Update: Eva's much better

Am going to visit her in a few hours -expected to see her this morning, but phoned first and she said too many people were there already... so to go with Hugo.

Typically, she just phoned me now saying she's bored and can I go up to her place now? It takes ages, a long bus ride as there's no underground on her hilly 'hood, and I must be back in the centre in two hours, so no way can I go now!

Anyway, seems like she's feeling much better today. Has sick leave for 5 days, and must rest as she has a bad headache, and looks terrible, but doens't think it shall leave too many marks.

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Been playing around with my cameraphone late last night. Can see some of my new stuff on the B-tracks, or on the Zeigeist on your right ;)

Haven't uploaded all the trees and clouds pics I did yesterday... sloooooooowly, please as I'm not sure if the offer of free sending mms I received before this camphone is still applied on my phone, or if it's expired.

Best model? -Pira, of course!

Pira, of course,
originally uploaded by okokitsme.

Some of my first pics here, and of course I started off with my cat and my son, the two people whO spent most of their time around me. And the two who anc not complain too much while I'm chasing them around, camera in hand :)
I like Pirata's eyes here... I took some closer ones I didn't quite like... and shall try and repeat. I was also trying to get my own eyes, and Hugo's close up, but not satisfied yet with the results. Got to get to the best light for this limited camera.

Di algo,
originally uploaded by okokitsme.

This is the first piture Hugo took of me... caught me playing around, so he could click whenever he liked my pose :D

Hugo might even get his own Flickr acount, as he loves photography... and we can not afford too much developing right now

Shy guy,
originally uploaded by okokitsme.

First photo I took of Hugo on this phone, so he was still 'shy to pose'. He wanted to pull his 'Good Boy' face -but was too excited with the new cameraphone to keep his mouth straight!

Hugo smiles,
originally uploaded by okokitsme.

...and this one is my wallpaper on the phone!

By the way, couldn't remember from where I donloaded 'Boys don't cry' to my previous mobile, so after much searching I got now 'Close to me', also from The Cure. It is actually a better ringtone, once I get used to it ;)

My first photo,
originally uploaded by okokitsme.

And, yes, my first picture on this device was -of course- of my patient, loving, camera-friendly cat, Pirata. Notice the bad focusing when the lighting is not good enough. Sigh!

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From now on, I think most of my cameraphone photos shall be on the B tracks... or you can check my Flickr link on the right ;)

Accident

Hadn't had any accidents nearby for a few months, after the spell between Easter and end of May, where first Joan fell of his motorbike in a crash, then Hugo got knocked over by a motorbike on his way to school, and then Nate fell off his bicycle and had a bad back for a week.

Last night, around 11 p.m. or so, I got this phonecall from Josep Maria, one of Eva's 'bodyfriends' -he was a bit shaken, but being the fellow philosopher he is, he managed to talk calm-yet-shaky. He said Eva had had an accident, and she was now at the vall d'Hebron emergency wards, had been hit by a bus while walking home in her 'hood, and that some guy called Roger was with her right now. He was busy this week, and couldn't get to see her -ley my eyes roll here- so he wanted me to find out as much as possible, and keep him informed. O.k., he knew I'm not working, so I really do have time for visits and he is working, but still...

So I phoned Laida, her daughter, and tried to find out a bit more. Yes, Eva walked home after the accident, but then she fell unconscious in front of her daughter, who immediately phoned Roger -another of Eva's bodyfriends, and a neighbour- to come and help. They carried Eva to his car abd theb to hospital and ...Laida knew little more. She'd called her grandma to go to stay with Eva, and I offered her to come sleep at our place, but she'd stay at her boyfriend's parents', nearby.

We agreed she'd phone whatever time at night, if she had any news.

This morning, still without any news at 8 a.m., I sent a few sms: to Eva's mobile, so that Laida would see it, to Maite's to ask if she had any further news, to Joan, my ex, who introduced me to Eva...

Then, from about 8:30 'till 9:20 I had about 10 phonecalls: Laida, Maite, Josep Maria, Laida, Maite, Joan... It seems Eva was there 'till 4 a.m., had many tests and was sent home but the doctors asked Roger to prevent Eva from sleeping until a certain amount of hours passed. She's finally sleeping at his place, and expects to get back home this afternoon. She's not feeling well, but has only the knock on her face, no internal damage.

Shall phone this afternoon to see if she needs help and/or feels like me visiting or wants to sleep.

Bag

Bag
Originally uploaded by okokitsme.

Might as well start playing with my cameraphone, and experimenting how to get the most out of its limited possibilities :D

These are two pics of my fav bag, Eva bought me it a year and a half ago... when we bumped into some unexpected money :D


My bag in the sun
Originally uploaded by okokitsme.

It has a beautiful print, and beads sewn on -but as it is our sort of crappy technology -Vel ;)- the beads keep dropping off and me knotting loose bits of cotton so as not to lose any more beads. Endless fun!

Broken technology: Broke me

As many know, my PC never survived the test of spending 2 years at Magda's place, stored until I had a flat of my own again. Jesu had promised me -via his ex- that he'd give and install me his old PC, still working and better than mine was -he works in the business- as soon as he was feeling well enough. Last week I got this message on my answerphone, for some reason the PC was not working! So there's no free pc for me so far, and am not in the position to buy one, not even by installments, until I get a job and a better income than this dole money :(

So... what else can help my incommunication? On Saturday, Hugo put a bottle of fizzy water in my beach bag... without screwing the top on tightly!!! so my many papers and info in my bag were ruined, and also my mobile!!!!!!!!!! As am jobhunting, can't afford not to have a mobile with me, so I went and bought another one today -easier said than done!

First I went to Telefonica/Movistar at Plaza Catalunya, as I was nearby, and after 20 minutes queuing, decided to go elsewhere. Then I went to another Telefonica/Movixtar official shop, full to the brims but with more people behind the desks than the first one... and a lady in uniform came to ask what I wanted to do -change mobile, change modality of contract, etc- and said I had to go and phone such-and-such number from a phonebox outside before anything else, to get my points. But I said so far whenever I changed my mobile, the shop itself did this -and i couldn't use my mobile as it wouldn't even switch on!!!

Nothing to do, treated a bit as a nuisance, I saw I had to either go find another place, or agree on phoning this number, mobile-priced (let alone free-of-cost) and find out how many points I had exactly.

The third phonebox did work. So I put in a few coins, but wasn't enough so put in a € coin. Automated reply, and then I get to the point I have to enter my bank account -after giving my phone number, Identity number, etc... and I haven't got it with me. Am waiting to see if when you don't reply you get to an operator, but no... it just cuts off!!!

Phone again, this time I'd click onto operator option half-way-through... and then this guy gets on the line, and says yes, he'd check the number is for me -name, surnames, DNI number again... but still he needs my bank account anyway!!! I am running out of coins -over i.80 euro by now- and he's still telling me it's for my own safety ...so i hang up, as it's beeeeping no more credit! =(

Finally go back home -6 underground stops and out of my way for the cyber etc- and get my bank details just incase, and go to the Telefonica/movistar outlet in my hood. No problem, no need of my bank details, just my DNI and phonenumber... and they dealt with everything else.

GOT A CAMERAPHONE!!! Though the second-cheapest one, with difference! A Telefonica make, not a Nokia or Siemens, Motorola... I hope it's ok. Not sure how to email the pics yet, but much fun sure soon!!!

...and I just found out the Tax Return I was expecting actually did arrive, about a week ago, and only 300 euro... so I'm really broke, i thought I could still count on that besides what I'd seen in my account!

Harry Potter, Shrek 2...

...Hugo is back in town, and I am back into Other Kinds Of Entertainment. But. I am enjoying Harry Potter, though it takes time off Ian Dury... and I looooved Shrek 2.
Also am carrying tons of weight in my bag, between both my book and his, plus our beach stuff in case we go, plus his toys chosen for the day, plus his long sleeved t-shirt and mine for the chillier evenings... plus all the shit I usually carry anyway!
Sent a c.v. to a really interesting company. Not gonna say much more, don't want to talk too much. But it would be an interesting environment, a film distributor focused on lesser known, non-commercial films... sigh!
Anything else interesting lately? Not that much. The surprise of Nate actually bringing over two of the promised HP books for Hugo, about 4 or 5 mionths after his first mention of the idea ;) -and less time at the cyber, as am more on the beach and at the swings :D.
Oh. Yeah. And the promised PC my friend was going to hand me over and install et all, it isn't working now, so no PC at home again. Can't possibly buy one now, even by installments, with so many expenses to cover every month and so little money coming in right now.
D'oh.

Making the most

of these last warm days, and of not having any job interviews... so now I've made my mind up to go to the beach as often as possible, and went on Friday with Hugo after school -him in his underpants and new cut-off gloves, and begging me not to take my clothes off until I'm ready to go to the water- and then on Monday again -this time he was a bit more at ease with nudeness, am starting to de-tox him from his grandparents' style! he ctually took his underwear off and swam with me, and played around only realizing every now and then he was naked.
This morning I went to the beach again, after watching Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom)* and still in a contemplative and thought-scrutinizing mood. I love the beach now, when you really feel like lying in the sun, on the warm sand, with a breeze tickling you and the sea is nice and cool, but not too cold to enjoy yet. I miss bumping into Ian as I used to, years ago, before he went back to England. He used to turn appear from somewhere, walking the kilometers of the beach taking in the sun and breeze as I was... and we'd have one of our useless talks that never got anywhere... Just felt really nice.
Yet, when still breathing in the air, and caressing the sand, I suddenly heard someone address me, and ask where my son was. I'd been coming to this nudist beach during the summer, when it was quite crowded, and I only bumped into people I knew very few times, besides the friends I'd go with or arrange to meet. So I was surprised to have someone know me, as I hadn't seen any familiar faces. It was this guy who'd been commenting with me about Hugo and his nerves when he first took his pants off yesterday.
He asked to sit next to me, and as I didn't really care, I said ok. But then he went on and on and on about how uncool and non-understandable people who had prejudices about nudity were, and how natural it was to sit around as we were, and how he never got turned on by nudist women on the beach -let alone a stiff- and so on. Too late to tell him to move somewhere else, I just ended burying my head in my much enjoyed Ian Dury biography, and to my dismay that encouraged him to talk even more and more!!!
Then I got the regular complaint about how 'serious' I am, and questioned whether he'd said anything that had bothered me. I had to say it was nothing in particular, but I had just come to the beach to read and relax, and a little conversation was ok, but I didn't really want to talk and talk. I wanted to relax. And read.
It got worse when I saw his dick was starting to twitch -and he was going on about how I was a real vision, laid under the sun and playing with the sand in my hands, looking like a queen (?) (sic), and that 'oops!, you've got sand all over you, do you want me to knock it off for you?'
SNNNNARRRRRRL!
Chuckles from people around us. As I said not many people, so it was easy for them to see what was going on, besides many of us have never spoken or only exchanged a couple of words or so, but we know each other by sight and can roll eyes or pull silly faces when something happens.
This time it was quite a general cough/chuckle, and people shifting so as to cover giggles.

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* Hadn't heard any Korean since I lost my job in July, and it was nice to listen to the sing-song tones I'd become so used to.
Beautiful settings. Makes you re-think if it is worth living the way we do, in big cities, hurrying, dong things we really couldn't care less about only for money... But then I personally believe it does. For me. And the ascetic life had tempted me some times while studying... but am too driven by impulse and passions, got to drink the whole cup even if it's poisoned.

Kosmopolis

Today I went to Macba to finish seing an exhibition I'd left half-way-through and had a re-visit ticket for -just to find out it's finished!

So I passed by Kosmopolis . Just for a while, as I can go in for free thanks to my 'Amics del CCCB' card. Passed by the bookcrossing section and got a book. Cursed myself a bit for not having brought a few books I would have liberated, and headed down to the Hall where they had some interesting projections. Walked half-way into Allen Ginsberg going maniac with some texts, and sat out the rest of "Poetry in Motion 2" really enjoying discoveries such as Helen Adam, a Beat Generation wild, enchanting poet who, now under a beautiful silver bobbbed hair and huge reading glasses, and wearing an incredible parsley outfit, was reciting and acting out, adn ended singing madly her tales of a haunted flat she's renting to someone 'suitable, non-smoker, no children'... once she's got rid of her husband by slaughtering him! ;) Yessir, I'm gonna dig further into this discovery. Would thank any contributions -interesting links, book donations ;)

Then came "Resistencia: Hip Hop en Colombia" , a good documentary on Colombia's toughest side, everyday life in Medellin, Cali, Bogota's hardest outskirts -barrio de Las Cruces- and how politics, U.S., paramilitar troops and drug mafias are all fighting each other and driving the population to complete misery. Hip Hop is their escape. Without any money to buy records or music equipment, there's dozens of good MCs and Human Beatboxes, kids rapping in the street against drugs & guns in the hood, breakdancers telling us what it's all about, and graffitti artists with no money to buy spray cans.

Then it was the turn for "FREEDOM HIGHWAY", which I was not sure I could stay to watch completely but was really interested in, so I stayed for a while, and once they got to the Soweto choir singing the Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika and I broke into tears as usual with this chant, I thought 'enough is enough, babe, go to the cyber and check your stuff there!'

B-track

consumism

consumism,
originally uploaded by okokitsme.

At last Anna sent me something worth sharing. She's the typical person who keeps sending attachments, jokes, and so on... but this one is good.

Hmmmmmmmm... so 3 durex means it would be with...

B Tracks

Do you remember when music used to come in the form of a big, black plastic (vinyl, technically) disc, that had tracks on both sides, and you could select the track you wanted by placing manually the needle on the track you counted as the right one..., and then you could also buy a smaller (but still huge for you Nokia generation) disc in that fragile plasticky thing, with their tacky cardboard covers our cats love wrecking?

Those days, if you liked a song but didn't have enough cash for the L.P. (the enormous version, with less songs than in a cd), then you could buy the single -which, confusingly enough, didn't have One Single Song, but usually two, or sometimes more. Because those days there where no MP3s, no Ipods... hell, there hardly were any computers around!!!

Not going into Maxis, E.P.s, etc. Enough history lesson.

But remember the concept. They were caled Singles, but actually had 2 songs. One on each side!!! And hence the B-track idea. People used to buy singles because of The Song. The A track. But you had some space on the other side, and had to use it.

Sometimes the B-track was the songs that didn't make the album -the L.P. Sometimes they were real crap. Or remixes of the original song -quite favoured inthe 80s. Yet some other times the B-tracks where the less comercial, more adventurous songs. Some have proved to be, as years passed by, much better songs than the popular hit of the moment, the A track. So out came compilations of B-tracks. The real stuff, less controled.

Anyway. All this is just to say, from now on this blog has aB Track . Don't know how it's gonna work. But it shall keep this A-track saner. I think.

;)

Free. Together.

Realized I'm not losing Joan. As a friend. As a person. As someone who knows you and loves you.

He realized he has me on his side. Whatever. Whenever. He realizes he loves me, he knows who I am and where I am at.

We had a really close night. Laughing. Gossiping. Lying. Admitting. Catching up with things. Those little things. he knew I'd laugh at his Coke Light in the fridge.-'What the hell???!!!'. I knew he'd laugh at my teenager approach towards N, and how I can't get him out of my mind, nor dare move closer to him.

He was jealous when he realized I'm in love. He wanted to know how long I've been this mad about N. I am no longer jealous of his girlfriend, that is over. But I am a bit sick to know who else he is with... and was jealous when he was admiring for an hour a girl at the disco we were then...

He's proud of me, and is glad to introduce me to his friends I hadn't met yet and we bumped into. I'm so glad I met him. He boasted about the guy who asked after me at a music bar, and said he was drooling like Homer when he sees a doughnut. He counts on me as his girl; I count on him as my guy. Corny. True.

He knew before I told him which advertising spot is my pet hate, I knew before he said which one was his.

Good job we didn't lose this. It is the main part of our relationship. Sex is elsewhere, but intimacy is rare.

Just finding new ways...

to make me smile. Have found in Flickr a load of creativity, whileas I'm using it a very boring way for the moment -a.k.a. Eva's wedding pics, to blog them. Just wait till I get a digital camera ;)

Am still in awe with electricinca's way of using the Comments on the pictures: I'd advise you to read the story...

So I am renewing my belief in the other world, full of creative people, I thought was long lost.