nice underwater experience

I thought that during my holls all sort of things could happen. They did:
1) I lost the bracelet of the hotel where I was staying (did I mention how rude the hotel manager was? She wanted to charge me what I'd already paid before leaving home!)
2) It rained almost everyday (at least for an hour or so). It turned out to be that it was the full moon that caused a change in the weather and wiiiiind (what was real was the cloud following me. It was right above me all the time!).
3) Planning scubadiving with people of my own country as partners wasn't exactly what I was hoping for. In fact, it was worse. This guy wanted to teach me how to dive (by the way, I took the course some years ago that lasted about 6 months, had my test in open waters in Brazil and everything went well, thank you very much for bothering me all day long because I didn't want to go his way. Did I mention this guy took a course that lasted a week in Brazil while on hollidays? And he supposed he could teach me?!).
Enough of my comments, some pics to show the precious fish I saw in the magic deep blue underworld (and there're more!). Now, when was I thinking of taking holls again?

sonnet in valentine's day

I read it more than ten years ago, when I was in the way to become a translator. It was the first formal approach I had to his work (though I had previously read some of his work). Of course I loved it. Today, I re-read it.
It made me sigh in the same way...

CXVI
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:-
O no! it is an ever fixed-mark
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his hight be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out ev'n to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
William Shakespeare

As I have never left Borges out of my library, there's a quotation about love: “Estar o no estar contigo es la medida de mi tiempo” (oh, the translation? something like "To be or not to be with you is the measure of my time"). Romantic, uh?

birthdays and bad news

Having attended the same birthday twice made me reconsider some things. It was my mother's birthday, of course. Otherwise, I would have said no.

What made the difference the second time was that I found out that a blogger in my list is ill. So I thanked God for my mother, for celebrating twice and for all the good things.

I asked God to give this girl many years with her family and child.

politics

Now that the holls are gone, there's nothing else to talk about but politics. Obama vs Hillary?Cristina (our president)/ energy plans/Venezuela's offering Argentina oil in exchange for meat?

Are we all crazy or what?

And by the way, have I told you that in my country there's a new holiday? It's called "National Day of Memory for Truth and Justice ". Don't believe me? Take a look at the official site where I found it! (connected, most probably, with the Faulkland Islands).

I need some time off. Or even better, I think it would be great to take another look at my work mates' holls photos! (pretending that I care this time!!!).

Will I go to hell for thinking aloud?

slippy

After scubadiving twice that day, I needed to relax a little bit more (as if that were possible) at one of the hotel swimming pools (the one closest to my room). I'm not boasting about my holidays, scubadiving or the amount of pools the hotel had. Not at all.

I was there, quietly thinking of that day and suddenly ups! he slipped! An old man was next to me, entering the pool when he missed one of the steps and plunged in the pool. It was clear that he had arrived at the hotel that day (he was as white as snow). So, we began talking. I was worried about the fact that he could have been seriously hurt. Good Lord, he wasn't. Then, he told me he was from Canada, but born in Greece. Very polite, he was. And very old (in his seventies).

I met him several times during my holls, and I've seen him swimming and chatting with his wife. I exchanged hellos and good evenings with both. She even invited me to visit them (after casual conversations) in Rhodes where they have several houses and stay there with them. So nice they were!

The thing is that I could not find them the day I was leaving the hotel to say goodbye. I never asked their room number. But they were very nice. I just can't stop thinking of them, almost in their seventies and so high-spirited. So, wherever you're in Quebec, thanks for your invitation. It would have been a pleasure to share some time with people like you!

(how nice is to find people to chat about places and life as if they were your grandparents?).

A friend told me that it was like sharing time with a bunch of people in a retirement place. I thought, let's wait until you age like them, then you tell me...

back in the city

Short holls, but take a look at the island where I spent my time...