Click for bigger… Today we got a mobile phone, bargain price and wandered around looking for “Se renta” signs. Anyroad, there’s a few more pix of the hotel on Flickr too and if you’ve downloaded Google Earth (Finally, Geography’s fun…) click on this link and open the file to fly as if by google-powered magic carpet to our posada in Guadalajara, Mexico where we’re staying for the next couple of days.
I was looking around friends’ blogs for inspiration today (cos I promised to post more often even if I’ve nothing much to write about) and I remembered Flash had recently unearthed the Things you love beginning with… meme. Way back in 2006 I got W. This time (via Skype chat)…
[8:37:38 AM] Gwyn says: Oy, Flash! Give us a letter for that meme. You gave me a W last time and I need some inspiration. (thanks 🙂 ) [8:37:59 AM] Flash says: you want a different letter? [8:38:05 AM] Gwyn says: yep [8:38:11 AM] Flash says: *thinks* [8:38:17 AM] Flash says: P [8:38:20 AM] Gwyn says: yay! [8:38:20 AM] Flash says: ok? [8:38:21 AM] Gwyn says: thanks [8:38:24 AM] Flash says: np!
10 things I love beginning with P:
Parents, Phoning home
If it weren’t for skype, cheap international phone calls and the internet I wouldn’t be living so far away from home. Hi Mum & Dad!
Photography (+Picasa)
Here’s one from the other day. It looks like an apple, but is actually an acorn.
Chose focal black and white in Picasa’s options menu, waved my magic mouse and uploaded it to Flickr. Photography is one of the most rewarding hobbies I have, not just taking photos but admiring and being inspired by other people’s too. Also it brings you little moments to treasure like Atticus finally overtaking “Dead Horse” in the LA Times and being the 2nd Best Animal at time of writing… I promise I only voted once. The votes have nothing to do with the judges so here’s hoping he gets printed in the LA Times paper edition this Sunday…
Potatoes
I could live on these exclusively for months. Like I did through most of university. I reckon the antiscience hicks have it all wrong and that spuds, rather than bananas, are the real “Atheist’s nightmare“…
Planting stuff in the jardin.
I won’t call it growing veggies just yet. That would be premature. I enjoyed the actual planting, even if the resulting rows of slug-eaten greenery is not (and may never be) fit for human consumption. The herbs’re doing grand though and the dandelions are thriving.
Peep Show
The facebook group has it about right: “If you don’t like Peep Show, you’re probably not worth knowing.” Harsh, but fair.
Pratchett, Terry
and his lovely discworld series. I started reading them when I was 13 or so and have read them all in order ever since. They’re enjoying a bit of a renaissance at the minute round here as Powells Books has a fair few used copies on sale. I’m still patiently waiting for Making Money to come out in paperback Stateside.
Pasties & al Pastor, Tacos
I’m going to have to get back to Mexico soon if only to gorge on Tacos al Pastor again.
Pasties are also missed, though we had the Chilean version round a colleague of Sarita’s house the other day, empanadas. Lighter pastry, an olive, egg and raisins got added to the recipe when it travelled south. Wikipedia has some handy pasty facts… “It is said that a good pasty should be strong enough to endure being dropped down a mine shaft.”
PCs
Yeah, they crash occasionally. Yeah, some of my drivers stopped working with Vista. Yeah, Microsoft… But when PCs go wrong I can usually fix them, swapping out some part for another cheaply bought one, or messing with the registry. When your Mac goes wrong, it goes wrong. Usually in spectacular/ expensive fashion.
I got my first PC from Drsita’s dad, Martin when I started at UMass in August 2000. I’d probably still be trying to teach Spanish to spoilt teenagers now if it wasn’t for him.
Parks
Parks are good. They used to be for drinking cider and playing guitar in, now they’re for being dragged through by a 25lb + schipperke.
Pubs
Though it turns out it’s not the place, it’s the company. Still working on finding some Portland pub peeps.
Posters
I seem to be making lots of posters lately. Here’s today’s…
I went round the place I had an interview with yesterday, but no news. The Americans who interviewed me had fled (flewn? flown? fleas?) back to Utah and everyone will hear by email. I won’t hold my breath though. Maybe my demands of five hundred quid a month for a 40 hour week were too high… Anyroad, no worries, just don’t forget to send anyone looking for web sites to this self-taught, outsourced English bloke in Guadalajara whose blog you stumble by occasionally…
I painted the other half of the living room today, an off-white taupey colour. Can’t really tell the difference myself, but Sita’s happy and that’s the main thing. How many living rooms can boast 5 ifferent colours? Eh? I wrote an Xmas card to one of me grandmothers, Nanny. She’s not on Skype yet so I had recourse to use MS Word. My faith in the Mexican postal system is not 100%. The DVDs of the tour of the house never arrived at either my nor Sita’s folks, and I’m guessing Jesse’s SPSS never arrived neither. Although things seem to get to us OK.
Two collisions at the crossroads in front of our house today. I was wondering when it was going to happen again, it’d been almost a fortnight. No injuries as usual, just major damage. If I have any red paint from the kitchen left I’m going to sneak out in the middle of the night and put a large “STOP” sign on the side road, or maybe the piles of shattered presurized glass will be enough.
I’m already regretting that the film we’re off to see in 10 mins (Wednesdays are 25peso cinema days) is “In her shoes” (en sus zapatos). Not that I go to see films with preconceptions or anything, but I’m thinking it’s not going to merit many more than 3 Lulus. We shall see.
Back to the Matera tomorrow night to hear Jose’s latest escapades and sample animals cooked to perfection. “Mi vida es una telenovela,” he told me on the mobile phone, “Mala y barata”. Bless.
In other news. It’s very sunny round here. T-shirt and shorts again. And finally have a pic of Sita and me in an Agave field 2 years ago. I made a thank you card for the bloke who spent 3 hours filling us in on the history of Mayahuel. If you have any questions about tequila, I reckon we can handle any of them. Oh and click here on this button thing: nothing bad will happen. Promise.