Day 12 - My blog is dead

So what happened? I started my blog with a lot of enthusiasm but soon forgot about it... I must have dissapointed hordes of fans, just like J. K. Rowling with the Deathly Hallows (Author´s Note: I don´t read her books, had to google this title)

But what matters is that I am back, back in full strength. Or at least that is what I´d like to think.

This weekend I did something different, I went Caveing with a couple of friends, one of which belongs to a Speleology club. The cave was near Burgos, at 300 Kms from Madrid or so, near a town called Belorado.

We arrived at Belorado late, at around 5pm, the reason being that the caves have a river that supplies the water to the small town by it and therefore no one is allowed inside until it gets dark. That, at least is what we were initially told. As it turned out, we could have got in during the day. Not that it really matters, in a cave you don´t really get to see the daylight anyway.

We arrived at the cave at around 6:30 pm and got all the kit on, which basically consisted of a pair of rainboots, overalls (you have to crawl in mud for a bit), gloves, a harness (there are places where you need to ascend and descend using ropes) and a helmet with a light (through a flame generated by the reaction of water and a rock, I know not the name in English, sorry).

We entered the cave crawling and soon reached a section in which you could easily stand up. A few minutes later we were walking inside the cave, walking in the river, in the direction opposite to the water flow. At both our sides vertical walls that reached into the darkness of the ceiling, of which we couldn´t see the end.

The place was amazing! There were plenty of formations, both stalactites and stalagmites of different sizes and shapes. Although the cave only had 1.8 Kms we were inside for over 6 hours and took over 300 pictures.

Definetely something worth doing. Pablo (the other colleague who came over) and me are already considering joining the club.

Day 11 - Inspirational Edison & The Japanese approach

Inspirational Edison

The story I was once told goes like this: It is known that it took Thomas Alva Edison several attempts to get to a working light bulb, rumor has it that it was more than 1,000!. Some time after he succeeded, Edison was asked how did it feel to have failed so many times to which, according to this story, he replied: "I have never failed. I have had a success of 1,000 steps".

The Japanese approach

On one of his trips to China, the airline managed to get my brother Fede´s luggage lost. The Japanese in charge of one of his offices in China went to pick him up to the airport and they drove to the hotel. A couple of hours later the suitcase arrived and, when my brother tried to open it, he realized it had one of those combination locks.

Puzzled, he phoned his employee´s room and asked if he knew anything about the lock but he too was clueless. So the guy came over to take a look at it and asked Fede what he was planning to do. "I was about to take a shower" was his answer, to which the Japanese replied: "Go ahead, I will take care of this".

Ten minutes later, my brother came out of the shower and, when stepping into the room, realized that the suitcase was open. The combination of the lock was 534. "How did you do it?" was the obvious question. "I tried with 000, moved on to 001, and so on". My brother was amazed: "Wooa you were a bit unlucky"; "No, 534 lucky, 999 unlucky".

Would you have tried to open a combination lock that way? I have to admit it would have never crossed my mind. But thinking about it, 534 tries at 1 second a pop is less than 10 minutes... quite an efficient way to get a suitcase opened.

I loved this story and I baptized it "The Japanese approach". Next time I am faced with a situation like this, I might even consider using it!

Day 10 - iPod shuffle generation

We belong to an iPod shuffle generation. Aware of songs and artists but often unable to match one to the other.

Day 9 - Touching the Void

The idea came from one of my best friends and soon after, a few of us (we know each other for almost 20 years!) had signed in for a sky dive session.

The weeks prior to the event there were loads of emails going backwards and forwards with jokes, videos and even some old news about freak accidents. Some people were having second (or, in fact, first) thoughts about the whole thing and were secretly considering skipping the session and forfeiting their reservation fee.

Then, on the weekend we had booked, the weather was awful and they canceled all dives (the small airplanes in which you are taken lack any sort of radar, they can only operate if there is fairly good visibility). We had to re-book a session for the following weekend. the best metaphor to describe this maybe is to have been told you had 1 month left to live due to a chronic disease only to be told by the doctor, the day before last, that you had one more week. "Come on doc, I was ready now... why prolong the agony?"

So we went. Despite the weather forecast not being great and the sky in Madrid being completely covered, when we called on Saturday morning the centre they told us they were going ahead as scheduled. I am sure we all secretly cursed them.

We spent several hours at the Diving Centre because the weather was really not all that great and the flights were getting delayed. It was amazing being there and, every 30 minutes or so, seeing parachutes coming out of the clouds and managing to land, all of them, in a quite reduced green field. When our turn came, we were hoping to jump all together but in the end, Floro and Gonzo went first and soon after (we didn't even get a chance to see them land) it was the turn for Alex and me.

How to describe the experience? Difficult, believe be. My "only" concern was that I thought the first few seconds of free fall, due to the quick acceleration, were going to be pretty uncomfortable. Later, when the time actually came, I must admit I felt no such thing (mostly because it takes just a few seconds for you to reach maximum speed).

We were all crammed in the small airplane. 3 jumpers with 3 tandem instructors and 3 cameras. Alex, who was closest to the door was to go first. At 4,000 meters Alex's camera man opened the door to the plane which was a slide door much like the one in the A Team's black van. Alex and his "entourage" went first, my turn had come...

We went into position which basically means my legs and body where outside the plane, my head looking upwards, and my back completely arched. The weird position and the fact that I had a guy behind me to which I was attached, did not make me feel very comfortable.

The instructor made a sign to the camera and we jumped at the same time. Unbelievable! We stabilized as I said earlier within seconds and from then onwards the feeling was probably similar to hovering 2 meters from the floor by the force of a huge fan. At times the camera man was so close that at one point we almost shook hands!

The view was spectacular. Despite the cloudy day we had jumped on a clear spot and there was not a cloud around us. During the free fall it was actually difficult to visually notice that we were getting closer to the ground as all the reference points were hundreds of meters away from us. The rest is simple: the parachute opened and we went around in circles for a while before landing and joining all the friends waiting for us in the air field.



Another tick in the TODO list of life. What next?

Day 8 - The Empire

The trip to Rome awoke on me an interest in learning more about the greatest Empire the world has ever seen. I did a bit of research and bought an excellent book. The book is called "Ancient Rome - The rise and fall of an empire" written by a Simon Baker.

It really makes compelling reading, mixing the known historical facts with well informed hypothesis to cover the gaps.

We all know quite a lot about the Roman civilization, probably more than we think we do without giving it a deep thought:

We all know something or other about Julius Cesar and the fact he was murdered by his adopted son Brutus. But do you recall this happening because he became a dictator after gaining power having, as a successful general, marched into Rome, something no general had ever dared do until then?

We have all heard the myth of Romulus and Remo and how they were raised by a wolf. We know about Nero, the crazy emperor; about the gladiators and the games, and so on…

Reading this book, however, you will learn how Rome started by the merging of the tribes occupying it's famous 7 hills. How it was initially ruled by 3 kings until the creation of the Republic and the Imperium, to be governed by 2 elected consuls. You will be enlightened about the early conflicts between the Patricians and the plebs and the conquering of Italy and adjacent territories. You will read about the 3 Punic wars fought against the Carthaginians for different reasons and at different points in history.

You will also discover an Empire that was created based on treaties and wars in the name of freedom (and initially self defence). All based on an ingrained principle of "fides", the ability to keep one's word. But you will also learn about how the Senate became corrupt due to the Consuls and the most influential families (Cornellius Scipius, Aemilius Paullus and the Gracchus) never ending desire for greater glory and land.

You will read about Hannibal and the resistance from Numantia; about the Greek Phalanxes and about the land reform that Tiberius Gracchus the young introduced by defying the Senate, a revolutionary act that ultimately costed him his life.

There is much more to learn, but I have yet to do this myself as I only started the book yesterday... Fascinating

Day 7 - The Pizza Analogy

An analogy like this could only have been inspired by a visit to the Eternal City:

On trying to understand the universe we are not that different to a 3 year old inside a vast restaurant kitchen, with all its utensils and ingredients, attempting to guess how on earth a nice pepperoni pizza was put together in this place.

We know there is flour involved, we are on the verge of discovering water might also be a key ingredient (we know not it is best to use it warm and mixed with salt and yeast) and we kind of suspect the oven in the corner might have something to do with it too. But with many missing ingredients and no recipe whatsoever how will we know what else is missing and that one, for example, should not to put the flour in the oven until it has been mixed with the water?

Will we ever get there?

PS: Rome was great (SPQR - Senatus Populusque Romanus)

Day 6 - Mrs. Baum and the Shouting Booth

While having a drink after the theatre she proposed an unusual plan: to shout our lungs out somewhere in the South Bank on our way home... "Interesting" I thought. We did, and it felt quite good to be honest, although I must admit that I was really worried someone will take me for a thief or possibly something worse after she had had a go.

A Business idea popped into my mind. Shouting your lungs out is quite stress-relieving (try it if you haven't). But in a city it is not easy to have a go (requires an empty space and quite a lot of courage... plus complete disregard to fellow citizens in the comfort of their beds). So why not install "shouting booths"?

For £2 you could get into an exclusive booth from which you could contemplate everything around you yet no one would be able to see you. It would be completely soundproof and the idea would be for you to have 5 minutes to yourself to shout as loud as you want without having to worry about anyone else. Once you are finished (you can't do this for 5 minutes, believe me) you would push a button and a soothing music would help you wind down.

I am sure people would love it and, in a world where stress is the number one threat to the workforce, I think this booths should be funded by the NHS!

Day 5 - 2008 (1984 redux)

Was Orwell a visionary with his masterpiece 1984 or is it just that things in Britain have not really changed since he wrote the book?

People do things because they fear the "Big Brother" who is actually watching them through myriad CCTV cameras that control anything from who entered a shopping centre on what date and time to who did or did not pay the bloody congestion charge.

I often think that Brits are more civilized and more law abiding (to a certain extent) than us Spaniards but if this is mainly driven through fear of being punished it might not necessarily be something to admire them for (can this be considered Doublethink?)

Day 4 - Subtleties of Art

What went wrong? How did we get from the impressionists' magnificent revolution in art as a reaction to the invention of the camera in the mid 19th century to Duchamp installing a urinal in a museum in the early 1900's?

Day 3 - Ephemeral Kay

When I woke up it was dark. I could see nothing but could sense she was lying beside me in bed. I could hear her gentle breathing, smell the warm fragrance emanating from her body.

I couldn't help but smile thinking myself lucky. I had met Lucy a couple of weeks before, at a dinner party organized by a friend that owns a contemporary art gallery in North London. I hadn't planned to go to the event originally. Work was keeping me quite busy these days and that, coupled with the fact that the weekly commute between Madrid and London was to say the least tiring, meant my social life was certainly taking the hit.

In the end however I decided to drag myself to the party. And there she was, a gorgeous brunette with the most beautiful smile I had seen in my life, her green eyes sparkling intensely with life and her character so cheerful, like that of a child that is yet to loose her innocence. We connected immediately and the following two weeks were, without a doubt, the happiest of my life.

Still with the smile on my face and inner peace of that who knows things can't possibly get any better in life, I reached for the bedside lamp to turn the light on. I turned around to contemplate Lucy's beauty only to find there was no one there...

I woke up sweating, my heart heavily pounding, alone in my bed. It was dark and it was to remain so for a while.

Day 2 - Essence

What are we made of? Is it just atoms really? (or quarks for the more advanced). Come on, I don´t buy the "21 grams" theory either but are we really just a combination of particles?

If we are I have an interesting hypothesis that I have been thinking about for some time now and I need help solving:

Assumption: humans (you and I included) are made solely of atoms.

Now imagine a day in the distant (or not so distant) future in which we humans are able to replicate any configuration of atoms. Anyone can imagine a future in which we can get a pencil, analyze it´s structure and composition and create another exact copy.

So, if we can do this with a pencil, could we do it with someone? Well, with the above assumption the simple answer should be: "Yes".

But if I was to create an exact copy of you, and you were only made of atoms, then who would you be: "John Doe" or "John Doe 2.0" (the newly created version: same bugs, same features). Would your thoughts and experiences diverge at that point? Certainly, but which would YOU experience?

It has got me pretty confused, maybe we are not just atoms. I think I need help to sort this one out.

"Dear Professor Hawkins,

What are we made of?..."

Day 1 - The awakening

I finally made the decision today to start a blog... My partner, if I had one, will certainly know nothing about it, at least not at this early stage.

It is about time you might argue but hey, who can keep up with technology & the web these days?

You have to have uploaded a couple of clips in YouTube; have an account in Facebook or any other social networking site; be LinkedIn; have a personalized google web page with news updates, your email summary and live stock market updates; you must periodically share your pictures online with family and friends (using Flickr, Picassa or Kodak Gallery among others); have your own up to date blog / photoblog; have an online CV and, hey why not? an account in Second Life, ... and this is just for starters. The alternative of course is to have an online presence close to zero and be out of touch with the new reality.

God, this is hard work. Especially if like me, you are a dyslexic 85 year old granny from East Anglia.

That's it for today, I'd better go feed the cat before I call it a day.
Good nite