Houston: the eagle has landed!
Well this was a long and interesting weekend…
After over a year and a half of living in Madrid in the same flat, I finally moved to a new place to call home. The old place left me lots of good (and bad) memories and friends which I hope will last for life, but after a while it was time to finally move on to a place of my own. Thinking about it, this is the second place where I’ve lived the longest, just after my ‘real’ home, and although it was originally a temporary place to stay, it ended up feeling as my home. And as any home it also had a ‘family’… sort of… through that time I lived with 11 people who came and went (except for Diego who’s still there 
2 belgians, 2 spaniards, 1 colombian, 1 peruvian, 1 norwegian, 2 italians, 1 portuguese and 1 french. And now, I move on to the unexpected! This gives me a great feeling of excitement but I guess also some responsibility hehe.
So last saturday I kinda started to pack… as always, it is amazing how much stuff you can accumulate in such a short time. Then I spent the whole evening at the obligatory stop: IKEA. I bought lots of things… from dishes to a chair. I am still thinking on buying a dining table, but we’ll see… space is kind of a problem. I went to IKEA with Alex and Virginia and as always I wanted to buy everything… and at the end it was a miracle I fitted in the car after all the stuff we bought! And well, to finish the day off we had Fabien’s birthday party! which was great. Relaxed but lots of fun… exactly what I needed.
Sunday was the main moving day. My paisano Alvaro was kind enought to offer me his help to move everything in his car to the new place. We had to do 2 trips, which I guess was not that bad. However, my bags were heavy as hell, and having to lift them up to the second floor without an elevator was a royal pain in the ass. Still it all went ok and I was off with an empty room behind and a flat full of suitcases and IKEA bags in front. Thankfully, in Spain you get a day off for moving, which was of great help cause I could spend all monday cleaning and arranging. Still, there are lots of things left to do, but it feels great to set up your own home, with everything as you like. I will post pictures of my flat, but later when its organized and tidy
Ahh and yes, I have a new phone line at home, so anyone who wants to call me you can do so to my home phone (cheaper than mobile!). My number is +34 915 331 345.
Cheers!
Slow-mo punching!
Well, through Dvorak’s blog I found this interesting video… and yes, just in case you were wondering, I do love slow motion videos hehe.
No matter what.
Following with my obsession with the movie “The Darjeeling Ltd.”, which I can’t get out of my mind for several reasons, and following my tocayo’s footsteps, below is a quote from the short film “Hotel Chevalier” which opens the movie. In an odd way so close and familiar, yet so strong.
Ex: Whatever happens in the end, I don’t wanna lose you as my friend.
Jack: I promise, I will never be your friend. No matter what. Ever.
Ex: If we fuck I’m gonna feel like shit tomorrow.
Jack: That’s okay with me.
Ex: I love you. I never hurt you on purpose.
Jack: I don’t care.
100 days
Today marks exactly 100 days since I arrived back to Spain from Mexico. This reminds me of two things… first, that I need to go pick up my new NIE card and second that time flies by extremely fast.
A lot has happenned in these 100 days… I started my new job at everis at which I also make today 3 months, meaning I am now officialy a permanent employee and no longer in “probation” period. Overall I have enjoyed a lot my new job and am still quite excited about it. It has had its ups and downs but it has been a very positive experience and helped me met lots new people…
I have also had the opportunity to have some unforgettable trips and obviously lets not forget about the parties I now have a new home to which I will hopefully be moving to in a week, which excites me a lot since I will now be living on my own for the first time, with all the advantages and freedom that means, but also with all the responsabilities and hard work it requires. But I think its a good step forward… so we’ll see, i will keep you updated when I finally move.
cheers!
Calm before the iPhone storm!
It seems that before every great storm there is a moment of calmness, and it feels like were exactly there regarding the upcoming 3G iPhone… except for rumors that is, which are as active as if the WWDC was tomorrow.
With recent announcements by several telcos, it seems that we are gonna finally see an almost worldwide iPhone release. Vodafone has already made an announcement confirming it will offer the iPhone in 10 European countries, America Móvil will offer it accross all of Latin America, Italy will have 2 operators offering it, and in Spain it will be offered by Movistar although it seems that Orange is also pushing to have it. So with operators offering it all over the world, Apple must really be stocking supplies like crazy right now, because no matter how expensive, they will surely sell like hotcakes.
But then, that is not all… lets not forget that Apple is going to make it an “open” platform. So for a platform which already has lots of applications while being locked and requiring “hacking”, I am sure we are going to see hundreds and hundreds of new applications.
So what does this all mean? Well, develop a platform with millions of users, which fosters thousands of applications, and add media content availability (through iTunes) of not only music but tv shows, movies, podcasts, etc. and to top it off have Apple’s “fashionable” style… it sure sounds like good business
All I need
Radiohead and MTV Exit version of “All I need”.
Algarve, Portugal
Summer is about to arrive, and it couldn’t be a better time for some days off from work! So last weekend with thursday and friday off, we took off to Algarve, in Portugal!
The whole thing was sort of a last-minute plan… I was told by Alvaro of the plan to go, and friends invited friends and so on, and at the end, it was a huge group of 24 people, and it turned out to be a great trip!
We parted from Madrid on Wednesday afternoon… 3 cars left earlier and our plan was to leave at 6 but obviously some how everyone got delayed and we ended up leaving at 8pm. With 8-9 hours driving ahead it seemed like it was gonna be tough but thanks to the in-car company it turned out to be fun (although still tiring). In our car the official driver was Alvaro and co-pilot Mónica, and we reached the hotel at about 4:30am (I can’t remember if that was local time or Madrid-time).
From then on, the long weekend was sleeping, eating, playing footbal, partying and basically enjoying the beach! Half of the fellow travellers were brazilians, which meant playing football, dancing samba, drinking caipirinhas and basically party all day long! It is amazing how they really do live at a very different pace!
The beaches were very nice… the weather was quite good, although a bit cold, but we still managed to swim in the sea and all. So overall the trip was excellent (except for monkey’s cousin of course) and to top it off Real Madrid won the league when we reached Madrid! Unfortunately I couldn’t make it to cibeles but next year I will
Below are some pictures… hope you like them. Cheers!