Hi Bloggers.
It's made, it's finished, my relation with my old company. I still belong to them 'till the end of the month, but I'm on holidays so I won't go to work for them anymore (or at least on the next months, you never know). I went to work on Monday with the idea of talking with the human resources guy of my new company. I talked to him and he assured me I'd signed a contract with them through email. I checked that and it was true. So I decided to take the next step and I called my team manager. I asked him to see him so I left the SCH city and went to the meeting.
He was surpised to see me and, believe me, I loved the face he got when I told him I was leaving. We went togheter to his office to have a chat, I didn't want to but in some ways it was a chance of loosing time and not going back to work (I'm not lazy, you know, but I didn't want to travel again, it's 1:30 hours to reach the SCH city).
Then he asked me so many things and we talked for long. He asked the name of my new company, wich is totally wrong, he shouldn't. I was unconfortable with the question and I made a mistake, I told him I didn't remember the name, wich was totally stupid, and a total lie he could easily guess, and so he did. He didn't understand why I didn't want to answer the question, it wasn't really kind of him. Then he told me it was a pity I was leaving because they were really happy with me. He told me everybody thinks I'm a very good proffesional (in his own words, wich I liked) and a serious guy. Then he told me I could have gone to England with them, but without a salary increment. So what's the point I thought on telling me that stuff without making a counter offer. It was like him wanting me to feel guilty, and he spoke a lot, and he was near to convince me I was doing wrong. My will step over all that and I signed my resinging.
The next thing to do was telling him about spending all my holidays instead of going to work. He agreed with that, but, I told him I was going to work next day because I didn't want to left anything unfinished. He asked me if I was willing to go to work all the week if it was needed and I said yes, of course. So he told me he was going to speak with my boss and he'll tell me next day.
So I left, happy and tired of travelling. With my sign posted on a paper saying I left that bloody company.
Next day I had to face my boss at SCH and tell him I was leaving (I have a boss on the city and a bigger one on the companies office). Of course he already knew it because he had spoken with my other boss. Unfortutnaly he told me I had to work the rest of the week if I was willing (It was stupid to say, I didn't want to work, but I had to).
You know I didn't have much work on the past, but this week I had as much as the last 4 months togheter, but I managed to finish everything. Then on wednesday I almost had everything finished and I asked if I could leave on thursday, they agreed, they didn't have enough courage to push me to work on friday.
So yesterday I went for the last time to the SCH city (it could be it wasn't the last time, who knows the future). I bought two chocolate boxes as it's kind of a tradition to invite your colleages on your last day. I was surprise about how much they apreciated me, I didn't know. They were really happy for myself (except my boss) and they wished me a very good future althoug they were sure I'll have it. Some of them even told me I deserved a better job and salary. Some of them were a bit jealous about the going to england (wich is just still a possibility). But all of them were inmensely happy about me, it made me feel good, but a bit sad, I'll miss some of them.
Now I'm on holidays, havign a good time and waiting to go back to Pontevedra for a week to see my family and friends. I'll go on a plane this time, lucky me. I'll go to the beach also and to see Ryan the dog and my cat. I'll see the sea wich I really miss and visit a lot of people, so I hope I won't have time to be bored.
Well, I leave now. My best wishes and farewell to my old colleages. Also my love for England, and specially London, they are having a bad time. I hope I'll be there, I'm not afraid about the terrorist, specially because that's what they want and I don't obbey orders if I don't like them.
Cheers and farewell.
Manoel.
Friday, July 22, 2005
Saturday, July 16, 2005
Again An Spaniard in UK???
Hi fellows.
You might have noticed I'm not of the kind who can be stucked on the same job, task, place or whatever for a long time. In fact, I don't really like to do the same thing again and again, I soon get bored and tired. And also I'm sure you noticed on the last posts I'm not really happy on my job.
When something goes good, it could always turn into better.
An Optimistic
But it could also turn into crap
His negative friend
I decided to send some CVs last weeks, just for trying to see what would happen. What happened was I was answered really soon by all of them (they were three companies) and had 2 interviews during the week and a phone call. As I wasn't very lucky at my town when I looked for a job, this time it was the opposite. I got good answers and, in fact, I have a new job, better payed and more exciting.
In fact, I have an opportunity (it's just a possibility between another 3) of having the best jobh I could have (except on terms of money, it's good, but it could be much better. I don't ask for much, anyway). But I'll explain how the interview went.
I've got the feeling of me being the one who chosed. I mean, they were like it was my deccision not theirs from the very first call. That's a nice feeling, to feel appreciated because of your knowledge. I was asked to wait for a phone call to tell me the deccision (wich they had already made) and I thought it would take some time. But next day I received it. They told me about the money and I could even ask for more. They said yes to the amount I asked for.
But the best thing about my new job it's that possibility I told you before. I could work at London!!! and also being payed for everything, even have an extra amount of money. I'd go on Monday by plane and return on thrusday or friday each week. Also, if I decide to stay at London for the weekend they'd pay me the hotel to stay. So it's just wonderful, unbelibeable, but it's just a possiliblity, it's not for sure, even when I feel like I deserved it and it's just going to happen, I want to be realistic and not too optimistic, in case it doesn't happen finally.
I think it's time for me to be lucky, and this time so lucky I'm afraid it won't happen, I'm sorry for being pesimistic, I hope you understand why.
On Monday I'll go to my now old company to tell them I quit. Then I'll go to my old working place to say goodbye to my partners. I'll feel sad for some of them, as I enjoyed their company, I won't play chess anymore, at least not with the same guy, sorry mate. I'll even miss the "fat bastard" as I got used to his jokes, he's a good guy apart for his sick and perverted mind (I type that in case he's reading the post, although I think he won't), I'll miss Josito and Eva, Oscar, Calde, Chema, and my old partners of the other department, there were plenty of Carmen there so I just type one, and also enrique alas "skizo", Carlos, both Pablo's and Conchi. But I feel happy I'll start a new job, being less worried about the money and also with the excitment of something new. I'l also have some holiday weeks to enjoy myself and get energy to start again. I'll see my family, my town, I'll go to the beach and visit my friends. I have a lot of things to tell them.
As always I'll mantain you well informed about everything that happens to me, but I hope on a few weeks this blog would be again about "An Spaniard in UK".
Cheers and farewell.
Manoel.
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
A dejà vù
With all my love to London.
I want to continue writing as live goes on and we must forget the pain (but learn from it). All my friends at London are ok. They weren't close to the tubes and buses. I feel fortunate but I can't just forget the people that died. I would pray if I believed in god, but I don't, so I'll just send my thoughts and love to them.
I wish my live had changed on the last weeks, but unfortunatly it hadn't. In fact instead of improving I'm going back to the past situations. The project in wich I was working will finish on next monday. Some of my mates are going to be send to another place out of Boadilla, those with whom I always have breakfast and lunch. So I'll be left alone again. My boss came last week to tell them about their new destinations, but he didn't speak with me and I wandered why. So I asked him about it. He gave me the same answer he gave me two months ago: "We still don't know. You might stay here for three days or three months. I'll tell you as soon as I know about
it". What a nice answer. I just want some stability, you know.
So the fact is I'm still stucked here, not working at all. I feel like I'm wasting my time and not learning anything. I also can't sleep at night that much, mostly because of the heat. So I don't feel that fine, sorry for being negative. But I try to be positive, and I decided to send my CV to some other companies. I received some answers and I might have interviews on the next weeks. I'll mantain you well informed about it.
Talking about companies, I want to speak about mine (I won't tell the name, even when I'm not sure if I shouldn't say it in case the owner reads it and decides to change things). My company is a good one, I would never say the opposite, but that's reffering to the main company. Everyone at the USA says my company is honest, reliable, and some other nice compliments. But I might remind you I work at the spanish branch wich is directed by spaniards, and also by really bad and unefficient spaniards, the worst class in fact. So meanwhile all the employees at the rest of the
world love the company, I don't know even one employee at Spain who likes the company.
I might change to the USA or GB branch, I'll try I promise.
Well, there are some other things I want to write about, but I'll leave them for the next post. At this time I'm supposed to be working, but in fact there's nothing to do but spend my time looking at the screen, that's why I decided to write a bit.
Farewell, and again my Love to London.
Manoel.
I want to continue writing as live goes on and we must forget the pain (but learn from it). All my friends at London are ok. They weren't close to the tubes and buses. I feel fortunate but I can't just forget the people that died. I would pray if I believed in god, but I don't, so I'll just send my thoughts and love to them.
I wish my live had changed on the last weeks, but unfortunatly it hadn't. In fact instead of improving I'm going back to the past situations. The project in wich I was working will finish on next monday. Some of my mates are going to be send to another place out of Boadilla, those with whom I always have breakfast and lunch. So I'll be left alone again. My boss came last week to tell them about their new destinations, but he didn't speak with me and I wandered why. So I asked him about it. He gave me the same answer he gave me two months ago: "We still don't know. You might stay here for three days or three months. I'll tell you as soon as I know about
it". What a nice answer. I just want some stability, you know.
So the fact is I'm still stucked here, not working at all. I feel like I'm wasting my time and not learning anything. I also can't sleep at night that much, mostly because of the heat. So I don't feel that fine, sorry for being negative. But I try to be positive, and I decided to send my CV to some other companies. I received some answers and I might have interviews on the next weeks. I'll mantain you well informed about it.
Talking about companies, I want to speak about mine (I won't tell the name, even when I'm not sure if I shouldn't say it in case the owner reads it and decides to change things). My company is a good one, I would never say the opposite, but that's reffering to the main company. Everyone at the USA says my company is honest, reliable, and some other nice compliments. But I might remind you I work at the spanish branch wich is directed by spaniards, and also by really bad and unefficient spaniards, the worst class in fact. So meanwhile all the employees at the rest of the
world love the company, I don't know even one employee at Spain who likes the company.
I might change to the USA or GB branch, I'll try I promise.
Well, there are some other things I want to write about, but I'll leave them for the next post. At this time I'm supposed to be working, but in fact there's nothing to do but spend my time looking at the screen, that's why I decided to write a bit.
Farewell, and again my Love to London.
Manoel.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
So Sad
Hi fellow bloggers.
There's no words I could use to show you my sorrow. You know I love britain and you also know I've been at London. I've been on those trains and also on those streets. I can see them now. I can also see the people on them just going to their jobs or to have fun in the city.
I received an email at 12:00 saying about the bombing at London. I couldn't wait to reach home to have some more news. I was really worried about my London friends, and also about the innocent people on the buses and trains.
We had that in Spain, and also the 11S, so even when I feel horrified I also feel like that's not something new at all, and that's what makes it even worst. I hope I'll never get used to such inhumanity.
My thoughts are with you English, and specially with the people who lives at London.
I love you London.
Manoel.
There's no words I could use to show you my sorrow. You know I love britain and you also know I've been at London. I've been on those trains and also on those streets. I can see them now. I can also see the people on them just going to their jobs or to have fun in the city.
I received an email at 12:00 saying about the bombing at London. I couldn't wait to reach home to have some more news. I was really worried about my London friends, and also about the innocent people on the buses and trains.
We had that in Spain, and also the 11S, so even when I feel horrified I also feel like that's not something new at all, and that's what makes it even worst. I hope I'll never get used to such inhumanity.
My thoughts are with you English, and specially with the people who lives at London.
I love you London.
Manoel.
Monday, July 04, 2005
Straight vs Non Straight
Hi fellows.
Living at Madrid could be fun. Apart from all the problems, disturbances and crowded streets and/or public transport, distance from your working place and the horrible, unbearable heat, you always have something to do, see. Just a few weeks after the samba event we had the gay proud day and another bomb by ETA, that's what's like living in the place where everything happens in Spain. And also we'll have the olympics city chosing on wednesday, I wonder what'll happen if finally Madrid gets elected (I will feel a bit sorry about Paris and London, but if I'm going to be here on 2012 I would preffer Madrid to be chosen).
This days I have somthing else to talk about. I preffer to tell you this first, as it's small and not that important but really annoying. I told you my bedroom is an interior one, I mean the window doesn't face the street but another windows of the same building. It acts as a sound ampliffier and I get all the conversations between the neighbourghood. I call it "radiopatio" wich I could translate into innercourtyardradio. I hear every argument neighbours have even if I don't want to. This days specially because I can't close the window because of the heat. But this week is being even worst as the bloody neighbours dog (it's more like a rat) is having the heat and it screams like a bloody cat, sometimes as a pig bing killed. Of course it's more intense at night, so I can't sleep properly. I should call the police anyway, but I feel sorry for the animal, altough not for the bloody owners.
Now it's time for a short briefing about being at "Chueca" (the gay quarter in Madrid) on the gay proud day. I'm not homofobic although I don't like men at all (you know what I mean, or you should). A friend of mine, actually she's more than a friend, came to visit me during the weekend. We had a really good time. I didn't know where to take her as I don't really know Madrid (I didn't bother to visit anything yet, so lazy I am). I decided to take her to chueca as I know there's a lot of clothes shops there and she likes shoping (not as much as my sister, I'll take her there too as soon as she cames). But I didn't realize it was a festival on saturday. I noticed something strange was happening when I saw all those guys on the tube kissing each other and I've been to that part of Madrid before without seeing them. The street was coloured, decorated with multicolor flags and it was full of people (I could tell they were not straight). A group was preparing a van, placing big pink laces on it and arranging the speakers. The music was loud and it looked like a big preparation for fiesta.
I don't like to generalize, or to use stereotypes, but this time it was so obvious. They dressed far from what I call normal for myself. They used tshirts without leeves and they also were rally musculed, with fancy haircuts, shorts and fashion trainers or sandals. They were really fashion and also the shops. She loved them, I mean the shops. I felt like I was going to miss a big party. I also felt pity for a friend of mine and another friend of my sister. They'll love to be there. My greetings for both.
Later I saw on TV how big and funny it was. It really was kind of a demonstration and even some politicians were there. I'm pretty sure not because they are homosexual but more as a political action to earn some votes from gay people. That's something I don't like as much as I don't like politicians. In fact it was the same politicians that were at the demonstrations for the 11March and the Prestige thing, they fight for votes, you know.
Anyway, I was glad to see the preparations, it was beautiful and a prelude for fun, that's always nice.
Cheers and farewell, I hope I'll write some more soon. Meanwhile, and I'm sorry for this, but let's Madrid be chosen for the olympics.
Manoel.
Living at Madrid could be fun. Apart from all the problems, disturbances and crowded streets and/or public transport, distance from your working place and the horrible, unbearable heat, you always have something to do, see. Just a few weeks after the samba event we had the gay proud day and another bomb by ETA, that's what's like living in the place where everything happens in Spain. And also we'll have the olympics city chosing on wednesday, I wonder what'll happen if finally Madrid gets elected (I will feel a bit sorry about Paris and London, but if I'm going to be here on 2012 I would preffer Madrid to be chosen).
This days I have somthing else to talk about. I preffer to tell you this first, as it's small and not that important but really annoying. I told you my bedroom is an interior one, I mean the window doesn't face the street but another windows of the same building. It acts as a sound ampliffier and I get all the conversations between the neighbourghood. I call it "radiopatio" wich I could translate into innercourtyardradio. I hear every argument neighbours have even if I don't want to. This days specially because I can't close the window because of the heat. But this week is being even worst as the bloody neighbours dog (it's more like a rat) is having the heat and it screams like a bloody cat, sometimes as a pig bing killed. Of course it's more intense at night, so I can't sleep properly. I should call the police anyway, but I feel sorry for the animal, altough not for the bloody owners.
Now it's time for a short briefing about being at "Chueca" (the gay quarter in Madrid) on the gay proud day. I'm not homofobic although I don't like men at all (you know what I mean, or you should). A friend of mine, actually she's more than a friend, came to visit me during the weekend. We had a really good time. I didn't know where to take her as I don't really know Madrid (I didn't bother to visit anything yet, so lazy I am). I decided to take her to chueca as I know there's a lot of clothes shops there and she likes shoping (not as much as my sister, I'll take her there too as soon as she cames). But I didn't realize it was a festival on saturday. I noticed something strange was happening when I saw all those guys on the tube kissing each other and I've been to that part of Madrid before without seeing them. The street was coloured, decorated with multicolor flags and it was full of people (I could tell they were not straight). A group was preparing a van, placing big pink laces on it and arranging the speakers. The music was loud and it looked like a big preparation for fiesta.
I don't like to generalize, or to use stereotypes, but this time it was so obvious. They dressed far from what I call normal for myself. They used tshirts without leeves and they also were rally musculed, with fancy haircuts, shorts and fashion trainers or sandals. They were really fashion and also the shops. She loved them, I mean the shops. I felt like I was going to miss a big party. I also felt pity for a friend of mine and another friend of my sister. They'll love to be there. My greetings for both.
Later I saw on TV how big and funny it was. It really was kind of a demonstration and even some politicians were there. I'm pretty sure not because they are homosexual but more as a political action to earn some votes from gay people. That's something I don't like as much as I don't like politicians. In fact it was the same politicians that were at the demonstrations for the 11March and the Prestige thing, they fight for votes, you know.
Anyway, I was glad to see the preparations, it was beautiful and a prelude for fun, that's always nice.
Cheers and farewell, I hope I'll write some more soon. Meanwhile, and I'm sorry for this, but let's Madrid be chosen for the olympics.
Manoel.
Thursday, June 30, 2005
At my job
As I said on the title I’m at my job. I’m typing this as a word document and as soon as I reach home I’ll publish it. First of all I’m dammed bloody bored, I have nothing to do but waiting for something to be finished, but I’ll to explain it a bit.
You know I’m a programmer and also I’m working as it at a bank. We don’t literally work on our computers (you know I got a shared one, it could be considered as mine, but it’s not, although nobody works on it except me), we do everything on a remote computer through a network (I just don’t want to be too technical). All our programming files are on that computer and we use a DOS like environment to type programs and to build them, what could be quite annoying sometimes if you know what I‘m talking about.
Anyway, the problem is that remote computer is not absolutely dedicated to development tasks but also to the real tasks of the bank. A bank has millions, or even more than millions, of tasks at any second. Some of them are fast and small, but some are huge and take a long time to be finished.
As that remote computer is dedicated to that tasks and also those of the real proccesings have more priority (it’s understandable, you need to know your account balance, and transfer money in less than seconds, and go to a cash point to have some money, etc…) means the development process are damm slow. Sometimes I have to wait hours for my jobs to be finished and if I have nothing else to do, or I need that to be finished before I can continue, I just sit here and look at the screen. Sometimes I draw, but that’s too risky in case my boss comes near me.
There are some days in wich working is almost impossible. Specially at the end of the month, when really huge accounting processes starts. They need to do balances, fix small (and sometimes big) problems with accounts, credits, etc… You can’t imagine how many data a bank manages everyday, nor to speak about the money, that’s just unthinkable.
So here I am, typing while I wait for a job of mine to be finished, and it’s the end of the month, so I guess it’ll take three or four hours to be finished. I’m going to be terribly bored today, lucky me? Or unlucky me?
And talking about something different. I went to J&Js yesterday to have some fun, I believe I deserve it sometimes. As always I met some new people, some of them Spanish, some of them English and/or Americans. I always have good times there, if you come to Madrid and you just want to have a chat, a pint or two or meet some interesting (and not that interesting) people, just go there on Wednesdays, Fridays or Saturdays.
It’s amazing to realize how many different accents and ways of speaking you English natives have. Some of them are nice, and some aren’t that nice. Yesterday I met another Liverpolian, but this time it was one with a very strong accent, hardly understandying for a poor Spaniard like me. If it wasn’t that he was saying “fucking” all the time and giving me time to think about what he said, I wouldn’t have catched a word of what he said. He was a nice guy, anyway. I also met a Spaniard who sings “Zarzuela” and he was also nice. No girls this time, they weren’t that friendly last two times I’ve been there, it might be the heat.
Well, nothing else. Farewell and have a good summer. (I wish I could enjoy the beach for a while, I never thought I could miss the beach, bloody hell)
Manoel.
You know I’m a programmer and also I’m working as it at a bank. We don’t literally work on our computers (you know I got a shared one, it could be considered as mine, but it’s not, although nobody works on it except me), we do everything on a remote computer through a network (I just don’t want to be too technical). All our programming files are on that computer and we use a DOS like environment to type programs and to build them, what could be quite annoying sometimes if you know what I‘m talking about.
Anyway, the problem is that remote computer is not absolutely dedicated to development tasks but also to the real tasks of the bank. A bank has millions, or even more than millions, of tasks at any second. Some of them are fast and small, but some are huge and take a long time to be finished.
As that remote computer is dedicated to that tasks and also those of the real proccesings have more priority (it’s understandable, you need to know your account balance, and transfer money in less than seconds, and go to a cash point to have some money, etc…) means the development process are damm slow. Sometimes I have to wait hours for my jobs to be finished and if I have nothing else to do, or I need that to be finished before I can continue, I just sit here and look at the screen. Sometimes I draw, but that’s too risky in case my boss comes near me.
There are some days in wich working is almost impossible. Specially at the end of the month, when really huge accounting processes starts. They need to do balances, fix small (and sometimes big) problems with accounts, credits, etc… You can’t imagine how many data a bank manages everyday, nor to speak about the money, that’s just unthinkable.
So here I am, typing while I wait for a job of mine to be finished, and it’s the end of the month, so I guess it’ll take three or four hours to be finished. I’m going to be terribly bored today, lucky me? Or unlucky me?
And talking about something different. I went to J&Js yesterday to have some fun, I believe I deserve it sometimes. As always I met some new people, some of them Spanish, some of them English and/or Americans. I always have good times there, if you come to Madrid and you just want to have a chat, a pint or two or meet some interesting (and not that interesting) people, just go there on Wednesdays, Fridays or Saturdays.
It’s amazing to realize how many different accents and ways of speaking you English natives have. Some of them are nice, and some aren’t that nice. Yesterday I met another Liverpolian, but this time it was one with a very strong accent, hardly understandying for a poor Spaniard like me. If it wasn’t that he was saying “fucking” all the time and giving me time to think about what he said, I wouldn’t have catched a word of what he said. He was a nice guy, anyway. I also met a Spaniard who sings “Zarzuela” and he was also nice. No girls this time, they weren’t that friendly last two times I’ve been there, it might be the heat.
Well, nothing else. Farewell and have a good summer. (I wish I could enjoy the beach for a while, I never thought I could miss the beach, bloody hell)
Manoel.
Friday, June 24, 2005
The Samba dancing.
Hi Bloggers.
First of all I apologize not to have written that much last week. The fact is I was ill, or at least ill enough not to have the energy and will to do it, althoug I went to work (I shouldn't, but I'm stupid).
My illness had a reason (well, I'm still a bit ill, coughing). I've been dancing Samba the whole Saturday afternoon, and also it was hot, and I was wet. My body is still not used to summer, and with all the sweating and water pured by fireman I had last saturday, and after receiving a bit of air, it's not strange I got a cold.
We had a lot of things to do last saturday. We could chose between two demonstrations and also a big Brassilian Carnival. The first demonstration was against the gay marriage, altough they wanted us to believe it was in favour of family, the fact was that it was mostly convoqued by catholic priests, catholic associations, and any kind of conservative association and/or individuals. If you have read a bit about our last goberment new laws, you should know about the permission they gave for homosexual couples to get married. That made the conservatives really angry. But I'm not going to speak about that, I have my own oppinion and as always it's on the middle of both, I'm not an extremist. I'll just tell you I believe this country is not yet prepared to such a change, we don't live at Switzerland or Holland.
The second one was convoqued by homosexual associations, so you can guess what it was about.
And the third option was a kind of a brassilian carnival. Carlinhos Brown, a good brassilian musician and also good person (he made a lot of good things for Brasil and his quarter at Bahia, the "barrio de candeal"), is at Spain, he's being payed by Telefonica Movistar (a mobile and phone company) for making kind of a Samba party at different cities in Spain. He comes with three lorries, full of musicians and dancers. So they ride on a long street (ramblas at Barcelona, Castellana at Madrid) playing Samba while the people dances, or at least they should dance.
So my choice was the third one. Though the second demonstration was cancelled at last, but they joined the lorries and us. So finally it was a full party with dancers of any kind and sexual option, wich it make it better, in fact.
The first hour was amzingly horrible. I believed Brassilians were at least better than Spaniards with timing, but they aren't. The party was scheduled for about 7pm. The Castilla square was crowded, so full of people it was almost impossible to move. We had to wait for the musicians to come to start partying, but they were late. And not only late, but horribly planed. They came in between the crowd, instead of coming with their cars and buses using less crowded streets they made the people move (and also smashing) to pass. Well, at that time we were exhausted, bored and tired (my flatmates came also). So we decided to go home, but it was then when it started and as soon as the lorries began to move and the street to get wider the crowd was less a crowd. So we could manage to dance and enjoy. And so we did.
I'm a bit angry with the world in general and with Spaniards in particular. There were some cheeky bastards who didn't care to push you to go to the head. They might believe we don't want to be as close as we can to the main lorry with Carlinhos Brown. But we do as they do. Some of them came wearing Brassilian T-shirts and flags, so it was like as they were brassilians they deserved to be in front. But not only they don't deserve it but also Brasilians my ass!! I bet they were just cheeky spaniards. People don't mind on pushing you, smashing you, stepping over you and kill you just to have a better look at a famous. I don't give a damm shit, but at least don't put your bloody feet over mine, please.
Anyway I had such a good afternoon, I'll remember it for a long time. I danced and danced 'till I couldn't dance anymore. But I had my punishment and I had a horrible week without any sleep at all, fever and an annoying cough. I feel better now.
Farewell and see you soon. I'm sure I'll have a lot of things to tell you.
Manoel.
PS: I told the "Fat Bastard" about the blog. I don't know if he'll read it. I might say I got used to him, and finally he's one of my best friends at my job. I'm not writing this in case he reads it, I promise, but at least he makes me laugh with his nonsenses and jokes, and also he seems to be a good guy after all.
First of all I apologize not to have written that much last week. The fact is I was ill, or at least ill enough not to have the energy and will to do it, althoug I went to work (I shouldn't, but I'm stupid).
My illness had a reason (well, I'm still a bit ill, coughing). I've been dancing Samba the whole Saturday afternoon, and also it was hot, and I was wet. My body is still not used to summer, and with all the sweating and water pured by fireman I had last saturday, and after receiving a bit of air, it's not strange I got a cold.
We had a lot of things to do last saturday. We could chose between two demonstrations and also a big Brassilian Carnival. The first demonstration was against the gay marriage, altough they wanted us to believe it was in favour of family, the fact was that it was mostly convoqued by catholic priests, catholic associations, and any kind of conservative association and/or individuals. If you have read a bit about our last goberment new laws, you should know about the permission they gave for homosexual couples to get married. That made the conservatives really angry. But I'm not going to speak about that, I have my own oppinion and as always it's on the middle of both, I'm not an extremist. I'll just tell you I believe this country is not yet prepared to such a change, we don't live at Switzerland or Holland.
The second one was convoqued by homosexual associations, so you can guess what it was about.
And the third option was a kind of a brassilian carnival. Carlinhos Brown, a good brassilian musician and also good person (he made a lot of good things for Brasil and his quarter at Bahia, the "barrio de candeal"), is at Spain, he's being payed by Telefonica Movistar (a mobile and phone company) for making kind of a Samba party at different cities in Spain. He comes with three lorries, full of musicians and dancers. So they ride on a long street (ramblas at Barcelona, Castellana at Madrid) playing Samba while the people dances, or at least they should dance.
So my choice was the third one. Though the second demonstration was cancelled at last, but they joined the lorries and us. So finally it was a full party with dancers of any kind and sexual option, wich it make it better, in fact.
The first hour was amzingly horrible. I believed Brassilians were at least better than Spaniards with timing, but they aren't. The party was scheduled for about 7pm. The Castilla square was crowded, so full of people it was almost impossible to move. We had to wait for the musicians to come to start partying, but they were late. And not only late, but horribly planed. They came in between the crowd, instead of coming with their cars and buses using less crowded streets they made the people move (and also smashing) to pass. Well, at that time we were exhausted, bored and tired (my flatmates came also). So we decided to go home, but it was then when it started and as soon as the lorries began to move and the street to get wider the crowd was less a crowd. So we could manage to dance and enjoy. And so we did.
I'm a bit angry with the world in general and with Spaniards in particular. There were some cheeky bastards who didn't care to push you to go to the head. They might believe we don't want to be as close as we can to the main lorry with Carlinhos Brown. But we do as they do. Some of them came wearing Brassilian T-shirts and flags, so it was like as they were brassilians they deserved to be in front. But not only they don't deserve it but also Brasilians my ass!! I bet they were just cheeky spaniards. People don't mind on pushing you, smashing you, stepping over you and kill you just to have a better look at a famous. I don't give a damm shit, but at least don't put your bloody feet over mine, please.
Anyway I had such a good afternoon, I'll remember it for a long time. I danced and danced 'till I couldn't dance anymore. But I had my punishment and I had a horrible week without any sleep at all, fever and an annoying cough. I feel better now.
Farewell and see you soon. I'm sure I'll have a lot of things to tell you.
Manoel.
PS: I told the "Fat Bastard" about the blog. I don't know if he'll read it. I might say I got used to him, and finally he's one of my best friends at my job. I'm not writing this in case he reads it, I promise, but at least he makes me laugh with his nonsenses and jokes, and also he seems to be a good guy after all.
Thursday, June 16, 2005
A short Tube Story
Hi Bloggers.
Before telling the story I'll introduce you on my coming back from work routine. I made a friend at the office and I always come back with him. We talk for a while and we play chess on my mobile phone. We start playing when we jump into the bus, but we always leave a short time to realize who's travelling with us (my favourite hobby, you know). Then we have a 20 minutes trip (sometimes 30) to the nearest tube station at "Colonia Jardin" (Wich I could translate into garden colony or garden perfume). Then we wait for the train to come and we continue playing 'till he leaves, he stops before I do. The statistics are with him, as he always wins, (he's quite good or at least better than I am) althoug I won some matches. After that I read a free newspaper called "Que!", I leave books and music for the mornings.
Now it's time for my story. At the same time my friend left the train two young blokes came into it. The were what I might call fashion boys with shorts and t-shirts without leeves, dyed short hair and sun glasses. I could tell from the distance they were not straight, and specially because I saw their hands tied. They seated beside two old women that looked totally straight and also conservative (I believe you can guess it). I wasn't lucky because I was standing up and I wasn't fast enough to have a seat, but it gave me a better view on what was going to happen. The boys were quiet for a while, but then they started to kiss, well, they were more than just kissing each other, it was more like shagging. As you might have guessed the women were horrified. They were good enough not to say anything, but fast enough to stand up and wait beside the door even when it was still some minutes to reach next station. They looked nervous, in fact one of them jump over me, by accident but because she was ona hurry.
I have my own oppinion about seeing two boys kissing each other. I don't give a goddam shit if they do. The women were too scared of them and they're not going to harm anyone. Although I believe is not fair for the rest of the people when a couple (men, women or whatever) is kissing that way in front of others. I hope you understand what I mean, but it might be also because I miss doing it (with a girl, I mean).
Farewell and have a nice weekend. I'll sleep so much....
Manoel.
Before telling the story I'll introduce you on my coming back from work routine. I made a friend at the office and I always come back with him. We talk for a while and we play chess on my mobile phone. We start playing when we jump into the bus, but we always leave a short time to realize who's travelling with us (my favourite hobby, you know). Then we have a 20 minutes trip (sometimes 30) to the nearest tube station at "Colonia Jardin" (Wich I could translate into garden colony or garden perfume). Then we wait for the train to come and we continue playing 'till he leaves, he stops before I do. The statistics are with him, as he always wins, (he's quite good or at least better than I am) althoug I won some matches. After that I read a free newspaper called "Que!", I leave books and music for the mornings.
Now it's time for my story. At the same time my friend left the train two young blokes came into it. The were what I might call fashion boys with shorts and t-shirts without leeves, dyed short hair and sun glasses. I could tell from the distance they were not straight, and specially because I saw their hands tied. They seated beside two old women that looked totally straight and also conservative (I believe you can guess it). I wasn't lucky because I was standing up and I wasn't fast enough to have a seat, but it gave me a better view on what was going to happen. The boys were quiet for a while, but then they started to kiss, well, they were more than just kissing each other, it was more like shagging. As you might have guessed the women were horrified. They were good enough not to say anything, but fast enough to stand up and wait beside the door even when it was still some minutes to reach next station. They looked nervous, in fact one of them jump over me, by accident but because she was ona hurry.
I have my own oppinion about seeing two boys kissing each other. I don't give a goddam shit if they do. The women were too scared of them and they're not going to harm anyone. Although I believe is not fair for the rest of the people when a couple (men, women or whatever) is kissing that way in front of others. I hope you understand what I mean, but it might be also because I miss doing it (with a girl, I mean).
Farewell and have a nice weekend. I'll sleep so much....
Manoel.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
So Hot!!
Hi bloggers.
If you had read my previous post you might think I'm getting hotter, and you're right, but not in the way your perverted minds believe (ha ha).
The fact is it's so hot. At the time I'm writting this it's 28ºC in my bedroom, and that's with the fan on. This last week has been terribel for me and all those who live at Madrid. It's hot, and there's nothing you can do unless you spend a lot of money on an air conditioner, wich I can't use because I get terribly sick.
And also I have to wear a suit!!!!
I nearly slept a few hours a day for the last 5 days (today it's saturday, so I slept quite a lot). It was because I can't bare heat. I'm sure you know the feeling (except those who live at England, I know it was even cold last week there). You try to sleep, but your sweating, you're bathed in sweat. You move, you try one side, then the other. After a while you take out the cover, and even the sheets, and then, finally, after 2 hours you manage to sleep. But unfortunatly you're bare over your bed, and your body gets colder, so you wake up with cold. Then it starts again, except for me it was then, when I got slept again, when my bloody mobile phone started ringing telling me it was time to go to work. Thank's Nokia!!!
My personal nightmare for the last days started then. I had a shower, wich I really needed (apart from all the sweat and the stinking), my coffe, and finally I left home. It was still hot on the street but bareable. That's when I reached the tube station. They have air conditioners, but it seems the tunnels are so huge that the air get's lost and hot very soon. So it's even hotter inside the tube, and also the bus (I have to use both).When I got to my working place I realized the air conditioner wasn't on, so it was hot. But it was a matter of time. When you're feeling better because you get used to the heat, they turn it on, but with so much power I started to cough and being cold.
Spending the whole day with air conditioners is horrible. My throat gets completly dry and I can't breath properly (I might be allergic to it). But again, after a while (a long time for me) you get used. But that's when I had to leave again. With the nice feeling of going home, but with the sun over me laughing and making jokes about my suit, he can be a bit of a bastard some times.
As you see it's a bad time to come to Madrid at summer. You can't do anything except going to a swimming pool, but they're so crowded that it's not that nice. Unless you like watching bikini girls and almost naked men.
I wonder what it will be on the summer, when the sun comes nearer and it's still hotter.
Farewell and see you soon (unless I get melted down)
Manoel.
If you had read my previous post you might think I'm getting hotter, and you're right, but not in the way your perverted minds believe (ha ha).
The fact is it's so hot. At the time I'm writting this it's 28ºC in my bedroom, and that's with the fan on. This last week has been terribel for me and all those who live at Madrid. It's hot, and there's nothing you can do unless you spend a lot of money on an air conditioner, wich I can't use because I get terribly sick.
And also I have to wear a suit!!!!
I nearly slept a few hours a day for the last 5 days (today it's saturday, so I slept quite a lot). It was because I can't bare heat. I'm sure you know the feeling (except those who live at England, I know it was even cold last week there). You try to sleep, but your sweating, you're bathed in sweat. You move, you try one side, then the other. After a while you take out the cover, and even the sheets, and then, finally, after 2 hours you manage to sleep. But unfortunatly you're bare over your bed, and your body gets colder, so you wake up with cold. Then it starts again, except for me it was then, when I got slept again, when my bloody mobile phone started ringing telling me it was time to go to work. Thank's Nokia!!!
My personal nightmare for the last days started then. I had a shower, wich I really needed (apart from all the sweat and the stinking), my coffe, and finally I left home. It was still hot on the street but bareable. That's when I reached the tube station. They have air conditioners, but it seems the tunnels are so huge that the air get's lost and hot very soon. So it's even hotter inside the tube, and also the bus (I have to use both).When I got to my working place I realized the air conditioner wasn't on, so it was hot. But it was a matter of time. When you're feeling better because you get used to the heat, they turn it on, but with so much power I started to cough and being cold.
Spending the whole day with air conditioners is horrible. My throat gets completly dry and I can't breath properly (I might be allergic to it). But again, after a while (a long time for me) you get used. But that's when I had to leave again. With the nice feeling of going home, but with the sun over me laughing and making jokes about my suit, he can be a bit of a bastard some times.
As you see it's a bad time to come to Madrid at summer. You can't do anything except going to a swimming pool, but they're so crowded that it's not that nice. Unless you like watching bikini girls and almost naked men.
I wonder what it will be on the summer, when the sun comes nearer and it's still hotter.
Farewell and see you soon (unless I get melted down)
Manoel.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Spanish Girls. An answer to Colin.
Hi bloggers.
If you read Colin's blog as well as mine you've had read about an english friend of him who was having problems with a spanish girl. So I decided to clarify things for him as much as I can, and also talk to you about my experience and knowledge about girls and spain.
In my little experience with Spanish girls (some might say I'm being too humild, but that would be too arogant ;-)), as I have some, I could say they really like playing, but thats being generalistic. Of course not every girl on the street wants to play with us. But as I met girls from other countries I might say that's common in women. I had friends in love with foreigners and I met girls outside spain. The problem is with us, not with them. As a matter of fact they always know what they want and what we want from them, but that's easy, as we always want the same thing. And also we are too macho to realize they just want to have a good time, well, it's better to say we have a different idea about what's having a good time with a girl.
I'm not trying to contradict my friend Colin, as he's much more experienced with woman than I am but I just want to show you my point of view.
Generalizing, men always want something from woman different as they want from us. When they show a little interest we misunderstood it believing we have a chance for...(I'm trying not to be rude). They need weeks of chating, knowing ourselves, we need a night (and sometimes even seconds, it depends on how much drinks we have had that night).
But as I lived at Pontevedra I know what night is. There are some places in wich spanish mates go for having a girl just for one night (I have a friend who is an expert on that). If the english boy went to one of them I can believe he thought she wanted something more than just a night. Boys from Pontevedra know it, and they go to that places because they know some girls there, are looking for that. Of course some of them go there because they want to have a good time (this time meaning a girls good time) and we need to know whether they want to shag or they want just to dance, and knowing that is the difference of a succesful boy or a non succesful one (I might say I'm part of the second group). That's what makes the difference, knowing what they want from us and it doesn't have to do with being handsome or a good speaker, it has to do with our minds.
The main difference between Spain and the other countries is boys and girls are more naif. It's just a short time since we became a democracy and shorter even when the "machismo" became past. So we have liberal girls, wich we didn't have in the past, and it's hard to a rude spaniard to understand some girls would just want to have a laugh or to shag. So the problem I talked before it's even bigger, specially when you are used to different ways of thinking. He might have seen the signs at england, but not here, that's what I mean.
And spaniards are also confused, I mean boys. I was always the naif kind, so my sight on those signs is even worst than on any other boy from outside spain and this time I can't really help. My friends would be better on that sense.
I could also talk about my flat mate, who's a girl, and who's of the non liberal kind, but I will left it for another time.
Cheers and farewell.
Manoel.
(PS: I'm looking forward to seeing somebody. Come soon.)
If you read Colin's blog as well as mine you've had read about an english friend of him who was having problems with a spanish girl. So I decided to clarify things for him as much as I can, and also talk to you about my experience and knowledge about girls and spain.
In my little experience with Spanish girls (some might say I'm being too humild, but that would be too arogant ;-)), as I have some, I could say they really like playing, but thats being generalistic. Of course not every girl on the street wants to play with us. But as I met girls from other countries I might say that's common in women. I had friends in love with foreigners and I met girls outside spain. The problem is with us, not with them. As a matter of fact they always know what they want and what we want from them, but that's easy, as we always want the same thing. And also we are too macho to realize they just want to have a good time, well, it's better to say we have a different idea about what's having a good time with a girl.
I'm not trying to contradict my friend Colin, as he's much more experienced with woman than I am but I just want to show you my point of view.
Generalizing, men always want something from woman different as they want from us. When they show a little interest we misunderstood it believing we have a chance for...(I'm trying not to be rude). They need weeks of chating, knowing ourselves, we need a night (and sometimes even seconds, it depends on how much drinks we have had that night).
But as I lived at Pontevedra I know what night is. There are some places in wich spanish mates go for having a girl just for one night (I have a friend who is an expert on that). If the english boy went to one of them I can believe he thought she wanted something more than just a night. Boys from Pontevedra know it, and they go to that places because they know some girls there, are looking for that. Of course some of them go there because they want to have a good time (this time meaning a girls good time) and we need to know whether they want to shag or they want just to dance, and knowing that is the difference of a succesful boy or a non succesful one (I might say I'm part of the second group). That's what makes the difference, knowing what they want from us and it doesn't have to do with being handsome or a good speaker, it has to do with our minds.
The main difference between Spain and the other countries is boys and girls are more naif. It's just a short time since we became a democracy and shorter even when the "machismo" became past. So we have liberal girls, wich we didn't have in the past, and it's hard to a rude spaniard to understand some girls would just want to have a laugh or to shag. So the problem I talked before it's even bigger, specially when you are used to different ways of thinking. He might have seen the signs at england, but not here, that's what I mean.
And spaniards are also confused, I mean boys. I was always the naif kind, so my sight on those signs is even worst than on any other boy from outside spain and this time I can't really help. My friends would be better on that sense.
I could also talk about my flat mate, who's a girl, and who's of the non liberal kind, but I will left it for another time.
Cheers and farewell.
Manoel.
(PS: I'm looking forward to seeing somebody. Come soon.)
Saturday, June 04, 2005
Back to the old Fashion
Hi bloggers.
I noticed those last posts were of the same kind. I lost my funny touch and I regret it a bit. The fact is I was hiding some information in case somebody could read my blog and be offended. Today I realized if they read it and they get offended that means they don't have any sense of humour at all and that's not my fault. But today I have something to tell you and I'll leave humour for next one.
I've been to a demonstration today. If you read spanish newspapers you'll know wich one I'm talking about. But I'll talk about what it was about in case you don't.
Our new goberment decided to dialogue with ETA for them to put their weapons down. That showed useless in the past. For two times they tried (different gobernments) and for two times it was not only a failure but a chance for ETA to be reenforced and renewd. Last time it was the PP who dialogued with them and for a while it looked good, they weren't bombing anything for almost two years (I'm not sure about the time) but in the meantime ETA was just waiting and taking advance of the time without being disturbed to make some money and steal some explosives. So finally they started again with new strenght.
So it showed useless to speak with them and the PP decided to take some more rough tactics. They made a new law to expell the political arm of ETA from the legality (wich showed useful) and encourage police to take a lot of actions against them. For a time ETA was weaker than ever (that's for sure, and I'm not saying it's because of the PP but because of the tactics and help from other countries they used).
But then, the new gobernemnt needed to be different from the last one. As they didn't have experience on gobberning (almost all the older PSOE leaders have been left out) and they spent last 8 years on the opposition they acted (and act) as they still were the opposition party. So they made new laws and stopped some others against the PP. Our new president Zapatero, or ZP(whom is called sometimes "bamby", as the Disney character) loves dialoguing (what he calls, or it's called since he became the leader of PSOE "talante") and he is never offended for he preffers talking than being angry. So he talks with everybody, and even he tries, without any answer yet, to talk with G.W. Bush, whom he didn't ever liked.
Continuing, the political arm of ETA was a political party called HB. After being declared illegal they changed their name and that time it worked. That was 'till the new law of PP, they became illegal with any name. But this time a new p. party called PCTV (Comunist Party of the Vasque lands) came to take the place of HB. This time it was less easy to see the connection between PCTV and ETA but it was clear for some, even a judge. The old leader of HB said to HB votants to vote for that party, so it became clearer. But PSOE allowed them to be and then the mess started. Some weeks ago PSOE declared they wanted to talk with ETA and asked the parlament (I'm not sure if it was the parlament, sorry). The parlament it's constituted mostly by PSOE and his friends who are nationalists (vasque and Catalonian) so the petition it went on and was approbed with the negative vote of PP who broke the antiterrosit pact they had with PSOE.
But it seems the country doesn't want them to talk with ETA at all, and neither do I. The terrorism victims asociation is against talking and they convoqued a demonstration for today. There's some other things, but it'll take a long time and pages so I'll left them. I'll just tell you another one and then I'l talk about the demonstration. There's a guy (called Gregotio Peces Barba) who is the gobernemt responsible to manage all the affairs of the terrorism victims. He decided not to go to the demonstration as he should because it's against his party (he's elected by the gobernement). The T. victims association didn't like it at all and they didn't like either the fact he didn't resing after saying that. I understand about him not going to the demonstration but he should do something or, at least, resign of his charge. In fact I believe it's a stupid charge considering he'll never be with the victims if it's against his party. So that means he's not helping the people he's payed to help. It's clear to see some of the shoutings were against him.
The demonstration was a big one. There were something like 1 million people (according to TV) and the street was full and the crowd was like a snake. It covered a whole large street (Principe de Vergara) and ended at a roundabout near my house, so that's why I went, I'm too lazy to had gone if it was far away. At first my flat mate Vane and I came to the middle of the street. We were well positioned to see the people as we were beside the road, she wanted to see some famous politics. But after a while old people came and they subtly started to push us away to be first. They seemed to like it a lot, specially old women. Some of them came with their best clothes and some make up, the hair perfectly done. They laughed, they shouted, they pushed us without saying sorry, but they said good words to the policemen who were pushing them. There was something I found really funny, some cameramen were there with stairs. They walked a bit in front of the crowd and run up the stair to record the crowd. When they came close enough they went down and walked a bit further away and repeated the same thing. And then, the head of the demonstration came. They had a rope tied along the head, it was something like 20 meters long and made kind of a circle around them, I've never seen something like that before, but it was nice. After some organization people (the ones holding the rope and some others, including policemen) came victims of ETA, some recognisable faces because of TV, it was the only moment I got a bit sensitive and emotional as I thought about them being almost killed and some of their relatives getting killed by ETA bombings.
Then it was a big gap between them and the politicians filled with normal people. We waited being pushed to see them. After 20 minutes the politicians came holding a sign. The leader of the PP was in the center of it. I saw him being so, so, so happy!!!. He was smiling, giving kisses to everybody and enjoying the crowd bath he was having, he looked as he really liked it. I'm not going to say I like him but I'm not going to say the opposite, he's a human being after all, but I felt a bit proud of him as he was my neighbour when him and myself were living on the same street (I have a friend who lives on the same building as his parents and it's just a few buildings close to mine). I also felt happy because of his smile, he was so happy it was even contagious. And considering the demonstration was against a PSOE decission you can imagine everybody was encouraging him.
It was a big one, I might say but I don't know if it'll be useful or not. At least it'll tell the gobernment people some times have their own oppinions, and this time I agree with them. It's being a bad month for the goberment, as they have some other problems (related to european constitution) to deal with. I just hope it won't be bad for my country and any others.
I'll stop now, because it's taking a lot of space and time, and I don't want you to be too bored. I hope next one will be funnier, I'll do my best, I promise.
Farewell all you fellow readers.
Manoel.
I noticed those last posts were of the same kind. I lost my funny touch and I regret it a bit. The fact is I was hiding some information in case somebody could read my blog and be offended. Today I realized if they read it and they get offended that means they don't have any sense of humour at all and that's not my fault. But today I have something to tell you and I'll leave humour for next one.
I've been to a demonstration today. If you read spanish newspapers you'll know wich one I'm talking about. But I'll talk about what it was about in case you don't.
Our new goberment decided to dialogue with ETA for them to put their weapons down. That showed useless in the past. For two times they tried (different gobernments) and for two times it was not only a failure but a chance for ETA to be reenforced and renewd. Last time it was the PP who dialogued with them and for a while it looked good, they weren't bombing anything for almost two years (I'm not sure about the time) but in the meantime ETA was just waiting and taking advance of the time without being disturbed to make some money and steal some explosives. So finally they started again with new strenght.
So it showed useless to speak with them and the PP decided to take some more rough tactics. They made a new law to expell the political arm of ETA from the legality (wich showed useful) and encourage police to take a lot of actions against them. For a time ETA was weaker than ever (that's for sure, and I'm not saying it's because of the PP but because of the tactics and help from other countries they used).
But then, the new gobernemnt needed to be different from the last one. As they didn't have experience on gobberning (almost all the older PSOE leaders have been left out) and they spent last 8 years on the opposition they acted (and act) as they still were the opposition party. So they made new laws and stopped some others against the PP. Our new president Zapatero, or ZP(whom is called sometimes "bamby", as the Disney character) loves dialoguing (what he calls, or it's called since he became the leader of PSOE "talante") and he is never offended for he preffers talking than being angry. So he talks with everybody, and even he tries, without any answer yet, to talk with G.W. Bush, whom he didn't ever liked.
Continuing, the political arm of ETA was a political party called HB. After being declared illegal they changed their name and that time it worked. That was 'till the new law of PP, they became illegal with any name. But this time a new p. party called PCTV (Comunist Party of the Vasque lands) came to take the place of HB. This time it was less easy to see the connection between PCTV and ETA but it was clear for some, even a judge. The old leader of HB said to HB votants to vote for that party, so it became clearer. But PSOE allowed them to be and then the mess started. Some weeks ago PSOE declared they wanted to talk with ETA and asked the parlament (I'm not sure if it was the parlament, sorry). The parlament it's constituted mostly by PSOE and his friends who are nationalists (vasque and Catalonian) so the petition it went on and was approbed with the negative vote of PP who broke the antiterrosit pact they had with PSOE.
But it seems the country doesn't want them to talk with ETA at all, and neither do I. The terrorism victims asociation is against talking and they convoqued a demonstration for today. There's some other things, but it'll take a long time and pages so I'll left them. I'll just tell you another one and then I'l talk about the demonstration. There's a guy (called Gregotio Peces Barba) who is the gobernemt responsible to manage all the affairs of the terrorism victims. He decided not to go to the demonstration as he should because it's against his party (he's elected by the gobernement). The T. victims association didn't like it at all and they didn't like either the fact he didn't resing after saying that. I understand about him not going to the demonstration but he should do something or, at least, resign of his charge. In fact I believe it's a stupid charge considering he'll never be with the victims if it's against his party. So that means he's not helping the people he's payed to help. It's clear to see some of the shoutings were against him.
The demonstration was a big one. There were something like 1 million people (according to TV) and the street was full and the crowd was like a snake. It covered a whole large street (Principe de Vergara) and ended at a roundabout near my house, so that's why I went, I'm too lazy to had gone if it was far away. At first my flat mate Vane and I came to the middle of the street. We were well positioned to see the people as we were beside the road, she wanted to see some famous politics. But after a while old people came and they subtly started to push us away to be first. They seemed to like it a lot, specially old women. Some of them came with their best clothes and some make up, the hair perfectly done. They laughed, they shouted, they pushed us without saying sorry, but they said good words to the policemen who were pushing them. There was something I found really funny, some cameramen were there with stairs. They walked a bit in front of the crowd and run up the stair to record the crowd. When they came close enough they went down and walked a bit further away and repeated the same thing. And then, the head of the demonstration came. They had a rope tied along the head, it was something like 20 meters long and made kind of a circle around them, I've never seen something like that before, but it was nice. After some organization people (the ones holding the rope and some others, including policemen) came victims of ETA, some recognisable faces because of TV, it was the only moment I got a bit sensitive and emotional as I thought about them being almost killed and some of their relatives getting killed by ETA bombings.
Then it was a big gap between them and the politicians filled with normal people. We waited being pushed to see them. After 20 minutes the politicians came holding a sign. The leader of the PP was in the center of it. I saw him being so, so, so happy!!!. He was smiling, giving kisses to everybody and enjoying the crowd bath he was having, he looked as he really liked it. I'm not going to say I like him but I'm not going to say the opposite, he's a human being after all, but I felt a bit proud of him as he was my neighbour when him and myself were living on the same street (I have a friend who lives on the same building as his parents and it's just a few buildings close to mine). I also felt happy because of his smile, he was so happy it was even contagious. And considering the demonstration was against a PSOE decission you can imagine everybody was encouraging him.
It was a big one, I might say but I don't know if it'll be useful or not. At least it'll tell the gobernment people some times have their own oppinions, and this time I agree with them. It's being a bad month for the goberment, as they have some other problems (related to european constitution) to deal with. I just hope it won't be bad for my country and any others.
I'll stop now, because it's taking a lot of space and time, and I don't want you to be too bored. I hope next one will be funnier, I'll do my best, I promise.
Farewell all you fellow readers.
Manoel.
Monday, May 30, 2005
A small change
Hi Fellow readers, bloggers and friends in general.
I'm sorry not to have written you in a long while. The fact is I didn't have enough things to tell you as nothing has really changed since last time.
I told you I've been changed to another department but I still didn't have a computer of my own. The fact is everything is still the same but I'm working really hard. I managed to have a computer for the last week (with the help of my new boss) and I could work. Today I did have one also, but I'm not sure about tomorrow. The problem is I have some urgent work to do and my boss wants it to be made as quickly as possible, but as I said I'm not sure about having a comp for the next days, so how could it be done? The good thing is I haven't been that bored last week and times goes faster if you have something to do, so it wasn't a bad week. I also met some people and made a new friend at J&Js. So it was a really good week.
Unfortunatly I still don't feel happy about my job and my new life. I know I have to be patient, but it's hard for me. And also things happen slower when you want them to be faster, that's a fact.
I might say also that I have a feeling of life being a bit unfair with me. I hope you don't blame me for being too negative, but for the last months every time something good happened to me it turned into crap at the end. So I'm a bit suspicious at the moment about any good news. I had a good one last week, it has to do with the people I met, but then, even when is not turned into crap yet it has turned into a complicated thing with means to be crap at the end. I should say it could turn into something really good but I told you I'm suspicious at the moment.
I started to feel again the need of leaving my country. Last week I sent some CVs to the Argentinian branch of my company and this week I even considered to move further away (yes, it's possible). I still have the ache of travelling and living at different parts of the world, but I also know I need some more time and money (and also courage). I know my family won't be happy if I do it, because my new plans are about moving really far from Spain. I'm still not happy here, even when there's a lot of new things, people is still the same, and my company is still spanish even being American. But I need to do some CV adds before that, if I have a year of experience it will be easier for me to find a job outside Spain. I'll be patient or, at least, I'll try to be, the reward could be great.
Anyway, I want you to know I'll still be here, even if I don't write that often, telling you about my life's changes and everything that comes to my mind or I just want to tell you.
I must say my ex-work-mates were very nice with me and they still are. I told them about my blog today and about the fact that some people would like to read about somebody else thoughts and/or experiences. They were fascinated and it made me really happy that they were. I wish they read it today and they read this post, so they'll know why you read me. I'm also happy to have so many fellow readers (I feel a bit weird complimenting you) but that's the only reason I keep writing, it makes me feel better to tell my feelings anyway, so it's both sides.
Farewell and hope things get better to everybody.
Manoel.
I'm sorry not to have written you in a long while. The fact is I didn't have enough things to tell you as nothing has really changed since last time.
I told you I've been changed to another department but I still didn't have a computer of my own. The fact is everything is still the same but I'm working really hard. I managed to have a computer for the last week (with the help of my new boss) and I could work. Today I did have one also, but I'm not sure about tomorrow. The problem is I have some urgent work to do and my boss wants it to be made as quickly as possible, but as I said I'm not sure about having a comp for the next days, so how could it be done? The good thing is I haven't been that bored last week and times goes faster if you have something to do, so it wasn't a bad week. I also met some people and made a new friend at J&Js. So it was a really good week.
Unfortunatly I still don't feel happy about my job and my new life. I know I have to be patient, but it's hard for me. And also things happen slower when you want them to be faster, that's a fact.
I might say also that I have a feeling of life being a bit unfair with me. I hope you don't blame me for being too negative, but for the last months every time something good happened to me it turned into crap at the end. So I'm a bit suspicious at the moment about any good news. I had a good one last week, it has to do with the people I met, but then, even when is not turned into crap yet it has turned into a complicated thing with means to be crap at the end. I should say it could turn into something really good but I told you I'm suspicious at the moment.
I started to feel again the need of leaving my country. Last week I sent some CVs to the Argentinian branch of my company and this week I even considered to move further away (yes, it's possible). I still have the ache of travelling and living at different parts of the world, but I also know I need some more time and money (and also courage). I know my family won't be happy if I do it, because my new plans are about moving really far from Spain. I'm still not happy here, even when there's a lot of new things, people is still the same, and my company is still spanish even being American. But I need to do some CV adds before that, if I have a year of experience it will be easier for me to find a job outside Spain. I'll be patient or, at least, I'll try to be, the reward could be great.
Anyway, I want you to know I'll still be here, even if I don't write that often, telling you about my life's changes and everything that comes to my mind or I just want to tell you.
I must say my ex-work-mates were very nice with me and they still are. I told them about my blog today and about the fact that some people would like to read about somebody else thoughts and/or experiences. They were fascinated and it made me really happy that they were. I wish they read it today and they read this post, so they'll know why you read me. I'm also happy to have so many fellow readers (I feel a bit weird complimenting you) but that's the only reason I keep writing, it makes me feel better to tell my feelings anyway, so it's both sides.
Farewell and hope things get better to everybody.
Manoel.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Things going well
Hi bloggers.
If you were worried about me, I might tell you things are getting better. At least I do know now I'm not getting fired, and also I'm going to work for the new department and not being moved to another place, wich means I won't lose money (I don't want to be mean, but life is rough enough). I still don't have a computer of my own, but I'm treated better. My "new" boss asked me to do things without asking me if I knew how to do them, and I did them, and did them well. So I believe he's happy with me. That's quite a step, don't you think?
But I'm also afraid of being too positive. I tend to be negative, but in the past, when things were getting better there was always something bad that happened, so I decided just to be cautious.
I'll mantain you well informed about anything that happens to me, specially because my "new" boss has some peculiarities I'd like you to know, unless I forgot about them. I'm sure I won't.
Farewell.
Manoe.
If you were worried about me, I might tell you things are getting better. At least I do know now I'm not getting fired, and also I'm going to work for the new department and not being moved to another place, wich means I won't lose money (I don't want to be mean, but life is rough enough). I still don't have a computer of my own, but I'm treated better. My "new" boss asked me to do things without asking me if I knew how to do them, and I did them, and did them well. So I believe he's happy with me. That's quite a step, don't you think?
But I'm also afraid of being too positive. I tend to be negative, but in the past, when things were getting better there was always something bad that happened, so I decided just to be cautious.
I'll mantain you well informed about anything that happens to me, specially because my "new" boss has some peculiarities I'd like you to know, unless I forgot about them. I'm sure I won't.
Farewell.
Manoe.
Saturday, May 21, 2005
More of the same
Hi and Good Morning.
I wish I could tell you I have a really good job. Unfortunatly it's not true yet. Yet I'm being payed, and also I'm being payed for doing nothing and I know some guys who would be really happy to have that kind of job. But, knowing me, that's the worst kind I could ever have. It's almost three months and I still don't have my own desk neither a computer. I was finally moved on thursday to the new department, but not because they have a place for me, but because they have some empty desks and seats, meaning I can at least seat my butt. The problem was my boss (and I believe she's ex-boss now, she was the sleepy one) arrived so I had to leave her desk, and as nobody was on holidays or ill that meant there were no desk at all for me. So either I move to the other department or I stand up the whole day or go for walking. I would rather preffer walking than anything else, at least I like doing it better than doing nothing, but of course they didn't want me to do that.
I called my boss (the big one) and he told me to move, but without giving me the feeling of it being permanently. He was supposed to come and see us this week, but he didn't. Some of us wanted to talk with him, about important matters, some of them quite important, specially mine (beacuse it's important for myself, I mean). He's our "Team Manager" meaning he's supposed to be our voice in front of the bigger bosses and clients and also he has to make a crew into a team wich should involve being there when he's needed. But of course he's real matters are those related with the ones that pay, the clients, and it seems they're much more important than us. He "works" at the main office and I put it into quotes because I never saw him working as he's not neither with the client or with us. My new boss told me yesterday that he'd came to talk to us, well he really told me he'll come to talk to me, that only means he has another ideas for me, but he didn't come.
I'm not afraid of being fired, as they don't pay me that much, compared with the money they give to others, and also compared with some others that are payed much more and works much less (yes, it's possible). And also because they do know it's not my fault but theirs. And also because they could have done it before without having to pay me anything (well, they still can, it's just another week and they'd have to pay me). I'm not afraid of losing my job, and as I tend to be negative that only means I really believe they're not going to fire me, so don't be worried, there's blog for a long time.
I'll mantain you informed about my working days.
Cheers and Farewell.
Manoel.
I wish I could tell you I have a really good job. Unfortunatly it's not true yet. Yet I'm being payed, and also I'm being payed for doing nothing and I know some guys who would be really happy to have that kind of job. But, knowing me, that's the worst kind I could ever have. It's almost three months and I still don't have my own desk neither a computer. I was finally moved on thursday to the new department, but not because they have a place for me, but because they have some empty desks and seats, meaning I can at least seat my butt. The problem was my boss (and I believe she's ex-boss now, she was the sleepy one) arrived so I had to leave her desk, and as nobody was on holidays or ill that meant there were no desk at all for me. So either I move to the other department or I stand up the whole day or go for walking. I would rather preffer walking than anything else, at least I like doing it better than doing nothing, but of course they didn't want me to do that.
I called my boss (the big one) and he told me to move, but without giving me the feeling of it being permanently. He was supposed to come and see us this week, but he didn't. Some of us wanted to talk with him, about important matters, some of them quite important, specially mine (beacuse it's important for myself, I mean). He's our "Team Manager" meaning he's supposed to be our voice in front of the bigger bosses and clients and also he has to make a crew into a team wich should involve being there when he's needed. But of course he's real matters are those related with the ones that pay, the clients, and it seems they're much more important than us. He "works" at the main office and I put it into quotes because I never saw him working as he's not neither with the client or with us. My new boss told me yesterday that he'd came to talk to us, well he really told me he'll come to talk to me, that only means he has another ideas for me, but he didn't come.
I'm not afraid of being fired, as they don't pay me that much, compared with the money they give to others, and also compared with some others that are payed much more and works much less (yes, it's possible). And also because they do know it's not my fault but theirs. And also because they could have done it before without having to pay me anything (well, they still can, it's just another week and they'd have to pay me). I'm not afraid of losing my job, and as I tend to be negative that only means I really believe they're not going to fire me, so don't be worried, there's blog for a long time.
I'll mantain you informed about my working days.
Cheers and Farewell.
Manoel.
Sunday, May 15, 2005
No new news
Hi Bloggers.
This last few days have been quite boring. I have done nothing during the weekend and also I might say I didn't during the week, even at my job. It's being a terribly boring time, and doing nothing is something that tires me as much as doing too much. I still don't know where I'm going to work at, or if I'll have some work to do. I decided (with the help of my fellow Faye) to talk to my boss, not the sleepy one, she's at the "rocio" (look in google what the hell is that, I'm not going to explain it, in fact I'm not sure what's all about) but my the highest one. I'm going to tell him carefully how bored I am and the waste of my talent and time wich it's being at my office. I hope he'll understand but if not at least I'll feel better. Anyway, I'm almost sure it's going to be another boring week, unless something happens, but this is Spain and everything is slow here.
I spent the last days doing nothing, and the only things I did where repetitive tasks wich didn't involve using my brain at all. I'm afraid I'm getting stupid, or untrained. But the most stupid, apart from my brain, it's the fact they're paying me for that, and it's just a fools doing, it's a waste of money, time and resources. I'm sure they don't earn as much money as they could in spain, but I'm afraid it has to do with the clients and not only with my company. In fact, I believe it's not my companies fault, but the client's, wich is quite cheeky. But my boss could do something more.
Well, I hope I'll have some exciting news next time I speak to you, meanwhile I hope at least I'll meet some new weirdos then I'll have something to talk about.
Cheers and sorry for being late again.
Farewell
Manoel.
This last few days have been quite boring. I have done nothing during the weekend and also I might say I didn't during the week, even at my job. It's being a terribly boring time, and doing nothing is something that tires me as much as doing too much. I still don't know where I'm going to work at, or if I'll have some work to do. I decided (with the help of my fellow Faye) to talk to my boss, not the sleepy one, she's at the "rocio" (look in google what the hell is that, I'm not going to explain it, in fact I'm not sure what's all about) but my the highest one. I'm going to tell him carefully how bored I am and the waste of my talent and time wich it's being at my office. I hope he'll understand but if not at least I'll feel better. Anyway, I'm almost sure it's going to be another boring week, unless something happens, but this is Spain and everything is slow here.
I spent the last days doing nothing, and the only things I did where repetitive tasks wich didn't involve using my brain at all. I'm afraid I'm getting stupid, or untrained. But the most stupid, apart from my brain, it's the fact they're paying me for that, and it's just a fools doing, it's a waste of money, time and resources. I'm sure they don't earn as much money as they could in spain, but I'm afraid it has to do with the clients and not only with my company. In fact, I believe it's not my companies fault, but the client's, wich is quite cheeky. But my boss could do something more.
Well, I hope I'll have some exciting news next time I speak to you, meanwhile I hope at least I'll meet some new weirdos then I'll have something to talk about.
Cheers and sorry for being late again.
Farewell
Manoel.
Monday, May 09, 2005
Weirdos from Madrid
Hi blog readers.
As I don't want to bore you with more office stories (I'm afraid you might like them) but this time I want to talk about freaks.
Living on a big city means meeting a lot of people. I told you more than once how much I enjoy waatching people, everywhere. The tube is a good opportunity to practice this hobby, and also the bus. So I have a few freaks wich I would like to talk about.
I'l start with the one I call Gollum, or Smeagol. I decided to call him both. If you had seen the Lord of The Rings movies you will understand it better. Gollum has two different personalities, and so he speaks with himself, one of them is Gollum and the other Smeagol, the evil and the good. I met him at the bus, and I travel with him a lot, so I started to know him well. He's as skinny as the proper gollum, and except from not being bald his face asembles a bit of him. But he's not Gollum because he looks like him, he is Gollum because he's two guys at the same time, although I only hear one of them. If you don't know him you might think he's chatting on a hands free mobile, but he's not. He has proper conversations, he talks a lot and about multiple subjects. Today I was beside him, so I could hear the entire conversation, he argues quite a lot, but he's never angry with himself. I heard him saying "no, men, it's not like that" with feeling, and then "well... I'm not sure". And then he asks himself if he likes Salsa dancing, I believed he didn't, but he replied once more "no, I really like it, although I agree bossanova is better". It's funny in some ways, and a bit scary in some others. I believe he's squizofrenic (I'm sorry if I don't spell it right).
Then here we have this other old chap, he's fine. But he always smiles to everybody and sometimes he's rude with the bus driver. He talks to anybody if he has the chance. I was never beside him, so I didn't have to speak with him. I heard him talking about Galicians and he made some mistakes trying to speak like one of us, but it's sweet anyway. He's not really a freak, just a too friendly old chap.
Then, and again on the bus, we have a retard (I'm sorry if I'm not being politicaly right, but I don't know another word for this). He's really sweet with his baseball hat, and his perpetual smile. He gets up a lot loosing his seat, just because he wants to see something. But he spends most of the time sleeping. Sometimes he listens to music and sings. Sometimes he reads a newspaper, wich is really brave, I believe.
So as you see I hadn't a lot of them, I see the same 10 or 20 people everyday, as they go to work at similar time as I do. Some of them are strange, but unfortunatly I don't have so many freaks yet, I'll have some more in the future, I'm sure.
And now, changing subject, I want to tell you a really short story. It's just something that happened to me last saturday when I came back home from going out. It was on a bus, and it was just this really weighty chap that fall complete sleep on me. I really mean on me, or over me. I couldn't really bare him, he was quite heavy. But I didn't want to wake him up, except that I had to leave the bus and I was at the window, so I really had to. I did, but it didn't really matter to him he continued sleeping. But the girl in front of me had a really good time, smiling or laughing at me.
See you soon and farewell again.
Manoel.
As I don't want to bore you with more office stories (I'm afraid you might like them) but this time I want to talk about freaks.
Living on a big city means meeting a lot of people. I told you more than once how much I enjoy waatching people, everywhere. The tube is a good opportunity to practice this hobby, and also the bus. So I have a few freaks wich I would like to talk about.
I'l start with the one I call Gollum, or Smeagol. I decided to call him both. If you had seen the Lord of The Rings movies you will understand it better. Gollum has two different personalities, and so he speaks with himself, one of them is Gollum and the other Smeagol, the evil and the good. I met him at the bus, and I travel with him a lot, so I started to know him well. He's as skinny as the proper gollum, and except from not being bald his face asembles a bit of him. But he's not Gollum because he looks like him, he is Gollum because he's two guys at the same time, although I only hear one of them. If you don't know him you might think he's chatting on a hands free mobile, but he's not. He has proper conversations, he talks a lot and about multiple subjects. Today I was beside him, so I could hear the entire conversation, he argues quite a lot, but he's never angry with himself. I heard him saying "no, men, it's not like that" with feeling, and then "well... I'm not sure". And then he asks himself if he likes Salsa dancing, I believed he didn't, but he replied once more "no, I really like it, although I agree bossanova is better". It's funny in some ways, and a bit scary in some others. I believe he's squizofrenic (I'm sorry if I don't spell it right).
Then here we have this other old chap, he's fine. But he always smiles to everybody and sometimes he's rude with the bus driver. He talks to anybody if he has the chance. I was never beside him, so I didn't have to speak with him. I heard him talking about Galicians and he made some mistakes trying to speak like one of us, but it's sweet anyway. He's not really a freak, just a too friendly old chap.
Then, and again on the bus, we have a retard (I'm sorry if I'm not being politicaly right, but I don't know another word for this). He's really sweet with his baseball hat, and his perpetual smile. He gets up a lot loosing his seat, just because he wants to see something. But he spends most of the time sleeping. Sometimes he listens to music and sings. Sometimes he reads a newspaper, wich is really brave, I believe.
So as you see I hadn't a lot of them, I see the same 10 or 20 people everyday, as they go to work at similar time as I do. Some of them are strange, but unfortunatly I don't have so many freaks yet, I'll have some more in the future, I'm sure.
And now, changing subject, I want to tell you a really short story. It's just something that happened to me last saturday when I came back home from going out. It was on a bus, and it was just this really weighty chap that fall complete sleep on me. I really mean on me, or over me. I couldn't really bare him, he was quite heavy. But I didn't want to wake him up, except that I had to leave the bus and I was at the window, so I really had to. I did, but it didn't really matter to him he continued sleeping. But the girl in front of me had a really good time, smiling or laughing at me.
See you soon and farewell again.
Manoel.
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
How to ruin an American company
Hi bloggers.
I'm just back from having a couple of pints at a nice bar, it's called J&Js and you can speak english there, with Spaniards and also foreigners. I'm glad that I went. I had some chatting and made some new friends. And I also really needed it.
I want to explain about the blog's title. It's just as simple as this "put spaniards in front of the American spanish branch of the company and it will turn inmediatly into unefficient crap". I couldn't have had a worst day. I spent the day doing nothing, I mean nothing valuable for the company, but it wasn't my fault. I spent the whole day looking at the screen and trying to hack the system to get internet, wich I almost did, I finally got some internet, but unfortunatly i couldn't get access to my blog, so don't expect me to write more than I do.
You know, or you should know if it's not the first time you read me, that I'm being moved to another department. The problem is, I still don't have my own computer at both departments, so I can't really move to the new one. I talked to my new "boss" and he told me not to expect to have one on the next 20 days, wich I belive it's going to be more than that. Then, I talked to my old boss, but still my boss, or at least that's what I think, although I'm not too sure about it, and she told me she preffer me to be working there. The problem is my "old" job mates don't want to give me new jobs, because I won't finish them if I leave. I believe I'll spend the whole month doing more hacking and writing (I also spend some time writing stuf for my own self, just silly crap I'm afraid).
But also, and this means going back in the past, I'm considered as the best of all the people that made the course with me, and those aren't my own words, that's according to the teacher, my mega boss, my boss and all my course mates, so it's nothing I just made off, I promise. But all of them, including my flat mate Marivi are working, and I mean really working. Just take it like this: you have a really good programmer and another 5, and you have to decide where should they work at; then you take the laziest of them and you give them something to do, wich they don't because they're lazy, you know; then you choose the best of them to be at the worst place, doing nothing; and if you're not happy enough with it, let's just say my company recieves money for all of them (I mean, we work with another companies who pay my own company three or more times the same money we receive) except for the best of them. I believe that's just unbelievable. The other companies pays for the lazy guys but the BSCH (the bank I work for) pays nothing for me? and that's because I don't have a computer, meaning I'm not working at all, well, I really do work, and I'm sure I did more than my other course mates, because I'm damm fast (I promise I'm not being arrogant), but they don't pay for my work.
There's also another problem wich I expect it won't affect me. My company is losing money at Spain, it's not hard to belive. And they're going to fire some people. They decided to fire the ones that earn more money, wich means more expenses for the company. And also, being at Spain I'm sure they are going to fire the ones whom the bosses don't like even if they're good at their jobs. But I'm afraid they might fire me. There's just one simple reason for them doing it, my company spends a lot of money on me but they don't earn anything at all. For instance, my flat mate Mariví earns 1000 euros a month, but they earn 3 or 4 times that quantity, meanwhile for myself they spend 1160 euros a month without any earnings (we don't really receive that much, we have to pay taxes, bloody taxes). That's what I'm afraid of, they might lose a good programmer just because a bad deccision (sorry for being arrogant once more, but it's just the truth).
I hope it won't be true, and I still be here, earning money, trying to make the company better (as none of my working mates wants to be a boss, I really want to, at least I believe I'll make things a bit better, I mean, less spanish). I might tell you sometjing else before I leave, I'm not sure I had told you before but, they had a meeting at Paris, the entire company. People came from all over the world, Norht and South America, England, East Europe, Russia, Japan, ... and they had a conference. It was on english, I should take it for granted. But the spaniards couldn't get a word of it, and also the translators on headphones seemed to be boring, so they decided to leave the conference, in wich the BIG BOSS was talking about the new company strategy (something I belive vital for the company's future), and they went to have some fun at the DisneyLand resort or just having a short walk at Paris. The company payed a lot just for hiring an entire hotel for the whole company bosses but the Spaniards thought better to have some fun. And they don't regret it, they didn't have any remorse about it.
That's just another example of us, Spaniards. Sometimes i'm ashamed of being one of them, I'm really sorry for it.
Well, I hope next time I'll tell you some good news, I'm sure I will.
Farewell (I'm falling in love with that word).
Manoel
I'm just back from having a couple of pints at a nice bar, it's called J&Js and you can speak english there, with Spaniards and also foreigners. I'm glad that I went. I had some chatting and made some new friends. And I also really needed it.
I want to explain about the blog's title. It's just as simple as this "put spaniards in front of the American spanish branch of the company and it will turn inmediatly into unefficient crap". I couldn't have had a worst day. I spent the day doing nothing, I mean nothing valuable for the company, but it wasn't my fault. I spent the whole day looking at the screen and trying to hack the system to get internet, wich I almost did, I finally got some internet, but unfortunatly i couldn't get access to my blog, so don't expect me to write more than I do.
You know, or you should know if it's not the first time you read me, that I'm being moved to another department. The problem is, I still don't have my own computer at both departments, so I can't really move to the new one. I talked to my new "boss" and he told me not to expect to have one on the next 20 days, wich I belive it's going to be more than that. Then, I talked to my old boss, but still my boss, or at least that's what I think, although I'm not too sure about it, and she told me she preffer me to be working there. The problem is my "old" job mates don't want to give me new jobs, because I won't finish them if I leave. I believe I'll spend the whole month doing more hacking and writing (I also spend some time writing stuf for my own self, just silly crap I'm afraid).
But also, and this means going back in the past, I'm considered as the best of all the people that made the course with me, and those aren't my own words, that's according to the teacher, my mega boss, my boss and all my course mates, so it's nothing I just made off, I promise. But all of them, including my flat mate Marivi are working, and I mean really working. Just take it like this: you have a really good programmer and another 5, and you have to decide where should they work at; then you take the laziest of them and you give them something to do, wich they don't because they're lazy, you know; then you choose the best of them to be at the worst place, doing nothing; and if you're not happy enough with it, let's just say my company recieves money for all of them (I mean, we work with another companies who pay my own company three or more times the same money we receive) except for the best of them. I believe that's just unbelievable. The other companies pays for the lazy guys but the BSCH (the bank I work for) pays nothing for me? and that's because I don't have a computer, meaning I'm not working at all, well, I really do work, and I'm sure I did more than my other course mates, because I'm damm fast (I promise I'm not being arrogant), but they don't pay for my work.
There's also another problem wich I expect it won't affect me. My company is losing money at Spain, it's not hard to belive. And they're going to fire some people. They decided to fire the ones that earn more money, wich means more expenses for the company. And also, being at Spain I'm sure they are going to fire the ones whom the bosses don't like even if they're good at their jobs. But I'm afraid they might fire me. There's just one simple reason for them doing it, my company spends a lot of money on me but they don't earn anything at all. For instance, my flat mate Mariví earns 1000 euros a month, but they earn 3 or 4 times that quantity, meanwhile for myself they spend 1160 euros a month without any earnings (we don't really receive that much, we have to pay taxes, bloody taxes). That's what I'm afraid of, they might lose a good programmer just because a bad deccision (sorry for being arrogant once more, but it's just the truth).
I hope it won't be true, and I still be here, earning money, trying to make the company better (as none of my working mates wants to be a boss, I really want to, at least I believe I'll make things a bit better, I mean, less spanish). I might tell you sometjing else before I leave, I'm not sure I had told you before but, they had a meeting at Paris, the entire company. People came from all over the world, Norht and South America, England, East Europe, Russia, Japan, ... and they had a conference. It was on english, I should take it for granted. But the spaniards couldn't get a word of it, and also the translators on headphones seemed to be boring, so they decided to leave the conference, in wich the BIG BOSS was talking about the new company strategy (something I belive vital for the company's future), and they went to have some fun at the DisneyLand resort or just having a short walk at Paris. The company payed a lot just for hiring an entire hotel for the whole company bosses but the Spaniards thought better to have some fun. And they don't regret it, they didn't have any remorse about it.
That's just another example of us, Spaniards. Sometimes i'm ashamed of being one of them, I'm really sorry for it.
Well, I hope next time I'll tell you some good news, I'm sure I will.
Farewell (I'm falling in love with that word).
Manoel
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
For my fellow Bloggers (and also new ones)
Hi all of you.
I recently got some telling off from some fellow bloggers. The problem was I wasn't writing as much as before, and they really love my blogs. That's something I'm really proud of but, at the same time, puts more pressure over me to write. Writing is something I do when I feel like it, I didn't pretend to make this blog as a diary of my entire life, and I believe some day it'll stop, meaning that some day I'll be happy enough not to write about it.Although I believe meanwhile I can make somebody's life happier and/or make them laugh a bit I think it really worths spending my time.
So here I am again, I'm back at Madrid. Although I know I'm not where I would really like to be i's kind of. I'm going to have terrible times being at my office, and I'm sure you'll enjoy them as soon as I write about it. My life isn't that easy I would like it to be, but I hope that's the same for everybody. Being here is being kind of a test to me. I'm testing my strenght to face things without any help, and I'm also learning a lot about Spaniards, more than I did before. I can tell you about working, living and having social life at Spain, but I'm also sure you'll not learn anything useful from myself, as my work is not what I expected, my living is almost the same as at my old town, and also I'm not having any social life at all.
Well, I hope I'll write soon. Farewell and be good.
Manoel.
I recently got some telling off from some fellow bloggers. The problem was I wasn't writing as much as before, and they really love my blogs. That's something I'm really proud of but, at the same time, puts more pressure over me to write. Writing is something I do when I feel like it, I didn't pretend to make this blog as a diary of my entire life, and I believe some day it'll stop, meaning that some day I'll be happy enough not to write about it.Although I believe meanwhile I can make somebody's life happier and/or make them laugh a bit I think it really worths spending my time.
So here I am again, I'm back at Madrid. Although I know I'm not where I would really like to be i's kind of. I'm going to have terrible times being at my office, and I'm sure you'll enjoy them as soon as I write about it. My life isn't that easy I would like it to be, but I hope that's the same for everybody. Being here is being kind of a test to me. I'm testing my strenght to face things without any help, and I'm also learning a lot about Spaniards, more than I did before. I can tell you about working, living and having social life at Spain, but I'm also sure you'll not learn anything useful from myself, as my work is not what I expected, my living is almost the same as at my old town, and also I'm not having any social life at all.
Well, I hope I'll write soon. Farewell and be good.
Manoel.
Monday, May 02, 2005
A Short visit to my old City
Hi folks.
I came back to Pontevedra for a short visit, just a few days. After a long trip on a Bus wich took 8 hours, and after my legs started aching, I arrived and I could notice no changes at all. Well, it was just one month since the last time, but I expected more. The fact is I really miss my old town, but not at all meanings. I miss the green colour and the smell of the sea. I'm just scared about being at Madrid on summer with my suit at the tube. I'm sure that's going to be horrible, but that's life.
I was talking with my friend and fellow blogger Colin about some things and he asked me if I noticed differences between Madrileños and Galicians. So I said the Madrileños are a bit more "chulos" (Arrogant) but I couldn't say anything else. The fact is I realized we are exactly the same thing, we expect the same things from life, wich is being a civil servant or "funcionario" in my own speak. We just want to have fun in the same way and we're all as closed to foreign cultures/food/... as them. Of course the possibility of finding somebody whom is open at Madrid is higher than here, and of course as we live on a very small town, we're less open minded. But after all we are Spaniards, and I believe that's all what makes us being what we are.
Anyway. I'll come back to my office life on Thursday, and I hope I'll learn some more about that subject, so you'll have some more funny stories. I still have to tell you more about the "fat bastard" and some other characters, and also about the money spent by the bank and the idiocy I see there. The BSCH city is not finished yet, so I see them still working on it, and I see how inefficient they are. But that's something I'll tell you another day. I'm still wlking on my town, smelling the sea and hearing the "gaviotas" wich is a bird I don't really like, but that now I see I miss a bit.
Farewell!
Manoel.
I came back to Pontevedra for a short visit, just a few days. After a long trip on a Bus wich took 8 hours, and after my legs started aching, I arrived and I could notice no changes at all. Well, it was just one month since the last time, but I expected more. The fact is I really miss my old town, but not at all meanings. I miss the green colour and the smell of the sea. I'm just scared about being at Madrid on summer with my suit at the tube. I'm sure that's going to be horrible, but that's life.
I was talking with my friend and fellow blogger Colin about some things and he asked me if I noticed differences between Madrileños and Galicians. So I said the Madrileños are a bit more "chulos" (Arrogant) but I couldn't say anything else. The fact is I realized we are exactly the same thing, we expect the same things from life, wich is being a civil servant or "funcionario" in my own speak. We just want to have fun in the same way and we're all as closed to foreign cultures/food/... as them. Of course the possibility of finding somebody whom is open at Madrid is higher than here, and of course as we live on a very small town, we're less open minded. But after all we are Spaniards, and I believe that's all what makes us being what we are.
Anyway. I'll come back to my office life on Thursday, and I hope I'll learn some more about that subject, so you'll have some more funny stories. I still have to tell you more about the "fat bastard" and some other characters, and also about the money spent by the bank and the idiocy I see there. The BSCH city is not finished yet, so I see them still working on it, and I see how inefficient they are. But that's something I'll tell you another day. I'm still wlking on my town, smelling the sea and hearing the "gaviotas" wich is a bird I don't really like, but that now I see I miss a bit.
Farewell!
Manoel.
Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Working at Spain
Hi again. Sorry for being a bit late.
I'm not going to write everyday, I must tell you, but I'll do it as soon as I can and wants. The fact is I work all day and when I arrive home sometimes I don't feel like writing, if you know what I mean, I hope you will. But today I feel like it, so I will.
As i told you before I have a lot of new experiences, people, habits to write about. I told you about this guy whom I called (and I still name him like that) "the fat bastard". He's still being a fat bastard, but he's getting better, or I believe I'm being less critical with him. The fact is he's being naughty, disgusting and sometimes even unbearable but I noticed everything's just because he wants to be my friend and that's why he's behaving like he does. He's married, but I don't know with whom, she might be a saint or worst than him, as he's always talking about nasty sex matters and his porn film collection wich seems to be really large. The most amazing is he shares it with his father in law, wich I believe is just unthinkable. I guess you know what kind of guy he is, but he's not a bad person, or at least not yet.
Let's talk about something different, let's talk about my company. It's a big amercian company, but the Spanish branch. So when the main company is efficient, and loyal with employees our mother house in Spain is another whore house (I'm sorry for being rude, but that's how we'll say it here). I mean, everybody hates everybody, there's no good bosses at all (except for one or two whom I never met) and none of the employees has good talks about them. My own, in fact, expends half the day sleeping, and I really mean sleeping, at her desk. She does it really well, so if you look at her you don't really notice, you have to get close to her, as she has her hand on the mouse, and her head up. But her eyes are closed and sometimes if something awakes her she jumps on her chair. My work mates also don't really like her, but it seems they don't like any boss at all, they are really bitchy if you know what I mean.
And also I still don't have a desk neither a computer and not even a chair. So I just wait somebody leaves her/his desk to use a PC for a while, unless somebody is on holidays, then I have a desk for some days. So it's being 2 months and I'm still like the first day. I might say they also call me "el becario" wich means I'm a student not being payed, wich is not true at all, I'm another employee and that really anoyies me, and also they don't give me enough work, wich I could be doing, and sometimes even better than them (I'm sorry for being arrogant, but it's damm true). So I have to expend 9 hours a day doing nothing, wich is horrible for the kind of guy I am, and also I could be bad for my future. I hoped it'll change but today I receive some news.
I'm being moved to another department, in the same place, but a different department. That means I have to meet new people, and also I have to forget everything I learned and the realtions I made. It's like starting again. I just hope at the new department they'll treat me better and give some work. The problem is my boss (the sleepy one) told me about that change but she likes me and she wants me to be back soon, but her boss wants me to be at the other one because there's more need for programmers there. I'm just impacient for the change, and for the next one because I'm sure they'll change me again.
I'll mantain you informed about this and all the new events in my recent life.
Farewell.
Manoel.
I'm not going to write everyday, I must tell you, but I'll do it as soon as I can and wants. The fact is I work all day and when I arrive home sometimes I don't feel like writing, if you know what I mean, I hope you will. But today I feel like it, so I will.
As i told you before I have a lot of new experiences, people, habits to write about. I told you about this guy whom I called (and I still name him like that) "the fat bastard". He's still being a fat bastard, but he's getting better, or I believe I'm being less critical with him. The fact is he's being naughty, disgusting and sometimes even unbearable but I noticed everything's just because he wants to be my friend and that's why he's behaving like he does. He's married, but I don't know with whom, she might be a saint or worst than him, as he's always talking about nasty sex matters and his porn film collection wich seems to be really large. The most amazing is he shares it with his father in law, wich I believe is just unthinkable. I guess you know what kind of guy he is, but he's not a bad person, or at least not yet.
Let's talk about something different, let's talk about my company. It's a big amercian company, but the Spanish branch. So when the main company is efficient, and loyal with employees our mother house in Spain is another whore house (I'm sorry for being rude, but that's how we'll say it here). I mean, everybody hates everybody, there's no good bosses at all (except for one or two whom I never met) and none of the employees has good talks about them. My own, in fact, expends half the day sleeping, and I really mean sleeping, at her desk. She does it really well, so if you look at her you don't really notice, you have to get close to her, as she has her hand on the mouse, and her head up. But her eyes are closed and sometimes if something awakes her she jumps on her chair. My work mates also don't really like her, but it seems they don't like any boss at all, they are really bitchy if you know what I mean.
And also I still don't have a desk neither a computer and not even a chair. So I just wait somebody leaves her/his desk to use a PC for a while, unless somebody is on holidays, then I have a desk for some days. So it's being 2 months and I'm still like the first day. I might say they also call me "el becario" wich means I'm a student not being payed, wich is not true at all, I'm another employee and that really anoyies me, and also they don't give me enough work, wich I could be doing, and sometimes even better than them (I'm sorry for being arrogant, but it's damm true). So I have to expend 9 hours a day doing nothing, wich is horrible for the kind of guy I am, and also I could be bad for my future. I hoped it'll change but today I receive some news.
I'm being moved to another department, in the same place, but a different department. That means I have to meet new people, and also I have to forget everything I learned and the realtions I made. It's like starting again. I just hope at the new department they'll treat me better and give some work. The problem is my boss (the sleepy one) told me about that change but she likes me and she wants me to be back soon, but her boss wants me to be at the other one because there's more need for programmers there. I'm just impacient for the change, and for the next one because I'm sure they'll change me again.
I'll mantain you informed about this and all the new events in my recent life.
Farewell.
Manoel.
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