Imperial City

Last recovery time after duty as diplomatic escort was four free days in the Imperial City. You know what I mean, that part of the planet were the Emperor resides. Not so off borders as you can think but crowded with people from every corner of the galaxy, even some people from my habitual duty planet. But much more people, far more, from my planet of origin,. They were everywhere and, as usual, impossible to miss as they always talk to each other shouting :D

The first stop after reporting at the local clone trooper post was the Arena, aka Colosseum (Wikipedia). Quite impresive, but also very well known, always have been in pictures, movies...

The guided visit was done by a very funny native who was all the time quoting the word "crazy" as a kind of Mantra to explain everything about the Colosseum and, of course, with several references to the movie  "Gladiator". The actual tour does not allow to visit the underground part of the Arena as seen in the film "Jumper" but it seems to be plans for allowing it in the future.

Nevertheless is interesting to know that the ground of the Arena was hollow, just a wooden floor covered with sand to absorb the blood of the gladiators to avoid accidents due to a slippery floor. This kind of construction allowed the use of the underground area for keeping the slaves, gladiators, animals and other paraphernalia used in the shows. The whole Arena was equipped with a system of hidden holes on the wooden floor for special effects, like lifting up a hungry tiger just to the ground space right on your back. Surprise !

Just in front of the Colosseum is the  Arch of Constantine (Wikipedia), also well known and emblematic. Also there you can find the Roman Forum (Wikipedia), very nice even if it looks only like a pile of stones lying around ;)

From there you can walk down to the Column of Trajan (Wikipedia), present in every history book and kind of monumental history book itself as the whole column is covered with a relief which relates Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars, somewhere in todays Romania, which seems to be the only country in that area which still uses a latin-based language.

The walk along this part of the city can be crowded with more visitors than desired but is still a very nice way to spend a sunny afternoon.

Close to the Column of Trajan there are some small places where it is possible to enjoy a very tasty pizza. But, in general, there is not need to worry about the food, it is usually great :)

Another nice spot of the city is the Piazza di Spagna (Wikipedia), at the bottom of the Spanish Steps which lead the way to the church Trinità dei Monti.

In the surrounding streets it is possible to found some shops, mainly for clothes and complements, but also several nice restaurants and wine bars. The last are specially recommended as the offer on starters or finger food to have with the wine is fantastic.

This was day one. Second day, meeting the Emperor.....

Forever

I stand alone in the darkness
The winter of my life came so fast
Memories go back to my childhood
To days I still recall

Oh, how happy I was then
There was no sorrow, there was no pain
Walking through the green fields
Sunshine in my eyes

I'm still there everywhere
I'm the dust in the wind
I'm the star in the northern sky
I never stayed anywhere
I'm the wind in the trees
would you wait for me forever?


This is probably my favourite song, the one I usually listen when my heart is sinking and I'm feeling a bit under the weather. Today I'm pretty OK, but don't you think it's a nice song?

Capital City

This weekend some aliens ambassadors were here for the Galactic Senate session. As part of our duty, a clone trooper detachment was deployed for their protection. The following is a brief report of the ambassadors tour across Capital City...

 

On of the main features of Capital City (a.k.a. Amsterdam) is the neuralgic point of Dam Square, just at the end of the main street heading from Centraal Station. A Royal Palace presides the square, which is flanked by the Nieuwe Kerk on the right. The spot is usually crowed with tourist as several street performers use to be here. They wear different outfits and just stay there, on top of a small pedestal, like statues, so that the people can make pictures with them. Of course some money is expected to be offer in advance.

Just behind the Royal Palace it is possible to find an incredible departament store, the Magna Plaza. 

This place is the former main post office of the city and was built between 1895-1899. 

Today is one of the nicest shopping facilities of the city. Inside of the building there are several mechanical stairs which allow a nice view of the walls and columns which conform the interior. The capitals or ornamental heads of the column represent people from different countries from all around the world since the neighbour Belgium to the exotic Brazil.

But the main feature of the city are the canals. Starting form Centraal Station, the canals build a semi-circular net which connects and covers the city. They total more than 100km and are cross by more than 1500 bridges. On sunny days, the local population and the tourists take the canals. A good amount of locals are able to drive a boat and own one or known someone who does. Therefore it is not strange to see bunches of people just passing by on a boat, with some friends, maybe some (loud) music, drinks and food.

Another possibility is to rent a boat and participate on the river party. The people use to wave their hands and greet the pedestrian on their festive trip across the city and are frequently taken in pictures by the wondered tourists. 

A very nice option is to make a canal cruise with one of the several companies which offer this service. Some of them are located direct in front of Centraal Station, other on the street which connect it with Dam Square. 

The price is more or less the same and the tour takes around one hour. So, it is not worth to wait more than 15 min for a tour to start but just go to one of the other companies and check if their tour starts earlier.

The boat will navigate the main canals and pass close to several of the main landmarks of the city. Herengracht (Gentelman's channel) is one of the more beautiful ones as the houses along its side were the property of the more powerful and rich families of the city on the Dutch Golden Century. Today those houses are owned by banks, advocates and insurance companies.

Also the official residence of the city mayor is on this street.

The ground in Amsterdam is not solid enough for supporting buildings and the houses were usually edified on wooden poles. The stability of the foundation was not always the optimal and for this reason a lot of houses are not able to keep the vertical and have to bend onto the surrounding ones, laying on them. The effect is quite weird.

Not part of the cruise on the canals, but for sure the main point of tourism of the city is the (in)famous Red Light District. Very different during daylight hours than at night, the place is always crowed with people walking around. The major part of the tourist just pass by, look to the sex shops, scape from the door-keepers of the numerous live sex shows and watch the few girls who are inside the windows. At night or at least after it gets dark, the presence of police is quite obvious as well as the recurrent approach of people offering all kind of drugs to the visitor. Once I even saw a guy being guided out of the district hand-shelled by a younger one, who was not wearing any police uniform but civil clothes. No idea about the possible offense or the outcome....

The lack of space to build houses in Amsterdam is an endemic problem since decades. For this reason some people just made their houses not along the canals but on the canals, on boat-houses. They are anchored on the sides of the canals and in several degrees of wellness / decadence.  Some of them are registered as houses by the local government of the city and enjoy legal status, which also allows them to have access to running water, electricity, telephone and gas lines. Obviously there are also an undetermined amount of illegal boat-houses, which obviously lack those services.

Amsterdam is also a very important harbor since centuries, for sure not so huge as the one form Rotterdam, but still big enough for the Artemis to dock in. The feeling passing close to it on the much smaller tourist canal cruiser was like watching an Imperial Destroyer from the Millennium Falcon, just amazing. 

Last part of the trip is the NEMO and the replica of a Dutch ship of the Dutch West Indian Company (yes, the same from Pirates of the Caribbean). Btw, some of the characters of the movies are to see inside of Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

Wake me up when September ends

A very long summer, plenty of problems. So please...

Don't want "Excluses", want results !!!

Sorry for the bad joke as I don't think that any english speaker would be able to understand it, actually even not a native Spanish speaker will understand it at all, which was the language the joke came out first.

The weird title refers to a failed trip we did in The Netherlands to visit the famous "Storm surge barrier" a.k.a. as The Maeslant Barrier (http://www.keringhuis.nl/).

The route to get there is not so easy, according to our knowledge at the time, the barrier should had been in a place called Hoek van Holland, which is almost the right place, but alas, almost...

The real way to arrive there should be:

From Rotterdam:
A20 to Hoek van Holland. After Maassluis, take the Hoek van Holland exit. Follow the N220 to Hoek van Holland, take the exit on the left to the Maeslantkering. Follow the signs ‘Maeslantkering’.

From The Hague:

Follow the signs for Hoek van Holland. At the Hoek van Holland - Maassluis (N220), take the ‘Maeslantkering’ turn. Follow the signs ‘Maeslantkering’.

Once you follow the signs to Maeslantkering, you will find a building of the company DSM, after crossing the rails of the train, just turn left and you will see a long road, crowded with cyclists enjoying the nice weather (there are ALWAYS people on bikes around in The Netherlands). At the end of that road you will see the Barrier.

Inside of the visitors center it is possible to see a model of the Barrier. 

The model not only explains how the barrier works, also moves to show it.

Basically the idea is that the two moving parts (called gates or retaining walls) rest on the dock, close to the ground (down position). When the situation requires it (test drill or heavy storm), the gates rise form the ground and impulsed by the locomobile (the red box close to the water) they move into the channel.

Once the gates are in the middle of the channel, they are open, so that water fill their inside and lower them onto the channel ground. On this position the gates are only 2 meters above the water level, but this is enough to stop the storm.

They close off a wide of 360 meters, are 22 meters high and 210 meters long. The point of movement (ball joint) weights 680 tons and it is on a base which weights 52000 tons and is able to move with a 2 millimeters accuracy.

As you can see the weather was great, maybe the last good day of the Dutch summer, and the view from the elevated observation point was pretty nice.

In the last two pictures you can see the arm of the gate and also the joint. On the background a little boat is pulling one of the harbor's towers.

No Cheese Inside ???

A recipe I tried last week at a Chinese photo session.

Background info: A Polish friend of mine was in China for the Olympic Games, enjoyed a very nice time there, was having a couple of pictures to share with us an, of course, a bunch of stories and anecdotes to amuse us.

Mission: The requested task was to provide with some food for the evening, namely the (in)famous Bode Cheese Cake (I will post another date about it) but as it needs to be prepare one day in advance and to stay inside the fridge for a night I decided to try a different one.

Code: Quesada Ester which should be something like Esther's Cheese Pudding.

INGREDIENTS

• 75g butter
• 2 eggs
• 125ml Yoghurt (use the container for the measurement of the other ingredients)
• 250ml Sugar
• 250ml Flour
• 500ml Milk
• a grated lemon's peel
• powder cinnamon

Preparation

1. Warm up the butter a few minutes to liquify it a bit
2. Mix afterward with the rest of the ingredients except the cinnamon (the two eggs, the yoghurt, the sugar, the milk, the flour and the lemon's peel).
3. Once the mixture is ready, transfer it into a mold and bake it in the oven.

Temperature and time inside of the oven depends on the actual technical specs of the oven used. A medium temperature (around 180° - 200° C in a traditional European oven) should give the best results.

There is not need to open the oven and poke into the pudding to see if is already done. Just look to it through the window of the oven.

The pudding should start to rise up until it gets a uniform golden colour. Just take out of the oven at this point and let it cold down. The pudding sink down again.

It should be keep inside of the fridge as it should be cold at the moment of bringing it to the table.

Just take it out of the fridge, add some cinnamon powder onto the surface of the pudding, and... Ready !

Ohrwurm

I don't love you
My chemical romance

Well when you go
Don't ever think I'll make you try to stay
And maybe when you get back
I'll be off to find another way

When after all this time that you still owe
You're still, the good-for-nothing I don't know
So take your gloves and get out
Better get out
While you can

When you go
Would you even turn to say
"I don't love you
Like I did
Yesterday"

Sometimes I cry so hard from pleading
So sick and tired of all the needless beating
But baby when they knock you
Down and out
It's where you oughta stay

And after all the blood that you still owe
Another dollar's just another blow

So fix your eyes and get up
Better get up
While you can
Whoa, whooa

When you go
Would you even turn to say
"I don't love you
Like I did
Yesterday"

Well come on, come on

When you go
Would you have the guts to say
"I don't love you
Like I loved you
Yesterday"

I don't love you
Like I loved you
Yesterday

I don't love you
Like I loved you
Yesterday

X-Ray

Today I want to share some interesting photos. The quality is not very good, because they were taken with my mobile phone some months ago, but the "subject" can be clearly seen.



In the first one we can see a human chest (male, 93 years more or less) but, what's the bright point just in the middle?



In the second one, we have a lateral view of the same grandpa. The bright thing is also visible here.



And finally, the last photo. I think that in this one is clear what the object really is. This man has a bullet in his mediastinum since the spanish civil war. It's awesome, isn't it?

Modal verbs

I will follow you into the dark

Love of mine some day you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark

No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark
If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

In Catholic school as vicious as Roman rule
I got my knuckles bruised by a lady in black
And I held my tongue as she told me
"Son fear is the heart of love"
So I never went back

If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark

You and me have seen everything to see
From Bangkok to Calgary
And the soles of your shoes are all worn down
The time for sleep is now
It's nothing to cry about
Cause we'll hold each other soon
The blackest of rooms

If Heaven and Hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the NOs on their vacancy signs

If there's no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I'll follow you into the dark
Then I'll follow you into the dark

Dexter

not Morgan but Jettster.

Probably the most famous cook and dinner proprietor of Coruscant, Dexter will take over this space to share with us some of the more exquisites recipes of the Galaxy, tailored to all tastes, or so we hope...

Every journey has a first step, every saga has a beginning.

The saga is called in this occasion "Ulrich Chococake" also just Ulrich and the first step is the list of ingredients.

INGREDIENTS

• 200g Chocolate 50% cocoa (at least)
• 100g butter
• 100g sugar
• 4 eggs
• 3 big spoons flour

Preparation

1. Melt the chocolate together with the butter by gentle heating (microwave 50% power, around 3 minutes or a few moments on the flame)
2. Separate the egg whites from the egg yolks or yellow portions.
3. Beat the egg whites to produce a buoyant foam (remember the century we are, use electrical tools)
4. Add the egg yolks (and don't stop the stirring)
5. Add the sugar (keep stirring until you don't feel the sugar grains anymore)
6. Add the melted chocolate-butter mixture (don't need to be cold)
7. Add the three normal size spoons flour

When the mixture is ready, transfer it into a circular mold and then bake it into the oven.

Temperature and time inside of the oven depends on the actual configuration and technical specs of the oven used.

In a classic or traditional european oven 20 minutes at 200°C (pre-heated oven) should be fine. However with an induction powered oven, 5 minutes at 170°C (pre-heated oven) followed by 15 minutes at 150°C should yield a nice result.

Just take your cooking notebook (If you don't have a cooking log book, out of my kitchen ! ) and make sure you take good notes about the results and the time/temperature.

Enjoy !

Fuera de carta

The human beings who boast of knowing me well may be surprised to read this comment in which, for once in my life, I’m going to write (good) about a Spanish film. Please, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not telling that all the movies “made in Spain” are bad, I’m only trying to clarify that very often I have difficulties to connect with its humour o its plots and at the end I usually find them quite stupid or boring.
When some weeks ago I saw the trailer in the cinema I supposed that, as seems be usual in this kind of films, they had shown all the good jokes in order to attract audience, but it made me laugh and I though “come on, maybe this one is good”, hopping that this wasn’t another sad case of ninety minutes of crap and only five of amusement. Two weeks later, more or less, we went to see “Fuera de carta” and when the lights were turned off we enjoyed one of the funniest Spanish comedies which we’ve ever seen.
The main character, Maxi (performed by Javier Camara, a well-know name into the Spanish comedy), is a brilliant chef, who dreams of achieve his first Michelin star and who lives perfectly happy with his homosexuality. But life is always full of surprises and his past slap him in the face when he has to take care of his little daughter and his teenager son (that he has not seen since ages), after the sudden death of their mother. As if it wasn’t enough, an Argentinean ex-football player enters in Maxi’s life. Unfortunately, his forever-single friend Alexandra also goes for the handsome Argentinean who, in turn, is not very sure about if he should come out of the closet or not…
Don’t worry; I’m not going to spoil the movie for you by telling what happens at the end. I would prefer to read some other opinions, if you have the chance to see it…

New Amsterdam

What means being immortal? Is it a curse or a gift? That’s probably what John Amsterdam must be thinking all the longest minutes of his eternal life. Born 400 years ago, his life changed completely when he saved the life of a young American native girl. His generous action was rewarded with a sword through his chest and a new immortal existence courtesy of a bunch of native women and a shaman. It’s supposed that an eternal life is time more than enough to find the true love but, what happens meanwhile? How can someone wait calmly for “the one” while his sons and daughters die one by one and the world he has once known disappears?
This is more or less the plot of New Amsterdam, a new TV series which mixes the search of this immortal man for the only woman in the world who can make him mortal and the problems of his current personality as a detective for the police department. Chapter after chapter, we find out how a man, who has committed all the mistakes a human being can make during hundreds of “lives”, faces the worse that mankind can offer in a city like New York, full of crime and sorrow.
Armed with the cynicism and the self-confidence that only have seen everything can give, John Amsterdam spends his time between murderers, corpses and memories of past times, not necessary happier. Out there, in the same place where all began (the old dutch colony of New Amsterdam, today called Manhattan), waits the woman of his dreams. Will he be able to find her?
More information in http://www.fox.com/newamsterdam/.

Light at the end of the tunnel

Some people say they saw it, we have seen it in multiple occasions in the movies, but everyone sees it every time that HOPE is around.

HOPE is a little sister of FATE and those days she walks around here, where the streets have no name.

Everything started a few days ago. It was something in the air, something like "micro-changes in the air density", something like "feeling a disturbance in the Force".

At the very beginning some of the more perceptive psis in my community were not able to sleep and were singing for their owns all the time.

The next day, they were birds flying all over the place, making funny noises and raising into the sky...

A blue sky...

No more "donde el cielo es siempre gris"...

No more "donde la lluvia es arte"...

No more winter...

Summer is coming....

We have to talk.....

with these simples words you can make people look to you with huge eyes, even if you are only eight year old and you say that to your daddy after your first school lesson of sexual education.

That is the starting point of this movie, which is not a normal romantic comedy just by the fact that from the beginning of the movie we are already aware of the end result, Maya, the eight years old girl who pronounces such words.

In the aftermath of this first school lesson, this girl decides that she would like to know why his dad is divorcing her mom (no really spoiling anything here as it is already in the movie description).

The father tries at the beginning to avoid the question and just states "it is complicated". Obviously, such  a lame answer does not satisfies the curiosity of the girl or the spectator, therefore the father is "forced" to start telling her "the story", which starts on 1992.

In some way the movie remembers me of "how I met your mother", the TV Series. In both of them there is story from the past about how the parents of someone met. The main difference here is the length of the story, which is limited to the around two hours for the movies and three seasons from the TV series (so far...) and of course the same nature of the story.

Here we have the father who is explaining to his daughter which girls he was dating and when, but without saying the real names.

In this way, neither the daughter nor the spectator knows which one he married and therefore which one is, actually, the mother.

Along the movie three different women are presented as protagonists of the sentimental life of the father.

In an alphabetical order, they are: April, Emily and Summer.

Each one is, obviously, different, not only in their character, aspirations or behavior, but also in their physical appearance.

And all the three are or were involved in a sentimental way with the father, so for the girl, anyone of them could be her mother and she, along with the spectator "has" to guest which one is "the one". Of course, as spectator, you can just don't play along and not try to discover it, but in doing so you are going to miss a big part of the fun of the movie. Which, on the other hand, is full with good dialogues, very funny remarks from the little girl about the past life and habits of her dad and also some weird situations.

Again  not a philosophical, huge ethical debates, moral questions movie, but just a movie to make you smile and maybe a little more happy.

And now, which one is your bet, April, Emily or Summer ?

Yellow Umbrella

Luke, I am your father....

and I will tell you...

How I met your mother

This TV Series is already in its 3rd season, at the moment on the episode 13th. Basically the story is centered around Ted Mosby (in the picture in the middle) and his search for "the" woman, o better said, the one he married and which he has two kids, a girl and a boy.

Each episode starts on 2030, with both kids sitting on a sofa and the voice of Ted in off remembering past times.

The first season is situated in the space-time coordinates of New York-2005 and refers mostly to the wedding plans of Marshal and Lili (on the picture on the left), the relation with Robin and the "activities" of Barney (both on the right of the picture).

On the course of the three seasons we learn more and more things about Ted and his friends, and, of course, about the girls that Ted and, especially, Barney meet with.

I don't intend to explain here the series in deep, first of all because I have no intention to spoil it to any one, just to recommend it.

The series does not refers to social or political issues, only neutral issues are normally treated and always in a funny, rather simple approach. Don't expect deep philosophical or moral dilemmas here, only just some fun.

I you decide to check it or are already watching it, don't forget to check for the yellow umbrella...

Not so far away....

I'll be back...

or better said I'm back. This last eastern holidays instead of staying here "...donde el cielo siempre gris, donde la lluvia es arte..." I decided to travel to a place a little bit more warm and sunny.

Therefore and as flying is, statistically speaking, the more safe way of traveling, I put my personal safety in the hands of the commander of this nice technological wonder. I know it is not the Millenium Falcon, but now, seriously, will you really thrush your life to the flying skills Han Solo ??? (rhetoric question, don't need to answer).

If someday you also think about a nice place to scape from the crowded catholic countries during the eastern time, I seriously recommend you to visit an orthodox country, like Bulgaria  or Greece. You will not find so many people around, the weather should be nice and the people are (usually) friendly. After a easy flight we arrived to the modern Athens's National Airport. And here started the surprises.

The government of Greece has voted in the last weeks a new Pension Law, which was no so welcomed by the population and the country was (semi)collapsed by a general strike. The repercussions of this were actually almost non perceptible for me. Yes, there was not train from the Airport to the City, well, fair enough, there was the regular bus. The time of the trip was the same (more or less) and the price half of the train's price. Not really a problem.

The view of the city was less pleasant as should be due the huge piles of garbage which were standing almost everywhere as General Strike means really general, therefore it has not been anyone collecting the garbage for the last days....

During my time there the strike was still going on, but all the main touristic places were open, even (or of course) the souvenirs' shops. I suppose every European has quite good knowledge what to expect to be able to visit in Athens: the Acropolis with the Parthenon and the Porch of the Caryatids on the Erechtheion. The place is the "start" of the city and be prepared to find quite a lot of humans humming around. I was there on a Saturday and it was pretty busy, mainly with Spanish- and French-speaking people.

But there are also some places and museums which deserve a visit. The main museum is the National Archaeological Museum. There it is possible to see several examples of sculptures,  weapons, jewelry and pottery. The famous "Mask of Agammenon" is located right on the centre of the main room on the ground floor. All around there are several rooms with nice pottery and grave objects.

Further into the deepness of the museum we can find more steles from graves and statues, some of them casted in bronze, like the also quite famous of Poseidon. Really huge and impresive.

Maybe less known is the War Museum. There it is possible to see a chronological display of the Hellenic military from ancient times to the modern era. 

The collection is not enormous big, but there are several sculptures, maps and paintings which are quite informative. Also the collection of weapons includes some nice oriental pieces (even a Japanese armor set).

Another place to go is the Kerameikós, an ancient cemetery, which has been a burial ground since the 12th century BC. The graves were placed on both side of a main road, close to the main road to the Acropolis, the Panathenaic Way. So, for the people it was possible to see the grave monuments and burial steles from the road. During the ancient times, there were several laws regarding burial customs and grave monuments, which only allowed for the construction of small, discrete monuments. 

However, in occasions  some of those laws were not respected. So and due to the high amount of bodies to dispose as result of the plague which suffered Athens during the Peloponnesian War, a common grave without any kind of monument was used. In other occasions those laws were banned, at the rich athenians were able to construct nice and elaborated grave monuments. Today, the place is quiet and a very nice spot to walk around and rest for a few minutes.

The ancient places and touristic spots are all of them located in a very small area and it possible to go almost everywhere by feet. This is specially true in the case of the ancient places, as the ancient Athens was not so big, the actual one has around 3 million inhabitants.

Further words about this incredible city another time (maybe)....