Just played my first game with the new SOWPODS Scrabble dictionary. I managed FE and ZA just now and still lost. So to play ZZZ, you’d need the Z and two blanks… I won’t rule it out. My scrabble rating’s through the floor at the moment, in some ways that’s OK cos the pressure’s off, but I enjoyed my time in the dizzy heights of the 1100s.
I’d like to know what these new words mean mind:
New 2-Letter Words FE JA KI ZA
New 3-Letter Words AGS AHI AKA ALF APO APP AUA AUE BES BOI BRU CAA CAG CAZ DEG DIF DOF DOY DUH ECO EDS EMO EVO EXO FAA FAE FEG FES HOM IGG IWI JAI JOL KAK KIS LOU MEE MIC MYC NEG ONO ONY OUS PAV PLU REO SAV SIF SIK SOM TEC TEX TIX UMU URP VAG WAI WOF YAD YAE YAG ZAS ZEP ZOL ZZZ
I’m looking into more local options, but I reckon this looks rather nice on a T-Shirt… CafePress want to charge 5 bucks p&p (or s&h as they say in gringolandia) but I’m sure I can do better than that in Santa Tere…
Yesterday I went to see Hollywoodland with young Sita, and there’s some new brief reviews over on the film review page and then Chili’s for supper. You’d think an American chain restaurant impersonating Mexican cuisine wouldn’t do too well here. Wrong. It’s all about the PORTIONS. I still feel vaguely full.
Lots of traffic arriving at this blog searching for “300 Sparta animated gifs” … I hate to disappoint so Pssst here’s one…
Monica and “OC” D are heading back to the Bay Area tomorrow to fill up on ethnic food before May’s constant stream of visitors. And I think we’re heading to Tequila. Someone comment tomorrow at around 11am GDL time to remind me to pick up the photos on the way out. Many thanks…
Have a look at this lovely site, I’ve mentioned it before, but now it’s rehomed at forgivenessletters.com. The idea is people send in their anonymous letters asking for forgiveness and they get published in a blog stylee. Then the best ones get included in a book. I’m curious to see whether this will take off. It was a chance to include one of my favourite poems too. Catch it before it’s updated…
Yesterday we went round Amour Fou for a BBQ which was grand and to return 21 Grams and Ghost Dog. Lovely crowd of people there as always. Today, we’re off to t’cinema I believe…
Ooh, and we had our tree lopped for the princely sum of 40 gringo bucks. I got the angle wrong on the “after” photo so it doesn’t look like much cos there’s another tree behind it. Needless to say the tree “surgeons” just climbed the tree with a machete hacked about like crazy and then drove off with the branches in tow. One out of two for Health and Safety ain’t bad… They seemed sober anyway.
I’m well behind on my film reviews. One of these mornings… I highly recommend Sunlight (2007) by the way, see it in all its glory in the cinema if possible.
This handy little video gives a beginner’s guide to RSS. Anyroad, I was struck by a photo of the Panteon from a couple of days ago and how much it looked like the RSS icon, I swivelled it a bit and hey presto, subscribe with this artesanal feed icon:
Edit 1: D’oh, just when I’m publicising it my permalinks are down, probably to do with having 3 blogs on the site. Our technicians are working on it…
Edit 2: Our technicians fixed the problem at 09.56 hours Mexican time. Despite not having a clue how to manage the .htaccess file.
Edit 3: Have a load of other one click links to add this nonsense to your favourite feed reader:
(but stop using bloody America On Line, please)
have already got their heads round how to do this…
Sita, Monica and I nipped over to Tequila again this afternoon. We planned to look up the Columpio folks and give them some photos from last time and some UK coins but I left them on the table when we left, so that’ll have to be next time. We’ll probably be back within a week though as there’s some new archives that Sita’s just discovered. Luckily I remembered me camera. Have an eyeful here of the set. And again, here’s me 3 faves:
Just for the record, the tequila museum’ll set you back 15 pesos, unless you’re a student or over 60, and Mundo Cuervo (a state of the art tequila manufacturing theme park) is MX$100 including a tiny little margarita at the end of the tour and a few samples. It’s a good introduction to all things agave but was a bit too slick and corporate for my tastes, it lacks the enthusiastic-newcomer feel of La Cofradia and olde worlde charm of Columpio. And there’s the whole Hair Net Issue…
… but here’s a video I found via VivirGuadalara.com for people who want to see the cows, but suffer from attention deficit disorder: Cow Parade #1 and shorter but equally frenetic Cow Parade #2 de Guanatos, Mex. Just because you have the tools to edit videos like this doesn’t necessarily mean you should use it. Or you risk it looking like a Kenny Everett sketch from 1983
Now I’m definitely off to Tequila. With my camera. And no dog. Might reach the 6,000 photos uploaded on Flickr benchmark today…
It went brilliantly. Obviously it took a while for everyone to turn up, gringos first (myself included) then Mexicans, which meant I’d had 3 beers before we headed off… But I was well impressed with the turn out- 12 Flickreros. El Charro Negro beat me to the T-shirt idea and was already wearing his self-designed Flickrwear. Once we got chatting, everyone seemed to have at least one friend in common (in the real world), and they were all a lovely bunch of people. And generally all sporting fearsome looking expensive cameras (I want one…). Don Charro also had a pinhole camera mind (today’s international pinhole photography day, folks). So the Panteón was looking its usual faded best, we just timed it right because on Tuesday it’s shutting down for repairs for as long as it takes. I hope it opens in time for the Day of the Dead (though this year, I fancy going to Michoacán for that)…
After a couple of hours in the Panteon, we ambled to a gothic church then back to the market, then the cantina La Cava again then back home to feed the dog and have him pull me round the block a few times. Sita and co of course weren’t around when I got home since they were off in Chapala at some high class country club, paddling, sunning themselves and barbecuing with Hugo y familia. I’m sure Monica’ll blog something about it in the near future.
So I started a thread in the VivirGuadalajara forum for everyone on the tour to put links to their photos from yesterday. Here’s the link to my FotoTour Set in the meantime, and here are some of my faves:
Today, another trip to Tequila… I’m considering forgoing the Jose Cuervo tour and just taking Atticus to see the Agave fields. He’s very big on UNESCO World Heritage Sites…
… but no time to write. Been busy putting this together today: early stages, etc… agaveweb.com/shop (I’m not putting an active link in just yet, don’t want it indexed before the actual domain). It’s, er, very Santa Cruz…
SFTLOP (Sorry For The Lack Of Posts) this week, I’ve been busy and then some. Several translations, proof readings, Santa Cruz’s latest drive to get people fit, other site updates and wooing potential clients have been keeping me out of mischief. That and the CRUSHING heat… Only 6-8 weeks or so to the rainy season and it can’t come soon enough…
I’ve watched a few more films this week, Pixar’s Cars, The Curse of the Yellow Flower, and last night, once again, Herbie- Fully Loaded. Reviews coming when I get a chance.
Further to Annelise’s comment a while back asking about the quality of Mexican desertsdesserts *edit* I blame my English teachers in Taunton School…* . They’re great. The most common type is a creme brulee type affair called flan, and a local variation on the theme called a jericalla. Delicious. Especially when made by Hugo’s wife, Patricia…
But there’s also quite a range of other cakes and stuff prepared by local pastelerias. In the interests of investigative journalism, we grabbed some on the way home from Pasteleria OK 4 blocks from our house after an Indian meal in Goa.
There’s a chance I’m doing a site for a local pasteleria too. I’ll take my payment in strawberry tarts.
Tonight we’re going to see Keane in concert. It’ll be a change and I know a fair few of their songs. I know they’re not everyone’s cup of tea but there’s a fair few of us going and it’ll be a laugh. I’m prepared for it to not be as good as mi Shakira all those months ago, but I’m ready to be surprised.
Two days to the Tapatian Photo Tour, 1pm Saturday starting in La Cava, Pino Suarez and Herrera y Cairo, details here…
I’ve added another bell/whistle to the blog. If you’re commenting for the first time (go on, you know you want to), you receive an email thanking you and inviting you back. I’m not sure if it’s working, so if you’re new to these pages or have been lurking for years without commenting, try it out and let me know if it’s operational. Thanks 🙂 I found out about the comment-relish plugin via the good people at the WordPress podcast .
Dad’s posted some great Grandma pix over at Flickr. I keep thinking of happy times with my grandparents and might just write another post on those one of these days.
And that’s all for now. I’m signing off and moving my computer to a cooler room, it’s 9:45 am and the sun’s starting to leak into my office. Even Atticus has sloped off into better ventilated rooms…
It’s very tricky to photograph jet black dogs in very sunny conditions, especially when they never look at the camera… Sita and Monica photograph well though. And they pampered Mr. Cus to bits yesterday afternoon with special Barbie-Princess-themed “Champú para perros”. He enjoyed it more than the photos appear to show…
After all that fun, Jose came round and made his trademark dish: Bocado de Cielo. It’s billed as a lasagne with tortillas instead of pasta and jumbo prawns instead of meat. But actually, every lasagne ingredient goes out the window and is replaced with chilis or manchego cheese and other stuff, and what you end up with really has nothing to do with lasagne. But is delicious. Jana and Victor came round too and showed us some of their photos from Ecuador. A good night…
…if their recording studio only had a $9.95 microphone, a cheap guitar with rusty strings and a singer they pulled off the street… Link to mp3 here… (the embedded version slowed down the whole page, so so much for that…)
…The rattling noise is the microphone tumbling around inside the guitar on 3 tracks… And the singing, well, that’s as good as it gets I’m afraid. Here’s the original on YouTube in case you need reminding that it is actually quite a good song.
Here’s the equipment:
And while I’m posting, here’s our friendly neighbourhood bucket-o-fruit-and-chile-powder delivery bloke:
Grandma was a huge part of my life, some 32+ years. Some of my earliest memories involve going with the family to visit her and Grandad in Cambridge where they lived till I was about 12. Their house was (seemed?) enormous and was filled with adventures, kindness and love. We were always well catered for with Grandma’s trademark recipes. It’s weird the things that stand out though, I remember having grapefruit with a thick layer of sugar on top, real name-brand Ribena in a blue (for boys) plastic glass, hiding in the pantry which had a strange corrugated plastic door and trying on Granddad’s hats. Grandma also had a toy called Panda who was rug-shaped so you could put your arms and legs through the elastic ties and crawl around pretending to be a panda bear. Grandma made this herself and all her four grandchildren played in it at some time. Panda also had an accompanying book which she wrote and illustrated herself about how she and Great Auntie Mabel had gone to buy the materials and stitched panda together ready for the birth of my cousin, Richard. There’d be lots of other games too, the smallest in a set of 5 painted wooden elephants, named Nelly, would be hidden whenever we got back from Cherry Hinton park, or Fitzbillies Chelsea Bun shop, or wherever and we had to find it. Grandma had me believing for many years that she had nothing to do with Nelly’s wanderings and shows the sense of fun she had that never dwindled.
Grandma and Granddad sold up in Cambridge and moved to a bungalow in Monkton Heathfield about 8 miles from Kingston where we lived. The proximity meant we saw a lot more of them and Grandma was a great source for stories about my Dad when he was little, many of which he still firmly denies to this day. One involved when workmen were resurfacing the road outside their house and Dad went out any made tar balls and hid them under his pillow and another how he used to cry when Grandma read him , fellow lake districter, Beatrix Potter’s (frankly quite cruel) stories about Tom Kitten and his comeuppance. When Granddad passed away not that long after moving, Grandma kept his memory alive with stories of his mathematical exploits and fascinating life. It was a huge change for grandma to live on her own again but she kept independent and full of life to the end. She kept on her sewing, making her own clothes and cooking healthy meals for herself. She drove her succession of Ford Fiesta cars up until fairly recently. Her garden put most people’s to shame with something almost always in bloom and neatly tended. She delighted in giving visitors tours of the grounds and telling stories about the resident wildlife, visiting cats, owls, the frog who lived in the flower tray…
Mum and Dad would take her on trips to the Somerset country side with Nanny and they’d chat politely. We’d joke that she kept Nanny in check as she was always on her best behaviour around Grandma. The conversation could get quite surreal at times as their combined hearing issues produced some good-natured but bizarre interchanges. One summer the Antiques Roadshow came to Somerset and Sarita, Mum and I went with Grandma to find out about some of the family heirlooms. One was a porcelain blue toad that, contrary to previous belief, turned out to be a mass produced item worth about 5 quid and would probably be good for putting a plant in or something, according to the experts… We had a grand day though and we laughed about it many times and now that particular item has a real story to go with it.
Grandma would drive up to Kingston for Sunday dinner and bring a bag of gourmet chocolate from the food section of Marks and Sparks and a dessert she’d baked to perfection, a crumble, lemon meringue or if the season demanded, Christmas Pudding containing foil-wrapped pound coins and invariably delicious. She’d also bring the parts of the Sunday paper she’d already read and done the crossword in and occasionally join in for a highly competitive post-prandial game of scrabble. Despite being highly independent occasionally she showed signs of being a little sheltered in her home. She’d read in the papers about some new technology such as the ‘one-Pod” which we’d have a go at explaining to her, and my favourite was when she discovered a new restaurant in Taunton where they were helpful, friendly, have great disabled access and extremely tasty sandwiches. She couldn’t remember the name, but after further enquiries mum and dad worked she’d been to McDonalds. She had this capacity for wonder at the most unlikely of things. If sheltered somewhat from the 21st century, she was fully in touch with the latest events in the family, relishing looking at and sharing photos and letters sent from her grandkids (in the UK and California and Mexico) of her great-grandson, weddings, travels and other news. Her living room was increasingly filled with photos of the family including one of me with the 12-string guitar I bought with the money granddad left me, and lots of everyone at various stages of their lives. It was a room filled with smiles. She’d often dig the Atlas out to wonder at where we were all living. Grandma also had an extensive slide collection and every year would dig them out, set up her projector and watch them by herself thinking of happy times and mentally revisiting her favourite places.
One of my last visits to see Grandma in person was last December when we accompanied her to Taunton’s Saturday morning market where she knew everyone, stopping to ask where the fishmonger had gone, comparing notes with the plant stall vendor, haggling over vegetables and cheese and generally enjoying life to the fullest. I was proud to be with her and just generally impressed at how she carried on so happily and also at how much fruit and veg one person could get through in a week.
When you get to Grandma’s age, life isn’t without its struggles and she had a series of increasingly less minor health issues that made for a tough time towards the end, though she would never complain. She’d mention the latest problem when pushed and then change the subject and probably offer you another chocolate biscuit. Instead of ‘burdening” (as she put it) people with her problems, she’d manage on her own and would take some persuading that we really did want to take her out to the country or talk to her on the phone and so on, being as polite as possible in the process. She certainly would not have wanted to relinquish her admirable independence and have long stays in hospitals convalescing only to return to a life which she felt would occasionally ’cause a fuss” to others. After lots of reflection, I think if Grandma could have chosen the manner of her passing, she’d have opted for this exit. Suddenly, peacefully, in her sleep after a fully-conscious smile filled visit with the family and looking forward to seeing more relatives and contemplating future travels.
A toast then, to Grandma, with her ever-ready smiles, surprisingly strong hugs, generosity of spirit and incredible kindness over all those 89 years.
I’m putting finishing touches to this here site for a friend of mine in Santa Cruz. I’m quite happy with how the theme looks and the minor modifications. It didn’t take long at all, I’m getting quite handy with WordPress installs. Next up is making a flyer for the event they’re advertising.
Yesterday I went to the Casa de Orozco museum by Los Arcos de Guadalajara. It’s a very small little place but had some nice folk-style artwork, nothing cutting-edge. Which is a good thing. Then in the evening Monica made one of the best homemade dishes I’ve had in a while, some kind of beef stroganof (not sure of the spelling there, Firefox is suggesting “estrogen”) which was delicious.
15 people have voted on the photo tour. It’s looking increasingly likely that it’ll start in the Panteon de Belen (where I took the Day of the Dead photos last year), which is grand. The photos won’t be as colourful as during D of the D mind. But it should be a healthy turn out.
Don’t know if you noticed that links to Monica and Daniel’s blog have stopped working. M pressed some button or other and the next thing she knew ChiliCatinLA ceased to exist. She’s been haranguing google’s blogger service, but so far to no avail. Fingers and all that crossed. Backup, backup, backup…
Here’s a butterfly trying to escape the traffic yesterday by Los Arcos de Guadalajara…
