Xmas spirit

What's the most important present one can give you?
Time. Seems obvious, strangely obvious, but why?

The gift doesn't need necessarily to be "time", that's difficult to get, but it can represent it. Why does a present made by ourselves always has a bigger value and meaning than something bought in the shop, in spite of being more rustic, imperfect, etc? Why does one give so much more value to something "made by me"? Precisely because of that, it needed our time to be done, with didn't lose it, but instead was spent doing something not for us, but to give to someone else. During that time we think in that person, the little it might be, the simplest the craft of the present could be, there's always that time spent thinking in our friends, that time belongs to them, and that's what the gift symbolises. Our time. It's something that I don't do for everyone, I can buy some presents, make some others, or even buy them all, that's easy, if there's money! But now, really complicated, is doing them all! If not impossible. Why? Because I don't have enough time, therefore being so important. A present like this, truly carries a little bit of ourselves inside it.

More important than giving a present to everyone, is showing that we think about them, be willing to spend some of our time with them, even if not making that present, just in their company. A well spent afternoon is already a good gift. Way more important than wandering around losing it, literally, inside a shopping center totally crowded in Xmas eve. If we'd spend some more time with each other for sure we would feel a lot better, more happy, and with less need to buy those Xmas presents all in the last minute.

If there’s time to do something, just do it. Let it be time.

Cappuccino

I've been asked several times for a cappuccino at the bar. The fact of not knowing how to make one properly can be a problem. Also, the fact that I work at an Irish bar and the owner doesn't give a fuck about the difference between a coffee with milk and a cappuccino, also.

Worse, if I go to any place here in Barcelona and ask for a cappuccino I'll get a coffee with milk with some foam on top, put there with a spoon... this also happens in a known franchising coffee shop called... CAPPUCCINO!!!!

So, I decided to search a bit around in Google to learn how to make a proper one, and I was surprised by the amount of crap roaming around in the internet. Most of the things I've seen actually just talk about adding the foam with a spoon (!), they talk about different sizes (a cappuccino is always a cappuccino, like an espresso has its own "personal" quantity, no bullshit of small/medium/large...) and even in the usage of a thermometer for the milk?!?! I think that any proud italian would freak out reading this kind of stuff. It's the Americanisation of the cappuccino, people don't accept things in its original format, they need to put their own label, ruining everything.

Just to finish. Here's the secret:
half coffee, half cream (not foam!!). The cups used are the same ones used in Portugal for the coffee with milk. The milk comes cold from the fridge and has to be whole (full fat) - semi-skimmed or skimmed doesn't have enough fat to produce a creamy foam. You need to use the hot air steam that all espresso machine have, being the idea to introduce in the milk, small air bubbles giving it a creamy body. The milk is heated up with that steam until the recipient (normally made of aluminium) starts to burn the hand. Shake it a little bit to mix the bubbles with all the milk and put it immediately over the coffee (usually 2 shots of espresso) already in the cup. In the end you get a creamy drink with a strong coffee flavor, instead of that disgusting thing, kind of weak coffee with milk with foam on the top, looking like a dishes detergent.

Uff... now I feel kind of relieved ;)

How to make magic with a leather jacket in a fashionable Club

There's a club around here, on top of the posh Tibidabo hill, called Danzatoria. Very trendy, full of style, beautiful people.

Well, me, in ecstasy with what I was seeing when I arrived, left my leather jacket on a bench and went having fun. Big mistake!! How could I've been so stupid?! I went back to my jacket half an hour later... no more jacket. Approached the bartender asking if he'd seen something. No. Told him the story, he wanted to help and went to ask the doorman, leaving the bar with no one taking care of it for more than 2 minutes... very strange, because it's something that you never do, leaving the bar unattended. Lucky him that I was too upset to even remember of stealing some bottles. He came back, same news, but told me to stay until the place closed and then, when everyone was gone, it would be easier to search for the jacket. It could be fallen somewhere... yeah, of course...! It was everything very weird.

The thing is that I didn't stop searching for it, asking everyone from the several bars in Danzatoria, the wardrobe, and nothing. Frustrated, without being able to have fun, I just chilled out for a bit cursing myself for having been so dumb. Making the story shorter, when the place closed I left myself stay until the end, the security guys wanted to shove me off and I told them that I wouldn't go until I searched everywhere for my jacket. Another security comes, same talk. Pulls from his micro and calls another gorilla, this one asks me "what's your problem?", I explain. He comes back holding a leather jacket (mine) "is this the one?", I answer "yep", he gives it to me and I go away with a huge smile on my face. He didn't even asked how the jacket looked like before handing it over to me. Moral of the story, the bouncers stole my jacket and were trying to shove me off without much noise (they were always saying that Barcelona is a place with lots of scams and burglars), the guy from the bar knew this and gave me the "tip" of staying until the end. Because he didn't want to get in trouble with the staff from the place he didn't tell me the truth.

Magic, magic, magic!

Smoked Out!

Back from the ashes! The bar is consuming me...

After all this time not telling any news, I decided that it's time for some. And what a time! Just came from the dEUS concert in Sala Apolo. Small place, huge crowd, made this event be one of the best I've ever seen. The band was just amazing, the music unbelivebly good (ok, it helps being a fan :), but the atmosphere... uau! It's just like those moments where the music speaks for itself, the simple lights showing just a shadow of Tom Barman, the strobes getting the mood more and more crazy. dEUS rocked in Barcelona!

Apart from that, I've not been writing because I'm a little off society life... I work when people are having fun and do my normal living when everyone's else is working. At least I cannot complain when I'm working, it's great! That plus having a lot of things to do in this city make me be a bit away from the PC.

Another thing... I'm getting a bit annoied with these spanish people...! Tonight just met a catalan girl who was very surprised (and bothered) when she got to know that I didn't come to Barcelona to learn spanish. When I told her I just come here to have fun, she was like: "what, you didn't come to Barcelona to learn spanish?! Why??" Humpf... that's why they're soooo humble!