Spent some time in England and Wales for Rally Wales GB, and was able to catch up with some friends at the end of it. As usual, more photos and videos here.
Sunrise over Amsterdam
The legendary Subaru Impreza, the only car I'd probably buy for pleasure.
WRC Live for Nokia Lumia
Dyliff gorge
Finally a sunny day, and lots of lambs.
Visited London for another one of those lightning business trips. One of these days I’ll have a chance to catch up with all my friends there. More photos in the usual place.
Pink skies over Helsinki-Vantaa. Always make me think I live in Mars.
London Chinatown
London skyline featuring the London Eye.
It’s been a tough 2011 for Europe and it’s going to get tougher. The role of Finland in this whole mess is deeply contested, and is a result of the changes in Parliament after the elections last spring. I personally think Finnish politicians are too smug (see Halla-Aho’s Greece comments). They treat other countries in the EU like a poor relation, but they seem to forget that Finland might be on the receiving end of EU aid sooner than we would like. While the current budget deficit is quite manageable, Finland has the fastest-aging population in Europe.This will have a huge impact in social services and pensions, so I would hope for a return to traditional Finnish caution from the current brashness.
If I put my Mexican hat on, it is very ironic to see developed countries not following their own rules and recommendations for economic recovery (see cartoon in Spanish). I guess the IMF’s medicine is too bitter when you try it yourself.
Below you can see some pictures I’ve taken that show the discontent from the general public in different parts of the continent.
Protests in Corinth.
Traffic rerouted due to the austerity protests in Athens.
Strong opinions in the London tube.
Madrid. "Somebody tell me how much they make with my money" / "You should understand what they say".
Posted in in english
Tagged economy, europe, finland, Greece, politics, spain, travel, united kingdom
El buen Erich Martino en una conversación apuntó cómo los cantantes que son famosos en determinado país reflejan su cultura usando como ejemplo a José José y David Bowie, dos cantantes de México y Reino Unido que aunque estén a años luz de distancia en género son de la misma edad y empezaron a ser populares casi al mismo tiempo.
A mí desde chico no me gustaban mucho las rolas del Príncipe de la Canción y no entendía por qué hasta que me puse a analizar las letras: ¡son absolutamente deprimentes!
Hoy quiero saborear mi dolor
No pido compasión ni piedad
-El Triste
Y es verdad soy un payaso,
pero qué le voy a hacer,
uno no es lo que quiere,
sino lo que puede ser.
-Payaso
Ahora comparémoslas con uno de los trancazos de Bowie (del cual tampoco soy gran fan, pero simplemente porque no me gusta tanto el glam):
There’s a Starman waiting in the sky
he’s told us not to blow it
’cause he knows it’s all worthwile.
-Starman
Alguien por favor dígame que no somos una cultura que venera al fracaso más que al éxito. Eso es lo que hay que cambiar.
He arrived unheralded and unknown in one of the best football teams in Europe from the biggest team in Mexico, where he rose from obscurity to become one of the biggest stars in the league and the national team having scored 21 goals in 28 matches.
After a summer where he scored against fancied teams such as France, Argentina or Spain, everybody (including himself) were very sceptical about his impact with his new club. They shouldn’t have bothered. His hunger and instinct in front of goal have been impressive, and he’s got a catalogue of impressive, resourceful and plain weird goals to his name: with his face, his hip, the back of his head, his heels, between two defenders, running into space, Panenka-style penalties, etc.
The bit that really impresses me about him is his attitude towards life. You see him playing every game with his heart out both for club and country, he’s always courteous with the fans and seems to have a pretty solid family life. Youth needs more examples like that.
Visited London for work. While still a little chilly, at least it looks like the first bits of spring are starting to arrive there.
One of those things that always make me wonder is how in this day and age, we can work very closely with people we don’t meet in real life. We can learn to know them, and share a lot of experiences together without being in the same place or knowing how they look. Then, when we finally meet them, we realise we already knew them.
You have two sides, one out in the field and one in. Each man that’s in the side that’s in goes out, and when he’s out he comes in and the next man goes in until he’s out. When they are all out, the side that’s out comes in and the side thats been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out. Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in. There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out. When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!
Found in my most recent trip to London.
Posted in in english
Tagged culture, literature, photography, science, united kingdom
