A little taste of London

From the architectural point of view I don't like London. There are astonishing buildings with remarkable decorations and great seals, heritage of the amazing legacy left by the old British Empire. But facing these buildings you can find horrible dark structures from the 70´s and in some cases the (in)harmony is completed when these buildings are scratched by an ultramodern top technology skyscraper. That's London and that's part of its center. On top of that, I don't like the color of the brick, a dark brown that gets even hazier when is wet, what in London it occurs pretty much often. Comparisons are hateful, but in this case I'd rather stay with the exquisiteness of the Parisian blocks.

However, London is a wonderful capital, one of the most important cultural centers of the world. Whatever you go, whatever you may think of, you'll find in London. There is always something going on and for sure no time to get bored in this city. What could you do in a cloudy Sunday day with nothing prepared in advance ?

Get up late (is Sunday!), then have a shower and go to a French bakery to have a midday brunch: delicious homemade cakes covered with based on wild fruits jams, a crunchy croissant filled in almonds, squeezed oranges coming from Valencia and and why not, accompanied by a delicious cappuccino with a taste of ginger or scented Japanese thees. Then take the subway and "mind the gap !". The first stop over could be an art gallery. In the wharf opposed to Waterloo you can find several cultural centers. Right now I wouldn't miss the world press photo exhibition. Just amazing ! After that why not enjoying in the same cultural center of some live music played by a new band of young talents. Next walk into the center and its charm, browse some books in an open-air old library settled in the Thames promenade and on the way towards St. Paul cathedral drink a pint in a cozy brewery. Move on to the museum of London. It is very interesting getting known about the fire that devastated the city in the XVII century. After that lose yourself up at the Barbican center. Who dare to design this ? Because I still have no clear what is it ! Either you'll love it or you'll hate it. But worth a visit.
If your body still needs a bit more let´s get back to the Southbank Center. There is always something going on there. This time there was a BBC jazz festival. Here you have an exemple of two bands that were playing. First one, an alternative grumpy jazz metal band. Something that you'd never dare to buy, but a life is worth to listen once... And second, Richard Mitchell elegant jazz.

(...tomorrow I'll hang here these two passes of the gigs...)

And let's finish this journey with a just cooked crunchy taste of pork marinated in rosemary and other spices with homemade appel jam. Gozzzzz !!! And ei, this is just a little of all that can be done ! Did you have enough for this Sunday ?

La cúpula de la vergüenza

Esta semana pasada la cúpula que adorna la sala XX del Palacio de Naciones de la ONU en Ginebra ha sido noticia. Y vaya noticia... La renovación de esta sala ha costado la friolera de cerca de 20 millones de euros, que si por si queda alguna duda de la magnitud de la tragedia, en pesetas de las antiguas hacen unos 3300 millones. Ahí es nada !

Los detalles asociados a la renovación de esta sala vienen acompañados de una serie de disparates que no hay por donde cogerlos. ¿ Qué señor/es puede/n tener la cara tan dura para aprobar dicho presupuesto ? Desde luego alguien a quien le importa bien poco el resto de los mortales que no compartan su exquisito círculo de pseudo-intelectuales. ¿ Crisis ? ¿ Quién ha dicho que hay crisis ? El señor Barceló, después de sus innumerables fracasos, se debe de haber jactado al poder vivir una segunda infancia jugando al paintball con mangueras en vez de pistolas de pintura, bajo el pretexto de reproducir un mar con distintos reflejos dependiendo del ángulo con el que se mire. Imagino que aquellos que sepan algo de física y óptica se habran echado una carcajada ante tan burda explicación. Seguro que los ganadores del último Nóbel de medicina (que contribuyen a salvar vidas) o el último Nóbel de física y química (que contribuyen al avance tecnológico) cobraran en varios años lo que este señor ha cobrado por dejarnos su incalculable legado artístico. Gracias Barceló.

Pero los despropósitos alrededor de esta obra sublime no se quedan ahí. De la partida destinada a esta "fenomenal obra" de arte comtemporáneo 500.000€ ( es decir, unos 90 millones de pesetas) vienen de los Fondos de Ayuda al Desarrollo (FAD). ¿ Fondos de Ayuda a quién ? Ya lo he entendido. Los señores mandatarios que se reúnan en la futura sala de la Alianza de Civilizaciones se sentirán mucho más inspirados y con ganas de contribuir al Desarrollo de los países menos evolucionados al mirar al techo, es decir, es una inversión de futuro que se amortizará en tan sólo un par de reuniones... Y aún más bochornoso si cabe, el 40% de esta obra viene de fondos públicos de los contribuyentes españoles... Mejor que esto no lo sepan muchos, porque en famosos tiempos de crisis más de uno se va a cabrear (y con razón).

La cantidad de atropellos que giran alrededor de esta obra no caben en la cabeza de una persona normal, ni siquiera en la de los políticos que allí se reúnan. Más de uno mientras se tome un canapé se preguntará por el fenómeno que ha sido capaz de justificar "esto". Mientrastanto nuestro querido Rey no tiene más remedio que poner buena cara y decir que bonito esta todo esto el día de su inauguración.

Bonito y elegante será todo lo que se quiera pero, ¿ de verdad se necesita invertir esta barbaridad de dinero para renovar una sala de reuniones ? ¿ No existen modos más austeros de decorarla con clase y lujo sin tener que malgastar el presupuesto de todos ? No quiero ni imaginar lo que upondría dedicar esta partida de dinero por ejemplo a investigación, a reformas institucionales, a educación, a conservación de la biodiversidad, entre otros... Lo más gracioso (si es que tiene gracia) es que nuestras instituciones europeas, aquellas que luchan y abogan por los derechos de todos y luchan contra la pobreza, contra la desigualdad, contra el analfabetismo, etc. ,(principalmente en Bruselas), están rodeadas de lujos, despilfarros, sueldos astronómicos, que si algunos supieran provocarian una revuelta social...
Pues bien, la cúpula de del despilfarro ya está bautizada popularmente como la cúpula de los pobres.

Philosophy

[...] I wouldn't say that I miss you but I think very often of you. Even in the case I missed you very much it wouldn't be fair telling this to you, from this 'uckn perspective. But I do too, I do think of you quite often. You probably have that philosophical part which i miss or I can't / don´t want to see. Perhaps I look rather to those external things, perhaps my very old age have something to do (although i definitely thing that i don't follow the "normal" patterns of those who get my age ), but in the way this society is constructed, it is nearly always true that those external things that affect the live drive you primarely to happiness, or at least help in the search for that happiness. External, tangible things are very linked to happiness too, to the good-feeling sense, we'd like it or not. Internal things are undoubtadely more honest with yourself, are those which will really make you feel good as a person and exactly as you look like and with what you have. But unfortunately this is a building that can break down in any moment, not in harmony with the external things. It is sort of utopia as it happens with the perfect, best of all politic systems in the earth : the comunism. [...]

- Unknown author, but worth to read -

Georgia vs Russia (PART-II) : Chill out

It's true, I let it go, didn't write the second part right straight, but I think it's even worthier 'cause makes things even clearer. After several private requests here you have the second part. I'll make it sort, no worth make it longer...

So what's A.P. ? Simple : authorities and politics ! Time gave me the reason. They were just war games, too much noise and some diplomatic provocations, but that's it. The deep world economical crisis has substituted any other important dossier, as that "war" was. It is true that likely Sarkozy played a very important role, key in the mediation to stop all kind of armed hostilities, but I guess that in one or another way the end of this story would have been the same. Nobody wanted this war, USA is already immersed in some other wars, EU wants to be the mediator of all world problems, an exemple for the world (and still not able to solve its own ones), Russia had no chance in this war...

But the horrible part of this is that a majority of civilians did not have anything to do in this war. Russians were acting in the name of Russia, but did politics think about its already suffered and very punished population ? Now that economical prosperity seems to scratch again new layers of the russian population, of course interest zero to get back again... And georgians ? Did somebody think about georgian population when authorities challenged russians tanks ? I was about to hang up two extracts of a couple of friends of mine, one russian and one georgian, about what they thought about this war.... I won't 'cause this is already "past", but their messages were concluding : "We don't care about this war, we just want to leave in peace ! I wish politics lived in a world far from ours".

New English period

Ei, don't be afraid, values are in miles/h !

Back barely a week ago, I took my car and I saw Toulouse getting smaller and smaller until it completely disappeared in the rear-view mirror of my car. Then I realized that this time yes, this time is was not for holidays, for an excursion or just for a few days away. The french period of my life was over, or at least it is over until a new job will get my back over there. It is sad 'cause after so much time I leave many things behind but life is like this and new changes likely prevent us for being away from routine, make our lives more interesting though.

The British welcome is not cozy, specially in autumn, but I was mentally prepared for that. From Paris to Calais clouds were getting ready to discharge loads of water. And after the funny Eurotunnel cross things didn't get better, rather worse. First thing to do when you enter in UK by car is "changing your chip" as driving is on left side. The most dangerous are roundabouts. You better drive slowly, carefully and just to be sure look to all directions ;-) Apart from that, food based on meat, baguette almost nonexistent, pint of beer is almost like drinking a glass of water and then obviously fights during weekends get also sort of national sport, the service in restaurants is generally much better than the southeuropean average, be ready to pay for e-ve-ry-thing and more expensive than in your own country, big supermarkets opened 24h (what i find very useful), lifestyle closer to american standards with semi-detached houses with garden, etc. By the way, in average bikes are used very little... A pity !

Welcome to UK !