… a freelance gardener showed up in the nick of time and made our 3m x 10m stretch of prime agricultural land look more than half decent. He even managed not to mangle our agaves when he strimmed the lawn, which is something of a first for hired help. Maybe it’s because they’re starting to look a bit fiercer, we’re a mere 6 years from harvesting it to roast, pulp, ferment and distill into the finest tequila Calle Garibaldi’s ever produced. He also knew what he was doing when he took on our nispero tree (if that’s what it is…) which now cuts a fine figure and decorates rather than ominously looms over the yard. Atticus, needless to say, is loving it. Back in Downey California, he was all about running round and round and creating canine crop circles. Now he’s adapted to a straight line which he runs down, executes a perfect leap into the wall and launches himself back along the line Olympic swimmer style, hence the new trench all along the wall. Maybe he’s trying to communicate with aliens in binary…

Sally and Martin arrived Thursday afternoon with no problems at all and a suitcase stuffed with gourmet goods such as Irish Mature Cheddar and California Zinfandel along with half a metric ton of doggy treats. The reunion was as joyful as you like and we dined that night at the Santo Coyote, which has recently hiked its prices up, the average meal now costing about 195 pesos. Still excellent food mind. Yesterday we went to San Juan de Dios to shop for watches, craft, fruit and DVDs. Had a coffee in the centre of town. I asked for a mug of café americano and an espresso to put in it to boost it a bit. In a Lost in Translation moment I duly received my espresso and an empty mug to put it in. I’ve no idea what they thought I was planning to do. Maybe they thought I had a special shaped mouth which couldn’t drink from small espresso cups. Anyroad, no worries. Then I had a business meeting of sorts about a website, luxury jewelry for the European market… anyway, part two of the Guadalajara Holy Trinity of restaurants in the evening, El Sacromonte, where the robalo (sea-bass) is highly recommended… Possibly La Matera tonight to complete the trio.

The plan today is to go back to Tequila and not interview anyone for a change. I’m looking forward to it even though we only went three days ago. And then in the afternoon, apparently Michael Moore’s latest film, Sicko, has “leaked” onto the web…

This post needs some photos but I haven’t downloaded the latest yet… but have I mentioned I’ve got A NEW PHOTO BLOG =P

I’ve stopped writing my blog in the mornings and end up writing fairly disjointed missives these days. Apologies. Sometime soon I’ll get back into the swing of things.

First off, check out M & D’s blog. They’re at the beach and if what Monica writes is to be believed, Daniel’s working hard and spouting folk wisdom about sea creatures and Monica’s postponing swimming with dolphins.

Meanwhile in Gwod, we had coffee with Ana and I gave her her computer back and set it up then we went to Tequila for some more interviewing of local bureaucrats. As per usual I had a wander and the resulting photos are shown below. Then in the afternoon, a siesta, Baskin Robbins, oil change and then PHP class. Then the wind blew Sita’s office door shut and locked it and I had a good 30 minutes of trying to open it again so she could get to her computer… A variation on sliding a credit card worked…

That’s all for now. I’m a tad tired and tomorrow’s a big day with Sally and Martin’s arrival. Hasta pronto!

Y todo por no estudiar = And all because I didn’t study

Alcoholics Anonymous Tequila

…by whoring out my photoblog and web design page with pay-per-click ads. At this rate I’ll be able to pay for this month’s hosting and a couple of tacos by 2009. I’m really enjoying the photoblog thing- it’s a very self-congratulatory way to spend 10 minutes a day browsing through old photos. Thoroughly recommended though.

So today I took on the inside patio and the cucarachas that have been accumulating of late, did some repotting of my albahaca (basil) plants and tidied up the garden a bit. I printed a “Wanted, Gardener” sign and stuck it to the gate on Friday but there’s been no interest since then so I launched myself at the nispero tree and ripped it down to size mano a arbol and dug over the earth a bit. Once it starts raining properly all bets are off. Things just grow and there’s nowt you can do about it.

I’ve started taking my camera everywhere with me more than ever. Hence photos like the one below…

Who ya gonna call?

unfortunately due to various bureaucratic cock ups I’m not getting paid in time to get the new camera I wanted to order and have Sally and Martin bring on Thursday. Never mind, I reckon there’s still a lot of mileage to get from my point and shoot Kodak model. I’m itching to have a go at making some HDR photos like CasaDeGuadalajara’s been uploading of late on Flickr.

Tomorrow I’m giving Ana back her computer so Jorge has no excuse for not finishing his end of term essays and then we’re off to Tequila once again. Sita’s interviewing local dignatories and I’m probably going to go exploring the agave fields. I’ll have to be back for my PHP class at 5, so no shennanigans are planned…

Other news: Flickr’s just gone multilingual which should boost the number of Tapatian photographers on it. And there’s an interesting thread at VivirGuadalajara where people are going to do a Guadalajara alphabet of photos. I’ll wait till I fully understand the rules before joining in, but that should be nice to check back on. They’re on A at time of writing. There’s a Flickr tour on Sunday, but I think we’ve got other plans. Shame, but there’ll be more…

I’m still a fan actually. 2 become 1 still hits the spot… Ginger Spice was my fave. I was so young, with so much to learn.

This breaking news comes via alt1040.

Meanwhile, here’s some photos from yesterday’s wandering round town:

Please, iGoogle Homepage, let it be true…

So, in brief, no PHP today. Yesterday was a little dull, XOR etc relationships with binary numbers. But next week we get into forms and databases so it’ll be fun all the way.

This evening we’re off round a friend’s photography exhibition with wine and cheese which’ll be nice and this avo I think I’m going to try and find the Corpus Christi procession which they’re shutting off half of town for.

Just had a lovely chat with bert who is also rocking the FaceBook which I’m slowly getting into…

What follows is a post from yesterday about my new photo blog that promptly crashed once I started publicising it. I’m still not sure what caused it but after reinstalling all manner of stuff it’s back up and running…

Alrighty, I got my lappy back and it’s been going for 4 hours straight with no crashes. It does, however, sound like a dying lawnmower with the volume on 11. Anyroad, in that time I got a photo blog up and running. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while now and I finally got round to it. The thing with publishing photos in this blog and Flickr is that the pix I post are usually related to recent posts or a recently taken. With this photo blog I can publish stuff I like that’s been out of circulation for a while.

So I’ll be putting up a new picture every day. Subscribe to the photo blog feed here or just check back daily at this address: http://agaveweb.com/photos/. I also put up a bit of background info on me on the about page.

That’s it for now, PHP class in a moment, then dining out with the casa garibaldi crowd and victor and jana. Good times. And I reckon we can’t be more than 24 hours away from rain by now…

…rain already.

PHP class is coming along nicely. I can do sums now…

It’s hard to work up the energy to do much else though, just switching programs on this computer takes a minute or two. I hope my lappy comes home soon and I can get coding and translating again. I’m having a go at making a photo blog which’ll let me post my favourite pics once a day and maybe shoving some google adsense on it to mitigate the hosting costs… but once again having 3 blogs on the same server is playing merry hell with the permalinks and it’s not behaving itself yet. Anyway, it’ll eventually be here: agaveweb.com/photos

laters

Plan A for Monica’s birthday was to rent a house from a couple of gringos who are friends of Jana, but at the last minute this fell through because they were going to go to the States for a month but neglected to perform the necessary bureaucratic acrobatics (bureaubatics?) to get a passport for their new baby. I don’t envy them in the slightest, they missed their flights, have to do all the paper and legwork and reorganise their holiday. Meanwhile, we just switched to Plan B which was staying in M & D’s favourite hotel, el Mesón de San Antonio for a couple of bucks extra a night.

Lovely place it is too, a vast patio, fireplaces in each room (already arranged for lighting, matches included), thick walls, cool floors, powerful showers, WI-FI, coffee and breakfast included and all just a hop, skip and a jump from the centre. Highly recommended. However, bring ear plugs just in case a local church is celebrating their saint’s day with regular cannon fire during the night…

We ate in Cha Cha Cha on the first day as the sun set and temperatures returned to a doable level and then I left Sita, Monica and Karina to start the initial stages of a craft buying frenzy and Daniel to his coding. After they came back we chilled in the hotel’s dining area, mellow as you like. Lovely.

Saturday morning we went down to the lake to have some breakfast snacks like Corundas (Michoacán Tamales) and investigate the crafts. From their we delivered Daniel back to his cave to keep on working and went to Tzintzuntzan where we were too early to get in to see the yácatas so just went on a craft frenzy instead. The climax of the spree was when Monica all but signed up to have a 1.5m diameter Aztec calendar table shipped to Tijuana to pick up later. However, somehow reason was restored and the plan came to naught. We still left with a boot full of bargains though.

In the afternoon I went exploring, snapping photos along the way as per usual, then we reconvened in El Boiler, an arty café place and hung out at the hotel all evening with booze and snacks (including Carne Seca, DELICIOUS beef jerky type affair that Karina brought down with her from Chihuahua).

Sunday morning, breakfast next door and a brief sight of the cabrones who’d been letting off celebratory rockets all night along with their colourful retinue. Then a couple more craft shops, because, hey, we’re in Patzcuaro and off home while M, D and K headed for Morelia.

We got a flat tire on the way home, but noticed it 1 block before a tire repair shop. 60 pesos (2 pounds 50p ish) for a repair and we were on our way again through thunderstorms and toll roads to arid, hot Guadalajara. A great way to celebrate Monica’s birthday and no mistake.

She’ll probably weigh in with more detail and photos over at ChiliCatinLA…

Other news… start my PHP course today. And Atticus smells of dog. Barbie Princess Champu time beckons.

Full photo set of the weekend in Patzcuaro and around here.
Blog entry on Michoacán in Feb, here.

I just chanced upon a Flickr app that tells you all kinds of things about your Flickr photos, profile and stuff… I love checking stats on me blog and photos and stuff and thanks to this gizmo I found out some of my photos are being used around the web, all properly attributed and everything, just the way things should be.

The most prestigious is a photo of Tonalá on Wikipedia’s English Tonalá page, and probably the least prestigious would be the “sex shop and mariscos” one over here, it’s also one of me most popular photos. There’re also a few phototour related ones too. There’s a blog using my Victor Jara design to illustrate a post on copyright infringement… Hope Victor’s family aren’t too litiginous…

Anyroad, if you’ve got a Flickr account, check it out.

While roaming around the outer limits of YouTube I came across this pearl. I’ve put the lyrics and a rough and ready translation below (it looks like the live version below messes about a bit with the order of the verses mind). All about Guanatos (the locals’ name for Guadalajara) by a group from Guanatos, singing to people from Guanatos in Guanatos.

piensa todo lo q hay aqui – Think about all the things that are here
100% tapatio es todo lo q tienes q decir – 100% Tapatio is all you have to say,
apasionadamente. – passionately

piensa todo lo q hay aqui – Think about all the things that are here
100% tapatio es todo lo q tienes q decir- 100% Tapatio is all you have to say,
muy orgullosamente. – very proudly

siente lo q tu tienes aqui – Feel all the things you’ve got here
cultura,artesania – culture, craft
q le puedes mostrar a todo el mundo – that you can show to everyone
y el mariachi si senor – and yes, sir, mariachi (too).

Guanatos de corazon – Guanatos in my heart
100% tapatuyo soy! yeah – I’m 100% tapatio! Yeah!
mi cultura en la calle crecio. – My culture grew in the streets.

Las mujeres mas bellas son de aqui – The most beautiful women are from here
el clima perfecto – its perfect climate
y la juventud esta siempre sonriendo – and always-smiling youth
te abrira el corazon- will open up your heart

Guanatos de corazooooooon- Born and bred in Guanatos
100% tapatuyo soy! yeah- I’m 100% tapatio! Yeah!
mi cultura en la calle crecio.- My culture grew in the streets.

Guanatooos mi tierra q me vio nacer – Guanatos- the land where I was born
Guanatooos el tequila q me vio llorar – Guanatos- where tequila made me cry
Guanatooos es mi tierra q me vio nacer- Guanatos- the land where I was born
Guanatooos el tequila q me vio llorar- Guanatos- where tequila made me cry

Piensa todo lo q hay aqui – Think about all the things that are here
100% tapatio es todo lo q tieness q decir – 100% Tapatio is all you have to say.

And your Spanish word of the week is a Mexicanism, Naco meaning naff, tacky, of poor taste/ quality, cheap. I’ve a feeling this song qualifies…

My new favourite beach town for those on a budget…

Chacala, is about 10 minutes beachwards from Las Varas and 3 hrs from Guadalajara and is absolutely gorgeous. We rented a house for the 7 of us with a pool and everything. Brought the BBQ and had 48 hours of no internet (though it was available), sun, sand, seafood and Pueblo Viejo. We arrived late afternoon on Friday, stayed in the pool all evening, cooking up a storm of hamburguesas and suchlike. Then Saturday, arranged to have people come and cook camarones al mojo de ajo and a la diabla around the house in the evening and explored the town on foot and by boat. Monica clandestinely baked sita a delicious chocolate cake and all.

On Sunday we came home and went to the Lucha Libre in the evening followed by the Famosos Equipales cantina and yesterday (Sita’s birthday) went out for breakfast, then Tlaquepaque then (and I’m going to spell their name wrong in protest of them not allowing cameras) a FANTASTIC Mexican/Thai fusion meal at Annnitttta liiii followed by imported Californian wines chez nous. Plenty of Chacala photos on Flickr, and as per usual my favourites below:

Well, at least I’ve never been more prepared for a system breakdown than this time. Files backed up, settings, a handwritten list of programs to install… And (THANK YOU ANA!) a replacement computer lined up to boot. I really shouldn’t complain… I even remembered to backup my firefox saved password files. I’m probably going to invest in a decent amount of RAM for this computer though so it doesn’t get tied up during webdesignery. I’ll also have to find a USB lead to transfer my pix from now on.

Anyroad, now we’re off to the beach, Chacala it’s called. We’ve rented a house with a swimming pool for the weekend for the 7 of us (Set, Amy and Angeles are in tow also). And it’s allegedly only 4 hours away on toll roads. We’ve been wrong before though. Should be good.

Anyroad, thanks for your patience while posting’s been slow.

I’m in the process of wiping my hard drive and starting again from scratch. Not fun. Presently in the planning stages, listing all the CDs and downloads I have to find to reinstall my programs, from essentials, like XP, Office, Firefox, etc to when-i-get-the chance programs like Google Earth and Audacity. Then there’s all the photos, videos, mp3s, drivers, translations, extensions, websites, you name it, to back up to an external hard drive…

The computer’s shutting down with alarming frequency, and though the heat is definitely a factor, this reinstall needs to be done. I took it apart and the fans and vents are all clean, but something’s amiss. If this nuclear option doesn’t sort it out I’ll not be best pleased…

So now that’s 3 successful Fototours. We started off at 10:30am in Tlaquepaque’s town centre and ambled over to the Centro el Refugio. There;s a torture exhibition on at the minute and we all went in but cameras weren’t allowed. An inauspicious start, but the building has plenty to offer photographically. The torture implements were suitably grim and well presented. What stood out most was man’s inhumanity to woman, that the Spanish inquisition employed much worse things that the comfy chair, and that out of a lot of nasty ways to go, being strapped upside down, legs apart and slowly sawn in half has to be about the worst. It takes a while to die from it because the blood runs to your head or something. Anyway given that I hadn’t had breakfast yet it fair took my appetite away for an hour or two.

Next up was the Pila Seca administration building where we took the first group photo and admired the bright orange arches while the temperatures slowly rose and shade became non-existant. Wandered around the boutiquey overpriced craft shops and into the ceramic museum where they had some nice miniature scenes of mexican life. Then on to sample fresh tejuino and ceviche tostadas from El Cables, street seafood purveyor bloke, and finally a few cold beers in the Parian. Lovely. The next tour will be governed by whether it’s bucketing down with rain or not. The rainy season is estimated to be 2 wks away and I, for one, will greet it with open arms…

Here’s my favourites from yesterday. All the photos of Tlaquepaque and Gwod from yesterday are at Flickr… or click the “more” link below for a Flash slideshow.

Read More “Tapatían Fototour #3- Tlaquepaque”

And I did not sleep well… nevermind.

Have another photo of Atticus, since I’m saving my energy for getting to Tlaquepaque and am not up to posting much.

One many new words I learnt today was Palomear.

A paloma is a dove or pigeon as you probably already knew thanks to crimes-against-music like this. And in Mexico, a paloma is a tick (or check mark I think in US parlance) because it looks like a bird in flight, I presume. As drawn by a 6 year old.

So palomear, to tick. At least I think so because the other option “to devote a great deal of time to raising pigeons” really didn’t seem to work in the context of a technical manual…

So thanks to a translation I’m working on I’m up on the latest vocabulary for preventing electrostatic discharge (ESD) and also learnt that crocodile clips are Caimán clips round these parts… It’s the little differences…

in other news:

¡Feliz Cumpleaos! Little Sis

Saturday was a late night what with the short film competition screening at Amour Fou and all the following festivities for Carlos’s birthday. Then yesterday, after watching Atlas get thoroughly thrashed by Americas, we went to La Cava for a drink or two and some of us had botanas which included pig feet and marinated pork scratchings…

Kinky were playing in the Plaza de Liberación for free. They’re a first class band, well known throughout Latin America and, increasingly, Gringolandia. You might know them from such popular tunes as “más y más” and my personal fave, “Canibal“… They rocked. Then everyone came back to Casa Garibaldi for biscuits Mezcal, and M & D were back too from Chihuahua, which is their new favourite place in Mexico.

I’m going to be well busy this week with various projects, so either there’ll be scant posting cos I’m too tied up, or possible lots of it cos I’ll be sat at the computer all day… Tune in later to find out which…

All photos from yesterday’s Kinky antics here.