So after a relaxing day breakfasting in Chop!, looking at terrapins, squirrels and hummingbirds in Colomos park and phoning the world, we made it to the Santo Coyote restaurant (Av. Lerdo de Tejada 2379; Guadalajara; Tel: 3616 6978) to celebrate mum’s 60th in style. As ever, the food was excellent. They’ve recently opened several new sections in the already huge restaurant and since we managed to hold off arriving till 8pm which, though early, meant there was plenty of atmosphere. The mariachis strike up around 9pm… FYI.
I’m not going to review this place, so in summary: Excellent ambience, fine wines, fantastic food, pricey-but-worth-it. Here’s some pix to give you a taste:
Have I mentioned I’m in the UK…? Off to Bristol this evening, so far no one’s said they’re going to be there. Hope it doesn’t rain too much as I trudge from door to door. Cadbury Arms around 7ish if anyone’s reading…
Cesar- Can’t find any curry powder, but I got some Madras sauce stuff. Should do the trick. And just to show it doesn’t always rain…
Books that come with endorsements from Oprah’s book club tend to receive very little of my attention, rightly or wrongly. Luckily I saw a clip of the author being harassed by Oprah for passing fiction off as fact and then striking him off her ‘approved list‘ so I mentally peeled the sticker off and dived right in.
23-year-old James is admitted to a drug rehab centre in pretty poor shape, covered with a colourful selection of his own bodily fluids, missing his front teeth and with a hole through his cheek. He’s been at the chemicals for a good few years and has hit rock bottom. The book takes you through his six weeks at the centre at breakneck pace in first person, present tense and it’s hard to put down from the very start. I have to admit there is one section I didn’t read though; When he’s having root canal work done with no anaesthetic I had to skip a few pages there. Rest assured what I pictured in my head had to be worse than whatever he actually wrote there. Jesus…
You find yourself admiring him for his rebelliousness and steadfast refusal to follow the 12 steps and the self-delusion necessary to follow them. For someone who’s at his lowest ebb, he presents a heroic character. He is resolute and uncompromising, obviously quite a contrast to his former self. Despite not following all the rules in the center, he makes progress and even offers others a chance for the same salvation.
This story is about personal choice, responsibility and offers a logical, braver and God-free alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous. Whether it’s all true or not only matters if you’re reading it as a self-help guide. As a literary work, it’s deserves to be up there and above with Dave Egger’s A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius another first person memoir with interludes of fantasy.
Went out for a fantastic fondue meal last night. Two parts cheesy bread to one part steak washed down with Casillero del Diablo. I felt a little sketchy afterwards though. I blame the cheese… anyway thanks to a relatively early night I’ve been very productive today working out a pricing schedule for the website. I’m trying to get my head round which reseller hosting service to use, any ideas? I’m hoping Flash might be able to help on this one… I’m also working on a logo for a local political candidate to put on t-shirts, mugs, business cards, etc… to run past him on Monday. Sita’s been v. helpful with nods and shakes of the head. She hasn’t seen this one yet cos she’s at the gym… never mind…
I’m in two minds as to whether to go off photoing stuff in the fading light this afternoon. Jose hasn’t rung- last night he turned up to tell us he was feeling very ill. And contagious. So we packed him off back to his flat and went out on our own. Me and him were going to go off filming in a barrio across town but that’s looking unlikely. I think we’re staying in this evening for Capote and wine. Not too much though cos we’re going to see Manu Chao in concert tomorrow evening. I’m more than a little excited about this… I hope they let me take my camera. It’s in the bull ring and should be fantastic. He’s one of the few acts I still own a T-shirt of… My Suicidal Tendencies ones have disintegrated since I got them at Clash of the Titans 15 years ago… Jose had a photo from ’98 he showed me where I’m proudly wearing my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt. Wish i still had it. Anyroad… Busy busy busy and all that might post more stuff in the near future. NB. Designing political propaganda does not mean I neccesarily endorse the party…
I was having a fine old time today in Tequila. Sita’s contacts are paying off nicely and we were “gifted” all manner of tequila-related multimedia on everything from mp3s to a set of vinyl records from the 70s. Including a VHS of “Tequileros” which had parts filmed in Columpio, my favourite Destilado de Agave factory.
Anyroad, driving back we noticed there were workers close to the road in the field jimando, ie harvesting and chopping the leaves off the agaves, so I leapt out with my camera and started photoing them. They posed and everything. Naturally, when I got home I realised I had me camera on the wrong setting which has led to some very grainy shots, still it was a great experience. And I’ll not make that mistake again. With highly configurable cameras comes great responsibility it appears.
Here’re me faves (that’ll probably find their way to my photoblog soon):
WELCOME! Thanks for clicking through. I’ll continue with the entries about my life in Guadalajara, Mexico as often as I can, with the occasional link to new photos here and in the Flickr Photos bit on the right. Stuff I read/watch ends up reviewed in the IFRAME to the right as well, with the occasional link to longer posts. Because of WordPress’s easy integration with Flickr and other stuff, expect more links to sites I like and better annotated photos.
Archives from 2004-2006 from the old blog are available here and might even be available in a PDF one of these days… Of course there’s still a wealth of rubbish to read here too.
Un Inglés en Guanatos is Spanish for An English bloke in Guadalajara. Although there’s a fair amount of the Welsh in my ethnic makeup English will have to do for the tagline for the time being. Guanatos, is what locals call Guadalajara, like Brum for Birmingham, Bridgey for Bridgwater, Chilangolandia for Mexico City, etc…. Self-Apsorption Central is the English version of the title, ‘cos it’s pretty much all about me, by me and for people who know me. It took me about 15 months to realise that absorption isn’t spelt with a ‘b’ too… Anyroad, if you have any suggestions for a better tagline, feel free to comment it. Talking of which… Comments can be sent via the comment thing at the bottom of each entry, this time though, you’ll have to type the letters/numbers combo in before it will let you add anything, this (as I’ve gone into in too much depth already) is to banish the spam once and for all…
You’ll still find the usual introspection and apercus about the goings on round my way (often interupted with the gratuitous use of parentheses, ellipsises and the word ‘anyroad’…) and I’m more than happy to enter into correspondance about anything I’ve mentioned. I’m still up for recording mp3s of me playing acoustic guitar versions of any songs you’d care to mention too, so far: Here comes the Sun, Land of my fathers, and an as yet unidentified Name That Tune.
What else is new?
Well if you wanted to find the article where I went into depth about how to hypnotise rabbits you can now search for it with box down there on the right.
The Blogroll is a growing list of people’s blog I myself read. I’d be glad to add you if you’re not there yet. Unless your name is Phentermine.
RSS is now an option if you’re into that kind of thing, you’ll find a wealth of options for that.
If you’ve never added yerself to the guestmap, that’s something else that further brightens up me days.
So that’ll be all for now, can’t spend all my lunchtime blogging now can I? Arse, I just did… Shall have to have a quick walk around the block and have a Milky Way so I feel the benefit. Thanks for stopping by and feel free to make your presence known. Looking forward to your continued support and readership. Salud!
One Comment
Lovely to see your mum looking so happy on her special day 🙂
Lovely to see your mum looking so happy on her special day 🙂