There's gold at the end of the rainbow...

Gran Canaria and Manchester...it's like the rainbow, it happens when the sun shines through the rain.
Down there, on the small island, we have the sun. The sun shines on the shores, rooftops, streets, on the waves and on the people. And the people reflect it back, like crystals, in an incredible variety of shades. It is beautiful. People actually smile there! The sun gives colours to the world around you. Even the houses are so bright...then you have the slightly bigger island on the other side of the rainbow, Great Britain. The Rain. The main idea you get of a British city is grey. I look out of the window and the sky is grey. The streets are grey. The air is grey! People are sad, snuggling inside their coats, under black umbrellas, splashing in pools, quickly, across the road. The houses drip slowly, hiding their red skin behind lacey curtains of mist and pollution. The sky is heavy, it's always angry and tired. And it shouts down at us, with wind, slashing rain, hail and thunder. The smel is musty, fresh, forcely pushed into your nostrils by some double decker bus passing by...and you run in the rain, because you always have something to do, somewhere to go, a timetable to follow. You're always running out of time.
In Canaria you walk... sit... contemplate. You don't hear people shouting... well they do shout, but not because they're angry. Because they're latin, and that's the way we speak! You can smell the sea, that is obviously imperative. It's everywhere, you cannot run away from it! Sometimes I felt it a bit oppressive... but I still prefer to be oppressed by the ocean than by skyscrapers!
There's your pot of gold, my friend. The waves, their song. The misty skyline of volcanos in the distance... rough dark sand... walking down an empty street in the boiling sun of noon!
But we sit on the other side of the rainbow... we sit on a metal bench, endlessly waiting for a bus that never shows up, drenched to the bones, looking up at the heavy sky. We sit and pray for a ray of sun, a beam of light that will colour our long, winter days.
We sit in front of the fireplace and dream of the pot of gold at the furthest end of the rainbow...

Make heaven out of hell.....

Hola amigos!

What a multilingual.... just back from sunny Spain. Sounds like a mega stereotypes, but it was actually mega sunny. 36 degrees on the dot.
Some people say that the Canary islands are more Africa than Spain, and somehow I tend to agree, but anyway that's where I went for the week end. Incredibly cool.

As you probably don't know, my dear invisible friends, I used to live in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (why such a long name, I've never really got it...) 6 years back. When I was young - er.... and full of hope for the future. Already a heavy drinker, anyway.

But let's move on.

I packed 500 different things, considering any possible kind of weather, from draught to typhoon, knowing very well that there the weather never changes.
My flight was at 2pm, so I obviously left at 10am. Why? No idea. I got to the airport at 11am and got incredibly bored drinking latte at Starbucks. The good thing is that now I possess a beautiful thing called Kindle! A thing similar to a computer that you use to read books... very clear, innit? Like an electronic reader, let's put it like that. It's super cool... you can store up to a million books. More less. But it's great, mega light and small, you can fit it in your bag and carry a whole shelf of books.

Well... the flight was obviously delayed and then I spent the next 4 hours looking at the ocean, reading and eating Jelly Babies. Not too bad. Obviously I was wearing winter clothes (in Manchester we're in the deep end of winter, now....) and the shock came when I got off the plane.

Flying to the Canary islands is quite impressive. You soar over miles and miles of ocean till you notice a small cap of clouds on the horizon, standing over the water, and you know you've arrived. Here's El Teide, in Tenerife, Spain's highest mountain.

That's cool, believe me. Even because on Ryanair flights you don't get much space to move around and 4 hours can feel like an eternity. So the doors finally open and we dash off the plane... to faint straight away!
Gosh the heat... I wasn't ready for that... even because of my very helpful winter clothes! Well, at least I took my coat off...

Sweating like a pig I got on a taxi and went straight to the hotel! How unbelievable was that! All my memories were running back and crashing against me like high tide on the cliffs.
So weird... like going back to where you grew up, after many many years... I don't know how to put it but my heart was seriously racing and I couldn't stop smiling and telling the taxi driver about all the things I did in Las Palmas. luckily he didn't fall asleep.

Quick shower, took off the winter clothes and off we go, running into the sunset.
Sunset on the beach is the best thing in the universe. With a cold beer (and more than one) and someone pretty attractive sitting beside you it can get even better! But let's leave men out of the story...
I walked along the beach almost all night, feeling the rough sand under my feet and smelling the sea, dragging it down deep into my lungs. Loved it to the bone. The same beach I used to walk on 6 years ago, and everything seems exactly the same...sigh! I'm the only one who changed... yeah got wrinkles, now!

Yeah, it is really like that.
Well, i got pissed and got to bed at 2 in the morning. It wouldn't have been too bad if the day after I didn't have Tenerife. But this is life. Got up with a humongous headache and so tired that i couldn't even open my eyes. Somehow I walked down to reception and asked the guy to call a taxi for me. He started speaking to me using some mysterious language and I could just nod without really knowing what I was agreeing to. The taxi driver insisted in speaking to me... what's wrong with these Spaniards? it's 7 in the morning, it's still dark, I'm fighting a massive hangover... leave me alone!

Finally we got to the port and the time came to pay. "It's 4 euros 40" I grumble something and I gave him a tenner "Have you got something smaller?" a part from my brain? I grumble again and I open my wallet... gosh so many coins! I start counting but it's a hard task for me so I just tell the guy "Sorry but I do not understand euros in the morning... can I pay in pounds?" he looked at me a bit puzzle so I yawn and pass him some coins... he seemed satisfied so I got off and walked to the ferry.
here comes the next big task of the day and it's not even 7:15am....the ticket checker!
(to make it easier for the public I translate the conversation into English)"Good morning" let's put it like that....grumble. "Ticket please" I produced the ticket "ID please" I produced the passport... and then he stared at me... and I stared back... what are we doing here? "Erhm... I keep the ticket you can get on the boat!" "Oh ok... thank you!". So I climbed up and I entered the boat.... to freeze on the spot! My dear invisible friends, how mega cold it was! My jumper wasn't enough at all! I sat somewhere and became a small (relatively) ball trying to keep myself warm. What a nightmare! Together with my headache, hangover, nausea and rolling boat on the ocean... well, it wasn't a pleasant journey at all!
Somehow I managed to keep the vomit down (beautiful) and landed safely to Tenerife... after ONLY 3 hours!!!

My friend, Celina, came to pick me up! Oooooh I was so happy to see her! She actually lives in Tenerife, so she drove me all the way down to her place, El medano. And what a windy little village, my friends! So cute and small and full of kite surfers and wind surfers. Wow. What a pleasant view!
We went to a nice tapas place in front of the beach and we talked and talked and talked... great food, great view and great company! Best ever. She took me around the island, from playa to playa and we had ice creams and drinks. Gosh it was so hot and the sand so white... it killed me!
Yeah but this is not very interesting, isn't it? You insensible lot... it was a great day with a great friend. Full stop.

The trip back was almost fine, but my biggest mistake was to go out again in the evening. I was so tired that I could barely stand, but somehow I managed to walk for almost three hours... silly me! But it was just so beautiful that you couldn't go inside, you had to stare at the sea.

The day after I just went walking around Las Palmas, remembering many many things. The place where I used to live, work, where I used to have breakfast, go shopping, drinking and so on...just strange, every little corner had a story to tell about my past. It felt like time never actually passed and I'd just left yesterday.

Now the plan is find a way to move back and I'm working on it.
After spending all Monday on the beach pondering (and tanning and swimming) I think I found a few options: go back, plant a tent on the beach and leave there; pretend to be an asylum seeker; win the lottery and buy a place there; get a job there (but that's boring and possibly the most difficult of all...); get a job with ryanair (it's on route....); marry a very rich Canarian man... or just get over it.

Well that's it... not an interesting story to tell till the very end: I get to airport on Monday only 2 hours earlier (I'm improving...), get back into my winter clothes and buy some stuff. Rum Arehucas, gofio (a type of flour), mantecados (biscuits), aloe juice... and then sit down with my omni Kindle. We finally get on the plane and guess what? Delayed... what a surprise. One hour stuck on the plane waiting... ah poor Ellie. At least I had mantecados... and I promise, I didn't touch the rum!!!

And then again, after 4 hours... thermal shock! 15 degrees here... and you can guess how I spent the night!!!

O.o

Manchester cries out

Hello my dear invisible friends.... how are you tonight? Watching falling stars?
I'm finally back after almost forgetting about this thing... yeah, it's just a diary at the end... so why not keep it updated? Well, every once in a while...

But the wind changed and the breeze smells of smoke. England's on fire. Nah, it's not the weather, it never gets that hot here. It's the British. British people are burning their own cities and country. Strange? Yes indeed.
I'm sure you're all aware of what's been going on since last Thursday. Riots, riots, riots. The funny side? They don't even remember why it all started. Now it's all about burning, smashing, kicking, looting, crashing, shouting... and so on. I couldn't believe my very own eyes.

A guy has been killed by the police. Possibly by mistake. Hopefully. Must be. Since then any excuse has been good enough to cause havoc. Kids... yeah, kids, smashing shop windows to steal everything they could put their eyes on. Honestly, what would your parents do if they caught you doing that? Well, I would be dust by now. But not British parents. They justify their kids... yeah, we have no job, what can we do? They say it's the rich people' fault. Wasn't that what Hitler said before starting locking up and killing Jews? Oh gosh... the situation is bleak.

I don't want to start complaining about people on benefits stealing the poor tax payers' money (ok, it is true) I just want to tell you how I feel about this. About my city.

The big trouble in Manchester happened on Tuesday. I found myself being unbelievably worried about my students. You know young people "There's a riot, let's go and have a look!". How clever. I was very relieved when they've all showed up on Wednesday morning. Eh eh. School closed early that day, to allow everybody to get home early and safely. I found out that I actually have a maternal instinct... is that how it is called? Anyway... suddenly I just wanted to round them all up, take them into my house, cover them with warm blankets and sing songs while drinking a hot cup of tea. Silly me. My other problem was Potato, obviously. I thought of all the possible ways to save the cat in case the house got attacked. yeah, double silly.

By the way, let's get to the point... should we?
This afternoon was my turn to go down to Manchester. I left home armed with my camera, ready to take as many pics as possible to witness this event. I was full of energy till the bus turned into Oxford road. The first shop completely boarded up. My heart skipped a beat. Dunno why, but it did. I asked myself, Ellie are you scared? But it wasn't that.
I finally got to Piccadilly and walked around the square. Everything looked normal but the atmosphere was eerie. the noise. The sound. It felt like someone put a pillow on the loud speaker. People were whispering slowly down the road... and not many people. Thursday is the day in which shops stay open till late, normally very busy. It looked more like a Sunday evening to me... More boarded shops around me. Suddenly my camera felt heavy and kept jammin' in my pocket. Weird.

I walk down market street and somehow my guts starts moving. Earlier latte? And here it is, the burnt down shop. Many people around it, taking souvenir pictures. I just stare blankly. I can't. in that smoking hole, a few days ago, people worked, walked, laughed, mumbled, sighed... there was movement and life there were colours. Now just black. The only colour being a red and white tape in front of it. A brainless idiot took the rainbow away.

And I just couldn't do it. I couldn't take pictures of it or of any other broken window. I felt like I was taking pics of a best friend's corpse. It's wrong. You must not do that. Full stop. I put my camera away and lowered my head, finding myself mourning in front of my shop. So sad. For the people who, every morning, get up and get to work, still feeling safe here. For the people who call this city home... oh yes, including me. Sad because so many of us (immigrant and indigenous) own so much to this piece of land called Manchester. Greater Manchester, actually.
Police was still walking around, slowly, looking carefully at people, with dark signs under their eyes. But still out there. So many people criticized them, but I don't think anybody has the right to. They were outnumbered but never gave up. Thanks to them. Ta, I should say! Ah ah.

Gosh, I'm getting sentimental.

I was glad to see that many people gathered in the morning to help out cleaning the city. OUR city, not that stupid mobs' city. Manchester belongs to the people who love it.
And we won't easily give up. Break us, we'll pick up the pieces and start again.

Sorry... I know, I'm not even British but somehow I've been adopted by Manchester so I do respect it. Mmh... ok, I go to get the cat and then bed.

Goodnight. God save the Queen

The last bit of my misadventures in China...

...I think the time has come to write it.
But believe me, it's painful. The last week wasn't fun at all.
I know, you got used to my interesting routine but this is a bit different. More than a year passed and it still hurts. Mmmh... I guess sometimes bad things have to happen to allow us to grow.
Memories are just coming back like the tide and I wish I could shut them out. But what we lived cannot be forgotten or denied, I guess.
No regrets, they do not work at all.

Well... maybe another day.

Good night

x

And so it's winter again... isn't it?!

Hello my invisible friends, how are you?
I'm alright, sitting on the sofa sipping crap coffee. Sorry about the long silence (have you noticed it?) but I've been busy being busy.
in Manchester is finally winter, after a long scorching summer that lasted almost 3 weeks. And I mean it... THREE WEEKS!!!! Now we're finally back to our normal temperature of 10 degrees. Ah, we can breath! And, obviously it's pissing down. But well... this is the North West, as they say.
Oh well who cares! I love cycling in the rain without glasses, splashing pools, randomly avoiding traffic, freezing myself to death and get to work completely drenched. That's life, isn't it?

What happened?
Nothing... mmmh... well, we had the Royal Wedding in England, how could I not mention that?! They started the countdown as soon as those two poor (relatively) guys got engaged. I mean... for the last month prior to the ceremony we knew absolutely everything about them... what they eat, how they fart, what they're wearing... everything but the bride's dress! You know, it's bad luck... everybody was speculating about those two, but I wonder.. who actually cared? Luckily I do not own or watch a tv myself, so I was almost safe. But I do read newspapers and every single day Kate was on it. My god... I'm so not envious, I would never be happy about becoming Queen.... you do not own your life anymore. Bah...

Well, on THE day, while the whole of England was off, I was working. Cleverly enough, my school organized a "Let's watch the Royal wedding together" party, so I skipped one hour lesson, taking the kids to the common room to watch the ceremony. If you want my opinion, and I'm sure you want it, it was pretty cute to watch it and I really loved Kate's dress. Good choice, girl. I got a bit emotional as well, I always do at weddings... probably because I think how bad is life going to be from now on for the bride. Ahahaha... ah ah
We had some food as well, even better.
I bought a biscuit tin with their faces on, obviously a gift for my mum. And you know what? She liked it. I mean... it was just unbearably kitch, but she liked it. Ok...
The local chippy was even offering free chips on the wedding day. Whatever, as soon as I finished work I jumped on a plane and I went home to sleep and sleep and sleep.

Yeah, that's all I did in Italy. Slept. I really needed it, believe. I'm an old woman and I just work far too much. Good to know that the money I give in taxes are invested in Royal weddings. Great. THAT wedding cost the poor tax payer something like £20m. That means twenty million pounds. Rock on! Wouldn't that make you furious? And now they are on their honeymoon. Nothing wrong with that, obviously, but they rented a whole island in the Seychelles... £45,000 a night... guess who's paying that...

>.<

And I was worried about spending 69p for a doughnut this morning... bah

Back....let me tell you about Copenhagen!

Tomorrow's the first day of Spring and today Winter's doing its best to not let us forget about it.
Cold, rainy, windy...dark, cloudy...generally shitty.
Luckily I have so many things to do that I'm not even considering going out. Things that I'm clearly not doing, because I'm actually updating this. About time, I'd say.

So. More less 2 weeks ago I set off to Copenhagen with my boyfriend. It was a present from him (just the flight...actually the cheapest part of the whole...) so I was happy to have a short break. 4 days in total, more less.

The funny thing is that 2 nights earlier I went out for a curry and since then I suffered from devastating diarrhoea. You can easily imagine how I was feeling the day I left...hehehehe...tired, hungry, sleepy... but I decided to not give up and, with a massive bag of Imodium, I boarded the flight!!!
We got to Denmark and it was incredibly freezing (fact that seriously didn't help my belly's well being) but luckily the hotel wasn't far. Denmark is incredibly well organized and incredibly expensive. Sweet. The city centre is only 10 mins away from the airport, by train, and it was actually reasonable priced.
Anyway, we got to the station and it took us the same amount of time just to find the right exit! Luckily most of the people there speak English so you can always ask. We didn't, but you can.

The hotel was bang in front of the station. Very cute. especially considering that I was really looking forward to have some me time in the toilet... we got to our room that was unbelievably clean and nice, but a shared twin instead of a en suite double. Whatever, I surely wasn't in the mood for sex and not having the toilet in the room could actually bring some positive effects (eg Paul not suffocating because of the vapours...).

After toilet&shower, we went exploring in the freezing cold. How brave are we!!! We started following a frozen canal, surrounded by people running up and down the pavements and others cycling along. Very fit...I felt a bit guilty, but it didn't last long, no worries. We went on for a while and Copenhagen looked absolutely crap, something like Salford. Very bad. On the plus, it was spotlessly clean; I felt like dusting the floor every time I removed my foot from it! wow.
We soon got lost. The streets' names on the map didn't match reality. Great. I tried counting streets and canals but it didn't work very well! Luckily a very nice local lady stopped by and gave us some direction, mainly pointing us towards the centre of the city. Cool. Super cool. Freezing, I'd say.
Nothing really remarkable happened after that. I guess I was too cold and tired to actually enjoy the evening. I just remember ending up in a pub drinking Carlsberg...and that's it...Paul couldn't survive an evening without drinking!!! Then we went back to the hotel and we had a couple of sandwiches we brought from home and we started watching the Danish version of Kitchen nightmares. We didn't understand anything at all, obviously, but it looked pretty funny!!!
The day after we had a humongous breakfast! Wow! Danish pasties (really?!?!?), cakes, yogurt, cereal of any sort, bread, jams, butter, juices, teas, coffee and ham, cheese and so on. That was good enough to keep us full till lunchtime. Or, personally speaking, till the next trip to the toilet. That actually happened 30 minutes later. What a lucky lady.
We then set off to visit the city. Centre, castles, canals...it actually came out being very beautiful! The centre is very historical and the buildings are very pretty. there are then many frozen canals full of boats trying to move somehow (not achieving anything) and a funny one covered in ice where bicycles were abandoned. The canal - cemetery for bikes? I wish I could reach far enough to get one...anyway! We walked and walked and walked till 2pm more less when we decided to have lunch at a buffet place that was pretty cheap (compared to the other places in Copenhagen, obviously). Now...they had only pizza, pasta and some salad. I had a bit of it, hoping that it won't affect my stomach, but obviously I was completely wrong. After lunch we went to see another castle (that was close) but the garden was very nice...I sat down there for a while, trying to communicate with my belly and convince it that everything was alright. The day was incredibly beautiful and sunny, even if cold, and I really wanted to stay in that park longer. But that's when my sciatica kicked in and I had to go back. Not a lucky bunny. Luckily I still managed to see the Little Mermaid, staring sadly and silently at the sea...poor girl!

I went to bed straight away with a horrible pain in my back...it was only 4 in the afternoon! I was so pissed off with myself...I was in Copenhagen and I couldn't even go out and visit. Paul went for a walk and came back with some sweets to cheer me up...how cute! I spent the evening watching random programs and fell asleep very early. I had a trouble night because of the impossibility to walk matched with my toilet need... gosh, that was bad! In the morning Paul got some painkillers so after breakfast and a short recovery nap, I decide to venture out again! It was our last day, I couldn't give up!
We went to see Cristiania a famous hippie - drug place. Very colourful and nice, pity that it wasn't possible to take pictures in there. People were just wandering around smoking cannabis and doing nothing. Great life indeed...does it not get boring? bah...

After that my belly and back were still holding on pretty well, so we decided to take the train to Malmo, Sweden. How cool! It's only a 30 minutes journey and you get to cross the frozen see. I was so excited, even if I don't really know why. Malmo is cute, small, cold and mega expensive!!! ehehehhe

We spend almost £15 for a couple of coffee and a plate of lasagna...but it kept us warm. We walked a lot there as well (we didn't seem to do anything but walking in there...) and then sat in the main square, warming up in the sun, looking at a crazy guy dancing to some (possibly?) Swedish music. It was a cute afternoon!
We went back to the hotel, had a shower, a little nap and then we decided to go out for dinner, since it was our last night in Denmark. We went to a steak house and had some lovely burgers, made with real bread, real meat and real cheese. Not English, that's it. And it the deal there were nachos with real cheese for starter, salad buffet and ice cream. I loved it! It all came to £24 for two people...wow, not too bad!
Happily full we went for a digestive walk around the centre of Copenhagen to admire it by night...sigh, what a pity to leave, right now that I started feeling better!

On our last day we had a gigantic breakfast and then we went to a park a bit out of town (we got the bus, even if terribly expensive, because I didn't want to force my back...). The place was so nice and peaceful, with trees, birds (well, it's a park...you get the idea...) and ladies running while pushing prams. What the....?!!? These Danish ladies are completely crazy, Again I felt guilty but for a short time. We had a long walk following the frozen canals, on the little bridges, watching the animals walking on the ice.How cold must have that been??? Very brave little birds. We stayed there for an hour or so, then picked up our stuff and went to the airport. There I had a massive pancake and a cup of tea while waiting for our flight. Right at that time it started snowing, after 3 full days of sun.
Top tips: the Lego shop is not to be missed, to cool to be true! There are dragons and streets or Copenhagen made entirely out of lego blocks...it's great! Beside it there's the sweet shop...you cannot miss it, go in and have a look! The "sunny side", the little canal aligned with small, colourful houses, shops and restaurants! lovely by day and night. Cristiania, the Opera House and "The Island", where you can find the black diamond aka the new library. The Kastellet, a small island where the army lives. You can walk around it and it's very nice. Downside...you pay to get in everywhere, so I didn't see any museums.

Kiss the rain...

Hello my invisible friends, how's your evening going?
I'm a bit tired/bored/unable to think. And it's raining. I have so much to do but I'm just staring at the darkness outside the window. How romantic.
I'm starting a new job tomorrow, teaching still but in another school. Exciting but worrying at the same time. I think that is how it feels every time you start somewhere new. Hopefully it won't be as bad as China...heehheh!
I don't think so.
So from now on I will be working in 2 different school and I'm desperately looking for a bike to move around. Believe it or not, second hand bike are incredibly expensive and I cannot really afford spending £50 on a bike. I'm still looking, never give up, they say...
My cake is liking my cupcakes. Now, that is not nice.
So I'm planning lessons for the week ahead. Not too bad, but sometimes you just run out of ideas. Mmmh...you cannot just follow the book, that would be boring. I'm trying to make it interesting. Well, I'm not really, I'm writing on my blog.
Today my Italian friend came to visit me. How strange. she's just moved from Italy and  everything seems so weird to her! She reminded me of when I first moved to the UK...I just couldn't believe how stupid British people looked. Winter...and they are walking around in t-shirts and flip flops; only ready meals in the supermarkets; squash...the most disgusting thing in the world! You think is fruit juice but it's syrup...and you add water to it. How crazy is that? English teenagers, female ones. Short skirts, so short that you don't even see them under their tops. Heavy make up. They all style their hair in the same way...eheheheh...so funny! And no tights in winter! You'll never get used to it, even after 7 years they make me laugh! And boys...with their pants half way down...and they cannot even walk! what's the point? Someone's got to explain me that...
The weirdest thing in England is still the benefits system. Benefits are money, money that the Government is giving you for doing NOTHING.
You don't want to work? Just claim benefits, you'll get money and a free house! Or just get pregnant...you see so many young girls pushing prams while smoking and drinking. Who cares? if I make babies the government will pay for everything. Pretend you have a disability...tell them that you are an asylum seeker...anything will do!
I'm a bit bitter tonight, what do you think? I guess it's the rain...or just me being bike-less. Or just me...