Off to the beach

A more careful reading of the Tapatian Scrabble Association’s webpage points to them meeting in Cafe Sandys about 100m from where I went yesterday to try and get in on the scrabble action. That would explain a lot… Never mind. Javier turned up in the afternoon and gave me a lift there on the way to the cinema. I was going to go with him to watch “Nia mala” (bad girl) but luckily I googled it and it turns out that’s the Spanish name for Hard Candy which I’d seen the other week (Recommended, btw- It’s a feminist stalker/psycho thriller film with several unwatchable scenes and you’re forever trying to work out who’s occupying the moral high ground…).

Ana popped round too to share her latest academic success stories, then I went over to Providencia for a pot luck and met a lovely band of folks who have the American School of Gwod in common. I picked up some tips for places to visit in Jalisco and once we have the car here again I’m up for a mission to Mascota and San Sebastian de something or other. It’s all written on the back of a napkin somewhere…

Today finishing off a couple of sites, hopefully. I’m getting mightily sick of Flash to tell the truth. Partly because of the below par coding of the templates I’m adapting, but also because of the need to switch between half a dozen programs to import graphics and so on, which means my creaking computer struggles at times.

In other news, you’ll be happy to hear that my cold’s holding steady. Shall be repeating the same strict regime today, pozole, lime, tequila, zinc etc, today and hoping for the best.

Spanish word of the week for last week: Diapositiva A fancy, but the only, word for “slide” as in a powerpoint slide or slideshow… I was in Irvine, CA, and there’s no Spanish there except when you’re helping yer missus with her presentation on the Spanish version of Office 2003…

Ever wondered how people avoid slowly cooking themselves to death while dressed as Dr. Simi or, in this case, ¿¡Barney!? (from Farmacia Generi-K in Tonalá) what with Mexico´s high temperatures?

Today I can reveal all with this AgaveWeb exclusive aerial shot…

So today we went to get an 8 piece dining set of ceramics from Tonala, just to give them one more thing to inspect as we cross the state lines on Monday. Lovely they are. Almost as good as the Provencale ones from a couple of years ago. I might have to leave my guitar behind to fit them all in the car. We won´t know till Sunday though.

Also, the Sauza family granted us a last minute interview and so we´re off to Tequila for the last time tomorrow afternoon before our last meal for a good while in La Matera and then other stuff.

Still to sell on the furniture front: 2 x computer desks, 2 x chairs, 1 kitchen cabinet, 1 folding table and kitchen bits and pieces. Sunday is going to be hectic. And tomorrow. And Saturday. And not to mention Monday…

I can´t post without mentioning Monday´s entertainment, as you´ll see in the post below we were expecting a quietish meal with our Flickr friends, we got there and all was calm then one by one the patio filled up with familiar faces dressed as angels, devils, kings, shepherds, and er mermaids… I didn´t know what the merry hell was going on for a good few minutes. It turns out they´d all got together and planned a Pastorela, a nativity play crossed with a Christmas panto in our honour. It was hilarious and such an unexpected and lovely send off. My appreciation for the peeps in this good town knows no bounds. I promised not to make the photos too public, but if you´re not in my Flickr contacts shout out and I´ll email you the link, and if you are a contact, then click away hence.

We´ve really been spoilt for friends here in Guadalajara, more than anywhere I´ve ever lived and I sincerely hope we can return the favour wherever we find ourselves next.

Righty, we´re off for tacos then down the pub cantina.

No news from Colorado yet, for the record.

The house is looking like a home. Albeit a huge home. Stuart enquired as to why we{d need 3 bathrooms, and he may have a point. Basically, for a hundred bucks extra per month you can have a much bigger house than you´d get with an apartment and we´re in a grand area and you can walk to everywhere and there´s public transport and a roof terrace thing and and and. No can´t really justify the 3 bathrooms. Technically they´re 2.5 anyway.
Maybe Internet by Friday hopefully…
I can{t upload to flickr from this interweb cafe place, so once the FTP thingy{s finished, there{ll be some photos of our recent adventures here. And finding all the slashes and brackets for that hyperlink was nowt too easy… Anyroad, skype us soon. All the best, gwyn

Off to an Argentine restaurant with Don Jose and Sita’s in the gym

Here’s just one of the three 4′ tall ice sculptures:
{{popup ganesh.jpg ganesh 500×667}}Lord Ganesh
I took bloody tons of photos, but because I didn’t have a tripod, they’re all blurred to buggery due to atmospheric indoor lighting and shaky hands. I should’ve learnt by now. At Joop & Laura’s get together t’other night he showed me his new SLR digital camera. It was a sight to behold and to wield. I’m experiencing yet another bout of camera-envy… Anyone want to buy my Fuji Finepix S5000? One careful owner? 250 of your earth dollars… or 6 pounds, probably given the exchange rate these days.
Have you ever been to www.last.fm ? It rocks- enter 3 of your favourite artists, choose someone with a playlist that looks to your taste, then listen to streaming radio from that person’s favourites list. You rate the tracks as you go and teach it what you like and it should start showering you with nothing but tunes you like. It’s, like, a radio TIVO. And it’s free apparently. It might start weaning me off NPR and BBC Radio 4…