The easiest border crossing yet… The only question they asked was how long I’d been in Guadalajara and whether I’d got Montezuma’s Revenge. Bizarre… Still I prefer questions about my gastrointestinal health to the usual barrage of interrogation they usually give me. On the plane they didn’t have any customs forms in English so they gave me a Spanish one, which in my sleepy state I filled in in Spanish. The customs bloke read it and saw “Country where passport issued” was Inglaterra. He crossed it out with a red pen and wrote “Mexico”. I despair at the US educational system and their Spanish teachers…

There was banks of fog at LAX so we ended up landing in Ontario Airport and hanging around for half an hour then flying back to LAX, so we got in a bit late. However I managed to sleep through both take offs, both landings and even breakfast so it’s all good.

Sita’s got a lovely little apartment here 5 minutes from Trader Joe’s so I’ve been working on various websites and keeping myself to myself. Later today we’re Downey bound. Strange internet setup here that varies between blisteringly fast and zilch and my lappy won’t connect because of lingering issues with the IE7 beta thing I stupidly installed 6 months ago… But all’s well. Intermittant blogging to follow, cheers!

Practically Orange County as it happens…

What’s the duty-free limit on tequila again?

Working like a demented aichtee-emeller today, the microdosis apothecary site’s now brimming with products and crappy pictures. Among them Hierba de Sapo (Toad Grass, or Eryngo), Essence of Umbilical Cord and Shark Cartilage (sp?). None of them will cure my lifetime affliction of sneezing when I see bright lights or eat strong mints. However, I’m happy to hear that I’m not alone! I am merely one of 25ish% of the population who suffers from (bit strong that, how’s about ‘experiences’) Photic Sneeze Reflex. Apparently it’s only really an issue if you’re a fighter pilot… All these years I’ve been overstimulating my trigeminal nerve without even knowing it. I bet Annelise is the only reader of this blog who’s heard of that particular ganglion…

I’m not at all sure about this microdosis malarky. Granted, vaccines are often small amounts of the thing you’re trying to gain resistence to. But I’m 99% sure you don’t feed anaemics blood to get them going again. Still, I’m just a humble hispanist so what do I know?

Pinguino Frog’s put up some more film recommendations, in Spanish, but he’s usually right on the money. If your Netflix queue needs livening up with some decent cinema, hie thee hence.

Alrighty, back to work. Hasta pronto…

To use a Californianism, I’m totally psyched! I’ve been a fan for quite a while. Guadalajara’s suddenly getting world class concerts. There was The Strokes the other day, and Franz Ferdinand, Slayer. And soon, Lila Downs, Julieta Venegas and er, Toto, coincidentally enough. Ooh, what to wear?

Here’s some photos from this afternoon’s wanderings round Zapopan with Victor, Jana & Megan. If you’re in the area and fancy seeing some world class photography of the low points of 2005/06 then the exhibition on now at the MAZ is highly recommended… The slideshow below uses a new fangled javascript thing, fingers crossed…

The strangest weather’s going on right now. Huge bolts of lightning arcing across the sky, no rain. And thunder that’s setting off car alarms. Feels very apocalyptic. We’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto…