Sharing the love of costume wearing.

( foticos y más foticos )

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Duare: Oh, captain! My captain!

Today is Ash Wednesday, so yesterday was "Dimarts Gras" as we say here in Catalonia, or Mardi Grass as french people say, what I didn't know until just two hours ago is that in UK (an other English-speaking countries) it's called Shrove Tuesday, and people usually eat pancakes with whatever they want.
One of my flatmates, who is from UK actually, has explained us that tradition as she made some pancakes, R and mine with chocolate, and her with lemon juice and sugar as it seems is a tradition in her family.

Not a bad way to end the day, not at all^^

I'ts raining, it has been raining all along the bloody day: a rainy shitty Monday !
With a oh-surprise-surprise Reading part of the Proficiency mock exams.
No, really, fraking Monday of doom!
I ache everywhere, especially on my back and shoulders (hell of a moving on), I'm tired and I've spent more than half of the day with my feet cold and humit.

So just to feel a bit better I've signed up to the John/Ronon (from StarGate Atlantis) thing-a-thon at satedan_grabass , a nice and entertaining way to improve my English writing skills ^^

I've just watched the last two movies of the long and wonderful Stargate SG-1 saga, and well if you are a fan you are going to love them, if you aren't don't bother to watch them you are not going to understand nothing at all.

The first one, The Ark of Truth closes the Ori plot.



And oh man, the second movie, Continuum, shows us lots of old friends and foes (Apophis!!!!)




But for a fan as myself, who has watched several times the ten full seasons, these two movies are a perfect ending because it's not an ending it's a closed door for the two arcs they had been playing the last seasons (and all along the show in the case of the goa'uld lords part) but it leaves an open door in case they decide to go on with one or two more movies.
Actually, I'm still waiting for the scene where supposedly Cameron has to cut the green cable just as "black Cameron" told him in the Ripple Effect episode, so I think I'm not mistaken if I believe there's still more to come.

By the way, best quote ever, from the lovely Baal: "there is a God standing here with wet hands" LOL He's so hilarious sometimes!

After an stressful day shopping at Ikea (because even if you already know what do you want you still have to do several cues and fight for space and fight for the clerk' s attention  and in the end you don't know if it should be better to kill yourself or kill everybody else), working on the flat and doing more shopping in Diagonal Mar, the best way to relax is just to sit down, have a drink and get  someone (in that case, my mother) to buy  you a pair of nice shoes. The accomplishment feeling is even greater if we are talking here about a pair of Clarks just for 19€ when the original price was 79€. I really love the opportunities Corte Inglés next to my parents house.
Exactly this model, but in a dark shade of grey. Beautiful and chip!

Why are towels at hotels so small?
I mean, I'm not what you could say a big woman, some of my friends says I'm pocket-size, actually. And yes, I might be "vertically challenged" --because to say I'm short is not very polite, is t? LOL -- but I'm not that skinny, and if the towels on that hotel barely covered my ass how would it works for the "guiris" that usually spent the summer  in Lloret de Mar? I mean, Netherlander and German men are a lot bigger than I am.

That said, I'm usually not that enamoured of my job but it has its perks, sometimes^^ Like when they send me to an hotel with SPA.

 

EDIT: written last week while I was stying in Lloret de Mar, but for some weird reason the combo netbook/acer/linux+LJ+pictures doesn't work well.

I enrolled a few weeks ago on the British Council Proficiency course (so I might try to pass the test this next  March) and so far so good.
The classes are great, we are a small group, around nine or ten people,  we're all above the 20, and the teacher is absolutely hilarious.
I just have a complain, and it's a big one because It's something that I usually associate with the British culture, and who is a better representative of that apart of the British Council?

I'm talking about tea, folks.

I know you might think it's all nonsenses, but it is not! Not for me at least. I'm not asking for the better or most expensive English blend tea, not at all. But I think I'm not asking too much for something better than the Hacendado tea from Mercadona.
Come on! Do you have an idea about how f*cking expensive are the course there!??? Let me tell you something, my credit card feels violated. And they are in one of the most expensive, posh and high-class towns of Barcelona. So I think they could buy PG-tips  or Tetley that even if it's crap-tea, at least it's british-crap-tea and it's sold in Mercadona too.

I've survived Christmas, I've survived the New Year's Eve party (four full days of drinking, eating, laughing and talking like mad men&women), I've survived the aisinfronteras  (only three more days!), I've survived the cm_exchange , I've survived the shopping hysteria,  I've survived my perpetual cold and the going back to work.
Not bad so far.
Still awaiting me the English Level Test so I can enroll myself in the British Council Course and the moving on.

And just for you, a pictorial collage^^ Pics from aviss  camera

Acabo de ver el último capítulo del Neighbours o el Eastenders catalán.
En serio, muchos años con esta serie acompañando las sobremesas, 9 años para ser exactos, 10 temporadas. Y aunque yo no la he visto toda --trabajo, estudios, Internet, siesta-- , mi madre sí. Y realmente es una serie que aunque no la veas durante 3 meses, te sentabas una tarde y en seguida te enterabas de qué había pasado.
9 años, 10 temporadas, casi 2000 capítulos para llegar a este final que a mi entender ha sido de los más "diluido con agua y azúcar".
Pero bueno... Cosas buenas en general sí ha tenido la temporada final: la fuga de Max y Yago, los momentos de pseudo-pareja de Fede y Marcel, Cecilia -toda ella es la caña de mujer- y que al final se quedara Sahara.
En serio, se lo decía a mi madre, "se llega a largar Sahara a Colombia y todas las mujeres de Catalunya hubiéramos gritado '¿¡pero estás tonta o qué te pasa!?'"

Pero ya tocaba... La trama esta gastada y regastada, en palabra del Bilbo "como mantequilla untada en demasiado pan". Veremos qué tal nueva serie, La Riera, con la Sanpietro sin hacer de mala-malévola-maligna.

PD: y la música del anuncio de "El Caganer" de fondo... Ya hablaré otro día de lo escatólogicos que somos en este país XD

The writing process is going a bit more slowly than I though, which means I'm going to need to hurry up in the end (like always, I don't even know why this surprise me anymore). But, it's just that there's so much to do...
I've already sent my Christmas as I promised --this morning actually--, a whole pack of 21 postcards... My hand was sore... especially after I decided to use my sealing wax.
I've backed 64 little cheese pastries (I'll post some pictures after all the family gatherings where there would be a lot more plates to take pictures of).
And I'm still trying to write.
I've also done my schedules posts in aisinfronteras .
I need to write but I prefer to wait for some update. I need a nice update of one of the many WIP I'm reading!!! Come on!

Oh! And my gift in cm_exchange  has already been posted, it's the sweetest thing^^ You can read it here (a Hotch/Reid all for myself! I am oh so happy!!!)

And I'm still trying to write... The bad thing about knowing what you are going to write is that you don't feel the rush to do it because, hei! You already know what is going to happen, so why bother? Grrr... Stupid lazy muse...

I'm moving on with a friend next year (next moth, actually^^), if I don't go nuts before the time arrives. One could think my parents are the ones moving with all the papers, catalogues and stuff the are making me look at...
My mother is stressing me over mattresses. Mattresses!! WTF!? I just want one to sleep on it, I don't care about material or anything else, except the price of course! What the hell people!? I'm no going to pay more that 150€ for a fraking mattress! My father pursuing me around home talking about the obviously mandatory visit to Ikea and now about computers too.

To plan a moving on this time of the year is an absolutely hell... Every single shop is full of people, there's no time to make arrangements with all the meetings and family lunches/dinners, etc
I've decided to no stress myself about this. Yes, I'll start paying in January, but hei! It's not a problem if I don't move on until the end of the month... There's no way I can live in my room that right now is painted in the most horrendous orange tone ever. It's bright orange. It's a nightmare. It's hell on earth.

But all in all, I'm thrilled about the moving^^ The flat is comfortable and quite spacious, I have the bigger room, and my flatmates are really nice  (one of them is a friend of mine from the University, and the other is a nice girl from New Castles teaching English here in Barcelona).

Why the rambling then? Because I'm trying to write but my father is talking to me about computers screen, and my mother has given me the new Ikea catalogue before going out. And here I am, with my pinch-hitter still half done and all the catalogues around me.

Ser del Barça és patir. Patim quan guanyen, patim quan perdem, patim quan tot va bé per por a que deixi d'anar bé, i patim quan tot va malament. I avui hem patit com mai. La primera part s'ha patit prou, però la segona part? Fins l'últim minut amb el gol de l'empat de Pedro que ha tingut gust a gol d'Iniesta a Stamford Bridge. Meravellós. I la pròrroga? Mitja hora de tensió, però oh senyores i senyors, ja tenim les sis copes. Aquest anys 2009 serà inolvidable (i malauradamente també inigualable molt provablemente).

La tarde del partido ha empezado con Telecinco en mute y Rac1 (fot-li Pou!) en la radio. En Rac1 pinchaban I Got a Feeling. Y sí, I got a feeling that tonight is gonna be a good night. He sufrido, me he indignado, en algunos momentos he tenido que dejar de ver la tele y sólo escuchar el partido vía radio porque me pongo histérica y me cabreo como una mona.
¿Qué por qué escuchar la retransmisión vía radio y no la de Tv? No sois del Barça si hacéis esa pregunta. No hay nada más frustrante que escuchar a la gente de Tele5, TV1, La Sexta o Cuatro hablar del Barça. Es como si alguien del Real Madrid viera un partido de su equipo retransmitido por la gente de TV3.  Los periodistas son poco objetivos cuando se trata de fútbol, ellos y el resto del mundo. Yo tampoco lo soy, para qué mentir.

¿Qué recordaré de este partido? A Pedro marcando en el minuto 89 ( de verdad, casi me he emocionado tanto como con el Iniestra contra el Chelsea, casi porque aquello fue apoteósico), a Messi marcando con el pecho, con el corazón, él que tanto se besa el escudo. Y a Pep Guardiola llorando. Sobretodo a Pep Guardiola llorando. Porque Pep es un señor, es muy grande, y verlo tan emocionado me ha llegado al alma.
Si el 2010 es sólo la mitad de bueno que este 2009 tampoco podremos quejarnos, la verdad, porque otro 2009 sería soñar demasiado alto... ¿O no?

PD: cena de empresa esta noche, yohoooo!

I love to be able to write in my netbook, siting comfortable in a nice cafe meanwhile it's oh-so-cold outside.
Right now I'm at the Fnac's Farggi, writing and checking my email --yeah, there's a free wifi,-- with a Moka and a sandwich, mmmm...
Sometimes the more simple and casual things make me incredible happy.

Mañana es 14 de diciembre y es el día en el que le damos el pistoletazo al Amigo Invisible de este año en aisinfronteras .
Podréis disfrutar de los primeros regalos a partir de algún momento de la tarde/noche hora española, y una vez que empecemos ya no pararemos hasta el día 30. Si todo va bien, iremos posteando a ritmo de 3 regalos diarios entre semana, y 4 los fines de semana.
Sabemos que es un ritmo algo acelerado, pero es que en los intercambios que empiezan a postear antes, también entregan bastante antes que en el nuestro.

Desde aquí os quiero animar a todos y todas a que leáis cuántos más fics mejor, da igual si tenéis mucho contacto con dicho fandom o no, tomároslo como una oportunidad para descubrir qué más hay ahí fuera.
Dejad comentarios en los regalos que os gusten, seguro que haréis inmensamente feliz al autor/a de dicha regalo.
No haría falta decir esto, pero por si acaso... Educación y buenas maneras, por favor. Si algún regalo no os gusta, no hace falta que dejéis constancia por escrito, y mucho menos que entréis a cargar contra el fic/art y su autor. Si queréis hacer crítica constructiva, por favor esperaros a que se revelen las identidades y poneros en contacto en privado con dicha persona si realmente os veis en la necesidad de comertarle lo poco que os ha gustado su fic y cómo debería mejorarlo. Aunque vamos... Realmente a veces se está más guapa callada...
Cuando veáis publicado el regalo que os han hecho (y tendréis que ir mirando la comunidad a diario, porque nosotras no os vamos a ir avisando personalmente por email) entrad a verlo/leerlo y dejad un comentario de agradecimiento.
Me da igual si no os gusta, de verdad, pero es lo menos. No os digo que mintáis, pero joder que no cuesta nada dejar una palabritas de agradecimiento por el tiempo y esfuerzo dedicado, aunque sea sólo eso. Tened presente que no todas vais a tener la suerte de recibir casi-obras-de-arte pero el esfuerzo ha estado ahí detrás.
Ah! Y cuando se publique el regalo que vosotras habéis hecho, si queréis contestar a los comentarios que os vayan dejando (que podéis hacerlo of course!) Que sea en ANÓNIMO!!! Por lo que más queráis no respondáis con vuestro nombre de usuario, jajajajaajaaa!

Que sí, que todo esto es obvio. Pero después de tres ediciones ya a las espaldas, de verdad que nada es tan obvio y lógico como parece.

Este año además, gaia_naturae , aviss y yo hemos decidido pagar una cuenta por 2 meses a ai_sinfronteras para poder disponer de iconos extras en el posteo hecho en la comunidad. Toda la tarde buscando un icono por fandom, más un par para la cuenta de admin. Jajajaa, no tenéis ni idea lo bien que nos lo hemos pasado buscando y descubriendo algunos personajes gracias a los iconos. Creo que jamás había agradecido tanto el moto de búsqueda de LJ

Pues ya está, sólo quería comentar esto a nivel personal a parte del post administrativo que colguemos en aisinfronteras

¡Hasta mañana y a disfrutar!

Dear Mr LJ,
This thing with everybody sending free gifts to everybody has been really fun. I sent a few myself. And the snowflake cookies look beautiful in my profile. But please, could you stop sending notifications about every damn minute! I don't care if someone in my flist has received another gift, I'm glad, but I don't need to know, and I don't specially need to bee notified by email.
So please, pretty please with a cherry on top, could you stop already with the bloody damn notifications!?

Thank you very much^^

Cheers & Love

Duare

PD: Oh! And It would be really nice to have the usual and asked for notifications working again. Because being notified about some fic or comm update IS welcomed.

No, en serio. Os paso unos números para que veáis que no bromeo.
Día 2 de diciembreaisinfronteras (es decir, un día pasado el "dead line" o fecha de entrega)

Entregas realizadas: 25
Prórrogas concedidas: 19
Gente que no ha dado noticias: 13
Participantes desertados: 2

Personalmente me dan pavor las 13 personas de los que no sabemos nada... Ni han pedido prórroga, ni han entregado, ni han dicho que se retiran, ni naaá de naaá. Missing total...
Qué gloria vivir tan desconectados del email, a mi sólo me falta que me implanten un chip en el córtex cerebral...
En fin, que gaia_naturae y yo ya estamos acostumbrada a esto y nos lo tomamos con algo más de filosofía (excepto cuando me pongo a GRITAR por email o al propio ordenador -como si el tuviera la culpa de algo, pobret-), pasa lo mismo cada año, pero aviss que en esto de administrar un intercambio navideño es primeriza está que trina (yo advierto, no es buena idea hacer enfadar a esa mujer, de verdad^^)

No todo son malas noticias, afortunadamente para mi salud mental ya ha empezado el cm_exchange con un precioso fic Hotch/Reid (best OTP ever! aunque no me haya tocado escribir sobre ellos, sí que cruzo dedos para que mi regalo sea de ese ship)