being is somewhere between is+isn´t

Bribing Good Behaviour

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 01:46:00 +0000

The problem with positive 'reinFORCEments', rewards and praise is that you are still trying to control them - it's subtle, but they know it and so should you be aware. The kid will get fixated on doing things for the end results, killing the joy they can have from simply doing it because it's inherently interesting, fun or challenging.

I used to wonder how praise could be damaging, but think of those A students whose life falls apart when they get a B+ - they've become praise junkies and stop valuing themselves with just a minor blip. On the other hand, I would not try hard at anything because I was frightened of failing, I never felt I would be good enough to be rewarded.

Help your kids learn to seize the day and live in the moment, encourage them to 'do' no matter whether they succeed or fail, this will build their core resilience to what life throws their way - they will learn to pick themselves up and keep going. If life is a journey, we need to be able to enjoy the process of getting 'there'. Death is the inevitable goal and we have no idea whether what's after will be worth waiting for! So let them get on with life and love it for what it is, don't trick them into believing it will be better if they get given special treats! The best you can give them is love whatever happens.

Check out Alfie Kohn's book:

PUNISHED BY REWARDS:

The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes

The Last Rite of Passage

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 11:49:00 +0000

Pregnant thoughts.....

The certainty of birth - I am here. The certainty of death - I won’t be here. Now I see this amazing loop the loop in the middle of our lives - giving birth. In being born and dying you usually have a small part to play and little conscious or physical participation. But in giving life, free will rises like a phoenix from the ashes. You have awareness and choices, while simultaneously you have to give yourself up to the unknown - to nature, to fate, or whatever deity takes your fancy.

Death is often seen as tragic, we live the selfishness of those left behind. Birth is rarely tragic - every creature stands as testament to the miracle it is. So why is giving birth feared as a tragedy waiting to happen? Another symptom of our industrialised separation: where the natural, mammalian, human nature of giving birth has been cut out of our culture and dissected? This rite of passage - which really is the ultimate journey of transition, seems to have been mostly lost to our society. Giving birth has been hijacked by science - crushing and controlling the mystery which it doesn’t yet have the answers for - the mystery of life.

In our culture sex is put on a pedestal, but the results retain their aura of taboo. Where sex is everywhere, but commonly experienced privately; birth is nowhere, but usually experienced in a public building, in an institution occupied and controlled by complete strangers. Where sex can be at anytime, anyplace, anyhow and for however long, birth must keep to the schedules and timings deemed functionally, statistically and financially appropriate.

I don't have a problem with hospitals, they have their place when we are unwell and cannot help ourselves. Doctors and nurses are people and they generally try to do the best their skills and knowledge allow them. However, I believe that in the vast majority of cases pregnancy and giving birth is not a pathological phenomenon (that there is something physically wrong with this process), although this is how it is projected through the lens of science and the media and beamed directly into our culture. In developing this thought I have tried comparing birth to similar physical processes that we all experience:

Could you imagine being told that when you have your next shit you have to go somewhere else (another part of a building or even city) mid-movement and do it in a position which allows for easy observation. Where professionals check to see if you are doing it ‘correctly’, in the right amount of time and to assess whether it is the right colour, form and consistency. Intervening immediately if it’s too big, too liquid, the wrong colour - how would you feel? Performance angst? Discomfort? Embarrassment? Insecurity? Vulnerability? Tension? Fear?

Or imagine that you should be briefed, watched and instructed by a group of strangers when you lose your virginity. With a ‘crash’ team of medical experts on call to supply viagra, fix hymens, to coach you on positions, movements and thrusts and then to separate, sterilise and perform tests on you the moment they deem it to have been concluded?

Some things in life can be taught, but the most natural ones are simply learnt along the way. Nothing and nobody can prepare you for the experience of living the moment as and when you feel it happening.

Although we can't choose the moment of birth, I think we should be able to do everything we can to prepare for it in a way that accommodates our feelings and beliefs. For many, doctors, nurses, medicines and technology offer the feeling of safety and security they need and I respect that. My peace of mind comes from knowing that if something should go wrong science is there to help me, however, it isn't watching, looking and waiting for an anomaly in order to spring into action!

I'd like to be given the chance to fulfill my own prophecy and not somebody else's!

my home water birth - if you're curious about where I'm coming from!

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:04:00 +0000

For me, my dream and biggest hope is to give birth to Jiggly-Bean in the most comfortable place in the world, with people I either really love and/or deeply trust, with as little unnecessary intervention as possible. The following film nicely summarises everything that has gone into my thinking on how and why I'd like to give birth at home, with a bouncy ball, an inflatable hot tub, my man, one of my best friends and my midwife. Francoise sent it at the perfect moment... 38 weeks... sometime in the next month Antoine and I are going to have a Jiggly-Bean in our hands at last!

Francoise, together with a number of my closest friends, the couple of midwives I've met and even complete strangers have had an enormously positive effect on me. When I say I'm hoping for a home water birth their eyes and face instantly light up! They don't need to say anything more, because they're expression has said it all already! But their positive words of encouragement have also meant such a lot to me given the weight of the conventional pressure of society and the media which influences so many of the people I meet.

I have had quite strongly negative reactions from people who are obviously quite shocked about my personal birthing choices. Many equate what is 'normal' today with what is 'best' and rarely take the time to critically engage and question this for themselves. Their questioning of me has been hard at times and caused sleepless nights - but this has helped me also to critically evaluate my thoughts and beliefs. In the end this has been invigorating as it has helped me to understand myself better, to consolidate my ideas and affirm my self-belief - which is absolutely vital for the unique experience I'm about to go through.

I'm not going to say that I won't experience discomfort, pain, doubt and quite possibly fear - but I'm not going to move ahead believing this is the sum total of what I can expect from giving birth. I'm sure it's going to be a rollercoaster which has its highs and lows. Maybe like surfing a wave - when you get lifted and fly with the power of the water and then you get wiped out tumbling uncontrollably over and over with water, salt and sand going up your nose, down your throat and in your eyes! Funny thing is - you still go back for more!

The prospect of having an ecstatic or even orgasmic birth would be the absolute cherry on the cake... but I think that all depends on what happens in the moment! I can do my best to create the ambiance and choose the company for the journey - but what actually happens - well we'll have to wait and see and just go with the flow! As the last invitee, Jiggly Bean, might have its own ideas on how to make an entry into this crazy wonderful world! I'll just do my best to 'dar la luz' or 'give the light' in what I believe is the gentlest possible way...

Here you can view the whole documentary:
Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret/Parto Orgasmico (subtitulado)

Save the newts, frogs, salamanders and toads!!!

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 15:27:00 +0000

After visiting Lisbon's breathtaking and eye-opening Oceanarium, it got me thinking a bit more about the Amphibian crisis...

We've all been one at some early point in our lives... safe in the protective waters of our little womb-world and making that billenial journey from water to land...

These embryo-like creatures, and ultimately us as well, all share the same water-world of seas, rivers, lakes, clouds and ice... the water that gives us all life... the world is 70% water and as newborn babies we start off as 75%! But when water suffers from contamination, the most vulnerable are always the first to die...

The Greek origin of the word amphibian means "double life" and they play an important role in the mythology of many cultures. How on earth the idea that kissing a frog will change it into a prince came about, I've no idea! However, I'm aware that kissing a small Amazonian frog could kill you, or at least send you on the hallucinatory journey of your life!

If we can't act like Prince Charmings and save the little critters for their own sake, at least some might think of doing it on a more selfish basis - the biochemical contribution they can make to medicine is believed to be considerable thanks to the protection some have made for themselves against more obvious enemies.

On the other hand, they play an important role eating my favourite enemies - mosquitos and flies! And of course other creatures also get to have them for dinner (and I'm not just talking about the French or Spanish!). Unfortunately, I imagine there is no such thing as organic/bio frog's legs!

Here are some links (there is sadly not a lot out there) with more information for Princes and Princesses who want to be even more charming than they already are:

Amphibian Specialist Group
Amphibian Ark

Articles:
Crisis for Amphibians
Afloat and Fighting
Internet Trafficking
"Safe-dose" Pesticides Kill
Lost Frog Found After Decades
Premature Births Linked To Pesticides

Ocean

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:26:00 +0000

Your breathing is like the swell of the ocean
and we´re drifting away on the tilt of the night
our warmth in the comfort of the lighthouse light
it´s beam sweeping over the ebb of our dreams
the whispers of the wind, the creaking grain
we need to go so we can return again

the ocean´s dunes
shifting and changing
the same yet never again
the fathomless sky
of stars and moon
setting the scene
for eternity

by our transience we are defined
travellers over the deserts of time
pilgrims on the oceans of life
swelling from big to small
on the wave of existence
an impression of scale
or an expression of spirit?

Carrot, Fennel, Chob and Rocket Soup

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 21:06:00 +0000

As the UK (and much of the rest of Europe and Spain) experiences a Scandinavian-style winter, Barcelona is having a British winter: rainy, overcast with the fleeting respite of a couple of sunny days, now and again. So, lots of cups of teas and hearty soups to shake off that all too familiar bone-chilling, depressing dampness!

With a pressure cooker, who needs ready meals or take-aways? Soups are so. wonderfully. simple. Roughly chopped onions fried for a bit, roughly chopped whatever you want to chuck in, a good pinch of salt, herbs or spices to season and water - as much as you fancy - transparent and brothy or chunky and stew-like. It goes without saying that fresher ingredients are better, but soups don´t suffer greatly from throwing in whatever non-descript left-overs you find gazing forlornly out of the fridge at you.

So, here I chopped up and finished off an older bunch of carrots, a cauliflower chob (what´s left after you cut of the florets!), some fennel stems (the bulbs are too fresh and crunchy to be pulped to death now!) and what was left of a packet of rocket - lush! 5-10 minutes in a high pressure sauna, a quick whizz with a hand blender, fennel fronds piled on top, homemade bread crusts chopped into croutons and yum yum - rain? what rain!

I´ll never buy a packet or tinned vegetable soup again - it´s a crime against the palate!

school blues

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 23:51:00 +0000

the essay I so enjoyed writing
failed to make the grade
"the oldest mistake in the book", he said.

and I´m left with a mirror
to write teaching reflections on
but after everything I see
am I really so dumb?

No pain, no gain, they say
as they convince us
our students need chill-out grooves
and a friendly, safe cocoon

for us a bed of sharpened pencils
a pillow made of books
paperclips grip our eyelids
information overload

when is a student not a student?
or is it just professional contempt?

What is Grammar?

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:46:00 +0000

It´s not what makes life interesting but it makes a lot of interesting things possible in life.

In most cases a more sophisticated structure makes life more comfortable: you can survive in a tent (and it´s always refreshing to go back to basics!) but it´s nice to have light, water, energy, heating, sanitation and communication.

Then you get to personalise yours, adding the colours, shapes and textures you like, bringing favourite objects and adding new embellishments.

The result being that everyone´s is slightly different.

Finally you get to live in it and throw a party now and again!

On the other hand, when you´re struggling to get in and you haven´t got a key, it can feel like hitting a brick wall...

Bastard Pie

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:28:00 +0000

No sweet tooth have I, but going on a sugar-free diet is one sure way to stop you thinking twice about the virtues of creating something so absolutely off-limit.

So in the cupboard there was a see-through container which was half-filled with a variety of smashed up biscuits which bizarrely kept on winking at me. So as we had friends coming it was the perfect excuse to remove temptation by do something I never do - make a dessert!

Mmmm... smashed up biscuits... some fresh, but battered-looking bananas... what does that tell you? Here you can get "dulce de leche" which is ready made condensed milk toffee in a jar. But it was a bank holiday and there was none competing for space in the cupboard. However, there was some liquid Caramel (bought for those créme caramels/flans de huevo, never made, although talked about for the last six years) and that lonely and almost full tin of Golden Syrup and of course Honey. The forgotten tin of syrup landed first in my hands, uncovering that tin of Custard Powder (spot the nostalgia items). I hadn´t got any cream (lactose also being off the list) and the thought of combining my all time favourite of Bananas and Custard (which my Grandma always used to make me) into my own take on two classics got those sweet tasting buds quivering in anticipation!

Without little further ado, the rest of the biscuits were beaten into submission (they are the enemy, after all!), mixed with some marge and stamped down to cover the bottom of a tart dish. A generous drizzle of Golden Syrup, a layer of sliced bananas with a little lemon juice squeezed over, followed by lashings of custard (made with "bad" milk and the last scrapings from the disconsolate sugar bowl), finally dusted with Cinnamon and Chocolate powder... then left to chill out in the fridge.

So there you have it Bastard Pie, the bastard child of Bananas and Custard and Banoffee Pie!

Lush!

Sorry, no photo - it disappeared like snow in the sun!

Late on the first day of school!

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:11:00 +0000

It´s always been my nightmare, but I never thought I could be late for on-line school!

There´s always some excuse - getting lost on campus, underestimating public transport times.... ...mine was that my email address was spelled wrong... I didn´t know where to find my virtual classroom!

Anyhow, better late than never!

I´m looking forward to getting to virtually meet my new classmates!

Diploma in TESOL

So I´ve taken the plunge to do the Master´s of my profession. This has already meant sacrifices - I´ve left Freud Quiere Bailar - but I know it´s the time to do it!

Week 1 Tasks

I like the fact that I can dip in and out of the activities online. I consider myself a slow learner and it´s been a long time since I´ve done any extended studying. I feel I need to read a bit then leave it to let it sink in of it´s own accord. Hopefully, I will soon get the academic knack back!

I´m really looking forward to connecting everything both mentally and in practice... the unknown is always daunting, but not without a healthy dose of excitement!

173 Million!! Stand Against Poverty

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:15:00 +0000

So this year I didn´t do or go to a Stand Against Poverty event. I had been berating myself for my inaction, I had wondered about whether I could somehow bring it into our gig last Friday 16th October, which was actually a Švyturys (Lithuanian Beer) promotion night. But realised that it would probably be a gesture as hollow as the barrels at the end of the night. I can´t escape the fact, for me it´s got to have some meaning. With further thought I let myself off the guilt trip as last year I helped provoke two events: the Darwin´s Nightmare screening in the streets of the Raval and the Freud Quiere Bailar gig at Comafosca. (Thereby inadvertently playing with the Guinness Record Book statistics in the process...) Here´s the vid:

All this thinking (if not standing) did lead me to reflect on those little things I´ve done over the last year that I hope might have done something for the cause: volunteering as an interpreter for Medecins Sans Frontieres (really intense, really difficult!), making Kiva microcredits (great karma - your money comes back and you put back the same $25 into circulation, doubling the benefits!), upping my membership subscription to MSF, spreading the word about Kiva by setting up group lending teams for Kroonos (members have now lent $1,200!) and Avaaz... Small actions but big results!

Which should be rewarded success, failure or inaction?
I´m reading Weird Ideas That Work about fostering corporate creativity and innovation and one of the ideas is that inaction should be punished; success and failure rewarded - after all, the benefit of failure is you can learn from it, and hell! at least you tried, took a risk, stopped playing it safe.

Giving is rewarding, maybe that´s also considered a selfish motive, but so what! Altruism is not a common word in today´s thinking. I think it can be easy to turn our back on other distant people´s suffering, hearing about nasty things can make us feel really uncomfortable, saddened and hopeless - but ignoring them doesn´t make it go away either. (And don´t worry, I´m the first - I can´t watch the news, but I like to think that´s a slightly different story.) I think the MSF are really positive in how they present their campaigns, and although NGOs get a lot of stick nowadays, at least they´re doing something - the aim should be not to stop doing things, but to learn how to do things better! Films like Hotel Rwanda and The Constant Gardener do credit to the film-makers in the way they can deal with emotionally impossible subjects in a swallowable form, but there is still an important place for hard documentary like Darwin´s Nightmare or Channel Four´s Dispatches How to get ahead in Africa - we mustn´t completely lose touch with reality.

Anyhow, the good news is 173 million people stood up against poverty last weekend, breaking last year´s record of 116m! But what´s most interesting should be the follow up - what happens between now and this time next year, how do we keep the pressure on for the Millennium Goals and what little things can we do to make a difference?

Waste not Want not: Blog Action Day 2009

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:31:00 +0000

Climate change - are we being force-fed the new terrorism?

I´m not a scientist, but that doesn´t stop me being titillated by the prospect of debate.

Every now and again I check out George Monbiot´s blog to see what he´s got to say. My friend Coco suggested I watch The Great Global Warming Swindle, I thought why not - you´ve got to know both sides of the story...

I thought it was interesting, and quite convincing... the scientists are quibbling over whether current climate change is caused by us, more specifically our CO2 emissions, or whether it´s a result of solar activity. For all I know it could be both... We don´t live in a vacuum - climate will inevitably change, so what do I care? Well, arguing about the causes for me is largely beside the point.

The point for me is that we need energy, well that´s why we eat, isn´t it? On the very simplest level, life is energy and we require energy to live. This makes it ubiquitous but at the same time highly valuable, you know, just like water (another often taken for granted requisite for life). So the bone I´ve got to pick is not about what´s causing climate change - but how we waste and misuse the energy that is available to us and in the process cause damage to ourselves and other species and possibly prevent a more equitable distribution of energetic currency. CO2 is a killer - as can be seen from one suicidal practice and if you´ve become asthmatic like me you can most probably attest to the discomfort of running to catch a train or bus in the city...

In the (over) developed world we´re living, like some hormone-injected cow, on the edge of the "golden age" of consumerism - the sickness of plenty. The more you have, the more you waste. Recycling is not new. When you have less you value little things more. There are no end to the old sayings that reflect this: one man´s rubbish is another man´s treasure. We wallow in our own depressing solipsism: if it has no value for me, it has no value for anyone. Me, me, Me, me, ME! We´re the prey of modernism: new = better. What happened to "If it ain´t broke don´t fix it" - do we have a choice? No! Nothing´s designed to last too long, companies would lose future markets, and anyway they can produce it, export it and sell it for cheaper than anyone can fix it. What a waste!

Oh yeah and time, don´t forget how we can waste time by "saving" time. So we spend our life buzzing around like blue-arsed flies - it´s always quicker by car (haha) - and then we find we´re stressed and don´t know how to wind down. So we drive to the gym to do some exercise or to the yoga centre to do some meditation. Maybe biking to work would give you that adrenaline rush and walking to school would give you time to think about things. We should do ourselves a favour, giving ourselves more time to do things that take longer, sacrifice a bit of comfort to taste the air, see what´s happening in the world.

Climate change could just be a tag being put on the tip of that environmental iceberg which contains all the harmful consequences of our interference with our environment - there are countless pollutants we´ve used over the last 100 years or so, countless projects tweaking nature to serve us better but having unconsidered consequences for someone or something else further down the cycle. It´s quite easy to see carbon deposits as a resource which is now depleting - we extract until there´s nothing left, big deal, the bowl´s empty. However the water cycle is highly complex - it involves everything from rocks to trees, from people to seas. What happens to the ground when water is over-exploited from the catchment area? What happens to the soil when the trees are burnt or chopped down. What about the water capacity of woods and forests? What happens to the delta when the river´s dammed up stream, what happens to the plants waiting for the river´s food to flood over them? Why is a natural disaster always said to be "natural"? Greed, carelessness and lack of consideration are human disasters.

I wouldn´t be a vegetarian if I didn´t think that small gestures can affect the world, habits can be changed if you think it matters - imagine, I used to love meat!

Flores Para Frida

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:59:00 +0000

Most of the most interesting opportunities spring straight out of the blue... and this was definitely one of them! A friend from the parashuts collective asked if I´d be interested in doing a photoshoot for a Mexican Fashion and Design company, Flores Para Frida.

After a number of false starts during an unusually showery spring in Barcelona, we decided to go for it, despite the threatening clouds, armed with a suitcase full of elegant dresses and exotic accessories from the Flores Para Frida Collection.

We headed for The Park of the Labyrinth, nestling in the folds of the hills around Barcelona. The gardens are full of hidden arbours, fountains, pools and statues - ideal, and because of the weather there were very few visitors.

Seeing the photos up on the screen I couldn´t resist going for an ultra-saturated look (see Flickr)... now I can see that it´s laying it on a bit, but I loved playing around with the vibrancy of the colours and recomposing the image with some heavy-duty cropping... there´s plenty of fun to be had from experimenting!

Ser Autónomo: Modelo 37 & TA.0521/1

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:39:00 +0000

The low-down on how I became a self-employed TEFL Teacher in Spain. A Gestor (look for gestoría or asesoría in the phonebook) will charge a good 70€ for doing the paper-and-leg-work to register you as autónomo - you can do it yourself.

This is what I found out... they are only guidelines, don´t take it as bible as things change and you should always ask along the way to make sure it fits you and your circumstances!:

Modelo 037

Firstly, you can download the necessary form (modelo) from the Agencia Tributaria (or you´ll have to pay for them on the spot!). You will need to complete the Mod 037 to register with the Censos as autónomo (dar la alta), change your details, or when you cease to be self-employed (dar la baja). As is usual with legal forms, they are largely impenetrable, even when armed with a good dictionary! You can download the instructions which help a little and I completed the obvious (name, address, etc.) then asked for help as I went along to the local Agencia Tributaria and Tesoreria General de la Seguridad Social (both open weekday mornings 8.30-14.00). In the end there were many sections that didn´t need completing; here are the ones that did for me:

Modelo 037

101 (NIE Tarjeta de Residencia)
102 Surname, Name
111 Alta X

2 Identificación: Domicilio fiscal en España
3 IRPF

600 Alta 602 Fecha
609 Estimación directa simplificada 650 Fecha

4 IVA 501 "SI" (teaching is free of value-added tax)

6 Declaración A) Actividad

400 "ENSEÑANZA DE IDIOMAS"
402 "826"
403 "PROFESIONAL"
404 "A05"

B) Lugar

413...421 Dirección (home address)
422 "10" m2 (my office space at home)
424 Alta X 425 Fecha

Then print and sign. There are two copies, one for you (contribuyente) and one for administration, you have to take these to your local Agencia Tributaria Censos Desk, they stamp them. Ask for "etiquetas", stickers with your bar code to be stuck on your tax returns. then you need to take a photocopy of your copy along to the local Tesorería. I print a third copy so you don´t need to find a photocopy shop in between.

OBVIOUSLY, take your NIE/Tarjeta de Residencia/passport/work permit and a PHOTOCOPY of it. Take a passport photo with you too, just in case. It´s a pain when you think you´ve got everything sorted and you have to go away and come back with a photocopy, count yourself lucky if they do it for you!

TA.0521/1

For the Tesorería take your copy and a photocopy of Mod 037 and you need to complete the TA.0521/1 Solicitud Simplificada which is your Social Security cover.

TA.0521/1

1 Datos de Solicitante: Name, address, Social Security Number.
2 Datos Relativos a Solicitud:

Alta X Fecha

3 Datos Relativos a la Actividad Profesional:

3.1 "PROFESORA DE INGLES"
3.2 "826"

6 1.6 X Domicilio

7 Datos Para la Domiciliación del Pago de Cuotas

Bank details, NIE

4 Opciones

4.1 Base Mínima X
4.2 Mutua No. (If you are ill, they cover you. In the Tesorería they listed the Mutuas and I chose one I knew was in my town.)

Print and sign.

Now you are registered as self-employed you will pay monthly social security (automatically deducted from your bank account) and have to do the quarterly IRPF tax return Modelo 130, which will be discussed next.

NOTE: The date you put for the alta/baja is for the date when you started work/finished, it doesn´t have to be the same date as when you do all the paperwork. When you need to unregister yourself (typically in August) you go through exactly the same process, this time marking the baja boxes.

How to Become Self-employed in Spain - Dar la alta como autónomo - as a TEFL Teacher

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 06:44:00 +0000

After a couple of years and a couple of posts as a TEFL teacher in Spain you quickly realise that the conditions of employment in Language Academies and Agencies frequently leave a lot to be desired. As a teacher you often have very little to do with your boss but have a very direct relationship with your students. If you start wondering how the sharks can take a 50% cut (or more!) and are confident with your teaching skills and ability to build a good rapport with students, then it´s time to become self-employed. Many teachers do classes off the books, in my case I prefer to give classes to adults, specialising in Business English, so I wanted to give it a go to see if I could become professional and then take on in-company classes which nowadays largely prefer above-board status.

The beauty of setting up in teaching is that apart from books, YOU are the resource, so it´s relatively inexpensive to get going. The services of a Gestor are worth it in the long run, especially when it comes to completing the annual IRPF tax return. The Gestor is a legal financial advisor who takes care of taxes and accounts making it easier to keep on top of things.

The advice I got before becoming self-employed from another teacher was to make sure that you are ready to be able to declare yourself - if business is slow, you could pay through the nose in taxes. I decided to build up a sufficient client base, become self-employed for a trial period and then when I was confident it was working employ the services of a Gestor (approx 45€/month). Gleaning information about being self-employed from the internet has obviously been important, as well as improving my Spanish and using the internet as a promotional tool.

A Gestor will charge a good 70€ for doing the leg-work to register you as autónomo - you can do it yourself. Trial and error - I always get there in the end! This is what I found out... these are only guidelines, don´t take it as bible as things change and you should always ask along the way to make sure it fits you and your circumstances!

In the next blog I´ll show you how to survive!

miedo y mierda

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 11:47:00 +0000

up and down
round and round
miedo y mierda
shit and fear

ghosts are eating my soul
afraid of my own shadow
voices behind closed doors
shadows slip down the stairs

when I look harder
they disappear
what I can´t see
I most fear

dancing with skeletons
hugging cold bones
with memories like these
I´ll never be alone

the mystery of debirthing - things we´re meant not to understand

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 07:03:00 +0000

you can´t ever touch
the brightest jewel
like a drop of water falling
as the sun´s shining through

and I´m sending out
my healing heart
it´s covering you over
a soulful bubble of love

the wind brushes over
with the ocean´s wave
and the moon gently bobs
in the swell of the bay

the trees whisper
to the desert sand
the stars twinkle
life lives without you, man

and although you´re a million miles away
I can feel you here like breath on skin
and these things we can never explain
just feel so good kept locked deep in

Tofu Temptation

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Weird stuff in the raw, like many was unimpressed by first attempts, but persistence proved it´s well worth getting a handle on. Have never got round to giving soft (silken) tofu justice, have always gone for the firm stuff, always something new to learn, I guess.

I always stick it in the freezer first, the water makes big ice crystals, making the tofu spongier and better at soaking up flavours.

After defrosting and squeezing out the water I always chop and splatter with soya sauce and leave it to infiltrate. Tofu is intrinsically bland, really bland!

You can chop it in cubes, diamonds, triangles, thick slabs - the main thing is to make sure what you add gets to soak through.

Recently I´ve also started squeezing lemons over it, it´s summer and it feels and tastes like the right thing to do!

Grill, bake or fry...
drizzle with olive oil
add a splash of toasted sesame oil to the olive oil for a nuttier touch

Marinade Madness
Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce

Coolcumber and Salmorejo Summer Soups

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:16:00 +0000

Two culinary revelations with style and simplicity to cool off the heatwave:

Algerian Cucumber Soup
(converts even the no-cucumber people!)
1 cucumber
4 pots of natural yoghurt (bio if you like)
1 tooth of garlic (looks more like a claw to me!)
salt, pepper
shake of any red powdered spice combo of your liking,
I used Moroccan Baharat

chop and liquidize, taste, swirl, taste, leave to chill out for a few hours in the fridge,
add iced water or cubes to texture as desired
shake over some red powder or flakes for effect

thanks to Andres "El Uruguaxo"

Cordoban Salmorejo
Lots of juicy reddy ripe tomatoes, a kilo or more
1/2 loaf Country-style bread, if it´s dry, soak it
1/2 cup Olive oil
1/4 cup Vinegar
salt, pepper
1 clove of garlic
a raw egg, or for the more careful, hardboiled and chopped

chop and liquidize, taste add taste again, leave to cool off for a few hours in the fridge
sprinkle with chopped bits of what you like!

thanks to Diego "El Cordobaño"

Kroonos team in Kiva

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:46:00 +0000

Well it´s all getting very interconnective as I´ve now created a team in Kiva, the micro-credit lending website, for Kroonos, the time bank I´m participating in. As an incentive I´ve offered an hour of credit (hours are the currency in this barter system) to the first 10 loans made by members of the Kroonos team. I´ve also had a bash at translating instructions on how to do it into Spanish. Kroonos is currently being translated into English, so watch out world, interesting changes are afoot! When I get back from NZ you´ll get to hear more about my experiences in Kroonos so far!

Here are the villagers from Cambodia who I´ve loaned to through the Kroonos team (click on the photo to find out more):

Other good news from Kiva is that they´ve reached $50 million in loans, and my first loans are being paid back (see the earlier article for details). I´ve made two more loans (it gets radically addictive - I don´t go shopping very often!), one in Cambodia (above) and the other in Benin, next to Nigeria (below). The plan is I´ll be able to put the $100 back into circulation helping other mini-entrepreneurs in developing countries. That´s the kind of cash flow I like to see!

This is Félicienne, a vegetable cultivator and mother of 6, with three kids in school. Every year the river floods the land she farms and they have to buy food for the family. She plans to use the loan to grow food on 1 hectare of land, which in turn will increase her reserves after the harvest.

Tourism: For Better or For Worse

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:02:00 +0000

Like all engaging polemics, it´s a toughy!

Personally, I love travelling, to weave on and off the beaten track - there´s nothing like a tourist hell hole to remind you how lucky you are to discover little visited places! I am sure that I spend more on tourism than any other non-essential luxury, without doubt. Afterall, I have to admit at this point that in a month´s time we´re going to the other side of the world for a quantity of money that could easily buy a second hand car. But having said that, when we bought our car three years ago I was thinking how many times around the world that money could have taken us instead!

How did I get on to this one? Well as we were cyber travelling via google earth, trying to find the long awaited (nearly 7 years!) intercontinental destination, we flitted from one amazing place to another... the choice apparently endless. Personal recommendation is always a winner, and many of our friends in the UK and France are big travellers. One recommendation came from closer to home, a colleague here in Spain: Birmania. My response was ¿where? It turns out to be the Spanish for Burma. My second response was, "no way, you must be joking!" Antoine´s response "why on earth not?"...

Irresistibly for: practically untouched by tourism, preserved from development, the valley of a thousand temples, on top of all the typical beauty of Southeast Asia (it lies next to Thailand and Laos).
Unquestioningly against: military dictatorship, repression of peaceful political dissidents (who can be held in jail for up to 65 years) .
Not to forget: Burma suffered a terrible natural disaster in May this year when Cyclone Nargis hit, a human disaster with 80,000-100,000,000 dead and 1.5-3 million displaced and a political disaster as the government refused to allow aid workers into the areas worst hit (jailing a Burmese comedian for 45 years for raising funds to help victims).

Being in a phase of activism I tracked back to a facebook group supporting the Burmese Monks which a friend had sent me, and I started to do a little more research. The main sites are The Burma Campaign UK and the US Campaign for Burma and the Avaaz campaign (directing Aid through monks instead of barred aid organisations). There has been a call to boycott Total oil company whose business with the military Junta brings in significant revenues, $450 million a year, and also a call to put pressure on Lloyds of London to reveal which companies provide insurance to Burma. Additionally, the Nobel Laureate and democratically elected leader of Burma, Aun Sang Suu Kyi, has requested tourists boycott Burma. Why tourism? There´s a 10% tax that goes straight to the Junta and the airport and many government controlled hotels have been built on forced labour (minimum working age 13 years old).

Here I thought as a potential tourist, I could make my point. On the Burma Campaign UK site they have a clean list (of companies who have withdrawn their supply chain from Burma) and a dirty list (of companies that continue to operate and profit from these operations, thereby financially supporting the Military Junta). My action was to take the email addresses of tourism operators in Burma and write them an email explaining my position as an ethical consumer. It was the start of some interesting correspondence, some of the responses were extremely rapid (I´m certainly not the first to write to them on this subject), some were detailed, some well thought out and another rude!

The most carefully considered responses claimed that a consequence of tourism is grass roots investment when money goes straight from the hands of the generally wealthy tourist (it´s not typically a budget traveller destination) into the hands of the really poor, and very grateful Burmese. I also had a conversation with a friend here in Spain. He felt that the relationship between tourism and positive change was no small thing and there was something to be said in defence. Under Franco´s dictatorship Spain had been gradually opened up to tourism, the Costa Brava being one of the early package tour destinations. He claimed that this increased political pressure on Spain as tourism brought a cultural concern for the country and people by outsiders who had visited as tourists. Clearly here in Spain tourism has become a major source of employment and income, Barcelona being no exception over the last 15 years!

Later on, reflecting on this it reminded me how my grandad (who had wanted to join the International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War, but didn´t have enough money to get to Paris to enlist) always said he wouldn´t visit Spain until Franco had gone (which he did, visiting Granada, and Benidorm!). Maybe it´s a family thing!

So I left this conundrum to settle a little while, until a showdown in a book shop.

to be continued....

So, where does this conundrum leave us?

Cajón de Diógenes

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 08:58:00 +0000

Cajón de Diógenes
Originally uploaded by debaixa

Concierto Tots Sants
Reus, Tarragona
Vaya Fantasmas!

Mo Blow Movember

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:26:00 +0000

Moustache Liberation Movement (MoLiMo)

Mike Mo Blow is growing mo, not mowing grow for a good cause!

He thinks:

He is:

He knows:

¡And Silke too!

Freud Quiere Levantase y Bailar con el Viejo Leon Cobarde

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:00:00 +0000

domingo 19 octubre 2008, 18h
sunday 19 october 2008, 6pm (Central European Time)

Un concierto virtual dentro del Parashuts studio en
A virtual concert from Parashuts studio at
COMAFOSCA

or if you don´t understand Spanish/Catalan try to see the streaming directly here: COMAFOSCA TV

para

17-18 Octubre, un fin de semana para pensar y actuar
17-18 October, a weekend to think and act against poverty and inequality

15 Octubre blogactionday.org/es: blog contra la Pobreza
15 October www.blogactionday.org : blog awareness on poverty

freedom & sheep

noreply@blogger.com (debaixa) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 18:16:00 +0000

and I almost can´t breathe for the energy
everyone seems to be stopped, staring at me
we got the art to hide and paint our face
but the truth burns hard in the eyes of the brave
if you´re so free can you stand up all alone?
you´re hiding yourself in the thoughts of the crowd
attention always drawn by the violence seeker
it takes more strength to be a peace keeper
we´re hot wired in to the animal urge
we start to sway with the first surge
it´s easier to push physical buttons and entertain
than stimulate the emotional ones in the brain
the idea is to separate us
not unite us again