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Xmas Presents? Not for me!
Well, I've been busy the last couple of days trying to run Christmas errands and pick out a few things for my roomates. I got a little run-down, what with the weather, but now I'm rested and trying to plan what to do for the New Year. In the last week I've managed to go to an English Pub, the Philharmonic, to watch another futbol match between Real Madrid and Osasuna. Not the best game, but I gotta hand it to Zidane. That old frenchman's got great footwork, and because of him Real Madrid managed to break even and tie the game in the closing minutes. I haven't noticed any overt racism towards the black players in the any of the places I've watched matches at, but there is definitely a stigma concerning the Afrikan players, maybe because they don't speak the language. They're not necessarily teased openly, it just seems like everyone else gets a little quiet whenever they get the ball or when they're on-camera walking to their hotel or something. It seems most of the racial tension I'm aware of is in France at the moment, and here the tension isn't specifically white/black, but more Spanish/Catalan. . . . .and moreso. . . Everyone/Moroccan.
Dan- Buenas Fiestas! Jerez?
Mark - Thank you for the offer! It might look like I'm having too much fun, but one of the realizations I've come to is that satisfaction and sense of achievement can come from anywhere. You get to have experiences that I haven't even come across yet, like raising your children,which I hope to do one day!
Yesterday I got an urgent phone call from my roomate, Patricia, that said she needed me to get over to her office (will have pics and interviews in a couple weeks I hope) to help her carry something back to our apartment. I generally don't have anything pressing going on during the days so I skipped over and had to bring this home! It was a very special present for one of her closest work/professional friends, a wedding and Christmas present. Trivia Time! Who's replica is this?!?
Here's another angle on the bike. This is in the front of our apartment, which comes complete with one of my suitcases, a piece of corkboard we found on the street one night, and a mop! It may seem clutterred, but it's all about making due with what you have. After lugging this thing home, which I found out was the top of the line Polini (the expensive one), I fired her up right in the hallway. Two-strokes! Patricia was rushing out the door to go get some wrapping paper somewhere because we had multiple appointments that evening. Did you know in Spain that 8 or 9 o'clock at night is referred to as. . . . the afternoon? When do you want to meet? 8 in the afternoon? Ok! Yeah, the apartment I live in is kind of a dump. A total dump. That's the way my roomates like it, and nothing is going to change that, so that means I better get a job so I don't have to hang out here!
The end result. Patricia delivered this with Nacho (who had driven up from Madrid earlier in the day to do some promotional work with Dani Pedrosa) and within an hour they were back so that we could get everyone together for our "roomate" holiday dinner.
For some reason, Patricia gets all the cool presents for Chrismas. Every year she get's a variety of helmets and suits from the pilots she works closely with, and at some point I'm probably going to build our (soon to be) spare room into a moto-museum/home office. She has tons of leathers, from Alex Criville's to Mick Doohan's and so many other goodies, it puts my meager GP collection to shame. This is one of Pedrosa's older suits, which Nacho brought with him, but it was still pretty neat. I can't get over how small it is!
