26 Mar 2011

Musical Lowcost Airline Rant

My mom came across this one, and it's fabulous! I've lost track of the number of times I've seen it today... such fun!!! (and sadly true... as anyone who's flown Ryanair will know)



What's your worst Lowcost episode? I've got two recent ones... and within 3 weeks of each other! They (Vueling) switched a flight on me (moved it up a day) without even informing me!!! I found out in time by pure luck. For the first flight (Paris -> Alicante on my way home from New Zealand) I managed to have them switch me to another flight a few days later and spent those days at a friend's in Paris (I couldn't have caught the earlier flight, was in the air!). The second was on my trip to Athens last month for a wedding. Ditto, flight advanced to the day before... the same time as the wedding!!! Since the only option was (again) being switched to a flight several days later... and they wouldn't pay for extra hotel nights, I ended up having it cancelled, reimbursed, and buying another ticket on a different airline (more expensive since a week before the trip... and resulted in an 8h layover in Barcelona instead of the original 2h. UGH!)

As they say: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. (but they're still bastards. grrrrrr.....)

23 Mar 2011

Book Report: A Song of Ice and Fire

Last Fall I was finally able to dive into George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga! It's been on my reading radar for a while, but you know what it's like: so much to read, so little time (and money)! Fortunately a friend of mine in Liège had the first 4 books in the series and since I hadn't taken any books over there with me (so as to not weigh down a suitcase that was then going to New Zealand...), plenty of time to catch up!

I jotted down some notes about each of the books just after I'd read them (had planned on writing this MUCH sooner), but quick impression from several months later: WOW! Intense, complex, very careful attention to detail... and when is the 5th book coming out?!?!?! PLEASE!!! (I hear this summer)

22 Mar 2011

Project 365 - 81

Missed a day... felt miserable with the beginnings of a nasty cold!

Tools of the trade: anyone need to cut some marble?

20 Mar 2011

16 Mar 2011

Project 365 - 75

Nothing like a Werewolf role playing game to get discussions going! ;o)

15 Mar 2011

Project 365 - 74

changing the floors...

This is the photo I would have chosen for today, if I had taken it... but I was driving so I passed my Dad my cellphone and asked him to shoot it for me:

field of artichokes: YUM!

13 Mar 2011

aaaaand, ACTION!

Yesterday I got to participate in an very cool, fun and exhausting filming experience while helping out a close friend. This friend has always been interested in theatre and acting (has done some skits and plays with friends, monologues and now has a comedic group -4 very crazy dudes called "Picadillo Circus" with a show that won an award in Alicante's theatre festival in 2009 and that they've taken on the road quite a bit in the past year), and started up his own small production company several years ago (Ojo Público Producciones) with a partner who had more of the technical expertise (for the lighting & sound equipment etc.) after producing (writing, directing and acting!) a small short film which won a few local awards. Although he's done a couple more short films since that first one, he's had to dedicate most of his time to a more lucrative side of the filming biz: advertising. Short films don't pay the bills... This time he's combining the two aspects! His company has gotten the job of helping a small town in Alicante produce a Short Films festival (AtameCorto next November, he'll be one of the Jury members), and as part of that he's designed the Festival's website and has to make a video commercial to promote the Festival. His idea was to film the commercial as if it were a short film... and that was yesterday!

Project 365 - 72

Canine inspection... she didn't approve!

12 Mar 2011

Project 365 - 71

making magic
Taken during the filming I described here... which I'm surprised hasn't gotten any feedback! :s

11 Mar 2011

Rumbling and Grumbling and All Fall Down

Anyone else feel like the planet has been a bit more active than usual lately? Like the Earth's insides are rumbling, or the planet is grumbling about something... and we're all falling down because of it! 

from Wikipedia's 2010 Earthquakes page

2010 was a doozie between the really serious earthquakes in Haiti (7.0), Chile (8.8) and Christchurch (7.1 in Sept then 4.9 on Boxing Day with a few "lighter" aftershocks in between), and according to Wikipedia (you can find anything there, lol!) over 220'000 people died in 2010 due to earthquakes.

Crazy as it may sound, 2011 is starting out even worse (at least from the viewpoint of quake strength, I hope we won't see another death toll like that in Haiti again any time soon)!

Project 365 - 70

Canine Torture Session

10 Mar 2011

Project 365 - 69

and the next day...
Destruction!
Can I just say, knocking down walls is FUN!!! :D

(that chair is where my bed used to be, sniff!)

9 Mar 2011

Project 365 - 68

Forgot to take a picture today... so here's one my Dad took of the beginning of the remodelling:

Preparing for a mess

5 Mar 2011

Boxes and Dust and Fedupness

Fedupness... I think I just invented a new word! Although maybe fedupedness would be better... :p

Ugh! I HATE PACKING/MOVING!!! Have spent all week packing an apartment up in boxes... going through tons of stuff, dusting it off, tossing some of it (but not enough since not enough time and some of the junk is the rest of the family's so not my call). Making boxes, filling boxes, closing boxes... all that cardboard and icky tape and dust and my fingers and hands ain't happy! Not to mention my back from the heavy lifting I shouldn't have been doing. AM SO FED UP WITH BOXES!!!

People tell me "Oh, you must be used to moving a lot so it should be easy for you!". If only! The more you've done it, the more you know what's in store, and the more you dread it!

Project 365 - 64

argh!!! where on earth will I put all this?!?!?!?!

2 Mar 2011

Project 365 - 61

(forgot to take #60 on March 1st, damn!)

waiting to be filled