Wednesday 7 November 2007

And you thought you knew me.......

Tagged by Piers . So here are five things about me which other people might think lame, but which make me who I am and I am proud of.

1- I am very sentimental and cry with the smallest things

Sometimes when I am watching the news, a sad story would make me cry. I cry when i watch the end of a movie, regardless if it is a sad or happy ending and even if I only watched the end of it. I cry when i get to the end of a good book or when someone is telling a sad or a happy story.

2- I like it when things are in order

Even my mess is an organised mess. I enjoy optimising space and making sure that i can fit as many things as possible in the space that I have. I love boxes and, somehow, I always manage to find things to put in them.

3- I find it almost impossible to throw things away

Maybe this is the reason why I collect things..... when i was little i went through a fase of collecting sweet wrapping paper! Then I moved to stickers and postcards. Now I go for things i can also use such as shoes, handbags, scarfs..... I have a massive collection of plastic bags. Plastic bags are good, and some of them are too nice to be thrown away.

4- I like watching musicals, and romantic comedy movies

Two of my old time favourite musicals are "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" and "the Sound of Music". And of course I cry everytime i watch them. Sometimes I watch them with subtitles so I can sing along (I don't torture people with my voice though, i only sing when i'm on my own)

5- I would drop anything i am doing for my friends and family

I take great pride of where I come from and who my friends are. I like to think that these are a reflection of who I am. It might not be a lame thing about me, but it is one that i'm very proud of and it definitely makes me who I am today.

Some people complaint that my number 5 is not a lame thing, so I had to think about a different number 5....... and the new entry is:

5- I could watch "Friends" episodes again and again and again

I love "Friends". I think it is an amazing TV series and I own all of the episodes. I have seen all of it several times and I watch it when it is shown on TV. Now i'm reading a book about the series. I guess all this makes me a fan!

I hope you enjoyed that!!!

Tuesday 2 October 2007

Doctors and Nurses

Don't you just love it when you have to go to the doctors?

It's simply great!!!! The nurse tells me that I can get a repeated prescription, so I go to the clinic and try to get one...... then then clinic calls to say that I can't get one without seeing the nurse first. I go then to see the nurse and I get (finally!!!) my so awaited prescription. Up to here all pretty simple!

The challenge comes when you start enquiring about being referred to see a specialist or, in my case, to be referred to an anllergy clinic. I started my research by talking to the nurse. Simple questions such as what would i need to do to be referred to one of these clinics, and where is the closest one...... to the first question all i got was a look as if i was from a different planet. The answer to the second question reminds a mystery!

Aparently such clinics are only available for people with severe allergies..... I guess this means life threatening... basically you have to be more at risk than other people, you need to have a near death experience..... or a death experience in some very extreme cases!

My point at this stage is:
  1. that I pay taxes and more taxes, but when i need something back from the health system, it is not there for me
  2. that you have to be almost death for a doctor to take you seriously
  3. that doctors keep putting patches to health issues without even bothering about finding out what is the real cause of the problem.... medicine suddenly becomes a trial and error game, where sometimes they win and sometimes they just find an excuse and a new medicine to play with
  4. that you play the lottery each time you visit a doctor, since depending on who sees you will take a different action
So seeing how things are going and that, sadly, they don't seem to get any better, the only solution left is stay healthy!!!! Avoid going to the doctors!!!!

Tuesday 25 September 2007

Madrid 2016 has a new logo

I feel very lucky that this time I had my chance to vote for a logo!

Madrid is applying again as candidate for the Olympic Games..... 2016!!

The organisation supporting Madrid for the Olympic Games made a pre-selection of 10 logos. And asked people to vote for their favourite.

Today the winner has been made public! Check this link, though the article is in Spanish, the logo is clear!

http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Madrid/2016/tiene/logotipo/elpepuesp/20070925elpepunac_3/Tes

Not the one I voted for, but still, I'm glad I was part of the process. Now I can freely complaint that the logo chosen is not the best one!! ;-)

Monday 24 September 2007

Get your act together!!

For a while now I have been wanting to do something related to acting..... improvisation or acting classes, even comedy......

I don't think of myself as an actor as such, but I think I could have a lot of drama and/or comedy value, so why not explore it and find out if it is really there?

I have been asking people and in the process came across a few places where you can, at least, try your skills, see what other people do, explore your own possibilities, get rid of stress or even learn to laugh at yourself (always a healthy practice to go through life!!) .......

  • http://learntoact.co.uk/  - They meet two days a week, Thursdays and Saturdays. They welcome all levels, even if you have never done any acting. You can pay per session (£15), 2 sessions (£24) or 10 sessions (£100). Additional information can be found on their website.
  • http://www.the-spontaneity-shop.com/  - See their website for information on workshops, shows and corporate
  • http://www.alternatives.org.uk/Site/Workshops.aspx  - they organice a number of workshops, sometimes they do the clowning ones...... check for availability.
  • http://www.thefunfed.com/-  they organice fun workshops for adults.... let yourself go and become a kid again!!
If you know of any other workshops, then let me know!!

Enjoy!

Tuesday 31 July 2007

9 years later.......

And it was on the 31st July 1998 that I landed in London!!

I can't believe how fast time has gone. And 9 years later here I am!

Initially i was going to be here only for 2 years, but I guess I liked it too much and with one excuse or another stayed well passed the 2 year mark.

9 years in summary:
- I have lived in 7 houses
- Met people from all continents
- Travelled to many countries I have never been to before
- Visited far too many bars/ pubs
- Drunk lots of beer (well not so much beer), wine, whiskey, tequila...... house cocktails from all those parties
- Worked for over 7 years at IBM ....... how i managed that i will never know!!!
- Made fantastic friendships that I hope last many years
- Found and lost love
- Cried a little and laughed a lot

It has been an amazing journey and what I take with me most of all is the fact that I got to know me...... to know who I am and what I stand for, what makes me happy and what drives me to move forward. I have learnt how precious the little moments are with the people that you care about and how I thrive for live and love. I have learnt to treasure happy memories that always come handy when times are difficult.

Most of all I have learnt the value of friendship.... and how friends, specially when you live far from home, are more than friends...... And even though some come and some go, because that is the nature of relationships, the main ones stay for very long time. And even though I'm crap at staying in touch with everybody, all live in my thoughts!

Happy 9th Anniversary Me!!!!!!

Monday 30 July 2007

My right to siesta!!

Do you know what is one of the most frustrating things I find in this life?..... When my eyes keep shutting down because I'm so tired that I just can't keep them open!

Look back and think about the amount of times you wished you could just crawl under your desk when you are at work, or hide away while sitting through a really boring lecture at university, or when you are in the train and your stop is getting close.... you know that if you close your eyes you will miss it!!

OK, so there isn't much you can do when you are falling asleep in a train, and in fact you can actually sleep!! There isn't much you could do when you were at uni. But what about work??!!!

I claim my right to have a siesta after lunch!!!

And why not? I think that having a siesta would make me much more productive, but not only that, it would make me a happier person! If I spend up to an hour trying to keep my eyes open and fighting tiredness, compare that with the 20 minutes that a power nap would take! Imagine this, you have your lunch and break, you disappear for 20 minutes, or crawl under your desk. Passed the 20 minutes you sit back on your chair and start working....... Your eyes are open, you don't feel tired, you don't spend the next hour dreaming about sleeping, you are ready and prepared to start work straight away. Plus, what is more important, you are in a much better mood.

And believe me, who in this world would not want to have happy us at work with a broad smile in your faces?

Wednesday 25 July 2007

Talking about the weather

Ever since I moved to the UK....... 9 years ago!, I have lived throught many many talks about the weather.

I never noticed what an important part of everybody's life the weather is. But specially how many conversations it generates.

I think I still don't fully understand why.... but here you have some guesses as of why the weather is such a used topic of conversation:
  • It is a common topic that allows anybody and everybody to join in
  • It provides a heartlighted chat without being intrusive about people's believes or lives
  • It fills empty spaces when you run out of conversation
  • Everybody can be an authority on the weather
  • It gives me a very general topic to start my blog!

I wonder if the weather talk is a cultural thing.... Could it be possible that there are cultures more shy about asking questions, and therefore need to have a non-important topic to talk to complete strangers?

It is interesting though how, me being Spanish, I'm finding myself keeping lots of weather conversation....

So I guess that if it would finally be sunny and warm, and people would then have a reason to spend more time out and about having fun and meeting friends. If the summer would finally arrive to London, like it has in may places in Europe, and for a few days it would stop raining. If I could finally wear my summer clothes and sit outside for a drink to see life go by, then the last thing on my mind would be having a conversation about the weather.