David Attenborough

When I was a child we didn't have VHS player, or DVD player or anything but a strange player for a kind of XXL dvd's. We just had that player with the collection of Great Natural Wonders of the World by David Attenborough. I got speechless with the volcanos and I loved also the voice. It wasn't the original voice of David Attenborough, it was dubbed, but it was still very deep low voice.

Cuando era pequeña no teníamos reproductor de vídeo ni de dvd ni de nada, excepto un reproductor raro de una especie de discos extra gigantes. Sólo teníamos ese reproductor y la colección Maravillas de la naturaleza de David Attenborough. Me quedaba anonadada con los volcanes y me encantava la voz del narrador, profunda y grave.

Photo source here

Last week I was watching documentaries on tv. Well, I was doing things, going and coming while the tv was on with all the birdies and animal sounds. What was my surprise when I saw David Attenborough (quite older) on tv. Inmediately, I sat down and started watching him. It was an amazing documentary about his list of 10 species that he'd save from extincion.

La semana pasada estava yo viendo documentales en la tele, bueno, lo tenía ahí puesto y yo iba y venía. Me gusta ir haciendo cosas por casa y oir los pájaros y demás animales hablando entre sí. Cuál fue mi sorpresa cuando vi a David Attenborough (mayor que antaño) en la tele. Inmediatamente me senté y me quedé a verlo. Era un documental maravilloso sobre las 10 especies que él salvaría de la extinción.

For my surprise the pangolin was there. Do you remember I wrote about it some weeks ago? It was a happy discovery that my favourite naturalist had a favourite animal in common with me. I think I love him because his passion while explaining all the phenomenons and animals costums. People I know choose documentaries for having a nap, but my brother and me like them. We get stuck in front on tv, as long as the documentary is good.

Para mi sorpresa, el pangolín estaba entre ellos. ¿Recordáis que escribrí sobre él hace unas semanas? Fue un feliz discubrimiento que mi naturalista favorito tuviera un animal favorito en común conmigo. Creo que me encanta por la pasión que pone al explicar los fenómenos naturales y las costumbres de los animales. La gente que conozco pone documentales para echarse la siesta, pero a mi hermano y a mí nos encantan. Nos quedamos inmóviles en frente de la televisión, siempre y cuando el documental sea así de bueno.

Madrid

I had my FCE exam on my birthday, but I had free time in the afternoon. I went to Madrid just for two days, but I could visit the most important places for me. It could sound bad, but for my birthday I wanted to visit one of my fave shops: La Cure Gourmande. I found this shop in Barcelona, when I had my first holidays after many years. In all Spain there's just one shop in Barcelona and another one in Madrid. Don't panic, they do have on-line shop now. Their biscuits are just amazing, a-ma-zing! If you visit my instagram you can see the amazing biscuit tins I bought (full of biscuits).

I fell in love with the Plaza Mayor, it was getting dark, so I loved it most! It was plenty of tourists like us, so I didn't take many pictures. Well, it was also because of I was starving and the smell of all the restaurants around was amazing. We had two squid sandwich and refreshments for 12€, quite cheap in relation with the quantity! I think I've never drunk so many tonics in a trip.

Click on the pics for original size

We could even go for a little walk through the park El Retiro. It's crazy beautiful and you can have a heat break inside the park. Thanks to all those giant trees that provided us of good shades. Don't you like this trees below? They're such a cute trees!

Here we have the Palacio de Cristal (inside El Retiro). It was built for a special exposition many years ago and it's beautiful. From the inside, in my opinion, is not a big thing. Maybe because I didn't like much the current expostition (Imaginary Columns by Mitsuo Miura). I'd prefer if they have it plenty of flowers and butterflies, even though it'll be half plenty of caterpillars.

In front of the Palacio de Cristal you can see this. It's a small lake with a interesting stairs down the lake. The lake is plenty of turtles and some ducks. I got impressed with the amount of turtles there are!! And some of them are as big as the ducks, incredible. 

We went also to El Prado, the most famous museum in Spain. The queue was enormous, so we sat down in front of the entrance and wait patiently. In 15 minutes the queue was over and we could enter without standing there with the hot sun burning our delicate skin. If you want to visit El Prado notice that the entrance is free from Monday to Saturday from 18:00 to 20:00 and Sunday/bank holidays from 17:00 to 19:00. Remember you don't need to queue, just don't despair if you see many people queueing watching you while you're laying around like saying: "You're not gonna enter if you don't queue, idiot."

Finally we headed to the Atocha train station. Again, plenty of turtles, can you believe it? Every single bubble is a turtle. As a conclusion, my exam was a good deal.

Soufflè shop

If you ever go to Madrid and you like Japanese/Korean stationery stuff, you must visit Soufflè. As you can see on the next photos, I did my homework and I made the cutest order ever! I'm dying for get some new stuff for carving stamps in September.

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No sé cómo ni cuándo encontré la tienda Soufflè. Menos mal que está en Madrid, porque si no tendría la cuenta corriente vacía y la casa llena. Si os gustan las cosas de papelería japonesas/coreanas os vais a enamorar tanto como yo. Crea adicción y felicidad, así que se puede decir que crea adicción a la felicidad. Y si os decidís por hacer un pedido on-line, los gastos de envío son gratis a partir de 49 euros. Yo me hice un autoregalo de cumpleaños y estoy la mar de contenta. Me lo pasé bien haciendo la lista, haciendo el pedido, esperando a que llegara y luego cuando lo abrí... ay, cuando lo abrí se me iluminó el cielo. Es que lo mío con estas cosas es amor infinito. La culpa de mi madre, que ya de pequeñita me compraba hasta cabezales de animalitos para que no se rompiera la punta del lápiz.

El pedido llegó puntual y sin ningún problema. Además el repatidor me llamó enseguida para asegurarse de la dirección, nada de llamar a la puerta e irse a los 5 segundos como me han hecho con otras tiendas. Mirad que bien puesto todo para que no se moviera nada de su sitio.

Como estaba tan emocionada, me hice un escaparate con todo para poder contemplar todas mis nuevas dosis de felicidad. Por cierto, la cámara Poulain y el reloj son sellos. 

Click en las fotos para ampliarlas

Y este boli del gatito, mira que lo he estado buscando a un precio razonable casi un año. No lo había visto por menos de 5 euros pero en Soufflè lo tienen por 1,5 €. La verdad es que tienen unos precios más que razonables y son muy majos. ¿Qué me dices del cubre tazas? ¿Conocíais ya la tienda?

Gluten free // Sin gluten

Hace alrededor de medio año que mi madre empezó a comer sin gluten. Los resultados han dado negativo para celiaquía, pero el gluten y ella siguen sin ser amigos. Empezó a comer sin gluten cuando yo estaba en Nottingham, pero cuando yo volví a casa la convencí para que se comprara una panificadora. El pan de compra es demasiado caro y a mi me sabe a plástico. La receta que repetimos todas las semanas es ésta, de Sin gluten es más rico. Le he dicho a mi madre de probar otros panes, pero está tan encantada con éste que no quiere cambiar. Creo que es porque el primero que hice fue un truño total... Pero mirad el segundo que hice con la receta de Sonia.

Además Sonia es un amor. Mira que le pregunté de cosas y me contestó a toditas todos y bastante rápido. Estoy muy agradecida por todo lo que me ayudó porque yo estaba segura que la levadura Royal era sin gluten y valía para panificadora, pero no. Lo mejor de todo es tener el ambientador de pan recién hecho todas las semanas. Cada vez que horneo mi padre se pone a decir que tendría que hacer para todos. Qué celosos son algunos.

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It's been about a year since my mother started eating gluten free. She's not celiac, but gluten doesn't work for her. She started her gluten free diet while I was living in Nottingham, but when I was back home I convinced her to buy a bread maker. The free gluten bread that you can buy is too expensive and distasteful. The recipe we do again and again is this, from Sin gluten es más rico. I told my mum to try another bread recipe, but she's so happy with this one that she doesn't want to change. I think it's because the first one was a fiasco... But look the second read I made with Sonia's recipe.

In addition, Sonia is very sweet. I was asking her each other day and she answered me very kindly and fast. I'm very grateful with all the Sonia's help, I though the usual Spanish yeast was gluten free and appropriate for the bread maker, but no. The best of all is having the smell of fresh baked bread once a week. Every time I make the bread my father want me to make it for everybody. What a jealous man!

Growing up

Some time ago I spent a weekend at my brother's countryside house. He's living where my grandparents used to have the animals and a small house with a little swimming pool (all built by my granduncle). It's located in a quiet place where there are not motorways, just ground roads. It's relative near from the city, but far enough for being in complete silence at night. Just with the crickets song, if you like it as I do you'd love it as I do.

He's really skillful, so he built many things to make the place more comfortable and useful as well as safe for their son. Little by little he has been growing up a vegetable garden, which has been getting bigger lately. I love the fact I can pick my dessert up from the bush. And, as he has got some chickens he's growing some corn to feed them.

Keep going

I've been quite busy lately, and not in a pleasant way. That's why I didn't feel like writing or posting anything. But, after a too long period of meditation I've decided I need to keep doing things. I've never posted regularly, but the truth is I've never try it. So, posting more is one of my August goals (which are several and not easy, just because I've never done it before). I'll do my best.

I've about one hundred thing that I want to share with you, so I'll prepare carefully every single one. First of all, because this is a short post and I want to start big small things, I'd like to know if you have ever seen this strange animal: the pangolin. It's not an armadillo, it walks with the two posterior legs. For me it was an amazing discovery.

I found this photo here. It's adorable, and it makes me remember "Avatar" (maybe the eyes).

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He estado bastante ocupada últimamente, pero no por gusto. Por eso no me apetecía escribir ni publicar ninguna entrada. Pero después de un (demasiado) largo período de meditación, he decidido que lo mejor es seguir haciendo cosas. Nunca he publicado regularmente, pero la verdad es que nunca lo he intentado. Así que uno de mis objetivos de agosto será publicar más, aunque tengo muchos y son difíciles. Pero la dificultad reside en que nunca antes los he hecho, así que haré todo lo que pueda.

Tengo como un centenar de cosas que quiero compartir contigo, intentaré preparar cada una con esmero. Lo primero, más que nada porque ésta es una entrada corta (hay que empezar por las pequeñas cosas), quiero saber si alguien conocía este extraño animalito: el pangolino. No es un armadillo, camina con las patas traseras. Para mí fue todo un descubrimiento.

Encontré esta foto aquí. Es monísimo, me recuerda a "Avatar" (puede que por los ojos).