Stuff

here

Just a suggestion for next year’s Judea, have the 200 or so “elements of the security forces” dress up as Romans to add a more authentic touch to the procedings. As you’ll see from the photos, all you need is red and gold fabric and the brush from your kitchen broom… and it’ll make the arrests of public drunks even more watchable. (See the Informador’s version of events here.)

So it was quite an experience. First off, travel directions from Guadalajara: from Lazaro Cardenas, take the Carretera a Chapala, go about 3 km, to just after the bottom of the first hill, and turn off to the right at the San Martin de las Flores exit, cross the overpass, the railway and then go about 2 km and you’re there. Park, entrust your car to local 7-year-old entrepreneurs and wander through the impromptu market that’ll be bustling with people selling empanadas, chairs, relics, hats and refreshments until you get to the hill and wander up it. Bring walking shoes, sun tan lotion, and water. And a camara. And while you’re at it with your camera, make sure you’ve cleaned the lense or you’ll get home and realise every pinche photo has a smudge on it. Arse.

Anyroad, I got to the top of the hill at around 3ish, where the well-graffitied cross is and there’s a nice view but no shade, luckily they were selling sliced fruit up there so I sat down and watched the masses assemble while listening to Wait, Wait don’t tell me, the NPR news quiz on me iPaq.

By around 6pm the hill was packed, 100,000 people apparently, all jostling to see Jesus carrying his cross up the hill escorted by the aforementioned Romans and local TV camera crews. I had to stop several times on the way to the top to catch my breath, but fair play to Jesus, he managed it in one, very fast, climb. I’m not sure what happened when he got to the top. I thought there was going to be a full-on crucifixion, but I think that only happens in Venezuela or somewhere. I also left before Judas got hanged. I was more interested in taking photos of the crowds from the bottom of the hill. So all in all, I’m well glad I made it there. I think I was the only gringo there, I’m glad I didn’t wear shorts to make it even more obvious.

All my other photos of the Judea 2007 are here on Flickr if you’re interested.

Plans for today: Watch Howl’s Moving Castle, defluff my laptop (it’s starting to shut down due to overheating. NOT good, especially for next week’s workload), walk the perrito, check there’s no more black widow spiders in my office (*shudder*), and in the evening go on a tour of the expiatorio area of Gwod with José and Fernando, where there’s special events this evening at around 8 onwards. Let the good times roll.

just testing an embedded audio thingy…

didn’t work… have a link to YouTube instead

It’s every bit as quiet as last year. I took Atticus to buy the paper this morning and he didn’t even have any traffic to chase.

Anyroad, I’m going through my photos to enter them in Amour Fou’s “Cortosia de Amour Fou” competition. Rules here in Spanish. For the photography prize the theme is “anything to do with cinema”, and the prize is 2 weeks’ free rentals. So far there are no entries… Anyroad, I’ve been meaning for a while to take some shots around Gwod for a Hitchcock series, illustrating some of his most famous (and easiest to depict photographically) films; I’m looking for:

The Birds – Los Pájaros
Psycho – Psicosis
North by Northwest- Con la muerte en los talones
Vertigo – Vértigo
Strangers on a Train – ¿? Extraos en un tren
Rope – Soga, La
The 39 Steps – 39 escalones, Los
Number Seventeen – Número 17
The Lodger – El inquilino
Rear Window – Ventana indiscreta, La

Some of the Spanish titles don’t quite coincide: North by Northwest = With Death at the Heels… fr’instance.
And I so I’ll probably have a wander tomorrow completing the set. Also, if all goes well this avo I’ll join the throngs for the catholic goings on in San Martin de los Flores.

Watched Adios a Lenin, last night. Sita was initially sceptical as with my accent she thought it was going to be about the Beatles. Turned out to be a very good German film. Meanwhile, Amour Fou is projecting La Vida de Brian tonight, since it’s Easter… A fine choice of film if you ask me.

Also I learnt today it would take 38 odd cups of my favourite caffeine drink, Starbucks Grande Coffee, to kill me thanks to this helpful death-by-caffeine site (thanks StumbleUpon). Mathematicians may care to work out my weight from this. Please do not publish your findings in the comments section.

Seems like everyone’s gone or is going to the beach. Anyroad, not complaining, I’ve had my fair share of holidays of late. Still waiting for various projects to materialise. Next week should be busy if the people who’ve said they’ve stuff for me to do give me stuff…

So today I played a lot of Scrabble, getting back in the 1000s again. There’s a shake-up of the SOWPODS (UK/international -USA version) allowed words in a month or so so that’s going to throw me off for a bit if they mess with my 2-letter words. I’d like to put in a request for “Zot”, Sita assures me it’s the sound anteaters make and it must have been an oversight when they wrote the dictionary.

Also got inspired by a comment on this flowery photo saying that they look like Trollz so I did meself a photoshopped hybrid monstery thing:

And also I started buggering around with the e-commerce plugin for wordpress. Seems alright, i’m having some issues with permalinks and .htaccess, but nothing insurmountable. They hard part is thinking of products. Vaguely considering some framed photography with frames from Tonala. Very, very much in progress here don’t be surprised to see an illegible mess…
And if things stay quiet this week, then I’ll be rejigging this blog page yet again, cos I can’t get it to display right in (accursed, plagues be upon it) IE 6.

Also planned this week, making a bit more of an effort to find Jesus in San Martin de los Flores on Friday. This time I’ll have a map…

Other stuff… Spanish phrase of the week, courtesy of the taxi driver from the airport: Una lluvia mojapendejos. A type of rain that only idiots* would get wet in. Ie. short and sweet.

* insert regional slang of choice here. Twunt for example…

Tulum phootos. Very slowly…

So much to post about last week, so I’ll probably end up not writing anything so just in case, highlights included: putting the world to rights with Roberto, fine eats and DIY with Martin & Sally, painless tax filing with Sally’s accountant, catching up with lots of friends and family, Guelaguetza (sp?) oaxacan restaurant in central LA, Frolf with Matt (FRisbee goLF, although I’m told only newbies call it that as it sounds far too precious), red zinfandel comparative tasting with Meg, boozing with Liz, and hassle-free immigration and dog repatriation. and more I probably forgot. So that’s that for now, on to what inspired me to blog today.

Toilet repairs.

So the downstairs toilet wasn’t filling/flushing right, so I had to repeat the DIY shop experience I had in Santa Cruz a few years back when I went to buy a replacement part. I spent a few minutes explaining what I needed with hand gestures and everything, a flapper thing basically, and the bloke got what I was after. It’s called a flapper. Today I went to Santa Tere to a Tlapaleria (DIY shop, more common than the Spanish Spanish, Ferreteria) and had the same conversation in Spanish. Turns outs it’s called un Flapper. Things they never teach you at school…

Atticus is settling in. He’s going to be sleeping in my office to keep him from barking at the various sounds that occur during the night here (road sweepers, door-to-door salesmen, Ralphy Gutierrez, peripatetic mariachi bands, etc.) He met Juan, the water bloke today and barked away at him. (Bonafont’s just hiked the price up to 23 pesos a garafon and I think Atticus sensed that…) but I’ll forgive him anything after his exemplary behaviour on the plane and in the airports yesterday. As I wrote that he started barking up a storm again… ah well.

For proper blogging, there’s always M & D’s travelogue over at ChiliCatInLa.blogspot.com they’re in Oaxaca… And that’s all for today, glad to be back home again and looking forward to catching up with the Guanatos crowd and seeing all the semana santa shenanigans. Hasta pronto!

Here’s the dog before 6 hours sedated in a cage:

more vids soon… Wish us luck!

More than half of these’ll just get you funny looks when spoken in Guanatos, but if you’re heading Madrid way check out these 12 phrases to get by with in the Spanish capital… ¡Qué guay, tio! Son de puta madre… Aah, the Españolitos and their funny ways…

New Flickr toys from Dumpr include this museumr one. Vanity publishing:

cos it’s a huge waste of time. But it was that or Pacman and we got our taxes done today and had the dog innoculated against every plague going around so I don’t feel too bad… Anyroad, it led me to this page of winning entries for a “Make up a Jack Handey Deep Thought” compo and for that I thank it… almost as good as the old-as-the-hills originals. My faves?

Give me the strength to change the things I can, the grace to accept the things I cannot, and a great big bag of money.

Once, I wept for I had no shoes. Then I came upon a man who had no feet. So I took his shoes. I mean, it’s not like he really needed them, right?

your one-stop-shop for schipperke animated gifs and other delights…

Click the lovingly rendered graphic below to go there:

don’t forget to sign their guestbook and web design like it’s 1999…
in other news, Atticus met his “cousin” today and is now knackered. 7 days to “Schipperkes on a Plane!” insaniddy.

and caught up with lots of old friends from Santa Cruz in the Biltmore Hotel slap bang in the centre of L.A. All expenses paid by USC and a stretch from the usual Hotel Universo (with its Bar Galaxia…). Waking up the next day I looked out the window and saw a complex sprinkler system I wasn’t sure what it was until I remembered we were in LAlalandia and they were filming some scene for a pilot tv episode which required rain and lots of extras with umbrellas… We got the dog transport cage, located last year’s tax forms, and have more or less arranged Thursday’s trip north…

Plans for the next week: a fair bit of painting / decorating and at some point I want to fit in a trip to the cinema to see 300.

For a few pix and a fine description of last night’s nonsense, hie thee hence to Monica’s blog. An evening that involved Monica uttering the immortal words, Work Shmerk…

Here’s a slightly photoshopped pic of monica’s of the Peripatetic Electric Shock Bloke:

Today we’re off to Californialandia for all kinds of fun. As ever, wish us luck. Looking forward to catching up with family, old friends and pets… Blogging might become even more sporadic than usual. Pa’que sepas…

but not Tapalpa nor cafe clandestino… So it’s been a quiet few days catching up on still more films (see reviews) the occasional one-to-one Spanish class and getting things ready for a 10 day leave of absence to California…

It’s become decidedly hotter round Gwod way. Trees are blossoming, grass is turning brown, and at risk of looking even more like a foreigner I’ve taken to wearing shorts. Yesterday the city ground to a halt for Benito Juarez Day and that’s about it. It’s harder to sleep and productivity’s slid downhill too. Hopefully after the US trip things will cool down a tad and I can start doing more long term projects, like PHP classes, photo projects and maybe a podcast… Anyroad, just a post to let the world know all’s still well before next week’s chaos, like importing dogs, H & R Block and bunny home finding…

I’ve YouTubed some more stuff too… Here’s a badly sung Levellers song called Hard Fight. It’s a little out of my singing range, especially the first couple of lines, and I couldn’t find my capo so bear with me…

This evening Casa Gaytan-Fisher-Seltzer-Garcia is hosting a German evening. Daniel’s been cooking for what seems like a fortnight and some mates are coming round tonight to sample his gastronomic meat and potato based delights. Tomorrow there’s a party (all are welcome) round Amour Fou way, email me for details. And on Sunday, we may well be off to Tapalpa for the day. If I’m not knackered and we’re back in time there’s cultural goings on at Café Clandestino, who’ve gotten themselves a fancy YouTube page and sent out the following invite for Spanish poetry readings on Sunday evening at 8ish :

Thanks Christina from Canada for your comment in the Guestmap. Glad to be of service 🙂 And if any of you haven’t yet guestmapped yerselves it fair makes my day to get new little guestmappees.

A mamey is sort of a cross between between a papaya and a yam. Sweet and potatoey. Not to be confused with mangos. Here’s Dr. Ana with her mamey:

So we’ve had the plumbers/gasfitters round today (and yesterday) which led to some new vocabulary for bits of pipes, tools and suchlike. Basically the gas tank on the roof’s been smelling of gas occasionally and the water went out for longer than usual so we called in the experts. After daubing soapy water on the gas tank there was blatantly a leak, “ah, licenciado, el regulador está madreado” they explained. Madreado being a Mexican scientific term for “buggered” so they swapped it for a new non-leaky one. The water took longer to fix, getting the pump going, cleaning the well that I was previously unaware of and other stuff… But anyway, as of today our little house is less likely to explode or suffer drought and that has to be a good thing.

It’s Shaun the sheep.