It´s a Girl

Hi fellow Bloggers.

When I woke up this morning I was surprised with the most recent news. The Prince Felipe´s daughter has born. I don´t really give a damm ... with that kind of news but, as she is a girl, that means she won´t be king unless our constitution is changed (I mean, if the royal couple brings a boy to live after her). The Salic law is written on our constitution giving priority to boys over girls. So everybody is talking about changing that article of the constitution, wich means a long proccess. First the disolution of the "Cortes", then elections, and last a Referendum asking Spaniards if they want to be changed.

Of course everybody started to show their oppinion this morning. I heard a lot of times "of course it has to be changed, is anacronic with the era we live in". I think there´s something contradictory on that, because the first anacronism is that we have kings. I´m not sure they´ll want to ask on referendum what people wants, and I´m sure they´ll just ask about the salic law. I´m afraid they fear we could vote for a Republic.

Yesterday I´ve been on the Madrid "rastro" wich is a street market like Camdem Town. When I was at England a friend of mine told me he went to Camdem Town and thought it wasn´t like Madrid´s, in fact he said Madrid´s was much better. Now I know both and I can say how proud we are of our own. The "Rastro" is just people selling crap on the street, and I really mean crap. Apart from those who sell clothes, like on any town in Spain and Portugal, the speciality is people who sell anything they found on their homes and don´t want to have anymore, that could sound nice, like the boot sells at England countryside. But the impression I´ve got is they went into an abandoned house to get all they could find, and also some of them seemed to have gone into a dump. So it wasn´t like you could fine nice furniture or music instruments very cheap.

On the other hand I always heard about a special side of the market where they sell electronics. Digital cameras, mobile phones, PC components, ... All of them from a doubtful origin. I´ve also been told you cold be stolen your mobile and minutes after seeing it on a stand to be sold. This time the market was full of police, and that branch wasn´t there, it isn´t very nice from the police to wait for me to go to the market, at least I wanted to see it. Damm them!.

But there were two guys selling blank CDs and DVDs. They were very cheap so I bought some. The first one was the cheapest, and also he had some more stuff to sell, like VHSs, Tapes, Batteries, and strangely Condoms. Well, I´m kind of an IT freak, and I know a lot of real IT freaks, and the last thing we need (I said need, not want) is condoms. An IT freak doesn´t couple that much. I can´t imagine an IT freak buing 100 blank DVDs and also a condom box, it´s like he´s going to have a nice night, but doing what? Downloading porn films to be burned on those DVDs, no use for the condoms. I believe it´s like on drug stores, when you buy an aspirine box and with a lower voice you ask for a condom box. This time the freak goes shouting "I want a box of condoms..." and then lower "... and give me those 100 DVDs, please."

On our way back we saw a X film cinema. I thought they had disapeard on those internet times, but it seems they haven´t. Well I never saw the use for a X film cinema. I know I´m being dirty today, but I don´t like the idea of watching a porn film surrounded by men watching a porn film. We all know what porn films are made for. I guess some men come to see the other men, ... On the other hand I saw a most disgusting thing, I saw a really old man entering the theater, I coulnd´t say more than "AGHHHHHH!!!" when I saw it.

Well, my greetings to the royal family, and also to those republicans who see on the little born princess an oportunity.

See you soon. Farewell.

Manoel.

The lazy bastard

Hi fellow bloggers.

I´m not sure you´re still there. It´s a long time since the last post, and I´m afraid to say it was totally my fault. I hope you still come back some time to check if I had written and you didn´t lose the hope to read something. Sorry.

As you know I´ve been unemployed for the last two weeks. It was a time for relaxing and francly doing nothing but watching movies and eating sunflower seeds (I love them). I also went to Pontevedra to see my family and friends. I also had a chance to see how little changed is my old town. I went by plane, and this time it wasn´t a quiet flight, we had turbulences and also a problem when we reach Galicia. It was cloudy, and the pilot began descending, I´m used to it, I usually play a computer game called Flight Simultator so I`m familiar with the process. The problem was the altitude wasn´t as indicated on the panel (I know that because of the game) and sudenly a mountain appear on sight. I could hear the roar of the engines and felt we were going upwards faster than normal, but not enough for the rest of the passengers to notice. As I said I know how piloting works (at least a little) and I could notice something was going wrong, but not really wrong I mean, I´m sure it´s perfectly normal, it was just another event on my flying career.

I started my new job, and I´m quite happy as everything seems to go better. I´m not too hopeful to be prepared for the worst to happen. I know I sound a bit pesimistic, but unfortunatly life has kicked me a bit not long ago, so I´m just preparing my bottom just in case. I´m going to work for Repsol (well, my company does, and as a result so do I), wich is an oil company, I´m not hopeful to get petrol discounts, and also I don´t have a car, but it would be nice.

I don´t like talking about politics, specially because I don´t belive on it, it´s kind of a religion. And also my fellow blogger and friend Colin does write about the last Spanish politics affairs. So I don´t feel in the need to. But you might want to know my opinion about the latest Catalonian and "estatuto". Well, I have an oppinion, but Ì´m sure it has nothing to do with the Catalonians, PSOE or PP (Political Parties). Everything´s a mess, they play with words as the people doesn´t really understand the real meaning of all. They use the words "nation", "nation of nations", "autonomía", and some others as it they didn´t have a proper meaning. I thought we had a rich language, but it seems nobody knows it, I wander if they have a dictionary to check the definition of them all. The purpose is we believe what they want us to believe, if it´s the Catalonias who´s speaking they´ll try to convince us they have rights, they deserve more. If it´s the actual gobernment (PSOE), and specially if it´s our president who´s talking, they´ll try to make us believe nothing really is happening, and they´l try to convince both, the catalonians, and the rest of Spain, that nothing´s going to change except if it´s going to be better for everybody. If it´s the PP, the opposition party, they´ll talk about the fall and ruin of the constitution and the Spanish nation. One doesn´t know what to believe, so I just think everything is a big lie sweetened with honey words. Nothing is going to change, as it always does in terms of politics.

On other hand, we have the chicken flew, wich has been a big issue for the last two weeks. Day after day, another chicken, parrot, goose or whatever is found dead with simptoms of the flu. No man has died from direct contagion from another man, and yet just 2 guys died from it (I´m not sure about the real numbers, but I know it was just a few). And also there´s not evidence about a muted flu virus. There´s also the fact we don´t have a vacine for the virus, it´s perfectly logic, as there´s no virus at all yet. But European governments are expending a lot of money and time on the case, buying antivirals and convincing us to be afraid of nothing. I´m not sure it´s not another trick so we can forget about the European constitution catastrophe or the Catalonian "estatut". I´m quite a scientist, or at least I consider myself as one, and I play with evidence; by the time there´s none to be alarmed. If something really happens I won´t be surprised by the chaos.

I can´t promise to write every week, but I´ll try. blessings, farewells and my best wishes and thoughts for all you.

Manoel.

"Volver a empezar"

Hi bloggers.

For those who can´t read Spanish or don´t know that was the title of a Spanish old film wich won an oscar I´ll translate it as "Begin the Beguine".

I choose the title as I´m starting again a new job. I could seem I can´t long on any job s I get tired and bored of doing the same thing again and again. You could also think as the England thing is finished I don´t see the point on staying with my old company. I´d be lying if I say it hasn´t has a bit of thruth, but the main reason is far from being my fault.

I´ve spend the last 4 days enjoying myself, and being sick (I have a cold). I´m unemployed at the moment, wich doesn´t mean I don´t have a job but I´ll start the new one on a week and a half. But at this time I´m making the unemployment list bigger (I feel sorry for Mr. Zapatero, our president, well I don´t feel really sorry). It´s not my own idea to leave my old job that soon, well, it was my decission to resign, and I did it on wednesday, but I didn´t want to leave the office so soon. Normally you have to tell you´re leaving 15 days before, sometimes it´s even more than 15 days, as they count as laboral days, so it´s three weeks. But they didn´t want me to stay in the office if I was leaving.

Let me tell you what have taken me to resign. Of course you´ll only get my point of view.

First of all let me describe how things went at England. I had a very good time and also a very bad time. As I talked with one of the only good bosses I had at my last company he told me he believes it was a mistake to send me to England without enough knowledge on both the job and the environment. I totally agree with him, except for the job knowledge. The office at the Abbey National bank it´s a viper´s nest. The banking offices are always full of bastards, because they had worked there for ages, and they see new people coming who would take their jobs as they have more IT knowledge and ambition. They are used not to work too hard, and when it seems the projects aren´t coming on time they normally accuse somebody else of their own faults. That happened to me, and also got as the main head to blame for any problem, I was the last one to come. What I did to solve that was just work as hard as I could and finish everything on time so I couldn´t be blamed. But it seemed not to be enough. But everything was told behind my back. I only knew somebody was talking badly about me from a second hand, taking the possibility of defending myself far away.

There´s also the problems we had at hotels. I don´t know who to blame for that, I believe it´s a mixture of both the hotel managers, my company and the travel agancy. On Mondays we came back to the hotel at night from work to check-in. We were tired and just wanted to go the room and rest. But on every hotel we´d had problems with the payment. They always wanted us to pay in advance as they hadn´t received a fax with credit card number and permission to be charged for our rooms. On some hotels they said it didn´t matter and everything would be solved on next days. On some others I had to argue for a long time before they allowed us to go rest. But I always felt ashamed, as I was a beggar who asked for a free room, or was trying to cheat them.

The last England problem was related to social security. I discovered last Monday, after the event who make me take the decission to leave, my company hadn´t talked to the social security about us going to work on another EU country. They should have asked for a TA-200 form, fill it and give it back to the S.S. (Social Security, not the german´s), then they´ll give them another three forms, the E-101, E-102, E-103, to be filled and taken to us to be signed, giving us a copy. Of course they didn´t. We didn´t have any medical problem or accident at England, but we could´ve had, and it could happened to us that the english hospitals could´ve denied service, or charge us for any treatment. They also should´ve given us the European Medical Card, and didn´t.

The last thing that happened was the worst. I would like you to tell me if I was wrong or not. Monday was my first office day after England. I came to the office as if it was my first day at the company. I´d rather knew my co-workers. I expected a good wellcoming, but I wouldn´t be surprised without any. What I didn´t expect was the welcome of one of the bosses and also the one who offered me the England trip.

I was talking with the secretary at reception about money and he came to me. He shaked my hand and I was expecting him saying "How are you?", "How things went in England?", etc. but instead he asked me "Who gave you permission to go to Galicia?". Well, I was a bit surprised about the question, but didn´t bother too much because it was them who gave me the permission. But them he told me off about it. He was talking to me in front of the secretary and also in front of anyone who walked in the reception coming back from having a fagg or drinking a coke. He told me I was cheeky and implied I was lying to them. I couldn´t explain myself at that time as he didn´t stop talking. The last thing he said was a threat, he told me "We´ll seek a way for you to pay for the trips you made, we might discount it from your salary". That left me on a shock.

Let me explain to you what happened on a friday, when I was called to be told about the trip I was going to do next thrusday (Monday was holidays). The explained quite a few things about the trip, they said they didn´t know enough about it as they were unexperienced about that kind of things. But they told me about the money I was about to receive and the things I was allowed to do with the flights. They told me I could chose between staying at England with the hotel payed or travel. I asked them about the weekend flight and also if I could travel to Galicia instead Madrid. There were two people there, and both with power inside the company. They said I could do it, but I´d had to ask our client at the bank.

When I was at England I asked him, and he told me I could and also asked the travel agency for the flights. I wanted a direct flight to Galicia, but they didn´t want because it was more expensive than going to Madrid and then to Vigo. I didn´t bother as it wasn´t my own decission. But I didn´t know it could mean a difference for my company.

After being told off by that guy, I talked to another one, one who was present when I asked if I could go to Galicia, and he told me he remembered them giving me permission. But he also told me the problem was I´d taken to flights instead a direct one. I tried to explain him it wasn´t my fault and also it was because it was cheaper.

Afterwards I decided to leave the company and started seeking for a new job. It only took a day to have a new and better payed one.

The problem is I was told off in public, in my own way it shouldn´t have been like that. If you want to tell something to an employee take him apart to talk privatly, specially if you have to tell him off. And also, you should give him a chance to explain himself, or at least ask somebody else about the subject without pressuming guilt. He told me with different words I was a cheater, a lyier and a bad guy, and he told me in front of anybody.

I think I was right on being angry and leaving the company. Please tell me if I was wrong.

Anyway, I have a new and nicer job. Let´s hope everything goes fine.

Farewell.

Manoel.

The way back.

Hello fellows.

Unfortunatly for myself and I hope for you too I´m back to Madrid.

It happened that I´m not needed anymore at Milton Keynes because everything is almost finished, so just one guy is able to do it.

That means a loss of money, fun, and some stories for yourselves. It also means I´m back at the office, with the feeling I don´t belong here, like being the new kid in town. The problem is I´m not the new kid in town, but that´s how I feel. It also happened that my old place is not yet mine, and they have to look for another one. Meanwhile I´m not working, I´m losing time doing revising the same websites again and again and waiting for 6pm to come and go home. It also means I´m back at my old boring way of living, with no new events and new people to meet, just the tube in the evenings.

Hopefully I´ll get another job soon, I´m starting my search again, because I don´t really like being here. There´s some things I don´t like in this company that I´ll tell you in the future. Of course there´s some nice guys in here, but they aren´t the problem. And also as I´ve lost some incomes and got used to have a lot of money, my actual salary seems not to be enough now. I am greedy, I know.

Í´m the kind of guy who doesn´t like to do the same thing all the time. As I come back it seems to me like a new start but doing the same thing, so it´s a strange new start, better to say it´s not a new begin at all. I want a real one, with more excitenment, new people and places.

But the fact I´m back here doesn´t mean I´ll stop writing for you, in fact it seems I feel much more as a duty to do it as you got used to know about my life and seem to like it.

I´ll be here for all of you, and hope everything get´s better and better.

Cheers and farewells.

Manoel.