes and judging on how things were going, I risked missing it altogether (not even I believe in me anymore!!).

Then: I finally caved in and went and bough my Vanity Fair fooling myself with the following: I'm not allowing myself to actually read Vanity Fair UNTIL and UNLESS I join and start the wretched class.

That was 4 days ago and so far I'm virtuously not reading it, not I that I'm doing any yoga yet.

Damn it!! I'm truly devious!!

(or far too clever/lazy for my own good)

So, time for plan B:
I'm not allowed to write anything else but this subject into this blog and any personal e-mails.

Can one fool oneself on porpuse?

I'm still not able to go an pay for the damn yoga thing!
It's stronger than me.
I have cash here and all ready but there's always something happening and I'm not joining.

Why am I procrastinating so much?

What's wrong with me?

not yet.

well... not yet.

I cannot bring myself to do it!!!

Too expensive.
Too tired
Too stingy!!

Far too many silly excuses.

ahhh (sigh!)

Exercise

I'm one of those people forever planning to go to the gym, yoga, swimming pool, whatever will make me fit, and never actually doing it more than twice in a row. The only exercise that I manage to keep doing for the past 2 years was to walk from Home to the library most days but since I moved I'm not doing even that.
Mi list of excuses is as long as my arm, or better said as long as the diameter of my upper arms, whatever is the longest. The first and most used excuses is that the gym is always too far away, so I have to drive there, the second one is that I couldn't possibly leave my baby son home alone and the list goes on and on.
Now, however, the situation changed. There's a yoga place (How do you say that? yoga's gym doesn't sound right, not yoga parlour, although I like this one). Whatever, there's a sort of alternative centre just two steps from my building's front door and they do have yoga classes and all sort of alternative things such as acupuncture, chakra massages and so forth. Then, my son is 10 now, he's commuting to school, travelling 40 minutes by himself everyday and he can well stay home alone for an hour a day, so my excuses no longer work.

Of course, been an imaginative person, I created new excuses. I'm not earning enough yet, etc, etc, etc.

So, money is the issue now. I'm totally aware that is this sort of a mummy thing, meaning that I'm happy to spend money in whatever the guys need or even want but very stingy with myself. I totally know that is wrong but I can't help feeling guilty. Now I've got the money to pay to join the yoga classes but I kept on thinking that with that money I could pay swimming lessons for my son. So it feels like I'm taking something from him.

It's not that yoga is that expensive, as it costs €43 monthly for 2 classes per week, good value for money. But one has to cough up one upfront payment for membership and insurance and that takes the whole amount to nearly €100. And that's the problem, spending anything more than €20 on myself totally freaked me up.

Seeing things in black and white made them sound even more silly.

OK. Here's the deal: P's already going to rugby and that takes some of the family resources (time, driving, money, etc), so, I can invest some resources in yoga because my well being will be beneficial to the whole family as well as myself.

Sound good but, yeah.. still feeling guilty as hell.

Should I'd be able to go and join the yoga gym?

Found out tomorrow on this space.

Oath of honor

My Freecycle newsgroup is about to be authorized by the Freecycle people. They own the trade mark and, fair enough, don't want anybody using their name and idea for purposes other than recycling. So, they need to approve the international groups and their owners-moderator.
However, together with the info and FAQs they sent me an "oath of honor" (American spelling, not mine!). Americans are funny that way, in the UK people will puke at the touchy-feely, sentimental, cutie and quaint stuff.
Here it goes:

Oath of Honor

You are now ready for the oath of honor: [read after me]
I, (my name here), pledge to be a really nice and patient person when moderating our Freecycle group.

I promise to use the Freecycle name only for our noncommercial yahoo group.

I will remain open to input from members or the occasional democratic polling of your members, but will know when to make the tough calls and decisions in order to spare the rest the long debates.

With great honor I shall also keep spam, ads and money-makers out of our group with the "two strikes, you're out" rule.

And, finally, I shall come clean of my pack rat ways and clean out my own garage before asking the same of others.

What do you think about this?

I decided to get some business cards (found a company on the web that makes them for free, with the hope of selling you some other stuff along the way) and then I thought that they should also have the url (web page address) to my CV just in case (I'm still a bit short of the amount I want to generate monthly).
So, the first step was to build a web page. This was on my to-do list for a very long time (actually since I graduated, almost last century) but never got around to actually do it. Typical.

Now I really had no excuse, so I build a basic web page in a less than half an hour, so I could add the url in the cards. So my CV is here: Claudia's CV
Because it was build in haste, I need your validation and eagle eye for detail. What do you think?
1- do you think it should be in English? After all is for the Spanish job market, but I am advertising the teaching of the English.
2- do the links work for you?
3- do you like how it looks?

and for the people able to read Spanish: does it reads too informal?

Thanks.

Done it.

The power reduction was a sort of success as many people did turn off their lights during those 5 minutes. Now let's hope that the politicians will get the message.

However, I was thinking that in order to be truly more green we're going to need to agree to cut some nice things, like driving around with just one person in the car, having long hot showers everyday and so forth. How many voters would agree to that? How many politicians will have the guts to ask for sacrifices?

Are we all doomed?

5 minutes protest today

I think this is a great idea to show politicians that "normal" people care about the environment and it's high time to do something.

Check this out:

Participate in the biggest mobilization of Citizens Against Global Warming!

The Alliance for the Planet [a group of environmental associations] is calling on all citizens to create 5 minutes of electrical rest for the planet. http://www.lalliance.fr

People all over the world should turn off their lights and electrical appliances on the first of February 2007, between 1.55 pm and 2.00 pm in New York, 18.55 for London, and 19.55 for Paris, Bruxelles, and Italy. 1.55pm in Ottawa, 10.55am on the Pacific Coast of North America.

This is not just about saving 5 minutes worth of electricity; this is about getting the attention of the media, politicians, and ourselves.

Five minutes of electrical down time for the planet: this does not take long, and costs nothing, and will show all political leaders that global warming is an issue that needs to come first and foremost in political debate.

Why February 1? This is the day when the new UN report on global climate change will come out in Paris.

This event affects us all, involves us all, and provides an occasion to show how important an issue global warming is to us. If we all participate, this action can have real media and political weight.

Please circulate this call to your utmost ability to your network.