Lost

I must admit, I've been caught by "Lost". I've been very busy trying to watch all the episodes over the last two weekends with a friend. The result?
1 I fell asleep more than twice
2 I got lost in the stories
3 I don't like the series so much, I was expecting a better show...
4 There are so many characters that I can't remember their stories or names
5 The time reference becomes blurred with so many flashbacks
6 My friend fell asleep more than twice
7 At least I'm not the only one having trouble in that department, ha ha
8 Former "Party of Five" actor, Matthew Fox, doesn't look so nice with that short haircut

Now I can't watch the third season as I'm very busy, though I'm recording it. It seems that in this city everybody is talking about it everywhere (there's no point in watching it after all). So what I really would like to know is how it ends. Anybody?

colecciones

Qué valor puede tener encontrarse con esas cosas que uno guardó durante aproximadamente más de la mitad de su vida? Me he encontrado con todo tipo de coleccionistas: de bolitas de vidrio cuando eran chicos, de papel carta de nenas, de dibujos de tierna infancia, de perfumes, lápices, lapiceras, música, marquillas de cigarrillo, cajitas de fósforos traidas de lugares exóticos, etc.
Como cosa rara, me acabo de encontrar con alguien que colecciona historias de amor. Propias y ajenas. Y en internet se puede encontrar gente que colecciona secretos de otros, y también postales con los secretos que los otros no le contarían a nadie más.
No sé si mi primer sensación fue la de sorpresa, pero, definitivamente, la idea me pareció bastante original.
Alguien con alguna colección por allí?

lessons

click on the image to enlarge it

picnics

I used to fill both containers with some salad and chicken. Then, I grabbed two bottles of water, and some snacks for dessert (or was it some fruit?). We used to meet at the door of his office. It was the best of times, walking a couple of blocks from downtown just to enjoy our lunch together in the park. Sunny days were the best when I think of that, as we watched the blue sky while sitting on the blanket I carried with me.
His trousers spotless, his shirt in the right place, his tie gone for an hour, his disarming smile ready to crack just for me. In the blink of an eye, back to the madness, to the unbereable boss, to the telephone calls, to the paperwork.

I wonder how I managed to survive all these years without those picnics.

too sexy

Look, I know I'm a hottie, but how about wearing this for a nightdress? I mean, nobody will see it and I absolutely love it. Do you think my image will change a bit? Satin lacy things are not my favourite nighties when I go to sleep (there are some exceptions I can remember of, surely).

Don't tell anybody, please! I really want to keep my image the way it is now...

btw: matching slippers have never been used...

tangled

Instead of thinking of Lost in Translation, it would be more accurate to say I'm tangled while trying to translate a subject I don't like.

I should change what I do for a living, it would be easier to sit behind a desk and pretend that I work from 9 to 5. Or may be I should have a husband to work for me instead. Interesting, don't you think? (allrighty, I could never do that, you caught me!)

sharing

I thought you might like a piece of the relaxing deep blue, a world that I love, and try to discover every time I can.

I also liked the Shedd Aquarium when I went there some years ago. Oh, well, a great place and great company.

renewals

Can you imagine spending two hours waiting to renew your passport?! I just hate this sort of things! The positive side was that I had great company, my sis, and we were like old friends meeting after several years. We couldn't stop talking!

Anyway, my passport will be ready in a month, though there was a sign saying that it would take them 15/20 working days. I shouldn't expect that, as I live in the third world. I think I might like to move in the future to a first world country to check if things like this are better, or worse.

juiced

Old things come back to me sometimes, I remembered an old friend's saying: "if life gives you lemons, make some lemonade". Now that I think of it, I see there was a reference to something else...

I should have taken his advice into account. May be I can still do it...

Cafe Los Angelitos

That is the name of the place in which lots of tango people used to go to dance. It was opened for the first time in 1890, and it gathered many well known people from arts, politics, and common people with the desire to take tango lessons.

Unfortunately, many, many years later, in 1992, it closed down because one of its ceilings fell down. I have passed by this famous corner of the city many times as my father lives in the same block.

So it was a surprise to see the place has been renewed, and reopened to the public last weekend. It is also a surprise that the ticket to a tango show (very famous shows in Argentina) is said that will cost around USD100, or more. I hope they will provide more than a show for that!

crazy neighbour

She's nuts, there's no other way to say so. She complains about the works in process in my flat, even though I told her six months in advance. She even called the police last weekend! (I never thought of masons opening the door to the police). I decided it was time I paid her a visit. And what was more, I met her by chance at the entrance of the building, so I said hello, and she answered back by saying "I'm not going to talk to you, [insert bad names here]". Pity, because we took the lift together, and there was a man there too, in the middle of this awkward situation. The man (to whom I introduced myself) was a city inspector she called saying that her flat was falling down because of the works at mine. Unbelievable! Of course the man checked it wasn't true, and said the lady was in a very confused state of mind.

Next time I see her, I'm going to take her a pic to show you the monster who lives below my flat. You'll see I'm right.

nonsense

While my flat is being redecorated, I need to find patience somewhere within myself to stop thinking about getting rid of the engineer who supervises the work that's already been done. He's supposed to give me all the budgets (for pending jobs) for my approval. Instead, he refuses to do so and contacts directly the architect that has to supervise the engineer's job. It's like a vicious circle in which I'm caught in, exactly what I don't like.

An email was sent to the architect, and another one to the engineer. Explanations were asked. I might turn into a nasty young woman, but there's no other option here.

Then, electricians and plumbers are second in my list. And carpenters, impossible to forget them. I foresee storms coming my way soon.

connections

I just hate my internet connection, it keeps failing (every five minutes or so). After calling the Customer Service, the response I was given was the same I supposed, to install the modem again.

The thing is that I don't think it's the modem. But I fear there's a bug eating my files (without being found by my anti-virus)...

May be it's time I called Superman to save me, and my translations.

question

I was about sixteen when I was invited to have coffee at my boyfriend's friend house. I knew there was a guy who was studying to become a priest, and I wanted to ask him some questions.

So, in no time at all, I asked him what he thought about premarital relations (sex was a very interesting theme to me at that moment, and religion was other topic to talk about). Aha! I knew it was a very unpleasant question to ask, but anyway I wanted to know if he was prepared to answer such a question.

Of course my boyfriend almost choked in coffee, and I think the guy never answered while being completely embarrassed. Some years later, I found out he never became a priest.

But sometimes, like today, I remember my question and laugh. I think I can write a book about questions like that!

detouring

I was supposed to wear the suit of tourist guide for a foreigner visiting BA (Buenos Aires, or Good Airs as a friend baptized it). I know the city and its tourist spots (I like my city, though I don't have much time to go sightseeing myself), I used to organize sightseeing days for my bosses who were expatriates. So go figure, the suit would look just fine on me.

After several emails exchanged and research done, the meeting was cancelled (a later flight was booked so as not to spend money on visiting the city). Who would think that a local flight was going to be detoured to the international airport, far from the city.

I breathed a sigh of relief, it was good my appointment was cancelled before that, and I didn't have to get up at 6 AM to find out about detoured flights... After all, it seems my luck is changing!

conversación - conversation in the street

Un niño en la calle le pregunta a su mamá:

-Por qué los árboles no tienen hojas en otoño y en invierno, mamá, si es cuando más frío hace?
- Porque están ahorrando savia para cuando llegue la primavera y les broten de nuevo las hojitas verdes.
- Ah, ya entiendo, están ahorrando energía como tienen que hacer las personas, que malgastan los recursos naturales?
... (madre sin saber que responder)... - Mirá para adelante que te vas a caer...

I thought this entry had to be bilingual!
A boy told his mather in the street:

- Why is it that trees are naked during Autumn and Winter, the coldest time here?
- Because they're saving sap for Spring time to renew their green leaves.
- Oh, I see, they're saving up energy as people are supposed to do, instead of wasting natural resources?
...(mother in silence thinking what to say) - Look ahead or you'll stumble...

programa chino

Tener un programa chino significan varias cosas:

1. hacer cosas que no nos gustan en los momentos que no nos convienen

2. coordinar cosas que no nos interesan, y para colmo, siempre se relaciona con gente que no nos interesa.

3. que otra persona nos organice la vida y claro, no siempre que lo organizado nos sea útil/relevante para algo.

De todas estas variantes puedo decir que he tenido experiencia en las tres. Es más, me estoy convirtiendo en experta en chinescos varios, tanto en forma pasiva (ser el objeto del programa) como activa (ser la organizadora). Alguien más por ahí con programas chinis?

sixth sense

Saying that my sixth sense is working fine would be a lie. It's working excellently well!

Yesterday I met some colleages and as they attended the same conference I attended two weeks ago, they commented on the "affair" I thought of. At least my eyes were not the only ones to see that.

I should try to buy a lottery ticket, just in case.

fashion creature

She's in her late sixties, so it could be said she's getting a certain age in which fashion shouldn't be a matter at all. But it is, with big red capital letters. She was dressed as if she were eighteen, the age of her big grand-daughter.

I can understand aging could be a delicate subject for certain people. A different thing is to get dressed for her youngest grand-son first-year birthday party in that way (footless tights included in the outfit). She looked as if she had been taken out of a picture of some eighties magazine, or even Jane Fonda's picture in her workout outfit.

That made me think that if she's still in the eighties, other interesting features are to be seen soon. A punk hairdo, perhaps?

el arte de bloquear

Hace unos días una amiga se conecta por el mensajero y leo que en su nick aparece una leyenda: "cómo saber si te bloquearon de la lista de contactos". Hago click y accedo a la página donde podía ver quienes me habían bloqueado o eliminado. Debo decir que lo leí cuidadosamente, primero por curiosidad, luego por dudar lo que estaba leyendo, y por último, porque necesitaba entender si es que yo había hecho algo extraño para que alguien me hubiera sacado de sus contactos. La respuesta fue no, no hay motivos. Quizá algunos contactos medio vetustos, con los que cada tanto nos saludamos, pero nada más.

Lo que no entiendo es que si alguien te bloquea, para qué te manda mails de esos invasivos en los que quieren: 1) salvar al mundo, 2) ayudar a hacer aparecer personas "desaparecidas"/perdidas, 3) agregarte a un listado de personas [por el motivo que sea]. Como que es extraño, no? Digo, si no quieren "charlar" con vos, para qué mandarte un mail en cadena que saben que vas a eliminar casi automáticamente?

Creo que lo más curioso de esta experiencia es descubrir el lado oculto de las personas, algo en lo que uno nunca pensó antes.

Conclusión: he realizado la misma maniobra. No siempre se puede poner la otra mejilla, no? Yo también tengo derecho a elegir.

bola de nieve

Estoy mirando qué nos depara el tiempo para los próximos días y podés creer que luego de una semana de sentirme una bola de nieve por la cantidad de abrigos, el lunes va a ser un día de 19 grados de máxima? Es un chiste, no? Porque así no hay forma de que me cure la gripe. Un día 2 grados, al otro 10, al siguiente casi 20!!!

Pero claro, si total yo tomo remedios a dos manos: uno para la gripe, otro para la tos, vitamina c, aspirinas multicolores, con varias dosis de tecito curativo con miel.

A ver si nos ponemos de acuerdo otoño querido, o te dedicás al frío o al calor, porque esta mélange me complica un poco la salud!

fracture

Have you seen the movie? In my opinion, it was a very good thriller, though parts of it were not very credible. There's no way you could see a young lawyer in black tie at a hearing. What about him visiting his dying client and reading a book aloud to her? And the fact that he found his way to his future-boss' bed in no time at all? You see, I'm very "picky" when it comes to thrillers because I really enjoy them.
All in all, I could say it was four thumbs up.