India (9) - Agra, Delhi, Himalayas...

Carpe Diem!

India (8) - Travelling...

Carpe Diem!

India (7) - The wedding...

Spanish snapshots (V) - priceless...

Quoting a Parliament deputy live on TV, prime time...

"Me cago en la madre de un arcebispo"
Tr. "I shit on the mother of an arcebishop"

Spanish is such an slang-intense language...

Carpe Diem!

Spanish snapshots (IV) - Terrorism

Greetz,

2 weeks ago, in an (obviously) wedding conversation, a Dutch frien who actually works as a lawyer in an anti-terrorism task-force asked me: "How does it feel to live in Madrid? Are you afraid?"

This question brought back some memories, of the March bombs in the suburban trains, of receiving a call from my mum here in Madrid, to see if I was ok, to see first hand the effect of a major terrorist attack in people close to me... Still, the truth is that a year and a half later, no one here thinks about it, no one is influenced, that the spanish people have the correct and brave attitude of moving on normally with their lives...

Last Saturday, coming out of a metro station, I saw myself in the middle of a anti-terrorism protest, from the ETA victims organization. People from all over Spain converged, a number according to different media sources in between 120 000 and 1 300 000 (which can tell you quite a bit about the quality and bias of media in this country.......) in a protest against the current back-office negotiations happening in between the Government and ETA. The story is simple... ETA declared a cease-fire before the summer... They started negotiating behind the stage... During the summer continuous news came out about extorsions, gun robberies, etc etc in the Basque country, perpetrated by ETA cells obviously.

Bottom line... Iraq, Gaza, Darfur, Somalia, news from war and terrorism enter our living rooms every day from far far away. Although for sure this issue is much smaller in dimension and doesn't affect our day to day life here, it is definitely an issue that every now and then pops up in the media and that really affects people, for all it's implications. Lets hope the leaders of this country and of this movement have the wisdom to successfully close this peace process.

Carpe Diem!

2007 - Wedding epidemic declared!

Cheers from London!

**Weddings...
Quick note from Christos house to publicly declare that I (and a few friends for sure...) will have a tremendous difficulty in managing more wedding events during next year... Ideally, during 2007, I would be dropping by...
- Brussels in April,
- Vancouver in July,
- Toronto in August,
- Amsterdam and/or Goa in September,
- Buenos Aires in November,
- somewhere in India around Nov/Dec,

But then one wakes up and realizes there is not enough money and holidays to cover them all... Is there any job

** Nephews
My 11 year nephew had on his MSN nick something like... "Ana F., you are the woman of my life. I will love you forever and ever" Ufff... I have some catching up to do over Christmas!!

** Madrid
After 2 very basic Madrid weekends, focused on further exploring the night life, the next week and a half will be devoted to culture... Pink Tones, Stuart Staples, Nouvelle Vague will be in town, as well as several concerts reminiscent of the movida wild days... Wanna join?

Carpe Diem!

That's my theory (I) - Relationships, from a dude's perspective...

Boas!

During the recent years, I have developed a certain set of theories, trying to rationalize the irrational… Relationships!

I have left some thoughts regarding jokers vs. queens of hearts (here and here), portuguese vs. spanish women (here) and, on a lighter note, how to plan a wedding guest list (here). Now, it is about time to post in my blog my first and my latest theoretical incursions to the subject that discrete and deceivengly is able to creep in most of our generation’s gatherings… How does the interaction between 2 persons turns into a relationship?

Here's my main theory on this topic and, as any good economic science theory, I will start by the assumptions:
I Assumption – in the universe of females, there are 2 specific groups with which interaction at a deeper level is possible. They shall be known as group A and group B;
II Assumption – group A’s elements are the girls with whom we can see ourselves engaged in a life-long serious relationship (LLSR). A LLSR incorporates the full fledged concepts of love and faithfulness (although unknown to part of the male universe);
III Assumption – group B’s elements are the girls we come across regarding whom we feel an absolute and incredible urge to engage in completely meaningless physical interaction, aka, Shag… Bonk… Bang… Hook up with… etc.
FACT – Men are simple… women are not… this theory is way too simple to be applied reversely.

Hypothesis – All men, when interacting with any woman, are able to instinctively group her in A, B or in the Rest of the Universe. The optimum choice for eternal happiness is therefore a woman that belongs to the intersection between both groups, meaning, with a certified level of long term compatibility as well as some level of physical chemistry.

After having discovered such a simple, yet powerful hypothesis, I immediately looked for field experts to challenge it in a real environment as well as to further explore the how my proposal would relate with topics like movements in between groups, time, cultural backgrounds, etc.

But to further explore it, there is always the next post!

Carpe Diem!

UNBELIEVABLE COINCIDENCES (II)

Greetz!

After a typical weekend-with-friends-over in Madrid, some time to prove yet again how small the world is…

After attending a network meeting in Frankfurt, I go back to the airport with my colleague from Greece, given we had similar flight times. We arrive quite early and obviously decide to go for a coffee, while we wait. After usual chit chat, thinks start get interesting…

Her: So it seems you have travelled quite a lot…
Nuno: Yeah, I worked in this organization called AIESEC, eventually going for a year to Rotterdam…
Her: Really?!?! I was in AIESEC too!
(until here, nothing strange, shit loads of ALUMNI out there…)
Nuno: Oh cool! When and whereabouts?
Her: I was LC member for a couple of years of Piraeus LC, in Athens, sometime between 94 and 97…
(here… my spine starts to send signals…)
Nuno: Really?? I actually started in ’96 and my first international conference was EuroLDS’97, … You wouldn’t…
Her: Oh my God… I was CC in that conference!! Oh… Don’t tell me you were the Portuguese who was medically assisted after… (That's it! Censored!)
Nuno: Yep! That’s me! :) (there goes my career...)
Her: Unbelievable!! I was actually the responsible for the study-tour after the conference (…)

Unbelievable how small the world really is…

Lets just say that in that AIESEC conference, almost 10 years ago, I attended a Global Village, an event where over 30 countries offered a sample of food and the best of their drinks… And I think I tasted most of it…

Carpe Diem!

India (6)... A photographic teaser...

Namaste!
From the least to the most important, a teaser for my indian experience...
The touristy stuff!! (Magic phto!! Cheap cheap!!)























The spriritual experience... (a possible answer??? ;)





















The trekking... Contact with nature and with the culture...





















My FRIENDS!!! (and main reason for this trip...)

Carpe Diem!!

New friends... and UNBELIEVABLE coincidences!!

Ahoy!

Very good period since I arrived to Madrid airport...

Old Friend in the airport...
Saturday... Lunch in the airport with Antonio Rompani... I was leaving to Prague, he was coming to Madrid on a business trip. Always good to have, even if such for an hour, the opportunity to meet a Great friend and to catch up over the last year... That hug will have to be repeated in the next few months before he returns to Uruguay...

Arrival to Prague... new friends!
Saturday evening... Arrive to Prague, to crash at Diler's place and he informs me we are having dinner with Vivek's uncle and aunt... We have a fantastic dinner in a vey nice indian place and I end up spending the day after, doing turisty stuff in Prague, with this friendly Indian couple!

Tugas in Prague...
Sunday evening... met the cousin of a portuguese friend that is studying medical science here... An incredibly courageous girl that decided to come to a totally different country 3 years ago to learn one of the toughest degrees there is... Very good tea corner mapped out ;)

UNBELIEVABLE coincidence...
Prague, 23h, Wenceslau square...
Returning to the hotel from a very nice brewery, I am walking and chatting with new friends from P&G. Suddenly...

Nuno (aka Breast In Tibetan From A Mother's Perspective): Bla bla bla
Random striker: Nuno...? Nuno Cruz?!?!
Nuno(BITFAMP): Huh!
Someone: Nuno!!
Nuno(BITFAMP): Jeeeeze...
Someone: Remember me?? Sérgio!!
Nuno(BITFAMP): Sérgio Razo!?!?!? Hellooooooooooo!! What the f#$%& are you doing here?!!?!?
etc etc.

Conclusion => I randomly met a mexican friend, in a random Prague street, that I hadn't seen for 2-3 years... What are the odds?!?!?!!? Somehow, I feel this is a good sign for the next few weeks :)

CARPE DIEM!

PS - mushy post from yet another hotel room somewhere in Prague...

T-shirt of the month!

Plain black, with white Times New Roman font...

"WANTED, Life companion for 28 year old, good looking boy, well-settled in decent job, suffering from sexual disorder, i.e. accute premature ejaculation. Girl should either be suffering from the same disease or is not interested in sex otherwise."

Tantra t-shirts!

Carpe Diem!

Back to reality...

Greetz!

This week marked the return to reality, although with a brilliantly scheduled holiday smacked in the middle of the week! Anyway, time to quickly post some comments on what else India had to offer...

... a brilliant 3-night wedding full of fun, friends, food, culture and a lot of drinks as well,
... last night included 500 ppl and an indian pop-star,
... in parallel we got together in a table to have some more serious chats about common topics... aging parents, what are we doing to improve the world... Good to see the peer pressure is still there!
... Last day in India was spent with a bit more shopping (t-shirts!!!) and pretty much relaxing with friends!

Then came Holland...
... the privilege of being a "day-guest" to Sjoerd's wedding,
... a complex wedding agenda, with civil and religious ceremonies, mixed with dinner and cake and champagne...
... seeing part of the nordic mafia friends... very cool as always to catch up!

... then a day in Amsterdam just chillin out in definitely one of my favorite cities of the world! Thanks Noor once again for the hospitality :)

Photos of all this will come soon! Prague next Saturday is next!

CARPE DIEM!