Spain's worst shame

Spanish security and social experts have expressed great concern over the surge in incidents of domestic violence after 13 Spanish women lost their lives in the first quarter of 2005 in domestic violence incidents.

In 2004, 60.000 women lodged complaints against their husbands or partners.
Spanish authorities say the figure is much higher, given the number of women who suffered various forms of domestic mistreatment but never complained officially. Thousands reportedly stay in abusive relationships because, they say, there is nowhere else to go.

Further worse, 72 women were also killed, including 67 by their husbands or ex-husbands in 2004, according to the statistics released by the Spanish Observatory on violence against women.
They also revealed that 170 women were killed out of domestic violence during the last three years. Feminist groups, however, put the number of victims at 350.

Feminist groups blamed Spanish authorities for dealing with the complaints less seriously than they ought to. They regret the authorities hear from the mistreated women without writing down their complaints.

The government of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has pressed for a number of measures to deter domestic violence since coming to power in March last year.
The measures include allotting 200 policemen and 250 Civil Guard members to intervene immediately to save women facing threats by their husbands, ex-husbands or partners.
Abused women now get financial compensation, and could call a government-run hot line to deliver their complaints.
Zapatero recently described Spain's domestic violence record as the country’s "worst shame" and an "unacceptable evil".

Boredom

I'm a little bored on the job.
There is very little new work coming in lately, so I'm taking it easy on the work I still have assigned to me. A little trick everybody on my team is applying these days.
We don't want to get in the situation where we have no work at all and nothing new is coming in.

So what does a person do all day when he is bored? That's right, surf the web.
I see a lot of strange, great and funny things on the internet in a day. You should see the list of favorites I have gathered in a year.
To avoid this growing list of senseless links but still be able to recall some things I've seen, I decided to place some links here.
It may be just a temporary thing, because I created it out of boredom. But as long as it lasts, whenever YOU are bored, you could check out some strange things I've seen.

A special day

We had some great news today.
Mónica has been offered a job at last. She had done a job interview last week, and the recruiter had said that the people who would get selected for the job would receive a call on Friday. Last Friday. But on Friday nobody called, so Mónica was a little sad all weekend.
Today they finally called. I had told her they were still going to call, but she was convinced they weren't.
She has to go sign her contract and meet her colleagues tomorrow.
She will be selling and making radio advertisements for a national radio channel.

The bad side of the news is that this probably means that I will have to go alone to Belgium at the end of the month, when I will go visit my family. For one week it will be like old times again, me living in Belgium and her living in Spain. Calling, chatting, webcamming and missing each other. She would miss seeing my nephews, I'm sure. And I will be bored most of the time.

Just a thought

Won't it be strange when another pope will be elected?
I've only known one pope in my life.
Now 'the pope' is going to be another guy.
I wonder if this is going to change the Vatican's vision on some important worldly themes, like anti-conception.

Dad's sending pictures

My dad always tries to act as if he knows as much about computers as I do.
He even sends me links that he thinks I might find interesting.
So I giggle when he sends me a link, tells me he discovered a nice program I should try, and I find out he is talking about 'ad-aware'.

Recently he bought a digital camera. Today I finally got the mail I had been expecting since a few weeks.
Apparently he's trying to send me 900 KB pictures, and he's wondering why it is taking so long and why they are not getting through. He will try sending them one by one.
So how do you explain your old man he should resize those pictures before sending them.
I started Googling and I found the ideal program. I tried it out and it is the easiest thing I've ever seen, resizing images with just one click. Check it out: photogadget


Today at 18:00 European time, a new Belgian Groupblog will open its doors. Some 20 bloggers will try to make a difference in the Belgian blogworld. I've been asked by the creators to join in and be their reporter in Spain. Belgian newspapers and radio stations have already mentioned the blog, so if you understand any dutch, check it out, starting this afternoon: www.struikgewas.be

I'm the man!

Whenever I have to talk in spanish to someone I don't know, I get a little nervous.
I have been living in Spain for 1 year and 3 months now.
Before that I knew very little about the Spanish language. But fortunately I seem to learn languages very fast (I speak and understand 5 different languages now).
My colleagues and my girlfriend tell me I speak Spanish almost perfectly, and I even think and dream in Spanish as well.

But there is always some insecurity when I have to speak to someone I don't know.
Will I be able to understand the person? (People from the South of Spain are very dificult to understand, even by Spaniards from other regions)
Will I be able to express what I'm trying to say?
Mónica even tells me that I speak with a different accent every time I talk to someone that I'm meeting for the first time. It must be nerves.

Yesterday, one of the bosses in the U.S. gave me a call in the afternoon, saying that he needed me as a translator. He had to call to Mexico, and wasn't sure if these people were going to understand him. And because I speak English and Spanish fluently, I needed to act as a translator.
I got an instant panic attack, fearing that I was going to blow it if I was not going to understand the mexican person on the other side of the phone. They do have a peculiar accent overthere, wey.
But I did just fine. I understood what they were saying, explained what my boss wanted without a problem, and everything was arranged in 2 minutes.
Afterwards my boss wrote me a message on the instant messenger, saying: you’re the man!

Back to routine

Here I am, back at work. With more fatigue than before, thanks to the daylight saving time that started on Saturday night. I always have trouble getting used to that one hour change. But I don't seem to be the only one, because some of my colleagues look like walking zombies as well.
Mónica and I enjoyed the long weekend, although it went by very fast. Time runs fast when you're having a good time.


We had a nice 5 kilometer (3 mile) walk along the shore of Santa Maria del Mar and went to see some more of the Easter processions. We went to visit the sanctuary Covadonga, a very nice place with many souvenir shops. And on Saturday we went shopping. On Sunday afternoon I went reinstalling Mónica's father's computer.

If you clicked on one of the links, you already noticed that I uploaded most of my pictures to my Pbase galleries. They can be accessed as well by clicking on the camera button in the left column of this website.
Yesterday evening I bought myself a new digital camera. So I hope to be adding many new pictures soon. I'm not a photographer as profesional as Tine, but I enjoy making pictures. And sometimes I get lucky and they turn out rather well.

Have a happy Easter

Well, I'm off for the rest of the week, to enjoy a long Easter weekend.
I suggest you do the same.
We're not having any plans yet for the following days. What we'll do will mostly depend on the weather, I guess.
We will go watch the rest of the Easter processions, maybe visit the beautiful place Covadonga, and I urgently need a haircut as well.
Have a happy Easter.

I created a PBase gallery, where I will upload all my future pictures.
The older pictures will move to this gallery as well soon.
The pictures of the Easter processions of the last 2 days are already there:

PBase gallery

Semana Santa

Most part of the Spanish population is still very Catholic. Therefore Spain still has many religious traditions.
In Spain this week (the week between Palm Sunday and Easter) is called 'Semana Santa'.


In every city and village in Spain, daily processions are being held that represent the passion of Christ. The impressive religious statues of the processions (called 'pasos') are being carried by people belonging to religious confraternities.
They are the so-called penitents. They are not allowed to talk during the procession and are unrecognizable by their uniforms to be able to bring their sacrifice without vanity.
Pictures of the processions will be uploaded during the week.

No time to waste

We enjoyed every moment of the weekend, and did more than we would normally do in 3 weekends.
It began on Friday night, when we went to the Corte Ingles supermarket in Gijon to buy our groceries and have a look at the new Spring clothes collection. After dinner we cuddled up on the couch and watched some tv.

On Saturday we got up much earlier than we would normally do on a Saturday morning, and went skiing in San Isidro. I gave Mónica some skiing lessons, until she had enough and decided to get a suntan. I skied some more on my own, and by the end of the day we both had a nice summer colour.
We made a romantic dinner at home and finished the day watching the movie 'Trapped' with Kevin Bacon.

On Sunday we got up early again, and after finding out that Asturias's pride Fernando Alonso had won the Malaysian Grand Prix, we went to visit the sunday market in Gijon. It's the biggest market I have ever visited.
After lunch we visited the Park 'Isabel la Catolica' and had a walk along the shore to see the statue 'the emigrant's mother'.

For more pictures, you can click on the camera on the left.

Have a nice weekend!

It's Friday, it's 22C/72F outside, and tomorrow we're going skiing.
So let the weekend begin!
I've got a friend back in Belgium who always writes me a mail to tell me about the great parties he has been to and how drunk he was.
Oh, please. I'm living every Belgian's dream! And I'm loving it!



Oh, and this is way cool: Flood my site (You can play with the settings at the top)
PS: give it a few seconds or you won't see a thing

What happened to true love?

Last weekend, we saw the television movie "The princess and the marine". The movie tells the true story about Bahraini princess Meriam Al-Khalifa who fell in love with former US marine Jason Johnson.
The pair began their relationship after meeting in a Bahrain shopping mall in 1999, incurring the wrath of Ms Khalifa's family.
Mr Johnson arranged for his lover to be smuggled out of Bahrain, disguised as an American with false military identification documents.
He was penalised by the military for his actions and discharged from the marines.
Ms Khalifa was eventually granted political asylum in the US and at the age of 19, married her 23-year-old marine lover in Las Vegas.

We liked the story because it seemed like a fairytale about true love and it reminded us of our own fairytale, knowing how hard it is if you can't be with the one you love.

But what a disappointment when I searched Google for their story and the first thing I found was:

Princess and ex-marine to divorce
Bahraini princess Meriam al-Khalifa and former US marine Jason Johnson are to divorce, ending a marriage that scandalised her blue-blooded family.

Doesn't true love exist anymore?

Our first beachwalk of the year

Yes, yesterday evening we had our very first beachwalk of the year.
We were afraid it was going to be too windy out there, but the weather was just great. And it only takes us 10 minutes to get there.
I even remembered to take the camera.
You can click on the picture for a bigger view.

El botellón

If you have ever been to Spain, you have probably seen them: the groups of friends that flock together in parks or around a car on a parking lot on Saturday nights, bringing plastic bags filled with bottles of liquor. It seems to be a typically Spanish phenomenon, and they call it 'el botellón'.


It's a way to relax, meet people and be able to talk without being bothered by the crowd or noise in a bar. But the most important reason for the success of the 'botellón', is that it is simply a cheap way to get drunk.
Spaniards are used to consume long drinks when going out in the weekend (not like the Belgians who almost solely drink beer on a night out). Therefore, having more than 2 drinks in a bar could lead to a very expensive night for Spanish youngsters.

The 'botellón' however leads in many occasions to complaints about noise, alcohol and drug abuse, and vandalism. That's why many Spanish cities are creating laws to prohibit drinking in the streets.
The government's hope is to reduce alcohol misuse among Spanish young people and to stamp out 'el botellón'.
I think I'm going to have to teach them how to drink beer.

Spring is in the air

The weather is finally getting better! Now the billboards of the 'El Corte Ingles' shopping malls are starting to make sense: "Ya es primavera!" (it's springtime already)
By the end of the week the temperature will rise up to 22C/72F.
It's incredible how a little sunshine can change a person's mood.

A short update on the case of the red box:
The television comercial turned out to be a company's introductional video.
Mónica had great fun recording the video, although she ended up with a bad cold.
She had to do more than just hand a red box to another person, the red box being some sort of symbolic thing by the way.
And apparently she will get paid for it.
So it was a positive experience. She was all excited when she got home.

11 M, one year ago

Church bells have been ringing all morning across Spain, in memory of the 191 passengers that were killed in a series of bomb explosions on 4 Madrid trains, one year ago today.
The bells of about 650 churches in Madrid were struck at 7.37 am, the precise time that the first of the 10 bombs went off.
It was al-Qa'eda's most lethal attack in Europe and led three days later to the fall of the conservative government.
Islamic militants claimed responsibility, saying the attack was in retaliation for Spain sending troops to Iraq and Afghanistan.
All over the country, people held 5 minutes of silence at noon, in memory of the victims.

Playing the spoons

If you ever feel the urge of wanting to play the spoons (you know, hitting 2 spoons on your upper leg to the rythm of the music), you better take precautions.

I think it was 1998, and I was still studying. I was living in a dorm together with other students, and a few nights a week we would go to a party.
That night it was German night, complete with big foamy half liter beers and a german band playing hum-pa-pa music in lederhosen on stage.
I felt they were missing a spoon player, so I grabbed two spoons from behind the counter, jumped on the stage, and started playing the spoons.


Now you might think that I had drunk too many of those foamy half liter beers, but sometimes I don't need to be drunk to make a complete fool of myself.
The band was happy to see that I liked their music (although that was not the case), and encouraged my spontaneous guest appearance.
But since I didn't have a microphone and they did, I was hitting those spoons like Animal from 'The Muppet Show' would hit the drums, just to make sure everyone would be able to enjoy my newly discovered talent.

Next morning, I woke up with not only a headache like I normally would, but also with a peculiar leg ache.
My both upper legs looked like two raw steaks that had been dried in the sun, and hurt for more than a week. So take my advice and don't get too excited with those spoons.

The case of the red box

W00t!
I finally managed to have my blogger comments show up in a pop-up window. Sweeeet!
And it all just depended on some Blogger settings.

Mónica has been going to the gym since a few months, a women only gym. That's right, no men are allowed. Men sweat and smell and stare and show off, and these girls don't want any of that.
Last week she told me that a television production company was going to do a casting at the gym. Apparently they needed people to figure in television commercials.
As she is still looking for a job, she decided to have a go at the casting on Monday afternoon.
They just made some pictures of the women that were interested in appearing in commercials, and asked for name, age and contact information.

Yesterday, Mónica called me at work, all excited. She had been called by the people of the production company, and she will be shooting a commercial on Friday. I asked her what the commercial will be about, but due to the excitement she forgot to ask.
Mónica's mother was already worried that this is going to be some sort of scam. That's what mothers are for.
So we started fantasizing and laughing about commercials for inflatable beds and sensual lingerie.


Today the production company called her again, to verify if she can be present on Friday morning at the shooting location. Now she didn't forget to ask what she will have to do.
The lady told her not to worry about anything, that she won't have to say a thing, and that she will only have to give a red box to another person.
A red box. Hmmm, I'm intrigued.

Learning how to bluejack

I'm feeling a bit numb today, because I'm having a bit of a cold. My throat hurts a little, I'm slowly losing my voice, my nose doesn't stop running and my head is a bit drowsy.
All billboards in the streets are showing posters of Gisele Bundchen in summerwear, saying: "Ya es primavera en el Corte Ingles!" (It's springtime already in the Corte Ingles), a yearly campaign by the Spanish supermarket. But it's still freezing cold outside.
By the end of the week temperatures would finally reach 12C/54F again. Let's hope that will be the official end of the cold. I can't wait untill Spring really arrives.

I learned how to bluejack today. I had never heard about it either, don't worry. But it seems it is getting quite popular lately.
Bluejacking is sending anonymous messages to people, using the bluetooth connection of your mobile phone. Now, normally you can't send messages via bluetooth, but they have found a little trick for this.


Here's how you do it:
You just create a new contact person in the phone book of your phone, but instead of the name of the contact person, you write the message you want to send, for example: 'Hello, how are you doing?'. Apparently, all phones with a bluetooth connection have the option to send the details of a contact person via bluetooth to another phone.
So, you enable bluetooth on your phone, go to the option to send via bluetooth the details of the contact person you have just created, search for other bluetooth devices within your range, and send the contact person information to the other devices found.
The other person will now see your message on his phone, but won't know where it's coming from.
This could be fun in theaters, in the disco, in school, or wherever there is a big crowd.

More trouble

On Tuesday morning the mechanic came to fix the heating.
On Tuesday night, when I was cooking dinner (I love cooking), the boiler of the central heating suddenly started making a hell of a noise, like if some animal was trapped inside of it, trying to get out. After the noise stopped, the boiler was dead again.
We had already been heating the house enough to be able to spend the night without freezing to death, but on Wednesday the mechanic didn't show up yet. Even some angry phone calls didn't do the trick.
So on Wednesday night we went to spend the night again at Mónica's parents.
Yesterday the heating got fixed again, and until now it still seems to be working. Let's hope it won't break down again, and definitely not in the weekend.

Today we got some troubling news at work. It seems that some high chiefs in the United States have decided to not longer assign us the kind of programming jobs that we have been doing up till now. Apparently, the Indian teams are less expensive than we are, so all the future jobs will be assigned to India.
The future of our team seems a little insecure at the moment. Let's hope they will find another project for us.

Murphy's law

So what happens on the coldest night of the year? That's right, the central heating system in our apartment stops working.
When I came home last night, the bad news was already waiting for me. Mónica had already called the company to send over a mechanic, but these things all seem to fail at the same time, and no mechanic was available until further notice.
The last time this happened, the mechanic came over, had to push just one button, presented the bill and left. So I started pushing all buttons I could find yesterday evening, but this time it was of no use.

We decided to pack our bags and go over to Mónica's parents to spend the night.
We had dinner, watched the movie 'Runaway Jury' and ended up watching the pictures of when we met for the first time on holiday in 1993. We both looked so young then. And it seemed unbelievable again that it all started with those four days together in Tenerife, now almost 12 years ago.
This morning, the mechanic already came over. And this time he didn't just have to push a single button. But the most important thing is that we have got heating again, and we can cuddle up on the couch again tonight under our warm blanket.

Finding 'Finding Neverland'

It's freezing cold, even in Spain.
On Saturday night we actually ended up in a little snowstorm on the highway. And this morning it was snowing at sea level, which is very extraordinary here in the north of spain.

we went to see 'Finding neverland' on Saturday night. And it took some effort.
We bought our tickets, entered the theater and started looking for our seats. When they seemed to be taken, I concluded that the couple that was sitting next to us had taken the wrong seats. So we took the ones that were still free.
The lights went out and the trailers began to show. We took off our coats, and got comfortable in our seats. Then the movie began, and after 10 seconds I already realized that what we were looking at could not be 'Finding neverland'.


So I looked at Mónica and said: "we're in the wrong theater!! This is another movie!"
She: "Are you sure? So what is this?"
And the moment she finished her question, the screen showed in big capitals: "CONSTANTINE".
Now, you have to know that the first 3 minutes of "Constantine" are already quite shocking. So we were looking in disbelief at what was going on on the big screen, as we were expecting some romantic drama situated in 1904.
So Mónica looked at me and asked: "now what?"
- "now we go!"
So we got up, made our way past the people in our row, stumbling upon feet, walking down the stairs in the dark, trying not to fall.
Luckily our movie had not started yet. So we didn't miss a thing of this great movie, and had some time left to laugh about our little adventure.

Almost Friday! Stay calm and keep breathing

Every time that I think that everything looks fine and that I can relax a little, some new problems come up.
When I came in to work this morning, I already had a mail from Australia, saying that there was a big problem with a program. And since people in the US don't start working until it is 3 PM in Europe, I can start cleaning up the mess, guessing what would be the best way to fix things.
On top of that, I had to attend some instructional meeting about ergonomics this afternoon, while I didn't have any time to lose.

But I had one good notice today. It seems I still had half a day off pending from last year. So tomorrow morning I'm going to sleep late, and finally get my address changed at the town hall. Because officially I'm still living in with Mónica's parents, back from when I moved to Spain and we didn't have an apartment yet.
Hmmm, I wonder what institutions should all be notified of my address change.

And now that I want to access the database to request my holiday, it won't let me in! Why does everything always happen to me??

The ghosts of the Windsor

I'm having a lot of work these last few days.
Some program changes need to be up and running by the end of the month. And due to all the administrational work involved with our programming, one week is very little time.
Sunday was the Spanish referendum concerning the European constitution. 76% of the voters said 'yes' to this constitution. A big victory for Europe.

And in the meantime everybody is wondering what the hell happened last week when the Windsor building in Madrid completely burned down.


The cause of the fire has yet to be found, but videos grabbed by people living in the neighbourhood of the office building show people walking around calmly inside the building at 3 am when the fire was extending, turning on and off lights, and it seems the fire started on different floors of the building at the same time.
Some people are already referring to 'Watergate'.

The European Constitution

Spanish voters are preparing to go to the polls for the EU's first referendum on the European Constitution - an event that will kick off a tough 18-month ratification battle with nine countries expected to follow in Spain's footsteps.

With polls showing around 80 percent of Spaniards in favour of the Constitution, the government's biggest fear is that the turnout on Sunday (20 February) will be embarrassingly low.

A very low turnout would be a blow to Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and could prompt calls for a re-run.

But it will not be for want of trying on Madrid's part. It has showered the population with copies of the 465-article document, had Big Brother contestants discussing it and handed out a 'referendum' drink.

The government has also been telling Spain how much it has benefited from Europe via the millions of euro it has obtained in regional aid handouts.

(www.euobserver.com)

I'm very curious about what is going to happen on Sunday.
Have a great weekend!

They're not all that bad

A few quotes from my boss (head of our programming team):

We're going to make cardboard images of everyone of our team and are going to place them in our seats. Every week only one of us will come to work, and this person will do the work of every team member. This way we will have to work hard for one week, but we will only have to come once every six weeks.

We will have a team meeting later, but since Jose is sick we will have to go to his apartment to have the meeting.

We're going to have a meeting in the cafeteria outside the premises. Take your coat and act naturally. (whispering, because he knows we're not allowed to)

Nobody I know works on a Friday afternoon until 6. Only we do. This is inhuman.

Damn, I have to go to this boring meeting this afternoon. I'm so gonna fall asleep. Does anybody want to go in my place?

If they tell you that they want it done by tomorrow, just tell them it's impossible. If they insist, tell them to call me.

They asked me if I wanted the mobile phones for the team. I said no. Imagine that they start calling us in the weekend.

I saw that this job shouldn't be done until 2 months from now. So take it easy.

Pocholo in Africa

A Spanish television program is creating quite a fuss lately.
'Aventura en Africa' (adventure in Africa) is one of those pointless reality shows where some people have to survive in the wilderness of Kenia. The participants of the show are 'famous' people who need exposure, and unknown people who would do anything to be famous.
When a participant needed to abandon the contest because of health problems a few weeks ago, the organising television channel decided to send Pocholo as his substitute: a famous Spanish rebel, former actor (was in 2 episodes of miami vice) and DJ who is linked to several bars and clubs in Ibiza, who talks like a grumbler on speed and is famous for his crazy one-liners.


Suddenly the ratings of the show started rising and more and more people started watching the show, just to see what crazy Pocholo was up to this time.
Pocholo however knows he is loved by the public and decided to play a little game. He started announcing that he would only stay a week. When the week was over and he was about to leave, the organization talked to him and offered him a serious amount of money if he would stay.
So now Pocholo is enjoying his little holiday in Kenia, hated by his colleagues and loved by the public for being a rebel and having the organization eating out of his hands.

Enjoy your lunch. I won't.

A few weeks ago, without any notice or explanation, the prices of the menus in our company restaurant got raised. And not just a few cents. At least 80 eurocents (about 1 dollar) for a menu.
Now, if the quality of the food would accord with this raise, I wouldn't be complaining about anything. If they had given us a raise at the beginning of the year, I wouldn't be complaining about anything either.
But here I am every afternoon, with stomach aches, repeating for hours what I have been eating for lunch.
Do I really have to get up earlier in the morning and start cooking, to be able to bring my homemade lunch to work and have a decent meal? Some of my colleagues have already started doing so.
One of the biggest companies in the world could at least make sure that its employees can have a decent and healthy meal for a reasonable price.

Valentine's day

There are people who love it, and there are people who hate it.
It may be true that it is an invented and overly commercialised celebration, this being the number one reason why many people hate it.
But it has never hurt anyone to give a little present or a token of love to the one who deserves it. And maybe that is something that some of us just don't do often enough.


You don't have to buy an expensive gift to touch someone deeply. A few simple words, straight from the heart, already can make someone feel the happiest person in the world.

Let's all comment

I just noticed that Blogger has changed the commenting system!
That is good news. And now you don't have any excuse to not leave a comment!
We decided to accept my colleagues invitation for tonight. So we will go have dinner at his place. The last time we went, there were too many people. Therefore there was too much noise (The Spanish talk loud!), and when they were talking on the other end of the table, we couldn't understand a word they were saying.
I heard tonight there will only be 7 invitees. So we will probably be able to understand all the conversations.
It's Mexican night tonight, by the way. Complete with Margaritas and Tequila.

Last night I went to buy Mónica her favourite perfume before going home. We had decided not to buy anything for Valentine's day this year. The poor girl being broke has got everything to do with that decision.
But as I knew she wanted the perfume and couldn't afford it at the moment, I decided to buy it for her anyway. And as it wasn't even Valentine's day yesterday, the surprise was even bigger.

Now all try that new commenting system! Have a great weekend!

Let's talk about sex

I had been reading a lot on the internet about the latest Sensoa campaign in Belgium.
Sensoa is the Flemish center for sexual health and HIV.
Every couple of years they launch a new 'talk about sex' campaign. The idea behind it is that there is not enough communication about sex between partners: communication about birth control, personal wishes and personal borders. This leads to sexual abuse and unwanted pregnancies.
'Talk about sex, because good communication makes good sex', is their motto.
So Sensoa launches campaigns that are explicit enough so that people WILL talk about them.
They create posters and publish advertisements in magazines and on television.
I hadn't seen this years' advertisements yet, but I had read that they had created quite a political discussion in Belgium. Now that I have seen them, I can understand why.

(be careful, they are not really safe for work)
advertisement1
advertisement2
tv ad


I don't think the advertisements should be this explicit to be effective.
I can't imagine advertisements like this in American magazines. Or how about a Sensoa Superbowl ad?

5 seconds of fame

A famous credit card company has put a huge billboard in Brussels. There's nothing special about that, I hear you think.
But you can upload your own picture on their website, they send you a mail when it is uploaded on the billboard, and five minutes later, when you look at their webcam, you can see your own face on the huge billboard in one of the most crowded streets of Brussels.
Too bad the webcam image isn't very clear when the sun is shining on it. Maybe it is more visible at night.
On the image, that's Mónica and I on the billboard.


This reminds me of my first 5 seconds of shame, about 15 years ago.
On Friday evenings after school, we always used to go to this bar called Clapodium, because they held a happy hour every week. So we used to go drink a few beers to forget about school and start the weekend.
One Friday evening, a camera crew entered the bar and started filming the crowd. Everybody started singing and dancing to draw the attention of the camera crew. Big mistake.
One week later, I saw myself on tv, on a program called 'Adolescents and alcohol abuse' by the (in)famous Belgian journalist Jambers. And although my face had only been visible for about 3 seconds, everybody I knew had seen me!
When did you have your 5 seconds of shame/fame?

Indigestion

On Saturday evening we went to have dinner at one of our favourite Italian restaurants.
Thinking that I had completely recovered from my illness and that I had to gain the lost kilos of last week, I ate until I had an indigestion. It seems my stomach wasn't used to eating that much yet. So my tummy hurt all Saturday night and Sunday morning.
I had already eaten enough after the main course, but they have this irresistible dessert called chocolatisimo, and I just couldn't say no.
Mónica's mother had said that she was going to make frixuelos (Asturian pancakes) with hot chocolate topping for us on Sunday afternoon, but we had to cancel the invitation and will go another day.

We went to see 'meet the fockers' on Saturday night. It was indeed a very funny movie. Too bad that my stomach started worrying me and that the sound volume was a little low. But we both enjoyed it very much.

On sunday afternoon I had a webcam chat with my parents. My mother only kept asking me if she didn't have to send me some new underwear. I kept telling her that if I needed new underwear, I would buy it myself.
But she doubted if they had the same quality in Spain as in Belgium.
Mothers, they will never change.

Hey, it's weekend again

All my weeks should be like the one that has just finished. 3 days at home, 2 days at work. But without the sickness.
I'm still a little weak, but the virus has gone. I haven't eaten yet like I'm used to, and I haven't started drinking coca-cola yet either. Hence the weakness.
For someone who is used to drink 1,5 liters of coca-cola every day, complete abstinence sure means a decrease of daily sugar and cafeine consumption.
I hope to be completely recovered by Monday.

We don't have any plans for the weekend yet. The weather is quite bad, so I suppose the only thing one can do here is visit one of the malls again.
Mónica just let me know that the movie 'meet the Fockers' is already playing in the theaters here. So I guess that means she wants to go see it this weekend.
Thanks to a DIVX DVD player and a broadband internet connection we normally watch movies at home. Now I enjoy an occasional night out to the movie theater even more.

Feeling better and groundhog day

I have been sick for a couple of days. But Mónica took good care of me.
It all started with a headache and fever on Saturday evening.
But by Sunday morning the virus had already affected my digestive system.
The doctor ordered me not to eat anything at all on Monday. I was only allowed to drink water, and a lot of it. By Tuesday I could start eating some rice and yogurts.
I lost 2 kilos in 4 days.
But I'm feeling better now, and can start eating normal again.
And feeling better means having to go back to work. So Mónica is probably feeling very alone today, after we have been together all the time for a couple of days.

I noticed today that yesterday was Groundhog day. People who have seen the movie 'Groundhog day' know what I'm talking about, the others have to run to the local video store and rent it.
What many people don't know, is that the event with Punxatawney Phil in the movie actually takes place every year on the 2nd of february.
And since the success of the movie, the place gets thousands of visitors every year.


On February 2, groundhog Phil comes out of his burrow on Gobbler's Knob - in front of thousands of followers from all over the world - to predict the weather for the rest of winter.
According to the legend, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather. If he does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.
(official groundhog site here: http://www.groundhog.org/)

Winter has finally found us

It has turned rather cold the last couple of days here in Spain. We are having maximum temperatures of 5ºC(41ºF) in the afternoon. That means that the temperature has dropped about 10 degrees in 10 days time.
In the south of Spain it has been snowing in regions where it hadn't been snowing in the last 50 years. And mountain villages have been isolated due to the heavy snowfall. Living at sealevel close to the sea protects us from the snow.

But still I have been arming myself with gloves and a scarf lately.
And then I get these comments from the jokers that are my colleagues: "Aren't you from up North?? You should be accustomed to this cold! But you are dressed warmer than any of us."

The bad thing is that with this cold we are not having any courage to do anything useful after work. So we have been staying at home, watching tv. And that always gets me down a little. After watching 2 hours of tv, I'm already fed up with it and start getting bored.
And I thought Spain was that country where the sun was always shining.

poor bunnies

Yesterday, I ran across the suicide bunnies on the internet.
They are comics of cute little bunnies that are trying to kill themselves in the most absurd ways.
If you haven't seen them yet, check them out. Some are very funny.
bunnies 1
bunnies 2


I'm not responsible for the storage of the pictures.

Life has surely changed in 20 years

We saw the movie 'Thirteen' this weekend.
Tracy, a thirteen year old girl, desperately seeks the acceptance of Evie, the most popular girl at school. When they become close friends, Tracy discovers a world of alcohol, drugs, sex and petty crime.


The movie is said to be partially autobiographical, and tells the story of Nikki Reed's rebellious life (the actress who plays Evie) as a thirteen year old. Apparently she did have quite a disturbed childhood.
I don't think that the average 13 year old adolescent has to deal with all that happens in this movie. But even if only a part of it occurs, I certainly hope the mother is not as naive as Tracy's mother.

On the parking lot

Mónica got her driving license about 8 years ago. But as she never had her own car and went everywhere by bus, she never drove a car again after getting her license.
Now she doesn't remember anything about driving, and she's afraid to get behind the wheel again.
But as she is looking for a job, her parents and I were thinking that she should get used to driving again.
I told her many times that we could go to a big parking lot on a Sunday morning to practice driving, but she was never very fond of the idea.


When she woke me up yesterday morning, she was already dressed. So I asked her what was going on. And then she said: Well, the weather is very nice, and I was thinking that maybe we could go to that parking lot that you said, so I could practice driving a little.
So I jumped out of bed, got dressed and we got on our way.
I explained her the basic rules, we changed seats, and she started practicing. I decided not to give too many comments, because I knew she was a little nervous.
And in 10 minutes she was driving around the parking lot without any problems.
I thought it was so brave of her, deciding that it was time to do something about it.

I have felt the pain (not for the weak of heart)

It was 1992.
A little bone in my hand had splintered by hitting a hard object.
The operation had been carried out under local anesthesia.
I was lying awake on a hospital bed with my right arm stretched out, while 2 doctors were cutting open my hand and discussing their actions. I was trying to concentrate on the ceiling.
The operation was successful.

Only, a few days later, my hand began to swell, hurt and turn blue.
It seemed that there had been an internal bleeding after they had closed up the wound. They had to open it up again and remove all the blood that couldn't get out.
But as this was just a 5 minute intervention, they were not going to anesthetize my arm for this, if I didn't mind. It was going to hurt, but as a grown man I should be able to handle it.

So I laid down on a bed, they cut open the stitches, and began to push my hand to get all the blood out. Blood and blood clots splattered all over the bed, the doctor and the nurse, while I was trying not to faint.
The windows were opened to let in some fresh air, I was put a wet cloth on my forehead. Two people were pushing my hand to get all the blood clots out.
The wound was being stitched again.
After the operation, my legs trembled non-stop for about 10 minutes, to get all the accumulated stress out of my body.
Then the doctor said: "Now you know the kind of pain a woman feels when having a baby. You did well."
In my imagination, I kicked him in the b...s.

Dream on

I have been living almost one year and two months in Spain now. Before that, I was living alone in an apartment in Belgium for one year.
But lately I have been dreaming almost every night that i'm still living with my parents in their house in Belgium. And it is having dangerous consequences.


The other night, I woke up in the middle of the night after having a dream, and I was convinced that I was lying in my old bed in my parents' house, alone.
A few moments later, Mónica made a sudden move in her sleep. Her movement freaked me out and made me hit her.
At the moment that i was about to hit her, I realized where i was and that it was her, and i managed to control my power. She didn't even notice that i hit her.
If i had not realized in time who she was, I think i would have kicked her out of the bed.

What's in a name?

Do you remember that terrible song called Macarena, by those 2 Spanish grandfathers?
I found out the other day that Macarena is actually a Spanish girls' name. I just never listened to what they were singing. You can't blame me for that. And I thought Macarena was the name of the dance.
Imagine the stupid commentaries all the girls named Macarena must have heard after the song became a worldwide hit. Who calls their daughter Macarena anyway?
One of my colleagues' name is Inmaculada (Immaculate). How do you come up with a name like that? It's a good thing that she insists that we call her Inma. (She would kill me if she knew I was writing this)

Anyway...
The Spanish have the strange habit to translate names. Some examples you all know:
The name of the pope in Spain is Juan Pablo II. Christopher Columbus is called Cristóbal Colón.
Prince Charles of England is called Principe Carlos, and his son William goes by the name of Guillermo. Harry, the one who thinks a nazi is the same thing as a clown, is just Harry.
But imagine us watching the news:

I: Who are they talking about?
She: Carlos of England.
I: Carlos? Who the hell is Carlos?
She: The Prince of England, Prince Carlos.
I: Do they have a Prince Carlos in England?? (and then his image is shown)
Ooooooooooooh, CHARLES!!
She: Si, Carlos.

The sea inside

The beautiful and touching Spanish movie 'The sea inside' (in Spain known as 'Mar adentro') has won a golden globe for 'best foreign language film' yesterday.
The movie tells the true story of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro, who fought a 30-year campaign to win the right to end his life with dignity, after being completely paralyzed by a diving accident.
Despite his wish to die, Ramón taught everyone he encountered the meaning, value and preciousness of life.
The director of the movie, alejandro amenábar, also directed the movie 'the others' with Nicole Kidman.


The story is still very much alive here in Spain. The woman who helped Ramón to die in 1998 by preparing the cup with cyanide has only this month revealed her identity. Ramóns family accuses her of killing him, the investigation of his death is being opened again and the discussion about euthanasia is very much on-going again.

Asturias, patria querida

When Europeans think of spain, they probably think of: vacation, bullfights, flamenco, sun, paella and the mediterranean cost.
We live in the northwest of Spain, in the principality of Asturias. In a natural paradise that is very different from what Europeans know of Spain.


Asturias is well known for its green landscapes, and just at a few kilometers from high mountain peaks there is the Cantabric coast with the most beautiful beaches and fishing villages.
It is limited by high mountain ranges, Cordillera Cantabrica, where you find some outstanding natural preserves such as Picos de Europa and the national parks of Covadonga and Somiedo.
Major attractions are the Way of Santiago with its numberless monuments and the Ruta de la Plata, "silver route", which both lead through Asturias.
Asturias too is the home of ancient rites and beliefs with celtic influences, and this region's popular customs are among the most interesting of Spain. Artisany and gastronomy are of high reputation, you may try excellent sea-food along the coast and, in the mountains, typical dishes such as Fabada, made of a special sort of beans, blood sausage and various cheese specialities, together with a glass of cider.
Just to let you know.

You are appreciated here

It's nice to see that the visitorscount of my blog is slowly increasing, even without surfing blogexplosion. People are actually starting to find their way to this blog. And there are people who are actually coming back and are commenting on posts. I appreciate that a lot. Now I only have to start writing some decent posts, or I will bore you girls away.
I even found some links to my blog on other blogs that I didn't know about. Thanks for that. I have to update my links too one of these days. Get rid of that scrolling thing on the right that I liked so much in the beginning, and make me a nice list. Because that scrolling thing doesn't give you the respect that you guys and girls deserve.
(a thought that just crosses my mind: Do girls read more guys' blogs and guys read more girls' blogs?)

Google however keeps ignoring me and my archives. I sometimes check this, using this great link popularity tool. I have tried to submit my site several times to the 'open directory project', a submission that is valued highly by Google bots, but the editors don't seem to be updating regularly, and my blog doesn't seem to be listed yet.


I have been thinking about yesterdays post. I don't want you people to get the wrong idea. Mónica and I have a wonderful relationship and adore each other. And I'm not a bad guy. She would confirm that.
Us living together was not that obvious at the beginning, as we didn't know each other that well personally due to our long-distance relationship.
We saw each other 4 days in 1993, 2 weeks in 1996 and 2 weeks in 2003 before going to live together in December 2003. All the rest was writing, chatting and webcamming.
But we were soulmates since the beginning, and now we can't imagine our lives without each other.

The day after

I've been a bit down lately, tired as well. I keep thinking the doctor should have given me some kind of treatment when he discovered that the ironlevel of my blood was low about a month ago.

Last night, when I got home after work, I went to bed immediately and slept for an hour and a half. I didn't want to get out of bed, because I didn't feel like doing anything. I was bored and irritated by everything, and needed my alone time.
The bad thing is that in moments like this the person closest to you is always the one who has to deal with it. So we ended up fighting by the end of the day. I could see it coming from a mile away.
When I am in this kind of mood, I'm an unfair fighter. My words hit where they can, and nothing seems to bother or hurt me. I get invincible.

It's time to heal the wounds.

surveillance cameras exposed

Many blogs and message forums are talking about the discovery that some simple Google searches permit access to over 1000 unprotected streaming surveillance cameras around the world, some apparently without their owner's knowledge.

Searching on certain strings within a URL finds networked surveillance cameras that have Web interfaces, permitting their owners to view them remotely, and even direct the cameras' motorized pan-and-tilt mechanisms from the comfort of their own desktop.

You can try the following search strings in Google:
inurl:"view/index.shtml"
inurl:"axis-cgi/mjpg"
inurl:"MultiCameraFrame?Mode="
inurl:"ViewerFrame?Mode=%"
liveapplet

Some people have been creating pages with all the surveillance cams they found like this. Like
http://www.undertree.us/allcams.html
http://www.opentopia.com/hiddencam.php

Internet Explorer seems to have a problem with opening the links on these pages. But there is a solution. Right-click on the link and choose: “open in new window”. As soon as the new window opens, click the stop button of the internet explorer menubar quickly. Now you see the link in the address bar. Delete everything after the IP address, and press enter.

(found on BoingBoing)

My brand new machine

As I said in my last post, I was looking out for a new computer, because the one I had was getting old and slow and started to show some annoying defects.
I had been comparing prices and technical specifications since a few weeks, to find a computer with the best price/quality ratio. And this weekend I came across a great offer for an even greater computer. An offer I actually couldn't resist.


So now I am the proud owner of a brand new Packard Bell desktop computer, with a Pentium 4 HT processor at 3.2 GHz, 1024 Mb of Ram memory and a hard disk of 200 Gb.
The speed and stability of this machine are amazing, compared to my old one.
Now I only need more time to play with it.

time to clear up the Christmas decorations

We are having some very beautiful weather lately, with temperatures up to 16C and not a single cloud in the sky. So as I expected, many kids were playing in the streets with their new toys yesterday. Especially the radio controlled cars seem to be very popular this year.
The three kings (all named Mónica) brought me this really cool mp3 player. Oh, how I love gadgets.


I watched the three kings procession in Aviles this year. It was not half as spectacular as the one I saw in Asturias's capital Oviedo last year.
And yesterday we visited the Christmas market in Oviedo for the last time. Next week, there will be nothing left of this cozy Christmas atmosphere.

Now that the three kings have brought their presents, it's time for the January discount period. The malls will be so filled with people for the next three weeks, that you would think the shops are giving away everything for free. Especially the women's clothes shops will look like a hurricane has passed through them recently.
I will be comparing prices of computers the next few days. And hopefully I will soon have this brandnew shiny pentium 4 machine at home.

The Three Kings

Tomorrow is a very traditional holiday in spain, Three Kings day (los Reyes Magos). It is the day on which the children get presents, delivered by the Three Kings of the East (or so they think). Santa is not very popular in Europe.

Tonight every city in Spain will have a big procession to celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings. Last year I was impressed by the procession, with elefants, camels, sheep, beautiful wagons with hundreds of lights and three beautifully dressed kings and their helpers throwing tons of sweets. The thousands of children in the streets were all singing and cheering.
On the 6th of january, you can see the kids in the streets playing with their brandnew toys.


Today, a special cake, roscon de Reyes, is made and sold all over Spain. It is a ring-shaped pastry, covered in sugar and fruit flavoured jellies.
The cake contains a little plastic figure of a king. Whoever finds the figure is named the new king and will be blessed with good luck for the new year.

Never again

I am bored today. I don't feel like doing much, although I should be working.
But I decided to try to make a '100 things about me' list (Here it is), and it made me remember many funny things about my past.
For example, no. 86: I wash my car not more than twice a year.
I once went to a carwash, and after they were finished cleaning my car and I was ready to leave, the owner of the carwash shouted: See you next year! (and it was April!!)
I was so offended by it, that it ruined my whole day.
I never went back.

And it starts all over again

Back at work, as if nothing happened. Only the calendar has changed, and I've got 23 holidays again to consume over the next 365 days.
New Year's Eve was fun. The food was good, we danced until our feet hurt, and we practiced our favourite sport: observing people (not what you thought, was it?). It's amazing how energetic some older people still are, dancing until 7 o'clock in the morning.
Oh, and I actually managed for the first time to eat the 12 grapes of luck before the clock struck 12 times.


I was lucky on Thursday as well. I got up in the morning to look at the weather and snow report of the San Isidro area, and saw that it was going to be a sunny day and that the ski slopes were in a perfect condition. So I was able to go skiing and had a wonderful day.

The last post of the year

Well, I'm off for a long weekend, to relax and rest for the big party on Friday night.
The weather is still very bad, so I'm afraid skiing won't be an option tomorrow.
I will probably spend most of the time at Mónica's parents house, trying to install the wireless network her father bought. I had a try at installing it yesterday evening, but the network card is giving us trouble. I will have to reinstall it.

Have a great night on New Year's Eve. Make it a party to remember.
Here in Spain, it will be another traditional night. We have to wear red underwear for good luck, and at midnight, we will try to eat 12 grapes before the tower clock in Madrid has struck 12 times. Each grape represents a month of luck, and I can assure you it's not easy to eat them that fast. In fact, I never managed to do it in time.

Feliz 2005! Happy New Year!

And they lived happily ever after

On the 7th of December, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Mónica and I were in Oviedo and decided to go have a quick lunch at our favourite Italian restaurant Gepetto.
We both had a tagliatelle 'Gepetto', and a Coke.
A few days ago, I took a look at my bank account online, and saw to my disbelief that they had charged me 70 euros for the meal. So I started looking for the credit card ticket, and yes: it said 70 euros and it was signed by me.
Immediately Mónica's words came to my mind: "You never watch the amount before you sign." She has said it so many times.

I searched for the e-mail address of the restaurant and wrote a 'nice' mail to the manager, saying that they had taught me a valuable lesson that day.
I couldn't ask for a refund, because I had thrown away the restaurant check and couldn't prove what we had eaten that day.
5 minutes later, I received a mail from the manager. He had phoned the restaurant, they had searched for my check of that day, they had seen that they had made a mistake, and they were about to return me the money.
And they did. Nice man, this Gepetto.

Back to work

I'm one of the unlucky few who are actually working today. Although I didn't do much yet, and I see my colleagues are just surfing the internet as well.
The office is very empty, and the few people that did come to work today are making very little noise. So for once it's comfortably quiet in here.


We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas day with Mónica's parents. It was a serene celebration with lots of food and the typically Spanish turron for dessert, accompanied by christmas specials on television.
On Saturday and Sunday we stayed in the house, because winter has finally reached Spain, with snowstorms, heavy rain and windspeeds up to 65 mph.
I hope the weather conditions will improve a little by the end of the week, so I can go skiing for the first time this year on Thursday.

Merry Christmas!

A Merry Christmas to all my visitors!
Feliz Navidad!

Nothing to worry about

I don't know how the social security system works in the States, but in Belgium we had to pay to go to the doctor, and later the system repaid part of the fee.
In Spain, going to the doctor is free. The first time you need a doctor, you get one assigned to you. On later visits, you will always see the same doctor.
The doctor I got assigned is an older man, he must be close to 70 years old. It always makes me doubt his opinions and decisions. Ok, he probably has a lot of experience, but is he familiar with new techniques and developments?


I visited the doctor this morning. You see, two weeks ago I went to the medical check-up at work, and apparently some numbers of the blood analysis were a little low. But the doctor told me I shouldn't pay too much attention to the figures, and that everything seemed fine.
As I was waiting for my turn to see the doctor, I heard other people whispering. They were saying: "shouldn't he start thinking about retiring? He is getting a little old now, isn't he?"
Apparently, I'm not the only one doubting his opinions.

Un poquito de por favor

There are some strange people in this world. I heard that some colleagues were complaining about the fact that the office is decorated with christmas decorations.
Ok, the decorations look a bit crappy, but that's not the point. They think it is totally inappropriate that the company spends money on christmas decorations and that they are forced to work in a decorated building.

Oh please! How about some respect and tolerance. I don't understand this kind of behaviour. if some stupid mistletoe decoration already makes you freak out, you better lock yourself in for the next 2 weeks.
What's your opinion on this?

First a siesta, and then to the fiesta

I live in Spain, but many people I work with live in the United States. So I have telephone meetings with people from the United States on a daily basis.
Apparently, many people seem to think that Spain is a very big holiday resort, and that we only work a couple of hours a day.

There is the misunderstanding of the so-called 'siesta'. Many people actually think that after having lunch we have some time off to take a nap. We don't. And there are no big rooms with beds in the office either. The siesta is a nap that we take on a Saturday or a Sunday afternoon, just like my parents used to do in Belgium. I have the same 9 to 6 working hours like I had in Belgium.


And there is the myth that we have an incredible amount of holidays in a year. We don't. In Spain every region has its own festive holidays. So people in Barcelona have other holidays than people in Madrid. I have 14 holidays next year. I think that is the same amount as I had in Belgium. Nothing special there either.
So there is no need to envy us, especially because the wages in Spain normally are a lot lower than in other European countries and the United States.

Does Santa even know I moved to Spain?

Do you ever want to buy something, even when you know you don't really need it?
I want to buy myself a new computer, although I know I don't really need it.
I have a computer, and it has never ever let me down. But it's getting old and slow, and it is starting to show some annoying defects. I don't have much time to use it, and it still does everything I need it to do, but...
If computers weren't that expensive, I wouldn't have a problem. But it bothers me to spend that amount of money on something I don't really need, now that I finally managed to save some money.
I wish I had the same kind of luck as a colleague of mine.
Two weeks ago, on Saturday morning, he was awakened by the sound of his doorbell. When he opened the door, all he saw was a big, heavy box. He checked the elevator and the stairs, but there was nobody there. He thought it was a joke, opened the box, and found a 42 inch flat plasma television. Price of the television: 3000 euros (4000 Dollars).
2 weeks later, he still doesn't know where the tv came from.

The name definitely fits the movie

Yesterday I watched the thriller/horror/slasher movie 'High Tension'. A few weeks ago, I accidentally saw a teaser trailer on television, and was stunned by it. This one I had to see!
And I actually loved it! Especially the feeling of tension and fear that it gave me, and that reminded me of when I secretly used to watch horror movies at night when I was a kid.


I caught myself several times holding my breath, waiting with open mouth for what was going to happen. The fear of the main character in the movie actually grabs you by the throat, and you would like to scream to her or just grab something and beat the living daylights out of the killer. At one moment in the movie she manages to kick his ass, and I could feel the relief that she had to be experiencing at that moment. It actually gave me goosebumps.

Near the end of the movie, there is a sudden and unexpected twist in the plot. Many people have been criticizing and actually hating the movie for this. It is true that the twist leaves some questions unanswered, but I think you should see the movie as the main character's version of the facts, and not try to find out what really happened.
For some scenes in the movie you need a strong stomach, because the blood and gore are very graphic.

Our first Christmas tree

I thought I'd share an image of our Christmas tree with all of you. Mónica likes it so much that she would like to keep it there for the rest of the year. The rest of the living room is decorated with little glowing lights and candles. It looks very cosy. I love the atmosphere created by Christmas decorations.


On Saturday, we went to 'Mayumana': it's a show filled with rhythm, music, acrobatics, dance and humor. The members of the show were in a grateful mood after the deafening applause at the end of the show, and continued the spectacle on the street in front of the theatre for half an hour. It was quite spectacular.
On Sunday we went visiting hotels and restaurants, to find the right place to celebrate New Year's Eve. And I think we might have found it.

Emergency bad, weekend good

I went to the company doctor for a medical check-up this morning. We are not obligated to do so, but every year we get the chance to see the doctor if we want to. So I took the opportunity to go.
There is this myth among the employees here that the doctor sometimes checks the 'crown jewels' of the male employees. So every time a colleague goes to see the doctor, they ask: "Did he take you by the .....?" I'm sure it's just a myth.

So it's friday again. I only worked 2 days this week, but it seems like it were 5. Last week and this week, we had some emergency programming, and everything had to go at the speed of light. Whenever we get an emergency, we have to handle in 2 days all the things we normally handle in 2 weeks. So that means major headache.
And of course, whenever there is an emergency, my computer acts like it is on holiday. Today I had to wait several minutes every time I needed a Lotus Notes database to open. It drives me wild.
I hope things will calm down starting monday.
I'm going to relax now. Have a nice weekend.

I had a great long weekend. Monday and Wednesday were 2 Spanish holidays, so on Tuesday I took a day off to have a longer weekend. We took advantage of the free days to go shopping for Christmas decorations and to clean and decorate the apartment.

On Saturday, we went to see the IMAX 3D version of the movie "The Polar Express". The glasses we had to put on to see the 3D images did look a little ridiculous, but the effect was spectacular, leading to people trying to catch snowflakes in the theater.
The movie was great, but I think you should really see it in IMAX 3D to be able to fully enjoy it. More movies should be made like this.


And on Tuesday we saw "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". I had read so many good reviews about this movie on the internet movie database, and was very curious to see it. But I didn’t like it at all.
The characters lack depth, there is no chemistry at all between the leading couple, and the character played by Kate Winslet is so annoying that Joel should be happy to erase her from his memory. We never see any moment of happiness in the relationship of the leading characters. The part of the movie when Joel's mind is being erased is filled with absurd images of Joel trying to hang on to his memories and doesn't add anything to the story.
And on top of it all, they tried to add some reverse-order storytelling to the movie, which only works disorienting.
I know there are many people who love this movie, but I don't have any idea why.

Exactly one year ago, at noon, I arrived in Spain.
Nervous and not knowing if I had made the right decision leaving my life, family, friends and apartment behind in Belgium.
My life changed completely in one day. I moved to another country with another language, I had a new job and I was going to live with my Spanish girlfriend with whom I had had a long-distance relationship until then (See 'A love story' on the left).
There were only 3 weeks between the day that I decided that I was going to do it, and the day that I arrived in Spain. So everything went very fast.

The first days and even weeks in my new hometown were filled with visiting the authorities to fulfill all the necessary paperwork, and all I could think of was: 'if this doesn't work out well, I'm going to have to change all this again.'
But everything did work out well: the relationship, the country, the city, the people, the language, the job, the apartment, the colleagues, the climate, the adventure.
It was a wonderful year.
There are days that I still can't believe that all this is really happening to me. I even joked about this theory that I had had an accident and was in a coma, having a great dream. If I am, don't bother trying to wake me up.

I went shopping last night, accidentally noticed one of these in a little gift shop and couldn't resist myself.


I always liked lava lamps but never had one. I knew Mónica liked them too, but we never had the right place for it in the apartment, to enjoy it at it's most.
Now we don't need that place anymore. We just plug it in.
Now I only hope it's not going to kill me:

Kent man killed by exploding lava lamp

A 24-year-old Kent man was killed Sunday afternoon when a lava lamp exploded, sending a shard of glass into his heart.

Kent police said Phillip Quinn put the lamp on a hot stovetop, causing it to explode. The King County Medical Examiner's Office ruled the death accidental.

Quinn apparently stumbled into a bedroom in his Kent trailer home after the explosion. His parents discovered his body there Sunday evening after his girlfriend reported that she couldn't get in touch with him. Police found no evidence of drug or alcohol use.

When I came home from work yesterday evening, there was a card in the mailbox, saying that I had to pick up a package at the post office. The day before, my mother had called me and asked me if I ever got the package that my sister had sent me. So she spoiled the surprise a little.
But I was curious about what she had sent me. I was even making Mónica all nervous when we were on our way to the post office. When we saw the size of the package, our curiosity got even bigger.


She sent me 2 big bags of the Haribo candy that I like so much, my favourite Belgian magazine "Humo", the newspaper of the day when the package was sent and a postcard signed by my sister, her boyfriend and the 2 kids.
So when we were watching tv last night, we ate candy until our stomachs hurt. Thanks, Sis!!

On Friday evening, we went to a colleagues house warming party. He moved to his new apartment about a month ago. I had expected that he would have the essential furniture like a couch by now, but he didn't. We entered an empty living room with only a table to present the food and drinks.
So after a few hours the guests got numb from standing and the party finished before it had even begun.

On Saturday we went shopping. First in Oviedo, and later that day in 2 malls. You see, next Thursday I will be living in Spain for exactly 1 year. On december 2nd, 2003 I arrived in Spain, my car loaded with all my stuff. So Mónica and I decided to adopt that date as our official anniversary date. And since anniversaries are synonymous with presents, we went shopping (in different shops).


On Sunday we stayed at home because the weather was bad. We huddled together under the blanket on the couch and watched the movie "50 first dates", a charming romantic comedy.

Comical.

Now, bear in mind that I never ever talked about movies to this person.
A colleague comes up to me and says:

º Did you see the movie 'Office Space'?
- Eum, no, I don't think so.
º No? Oh, it's so great. You have to see it! It gets better everytime I see it. You will laugh your *beep* off.
- Ok, I will look for it. Thanks for the tip.
º You know what? I still have it on my laptop. I will grab it for you now, so you can see it this weekend.
- Oh, ok. Thanks.

So he disappears. 2 minutes later, he passes me again with an external cd-writer under his arm, and he says to me: "You're lucky!"

10 minutes later he shows up again with a CD and says: "here it is, enjoy it. You can give me a recordable CD on Monday. But I only accept CD's of the brand Verbatim!"

I hear that the band U2 surprised New Yorkers with a free concert on a flatbed truck the other day.
Why am I never at the right place at the right time?

A few days ago I heard the much discussed song 'Vertigo' for the first time. Here in Spain they don't play many English songs on the radio. That's why it took so long.
At the beginning of the song, Bono says: "uno, dos, tres, catorce", which is Spanish for: "one, two, three, fourteen". There are many theories about why he says fourteen, because nobody can believe it is just a stupid mistake. It even seems Bono understands some Spanish.
I don't know what the reason is, but it does sound a little strange to me and Spanish people frown their eyebrows when they hear it. And why does he have to say it in Spanish anyway?

By the way, did you ever hear George Bush sing U2's 'Sunday bloody sunday'? Here's a link.

It's time to start thinking about what we are going to do on New Year's Evening.
Last year, we spent New Year's Eve together with Mónica's friends in a rented village house.
We were 4 couples and a bachelor, and we spent 3 fun days and nights at the house. But the group of friends sort of fell apart during the year, so it doesn't seem like they are going to organize anything together again.
In Belgium, we used to have these big gala parties where thousands of people would celebrate New Year together, but it seems those don't exist here in Asturias, and the local clubs get flooded with teenagers.


So I guess we should find a nice restaurant or hotel with dinner and dance.
Do you know already what you will be doing on New Year's Eve?

On friday night we went to see Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Mónica couldn't wait to see it, as she loved the first Bridget Jones.
The movie was better than I had expected. Well, the story takes some turns that tend to be ridiculous, Bridget seems to be born for bad luck and it is all very predictable, but I didn't hear so much laughter in a movie theater since a long time.

On Saturday night, we went to see a play at the famous theater Campoamor in Oviedo. The play was titled '5mujeres.com' (5women.com), and consisted of 5 comical monologues by 5 different actresses, trying to understand men. It was quite funny. I was afraid I wasn't going to understand much about it, but luckily I did.

In december Mayumana is coming to Gijon, so I should get tickets soon. We don't want to miss that show.

In belgium, a red traffic light means that you have to stop and wait until it turns green. In Spain, I'm not so sure about what it means. It almost seems as if a red traffic light means that you can stop if you want. And if you don't feel like stopping, just speed up a little and maybe you will make it. At least that is what I see every day.

Until I tried it one day, and was immediately stopped by an officer. I tried to act like I didn't speak any Spanish, but he didn't believe me. He just wrote "90 euros" on a piece of paper and said that I had to pay immediately or he would have to confiscate my car.
So I acted like I didn't know why I had to pay anything. And when he said to me in Spanish: "you just passed a red traffic light!", I said: "amarillo!!" (which means yellow in Spanish, by the way). After 10 minutes he got a little desperate and just let me go without a fine.


Other Spanish driving habits I get nervous about: acting like the right lane on the highway doesn't exist, and starting to honk the moment the traffic light turns green. You need a lot of patience on the Spanish roads.

My girlfriend Mónica just called me all excited at work, to let me know that she has been offered her very first job. From what I understood it's only a temporary job for 4 days at a local cosmetics shop, but it's a start and I'm very happy for her.
The poor thing was already getting desperate, and it kept getting harder for me to comfort her.
You see, she has been writing letters for over a year now, but hardly received any feedback at all. she has a University degree and completed a Master, but the lack of experience always seems to be the big problem.
So she has been downgrading her standards over the year, just to be able to find any kind of job and put some experience on her resume. And finally someone called her.

By the way, thanks for all the birthday wishes I received yesterday. It felt very nice.
And for those who were wondering, Mónica managed to make it a day to remember! When I entered our apartment after work, all the lights were turned off and she was standing in the middle of our living room, holding a heart shaped chocolate cake with burning candles. She looked at me with puppy eyes and then she said with a little trembling voice: "I made it myself".
She’s the best.

Well, it's that day of the year again when I get a little older. Yep, it's my birthday today. My first birthday in Spain.

I'm a bit of a melancholic person, and birthdays always make me feel a little down, especially my own. I inherited that from my mother. She always cries all day on her birthday, whining that it will almost be her last. She can be a little theatrical at times.
I'm sure she will be thinking a lot about me today, feeling sad that she can't congratulate me in person. She misses me a lot, because I used to visit her almost every day when I was still living in Belgium, telling her stuff and making her laugh. When I left, she said: 'Now I have nobody left to talk to' (she lives with my father and I have 2 sisters, by the way). Whenever I call her, I hear that she is trying to suppress her tears at the end of the call.


On my birthday, my parents, 2 sisters and their children used to come together to congratulate me and eat some birthday cake. Although I never seemed to care much about those moments, I think I will miss it today. But I'm sure Mónica will do everything within her power to give me a wonderful day, a first Spanish birthday to remember.

Every morning when I go to work, I have to stop at an intersection two blocks from our apartment, to let some young kids on their way to school cross the street. Apparently they are obliged to wear some kind of school uniform, what makes them all look like little angels.
The other day I saw one of the teachers enter the school, and all the kids were waving at him with a big smile.
Now this was an image I had never seen in Belgium.
I thought: it must be a piece of cake to be a teacher in this school! it looked as if teasing, bullying and fighting are things they don't have to deal with.
Now I'm sure I'm wrong about that, but the image was so different than the image that I was used to see at the entrance of any normal school in Belgium.
I personally have known teachers of students not much older than these kids, who were afraid in the classroom, often crying at night because of the intimidations by the brats.

But life in general is much more peaceful in Spain than in Belgium, at least where we are living.
When I just moved here, and we used to walk home through the abandoned streets after going out at night, I used to feel uncomfortable, double checking every strange sound I heard. Mónica reassured me however that it was quite safe to walk along the streets at night, and that she used to make these walks alone.
It is something I still have to get used to.
There is a completely different feeling of security in the streets where I live now. And it affects the way people walk down the street and treat each other incredibly.

I added a new section to the website, called 'Our Story'.
Click on the heart icon in the left icon bar, read our love story and weep.

Well, what I didn't want to happen, happened. By Saturday morning Mónica and I were both sick. Headache, feeling weak and feverish, running nose, you get the picture. So we spent all weekend at home, only leaving the house on Sunday morning to get more medicine.


We slept a lot, watched tv and movies that were so bad that they aren't even worth mentioning, played some games, slept again, felt bored and slept some more.
Of course, by Sunday evening I was feeling better already. So I would have felt guilty not showing up at work today. Now it feels like I didn't have a weekend. I already asked Mónica to bear with me if I start acting cranky this week.
The christmas decoration shopping that I was looking forward to will have to wait until next weekend.

I woke up with a sore throat this morning, and i'm sneezing too.
Last night I already had a feeling like I was going to be sick. I sure hope it will pass soon, because I don't feel like staying home all weekend, feeling lousy.
I went to the drugstore before coming to work, to get something for my throat.
Whenever I have to do something like that, I always practice in my car on how I am going to ask it in Spanish. I'm always afraid to say something stupid, although everybody says I already speak Spanish like a native. Yeah, right.

I put a picture on top of my site, although I'm not sure yet if I will leave it there. Does it look a bit OK to you?

When I was surfing around blogexplosion yesterday, I stumbled upon this little dragon on one of the blogs, watched the video about it (you can click the picture to see it) and was immediately intrigued by it. You see, it's not just a little ugly dragon, it is also quite an amazing optical illusion. I found the instructions to make one, and made one myself yesterday evening. Now it's keeping me company on my desk, and 2 of my colleagues already came to ask me for the instructions.


To all the blogexplosioners who are passing for extra traffic, I have been reading a little about site admission lately, and if you haven't admitted your site to the 'open directory project' yet, it's a good idea to do so. Especially Google rankings seem to be kind to you when your site is listed in the directory.

The place where you live can change your status completely.
Last year I moved from Belgium to Spain (If you had read my profile you would have known that already!).
When I was still living in Belgium, I couldn't find a job. I was without a job for more then a year, and if I had still been living there now, I probably would have been without a job still.
I was a computer programmer like so many, without that extra knowledge or experience to stand out from the rest of them.
I had 2 college degrees in engineering, but that was of no importance in the computer business. I spoke four languages, but in Belgium that is common knowledge. We need experts, not the average programmer. Next!

Then I decided to move to Spain. So the first thing to do was to look for a job there, obviously. In less then 3 weeks time I was offered a job. They asked me how much I wanted to earn, and they gave me some more than I had asked for.
I have been living here for almost a year now, and the people give me respect. I speak a fifth language now (Spanish that is), and in Spain speaking 5 languages is like being supernatural. The 2 college degrees in engineering only seem to confirm that to them.
My boss once said to me: what are you, an infiltrant from the CIA?
To the recruiters here, I am a completely different person than the person that I was to the Belgian recruiters.
That feeling of getting respect helps to build your self confidence and your self esteem, I can tell you that. But I still know that back there in Belgium, I am just like all the rest of them.

It's scary movie Tuesday again.
On my menu today is 'Dark Water': another Japanese movie, from the same director as Ringu (which is the original Japanese version of 'The Ring').
I certainly hope it's better then 'The Ring', because that movie only bored me to death. To me the plot was just too ridiculous.


I just love the feeling of creepiness that you get from watching a good scary movie. When I was much younger, I used to watch them alone at night in a totally dark livingroom, when my parents had already gone to bed.
BBC television used to play scary and horror movies late at night. So I used to sneak down the stairs to go watch them.
I remember there were times that I got myself so scared, that after the movie had finished, I turned off the tv and held my breath in the dark, to be able to hear every sound in the house. I could be there like that for 5 minutes, and then I had to force myself to get moving again and go to bed.
There was the tension of the movie and the tension of getting caught sneaking up the stairs.
One movie that really gave me the creeps back then was 'The Quiet Earth'.

I'm living in Spain less then 1 year, and on Friday I was already on Spanish television!
There was an official inauguration of 2 buildings at work on Friday, with the visit of the Asturian government, and the local television networks. They were filming us while the guests where visiting the buildings. So an hour later, I get a message from Mónica, saying: I saw you on the news on television!!
I saw it too later that evening. Mónica grabbed it on video, and watched it over and over again, to get an idea of where I spend 8 hours every day.

Talking about playing games: I remember that in the early 80's when I was a kid, it was cool to have an Atari console. So I begged my dad to get me one of those. However, when we went to buy one, he found it necessary to ask around about which console was better and had the most and best games. So I ended up with a CBS Colecovision, completely unknown in Europe, with games unknown to any of my friends.

In 1982, partly because of the success of the movie E.T., the BMX bikes became very popular in Europe. So I begged my dad to get me one of those. However, when we went to buy one, he saw this other type of bike that looked so much cooler to him. So I ended up with a Raleigh Chopper, and I must have been the only one in Belgium because I never saw another one in my life. Many people mocked me because of that bike. And I will never get over the fact that I never had a BMX.


Just get your kids whatever all their friends have. All the rest doesn't matter.

Mónica and I have been playing a computergame all evening yesterday. Puzzle Bobble is a game that she used to play many years ago. And now that she is home alone all day, she asked me to install it again for her. I had never played it before, but got hooked on it in 5 minutes.
The game is very simple: You have to aim and fire various coloured bubbles so that you get three or more in a row, and they then disappear.
So we have been playing a few rounds against each other yesterday night: some 100 rounds actually. Because you just can't stop playing it once you start!
There is only one problem: since I moved to Spain, I seem to win every game that we play together. We have been playing videogames, pool, tennis, bowling, air hockey, and I don't remember what else, and I always win! She is already getting a little desperate, the poor thing.


Today, a coworker explained me about MAME: The multiple arcade machine emulator, to play arcade games on the computer. And I just remembered that I must have a copy of 'Revolt' in the basement, a game that I played for hours and hours. It's playtime!

I won't talk too much about politics. Because that's all you hear about today. I just hope that whoever wins doesn't make too big a mess of it in the next 4 years, and at least tries to solve problems in such a way that no innocent people have to suffer, because that only leads to more hatred and more fanatics.

Let me tell you something about the Spanish habits.
The Spanish have some weird expressions they use whenever something goes wrong or doesn't work out the way they planned.
They say: 'Me cago en...'. Literally translated this means: 'I shit in...'. And they shit in almost everything. For example, they use: I shit in the milk, I shit in the moon, I shit in the whore, I shit in God or I shit in the sea. Only, whenever they use it, they don't think about it literally. It's just an expression of bad luck.
When I just moved to Spain, it sounded a little weird to me. And I asked my girlfriend: how do you know which expression you have to use at each occasion? But it doesn't seem to work that way. You just shit in what you want, although some expressions sound a little stronger then others.
If you ever visit Spain, I'm sure you will hear it, because they say it all day. I have my own variant. I say: me cago en la mano (I shit in my hand). At least it's mine.



Apparently, some of my visitors don't understand the little script on the left of this blog. You see where it says: 'Hello to the people visiting this site from...'? Well, every person who visits this blog sees another city and state in that sentence: their own. It's like a little program that looks up where your IP address is located, and fills in the city and state. But many people seem to think: hey, this guy is from around here! Sorry, I am not. Unless you live in Spain (where I live) or in Belgium (where I used to live). Then you're right.

Friday evening started bad. I was very tired when I got home, so I fell asleep until Mónica woke me up around 20:30 to tell me that the central heating system broke down and was making a strange noise. We called the technician, but he couldn't come until Saturday morning. So we spent the evening cuddled up on the couch.
The technician arrives at 9am on Saturday morning, enters our kitchen, pushes a button and says: it's ok now. Couldn't he say over the phone: try to push that button??? Moreover, he charged us 23 euros for this! Next time I will try pushing every button I find!

On Saturday afternoon we went shopping, had dinner at the mall, and even went bowling afterwards. although it seemed more like a game of: try to hit a pin if you can.
Sunday was a rainy day. We stayed at home and watched 'love actually' in the afternoon: a movie that shows us the love stories of 8 different couples around christmas. Ideal for a rainy Sunday.
On Sunday night, Halloween, we watched the director's cut of 'the exorcist' on tv.

Yesterday morning, we met with Mónica's parents to visit the cemetary. We all spent the afternoon at the mall together. We had lunch at Antonio Banderas's restaurant 'La posada de Antonio'. The service was terrible! We were already waiting an hour for our first course, when Mónica's father asked why it was taking so long. 5 minutes later they show up with our main course, and they cancelled our first course without any explanation. Sorry Antonio, but you won't see us again there soon.