Merry Xmas
For all the readers out there, Merry Xmas! There is a little bit of a drought in posts here but I am hoping that the turron will make up for it.
See you all soon!
December 23, 2006
October 13, 2006
Apple Nano Red
Apple seems to be launching some time later today the Apple Nano Red. Not sure if by mistake or not but although you can access the product page you can not buy it yet.
In any case good and well done Apple. I will get one!
September 01, 2006
To Venta del Fraile, Granada, Spain
Hmmm.
Hmmm.
Spain, hmmm.
Our analyst came to us a couple of weeks ago with a report showing a surge of visits from Venta del Fraile in Granada, Spain.
Hmmm.
Hmmm.
(Hmmm, this analyst is getting a lot of money for making such reports).
We decided to see whether we could find something about that town in the internet and we just made a discovery unknown to the science. As the following link to Venta del Fraile shows, we have found a town that suffers a perennial winter - no kidding, look at the pictures.
If you happen to be from there and you are our lovely visitor, let us know how is it to be in such a cold town all year round! Do not be shy, we will keep your name in secret, for the sake of the science!
August 31, 2006
A WEEKEND IN BARCELONA
Many of you have been asking about recommendations for a weekend in Barcelona, and as I keep loosing my emails I thought that it would be better to post all the information here. This way I will save time every time one of you goes to Barcelona for the weekend.
Where to EAT
Tapas - La Cervecería Catalana
Best tapas in town. I go back there every time I go back to Barcelona. Don't leave without tasting jamón de jabugo, pimientos del padrón, pincho de solomillo, and of course pan con tomate. Una clara (beer with lemon juice) to drink will work perfectly with the food.
No booking allowed, but worth queuing for a while.
Meat - El asador de Aranda
Delicious corderito and cochinillo. The building on the Tibidabo outskirts is amazing and the meat can't be better. I would recommend to go for dinner if you don't want to spend the rest of the day taking a siesta.
Booking essential.
Paella - El Merendero de la Mari
You will their paella.
Black rice - Peixerot
What is black rice? Rice that has been cooked with calamari ink and lobster. Delicious!
Fish - Els Pescadors
The restaurant is located in a dodgy area, but the trip is worth as you will have first class fish.
Hot chocolate - Cacao Sampaka
You must try it with some melindros. What are melindros? You will have to find out yourself.
What to VISIT
Gaudí
As a Gaudí fan I highly recommend to visit La Pedrera, la Casa Batlló, and el Parque Güell. Amazing arquitecture. If you visit during the summer you can't miss the concerts on la Pedrera's roof - jazz, flamenco,... different music and same cold champagne every night.
La Boqueria Market
If you are a food lover you can't miss La Boqueria, one of the best markets in the world. BTW La Boqueria is hermanado with Borough Market in South London.
MACBA Museum
If you like modern art you can not miss the MACBA Museum, in the old neighbourhood of the city
Where to WALK AROUND
You will see that walking around is easy in Barcelona.
Paseo de Gracia, Rambla Catalunya, la Rambla de les flors (full of pick pockets - hold your handbag as hard as you can!), el Born, Barri Gotic, Port Olimpic (can be a bit dodgy)...
Where to GO SHOPPING
Paseo de Gracia and Rambla Catalunya are the best places to shop as almost all brands have a shop there. Begin your walk in Rambla Catalunya with Diagonal and then walk down until Plaza Cataluña. After that take Puerta del Angel - At that point you will probably have burnt your plastic card.
If you want to buy any food as ham, chorizo, tuna, or cheese, I would recommend to go to el Corte Ingles where they seal the embutido very well so that it lasts for weeks in the fridge (well, that is the theory - It does not matter if I buy 200 grams or 2 kilos of jabugo, I always finish it withing a couple of weeks!)
How TO MOVE around
You can walk to almost everywhere if you stay in the center of the city. If you feel tired at some point you can take the tube or bus.
A good way to discover the rest of the city is to take a Bus Turistic (I took it myself and found it very good) and have an idea of how the rest of the city looks like. You can get in and out the bus as many times as you like and you get a voucher checkbook that has discounts to many places in the city.
Where to PARTY AT NIGHT
I am too old for that an I have lost the track. You will have to investigate yourself!
Still, if you want to know where to party we recommend Luz de Gas or a bit more crazier Danzatoria.
Useful WEBSITES
www.lanetro.com - For restaurant locations
www.tmb.net - For transport information
www.servicaixa.com - For purchasing any kind of tickets
Enjoy your trip!
August 22, 2006
The true story about Memoirs of a Geisha
Author Arthur Golden interviewed Iwasaki while researching for his novel Memoirs of a Geisha. He promised to maintain absolute confidentiality but he thanked her by name in the book's acknowledgements. Iwasaki felt betrayed by that mention to her name and also by the manipulation of her personal life.
For Iwasaki's association with Golden's inaccurate portrayal of the geisha world, she has been shunned in Gion Kobu and treated with hostility.
As a result Iwasaki sued Golden for breach of contract and defamation of character. Golden chose to settle out of court in February 2003.
She wrote her true story in Geisha of Gion: The Memoir of Mineko Iwasaki.
This entry was posted back in January 30, 2006.
August 21, 2006
Monday morning bash
Is Monday morning and if you are not on holidays, is a depressing day with a full week ahead of hard work, long commuting hours and painful meetings. If you are on holidays, sorry about remembering this to you.
To sweeten your week a little, get some shots of intrepid culture at enlahood.com from golf to planets.
August 18, 2006
Real Madrid gets Diarra
Breaking news footies! Real Madrid and Lyon just announced that they have reached an agreement to transfer Diarra from Lyon to Real Madrid. Great friday night news!
Read more here:
Lyon website (in french)
As.com (in spanish)
I will be posting some videos from Diarra tomorrow.
Hey, we need an exact definition
Today I spent the whole night pretending to know what 'module' means. In case you are going out with friends tomorrow night, read the below definition before arriving to the restaurant:
mod·ule 
(m
j
l)
Latin modulus, diminutive of modus, measure; see med- in Indo-European roots
- A standard or unit of measurement.
- Architecture The dimensions of a structural component, such as the base of a column, used as a unit of measurement or standard for determining the proportions of the rest of the construction.
- A standardized, often interchangeable component of a system or construction that is designed for easy assembly or flexible use: a sofa consisting of two end modules.
- Electronics A self-contained assembly of electronic components and circuitry, such as a stage in a computer, that is installed as a unit.
- Computer Science A portion of a program that carries out a specific function and may be used alone or combined with other modules of the same program.
- A self-contained unit of a spacecraft that performs a specific task or class of tasks in support of the major function of the craft.
- A unit of education or instruction with a relatively low student-to-teacher ratio, in which a single topic or a small section of a broad topic is studied for a given period of time.
- Mathematics A system with scalars coming from a ring.
You want news?
We just created a quick news page - politics! Yes, is not sophisticated neither is probably very interesting at least you live in the US and want to get a political view according to users but hey, this is what I can manage to get up and running in 5 minutes.
Give it a try - another thing that needs to be improved with better templates and some filtering. If you do not mind, tell me what news you want to read and I will put it up there.
Before I forget, the news module is courtesy of digg.com .
August 17, 2006
Are these really the most hunted places to live?
Apparently and according to Yahoo! today, the most searched places where to live are:
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Denver, Colorado
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Tampa, Florida
- Dallas, Texas
While I can understand Honolulu (island, good weather, get Lost) and Denver (mountains, a small ski resort called Aspen) I just do not get it in the case of Las Vegas, Tampa and Dallas. Is either I have been in those places and did not see the beauty of them or I have lost the plot because, who really wants to be in the middle of the desert, surrounded by neon lights and absolutely nowhere to go apart from Casinos. I got lost in Vegas once, off the Strip, and I can tell you that it was a very revealing experience, put it this way, it is wasteland.
And Tampa? What does it have Tampa apart from the sports teams? Is that a place you want to live because there are sports teams there?
Finishing with Dallas - what? Dallas??? Why? Dallas Mavericks?
Sorry but I just do not get it.
August 14, 2006
A xixonista wedding
Many times I have heard about the xixonistas, about Xixon, how special it is, about Xixon's seafood, Xixon's puerto, Xixon's bla bla bla.
It seems now that we are about to discover Xixon and its marvels because one of its most popular expatriates, and the single one that originated the Xixon buzz is about (almost) to marry.
From here I just want to wish them the best of the best in the future and wishing we soon have little xixonistas so we can continue investigating this special phenomenon.
A good website for all your planning: the knot (http://www.theknot.com/)
Congratulations couple!