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I have never been too much into music videos. Okay, well, I have seen the great majority of music videos of some of my favourite bands, but that’s unavoidable 
Most of the time, I am simply not that bothered, and I am not ashamed to say that I haven’t seen the music videos of “classic” bands like Metallica or even the Red Hot Chilli Peppers (did the Beatles make music videos?)
I am even sometimes surprised to discover what the singer or guitarist of this or that band actually look like, because I may have never seen a picture of them (this has mainly happened in the last 3 years, since I finished my subscription to Kerrang!. Back then I always saw pictures of the bands I normally like…)
Then, I find it quite boring when a band makes a music video and all it consists of is them playing in a room/enclosed area. Many bands have done this, and despite me liking the song, I can’t stand watching a video of them just playing. Come on people, make it a bit more interesting! Even if you want to save costs, if your budget doesn’t allow for actors or external location filming, you can still use your imagination and come up with something original!
That is why I love it when some bands (who obviously have the money and power to do so) take the task of making the video and push it a bit forward. And if they even go further and make a mini film out of it, then… bravo!
I just saw this 25 minute long video of Beastie Boys’ Fight for your right – Revisited (the revisited means that they aren’t actually playing the song, hahaha) and absolutely loved it. Not only the A-list celebrity cameos but also the humour on it. You’ve got to watch it.
And in the same manner, this video reminded me of Twisted Transitor by Korn, where they get famous rappers to play the members of the band (Snoop Dogg as Munky? just hilarious)
Yesterday I flew a kite for the first time in my life.
I remember my mum bought one once when I was little, but it was a DIY one that you kind of had to put together. And my mum, bless her, well.. she’s not the most crafty person ever and she never managed to put it together, so I never got to fly a kite. Which was quite disappointing because it’s something always attracted to me a lot.
But yesterday I finally fulfilled my childhood dream! (well, not quite a *dream*, but you know what I mean)
Jon and I went to see Jon’s parents who have now moved to a little village in the border between Oxfordshire and Warwickshire, and the place is just idyllic. Imagine the vision that you’ve always had of rural England: stone cottages, traditional pubs, friendly neighbours, etc. This village is what I was kind of expecting of the UK when I visited for the first time. That’s how rural England had been described to me and how it lived in my mind! (and yes, in London all businessmen wore bowler hats and carried an umbrella with them at all times…)
After lunch in the traditional and friendly pub we went to Burton Dassett, just over the other side of the M40, for a little stroll and to fly Dave’s kite.
Not only was the place absolutely gorgeous, but flying the kite also was so much fun! We weren’t the only ones flying kites, it looks like it’s a hotspot! But that comes as no surprise, as it was really windy! The perfect day for it. I really struggled at the beginning… not having done it ever it is understandable! But I got the hang of it eventually and I absolutely loved it. It is really good fun and something I am looking forward to doing again in the future! I was amazed about the power and strength of the wind; it could get dangerous!
Here are a few photos taken on the day:
Shame I couldn’t get the kite in the shot!
Blurry because of all the action!
I’ve had a very tough week. And I can feel my nerves about to wreck and my sanity about to disappear.
Work has been really hard, really really hard, demanding and challenging. I haven’t had much time to relax, time for social media (my way of “socialising” during the week) or even time for crafting! I am in need of a good chill.
I’ve felt physically and mentally drained and, for a reason unknown to me, my hormones have been playing with me and I’ve felt about to cry in more than one occasion, with massive mood changes in a couple of times. I am always tired despite the fact that I’ve been sleeping ok (for once, Tommy hasn’t been too disruptive at night this week). This week has been so bad that I even called to get a doctor’s appointment next week to see if there’s anything wrong with me.
But it is Friday today, the blessed TGIF, and I am planning on not doing anything at all all weekend. I am going to be chilling! (To make things worse, my washing machine gave up the ghost the other day which in a way is good becaue then I’ve got an excuse to not do any domestic tasks). Jon and I will go and visit his parents up in the gorgeous Oxfordshire countryside, but I am going to take it easy and relax whilst I’m there.
It’s definitely time to chill!
I am not a political person. I distrust politicians and try not to get too involved with what they say or what they do. That doesn’t mean that I don’t care, but it is not a subject matter that is up there in my priorities in life.
However, I don’t want to talk about politics in the strict sense of the word, the common one, the one about politicians, and laws, and corruption. No, I want to talk about the other politics, the ones that occur in the workplace.
As most of you already know my company was bought by a multinational company just before Christmas last year. The integration process is being slow and 8 months later we still have an identity crisis. Do we keep trading under our old name? Do we adopt the new one with all the drawbacks that this would entail? Do we create an intermediate one?
The solution was to create an intermediary solution by which we would combine both company names, but the big bosses of the big multinational seem to think that this is completely unnecessary and that we should adopt the big company name. But, have they stopped to think of all the drawbacks this would create?
My company (as it was before the takeover) was small, family run and with a good reputation on its field of work. The whole team had worked very hard in the last few years to grow this reputation and maintain it. Okay, we weren’t the cheapest in the market and sometimes we wouldn’t win jobs because we weren’t competitive enough. But if someone wanted a robust system with great project management experience, then they would come to us. Clients out there know us, know our name, our solution.
Suddenly, however, the big bosses want us to lose our name and take theirs. Theirs is bigger and probably a bit better known in other fields of the market, but not on our speciality. If we now go to a client and say: “Hi, I represent “S” UK” and not mention the old name, it may not mean anything to them, because “S” UK does not have a reputation on the field my company covers.
The real dirty politics start when the managing director of my company then becomes Vice President of the Line of Business that has bought our company, and decides to do things in a slight different way. If he says “we’re not changing our name yet” there’s very little that the other “S” managers placed in our office can do to change that. And then is when the power struggle and the politics begin.
I kind of love being involved in all of these discussions and see how conversations get more and more heated and agitated. At least I love knowing all the gossip. I’m a sucker for gossip. The name change is just a small part of all the stuff that is going on and I don’t think any of it is going to be resolved any time soon… The problem for me arrives when all the politics start to affect me in a personal way. When I take things too seriously, “out of passion” as my boss likes to say. I was told off on Friday for getting involved in things that I shouldn’t get involved with, like the Marketing Strategy for my company, but it’s only because I hate to see my company’s reputation disappear under such a big name that a lot of people in the UK don’t even like….
I think I’ve talked in the past about my love-hate relationship with London. London means a lot to me in a personal level, because of previous experiences and memories, and because it was one of the places where I started to find myself as a person back in my teenage years.
I love the the modern and ancient architecture, the history, the bright lights and the red buses, the theatres and musicals, the concerts, the museums, the simplicity of the underground system, amongst many other things.
However I hate some other things too: the fact that it is a very busy city, the traffic, the crowded underground at rush hour, too many tourists and too many pickpockets, the lack of rubbish bins in certain places due to a possible terrorist attack, how dirty some places are, the fact that the next time you blow your nose black stuff will come out of it, etc.
Still, I very much enjoyed spending the afternoon “in town” yesterday. It was a very relaxed afternoon, in which we didn’t have to rush to be anywhere at any particular time, and that made things so chill out.
We stopped to watch a street entertainer in Covent Garden (he was funny and good, but had a very cheeky way of asking for money at the end of his show that put me off), we then went for dinner, and for pudding to a place called SNOG where they sell frozen yoghurt with real fruit pieces or other stuff like chocolate brownies, oreos, almonds, etc. This place was awesome. Not only the frozen yoghurt was delicious (if only a bit too pricey) and the shop decorated in an impressive way, but also the shop staff had been very carefully selected… In the same way that you don’t find minging girls in a Hooters, the boys who served us in this shop were all HOT! Our gay friend who was with us yesterday almost had a heart attack by just looking at them, and kept saying “Can I have HIM? or HIM?” It was hilarious.
Awesome light fittings @ SNOG shop in Covent Garden
We then went for a walk from Covent Garden towards Trafalgar Square and from there we walked the whole length of Pall Mall, a road which I had never visited before in any of my many visits to London! It’s funny how sometimes we stick to the known. We take comfort in the places that we already know and leave the unknown “for next time”. Since the first time that I visited England in 1994, I had never been in Pall Mall despite the fact of it being so near Regent St, Picadilly and Trafalgar.
Olympics countdown @ Trafalgar Square
From there we went to St James park where I was amazed about the huge amount of animals around, and we enjoyed watching a mummy duck seeing off a heron who was getting too close to baby ducks. It was a fine spectacle We had a sit down in one of the benches and we started playing a game: Count the Spaniards. We saw sooooo many Spanish people walking by! I know I can’t talk. I am Spanish. But I don’t know why I was so surprised to see so many!
Very friendly squirrel @ St James Park
After the park we headed back to the train station and back home.
Very relaxed afternoon, greatly enjoyable. The weather helped, the company helped. The city helped.
