How can I be so busy...

...when I'm not working???

• By helping my friends when they are ill or had an
  accident
• By offering to help those who are packing their stuff to leave this goddamn expensive city
• By wasting spending time at my son's school, helping at the PTA (AMPA) office
• By spending hours at the cyber checking infojobs and other offers elsewhere
• By going to interviews and tests, being passed on to second interviews, and no further
• By blogging about these interviews, or these work efficiency tests, and then losing the post because the pc at this damned cyber goes freaky and erases everything before I can save
• By playing around with both my blogs, and reading endless posts here and there...
• By cleaning and re-decorating my flat, now I have time to do it! hahahaaha, can't lie!!!!!!!!
• By checking silly things as my trackbacks, the updates and comments at Que Buscas QUÉ?! ... by the way, it seems I'm search by my name, more than once...
  
  
  

  Must remember ;)

Fancy rice?

Was browsing through The New York Times' digital edition and found this great headline:Looks Like Diversity, but It Tastes Like Tuna*. It talks about the supposedly ethnic restaurants' menus, as opposed to the real stuff once you're in Vietnam, India or whatever.

Quote:

"All you need are some different condiments, some different lighting and a
different-looking menu, and people think they're having a different meal," said
Mitchell Davis, a cookbook writer who teaches in New York University's
department of nutrition, food studies and public health. "They're not, because
they really want to be eating the same things: steak, cod and tuna tartare."

I have heard this from many friends who do travel, or are from different continents. I know it myself as the African Restaurants I've visited -Senegalese, mainly- have little to offer compared to my friends', some of whom are excelent cooks and have even published ethnic-oriented cookery books ;)

AAAAAHHH, and the (in)famous instant noodles sent by dozens to our Korean connection from his headquarters... way too spicy even for my asian friends, after jumping onto the bucket-styled packs I'd have given!!!!!!!! Still remember Mami pouring more and more boiling water into the bucket, to make it edible!!!!!!!

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*If you want to read it, or any other suscriber-only stuff, try BugMeNot.com ;)

Long wait

Money is running down. Am getting quite desperate for a new job now, either that or some fill-in task such as bartending cash-in-hand stuff, whatever to help me pay aaaaaaaallll those bills I have monthly.

Haven't had an interview for two weeks, I think, It's maddening, worse than being rejected after the interview. Of course, there are many jobs I turn down -many 'coz they pay less than the benefit I'm getting from the State right now, so I could never manage with that sort of wage...

Note to self: Do Not Be Too Honest At Interviews

First time on my own at the PTA office

I already said I'd volunteered to spend 4 ours a week at the Parents' Association office, at my son's school, until I get some work...
Well, ever since I've had a few unexpected meetings I've been dragged to -at 9:30 in the morning, or at 4:30 when collecting my son- and have been handed a load of names but not who they are or what am supposed to do with them. Only good thing so far had been that I got to talk quite a lot to another mother I would have never met, who is just as pissed off as me due to the lack of commitment from the parents who are supposed to be running the PTA, who seem to want to be the Holy Saints Who Do Everything, cry for support and then never turn up to give you the minimum info you'll need.
Am staying only Thursdays 4:30-6:30, in the end, and extra moments to help preparing festivals, deco, food for parties, etc... but have also been an afternoon counting out plastic cups and plates for the next party -La Castanyada- and terribly exciting stuff like that.
Last night I got a phonecall from one of the mothers who run the PTA, and we'd agreed to meet this morning, to get my set of keys, info, etc so I can start properly next week. Ha!. I was there from 9:30 'till about 12:30 or so!!!!!!!!!! Re-organized files in the computer, made new lists with phones, timetables... and helped pack a load of books to return to the editors! This was specially good: I had a good laugh with the janitor, a young, intelligent, cool guy I talk to sometimes, and now we were just making fun at the way things worked (or didn't) at the PTA office.
To my horror, when the other woman left and asked me to finish off what she had started -by the way, the only box wrongly marked was the one she'd done ;)!- the school Head came to ask me if there was Theatre workshop today. I just stared at her blankly, and said I had no clue: Id try and find out!!! The phone list proved useless: the person in charge of the Theatre activities had only a landline and wasn't there, the PTA director had his mobile switched off, and the only person I managed to speak to was as lost as me!!! Inthe end, the Janitor said 'Forget it, we'll just say there's no theatre class today, it's Friday after all and tomorrow Saturday... just forget it ;)!

Talking 'bout theatre: been offered to assist for free to theatre lessons by a guy I know who teaches on Thursdays... as usual, no phone conections so I have to bump into him again to get the exact address... he showed me it once, his ad, but I was in a hurry right then...

So, if there's less posts lately it's because I'm posting quickies at my other blog , or busy busy at my son's school. Not because I found a job yet!

What a night...

Last night I was supposed to teen-sit and look after Eva's daughter, who has crashed Eva's bike when she sneaked out with the keys to meet her boyfriend and go for a ride, while Eva was sleeping. Neither her nor the bf have the legal age nor the licence to ride that bike. Now she has a sprained leg, he has a fucked up knee, and Eva has a fucked up bike, that she can't even claim to the insurance as it was crashed by two teenagers, before Eva could even use it legally -she was waiting for October 19th, when the law changes and you can use a medium-sized bike with your car licence.

I was staying overnight just because she wasn't feeling too well, and Eva had a date. Which was a disaster. She left saying she'd phone next day to see if she'd come for lunch, yet by 2 a.m. she phoned to say she as already on her own, and on her way back.

I'd warned her. She'd got too excited with this new guy, after one night, and she said it was going to be great because she already knew him as an acquaintance of her ex's, and they'd been soooo well together... So when he phoned, to meet last night, of course I stayed at her place for her to go... but with a warning: don't expect too much!!! It seems I was right. They met, had a drink with some friends of his, he said she was great, but he was buying a house in another town with a girl, and was leaving the next day. So he was supposed to meet some other friends last night, to have the last drink, among which was a girl he was secretly in love with.

So they all left, she then found out they hadn't even paid for their beers, and she came home. To find her daughter laughing, explaining her adventure to her teenager friends -she'd told me it was ok for visits, there were about 4-5 kids here when she came back.

The rest of the night, after a big row with her daughter, was spent in going over and over her problems with men, her eagerness to find a love in the first guy who smiles at her, how she must keep her cool... And going over and over her problems with her daughter...

'I really hope that, well, that you get to do it better, or that Hugo is an easier teen... but I really hope you don't have to go through this. I just can't cope with her. I love her, really, and she isn't a bad person, but all she wants to do is hurt, hurt, hurt!'

Am now waiting for her to come back, and we'll go to Park Güell for a walk... guess she's been to catch Roger after taking his pictures of the sunrise.

Need a job

On Friday I went to buy a present for Hugo's friend, gave in and bought a new toy for Hugo too, and walked out of the shop with 4 euro. Bank, let the card get me some money.

You have 7.56 euro

So. No money for the weekend. No money until Monday, at least. Unless we got in time to our lawyer, and pray we could cash the check on Saturday morning -being a legal matter, sometimes there are restrictions.

Also, had a date :P on Saturday, after Hugo's friend's birthday party. So I needed some cash to get me over that, get a few beers so as not to seem I take for granted men pay for everything. We'd already agreed to only have a few beers, no dinner out or disco to avoid expenses...

I guess I must have received the dole money now. But that won't cover mortgage, Hugo's school expenses, phone bills, etc -this month it was paid out of what I had left, next moth I'll have nothing by the time bills turn up.

Must shake myself up and make some decisions. So far, am pinned, am feeling useless, am not sure which way to take my first step. Too much time to think. Too little action. Must change my frame of mind immediately, before I touch rock bottom -my dear old place.

Guess so much time online isn't that good, either. Am checking jobs, of course, and have had many interesting interviews thanks to Infojobs' listings of jobs. Am really satisfied with how InfoJobs works. And the companies that use it are quite god ones, major companies, and local but serious.

But of course... online means also chatting, surfing -today's time-wasters were:The Crossroads - Pulp Phantom, Pulp fiction meets Starwars :P ; Jeff Bridges.com, his hand-written blog! O_O; Exactitudes ...so beautiful, so unsettling?: A good project; Fool's World Map ...how I relate, after so many embarrassing questions from co-workers, such as 'Italy is in Europe, right?'- we're in Spain, and that company worked daily with Italy, just accross our coast!!!

Should I list the interesting job ads today? Ok: .

Yes, you got it ;)

Big Mouth Strikes Again

Been to a Parents' meeting at Hugo's school.

Couldn't keep my big mouth shut, so when they started moaning about always being more or less the same people at the meetings and helping with activities, I said I was only able to attend 'coz I was out of work, but had mentioned many times before at their office that they could try having some of their meetings on weekends. No, of course not, no-one wants to spoil their week-end to attend. Well, I had been working for the last 4 years from 9 am till 6:30 or 7 pm -and a year and a half it wasn't even in the same city as the school is! And just as me, many parents work at shops -open till 8 or later- or offices, etc also till late hours. So meetings on weekdays, at 6 pm, are not necessarily convenient to everyone.

So, after pulling faces at every other word the president spoke, as he defended no-one would go on a week-end, and that it is only these Holier Than Thou people who would help anyway, I only just had to offer help while looking for work. Which I already had done, at their office, but to some other members of the association.

Result? Can I just be quiet and help at one little thing, focus on my jobhunting and helping Eva out?... No, of course not. I'm not sure if it's a result of my recent migraine or what, but I ended taking four hours a week until I get a job, Tuesdays and thursdays, at their office, plus deal with their e-mails and mailing lists, plus help at the next couple of parties and events at the school. Ta-daaa!!! Just like I was so involved at Hugo's nursery... but without the financial help I was having back then, when Bernard still helped out... so i could deal with helping around and not just WORK, WORK, WORK!

Anyway... sweet side? finally got to see a face I was craving for ;)

Fira del Llibre-II

God! Am a bookoholic, always have been, but sometimes my B:A: sessions seem to work better than others!

And in case it ain't enough with the books I have at home, waiting to be read, and the ones I've already thought of re-reading, I have been buying quite a load of them lately, reduced prices and little treasures...

On this same blog I've been talking about the load of books I bought before hugo came back, and then at my B-tracks I spoke about the ones I got last weekend at the Fira del Llibre, now I passed by again and bought some Unamuno essays I hadn't read yet for only 1.80 euro, an Elmore Leonard -in Spanish, though :(- I hadn't read yet for 2 euro, and Infernaliana , by Charles Nodier , in French also for 2 euro!

Am logging off, to get back home and read a bit ;)

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 ;)