Up, close and personal

... back from the year I first read Harry Potter. I still think the characters look cute (for a rough sketch, at least), so I decided to post them here. Good reading!

I'm a fan of this guy from now on. Seriously, he improves the film! Watch the video in:
Weird Al Yankovic: The saga begins

I spent the first half of may in Australia and a wise use of time, planes and credit cards (ok, in this case, a reckless use of) gave me the chance to visit the Red Centre, Queensland, Melbourne and Sydney. All these places turned out to be quite different and charming in their own way. But first, I had to spent more than 24 hours in the sky and a good deal of time in the airports lobbies. Lucky me I was not alone. At least in the airports because somehow I managed to sleep most the way. Advantages of my low tension I guess.


My first stop was Uluru, in the middle of nowhere. The closest place minimally inhabited around was Alice Springs, 5 and odds hours away. After walking around Ayers Rock, realizing that there's nothing else around (but the Olgas, obviously) and thay everything is terribly expensive in the resorts, we hired a 4x4 and drove to the desert. Flies can be a real nuisance and we had to do with hat nets, but the weather was mostly okay and we even managed to walk the Kings Canyon. After that, we even had time for a camel ride, but just because I really, really asked to the person in charge of bookings. The swimming pool in the hotel was a nice detail, even though the water was dead cold. Spiders were not ...

Some plane hours afterwards, I was in Cairns, ready for a dive. We had a three dive-trip to the Great Coral Reef and a snorkeling escapade to the Green Island, a small chunk of tree covered land surrounded by turquoise waters. I met a bunch of tropical fishes and some turtles, but the winner of the day was an intense red mini-fish that tracked me all the way. Plus I'm not sure that Marlin found his son Memo...

We somehow found time as well to visit the rainforest in Kuranda. I found the skyrail a bit of a bluff, as it simply moves you from one point to another, but does not give entry to the forest. Anyway, it was a curious canopy. We also did a short travel in a vehicle that could go through water as well, a DUCK, they called it. And we learnt that some plants might be more dangerous than a great white!

Cairns is also a very interesting and lively little town, with lots of nice places to eat and activities at all times. It has a free huge swimming pool by the sea were people sing, dance and make shows. We did not, in fact, spent much time in the city, but it was well spent anyway.


Our next jump was all the way to Melbourne as we had work there. Melbourne is mostly a big city with a victorian, clean, nice center, a bit like New York, but much tidier and green. It has a load of modern architecture and amazing one, it is. I loved the main square, with all those beautiful and strange buildings that looked so different from day to night. We had not much free time there, but we managed to do part of the Great Ocean Road and had a first contact with koalas, that mostly looked all the time like I do when I've just woken up, the poor things. In the road, we dedicated some time to the London Bridge and the 12 Apostles, but, as usual, light had no mercy and we missed a large part of the landscape.



Our final stop was Sidney, a really lively city crowded with people looking for fun but tidy and clean at the same time. It was quite a surprise to find that XXX places were located close to conventional bars and pubs, for example. The opera house is far more impressing in person than in pictures. We did the boat trip around the bay at sunset (the last one) and we are pretty sure that was the best time to sail. We also visited the Aquarium, to safely see the sharks and pay a visit to Marlin and Dori. After our dose of city life, we drove to the Blue Mountains, practically a neighbourhood of Sydney, and hiked around the Three Sisters for a day. Finally, we drove to a Wildlife Park to hug koalas and pursue colored birds. All in all, a well spent time :)

Here's Hugo, my (thus far) only nephew. And he has Juan's big green eyes. If I ever have kids, I'll have to work hard to be up to the standard :P

Well, not exactly, but Rocamadour, in the centre of France, really does the trick. It only needs a few nazguls soaring above ...

Last weekend, the yearly comic convention at Granada was held. Leaving aside the usual guests (who probably come on their own to have tapas and go out at night in the city), like Kevin Taylor or Lance Took, the spanish friends of the organizers, like Cels Piñols or Kenny Ruiz, and the guys noone has ever heard about like Mike Collins, they only brought Purita Campos (you need to be older than 25 to know her work, but she is good, mind you) and, thanks God, Sergio Aragones and Stan Sakai, nice as ever, who compensated for the 2 EUR that you had to pay at the entrance just to be surrounded by mangakas dressed in strange clothes and yielding cardboard weapons that put your head in danger at every step. In mu humble opinion, the money of the convention is progressively going more and more to the organizers and less reflected in the activities, that this year were particularly poor. Special mention to the electronic dance contest -that game where people dance according to the steps on the screen- which was held probably in the hottest -and consequently foul smelling- part of the place.

Anyway, I got my sketch from Sergio and got to see this amazing Pacman, so all in all, it was a fine day ...

Little Luci has started to do unexpected things. Now, not only she smiles and babbles and basically is cute, but also surprises us from time to time.
Lately, whenever I give her something to eat or drink, she remembers and pays back when she gets her drop of milk or some food. Here you can see her feeding me a crust of bread in exchange for a previous crumb.

Last sunday, I went to the rugby FAR cup semifinals: Granada vs Malaga. It was sort of Celebrity Deathmatch, but without the celebrities, plus blood was quite real. I guess the doctor had the busiest day! And the best thing is that the girls still try to state that rugby is not really violent ...

I was in Bremen in January, and boy, it was cold! Sort of like visiting Narnia without thermal underwear!
Bremen is quite a nice place to visit, even though it was mostly destroyed during WWII. The oldest part of town has these nice, narrow gallows and pointy roofs that we associate with fairy tales and I found the most amazing shop with paper models of every plane you can imagine.
Food was not a bonus, though. Quite heavy and homogeneous. I enjoyed the typical raw meat and that was it. We also visited a Monet exhibition where we met a girl perfectly dressed as one of the pictures. And, of course, we touched the statue of the Bremen Musicians. Too bad they call that "an ass touching an ass" over there!

... and still does not trust her good ol' aunt! I wonder if she somehow speaks to her sister ...

I've been pretty busy since my last entry, being the only prominent event in my life since them a weekend trip to Bremen (Germany), where the weather was so cold that I had to double my underwear. I did nothing much in Xmas either, mostly playing PS2. January so far has consisted of reading Going Postal and Thump! (from Pratchett) and starting with Straczynki's Night of the Demons, plus watching Crusade, Supernatural and 24 (season 2). I expect things get better shortly, or I'll need a change of air ...

Yep. Morocco. My first time in Africa, as well. I went there with some friends via plane to Melilla (BTW, how expensive can such a flight be!) and rented a car to do a round trip. The itinerary was -more or less erratically- Nador-Fez-Volubilis-Meknes-Fez-Azrou-Taza-Debdou: basically, the north.

North Morocco is quite similar in landscapes to Andalusia. The best part to visit would be the west, where the ancient cities are. It would also be better to rent the car in Spain and cross via Ferry, as it is cheaper and leaves you in the interesting bit of the country, but they would not rent us a car for Morocco. Which I fully understand after seeing how they drive.

A warning to the traveller. In popular places, you will not be able to be left alone by the local "guides", guys who pursue you all the time, move you around the medina -whether you like it or not- and try to make you buy at their relatives' shops. They are unavoidable, so better pick one and go with it. But try your best to set your own pace even if it means forgetting about manners. The must sees are the mosques, the tanneries and the zocos.

Volubilis turned out to be an interesting surprise: a full roman village in the middle of the mountains. The conservation of the place was not too good, but they had the most amazing color mosaics almost everywhere! Too bad I did not had Augmented Reality googles to check how it was in the past. Not even an illustration in the ruins, either.

Food was mostly okay, but water was obviously not.

I'm back from my yearly weekend in Madrid (I hope to go back soon, though, many things to do, many things to do ...) Basically, I did the same I do every year, some shopping, walk the city, meet some friends and go to the theater. This year I watched Mamma Mia. I like musicals very much so it was only to be expected that I liked this one. However, it was better than I thought (not the best I've seen, though, but enjoyable, nevertheless). The only black point: translations of the songs to spanish was not that good, but it possibly could not have been done better. On the good side, the lead singer, Nina, has an amazing voice. She overacted a bit, but it did not matter. The best, though, were her friends, Marta Valverde and Paula Sebastian. Both women were amazing and extremely funny, not only in their renderings of Chiquitita, Dancing Queen, Take a chance on me, does your mother know and, of course, where they sing as Donna and the Dynamos, but practically every time they appeared on stage. Looking forward to their future works!



Mamma mia! in spanish

I watched this movie last wednesday and I liked it a lot. Visually, it is amazing how they can get such results without virtual reality. I particularly loved the butterfly effect at the end ('m not telling in case I spoil it for potential viewers). Emily manages to look fragile, scary and funny, while Victor is mostly unsure. Plus the rest of the characters are so well (er) characterized that they do not even have to open their mouths to realize what their personalities are. I also loved the fact that the land of the dead is far more colored than the Victorian UK. The storytelling leaves that bittersweet sensation afterwards that is so typical in Burton's movies, like Big Fish. The story seems to be based in a 16th Century Jewish folk tale, but it is definitely very Burton-like. The corpse bride reminds me of a Nightmare Before Xmas in the clash of different worlds implied in the plot, but it is far more serious and, in general, less crazy. Still, I can not decide which one I like more ...

Plus I'm seriously considering to re-watch Wallace and Grommit unless something comes fast on-screen. BTW, Helena Bonham Carter seems to be at ease with animation!

The brothers Grimm: Quite nice, well paced, fun and a bit stranger than Terry Gilliam has us used to, but nevertheless enjoyed the ride. The Grimms are a couple of con-artists that acquired some fame as ghost-hunters. However, luck goes tough when they have to face the very real danger of the mirror witch, who is kidnapping the kids of a small german village. I'd have given more lines to Monica Bellucci, noone like her to play the evil queen, but I liked the film.

Wallace & Gromitt: Shiny. Loved the rabbits and enjoyed the faces Gromitt put all the time. The giant vegetables were cool as well and I loved the homages to the Universal horror movies.

The dark: Not bad, but not that good either. A typical ghost story that drinks of welsh folk tales. Atmosphere and actors are okay (BTW, where did Maria Bello come from? She is everywhere these days!) Could have been better, but the storyline has many cracks. Sean Bean does not do much in the film and Paul Anderson only plays producer (as in the infamous Resident Evil 2).

Nothing particular this week, so I thought I'd upload an sketch instead. Yep, still stuck to Firefly ...

But not as good as the first by far. Swordfight is less thrilling and slower, characters are less defined and the bad guys are boring and histrionic. The final battle was dissappointing. No real plot, also. Do I have to tell you I did not like it? Save your 1.5 hours for something better ...