So I can play my “favourite” game of trying to find a decent program to watch before I finish my sandwich…
Having a grand old time of it with Monica and Sunny D. Events so far have included house-hunting, a couple of parties, Colomnos park, markets, dinner parties, computer repairs, and DVDs aplenty (see Film Reviews).
I’m trying to fall back into some kind of routine which should include more regular blogging, but what with 3am cockroach scares and stuff things are still settling down.
Mexican Spanish word of the week: Tope – A road bump/ sleeping policeman thing. Ubiquitous in this particular part of North America. In Spain they’re Guardias tumbados I think, or sleeping (Civil) Guards
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!
“Ir viento popa” To cruise along. Popa means the stern of a boat and if the wind’s (viento) coming at you that way then you’re making good speed. I’d not heard this phrase before but it was in a review in today’s Ocio (events listings magazine). Ocio itself means leisure, hence non-social scientists’ chide to sociologists, “Ociologos“.
Another word I liked, new this week, is “Sonsacar”, primarily for the alliteration of the S. Wordreference.com has it as:
sonsacar: verbo transitivo 1 (una información) to winkle out: se lo sonsacó a María, he coaxed it out of Maria 2 (dinero, un regalo, etc) to wheedle
But the times I’ve heard it here in Mexico, it seems to mean to lead someone astray. As in when you’re dragging someone away from their studies to take them on a pub crawl… They may protest “No tengo ganas” (I’m not in the mood), then you answer “Pues, las ganas se hacen!” (You create your own mood).
Ganas is a tricky one to translate… Depending on the context it has all kinds of meanings. I find translating it over literally as “urges” delivers the meaning well albeit in a semi-comical form.
No tengo ganas: I haven’t got any urges. (I’m not up for it). Se me quitaron las ganas de comer: My urges to eat were taken from me. (I lost my appetite) Tengo ganas de ver esta pelicula: I have urges to see this film. (I fancy watching this film)
As you can see, the day-to-day translation you use when living in a foreign country is a completely different system to formal translation…
Plans for tonight? Well, I wanted to go to the cinema, but there’s bugger all on. Even “Serpientes Abordo!” isn’t playing in the local megaplex. A cursory glance at the paper shows that over round the Pabellon Frances there’ll be live acordeon music at 5pm then later in the evening an “Electro-French” DJ… Let’s call that Plan F. Tomorrow at 5pm there’s a free tequila tasting (Cata) but at 7 I’m off round V & J’s for a sophisticated soiree of repartee and fine foods, so maybe not… Ay, so many options. I can feel a night of scrabble coming on…
Simplicity, that’s the name of the game when it comes to seafood and mushrooms, reckons I. Butter, salt, garlic and robert’s yer father’s brother… And a litre or so of lighter fluid for that slightly chemical edge, naturally…
Another weekend of gastronomic thrills and spills. Friday night we went to Lunico, the new Italian restaurant on Ave. Mexico. V.v. good food there. And the wine was a Zinfandel/Shiraz concoction from Chile just perfect for washing down the bovine chunks. The Greek-Italian owner charmed the socks off Sita with his mediterranean shmoozing. “Oh yes, not just anyone orders the Zinfandel/Shiraz and medium rare steak… bla bla bla”. Anyroad, the next day I ran errands in the morning, watched Mexico bow out of the world cup gracefully. The flag for the car I bought didn’t seem to help them… Then José came round for a sophisticated dinner evening (portabellas’n’burgers, since you ask) and we watched a film “Benjamin Smoke”, a documentary based on an extremely odd geezer in Atlanta. (see the review iFrame for more info soon). The lightening was strobelike most of the night, but I won’t foist another video on you just yet… Have a picture of a lime with droplets of the previous night’s precipitation instead:
You know when you’ve been tango’d
Today I nipped into Santa Tere for tacos and DVDs in the morning since the England match was only on Sky and chilled with a Sunday paper in a cafe on Chapultepec (They had Nacho Libre but the quality wasn’t great so I passed, shall wait for it to come out in the cinema methinks). Came home then went to Centro Magno to watch “The Squid and the Whale”. Which was brilliant. Review presently. then fired up the barby again and grilled the life out of some onions, shrimp and zucchini courgettes. Delicious.
If you’re wondering what I’ll be eating tomorrow, well, my usual chocolate chip croissants for breakfast, followed by a slap-up meal in La Matera in the evening. Just for the record, the plan to eat in an Argentine restaurant was formulated before Mexico’s defeat at their hands on Saturday…
All the local businesses are into the World Cup too even allowing for the time difference: Translation: “Enjoy the World Cup Here! Free beer with every breakfast ordered”
EDIT: Just putting the brief film reviews up here as well as in the iFrame:
25-6-06 The Squid and the Whale (2006) Or the less intriguingly titled Spanish version: Historias de Famila (Family Stories). Philip Larkin would approve of this gripping film about a family falling apart and the effects on the kids. Has some great comic/cringeful moments and recreates 80s New York just like it looked in Ghostbusters. Great performances and oddly heartwarming. Thoroughly recommended.
24-6-06 Benjamin Smoke (2000) Banjos are my anti-drug… Innovatively shot, but ultimately hollow documentary about an Atlanta-based transvestite and his unique take on music.
3-6-06 X-Men: The Final Battle (2006) An appropriately dazzling climax to the (undersold) trilogy. Centred around some relatively high concept sci-fi about minority relationships, but buoyed by spectacular effects and snappy dialogue. Vinnie Jones is brilliantly cast as a mutant whose superpower is smashing through walls. Recommended if you’re into this kind of thing… Reminded me of a recent Onion infographic about how TV series were trying to increase ratings: ‘LOST: A crate of radioactive vegetables washes up on shore giving all characters superpowers.”
22-6-06 The Break-Up (2006) Your enjoyment of this film will depend heavily on your tolerance for Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Anniston. I thought my threshold was pretty low, but I laughed out loud several times at this well-observed comedy. Starts off as High Fidelity then goes into War of the Roses ‘Lite”. Not a suitable ‘date movie” by any length of the imagination…
Very satisfying read about a boy named Pi and a tiger named Richard Parker adrift on a raft in the Pacific Ocean. Actually that much you could probably deduce from looking at the cover but it bears repeating.
It’s a great piece of magic realism that forces you to wonder at what point the story diverts from reality. One reviewer said it was like Calvin and Hobbes with an overt religious theme and I think that captures the spirit of it nicely. Though even Calvin’s worst dinners don’t approach what Pi ends up eating. Whether it will make you believe in God, as the author promises, is debatable as He’s got a funny way of showing His love to his most dedicated fans…
To answer a few of the Oprah’s Book Club type questions at the end of it:
Which animal would you like to find yourself with on a lifeboat? I reckon a chicken for a steady supply of eggs and eventually, if it started getting on my nerves, nuggets. It’s less likely to harbour homicidal thoughts than your average big cat too.
Pi defends zoos. Are you convinced? Is a zoo a good place for a wild animal? I reckon so. Though the zoo’s he’s defending are pretty far removed from self-styled ‘modern’ zoos with their breeding programs, scientific studies and laboratories and suchlike. Animals are animals and I reckon he writes pretty well about their nature. As long as the creatures are well cared for and human knowledge advanced then why not? Bring it on. That said, despite myself, I can’t help but feel sorry for tropical animals stuck in British zoos. And poor old Copita de nieve in Barcelona zoo who positively radiated depression before kicking the bucket a few years back. Still why the hell not. Nope Zoos aren’t going into Room 101. In the Author’s Note, Martel wonders whether fiction is ‘the selective transforming of reality, the twisting of it to bring out its essence’. If this is so, what is the essence of Pi and his story? Over to you, Oprah…
I applied for 1 job and 2 gigs today… The job is for temping with more localis(z)ation stuff with UK English for which I’m eminently qualified. The gigs are for web design stuff which I’m qualified for but competing with hundreds of other people locally and internationally in the middle of a deepening economic disaster. Fingers crossed one of them’ll bear fruit.
Also picked another radish from the garden and took some pix…
Im in ur economic downturn, stealin' ur cheez
Righty, off to Starbucks for a coffee. I just received my latest $5 from filling in surveys on how much I hate US Cable TV at epoll.com …
Am I really thinking of staying in your house next month if there are cockroach invasions at 3a.m? it takes me back to school house in TS in 1972 when there were cockroaches in the bath every morning and the main corridor by the kitchens was overrun with them in the evening. they didn’tlike the lights tho! You’ll be telling me that there are iguanas in Mx soon………. glad you’re settling backinto your normal non stop sociable lifestyle, gwyn.love to all,Mum
Just the one cockroach, so not sure if it qualifies as an invasion. The iguana invasion is another story… Anyroad I nipped out today and bought all manner of invertebrae torture and killing devices just the same so that should be the last of it… Looked at prices on flights to cancun today, should be getting more specifics about hotels and that tomorrow and shall doubtless skype yous v. soon. Hasta pronto 😀
chilicatinla rather than mamadechili which didn’t seem to exist?
So I can play my “favourite” game of trying to find a decent program to watch before I finish my sandwich…
Am I really thinking of staying in your house next month if there are cockroach invasions at 3a.m? it takes me back to school house in TS in 1972 when there were cockroaches in the bath every morning and the main corridor by the kitchens was overrun with them in the evening. they didn’tlike the lights tho! You’ll be telling me that there are iguanas in Mx soon……….
glad you’re settling backinto your normal non stop sociable lifestyle, gwyn.love to all,Mum
Just the one cockroach, so not sure if it qualifies as an invasion. The iguana invasion is another story… Anyroad I nipped out today and bought all manner of invertebrae torture and killing devices just the same so that should be the last of it… Looked at prices on flights to cancun today, should be getting more specifics about hotels and that tomorrow and shall doubtless skype yous v. soon. Hasta pronto 😀
chilicatinla rather than mamadechili which didn’t seem to exist?
V. good point, just updated the link. Ta