Sweet France, Proud Albion

Tomorrow I am off for two weeks. I will miss Madrid, but more importantly, I will see my old friends and also some new places.

Karaoke with the VIPs

OK, after clearing the air with El Pintor on Saturday (and declaring to be good friends), we hit the usual spot. But as he just told me on the Messenger, I apparently sang to some Spanish celebrity who was standing next to us at the bar. I really don't know whether he is really famous, but El Pintor swears he his. As a matter of fact, I don't even remember singing to him...

Zara Summer

The Devil You Don't Know

Yesterday when I was posting the happy video of Kylie and Jason from YouTube, I went through a couple of her solo works, too. My attention caught a video to "Better the Devil You Know", an example how much can be the lyrics disconnected from the picture and the music itself. The song lyrics is so shocking and frightening that even Nick Cave called it "one of pop music's most violent and distressing" and "when Kylie Minogue sings these words, there is an innocence to her that makes the horror of this chilling lyric all the more compelling".

Jasonrolling

I was 14 years old back then and Jason was über hot (BTW: not my style now, but whatever). It's frikkin' 20 years ago! (In the meantime, Kylie became an icon, who would have guessed).

Skákavka

VarioLFR.E, Registration number 1596, Public Transportation Services in Brno, Purchased in December 2006
I particularly like the headlights, as they remind me of the eyes of a jumping spider, the one and only spider I can handle.

Bargain hunter

I know I should be ashamed of myself for such a shallowness and consumerism, but it kinda made me happy to get a €40 Benetton pink shirt for €9 and €90 T2[in] shoes for €30.
BTW, today I have discovered an amazingly delicious drink they sell in EROSKI as their own brand. Called Té Verde, it contains juices of maracuja, lime and apple and a green tea extract. I have to admit that I really love that store.

Beauty

Pumped-storage hydroelectric plant Dlouhé Stráně underwent a asphalt surface reconstruction and is being filled with water again. Elected a No.1 "wonder" of the Czech Republic in 2005, it's one of the biggest plants of its kind in Europe.

The Metro's World of Gossips

The only free newspaper that is published in Madrid in August is Metro. The next-to-last page is specially designed for tourists, because it's entirely in English. One can find a gossip column that I find incredibly funny. Today they published a little note about Britney Spears as she is being put on the covers of all U.S. gossip magazines because of her continuous troubles with raising her kids. The Star magazine published a headline: "Britney to her kids: You were both mistakes!". Now a little excerpt from that Metro article: "We don't see what the big damn deal is. If we had a nickel for every time our parents called us mistakes, we would have enough money to buy Britney's babies and raise them as our own. Girlfriend needs money for mojitos." Brilliant.
UPDATE (five hours and dos cafés after): Now I don't think that this particular one was so entertaining anymore. Oh, those desperate mornings... Anyways...

Where is my mind?

Walking from the RENFE station at the Autónoma, on one of the benches I saw a canister with some red liquid, resembling kalimotxo. I thought: 'Oh my, it must have been some mini botellón'. Close to the canister, there was some yellow plastic string, but I didn't pay enough attention what kind it was. A little bit further down my way, voilà, there was another still life, absolutely identical, a canister with red liquid and a yellow string. I thought: 'C'mon, this is completely ridiculous, what was happening here?' and then, all of a sudden, I saw a guy with a string trimmer.

Weeds

The first four episodes of the third season of Weeds leaked on the internet. While still unreleased on Showtime, they are surprisingly in a DVD quality. Thou shalt not steal.

Terremoto

Today at 9:47am, Spain was hit by an earthquake of a 5.1 magnitude with the epicentre in Ciudad Real. Apparently, it was noticed around the whole country, Madrid included. Fortunately, I was sleeping deeply at that moment. Sometimes it's not such a bad idea to go for a couple of drinks, particularly with El Pintor, who, by the way, looks more and more like Jesus.

Vacances françaises

Yesterday, I bought airplane tickets for my trip to France in September. I can't wait to see all my friends there. Moreover, I will be travelling with Stephanienounette! Alegría total.
UPDATE: To get myself into the French mood, we went to see "Ratatouille" yesterday. C'est magnifique!

The Mirror Universe

Mr. Spock 2008

After months of speculations, it was finally announced that Zachary Quinto will play young Spock in the new Star Trek movie. Honestly, who else can play that role? Zac looks exactly like young Leonard Nimoy. It's a perfect choice, thanks guys!

Luxury

As they are closing the RENFE tunnel in 7 days, I bought again the general Madrid Transportes coupon for both the metro and the cercanías services. Today, I've travelled through Nuevos Ministerios again. The station is so spacious, light and clean, a perfect opposite to the Recoletos one. There is a reason we call it "Manhattan" with Gabriel, with Recoletos being "Queens". One week of luxury!