Adolfo Suárez

After watching the video that Emilio left, I remember two things. One of them is that I have no idea about politic, the other one is that in my family this man is loved and my sister has a photo with him. I don't care if we speak about him or not in class, but I 'm sure I will investigate more about that person, just in case I lost something good. I should say that I think he was loved because of good actions.

A bad feeling about nothing

Today is my birthday. I am not sure if is a good thing or not. Only in that day does my heart throb in a different way. I do not find a reason to be happy or sad. I feel confused. You know you have one year more; you are aware that you are alive. Furthermore, I should say that I have everything I have always wanted to. In fact, it is often believed that you ought to be glad expecting a ‘happy birthday’ and some presents. However, what the matter is I have no idea, but I can not feel anything. I wish it didn't exist this day, neither the next, nor also the previous.

Gym culture

It’s said that you should keep fit, not only your body but your mind. When you go to the gym every day, you realize how different people are.

Firstly, you can find those who go every day, like you. Some of them are normal people who would like to keep fit. Others would be those who want to meet people there. Most of them are those who love their body. What the goal is I have no idea, but you always can see into the gym someone who usually watches himself in the mirror. He (or she) has a sculptural structure; however, they want more.

In order to personality, you have everything there. A person who doesn’t speak with anybody, he or she is just thinking. Nothing more. Others talk with everyone; sometimes is fantastic, sometimes not. It can be annoyed. There are guys who make noise, speak loud, joking about nonsense, maybe bothering to the others. These are my favourites. They are an entertainment different to the TV.

Looking farther, you have there those who want to get fit for the summer. They appear in February or March, when it’s getting hotter and you are worried for your bikini. It’s a little bit funny considering that they are the new people, but it’s seemed they were in the group since ever. They have so much energy… The same they pass around. Though, they could come the whole year because of the space. We are so many bodies in a small place!

To sum up, different kind of people can be found in a gym, different behaviors. Nevertheless, gym culture is growing up. More each time people go to the gym to be fit as oppose to exercise outdoors. Personally I prefer, you can find interesting persons there; so you are not alone…

Lead from the front

 ‘Even from the sidelines, Mandela was leading from the front’. It’s a very nice sentence, which implies the consideration as a hero by the person who wrote it. This was one of my favorite chapters, maybe because I am in the same line.

In that case, Stengel shows several ways to lead from the front. The most interesting could be ‘being accountable’. You should have the courage of having responsibilities about the things you do. Under no circumstances is it arguable.

Other interesting impression by the author is the fact to ‘seize the initiative.’ If you joined this idea with ‘never let your colleagues get too far behind’, you would have a leader here. Both of them connect the situation of being a really boss for other people without losing their trust.

However, I’d rather this one: ‘you ought to do things that did not necessary attract attention’, which is means ‘not accepting any special preferences and doing the same tasks as others’. Even in education this is the best rule. With education I mean at school and home. You always have to teach with your example. If you do the same things as others, they will consider you one more guy in their group. You must lead among them.

Last but not least, I consider the point to 'change your mind when the circumstances change'. This is a good reference to be able to move on. Rarely does a sensible person admit to coming back in his or her precepts. People tend to remain firm in their decisions, but sometimes you should be honest with yourself and change them. Lead from the front means to be aware of all the possibilities; indeed, it also means to be able to use other movements.   

What is done is done, isn’t it?

 ‘If I’m sincere today, what does it matter if I regret it tomorrow?,’ said José Saramago. Have you ever had any kind of regrets? I used to have. Not only for things I had done, but for things I couldn’t. Then, I learnt this sentence I chose as a title: what is done is done.

You maybe think that you are agreeing with me. However, it can be something that you believe but not do it. It’s assumed that everyone did whatever they want, though it is not true. The way to face that is easy. If I were you, I regretted about the things I could do it but I didn’t. This is the rule.

Rarely does a person admit to having remorse. Taking into account that, people goes through life feigning to be strong, without anything to make them feeling guilty. Nevertheless, they have it. So, please, let the cat out of the bag. Just don’t feel bad for something that happened in the past. Actually, you don’t need to pretend anymore.

Having a brief look to the other side, regrets are not so bad if they teach you to move on. In that case, you should try to get over the things you are dealing with. Let them go after learning about them.

I specially recommend you to live according to your daily routine. The only thing that it’s true is your present. Don’t look at the past, don’t expect the future. Just enjoy your own life. After all, what is done is done, isn’t it?

If only we knew what will happen after death…

Unfortunately I have just known that the father of one of my best friend died. After a week thinking about he would be here only a few months, it has been a bad surprise; in fact, this is an event I cannot deal with. I am so affected that I realize how lucky religious people are. Not only Catholicism but Buddhism, Islamic fundamentalism or whatever is able to find a kind of consolation in death. However, if you are not a true believer, if you think that everything finish when you die, you have to say goodbye to a close friend, to your relatives, to your family. So, how could you console a person who is suffering by his or her lost? You simply cannot. In no way does this man or woman feel some kind of relax. This person is moving on, you should respect that. Whether you gave him or her space, you would be the best friend. Don’t forget being close in case of necessity.

In addition to this, I come back to the idea of life after death. What future can be there? What is expecting us? I am so sorry about the answer… I don’t know. I have been trying very hard to find a response, but I couldn’t. For that reason I envy the other’s beliefs. I wish I had the certainty of a different way of life, in order to reply the questions that someone did me. It’s horrible, terrible, hideous. Nevertheless, there is a hope in that desolation. When you decide to live each day as the last in your life, when you seize the day, you let them know that you should enjoy every moment; you ought to live and learnt. Every day is a present that life gave to us. Don’t waste your time. Just live. You will never know how inmense the universe is. 

Babette’s feast

I have been gratefully surprised by this film. I have never watched, but I love it. Babette’s feast is not only about food, is about feelings. No sooner have you started the film than you realize how intense it is. You can appreciate the power of the singing, how the religion involves everything, or how the passage of time works on people. Going further, I could see, as Sabina sang once, future in pupils of mature men (and women). In the last scene, when they are having dinner, you ought to gaze at the expression of their faces. It seems they had a blank stare, thinking about the past, about something they lost. Nevertheless, they are happy. They look like teenagers full of life. It is amazing. Though, the most important business here is food. Babette wants to be grateful, so spends the whole money in a dinner to do honor to father’s ladies’ name. You can see the moment of the change, how that feast becomes better than was at the beginning, when they thought that could be a sin. The taste of drinks and dishes changes the faces of people, making them happier, more human, understanding with the others, capable of forgiveness.

Another film I strongly recommend is ‘Like water for chocolate’, by Laura Esquivel. I watched in my twenties and I fell in love with it. It is about food, the whole scene. And love. A young girl has to give up on love in order to take care of her mother because she is the little sister. So she put all her love on cooking for her family, and for her man, who has married with her elder’s sister. It is essential for us to understand how love and food are connected here. The final picture is awesome. You should watch if you have time. Let me give you part of the film, where Tita, the girl, receives some flowers that she must throw because they are from her husband’s sister. However, she cooks a delicious dish with them. Love is the most powerful weapon. Learn the lesson.

Music: Good for every moment in your life.

 It is important for me to listen to music the whole day. When I was a child, I learnt music studies, but I cannot play well any instrument. Terrible! Only the day I left the school of music would I realize the mistake I had made. I usually search in youtube some relax music when I am reading a good book. This video is one of my favorite. Not only the artist, but the ambience is amazing. The Alhambra is my place; this kind of music is my religion. I wish I had more time to spend doing that, I wish I could read and listen to Celtic Music more than twice a week…

I would like to share with you this video. It is appropriate if you are stress. Forget the world, focus on yourself.

In response to Estrella’s amazing article: Neuroplasticity

As a psychology student, I can no imagine a better comment like this one. After reading the article (Estrella’s comments too, of course), I should say that there are more than words on it. I have passed a lot of years hearing about how neurons can die, how they will not reproduce anymore. If you remember the cartoons called ‘Once upon a time… Life’, you should know what I am speaking about. These little red blood cells died at the end. Nevertheless, Science confirms nowadays that this is not true. Your neurons can be born in your mature period (not all of them but some specific ones). You will get this with practice. Little did I suspect that this fact could be real; surprisingly, it does.

Estrella told us about the happiness, the importance to find new routines in order to get it. She is right. Our brain is ready to get up if we fall, it is up to us. I would like to add that there are many different new solutions to discover how to be happy. Not only do you come across with them searching by the net, but you may look around and see them. One of this solutions that is coming to my mind is something called ‘Attraction law’. There are so many different ways to face this concept, but in summary deal with the fact that everything you can imagine or think, it will come back to you. If you see in your mind, you will have it. ‘Attraction law’ is in relation with the paragraph before because of the idea of habits. If you think every day that you can get whatever you want, turning your happiness into a routine, you will feel fantastic as a result of training.

To conclude I would like to say that my anxiety disappeared with exercises, I could fight against it with new habits, which support the theory that Estrella brought us. Thanks for your article, I loved it!!!!

RECIPES

No sooner had the class finished yesterday than I put my mind to work. I made a few recipes for all of you, I hope you like them. They are cheap and easy. (The photographs are real. I made them)

Curried couscous with chicken and raisins

Ingredients:

1 cup couscous                                                      ½  cup raisins

1 cup chicken soup                                                1 pinch salt

200 gr breast chicken                                            1 table spoon curry

1 onion, sliced                                                        1 dash black pepper

¼ cup white wine

                                      

Directions:

1.    Fried the onion for five minutes, dice the breast and add to the pan with the salt and the pepper. When the chicken is almost done, add the wine.

2.    After the wine is evaporated, add the curry, the raisins and wait a few minutes. Then, you can put apart the pan.

3.    Meanwhile, hot the chicken soup and stir with the couscous into a container. Cover for three or four minutes.

4.    Stir everything with the couscous and it’s done!

Advices:

You can add other vegetables like zucchini or red and green pepper (add at the same time to the onion).

You can also put some apple to this mixture (add with the raisins).

Sponge cake

Ingredients:

1 white yoghurt (take the yoghurt as a cup)

3 cups of flour                     4 eggs

2 cups of sugar                   1 cup of oil

1 pinch salt                           orange peel

1 table spoon leavening (an envelope) 

Directions:

1.    Put the egg yolks into a container and combine. Add the egg white and the salt. Stir everything. Add the sugar and the yoghurt and combine very quickly until you see a cream.

2.    Mix with the flour slowly, with movements from down to up. Add the leavening and oil, too. When the dough is almost done, add the orange peel and mix a little bit.

3.    Grease the container with oil and flour, put the dough inside and add some sugar on the top.

4.    Bake for 30 or 40 minutes in a preheated oven at 180º. Use a knife to check if it is done. It should be clean when you inserted in the cake.

5.    Let it cool on a table. The house ought to smell very well!!

Time to go, Lady Death

That is the way I remember her,

her wrinkled face, her white hair

her body expanding over the big mattress,

like a huge deformed mass.

That is the way I remember her,

With unintelligible speech

Not comprehending anything

Living prostrating in bed

Just watching life pass by.

Where is that one named Death now?

Where is she, who forgets that wrinkled face?

Maybe taking young people, full of life

Cutting their last breath and happiness

in a cruel, sadden blow

Always doing everything it shouldn’t

Damned Death! Learn to be fair!

Take her to a heavenly place with no pain,

Leave here other people, who should enjoy their life yet,

Don’t scare them anymore.

Nowadays, I still remember her

Because she is still here, in moaning pain

Though she hurts everyone in the middle of her suffering;

She never feels any better

Get the torture out of her, please, Lady Death

Give us a little peace in our lives.

Review

 ‘The Sailor-Boy’s Tale,’ by Isak Dinesen, was first published in 1942 in Winter’s Tales, the second collection of short stories written by this woman. Isak Dinesen was the name how she was best known, but she had a lot of them, as Karen Blixen, for example. She passed through many different tragedies like her father’s suicide at ten years, or the lost of her last love in Africa, where she was famous because of her stories. After this, she came back to Denmark and began to write her first collection of stories.

The plot of the tale it seems to be a simple tale about a sailor, but it goes farther. The main character, Simon, is a boy who one day rescued a falcon. Two years after that, he is a man on his seventeen who meets a girl. With the promise of a kiss he pretends to come back the day after, but he meets Ivan, a Russian sailor whom he has befriended. He runs to Nora, the girl, but he has taken by an old woman (maybe a witch), who helps him to avoid a murder by pretending that he is her son. This woman was the falcon he saved two years before.

Only after reading the tale you realize that it is a simple story which give us a lesson of how helping people can be the best way to live. Not only the lesson, but the transition to a man of the boy (into the typical elements of Dinesen’s fiction) is a point to be considered when you finish ‘The Sailor-Boy’s Tale’.