Category Archives: in english

in english

Jyväskylä & Lahti, Finland

Spent a long weekend right after Mexico in Jyväskylä and Lahti for Rally Finland.  Some of my best pictures and videos below (the rest are found here).

Nokia at WRC
You can follow live every WRC race straight from your Nokia device.
Lahti
Lake in downtown Lahti

Driving to Jyväskylä
Driving back to Jyväskylä

Abandoned mökki
Abandoned cabin in Urria
Closing ceremony
Awards ceremony. Loeb won again.

Overall it was a very nice experience and now I understand why it is one of the iconic races in the WRC calendar.  The only sad part was a small run in with a drunk racist jerk after I had briefly met MP Hakkarainen in my last night in town (“Smile and wave, smile and wave”). And people ask me why I tend to avoid the cities between Tampere and Lapland… 😉

in english

Mexico, summer 2011

We spent 2 excellent weeks in Mexico visiting my family.  With the new member of the family in tow we didn’t do a lot of tourism so I do not have that many “publishable” pictures this time, but below you can find some.

The rest, as usual, in the set.

Jícamas, 3 kinds of mangoes, prickly pears, mameyes, guavas
Lots of fruits you cannot find in Finland: jícamas, 3 kinds of mangoes, prickly pears, mameyes, guavas
Mole de olla
My mom's wonderful mole de olla. I've had it in restaurants and it isn't nearly as good.
México, U-17 World Champion
Mexico won the U-17 world football championship while we were there and the whole country celebrated.
Tuna / Prickly pear
How to peel a prickly pear. Stuff that grows wild in Mexico costs 7€/kilo here and doesn't taste as good.
Pancita
Pancita, cow's stomach soup. Might sound disgusting, but it's great for hangovers.
Mexican breakfast
A healthy hotel Mexican breakfast. No wonder we can stand without having lunch until 3 or 4 p.m. after one of these.
Beach in Ixtapa
Beach in Ixtapa, Guerrero, in the Pacific coast.
View from my hotel room
View from our hotel room in Ixtapa

in english

Recommended movie: El Infierno (Hell)


This is a very well-made dark, sarcastic allegory of the security situation in northern Mexico.  Imagine Scarface and Herod’s law having a child while listening to narcocorridos.  Not for the faint of heart, and definitely not for anyone under 15 years old.  I bought the DVD recently, but if you happen to come across it in a film festival or on TV don’t miss it.  Definitely the Mexican hit of 2010.

in english

Using an iPad

I waited to buy an iPad until the second version was released as I’ve had issues before with buggy software as an early adopter of technology.  It won’t replace your PC nor your mobile phone, but occupies a very sweet niche in between.  It has certainly modified the media consumption landscape in my household, so let me explain.

Boot-up time is not an issue, so it lives with us in the living room and is available at any time.  I can check e-mail or the web while watching TV or show videos to my son in the screen.  Paired with services such as Skimm.tv I know exactly what I want to watch and when I want to watch it.  My morning routine now includes watching the football highlights from the device with my son while having breakfast, in a win-win situation for us all.

Everybody talks about apps and games for the iPad (and yes, whatever you’re thinking about doing, there’s an app for that) but the other use it really has helped me with is with reading books, magazines and comics.  If you travel and read as much as me you hate the weight of that 900-page book you can’t finish at home or carrying all those back issues of the Economist you haven’t had time to read and with a pretty decent catalog of Marvel and DC comics I have something to do besides work when on the road.  Even better, if I’m traveling with family we can watch TED talks together in the train or plane and the journey becomes that bit shorter.

A person I met in Argentina was trying to understand what is the use for it as it’s too big for a smartphone and too small for a computer.  Writing a blog post or working on a presentation on an iPad, while possible, is not particularly easy.  However, consumption of information is a breeze (as long as it’s not in Flash :P).

Just make sure you leave home with a full charge. 🙂

en español, in english

They shall call him… Little Pea

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.

 

in english

Greece, magical Greece

One of my favourite books growing up was an illustrated introduction to Greek history and mythology, with photographs of the most important archaeological sites.  In 11 years living in Europe I hadn’t had a chance to visit Greece until now.  It was too short and a history buff like me will have to return.

The story in pictures (more here, as usual).

Walking around Corinth
Modern Corinth doesn't have a lot of sights, but the flora more than made up for it.
Parthenon
Finally, my childhood dream, the Parthenon. 😀
Rally Greece Ceremonial Start
Not a bad sight to start your event at.
Austerity protests in Athens
The state of the Greek economy is all over the news. Thankfully this is as close to the protests as we got.
SS1 Thiva
Vroom.
Corinth canal
The Corinth Canal.
Loutraki sunset in HDR
I'll have to come back on holiday to really enjoy the place.