Lovely Valentine

Have you seen this music video? Paul McCartney's latest song "My Valentine" featuring Johnny Depp on the guitar and Nathalie Portman interpreting the lyrics in sign language... it's quite beautiful! :o)

I'm afraid I've once again been rather absent on the blogs... some of you whom I visit regularly will have noticed my lack of comments lately. I'm really sorry! I'm afraid I'm a bit swamped with my classes and trying to find a more regular job that would give me some financial stability (if such a thing even exists these days). Plus with the Easter holidays some of my friends have finally had some free time to get together! Other than catching up on blog reading, I still have a hike pending for here, a couple new Semana Santa posts for my other blog, half-started book reports for this one, and trying to re-start the "Fishy Fridays" and "Come Dive With Me" series (the latter of which I had hope to do before the diving season started up again... too late I'm heading out under the waves next Saturday!). Oh, and start getting things ready for World Oceans Day! (I'm helping to translate their website to Spanish) And I could show you some scary photos of how much organising I need to do around the house... :p

Some days I look at everything that needs to get done (the "real" stuff) and it's just so overwhelming I hide on the sofa and watch TV instead of facing it... which of course makes it all worse the next day... *sigh* Must. Get. Organised! I used to be so organised once upon a time... whatever happened to me? ;(

A Good Night's Sleep Worst Enemy

grrrrrr... I have 5 bites on my left arm alone (plus a couple on other arm and legs)! Bloody thing has been buzzing in my ear all night. Tried to kill it several times but missed. Result? Finally got out of bed at 5:30 a.m. (after 5h of fractured sleep) looking for something to do. Drowsiness is starting to kick in again, so maybe I'll give it another go. Good thing I don't have to teach until the afternoon! But if I do manage to fall back asleep too bad for the various tasks that needed doing this morning...

Now where is that bloodsucker hiding?

zzzzzzzzz.....

Musical Lowcost Airline Rant

My mom came across this one, and it's fabulous! I've lost track of the number of times I've seen it today... such fun!!! (and sadly true... as anyone who's flown Ryanair will know)

What's your worst Lowcost episode? I've got two recent ones... and within 3 weeks of each other! They (Vueling) switched a flight on me (moved it up a day) without even informing me!!! I found out in time by pure luck. For the first flight (Paris -> Alicante on my way home from New Zealand) I managed to have them switch me to another flight a few days later and spent those days at a friend's in Paris (I couldn't have caught the earlier flight, was in the air!). The second was on my trip to Athens last month for a wedding. Ditto, flight advanced to the day before... the same time as the wedding!!! Since the only option was (again) being switched to a flight several days later... and they wouldn't pay for extra hotel nights, I ended up having it cancelled, reimbursed, and buying another ticket on a different airline (more expensive since a week before the trip... and resulted in an 8h layover in Barcelona instead of the original 2h. UGH!)

As they say: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. (but they're still bastards. grrrrrr.....)

Boxes and Dust and Fedupness

Fedupness... I think I just invented a new word! Although maybe fedupedness would be better... :p

Ugh! I HATE PACKING/MOVING!!! Have spent all week packing an apartment up in boxes... going through tons of stuff, dusting it off, tossing some of it (but not enough since not enough time and some of the junk is the rest of the family's so not my call). Making boxes, filling boxes, closing boxes... all that cardboard and icky tape and dust and my fingers and hands ain't happy! Not to mention my back from the heavy lifting I shouldn't have been doing. AM SO FED UP WITH BOXES!!!

People tell me "Oh, you must be used to moving a lot so it should be easy for you!". If only! The more you've done it, the more you know what's in store, and the more you dread it!

keep reading!

Apathy vs the will to Blog

Have you ever felt so out of touch with your own surroundings that everything feels a bit unreal? Felt like time is moving along at a snail's pace or that you're looking in on your own life from outside a window?

That's kind of how I've been feeling these past couple of weeks. Ever since I got back from New Zealand it's been hard to fit myself back into my old life. Right... old as in 4 months old! Funny how being gone for 4-5 intense months can make coming back to where things are calm and not much is going on (personally or professionally) seem a bit scary, and depressing! How can things be the same when you've done so much??? Argh!!! Anyhow, it's resulted in a sense of apathy that I'm having trouble shaking... like someone hit the "pause" button on me and I'm waiting for something else to come by and knock me into "play" mode. Not good.

Therein lies the excuse for the absentee blogger... I've got blogging ideas popping into my head every now and again, but when I get home I can't be bother to sit down to the computer and develop them! And then when some time has passed I get frustrated with myself for having forgotten what seemed like some damn good ideas at the time. Part of me is hung up by the backlog of posts that are semi-prepared from the trip (for CrisCrossing the Globe) and are there in limbo, waiting for me to finish up with them... Kind of a "deal with the stuff pending before you get into the new", and I end up in a vicious circle where nothing gets done!

So I'm breaking the circle by just starting up with some random blogging again, and I'll slowly release posts on New Zealand over on the other blog, just back-dating them to when they were supposed to be published (I wonder how that will appear in people's readers...). Ditto with the Project 365 photos. I'm not going to dump them all on you in one massive month's-worth chunk, but perhaps 5 at a time. I actually forgot a couple days... damn! Took me a while to remember my cellphone has a camera so I don't need to be carrying around my DSLR just to get a daily photo! I figured it wouldn't be as fun a project once life had gotten back to "normal", and indeed, I quite forgot about it a couple of days! :o( The photos I have taken might not be too interesting because they're frequently last minute "oh my! I haven't taken the 365 photo yet today!". I'm going to have to try and make mundane things seem interesting through the camera lens, should be an interesting challenge! Which isn't to say I'm going to give up on random shots with my cellphone. ;o)

Things you do when your computer falls ill or goes on strike...

1. P�ter un cable!!! i.e. get really pissed off...
2. Go through a series of withdrawal symptons whose intensity is in direct correlation to the time spent without the aforementioned computer.
3. Hang out a lot more at your parents' house to use their computers (and printers).
4. Stress out because you have to wait a week until you can even turn it in to the techies (because you are about to leave the country for 4 months and the ones here didn't have time to get the parts before departure), while keeping all your fingers and toes crossed that they will be able to fix it because you just bought a non-refundable ticket to New Zealand to spend the holidays with your sister and therefore can't afford to buy a new computer.
5. Be grateful all this happened the day before your Apple Care expired and that Apple is so wonderful that after several calls you managed to get a case file and exception number so that it will be repaired a week after the expiration date but still be covered by the Apple Care service.
6. Think of all the blog posts you planned to be writing during this time (Hogueras wrap-ups, Mallorca on the new travel blog etc.) and in the upcoming weeks (arrival in Belgium, launching new blog...)... but probably wouldn't have anyway 'cause you're freaking out about how to pack a 20kg suitcase with clothes and gear for 4 months and covering 3 different seasons... :p
7. Rediscover the use of pen and paper as you jot down ideas for this post.
8. Wonder how you're going to prep the classes you're supposed to start teaching in a week at the Uni in Belgium and keep in touch with the other profs and students for meetings etc. once you're in the country (thank technology for cellphones!)
9. Keep crossing your fingers that all will end well.

In other words: my computer is out of commission until the tech service in Belgium can replace the fan and keyboard. Rest assured I will be taking it in (to the same store I bought it at!) AS SOON AS I get off the train in Li�ge on Monday!

Regular blogging should resume sometime after I get it back... and I guess the travel blog will start with stories of Belgium instead of Mallorca... Fishy Fridays will be up and running as well (I'm looking forward to the occasional tour I'll be giving in the Aquarium again!)

And note to Shellbelle: all those figs haven't turned me into a Newton... I'm enjoying my fill since I'm going to miss out on my other favourite fruit with a short season: pomagranates!

STUPID VOLCANO!!!

Forgive me if I vent for a while...

BUT DAMN THAT STUPID VOLCANO IN ICELAND THAT'S KEEPING MY SISTER AWAY!!!

I'm currently in the midst of a big family reunion in Mallorca... a twin communion and a sweet little baptism... and my sister's stuck in London! Grounded due to that massive cloud of volcanic ash high up in the atmosphere that's made almost all of northern Europe into a NO-FLY zone...

Check out this map from BBC news:

Extent of the volcanic "ash" cloud from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8623534.stm

It's created a lot of chaos, with stranded travellers, holidays cancelled, and I'm guessing low attendance at tomorrow's state funeral for the Polish President and his wife who died in a plane accident last week... Mother Nature making herself felt in all her glory! And in Iceland the government has asked people not to go near the volcano to "check it out", I'll admit if I lived there I'd be tempted! :p

7 years living in a city surrounded by volcanoes, never any problems, and now this thing in another country is screwing with our lives! 'tis indeed a small world! One volcano in Iceland starts acting up, and European air transport gets paralysed.

Sigh!!! Stupid atmospheric currents...

My sister would definitely prefer spending time with this:

than "stuck" in her flat in London...

Foot update

Sorry if I appear to have pulled a disappearing act, this whole foot situation has gotten me so down I didn't really feel like writing anything! So haven't finished putting together Monthly Reading, Fishy Fridays or a couple of Oscar-related posts I had lined up. :s

If you ever get a bad sprain/break etc... don't think the pain in your foot is going to be the worst part. Nope, when that's over you have to deal with CRUTCHES!!! Hopping from here to there is exhausting, doing anything seems to take twice as much effort, your hands feel so sore that just pressing them against anything else makes them hurt and your back is going to start complaining about being unbalanced. Oh, and showers... showers are HELL! Trying balancing on a stool in the tub...

...with your foot & calf wrapped in saran wrap and dangling out of the tub just in case (so as not to get the bandages wet). 

Yeah, oodles of fun (voice dripping with sarcasm there). Well at least my abdominal muscles have been getting a workout holding that position. And my biceps. "Thanks" to the crutches I might actually have biceps by the time I'm through with all this! :p

Last Thursday when I woke up what little I could see of my foot sticking out of the bandages was all swollen and PURPLE! 

Kind of freaked me out seeing as how it hadn't been that colour the night before... Even tried washing it in case it was just dirty but wouldn't come off... so headed off for another trip to the ER (fuuuuun... fortunately had a book with me that time) and ended up getting told off by the Doc for not resting enough and keeping my foot up! Apparently the doctors and I have a different opinion on what "keeping my foot up" means. For me it was just not putting any weight on it and otherwise trying to keep doing normal routine stuff (like going to teach my English classes). For them it meant "reposo absoluto" as much as possible and with my foot UP as in above my waist up... Oops! Also more cold on it. So I spent as much of the weekend as possible lying on the sofa or bed, with my foot up on a pillow and a bag of frozen russian salad veggies on top. Brrrr!!! and BORING!!! Plus I can't very well sit at the computer and have my foot up... so not much time around here! :o(

Well, at least now I'm rid of that terribly itchy wrapping from my foot up my calf. Went to see the Traumatologist (is that the correct name in English for that kind of specialist?) yesterday and he released my foot from its dungeon, ordered up 10 sessions of rehab, and told me to use a removable ankle support thingy (like athletes!) during the day. Still can't use my foot (as in to walk, drive etc), so still stuck with the crutches and limited in the things I can actually do for myself, but man did it feel good this morning getting a shower without my foot dangling over the edge! Oh, plus washing it, definite bonus! :p

Still looks damn scary though:

But at least the Easter Egg is gone! ;o)

Is it 2012 already?!

Seriously, with all the wacky Mother Nature gone wild stuff that's started off 2010, you'd think maybe the Mayans were 2 years off their "end of the world" date!

keep reading!

Searching for inspiration...

...but can't seem to find it. :o(

I haven't been too prolific around here since 2010 started. It's odd that I actually blogged more when I didn't have internet access at home, and have written practically nothing since I got the apartment hooked up again! I must be tired, I've definitely been feeling listless. I had planned to start up Fishy Fridays again this month... oops! (hopefully next week) I had intended to write up a progress report on my New Year's Resolutions (hoping that by doing so at the end of each month would maybe help me actually fulfil them for once, lol!), but since all I've managed to do on that list is play a tennis match and sign up for the gym (but only been twice), well it's not too encouraging. I haven't even been writing my little book reports whenever I've finished reading each book (for Monthly Reading) so I'm going to have to write them all up at once. Damn!

Most of this month has been uncharacteristically grey and rainy around here, which is definitely an energy-drain (isn't it amazing how much livelier one feels on a bright sunny day?), but the one nice thing about storms and cloudy skies (looking for that silver lining!) are the very interesting seas and skies you get right after a storm:

and the sunsets!

(Click on the pics for a bigger view. They were all taken from my balcony. When we first moved here we used to have conversations about the winter sunsets!)

Here's to hoping February brings better spirits and more inspiration!

TV Addiction: cancellation rant addendum... and homage

Well, after my rant the other day, it appears we have another series to mourn... with FOX officially announcing their 2009-2010 schedule, it's official that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles has ended its run with the 2nd season finale. *sigh* Although this has been expected / dreaded for some time now, it still hurts.
On the plus side, at least Dollhouse has been renewed so we get to glimpse into the workings of crazy Joss Whedon's mind for another 13 episodes at least! ;o)

So, in memory of my favourite shows cancelled before their time, here goes a fan video someone put together in honour of one of them (Firefly) to a really great tune. And yeah, all too often the best shows really do need a Hero to pull them off the bubble and into renewal-land!

Addendum (May 20): Summer Glau thanks the fans:
http://www.summer-glau.net/wp/?p=945

TV Addiction: Cancellation rant....

So, I recently finished watching Veronica Mars... and wondering why on earth I never saw it when it aired on TV?! My guess is it never crossed the Atlantic, sigh! Why do we only get the more commercial stuff (and frequent crap) over here?

The bigger mystery is why the *@*@ do such great TV series get cancelled before their time?! And most of the time without enough advance notice for the show-runners and writers to give the fans a semi-satisfying ending?! grrrrrrrrrrr.... damn suits and their ratings-addiction!!! I'm not going to go into the unsolvable mystery as to why so many intelligent and original shows are ratings-challenged... if only to avoid saying something nasty about the TV-watching public in general (my grandma taught me "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all").

Nope, not going into all that. I'm just here to vent!!! Vent my frustration at witnessing the end of yet another series on a (semi-) cliffhanger. At realising it probably disappeared in favour of some lame, no-brain-required replacement. And again remembering this isn't the first time it's happened and won't be the last. snif, snif, snif! :o(

Other frustratingly cancelled series (that I can think of off the top of my head):

Angel: cancelled towards the end of the 5th season, they left us with L.A. having gone to Hell in a handbasket, thanks for Whedon and co. for at least wrapping up the story-line in comics!

Eli Stone: quirky legal drama with great music?! interesting characters?! what's not to like?!?!? well, at least the final episode was semi-satisfying and we can imagine it ending there. But we wanted MORE!

Firefly: no mystery as to why the ratings went south on this one, Fox aired episodes out of order and kept switching nights on it, cabrones! Makes you wonder at Whedon's leap of faith in trying a new project with them again this year... But at least we got another chapter on the big screen with Serenity! Although, gulp! I cried, and cried, and cried. Damn Whedon's penchant for tearing our hearts out by suddenly killing off beloved characters!

Jericho: well, at least thanks to all those NUTS we got a (way-too-short) second season that didn't leave us hanging and at least gave the writers the chance to wrap up this part of the story, but what about that looming Civil War?! Please suits, give us that movie we keep hearing rumors about!!!

Star Trek Enterprise: Ok so the first two seasons weren't all that great, but after the whole Xindi arc and getting into the conception of the Federation you don't continue?! And let's not even talk about that final episode... grrr

Veronica Mars: I heard the 4th season was going to have Veronica in the FBI. Now that's something I would have luuuuuuuvd to see! Plus, now we'll never know who won the elections for Sheriff!!! Another one with regular movie rumors... please make it so!

I'll sign off with a video by Thomas Dekker a.k.a. John Connor from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, another excellent show that appears to be "on the bubble" (i.e. low probability of renewal). Is a nice gesture to fans of the show who've worked to get it renewed, and I have my fingers (and toes!) crossed hoping that they've succeded.



Any of your favourites you'd like join me in a rant about? ;o)