The lucha libre provided a fantastic backdrop to yet another great night. Dramatis personae included: Los Técnicos: Sita, Hannah, Berta y Fernando and los Rudos: José, Aldo and me… There were cameras there so hopefully I’ll get emailed an image or two soon. We started off in El Rincón de la Doa, hit the coliseo and then were swiftly transported (thanks, Berta) to Los Famosos Equipales for a few Nalgas alegres and cantinera singalong of El Rey and other classics. José (barely) managed to fit 6 people in his VW beetle. However he now has brakes so it could have been much worse… and now to work… happy biscuit making. NB. no W shaped biscuits. For shame…
We’re in the midst of a thunderstorm right now. I’ve just unplugged the laptop and am blogging on batteries… Hopefully the phone lines won’t take a direct hit. I had a go at taking some shots of the lightning from yesterday’s storm but it was still too light, there’s a few moody shots of the barrio on flickr (click the picture). Had a nice day working from home on a translation for a movie script and driving round with young Obdulio… he was round last night with a special surprise guest, which was grand. Back to business tomorrow though and off to the lucha again hopefully.
Here’s a weather badge that’ll tell you what the weather’s doing at the minute over here. I’d put it in the sidebar, but they don’t seem to have any tasteful/firefox compatible ones. So until I make 10 more posts, feel free to scroll down to it before it disappears for good.
It’s worth watching the 2nd section too, where he says, this administration is soaring, not sinking… they’re not “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic¨. They’re rearranging the deckchairs on the Hindenberg.
Este guey si tiene huevos…
EDIT: May 4th, 2006: YouTube’s taken this down apparently “At the request of C-Span” I’m not convinced… more at BoingBoing
Regular blogging. And a fully-fledged, catalog-driven, GDL-based, heavy-machinery-rental webpage. I’ve got tons of ideas for this one… it’s going to be good.
And don’t forget to boycott gringo products/ companies on May 1st… That’s why we’re going to CostCo on Saturday… And apparently we’ve got Monday off, cos of May Day, or the Dia de Trabajo round these parts, whereupon no one works.
Lots on at work. A good thing and no mistake. This morning I did a photoshoot round the kindergarten. There’s some lovely pix but I’m hesitant to post any to flickr without a release form, so here I’ve protected their little identities with a subtle photoshop effect:
Yesterday: To the baratillo, James, to find a lucha libre mask for Fernando and a microwave oven. It was too hot by half, but I’m well fond of wandering round Mexican markets and can even judge which aisle to go down by casting an eye for obstacles such as women with prams, queues for birria and machete-wielding coconut salesmen. A half success of sorts. I found out there’s a lucha libre spectacular in the bull ring on Sunday that might be worth a visit, I found a microwave oven for 25 bucks, but when I tried to get back to that particular stand it had either morphed into a blenders and kitchen sink stall or been raptured up. Never mind, in the town centre they’re on sale for 45 bucks or so new. And they deliver, which is important because I had visions of being discovered passed out on the wrong side of town in the afternoon heat with a microwave on my chest. On the only day of the year I didn’t have health insurance…
DVD purchases yesterday included: El Mar Adentro (Spanish film about a bloke in a wheelchair), Zapata (Hagiography of the famous revolutionary), Sin City (seen it before (4 lulus or thereabouts), but could happily watch it again), Lucky number Sleven (mixed reviews for this gangster film) and Hostal (Tarantino’s latest outing). I’m not 100% on whether they’ll all work cos I found a 5 peso (Fiddy cent) (30 pee) DVD store with no TV to test them on, but at that price, I’ll take my chances. Sometimes I’m not convinced they’re really originals at all…
On the MP3 player at the time: Boagworld– Pragmatic Accessibility, Total Podcastrophe #11, Mark Kermode’s film reviews from Friday and CD1 of Massive Attacks’ recent Best Of. I’ve got some crappy short headphones with a cable that doesn’t quite reach my pocket. So I went round with the player stuffed under my T-Shirt on my shoulder parrot-style, affixed with the ‘gentle perspiration” of my skin. It’s a wonder it still works… Anyroad, my pedometer (pace counter thing, (pedo means fart in Spanish, cue marketing nightmare…)), racked up 22,000 steps yesterday which makes up for Saturday’s shuffling round the house and trip to the air-conditioned cinema when the heat got too much.
We also got a fan from Gigante and barbecued up a storm again in the evening. Chorizo is the new bacon. The VH1 were showing Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange (4.5 Lulus). It was slightly edited, but even then was great to watch again. Such a powerful film, the kind that provokes discussion straight afterwards. If you’re not headed straight to bed… I read on the IMDB that the title is from when Anthony Burgess was in Borneo and saw Orangutans. Orang= man, Utan = of the forest. Hence clockwork man, which is what Alex ends up as when he’s reprogrammed. Seems plausible enough…
Today: Renegotiating terms @ see-nay-sco-pee-oh since I’ve finished the whole Camino Real thing. Jose’s round this avo for a briefing on how tomorrow’s photo shoot at centro nueva era’s going to happen. Life is good. Stu (click for nostaligic look at how site looked 2 years ago) complained that he couldn’t tell arse from elbow of what I’m up to from my blog. Something about cars breaking down and genteel ladies in photos… Give us a Skype and I’ll elaborate, Sr. Capstick. Him’n’Anne’re yoghurt weaving in a hippy commune in NZ right now… To each their own.
Today is the lazy day I’ve been yearning for. Monkey Dust in the morning. That Spike Lee heist film in the afternoon and further R & R for the evening. If all goes according to plan. Last night Sarah and Mark saved us from our where-to-go quandry by inviting us round for specially imported Crianza Tempranillo and guac/cheesy/tapenade snacks. Perfect. Thanks.
In geekery news, I just added a new “Recent Heated Debate” section to the sidebar which shows where the latest comments are and who they’re from. The names fade to white as they age, which is a nice touch, I reckon. I’m considering a 3-column makeover too. Comment away to see PHP in action.
I’m not looking for sympathy here, and I know it doesn’t sound like hard work, but eating out, sight-seeing and cocktails every evening soon takes it out of you. It’s been a really fun week between Easter with its attendant activities and barbecues and travel, even fitting in an hour or so of lucha libre, but it’s time for a break of sorts. I could probably have handled it all before I turned 31, pero ya no…
Anyroad, yesterday Sally, Minnie and I did the obligatory Chapala, Ajijic trip, this time with added open house visiting goodness. There’s photos if you click around enough after clicking the photo above. Some very nice, newly-built places with jacuzzis, lake views, and neighbours from Ontario that won’t cost you much more than 275,000 of your Earth dollars. I’ve still yet to manage to drive back home from the chapala/airport road without taking the wrong turn off though and touring either the netherparts of Central Guadalajara or the Perifery delights of Gwod’s ring road. One day… It doesn’t help that if you want to get to the house you have to follow signs for cities hundreds of miles away like Puerto Vallarta and Nogales neither… Eeh well.
Sita’s had some great news on the academic/ financial front, email her for more info. Suffice to say we should be able to stay in MX longer than originally planned and we’re celebrating tonight. Not sure where yet though. I think the only place I could really handle would have to be an oxygen bar. And not if it’s even slightly crowded. Sometime this weekend we’re also going to celebrate by buying a lovely new kitchen bin which won’t overflow once you’ve put an avocado skin and a water bottle in. And Sally’s treating us to a microwave oven too so we can enter into a glorious new age of nachos and cheese, quesadillas and baked spuds. Thanks Sally & Martin : )
Also this weekend, time to stock up on DVDs again. Though I’ve just got myself season II of Monkey Dust which is proving to be as ascerbic and entertaining as ever. Any recommendations? (comments below, preferably recent releases or Mexican classics, cheers). Proof (2006)’s been getting good reviews, anyone seen it? It’s got my tocaya in it, Gwyneth Paltrow…
Alrighty, regards, I’m off to do my election sloganeering. The best one I saw yesterday was “He’s not a liar, He’s not a cheat, He’s Alberto Ramirez”, your candidate for Tlajomulco or some such.
Next time we get to L.A. we have to pass by The Bunny Museum… Apparently Martin had a crash-course in rabbit feeding before Sally came over here. One day he reported they hadn’t eaten their food. On closer investigation Sally discovered two highly non-plussed lagomorphs staring at a food bowl full of ultra-absorbant litter tray pellets. Hopefully they’re ok…
Apparently it’s hot in Puerto Vallarta. Who’d’ve thunk it? And Sita’s been on the sweinesmaltz (spelling? It’s some bizarre teutonic lard product) at the German restaurant there again.
Erm, the car’s back in action. And I got a “Special Rate” so I come back again. Hopefully I won’t be back any time soon. I watched my subtitles on the film I translated yesterday. Thrilling it was. There were a few typos. desings, not designs for example… but overall it’s a great feeling watching your electronic endeavours going out into the world. I’m going to get a copy too.
And the Lucha Libre is really happening through the miracle of blog-mail. Whereupon you blog who you want to ring you and they call you. Cheers, Carlos, See you in the Fuente. Mine’s a Campo Viejo…
EDIT: and here’s something I cooked up today between watching short Uruguayan films, website overhauls for nutritionists and translating. It’s a Flash intro for a friend’s site who moonlights as a DJ. I didn’t have any of the original files for the graphics so they’re a little low-budget and ripped from teh intarwebs but the fly sounds are from an open source audio site and I mashed them together all on my own. I’ll never get my head around actionscript though. Stop (); It’s all practice…
Have you seen the photos from yesterday yet? There’s a nice one of the girls… They all hightailed it over to Puerto Vallarta this morning, if the bus left at 9ish, they’ll probably be there by now. Unfortunately they left the camera, but luckily we’ve got Sally’s photographic memory and fine line in well-observed anecdotes…
I’ve had a great weekend, all in all. Tlaquepaque’s changed a lot since I was last there. For the better… We even managed to pick up the premium tequila that Sita promised to the winner of her feedback questionnaire which saves me a trip to Tequila. The car’s getting sorted out at the mechanic’s today so hopefully we’ll be mobile again soon. Me and this other bloke had to jump start it and it wasn’t having any of it. We had to push it about 500 metres on the flat before we gave up and they went for the tow-truck. I’ve already racked up 10,000 steps on the pedometer and it’s barely lunchtime…
Hopefully tomorrow’s Lucha Libre time again. Sarah & Mark, give us a ring as I’m not sure I’ve got your numbers.
And today’s link: I Hate Cilantro – an anti cilantro community In ’98 I couldn’t stand the stuff. And I wasn’t sure about guacamole neither. How things change… (Coriander in the queen’s english, btw)
Quick post before heading off for the historic centre and Tlaquepaque. Last night we had a fantastic meal in Santo Coyote, perfect place for visitors to this fair city. Here’s a quick impromptu slideshow from there. 5 Stars. It’s going to be a permenant fixture on the restaurant list for our guests from now on. I’m uploading the pictures as I write, so check back in 5 minutes (it’s 11:15 now) and it should be there…
I drove out to San Martin de los Flores expecting to see scenes like this, along with all the fun of the Passion… self-flagellation, stigmata, special Easter empanadas etc., but couldn’t see anything. It’s in a pretty dodgy part of the city and the car’s been playing up of late so I considered parking it facing down the hill so I could push start it if need be but no… just turned around and drove home. I made the right decision though cos it’s not starting again. Might just have to keep the car running tomorrow when we go to the airport to pick up Sally and Minnie.
I got a few more cars looking like their surroundings pix, but I like this one best of a shop looking like tree tree looking like shopfront on my wander round today. I added a picture of our beautiful kerb a couple of posts down too. Might have to get a few purple swirls on that too. There’s hardly any traffic around and a fair few people wearing their sunday best on a Friday and it was nice to wander round Santa Tere with hardly anyone around.
Nothing major to report today. Plus ca change… Yesterday we had a wonderful time at the immigration office. It was actually relatively painless, people there actually smiled occasionally despite taking forever. I’d rather officials with a sense of humour and a longer wait. The woman who finally handed over our papers actually said “You go, girl!” in English when Sita told me to sign some forms. Anyroad, after a siesta we went out with Sarah and Mark on our Guadalajara Cantina Tour ™: La Fuente, La Maestranza, El Rincon de la Doña, Tacos then El Archivo (after Option A was closed). So a latish night and a lazy day. I bought water from Juan the water man, with his daily cry of “oooowwwwooooooaaaaaah!” and doorbell ringing. I did some translation this morning and then took the house apart looking for the video camera to no avail. It’s a mystery that one. Sita’s been booking all manner of Puerto Vallarta related things for next week. I don’t think I’ll be able to make it, but there’s a chance of Lucha Libre on Tuesday instead. and I don’t do well on the coast when the humidy’s high.
Some young scamps came round painting the edge of the pavement (sidewalk) and asking for money which was fair enough. I’d been worrying our pavement wasn’t quite white enough of late. But what we could really do with though is a peripatetic plumber. I finished watching Bandidas (I fell asleep yesterday during it), review to the right and Firewall from a couple of days ago. Chinese takeaway for tea and that’s about it. Tomorrow shall be a cleaning and photography day i feel. And thanks for the Skype apologist comments I’ve every confidence in your promises 🙂
