Oct 2006
Tales from Telefonica
16/October/2006 13:01 .Local life.Permalink
We just gotta have broadband. Years of dial up have made us hungry for the information highway and now we are going get it. Or so we thought. Things are never quite as they seem with Telefonica.
Friday Morning:
Despite press offers of up to 20meg speeds, a free wifi router and 25 euros a month - the harsh reality of Loja´s geographical position deep in this shrouded valley, has meant that the best offer was from Telefonica: 1meg, 40euros for the wifi router and 40 euros a month. I hate Telefonica.
Friday afternoon:
Finding this out was not easy, but there you have it. So after filling out the appropriate forms and giving over our bank details we had now but to wait.
Monday week.
We waited 9 days. Eventually I got a call just confirming my address and asking when I would be at home.
- Im at home now.
- No, will you be at home tomorrow.
- I can be.
- We will deliver then.
- When tomorrow exactly?
- Cant say. Sometime.
- Thanks.
Tuesday
Excited, I arose early, sorted out my plans to network the PC and the laptop and then sat and waited. Nothing. No-one. I dusted my lap-top and readjusted my plans. Then sighed.
Inevitably, the following day was fiesta, so I had to wait till the day after.
Thursday
In the morning the phone rang – it was trusty Telefonica. There was a problem with the address – the driver cant find it. I sighed.
We confirmed the details again and I was told it would be delivered Monday of the following week. Would I be in that day?
Following Monday
Monday morning, the phone rings – telefonica!
A problem with the address – again. Apparently they had been trying to deliver it to the address of the previous owner of the phone number.
What! But we filled out a form with the correct address? You confirmed the address twice on the phone last week with me!
Dont worry, its been rectified now. We will phone again when we know what day we can deliver!
Wednesday
The Router will be delivered tomorrow. Will you be in?
I can be.
Thursday
No-one and no calls. In frustration I go out to meet some friends arriving from the coast to see how we are enjoying our new life inland. Half way down town to meet them, my mobile rings.
- Hey, where are you. I have a router for you.
- Where are you, outside my flat?
- Outside Mercadona. Its the only place in town I can park. Im on a Descargar only spot. Can you get here in the next two minutes or Ill have to leave!
- But thats the other side of town!
- Tell you what. I can come back tomorrow. Will you be in?
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La Biblioteca
14/October/2006 13:00 .Local life.Permalink
Its a browsers paradise, all the daily newspapers, books and DVDs and music free to take home and copy (I mean borrow), Internet access and free printing,......I can see myself spending time here just because its in our neighbourhood. And because road works in out street mean that a man drilling outside your window from 8am is not conducive to Blogging. Another of Lojas treasures.
Rice paper strut
13/October/2006 13:00 .Teabag
rambles.Permalink
I´m beginning to get this town. To avoid falling into old behavior patterns, I am learning to walk like a cat. This is a bit like when Kwai Chang Caine has to do the rice-paper strut.
Loja is a small place and its easy to go from one end to the other without noticing a thing. Particularly when you know no-one in town. But it you slow right down, pause at every opportunity, engage in every activity on the street an entire Parallel Worlld opens up before your eyes.
One way to test this out is to stand still in a square for a moment and watch what happens around you. Don´t pretend to be engaged with something. Don´t do up that shoelace, read that paper, study the grain of the floor tiling or pretend to check your mobile SMS messages. Just stand, breathe slowly and deeply ) making sure you are not behind a bus) and wait.
Like the last night in Almunecar the moment becomes full of possibility.
A rush of blood to the head
12/October/2006 13:00 .Local life.Permalink
It appears that no replacement yoga teacher can be found. The class is reduced to just one session a week and the lack of numbers in Tai Chi has meant that the class has been scrapped altogether.
My plans, are it could be said, are rather upset.
This evening´s yoga began with the usual aerobics followed by the meditation. “So why warm the body?” I asked to the horror of the other students.
“ So that you can truly relax afterwards”.
I have noticed that people rarely question authority figures here. Although historically a rebellious and even anarchic people - a side to which I am inexplicably drawn - , Spaniards have another side that is exceptionally passive and pliant. It always amazes me how they are so prepared to challenge and even change the direction of the country over i
After we had frozen on the floor for 15 mins we had an endless lecture on new-age issues at broadband speed, followed by a “discussion” period whereupon everyone either talked to each other about a cousins forthcoming marriage or picked their toe-nails in silence. Meanwhile he continued his lecture and helpfully, kept his MP3 player on at top volume. (Not an ipod I noticed) Was it a Zune? It was difficult to see anything in this half-light. Was it a Zune, could I bear a Zune in the same room? Tonight we were treated to - The All Male Cardiff Choir sings.........Coldplay.
Surreal.
If I had wanted to learn any Yoga
05/October/2006 12:59 .Local life.Permalink
Well, if I had wanted to learn yoga I was to be seriously challenged as to the meaning of the word. It was the aerobic Taoist again filling in for an absence yoga teacher. Apart from getting me to repeat yesterdays mini form in front of the class as a recruitment effort – we spent the first 20 mins on aerobic stretches, preparing the body for what I thought would be an intensive yoga session, only to find the lights dimmed and a 20 min relaxation/guided meditation followed.
Two postures were then attempted after our bodies had cooled completely followed by yet another guided 3 stage meditation.
All of which – for a enthusiastic newcomer hoping for language practice – was not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. But.....if I had wanted to learn any yoga..........
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If I had wanted to learn any Tai Chi
05/October/2006 12:59 .Local life.Permalink
Well if I had wanted to learn a new style of Tai Chi I was to be a little disappointed. For a Taoist he speaks a lot this guy. Kwai Chang Caine he is not. He appears to not notice I have done some before. Perhaps I´m a lot worse than I thought? Perhaps he cant see me for the crowds in the class. No, can´t be that one. There is only two of us here.
The warm up was distinctly aerobic – which I have a partiality for having been an aerobic teacher in a former existence – but I wasn’t convinced of its place in a Tai Chi class.
Still, mustn't be too judgmental. I´m here for other reasons. Moon tucking and all that.
The Chi Gung breathing was recognisable – if again a little more aerobic than I would have practised. Still, mustn't be too judgmental.
The mini form that we learnt was challenging to say the least. Not that it was confusing to learn or that that it was taught necessarily poorly – though these elements were present. It was rather that the form required a physical dexterity, a flexibility beyond that which we had been sufficiently prepared. Still, mustn't be too judgmental.
I asked: “Was this a beginners class?”
¨Uh huh. You know, I don’t understand why more people don’t come” he confessed to the two of us.¨
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Evening plans
04/October/2006 12:58 .Local life.Permalink
Tomorrow is the first of the evening classes we have enrolled for. We will be toe dipping into Loja life at last. Ive gone for Tai Chi, hopefully to learn another style, and for Yoga. The Latin Dance didnt appeal. Cherry has gone for the Pilates session which is most probably the better choice. Her selections normally prove more sensible, particularly in the Pastelaria´s.
Our sneaky paln is to improve the spanish, keep healthy and who knows, even meet some Lojeños. Tomorrow I´m to lean on the moon and tuck my ipod under my arm. Or something like that.
Santiago Carillo
02/October/2006 12:45 .Echos of the Civil War
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Our first week in town and the place continues to surprise me. Will it always be like this or will complacency set in like everywhere else?
Emerging from Mercadona this evening I spot a hastily hung poster for a meeting this evening in the town hall. Its the first in a series of talks about the Recuperacion de la memoria historica - and this evening Santiago Carillo speaks!
I dropped my bag containing a litre of Don Simon orange juice and the prawn crackers! Santiago Carillo here......now...... and it started 10 mins ago!
We rushed down to the town hall and into the chamber where he was about to begin. Two police guarded the door. Were they expecting trouble? Possibly from some of his previous receptions. We squashed onto the end of an aisle and listened to the man speak clearly and persuasively for a someone of 92 years of age. A historic figure in a historic town!
Would this event have happened on the coast? Does the Pope wear a silly hat?
Hogar dulce hogar
02/October/2006 00:57 .Local life.Permalink
At last a decision. A 3 bed, small terrace, and intriguing loft that overlooks a cobbled square just two minutes from the centre of town. On the down side, very limited parking, a botellon zone after 8pm and few neighbours under the age of 75. Still, thats old towns for you. At least we are here.
Now, what are we doing here?
Reinventing oneself
01/October/2006 12:56 .Teabag
rambles.Permalink
Change can come about in a multitude of ways – it can be slowly acquired, like a sciatic limp or a wrinkle around the eye perhaps, creeping up on you until one day you exclaim: Hey what´s this! Or it can come about suddenly and unexpectedly in the form of an accident that changes everything forever more.
Our move inland was of the later variety, giving us the opportunity to reinvent ourselves before an unknown, unexpected and unprepared audience. We can change it all, who we are, where we have been and where we are going.
Might even change my haircut.