Sunday, November 12, 2006
Discovering the Scenery
I’ve been in Manchester two years and two months; I have passed the Whitworth Art Gallery everyday since I’ve been here; always making plans to come and see what’s it all about. Finally, today, after my housemate almost bullied me on going to see a recital that was going to take place in the Art Gallery, I entered the doors of the building that’s part of my daily scenery.
The quintet name is “Brass Mark 5”, it consist of two trumpets, one horn, a trombone and a tuba. The recital started with The Saints Go Marching In and ended with some Jazzy piece called Honey Pie. I enjoyed every minute of the recital (30 minutes). I had never seen a brass recital. I suppose the must common are the string ones, which I have attended quite a few, but this was a really nice first timer. The quintet manage to combine different styles of music, from classical pieces to the more contemporary Jazz themes; which gave me an idea of what you can do with this kind of instruments.
The Art Gallery has several of this recital programmed through out the year and the best part of it all, is, they are free. So for the next two Sundays between 3:30 and 4:00 you’ll find me there.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Men Rule
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
October rules
My birthday party was quiet cool, I’m sorry to say not all the people I would have like to share it with were here, but I know they were thinking or remembering me (it’s so hard to forget someone as charismatic as myself, hehehe).
Rapidly changing subject, today, I am finally half way through the distance of the England Channel. Yeap… I have swum 11 miles, still have 11 to go. It is now getting harder to get up in the mornings; the temperature in Manchester is dropping, when I hear the alarm clock go off, an internal struggles starts –to get up and face the cold weather or stay in the comfort of my warm cozy bed. Usually, my bed wins, but as my previous sub-objective of doing this charity swim has failed (lose 4 kilos), I should persevere in concluding the whole 22 miles.
And another good thing that happened, in the now passed month, was that one of my dearest friends of Mexico came to Manchester, and brought with her “una cocha” (sweet Mexican bread), yummy. In conclusion October ruled this year for several good reasons.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Who says you can't be in two places at once!
Last month was my dad’s birthday. My mom organized a small gathering with their closest friend to celebrate another year of my dad’s life. My eldest sister came over from Tijuana to be there, one of my mom’s brother also travelled to be with him. And where was I? Do you have any clue?
Yeap you guessed right, I was in Manchester, pretending to study. But that could be solved. Amongst my various qualities, I have the capacity to be in two places at once, the proof is just here.
BTW, let me introduce to you my sisters, Itzel and Nikté.
And before I forget, let me tell you about another quality I have, the gift of mind reading. So I am sensing your asking yourself: Are they really from the same parents? The answer is YES. There's no doubt about that.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Little Joys
The other day I was watching Amelie for the nth time. One of the things I like about this film is the way the director introduces the characters, by what they like and dislike. The ways each of them find little joys in life, e.g.: by plunging their fingers on a bag of lentils, waxing the floor with a pair of slippers, taking old wallpaper of the wall, the sound water makes in a glass bowl. On the other hand, there are the ones that make you go mad: wrinkles on your finger after a bath, people who crack their fingers, etc. The uniqueness of these peculiarities makes you identify yourself with the movie. Well, at least I did.
Some of these little details that you enjoy or dislike tend to change with time. When I was growing up, the things I disliked were:
- People with cracked lips. I used to carry an extra lip gloss with me, in case anyone I saw had cracked lips. At first people that did not know me would be suspicious, especially boys, but as they realised it was part of my tics they will consent on putting it on.
- The sleeves of trouser (pants in American English) sticking in sneakers.
- Squeaky sounds (it does not include my voice).
- The smell of ketchup or tuna.
- People hugging me when they are sweaty.
- Mushy textures on my hand, especially mud.
- Sitting on a coffee shop and watching passers by, when I was younger, it was on top of a tree.
- Finding different shadings of light.
- Skipping the cracks or separation on the floor.
- Walking on the ledge of the boardwalk.
- Putting my head on my dads belly and hearing all the sounds his stomach makes.
- Laying beside my mom when she is reading a book.
- Finding new hiding places.
- The face of people when I tell them my age, it cracks me up.
As I am writing this, I am wearing a scarf with my mom's smell, under the reflected shading of my nightlight covered by a palm hat, drinking a comforting cup of tea. Could this get any better?
Friday, September 15, 2006
Right in front of you.
For some time now i have consider that men cannot look for things around the house. They could live there, but that doesn't give them any reason to know where things are kept. I will give you some examples of my experience with men and there lack of capacity to search for things.
Example no. 1. My Dad.
Dad: Nalleli could you get me some batteries.
Me: Yeah dad, I'll be right back.
5 minutes later, my dad is nowhere to be seen. After waiting for more than 10 minutes for him, I decide to leave the batteries some where it would be obvious he will find them, INFRONT OF THE THING HE NEEDS THEM FOR (do not remember what it was).
30 minutes later
Dad: Nalleeeeeeeli (screaming), where have you been? Where are the batteries I asked for half and hour ago?
Me: Dad, I left them in front of the thing.
Dad: Well I can not find them (angry tone).
I walk to the place, very slowly pick up the batteries and hand them to him.
Dad: mmmmhhh ( blank look). Well, you should have told me you where going to leave them there.
As always they find an excuse to blame it on someone else.
Example no. 2. New Housemates.
Yuca: Where is the DVD control?
Mex: I do not know.
Yuca: I had it a minute ago, help me look for it?
10 minutes later
Yuca: where could i have put it?
Mex: Did you check under the sofa?
Yuca: Yes, i even moved it, and check between the cushions.
Mex: Well, we can not find it, it will reappear.
5 minutes later
Me: Did you find the control?
Yuca, Mex: NO
Me: But you did look for it?
Yuca, Mex: Yes, we just couldn't find it.
1 minute later
Me: Found it.
Yuca: Where was it?
Me: Under a piece of paper... (with a big smile).
Mex: What type of paper was it?
Yuca: But, we did look for it. (Bewildered complexion.)
Searching for somethings doesn't require any physical strength. They moved sofas and coaches to look for the control, when they only thing they needed was to move a piece of paper, a baby could do that.
Example no.3.
Sailor: Land ahead.
Crew: Hurray!!!
officer: I think its India.
Christopher: Why do u think it took us so long to get here?
Officer: dunno
A few hours or weeks or months later.
Christopher: I think this is not India?
Officer: So, where do u think we are?
Christopher: dunno.
If it wasn't that the damn continent was so big, I think America wouldn't have been discovered. Ohhh...but i forgot, they where not looking for that.
Men can be helpful: fixing things around the house (though if you want a good job, call professional help), killing bugs and carring heavy loads; but the moment you tell them to look for something, their observation skill and patience just isn't enough.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Good Beginning
If anyone is interesting in supporting this noble cause and give me some money, i will appreciate it. It will help with your Karma. And to prove to you that I am not conning you, I'll attach the page of the thingy.
http://www.aspire.org.uk/channelswim/
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Nomad
I’ve always hated packing, I mean I usually just throw everything in my luggage, shake it a couple of times to make room for more stuff and throw more things in. But, it doesn’t work like that. My mom or my younger sister normally would prepare my luggage. My little sister did it because she’s an organized freak and anything that has no order or symmetric pattern will cause a nerve to pop (you wouldn’t like to be near my sister when one of her nerves pops), so seeing that my luggage was a total mess she would voluntarily make my bags.
I do not understand, after living in 8 different houses in a period of 3 years, this would make me and expert in packing, as they say: “practice makes perfect”, in any other case except in mine. So, knowing the complete mess I am, I decided to start packing with time (last week); make a list of all my things (never happened), arrange every item by category, separate and tag luggage and boxes, etc… It’s Wednesday and all my stuff is on the floor, gosh, how I miss my sister and “mi ama” (mum).
Thursday, August 17, 2006
Puppet
Manipulated, seduced, talked into, brainwashed; how often this occurs on a daily basis? How many times I’ve modified my way of acting, to make my parents happy, to be liked by my friends, to impress my boss, to be accepted by society, some people will call this flexibility. I’m just the weak link in a long elastic chain.
Monday, August 14, 2006
Weekend Summary
It is 30 minutes to
Monday, August 07, 2006
What if...?
I’ve just returned from my trip to
As I was coming from
That’s when I wonder, What if I have stayed home and just have been a proper bum?
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Still here!!!!
I’m still alive. I have a lot of work. No money and planning a mini holiday to
It still feels and looks like summer here in
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Resemblance
It has been a long time since I last wrote in my blog. A lot of things have been happening in every aspect of my life, economically, sentimentally, intellectually, existentially, etc. The good thing is that I have a lot of work, so my mind is occupied and I don’t have too much time to think about what things are troubling me. But this post isn’t about all of that. It’s a sort of a follow up from the previous one.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Curiosities
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Cat's thoughts. Part I.
In the new kid movies, where the main characters are animals, the qualities imprinted on them are human like. What would happen if Dumbo, suddenly, decided to make a movie about humans? What would be the outcome? Would they use sarcastic humour to describe us? Would it even be a kid’s movie?
Amongst all the different curious points of view I have encountered about my race I bumped into the following nameless cat's thoughts. He has just heard a conversation of three peculiar humans.
"I merely concluded that human beings were good for nothing except for the strenuous employment of their mouths for the purpose of whiling away their time in laughter at things which are not funny and in the enjoyment of amusements which are not amusing."
"…the urge to compete and their anxiety to win are revealed flickeringly in their everyday conversation, and only a hair’s breadth separates them from the Philistines whom they spend their idle days denouncing. They are all animals from the same den. Which fact, from a feline viewpoint, is infinitely regrettable. Their only moderately redeemed feature is that their speech and conduct are less tediously uninventive than those of less subtle creatures.
As I thus summed up the nature of the human race, I suddenly felt the conversation of these specimens to be intolerably boring; …"
Hopefully, other not feline species have a better concept of the human race, though I doubt it.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Click !!!
It all started a few years ago. I considered my self a feminist and anything or anyone that talked or denigrated the image of women was a direct insult to me. Anyway, I bumped into three books when my poor soul was going through difficult times. I read them in the order in which I mentioned above and suddenly a lot of things fell into place. Maybe what I am to write here does not make sense to you, but my little brain processed the information in a very illuminating way.
The Name of the Rose, the year is 1392 during the catholic inquisition. The place is somewhere in an abbey in Italy. The main characters are William of Baskerville a Franciscan friar, and Adso of Melk a Benedictine novice and William’s apprentice.
They are there to solve some mysteries murders (which is the main plot of the story). While investigating, Adso has an encounter with a young woman and ends up having relations with her. He seeks advice from William. Now, this was the first click in my brain. When he tells him what had happened between him and the young woman, William responds that he has no experience with this kind of things. He refers to the original sin that led to the bad reputation of women, to be considered a sign of sin, evil and temptation. But when Jesus was born from Mary (the fact that she was a virgin), God redeemed the image of women as something pure.
Now, its 1559, we are still in Italy. The church is still a very powerful institution. The main character in this story is an anatomist, his name Mateo Colon. He falls in love with a very young and beautiful prostitute. He tries everything to conquer her heart, but she has been trained very well in her profession and will not open her heart to anybody. Mateo is determined to find the way to her heart. After long years of research, he discovers by pure coincidence the organ that governs a woman’s heart; he names it Amor Veneris. Well, you will imagine what it is. He wants to tell every man he meets this great discovery, but the church silences him. This does not bother him, because what he really wants is to go after his true love, confident that this time he will be able to succeed. He searches for the young prostitute and reveals his secret to her. The only answer he gets from her is the bill for her services…hehehe, second click.
And last but not least, we travel to France, the year is 1791. In comparison with the two previous books, the main character here is Justine a sweet girl. At the death of her parents, she is separated from her sister and passes from home to home. She has to endure with horrible people and terrible situations to get through her days. And despite all this she does not loses her faith in the goodness and kindness of God. I will not ruin the end for you, but its really unexpected (laughable). The ending was the final click.
Finally, I will draw the conclusions of all the clicking. Women are not evil, men are just weak (Adam did not have to except the apple from Eve). Most women know what they want and what they are worth, so do not underestimate our value. Men think that they can solve everything with Amor Veneris, when most of the time we just want to be listened to. And finally, I just realized I am not making any sense out of this. Well, just read the damn books, they are really interesting. If you already read these books post some comments and if you haven’t the clue about what this post was about, also post your comments.
Friday, May 19, 2006
It's ALIVE!!!
Hope it would stand my magnetic and electrofying personality, :D.
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Les ordinateurs sont mauvais!!!
There must be a logical explanation to this sudden suicidal of electronic and electrical gadgets around me. I arrived to the following conclusion: I have a magnetic and electrifying personality, therefore no electrical gadget can stand the amount of radiation that emerges from me, making me irresistible. Left with no other option, as I am forbidden to them, to terminate their existence.
I really don't care what anybody thinks, I'm sticking with my version of the story.
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Cycle of life!!!
Monday, May 01, 2006
Table philosophy
"...it shows how artificial border lines can be".
"...there are only two sins in the world: to throw away beer and turn down a woman".
I found it quite eloquent at the time, though the second one is not applicable to me been a woman.
Friday, April 21, 2006
Road Trips
I once heard that there are two ways to really get to know someone, the first is to live with them and the second is to travel together. The first trip I took with friends was when I was an undergrad in Mexico city. The trip was to Veracruz (Golf of Mexico). By bus it was a 5 hour trip to one of the main cities of the state, from there we had to change bus and take one (not very modern) bus to a little town on the mountains. Most of that trip we walked to the places we wanted to visit and camped out, so we could have a fresh start the following morning. At one point my friends wanted to go fishing and we had to look for worms to use as bait (not a very good experience). The landscape was really beautiful, crossing from sugar cane fields to mango tree plantations; picking up fallen mangos and eating them while we passed through, refreshing ourselves on the different rivers we crossed.
With the same guys we then went to Baja California, the main difference from the previous trip was that we took my dad’s car. The weather down there is very different from Veracruz. There we saw how one of the largest deserts of Mexico merges into the sea. It was astonishing to find the variety of fauna and flora you could see in a desert. And at nightfall the sky was completly covered with tiny sparkling lights (I’ve never seen so many stars), the stillness and silence is overwhelming, it makes you feel so small and insignificant. We headed south of the peninsula to see the beaches. This part of mexico has been neglected for a long time (not a bad thing); we would drive for hours with out encountering any populated areas. In the middle of the peninsula there is an Oasis (so cool), the beaches there are just lovely and the best part of it was that we had them all to ourselves. I remember one night in particular, we were camping by the beach, the sky got really clouded, it started raining and the wind was blowing the tents out of the ground, we had to pack everything as soon as possible and get to higher ground before the storm hit the beach, we slept in the car that night. After the storm, I saw the most breathtaking sunrise; it was still clouded, a part of the sky cleared out and a ray of light hit the clear crystal water changing its color. I regreted not having a camera with me at the time, but some things are better left to oneself.
After two weeks of eating, sleeping and traveling together we were so fed up with each other, we couldn’t wait to get home. The ones that survived that trip are now the best of friends.
The latest of these road trips was to Cornwall with to of my friends, Lety and Victor (if you want to know where we went, check the following link, Needless junk and more). We went in Lety’s car, Victor was the co-pilot and I was sitting on the back seat. I kind of screwed the booking of the hostel where we were staying, so we had to travel approximately three hours to get where we originally planned to go (another thing I learned about me was that I’m a really bad planner).
A brief summary of what I really wanted to emphasis about road trips is: you learn a lot about the people and yourself from sharing this kind of experience; after something goes wrong and seems that this will spoil your trip, when you get through them, they are the things that you remember the most and laugh at. You learn to be patient and to see things a different way, you improvise when needed and invent knew ways to cheer or entertain people, silences become bearable and you explore your creative side to impress people with your photographs.
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Nogales, city of the border.
My best friend (Briseida) and I, local outcast at the time, entered the underground world of music when we were 15 (it seemed the logical step to take). You could feel the uniqueness of each individuals trying to rebel against a society that considered them social rejects, because of there appearance or preferences. Yeah, the feeling of power it gave you being in an old, humid and abandoned warehouse located outside of town. Well, that’s what I felt, but actually I had my dad’s permission and he would promptly pick us up at midnight to go home. Hehe
We met several bizarre and weird people on those nights. Most of them had really rough lives (we were the good kids trying to fit in with the bad kids). Oaxaca (Lupita, but she was from Oaxaca so we just called her that), whom we met when we started going to “gigs”, had left her parent’s house when she was 13 or 14 years old, she worked as a babysitter for a family. On weekends (her days off), she would normally crash where anyone would let her. She had brought one suitcase with her, but all her important stuff were kept on a hand bag that she always carried. It was like a magician’s hat, she took whatever she needed out of the bag, it seemed bottomless. As time past and we became good friends,Briseida and me used to flips coins to see in which of our houses she would stay (not very nice). The last I heard of her, she had crossed the border (illegally) and was pregnant, but that was when I left home to go to study in Mexico city, 9 years ago. Ohh…How time flies!!!
Then there were the local groups, hahaha…at that time I could tell you the name of all the groups, in what order they were playing and which songs they were going to play (not much variety). What is really funny is some groups would try to create a new sound and ended up combining folk songs with metal-punk-rock. At the time I thought it was amazing what they did, but know I realize it was crap. Some local radio stations trying to encourage new talents would play their songs; they specially played one that had the name of my home town “Nogales, ciudad fronteriza” (Nogales, city of the border). Imagine the faces of those who really knew about music. Looking back at those days, I realize I was quiet naive about the things that surrounded me. Okay, still am, but now I can tell you I'm naive,hihihi...
Well, I’ll leave it here, it’s late and I’m not as young as I used to be.
BTW, the group I went to see on Sunday is called “The Secret Machines” check them out.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Ironic, hehehe
(A sense of irony is a strong guarantee of liberty.)
Maurice BARRÈS, Sous l'oeil des Barbares, 1888
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Stop masturbating your brain!!!
Normally, when I am in a situation that I can not handle, instead of taking action I ponder a lot before I make a decision. I will usually complain with everyone I know until they are fed up with me (amazingly this happens quiet often). So, I find myself frequently remembering this phrase: “stop masturbating your brain and do something about it”. Hope you get the idea.
Now, stop reading this rubbish and get back to work, you lazy bum.
Cooking Mexican Food.
After two hours of cooking, the final result is: 10 empanadas (wraps), a stomach ache (tend to eat what I am cooking while I am cooking it) and a pile of dirty dishes. Ohh… well if someone wants to try my “empanadas’ there are plenty left. Bon apetite!!!
Monday, March 20, 2006
The blogger world!!!
I finally decided to join the blogger world. There are several reason for this.
- I realized that my other 'blog' can not be manipulated the way I want.
- I am finding quiet relaxing and thearapeutical writing about the way I perceive my surroundings.
- It's good practice and is helping me improve my writting skills (though I have a long way to go until a write as a would like).
- Someone "suggested" that I change my blog space.