Tuesday 31 January 2012

A new life : Mothercare

Since returning back to the UK at the very beginning of 2010, life has been a bit of a roller coaster, with the dreaded threat of unemployment looming over me, the breaking of a leg, and almost falling in love, but not really getting there, and I don't like leaving things unfinished.
However, with its ups and down, life seems to, step by step, have straighten its path.
Although my leg still plays up, and there is no one to love, that sounds like a cheap song, I got a job, and the job brings with it one of the great perks, to travel.
I am now working for Mothercare, one of the most iconic British brands, and as part of the International division I do get to travel a fair bit.

Getting ready for the launch

However, could I really call travel seating on the 16th floor of a 4 star hotel in Santiago, over the main shopping Mall, Parque Arauco?


I guess I could be a travel snob and say that only when you are slamming it, and I have done plenty of that, when you really get to mix with the locals, you are traveling. However, I am getting to this see new places I have never been, to understand people, their dreams and aspirations. Sadly those remind me of the ones we had in Spain in years that now seem long gone, when we spent, spent and spent.

Saturday 28 January 2012

Remembering ( Part 2 )

I was in Madrid yesterday, and while walking around town I came across a Republican demonstration. Republicans in Spain have got very little to do with the bigots, racist and homephobic lot that for a while was headed by George W Bush.
They were asking for the whereabouts, the memories of the thousands that dissapeared following Franco´s victory.

For years Spain decided to ignore the issue, the needs of a newborn democracy and the need to keep the military happy led to things being, if not forgotten, silenced.
Somehow ironic, yesterday was the day we remember the Victims of the Holocaust. I think we should always remember them, visiting the camps should be compulsory, but how have not even been able to face our own demons.
Franco´s crimes against humanity, and those on the other side, did not reach the level of sophistication the Nazis accomplished, the industrial killing of millions, the attempt to anhilate several ethnic groups, Jews, Gypsies, but nonetheless it was a crime against humanity.


Federico Garcia Lorca, he did have it all against him, A Poet, A Red, A Poof, he was among those killed by Franco and his troops