Advent Calendar December 18th

Advent Calendar December 14th

Advent Calendar December 12th

Advent Calendar December 11th

Advent Calendar December 10th

Happy Nikolaus!

Today is here in Germany Nikolaus day. This means, that a person in Saint Nicholas costume visits children. There are presents, of course, but first after a very severe examination of the wrongs and rights of the previous year. To this end, Nikolaus has an enormous book, where everything is written down. (No wonder that Germans feel always that Big Brother is watching them!)

My question to the Bangers: What do you think is written about you in that book?

Santa looked shocked and he couldn’t believe what he  just had heard. Finally, the boy on his lap said: “Don’t look at me like that. You told me, I can ask for whatever I want”.

Happy Nikolaus!

Advent Calendar December 4 (bit late)

Kate del Castillo

Advent Calendar December 3

Amelia Vega, also Speedy's request.

Advent Calendar December 2

Adriana Lima, as Speedy requested.

Advent Calendar

December 1

Who's the next?

Human nature

Or a friend in need is a friend indeed

Back on those days when my college was driving me crazy with her men stories, there was one time that I couldn’t take more and I sent an SMS to different pals. I don’t remember exactly the words, but it was a call for help. I didn’t intend it as a test or something like that, but it turned out to be an interesting catalyzer of those personalities.

1. The action person: Her immediate reaction was something like “where are you? do you want me to pick you up? what do you need me to do?”
2. The cool person: She was like “calm down, baby! Everything is going to be fine. Don’t worry!”
3. The party person: Her answer was: “There’s a party on saturday evening. Do you come with me?”
4. The quite person: I’m still waiting for an answer. No. Not really.

Have a nice weekend, if possible with good friends!

yaz side effects

Adaptation by natural selection?

I have a neighbor, N. She’s blind. I’ve seen her a couple of times mastering the streets with her white cane. Sometimes early in the morning in direction to the metro. Some other  times in the afternoon, coming from the metro home.

The other day, I was going to my place from the metro and I saw N trying to go in the opposite direction. She was at the border of the sidewalk. At that time, there was a construction in progress blocking the corner. So, most of the pedestrians just moved one meter to the right to cross the street. But not N.

N walked left about 20 meters away from the corner. When I met her, she was shouting with frustration because none was there to help her cross the street. I went close to enough so she could hear that it was save to go over. When she reached the opposite sidewalk, it was of course not at the corner but where some bikes were parked preventing her to go straight.

N became louder and louder, swearing with such a desperation. I tried to help her find her way, but the only answer to my “where do you want to go?” was just a meaningless “over there, over there!”.  What does “over there” mean, if nobody points a direction?  

Her voice was increasing with her frustration. The people passing by, not only pretended not to hear but also not to see anything. A mother took closer her daughter (the girl was about 7), like wanting to protect her from the whole situation.

It was pointless try to reason with N. So, I just stand close enough to make sure she moved safely until she finally found the way.

As I continued going home, I was thinking if there was a way to make such situations easier for my neighbor. I could not come up with something, but suddenly, I recognized myself in that situation. 

Not long ago, I was angry with the world. I used to take any, let’s say, unfortunate circumstance as personal, as a conspiration of the world against me. I was so angry, that some people preferred to ignore me, because the ones wanting to help received my anger and frustration.

I don’t know how, but at some point I realized, that it was insane to expect the world adapting to me. I only wish, adaptation were easier for everybody.

Workout motivation

When I signed up in the gym, my goals were to lose weight and improve my condition. I worked hard on these goals for a while and now I feel not only good but also proud of myself for achieving them. Now that fall has arrived and the daylight is getting shorter and shorter is also getting harder to be motivated. I have no athletic ambitions like Rusty, I’ve never up for competitions. So, I needed something that keeps the spirit up. I think, I found it!

I had finished my training and was getting ready to go home in the changing room. It was full that day, women all around. A woman, around her thirties, brunette, with long curly black hair, came from the showers with nothing else than a towel around her body. She had a very nice, opulent figure.

Her locker was in front of mine. She sat on the bench facing me and, without any sight contact, started to lotion her legs, one on a stool so that I could see her deepest thought, if you know what I mean (ed. note: only a rhetoric resource). As she didn’t see in my direction, not that I noticed at least, I just thought: “No, no. This means nothing.”

When she was finished with her legs, she put her slip on and left the the towel fall. Then she started rubbing her firm breasts, always in my direction, but without any little glimpse to me. The whole time, I had to think, wtf? what’s going on here? if it’s something going on at all.

By that time, all my stuff was in my bag. I closed my locker and turned to the exit as she never looked at me. And then I hear: “Bye”...

“Bye!” She said “bye” to me!!!

I swear to god, it happened! I didn’t dream it. It did happen.

I found my motivation to keep working out!

Have a nice weekend.

Alpine Experiences

My good friend MJ asked some weeks (months?) ago how are the Alps. I tried to avoid the question with a smart ass answer, but , first, I’m sure she didn’t buy it and second, all this time I’ve been thinking that MJ deserves a better answer. The problem is, I still don’t know how to answer that. I don’t think, I can describe the Alps for you, my friend. Instead, I’d like to tell you about my experiences. I hope, that’s fine for you.

My very first memory of the Alps is from my childhood. When I didn’t want to drink my milk, my mother used to say: “Why you don’t like your milk? Look, it’s delicious! It’s of happy cows from the Alps!” So, my first mental note on the Alps was that that place is a cow paradise!

Later in the eighties I followed on TV the Japanese cartoon series “Heidi, the Girl of the Alps”. There were not many cows there, but I learned that the Alps natives get homesick very easily. A person I talked to has recently confirmed this fact. So, looking back, it’s funny how watching a Japanese series in Latin America I learned something about Europeans!

When I watched that cartoon, of course the landscape and scenery was all like a fairy tale, some kind of fantasy land. At that time, I would have never imagined that years after I would be sitting at in an office on the 5th floor of some building with windows facing the south of Munich, where the horizon is marked (in clear days) with the contour of the Bavarian Alps.

This year I’ve been fortunate enough and enjoyed the mountains in all seasons: in winter I slept in an igloo, in spring and summer had some biking tours, a ridding weekend, some excursions also in fall. The best is that each time I have had excellent weather, which makes things much more enjoyable. I don’t know if it’s the contact with nature, the possibility of doing something different from the daily routine, to enjoy a magnificent landscape, but each time I’m close to the mountains it’s a great experience.

Learning for life

Listenig to Rusty’s efforts in the swimming pool remind me my own learning experiences. I learned to swim when I was 8. My family have moved from Mexico City to Morelia. In these region there are a lot of hot springs and water parks. We used to go quite frequent and my parents soon realized that their kids were fearless.

We could just instinctively float and somehow move around, but that was it. Nevertheless, we loved to spring into the adults pool, forwards, backwards, over and over. Needless to say, that my parents, who could not swim at all, didn’t enjoy it as much as we kids did.

One summer, it was planned to go with the aunts families to the beach. The parent thought, that before we should have a swimming course in the YMCA. Parent’s logic was, that if we could swim, they would not have to worry for us.

I remember very well, that I was 8, because in the YMCA nobody believed me. I guess, that’s one of the advantages of being short, people think that you are younger. At that time, it didn’t feel favorable. They wanted to send me to a younger group. They asked again and again, me, my cousins my uncles and aunts. At the end, I don’t know, if they believed it or just gave up, but I was allowed to stay in the 8 years old group.

When we arrived to the beach, three families, that is six adults, eight kids and two babies, we all felt very confident that in that course my cousins and I have learned all what we needed to have fun. We did indeed.

One afternoon, the adults were just lying and we children were still in the water. Some of my cousins discovered a small boat, I don’t know, maybe 200 meters away from the beach. It was probably a boat to drive tourists or of a fisherman. No idea. Fact was, that it was taken away on purpose to avoid people getting in it.

You may have already guessed: we started a race to that boat. When we got there, we saw our parents and the owner shouting at us, from the beach, to leave the boat and come back to the beach... Gosh, those were good times, when we were fearless!