New November Resolution

Blimey I on bert’s phone. Might explain later, just testing the system… RSS…

*edit* OK, I shall explain just had a long chat with bert and he mentioned his mobile phone could handle RSS feeds and now he’s got my blog on his phone. It’s one of those days for technological firsts.

So César, Sita and I are off to the Indian place again this evening- see you there? And while I’m at it, thanks for all your comments. I’m indebted for you for noticing those broken links. Much obliged and it’s nice to have it all delivered with the perfect english of a graduate of the Red Dwarf Academy of Language.

I saw this nice little animation about what Skype is and how you use it. I got the English accented one, maybe ‘cos of the settings on my computer, or maybe it’s just standard issue. Anyway, if you haven’t got it yet, you need:

• A computer, Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
• ANY internet connection (ideally broadband, but dial-up’s fine too)
• a microphone (cheap from Radio Shack or Target or Tandy o Gigante) or maybe your laptop has one built in somewhere…
• Speakers/headphones
• OPTIONAL: A USB webcam for the full-on Livin’-in-the-future-OMFG!-I-can-like-totally-see-you-talking-on-my-screen
  experience

Then you head over to skype.com, download the appropriate version and follow the simple instructions. Add contacts, such as “gwynfisher” and you’re away. No excuses now. You know who you are. And are generally Mac users, strangely…

So back to the minutae of my life, let’s not forget what this blog’s all about after all…

This is our letter box where we receive our bills and letters from banks, credit card agencies and Interpol addressed to Carmen Malagon (previous occupant shrouded in mystery… apparently wanted by every financial institution in Jalisco. When the phone rings, if it’s not someone requesting a song for the Top 40 Radio Show whose number’s one digit off of ours, it’s a bank trying to catch Ms Malagon by surprise. I’ve told them she doesn’t live here anymore, but they’re determined to catch us out and have her answer one day…)

Here’s our spanking new barbecue, $10 or 5 pounds 70 pee from Soriana. Note the charcoal is actually charcoal, practically log-sized pieces. None of your oh-so-dainty briquettes in Mexico, nosiree. Gert big chunks of trees they be. And I didn’t even use parafin nor firelighters to get it going. It’s nice to be BBQing again and it keeps me away from the interwebs and channel 40 for a while. Only the onions (‘campay’) were bought for cooking, the rest are objets trouvés from the fridge/freezer defrosting session.

Yesterday evening was going to involve doing some filming for Propaganda but we’ve misplaced our video camara. Which isn’t good but it will turn up somewhere. It’s a big house and though we’ve few belongings there’s a couple of places still to go. Jose’s sort of on his Semana Santa break so the plan is to go and film on Thursday and if we’re lucky there’ll be lots of people nailing themselves to crosses and whipping themselves. Seriously. Some people go to doctors who tell them whereabouts on their hands they can ‘safely’ put nails through without smashing your bones apart. Then they use sterilised nails and hang from crosses (using string). And I thought Easter was all about eggs and bunnies. You live and learn…

Mornin’ all. I’ve been reliably informed that it’s miserable weather in the south west of England and much of Wales right now, so for those of you who don’t check in on my flickr page that often, I’ve done another of those Picasa-made pages with photos from yesterday. Please note the cloudless skies, warm sand and icy water. And feckless doggie.

This one’s from when the horizon suddenly filled up with seagulls and pelicans in some kind of feeding frenzy. NPR’s also been on the blink all day, skipping like a scratched CD. These are both evidence of ‘glitches in the Matrix’, I believe.

Unless I sell Sita’s bike this morning I’m going to go for a ride up the coast, sans chien, which’ll be a novelty. I also have to get back to Stu, Anne & Bert about a ‘Duke of Edinburgh Award for Grown-ups’ weekend sometime in July. I don’t know which weekends we’re available yet nor if sita’s up for kendal mint cake and trig point related fun. It’ll be a laugh however it plays out. Maybe Snowdonia?

… ever since visiting Aranza´s house in a street named after a salmon

Sita is at pains to point out that she liked the song before I did. And therefore wins or something.

Yesterday I went to Home Despot to pick up turf, but since it’s got a very limited shelf life they only have it in the mornings. So I had a wander round the area and took an a bunch of photos that I’m preliminarily calling “If life gives you girders, make irn-bru“. Here’s the link to the pix. And here’s my fav:

This morning I went to get the turf and practiced pronouncing the Americanese for it in the car, sod, pronounced sard. Here’s the b4 and after:

You may also see notice new bushy fern things which were advertised on craigslist.org for free, heather or lavender, the beginnings of a honeysuckle and solar lights which may stop working once the walnut tree gets its leaves on and casts the entire endeavour into shadow…

…it´s this one. Even better than I thought, 7 megapixels, wide angle and various other bells and whistles, just what I needed for when my bulky but lovely Pentax DSLR is overkill. It’s charging now and then I’ll wander off and try it out. Tomorrow I get me mugshot in the paper and I reckon a fair few Flickr peeps will also have their photo published too.

I bought a tripod the other day as Day of the Dead is when you really need a steady camera to take long exposure night pictures. Here´s one from Myrna´s house of the altar she made for her mum.

I watched Carlos Reygada’s latest yesterday, Luz Silenciosa, which is a relatively restrained film about the Mennonites in the North of Mexico. Very nice photography in it, but not really my cup of tea. By a long way. Frankly, I’d rather read a book of the pictures than have to bear 2 hours or so of very, very slow moving plot. Luckily Jose, Javier and Franz came round to provide a commentary throughout. Without that I’d’ve been asleep after 15 minutes. No gerontophilia this time, and that is something to be thankful for. After watching Japon I badly needed the mind bleach. I just looked at the IMDB page, one user has the perfect one-line review: “Art-house pretension at its most tedious” Amen to that.

Sita’s being interviewed today in america, and I haven’t heard from her today yet but yesterday she seemed well impressed with the place. It’s in the foothills of the Rockies, so that means I have no clue where she is. Upper Left Gringolandia? Looking forward to a phone call later…