Kintsugi shirt

This is the shirt I was wearing the day I had my bicycle accident; they had to cut it like that to take it off at the hospital. 

My mum wanted to throw it away but I had a different plan for it. When I told her I was going to fix it she looked at me with a very skeptical look on her face, but I knew better...

After thinking much about it I knew exactly how I wanted to do it, so yesterday I went to Pontejos when I came out of my fisiotherapy and I bought the perfect thread (hilo) for the task. In the afternoon I started sewing (coser) it, and I didn't stop until I had finished.

And this is the result. Cool, uh?

Kintsugi power! :D

How I learnt to ride a bike

This morning I changed the handle covers (cubre manillares) of my bicycle, as they were already a little old and worn out (desgastados)... and, that gave me the idea for what I am going to tell you in today's story; how I learnt to ride a bike.

One beautiful Sunday morning, when I had just turned 6 years old, my family and I went to El Retiro so my brother and I could cycle a little around the park on our orange BH. Actually, I couldn't cycle yet, I still had to use those two little wheels that you put at he back of the bike, but my brother (he was 8 years old at the time) could, so he went first. After he had been riding for a while he said: "Come on, sit on the back of the bike and I will take you for a ride". It was probably not such a good idea, because not long after, we fell over... and to cut a long story short (para resumir), I broke my tibia.

It wasn't until I was about eight that I lost my fear of trying to ride a bike, but by then I felt "too old" to look clumsy (torpe) learning to cycle in front of everyone, so I never did. Whenever my friends at school met to go for a bicycle ride, I would just take my rollerskates (patines) to go with them, but to be honest I felt a little jealous and also frustrated.

Many years later -I was 19- I was on summer holidays in Galicia with my friend Cari. I don't know what got in me, and I suddenly told her looking at some people who were travelling on their bikes: "Cari, next year we are going to come here on our bikes" "But you can't cycle!" -she said. "I know, but I am going to learn" .

I don't think my friend believed me, but a month later I started going to the park behind my house at lunchtime (when there wasn't anybody in the park to see me) with my mum, who had also learnt to ride a bike as an adult... and that's how I finally learnt. 

A couple of months later, my friend Cari and I joined (nos apuntamos) a mountain bike group at university, to go on weekend excursions. At first I used to fall off my bike all the time, and people laughed at me saying: "they say people never forget to ride a bike, but you are probably the exception" I never told them I had in fact learnt two months before. But little by little, I got better... 

Needless to say, the following summer Cari and I went on a trip around Galicia on our bikes... and I have been in love with cycling ever since (desde entonces).

How about you; do you remember how you learnt to ride a bike?

April 28th

Do you know what? I already have plans for Sunday, April 28th. And I have plans for the whole day; from 8.00 am to 8.00 pm and probably even later. Have you guessed (adivinado)? No? Well, I'll tell you; I have been blessed (bendecida/agraciada) with the priviledge of being chosen to take  part in the celebration of democracy that are the elections. At an electoral table. So blessed.

Actually, if I have to be honest it doesn't really bother (molestar) me that much; probably because when I was told yesterday I was still a little ill and my head was not clear, so when the postwoman (cartera) told me she had a letter for me from the electoral table all my head had time to do was to make the connection: "Ah, so I am being called to sit at the electoral table?" "Yes" the post woman replied. And in my head there was no time for more thoughts or calculations.

And now, because I have no choice but to go, I have decided to take a positive approach and see it as a constructive experience. I think we get paid a little too...

Have you ever had to sit at an electoral table?

Daylight savings time

Last Sunday we had the summer time change (also called "daylight savings time"). The first thing I did in the morning was to go through all the clocks I have in the house to turn them forward one hour, happy for what that means; one more hour of sunlight in the evening, and cycling home when it's still daylight after finishing my working day.

Some other people, like my friend Angela, feel very strongly against the time change. She says she doesn't mind so much the summer change -even if it means she has to get up one hour earlier- but she really hates the winter change, when it makes days become "shorter". She says she finds these changes very disorienting and for the first few days she feels more tired, as if she was jet-lagged.

I agree with her that the winter change is not as nice, but to me it is another manifestation of the seasons, it's one more of the processes that we have to go through every year: spring, more light, winter, shorter days. It is like a ritual that we have, and I find it endearing (entrañable) when the Saturday before the change everybody is commenting it: "Remember, tonight we have to turn back/forward the clock" And all the conversations and even the confusion that it brings: "do we have to change the clocks back or forward?" "So does that mean we have to get up earlier or later?" "Do we get one more hour, or do we lose one hour?"

For some reason it always reminds me of one occasion when I was about fifteen or sixteen years old and I was meeting my friend Ana, who was also my neighbour, to go to El Rastro on a Sunday. I rang her intercom (telefonillo) one hour earlier: "No, it's not eleven yet... last night was the time change! hahaha... " And I had to go back home and wait for an hour.

So I feel kind of sad that it has been decided that by 2021 every European country must make their decision on what time they want, summer or winter, and stay there forever. Apparently there was consultation of the public last year that showed that 84 percent were against changing the clock... Really??

And you; how do you feel about the time change?

Conspiracy theories

You have probably heard about the concept "conspiracy theories"; they are theories that explain events in an alternative way to that is accepted by most people, and think that the "official theory" is just a big lie.

The list is as endless as human's paranoia, and includes the following:

• The moon landing (alunizaje) was a hoax (fraude) staged (montado) by Nasa, but it never actually happened 

• 9-11 was an "inside job"; a self-attack prepared by the USA as an excuse to invade Irak. I must confess I find this one plausible... I have read some evidence that seem to make sense (tener sentido), but to be honest, I am not going to investigate any further.

• Chemtrails.This theory states that water condensation trails (estelas) from airoplanes are in fact chemical or biological agents to control the population. I, in fact, have a friend who believes this and says that when these trails appear in the sky he always gets a bad headache! (?)

• Flat earth theory says, as you have probably guessed, that... the earth is actually flat (plana)!! The photographs we have of the Earth as a globe are of course fake (falsas). There is a "flat earth society" and all, that get together to speak about their paranoia.

All of these conspiracy theories are relatively harmless (inofensivas) and even funny, but it gets a lot less funny when you hear about anti-vaccines (antivacunas), who say that there is a causal link (conexión) between vaccines and autism, and decide to not vaccinate their children. Unfortunately we are already suffering the consequences.
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Unfortunately I recently I found out (descubrí) that my cousin's wife is an anti-vaxxer, and she refuses (se niega) to vaccinate their three-year-old child because she believes this pile of shit (montón de mierda). She told me herself: "I don't vaccinate my child because I am well informed" Aha...

And what did I do? Well, I knew there was no point (no tenía sentido) in me arguing (discutir), so I just listened to her explanations. It was frustrating, but I knew there was absolutely nothing I would say that would convince her, and my dissagreement would only create more distance and mistrust (desconfianza) between us.

As I read in an article not long ago, in an argument it’s not enough to be right—you also have to be kind.

Taking in the good

What a lovely weekend I spent in Valencia! It turned out to be (resultó ser) quite different to what I was expecting, but it was nevertheless really enjoyable.

My favourite part was undoubtfully the afternoon we spent at the beach. To me there is something about the beach that I feel connects me with some primal (primario) instinct, something maybe similar to what our primitive ancestors felt in the presence of the sea and what it probably represented for them; an abundant source of food and maybe of enjoyment too.

When I am at the beach there are two things I love doing above all; one of them is just looking at the blue horizon in the distance and letting myself be mesmerized (hipnotizada) by the waves (olas), seeing them coming and going, hearing the monotonus sound of the ocean.... In those moments I have an overwhelming (sobrecogedor) feeling of complete gratitude to life for allowing me to enjoy such sight (vista).

 

The other thing I enjoy so much is going for slow walks, distractedly looking at whatever there is lying on the sand; shells, insects, algae, pebbles (piedrecitas)... And again, I feel that these "inspection walks" were exactly what the primitive women-gatherers (recolectoras) used to do, maybe looking for some sorce of proteins for their offspring (crías), maybe trying to make a mental map of what kind of life there was in that part of the world...

 

 

___________________

Some years ago I read an article about how to build a happier brain. According to Dr. Rick Hanson, a neuropsychologist, "our brains are naturally designed to focus on the negative, which can make us feel stressed and unhappy even though there are a lot of positive things in our lives (...)"

What he suggests is that "we should train our brains to appreciate positive experiences when we have them, by taking those extra 10, 20, 30 seconds to focus on them and install them in the brain."

The beach is definitely one of those places where I take the time to take in (absorber) the good... How about you?

Procrastination

So, I am quite excited today because tomorrow I am going away for the weekend to Valencia with a couple of friends. We are leaving early in the morning, but I haven't even started thinking about what I am going to take with me; clothes, snaks for the journey, or anything else. And I have certainly not started packing anything.

Well, I guess I am lying a little, because what I know I am going to take with me is my crochet; I have started a new project -a net (red) bag- just so I have some entertainment in the car on the way there and on the way back. Maybe I will even crochet a little at the apartment we have rented, after dinner -I particularly like crocheting at night.

But back to packing my bags... I am a born (nato) procrastinator. Do you know what procrastination is? Basically it is to put off (posponer) what you have to do until the last minute. You have a list of things to do, and although you are very aware (consciente) of them, you avoid (evitar) doing them. Sometimes you even do other things just to give yourself an excuse not to do those things on the list that you really don't feel like (apetecer) doing. That is me.

 

In a way, being a procrastinator can be a little of a curse (maldición); you always see deadlines (fecha límite) getting closer and closer (más y más cerca), and you just can't start doing whatever it is that you have to do... BUT, like everything in life, it also has some positive aspects. In fact, there are two.

I saw a conference about this first advantage; in this conference the conclution of an experiment was that, in creative tasks (tarea), procrastination often gives you the chance to consider divergent, non-linear ideas; to "think outside the box". When the person finally started doing the task, the result was better than if they had started earlier, because while they were putting off their task, their mind was in fact working on the best way to do it.

The other positive aspect is one that I have been able to observe in my many years of experience as a procrastinator: when I put off something until the last minute, I obviously have less time to do that thing... which means that I end up doing things a lot faster and therefore wasting (malgastando) less time. In the case of packing my bags for my trip to Valencia, I will probably do it tomorrow morning, so, instead of taking me a few hours, I will just do it in one, maximum.

And what if I forget to take something? Well, I am just going to Valencia for three days, not on a trip around the world.