30
Aug
Like27
Aug
Twenty-three steps. This was the number he had to go up to get to his office on the second floor of a three-storey building on Brussels’ expensive Avenue Louise. There, his personal assistant always waited for his arrival in the morning at 8.30 am to brief him on the day’s agenda and remind him of the most important commitments of the week. His PA’s name was Jean-Marc. Efficient. Handsome. Young. Single. French.
Forty-three years. This was his age, not Jean-Marc’s, Michael’s. Black hair. Grey eyes. Handsome. Intelligent. Ambitious. Rational sometimes. Emotional often. Bored easily. Married with two girls. British father. Italian mother.
Fifteen as a corporate lawyer. He was good at his job. Clients appreciated his work with expensive fees and gifts. He gave them back one of the best lawyers in European competition law the European education system can get. That is why he could afford having his own firm. Alone, against the Baker & McKenzies or the Freshfields, Bruckhaus, Deringers that populated the trade. Big law firms with dozens of lawyers. He, only him.
Seven days a week. If Michael would have been just a lawyer during all this time, he would have probably killed himself. He had not. Nothing of the sort. He had another life besides being one more puppet of the multinational legal system in which he navigated in his dull life. A life that provided him with the thrill he needed to keep his body and mind on this earth. A second life that was going to change his first life forever.
***
20
Aug
What does someone do in a bunker? And in a train station? The answer seems quite straightforward. The bunker guy protects himself, the station guy buys a ticket and catches a train. But they are also doing something else more relevant to the transformations that the new information environment is making possible.
The people in the bunker are isolated from the world. Their primordial value is security. They want to protect themselves and their property. In principle, they have everything they need inside the bunker. Whenever they need something else they know where to get it. They quickly get out of the bunker, go to the predetermined place, get what they need and go back straight after. All the information they get is contained in the bunker, and in the few trips to their “trusted sources”. They live in a self-inflicted closed information environment, with nearly zero occurrence of serendipity.
And at the train station? keep reading »
17
Aug
This is my personal blog. It started as a semi-professional space, for my ideas on a series of topics in which I worked on. But during the latest months it has become more personal, mixing life events with more theoretical/practical ideas. Now I feel I need a different space for my thoughts and my stories. One that is not cluttered with widgets or other gimmicks, which are good for this blog, but not for a pure space with just what comes from my mind.
Simple. White. One column. No tag clouds. No pages. No calendar. No nothing. A new clear space for my thoughts and the stories I write. There I rant about topics I find interesting. There I can tell my stories. Nothing about my (personal or professional) life. Just thoughts and fiction. It’s raw A.
NOTE: all posts published on Raw A. will be automatically published on this blog.
17
Aug
Dawn far over the sea. Walking next to the beach. His thoughts were lost in a myriad of things. The night was precious. His memories will keep it for ever. Friends, music, sensations and her. Dancing crazily with someone he won’t probably see again, but who has marked him well deep in his soul. His house approaching, while his feet are dragging his body unwillingly. Each step is one step away from that heaven he just was gone from. “I won’t forget”. Blessing and curse. Chasing what’s gone it’s futile.
17
Aug
Open to everything happy and sad
Seeing the good when it’s all going bad
Seeing the sun when I can’t really see
Hoping the sun will at least look at me
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– Slipping Away, Moby
15
Aug
I remember the drums, the beats and the feet. Bodies touching. Hands raising. Down, Up. Beat up, beat down. Louder and louder. Hips left and right. The floor full of those whom the night calls every day, at every sun. Moon dominated souls that want to live what’s not allowed in the waking lights. Amnesic mind blowing experience. Drugs or not. Changing lives by the contact with the other. The unknown looking at you. Luring you to the depths of the dark. There where the wolves wait your coming to make you theirs. There where the bat sucks your blood. There where the fairies bring you pleasures unattainable in the clarity of the day.
15
Aug
Die Liebe ist ein wildes Tier
Sie atmet dich sie sucht nach dir
Nistet auf gebrochenen Herzen
Geht auf Jagd bei Kuss und Kerzen
Saugt sich fest an deinen Lippen
Gräbt sich Gänge durch die Rippen
Lässt sich fallen weich wie Schnee
Erst wird es heiß dann kalt am Ende tut es weh
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– Amour, Rammstein
7
Aug
There is on IMDB a reviewer of the wonderful movie Before Sunset who says
I remember a line that says “nothing that is complete breathes”, and I think that is what we see in this film. A perfect connection with another human is a blessing and a curse; having experienced perfection a part of us stops breathing, unable or unwilling to mar the perfection of that memory.
How truthful!
5
Aug
3
Aug
This comes from my previous post. I’m posting the tracking of my K21 race from Klosters to Davos, Switzerland.
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And a video I made in the middle of the race of a lake called Schwarzsee (on the map) (yes, I know I should have aimed for a better time, but the view and the weather were astonishing!)
2
Aug
Since Thursday morning I am in Zurich. Originally I planned this trip to run the Swiss Alpine K21, a half-marathon race through the Alps from Klosters to Davos. Though I’ve stayed a bit longer, with a good friend of mine that lives in Zurich and who I haven’t seen for a long time. We went to Klosters on Friday and, in the afternoon, went all the way up to the Sertig Pass (2,762 m) in the Albula Range. Fantastic excursion, we were the only ones over there. A luxury. The next day I ran 21 kms in 2 hours and 1 minute (it was my first time running more than an hour!). When I’m back home I will post the GPS tracking of my race, with a couple of videos of astonishing Alpine views in a bright sunny day.
16
Jul
My trip to Nepal is nearly prepared. I’m leaving London on August 5 and coming back on September 6 (though I am again flying to Barcelona the next day, September 7 :S). Originally, I planned to go to Delhi and get a bus to Kathmandu from there, but because of the Indian visa I had to change these plans for a flight to Kathmandu the same day I’m landing in India. Shame. Next time. It’s entirely my fault. I didn’t think of the Indian visa on time! For it takes at least 15 days to get it in London if you are not a UK national.
I am going to stay a few days in Kathmandu Then I’ll be in an organic farm project of the RUWON organization, where I’ll do some farming and teaching for women living in rural societies. I hope I can also do some trekking in the middle. I expect to update my blog regularly with pictures while I’m there.
12
Jul
Spain won the World Cup yesterday. I am not the kind of person that normally watches football. Not a great fan, though I enjoy it every now and then. But these matches, these events are much more than sport. They’re full of emotions and meaning. Like the kiss from one of the best players of the World Cup, Spain’s goalkeeper Iker Casillas, to his girlfriend Sara Carbonero, journalist of Telecinco, while she was interviewing him live after the victory. A very expressive way of showing his happiness that has touched many people. The video has been seen all around the world.
11
Jul
When Spain won against Germany in the World Championship semifinals, a sports newspaper published in Madrid, As, headlined its front page with a ‘Visca España!’ in recognition of the origins of game played by ‘La Roja’. This is quite a symbolic expression of integrative definition of Spain.
Abroad, by all nationalities, I’ve been asked any times whether I wanted an independent Catalunya from Spain. I’ve always replied with a ‘it depends on how you define Spain’. If you define it as a centralized nation-state where other cultures other than the Castilian are marginalised from its identity, I definitely don’t want to be part of it. But if you define it as an integrative entity of diversity, where language, culture, actions, emotions and thoughts from its ‘pueblos’ (communities) are respected at the same level as the Castilian (for example when Catalan would be taught in Spanish schools as part of our rich patrimony, worth protecting and promoting), then yes. I want to be Spanish. Identity is not a static thing. It moves and changes with history. We contribute to its definition. For this we need leaders that pull us in one direction or the other. It’s up to us to choose these leaders.
Today, there is an interesting article in El Pais about the effects of Spain’s achievements in the World Cup, the use of ‘Visca España!’, the fact that the game style is from Barcelona and Spain’s brand.
