So Sita’s got her life in gear volunteering for a women’s rights organisation on Sunday and starting a university course on tequila on Fridays and Saturdays. We only heard about it today and it starts on Friday, serendipitous as me dad just said. If I had a job, I might’ve signed up too, but we can’t quite afford it. As long as Sita comes home and gives me word for word recollections of her 4 hour classes each day I’ll get by. For all you hispanohablantes out there, here’s the link to the U de G page.
I may have mentioned we have 4 bathrooms in this here mansion, anyway, last night they were all for nowt cos the water stopped. It was coming in from the street OK, ‘cos the little triangle was turning round on the meter, but the tank on the roof was empty and wouldn’t respond to gentle prodding at midnight. So Jose and I went to inspect the pump, which can’t have been working properly. Jose wrapped a towel around his hand and removed one of its fuses to look at, only giving himself a minor electric shock. I tripped the whole house off and took out the other one… Anyroad, it seemed like one of them was buggered. So I resigned myself to a trip to the Tlapalerias of Santa Teresita to get new fuses this morning. Overnight, somehow the tank’s full up again and that’s with no pump, so either there’s an elaborate fake pump system or there’s enough pressure from the street to fill the tank on the roof, but the water can only flow freely through the pump when it’s turned off completely. Please write your Mexican plumbing tips in the comments, and bear in mind the Spanish for pump is bomba.
As for the plans for yesterday, I got most of them done except agaveweb.com and the advertising. But they’ll happen today, mark my words. One of the highlights was filling in an application form for the job of “Correspondent” at the English school. Among the questions on the sheet:
What primary school did you go to? Its address, the years you were there, and what qualifications did you receive. If Kingston St Mary V.C. Primary school gets any phone calls from Mexico, you’ll know why.
What’s your sister’s name? What does she do? Where does she live? How old is she?
Have you ever belonged to a union?
Do you belong to a sports/ social club?
How old’s your mum?
Attach a recent photo here…
I took a photo of the app sheet, if you don’t believe me. Hopefully they won’t pass it on to the Mexican INS, although I was explicit that my visa was a tourist one and that I just wanted to know my options…
In other news, Ed from Taunton/Bristol/Plymouth (depending when you met him) might be coming over for Xmas. He’s in Belize right now, follow his Latin American travels here.
Well, it rained for the first time in a month or so yesterday (the last time was on the way to Phoenix, Arizona from L.A.). Proper rain, mind, none of your namby pamby mizzle- lightning, thunder, the works. I’ve always wanted to take a photo of lightning so I went up on the roof and took several 16 second exposure, low aperture shots, it took about 5 attempts, but i got one. . It’s far from perfect, i was holding the camera as still as possible with no tripod, aiming at the sky. Next time I want a city scape with forks of lightning above it, like this second pic, which has had a few minor photoshop elements added, and features at least one deliberate spelling mistake…
Had a nice chat with Sally t’other night. The bunnies have become tunneling machines, and their run looks like a building site. Lulu’s the main culprit and he wouldn’t even stop digging when Sally stared at him. So Sally, bless her, went to All American to get chicken wire to go under the run and installed it all herself. Nice one, KilcarSally
Today the plan: Update my CV, pick up the laser printer from the repair shop, pass by an English school that’s looking for gringos as part of the part-time non-teaching staff, get agaveweb.com off the ground. Finalise me postcard size ads and get them to the printer, bulk email the lake Chapala non-profits… Work out why we’re getting so many phone calls that either hang up (I think our number is v. similar to the Cuarenta Principales (top 40 radio station…) or are banks/ loan sharks/ lawyers wanting to find the previous occupant… Anyroad, more news as, when or if it happens. Cheers, gwyn
So tomorrow, AgaveWeb.com, (or was it webagave.com?) should be up and running, and I can spam all the local NGOs with my business proposals. I hope the 2 dollar a month hosting plan I found isn’t too bargain basement. Still it’ll give me a chance to try out movable type, a blog engine which leaves this creaking GreyMatter one far behind. If I can migrate the files from here, then I’ll probably change to M.T. with all its bells and whistles.
I’ve just shoved a load of new photos up onto flickr. Here’re some faves:
Worcestershire Sauce, and since the pronunciation of Worcestershire in Spanish goes something like this wore sayst air esheeray, it’s branded as salsa ingles- English Sauce.
Stepped on a lemon by accident, then took a photo before the ants carried it away…
Been playing quite a bit of guitar of late. And having MTV and VH1 means I can strum along in my idle moments.
So on Sunday we discovered the Mercado de Santa Tere, which has all the usual trappings of a Mexican market. Among the highlights was a cardboard box of multicoloured (dyed) chicks and baby ducks, reds, blues, you name it… The main thing though is that it’s every Sunday and only about 10 blocks away so I’m chuffed about that. I noi longer have to worry about my artificially coloured poultry needs.
Got a job yet? I hear you heckle. Well, I’ve approached a few local charities by email and no response yet. I tracked down one of them’s address- ASOCIACIÓN MEXICANA DE APOYO PARA LA DIGNIFICACIÓN INFANTIL- but there was no one there and their email bounced back at me. Either they’ve stopped supporting the dignification of infants or they’ve moved. Oh well, not to worry. I’ve also applied to translate English documents on running urban parks into Spanish. To be a corporate event photographer (”must have own camera, transport, 23-29 yrs of age…”). I phoned about a classified ad for English speakers which turned out to be for teachers. That is a last resort and then some. I even asked for more info about tour guide opportunities in the Art Museum of Zapopan, and researchers too. It’s early days though and I’m still involved with the ongoing brand development of www.nourishingnutrition.com and Diseño Web Agave. Mexican websites seem to be a little heavy on the Flash intros and animated GIFs. It’s like the bad old days, I may have to brush up on my Flash skills, if you can’t beat’em. and all that.
I love reading the classified ads for employment. There’s no equal opportunity employment PCness. If anything it’s “absence of political correctness gone mad”. Typical ad: Wanted:Secretary. Female. Aged 18 to 25. Good Looking “buena presentacion”. Single. No kids. Send CV and photo to…
Oh and Tewbewks, the battle continues, post your babycal scores to this one…
Grand chat with Bert, Stu, Anne (& me and Sita, hence 5) today via the interweb. It involved bert using his headphones as a mic, having Anne and Stu on speakerphone and bert with his head I’m not sure where. A webcam was involved for a bit too. 2005, who’d’ve thought it? Jet packs and protein pills tomorrow…
I hope you get your head around the 7 hour or so time difference, Annelise and thanks for the shout out in yer blog and all the encouragement in the comments. I’ll probably never make it to Oklahoma, because I couldn’t deal with having Oh What a Beautiful Morning buzzing round my synapses all the time…
Yesterday night Jose (driving) and I got pulled over by the police for no reason at all. Long hair, probably… Can’t they just leave us kids alone? No breathaliser or nowt, just flinging accusations at us and going through our pockets, frisking and all that. They found my PDA stylus in my wallet and were convinced it was a hash pipe of some kind. Mais non… Anyroad Jose talked his way out of everything and all was well with the world once more. Probably won’t be the last time. I used to get searched occaionally walking the 30 blocks from CEPE to the Casa Internacional when I was here last. They used to be concerned about my dictionary in me backpack, and my lack of photo ID. This was way back when when UK driving licences were scruffy-looking green printouts with a signature as proof of ID. The way things should be, I reckon… but I digress… luckily I’m such a clean-living example of humanity they can’t pin nowt on me. (please do not abuse the comments section)…
Today found us at the Tianguis Cultural, a hippy market full of Batique, bongos, tie-die and pirated CDs/DVDs. I got some Cure stuff as they’re enjoying something of a renaissance in my affections, then on to Expo Venta Guadalajara 2005, where Sita made valuable new Tequila contacts. As far as trade shows go, it was a bit pants, erring on the side of quantity over quality, but at least Sita got to pose with the Panqui man.
Had a bit of a nap, did some designy stuff, guitaring, went out for tacos al pastor at the “Santa Cruz Taqueria” (Always end up at the Holy Cross, Seville, California, Gwod…), and then scrabble, vino and more El Rival Mas Debil. We’ve found an online classified ads for students in guadalajara and might be off chasing up some leads on shelving tomorrow too.
I’ve been mightily impressed by the efficiency of TelMex’s DSL service. Ordered it Monday morning, modem arrived Tuesday and plumbed in by Thursday. I’d’ve had it going two hours earlier too but I had to ring the help desk as it didn’t like my password (beautiful renditions of ‘Octopus’s Garden’ and ‘Oh, Darling’ on hold though).
The phases have been pretty much: travel 1700 miles, find a house, meet up with old friends, fill house with furniture, get DSL & cable, get studying/working. We’re entering the last stage there. But over the last week or so have really got to know the city well just from running errands. Last time we were here (2 years ago) and it was all public transport, and when I was here in 1998, even moreso. Driving is a lot easier than it was made out to be. The only real challenge is from the whole tope (speed bump) vs traffic lights thing. One obviously on the ground and ready to put your steering and suspension out if hit at over 10 mph and the other hanging stupidly high and keeping your vision off the ground. If you’re looking for street signs as well, that puts another hazard in yer way. Yet I managed to drive with a flat pack office desk, 4 plastic chairs and a table from Plaza del Sol to our house in rush hour yesterday, so all’s well. Maybe I’ll add ‘Guided Tours’ to my already eclectic business card.
Plenty of room for visitors, book your flights to Guadalajara now and we’ll pick you up at the airport… It’s still gorgeous weather too.
Skyped me folks yesterday, and was informed that Dad had made another foray into photoshopping. I’ve got this creation of his as my wallpaper for now.
The house is looking like a home. Albeit a huge home. Stuart enquired as to why we{d need 3 bathrooms, and he may have a point. Basically, for a hundred bucks extra per month you can have a much bigger house than you´d get with an apartment and we´re in a grand area and you can walk to everywhere and there´s public transport and a roof terrace thing and and and. No can´t really justify the 3 bathrooms. Technically they´re 2.5 anyway. Maybe Internet by Friday hopefully… I can{t upload to flickr from this interweb cafe place, so once the FTP thingy{s finished, there{ll be some photos of our recent adventures here. And finding all the slashes and brackets for that hyperlink was nowt too easy… Anyroad, skype us soon. All the best, gwyn
