LOCHMADDY, NORTH UIST

This last few days I have been to one of the most beautiful corners on Earth.

Above is Kilmuir Church, where we celebrated the service for Donnie's Funeral.

Nigel and Clare are good friends who are from there and also came along...

North Uist is one of the Hebrides Islands also known as Western Isles. To get there you fly to Benbecula from Glasgow on Flybe or take the ferries from Oban or Skye on the mainland. Most Islands are linked by single lane roads. The beaches are beautiful. There are lots of lakes with a dark blue water. All the inhabitants know each other and live in houses scatered all over, there are no town centres or high streets... Around 1976 households were still getting electricity for the first time! Most amazing was the wildlife, the white sand, no trees, the salmon, the gaelic, the unbelievable night sky and the sound of silence. Must go back there. Soon.


Lochmaddy

a little visitor!

Donnie´s cottage, below:

Nigel and Isa, Donnie´s wife, and Isa´s sister Mary Anne, and neighbour Michelle, and Isa´s brother Angus and Nigel´s wife Claire:


see you soon, North Uist...

Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009

Susan Boyle on Britain Got Talent
by dwarthy sin pa-la-bras. Bravo!!!

Beyonce - Halo

DONNIE MACLEAN

As a newly appointed manager, I have had to go through one of the most difficult duties: the death of an employee. Donnie Maclean passed away this week and I am doing the best I can to deal with the situation at work. I hope I am doing good and I wish Donnie the best now in the afterlife... I am sure he is in a better place.

BARCELONA, ORDINO & CARLES COSTA

Late arrival to Barcelona, Jordi picking me up from the train station at Plaça Espanya where the Palau Nacional is, greeting me with the blue ray lights on... pic taken from Susana´s blog Trescosashermosas. My camera can´t cope.

Saturday my brother took me to Ordino, ski station in Andorra. 2x1 was the perfect excuse. Lots of snow. Perfect weather.

Forced by my bro, some off-piste skiing...!

and a well deserved lunch break... butifarra and churrasco cooked on the bbq...

the white stuff is allioli... the silver foil a baked potato...

hunk: the terror of the slopes!: my bro and his snowboard.

And meet Carles Costa, the official TV3 -catalan TV channel- rep in Paris... I am always dying for something to happen in Paris or France so I can watch the guy on the TV news...

And guess what, my dream came true when Jordi and myself bumped into him on the streets of Barcelona... now next time I must find the courage to at least say hi! (big big M.O.!)

"Carles Costa, TV3, París."

p.s. Carles, si llegeixes això, digues hola! ;o)

SPRING IS HERE!!

and I´m off to Barcelona for the weekend........ back Monday!

PIC FROM SPACE

Fantástica foto del volcán Mt. Cleveland tomada por Jeffrey Williams desde la International Space Station, en mayo del 2006. Este volcán es de unos 1700m de altura y se encuentra en Alaska, en el brazo de islas que se extiende hacia Rusia y que separan el mar de Bering del Océano Pacífico.

I couldn´t help it but I am amazed at this picture taken by Jeffrey Williams from aboard the International Space Station in may 2006. It is Mount Cleveland in Alaska in full eruption.

Mt Cleveland picture taken from space.

POSTCARD FROM SPACE

Pues que sepáis que pronto podremos ir a hacer el turista por el espacio. Virgin Galactic ya esta haciendo pruebas con el avión plataforma desde el cual se despegará la nave-cápsula que llevará a pasajeros al espacio... increíble... cogerán billetes de staff??

Virgin Galactic has already begun test flights for its prototype aircraft below. Space travel is near...

click on image below for Virgin Galactic web:

UN AMIGO DE VERDAD...

...es aquél que aunque muerrrto de sueño y borrracho prefiere responder a tu email en lugar de acostarse:

hOlA DAVID BUENAOS DIAS DESDE BARCELONA QESSTO Y UN POCO BORRADCHO ACADO DE LLEGAR A CASSAAY HE VISTO TU CPRREO, JORDI EASTA MUY PREOCUPADO PORQ EU NO LE DICES NADA. TE A LLamado varias veces. bueno a lo qu ibaqeu cuando esteis en san snalvador me lo dices yo pido unos duaisa yme voy para alla. por cierto me voy a MADRIRD PARA EL ORGURRLO QU ESD LA PIREMRA SEMANA DE JULIO. BESOS NO ESTOPY YS EN COHDICIOES SDEE SEGURIUR ESCRIBINEENDO . TE LLAMOA MAÑ-AANNA BEESEEOS ANGERLWIL

mil besos Ángel!
y Julián... hasta cuándo tendrás libre? Nos pasamos por Madrid???

y con Jordi ya he hablado... ho sento Jordi! tant treballar treballar y treballar!

MATT

This is Matt. Matt is from Australia and now lives in London. I admire the guy in the fact that he is kind of a freelance. Came to the UK without a job, has already changed jobs 3 times, so he has nothing like job security or secured monthly income. He rents a room and has already moved houses like three times too. I just couldn´t? I am certainly not brave enough to live my life on the edge...

It took patience and lots of persuasion to take this shot.

EARTH HOUR 2009

and Barcelona?

SHAMEFUL

This is the shameful Gillian Patterson, found guilty of stealing money off the Change for Good charity on BA. Very bad!

Aquesta noia es diu Gillian Patterson i ha estat condemnada per haver robat diners que els passatgers donen als vols de British Airways a favor d´Unicef. Poca vergonya!

DINNER PROPER

My friend Judith Rodríguez de la Borbolla... -o tía, como yo la llamo- invited me over for a proper british dinner... paté for starters, followed by Sheperd´s Pie with vegetables and a selection of British and Norwegian cheeses for dessert with grapes and liqueur... posh posh.

POSTCARD FROM THAILAND

Vincens and James say hi from Krabi and Koh Pih Pih, in Thailand... on their south Asia tour which took them also to KL and Singapur and Bali! ... + humpltfglrkll!! :o/

Gran Ganga, Gran Ganga, soy de Teherán

Pues ahi va, dedicado a todos ustedes...

Alvaro, ahora seguro que sí que nos detienen en aduanas!

T-E-H-R-A-N

I am planning a visit sometime soon to T-e-h-e-r-a-n with my friend Alvaro... if you are from there or have been there please drop us a line! dtorra@yahoo.com or simply add comments to this post.

- thank you - شكرا لك

CHANGE FOR GOOD

CHANGE FOR GOOD is another charity by which British Airways collects all the unwanted change, in coins or notes and in any currency to donate to Unicef... so today I got rid of a huge bag with small change. Keep all your coins for when you fly next!

CHANGE FOR GOOD es també una obra de caritat que fa la companyía aèria British Airways. Colecten totes les monedes en qualsevol tipus de moneda per donar a Unicef. Així que guardeu-vos totes les monedes per quan voleu la propera vegada!

RED NOSE DAY

Comic Relief is a British charity organisation that was founded in the UK in 1985.

Red Nose Day is the main way in which Comic Relief raises money. It is held in the spring every other year, and is often treated as a semi-holiday, with, for example, schools having non-uniform days. The day culminates in a live TV event on BBC starting in the evening and going through into the early hours of the morning, but other money-raising events take place. As the name suggests, the day involves the wearing of plastic/foam red noses which are available, in exchange for a donation, from Sainsbury's and Oxfam shops.

The 2009 event took place on Friday, 13 March 2009. This year, more than 57 million pounds were raised.

A British Airways aircraft also with a red nose!

WORDLE.NET

write your own text and create an image like above at wordle.net

escriu un text i crea una imatge com aquesta a wordle.net

WICKEDGAYBLOG.COM

My friend David who publishes this impressive blog has added me to his "links we like" list!

Thank you David!!!

Que el niño de Boston que publica este blog me ha añadido a su lista de links favoritos!!

THE QUICKEST WEEKEND

1. Thursday: arrival and shower and unpack and out: We ended up at a chic new club in town: Lotus Theater. Fab music and fab beautiful people. This is to become a must for thursdays. So, if you are ever in Barcelona and it´s thursday, don´t miss it!

(time to bed: around 5am)

2. Friday: trip to hometown to see mum and dad. Ended up clubbing till late under my brother´s watchful eye as I try to find the gay 10% cuota in a full straight ambiance...

(time to bed: around 6am)

3. Saturday: trip Sant Salvador on the coast to check the new flooring on the terrace... getting ready for summer!!! back to Barcelona to hit the dancefloor again. D.BOY club, full jammed packed. Seen Bruno, my long lost friend, now living in Paris. (Trip to Paris is now due... ) and also seen new nice good looking friend Jordi DP, with his new boyf from somewhere in the Indian Ocean... it´s ok, it doesn´t matter... I´m fine with it.. honest!

(time to bed: around 6am)

4. Sunday: up for a run and later lunch at the cheap and cheerful el Berro, with Jordi and Matteo. Ended up at Punto BCN, one of the oldest gay bars in Barcelona, to celebrate its 19th anniversary. I hoped to see old friends in there but there was nobody from back our early days... met Manuel from Paraguay...

(time to bed(alone):1am)

shocking

at my age.

BEST FLIGHT EVER

Excellent customer service on my last flight down to Barcelona..... 6 bottles and an ice bucket! I was not on my own, Isabel is my partner in crime...

I´M IN LOOOVE

Sony Ericsson Idou.... not yet on the market, but I want one!

TAKE THE LUFTHANSA PILOT GAME!

This is quite a cool game!. You have to locate the cities in Europe (of course where Lufthansa flies) And looking at my score I'm quite good(?).. position 66000 sth out of 623000 plus - hmmmph...

NEW Heineken Commercial - muy bueno!

no paro de reirme cada vez que lo veo...

SAD NEWS

A frantic race was on to save scores of Whales and Dolphins stranded on King Island off Tasmania. 48 of the 194 were returned to sea. "It´s so sad... you can hear them crying..." one rescuer said.

...

MICHI AND SISTERS IN SITGES...

Well folks I have now recovered after being brave enough to post some of the recent pictures... so let´s carry on blogging! Here some of the great pics we took with Michi while visiting Barcelona with die Maria und die Barbl, her sisters. They loved it so much they popped the question: why am I not back in Spain?

Ay! The tapas... these are the most expensive tapas ever! Aren´t they, Michi????
Las tapas más caras de la historia... es que hay que ser turista...

Nenes, y nenas, ya recuperado del shock de publicar ciertas fotos del carnaval, que, por cierto, gracias por los comentarios, me siento con fuerzas de blogear, asi que ahi van unas fotos dedicadas a Michi y sus hermanas Maria und Barbl, para rememorar la inolvidable visita a Barcelona... y Sitges.

lunch at Santa Maria...

Die Maria... uno de 50. Celebrated her 50th!

Encontronazo con Carla!

Encontronazo con Jone and la troupe!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIÁN!

These are pics from 18 years ago... when we met!

San Francisco

FESTA DE CARNAVAL - CARNIVAL PARTY!

NOTORIOUS!!
NO TE´N RIUS!!