Back in Gwod

We made it to the end of another season of LOST, as usual with more questions generated than answered. I can’t remember the last time I was as gripped by anything in the cinema. TV is officially the new film.

If you didn’t make it last night to Santo Coyote, you missed a treat. And another round of las maanitas and some kind of liqueur filled chocolate cake. Pricey, but well worth it. Suffice to say, today we had salad for dinner.

Sneak peaks of websites in the making:
www.viveSNEAKPREVIEWajijic.com
www.divineSNEAKPREVIEWsalon.com.mx

and cheap, cheerful and designed with Yahoo! Sitebuilder (not recommended):
www.civilSNEAKPREVIEWmarriageceremony.com.

Delete the SNEAKPREVIEWS out and slap’em in the address bar if you’re beyond bored… or family.

Some things are easier to cancel than others. In the spirit of public service, here’s the list:

CFE: Electricity. You can read the metre and they’ll tell you how much you owe, however you can’t pay it until the next bill comes along unless you want to stop the service completely.

Megacable: Basic cable is easy to cancel, you have to do it in person at one of the outlets and you just pay the percentage of the unbilled month. A day or two later they disconnect you and you never have to suffer The American Network or Holy Channel 22 again.

Gas: Zeta gas, since there seems to be no gas pipes to anyone’s house in Gwod you just fill your tank to whatever level it was at when you arrived. It’s probably for the best given that entire streets have blown up in the past that were meant to only be water drains… Minimum order for a tanque estacionario 300 pesos.

SIAPA: Water. Easy, bless them. You go to your nearest office with the metre reading and pay it and you’re done. They’re just happy to be paid at all it seems, as half their advertising campaign right now starts “Are you one of those people who don’t pay for their water?” And has a fresh faced young lad with an admonishing stare saying “Qué poca…” which means You´ve got some nerve, more or less.

TELMEX: Phone and interweb. This is a heady mixture of going to offices and fighting to not get disconnected from their labyrinthine phone menus. They´re split into different corporate sections, each with a different phone number, “Your call is important to us” muzak and wildly varying degrees of professionalism. Removing extra phone services was easy enough, just a question of 7 menus and a 10 minute wait on the phone, but to cancel the interweb tubes they gave me another number which didn´t even get answered when I rang the first 10 times. Then I finally got through to a human, then he said “un segundo” and disappeared for 20 minutes and I got cut off. All the conversations start badly when they ask you for your name and I have to spell out Gwyn and explain my lack of a 2nd surname… Anyroad, I could go on, but basically you have to take the complimentary modem to the Telmex office with a “victory” code that you earn if you win your phone battles and then they´ll cancel it. Sisyphean, I tells you.

Because of the aforementioned trials today we didn´t make it to Tequila, which is a shame but it would have been a long day…

Bit tired now, in 4.5 hours I´m making sure powerpoints work… saludos!

Off to an Argentine restaurant with Don Jose and Sita’s in the gym

Now that Monica’s officially broken the news I’m thinking it’s okay to link to M & D + 1. I’m guessing there won’t be many more posts about kitchens…

Special Portland CONGRATULATIONS to the pair of you, I can’t believe should have know Daniel would be reading him Linux manuals…

The trick is to put so much sugar on, you can’t taste the 4 different sources of saturated fats…

G’night all…

The importance of learning a second language… or even just a few useful words.

Locals in Toledo, Spain heard an American screaming for “Help” in English and thought he was shouting “Pepe” over and over again. It wasn’t until some multilingual German passers-by heard him that the fire brigade was called and he was fished out of the river Tajo after 3 hours of rope action. He was fine by all accounts afterwards and treated for hypothermia.

Help is “Socorro” just for the record. As in succour. A bummer actually, cos I can’t pronounce my double Rs in Spanish… I’ll probably alternate it with ¡Ayúdame! (Help me!) when I’m stuck down a hole.

Daniel’s gone for the weekend, but according to a search “Fördern” might well be Help! in German. Please don’t sue if it isn’t mind…