Today is a nice Sunday :-)

It’s been three months since I’ve been in Mexico, nevertheless, today is a good day for writing about my family. For those of you who are not Mexican, or don’t know any Mexican, let me tell you that for us, our family consists of mother and father, sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles (including the in-laws), grandparents, and sometimes even good family friends are considered family, that is the case of my cousin Mario, with him I don’t share any close DNA-tracks, but still, he is my cousin.

I made a filckr album; there you will see Allison, my brother’s wonderful girlfriend. She is from Hawaii; they met in Chile and have lived together in two different Mexican cities and also in Innsbruck. Allison is the first girl in the photo album (showing us her christmas present: a bracelet).

Among those pics, you will also see Víctor. He is my sister’s husband. According to her, he is the most wonderful man on earth; my sister is incredible intelligent, so if she says that it is true. You can recognise him because he is the guy reading the label of a red wine bottle.

You will see also pics from my cousins and their partners. The children are from my cousins Liliana and Larisa, their last names are “Aragón Castro”, I am a “Germes Castro”, our second last name reveals that our mothers are sisters.

There is a wonderful picture of my mother and Anna, Anna is for me (together wit Luisa) the most beautiful child in the world.

There is one weird picture you may ask yourself “What the hell?” when you see it. It is Albino and me holding firecrackers with our mouths. Albino is for me the funniest Spaniard (together with Javier Cámara, but he is an actor). Albino is the proud husband of my cousin and childhood-sidekick Karla.

The last picture is of the two people I love the most in this planet (not counting my mom). They are Tita, my wonderful sister, and Tomás, my funny brother.

I hope you like the pics and thank you for reading this personal message to my beloved family…if you are one of the people in the photos let me tell you that I miss you.

And if you click here, you can see the album

I am sexier than Rick Asley

The oldest memory I have of being bullied at school was related to my skin and hair.
I think I was around 9 or 10 years old when my school "friends" formed a circle around me and started singing "f*cking freckle-face penguin", they only stop doing that after I burst into tears. There is another sad story, my mom told me that once I came back home crying from kindergarten because children found my freckles bizarre and then I told my mom "Mother, they laugh at my freckles, and I am full of them".

During my late childhood, I was given nicknames such as tortilla, carrot, and the non plus ultra "f*cking freckle-face penguin" (putos cerdos!). But when I was 17 or so, my hair started getting darker and darker, and by the time I reached the age of 24, my head hair was completely black.

On Tuesday, I called Carol and she told me that at school (she is currently studying art-restoration) she had a course on Christian painting, and there she learned that Judas (the informant among jesus' buddies) is commonly represented as a ginger. Now I finally understand why Cartman from South Park thinks red-haired people have no soul: Jews in general, and not only Judas, as well as "enemies of the church" are commonly portrayed as gingers in Christian art. In addition to that, during the Spanish inquisition, gingers were stigmatized as Jews.

During my Wikipedia research, I also learned that red is the rarest hair colour in the world (1% to 2% of the world's population); but the most striking data I got is that gingers are more sensitive to thermal pain. This may explain why I love shadows during summer and why I hate temperatures over 28°C. My sister, who is also a ginger, also dislikes hot weather. My brother loves the summer, but although he also had red hair, his skin is dark and he has no freckles.

I'll go back to this blog entry's title: Carol told me on the phone that ginger men are everything but sex-symbols, and that is the reason why there are no ginger actors. After laughing at me for a while, she tried to console me by saying that she only knows two red-haired men: Rick Asley and me, and eventhough she is not attracted to gingers, she was my girlfriend for over two years. Sweet, that automatically makes me sexier than Rick Asley.

If you are wondering how Rick Asley looks like, use this link

My pros are my cons OR I am a post-modern pragmatic emo?

At the end of 2004, weeks before finishing University, I found myself spreading CV's all around Europe. Back then, my mother told me that she could support me financially for only four months after my final exam. My graduation was on December 2004, so I had only until April 2005 to find a job, otherwise, I would have to return to Chihuahua (back then Chihuahua was one of the safest, better organised and tidiest cities in Mexico).

It was hell. I sent around 30 CVs per post and more than 50 via e-mail. Only three firms showed interest, but that interest turned up into only two job interviews.

When preparing for the first job interview of my life, I sat with Hannes and Gimm (both my flatmates back then) and discussed about the possible answers I could give to possible questions.

One of the questions that Hannes and Gimm asked me in that interview-simulation was actually the mother of all job-interview questions: "What are your pros and what are your cons?" Looking into Gimm and Hannes faces, I replied without hesitating: "that is an easy one, my only pro is at the same time, my only con, and that is my cool hair".

There was some true in my answer, when I had long hair (1999-2003) I really loved my hair, the only problem is that long hair look terribly bad on me (see the profile pic). There is something else regarding my hair: I was very ofter late at dinner or parties because it took me hours to style my hair...even though I had already short hair.

Now, I am 32 and I confront a different problem. Whenever I am interested in a girl and I tell her about my feelings, there are only two possible reactions from her side: She finds me funny and stays, or she walks away from me very, very fast.

…but, if fortune is on my side, and the girl stays, she will probably like me sooner or later because some qualities I have (my pros); however, if I later ask this girl if she’s interested is starting a relationship with me, the one and only question I get is “no, because you…bla bla bla”, and that “bla bla bla” matches perfectly the list of my pros.

If one sees this situation in a positive way one could say “My defects attract girls”, but I am far away from being a positive guy, I am a post-modern pragmatic emo, so I can only say “My qualities expel girls”.

Sport ist Mord

There is a saying in German which I love, it reads „Sport ist Mord“ and can be translated to „sport kills“. Last Saturday I went snowboarding with Hannes and Anne and at the middle of the first slope I felt (just after coming to a complete stop). when this happenes, I was moving so slow before falling, that you cannot even call that speed; however, I landed on my knees and hands. My right wrist was injured.

Doing sport is one of the two reasons I haven’t written in my blog, the other one is the lack of interesting happenings at the moment. Yes, my life is currently pretty boring.

Based on the lack of curious, sad or funny events in the last two weeks, I will show you a series of pictures from me enjoying the night life in Los Cabos. These pictures reflect what partying, getting drunk and meeting girls is for me.

If you want to see me at my best, click here

Todays is a day for celebrating having good friends

Today is St. Valentine day. In Austria it is “The day of the beloved” and in Mexico “The day of love and friendship”. In Austria people are now buying only one flower bouquet, however in Mexico, people are buying chocolates for the office colleagues, carnations for their close friends and perfume for the partner.

When I was in high school, we bought carnations for our friends on this day. It was nice to get many and in different colours. The white ones meant friendship; if you got a pink carnation it meant someone liked you, but if you got a red one, oh man, there was someone crazy about you!

Last week, I was on my way out to the supermarket when I saw a man lying in front of the building’s door (in my building there are nine apartments). I helped him to stand and only then I realised it was my neighbour, the retired University professor from upstairs. While I accompanied him to his flat, he told me he had a blood pressure problem and felt. He also added that the day before he turned 80 years old and he was proud to tell me that he was born in the apartment he lives. 80 years in the same flat!

After ensuring that he was well, I went on, but just before leaving I noticed a slight smell of alcohol in his breath, I also saw six bottles of beer in his grocery bag.

Sometimes, when I am a little depressed, I am afraid of living on my own for the rest of my life. This pessimistic visualization of my future vanishes away as soon as I think of all the good friends I have.

Earlier today I talked on the phone with Magdalena and Isabella; after work, I went with Hannes for dinner (I just joined him since I ate earlier); when I got home, I had a fantastic phone conversation with Maria; Verena just called me minutes ago, and the first thing I will do when I finishing writing this, it will be to call my brother and then my sister and mom.

Today, the day of love and friendship, reminded me how much I love my friends, and if I in 50 years I fell in front of the house, I will surely call a good friend and tell him or her “Shit man, I am getting old and I am dying slowly!”, I will say it in a sarcastic way so that we laugh together and then we will meet for a glass of prosecco.

When two independent things, leading to the same object, occur at the same time we have to pay extreme attention!

I always have admired those journalists who write about a subject and find parallels between that subject and something apparently having nothing to do with it. Sometimes it is an artist or an historic event. Commonly, in those articles, everything seems so irrelevant, but if you keep reading, the article perfectly mixes subjects which turn into a perfectly logic article.

When I finish reading articles, I wish I could be as wise and as clever as those guys.

Right now, I am about to write a similar article…and I am neither wise nor clever, and I did not studied journalism, and did no research at all. I will just write what happened today.

It all started when I read an article in a Mexican online newspaper about Thomas Bernhard. It said he would be turning 80 years old tomorrow if he would be alive. Thomas Bernhard is one of Austria’s most important novelists of the last century. The article also mentioned that the director of the Thomas Bernhard Institute is called Martin Huber.

Immediately I sent Hannes an E-Mail with the newspaper link because Hannes parents live in the same neighbourhood were the writer lived…and he told me yesterday he finished reading a book by Bernhard.

After some minutes, I wrote Hannes once more to tell him a nice coincidence: A common friend of us is called Martin Huber, and Martin told me last summer it would be cool to move to Ohlsdorf, Hannes’ hometown, because he is a fan of Bernhard’s literature and wanted to live near the writer’s house. What Martin surely doesn’t know is that he shares the same name and last name with the Thomas Bernhard Institute’s director.

Half an hour later, I sent Hannes another e-mail with more coincidences: Thomas Bernhard was born on February 9th, just as my cousin Karla. Karla currently lives in Madrid and Thomas Bernhard also lived there…and Karla was two years ago in Ohlsdorf.

An hour after that, I forgot about the coincidences issue and checked the e-mail account of Los Gurkos, our cultural association. There, I saw an e-mail for Hannes, it was sent by one of Austria’s most known DJs: B.Fleischmann. Fleischmann wrote that e-mail to Hannes and sent a copy to the director of Morr Music, an important indie and electronic record label based in Berlin’s. An hour after B. Fleischmann’s e-mail, Thomas Morr, the owner of Morr music replied to Hannes.

It took me a while to put all the pieces together…then, as fast as I could, wrote Hannes an e-mail saying the following:

"Hannes,

We have been communicating the entire day via e-mail regarding coincidences around Thomas Bernhard, and now the cycle has been closed.

Today, you received two e-mails on the los gurkos account, one from B. Fleischmann, whose real name is Bernhard Fleischmann and the second E-Mail was by Thomas Morr, if you put both first names together you get Thomas Bernhard"

On the last episode I saw from Twin Peaks, Agent Cooper said something like “When two independent things, leading to the same object, occur at the same time we have to pay extreme attention”.

Today’s coincidences were bay far more than two, that is why I am rigorously following Agent Cooper’s advice.

Lord of the Ceviche part III: The Return of the King

I think many families have a special city, town or region where they spend holidays. Between 1990 and 1996, I travelled with my family to a town called Puerto Peñasco each Easter. I have very nice memories of Puerto Peñasco: my sister and I inviting different friends each year, my brother vomiting because he ate 8 brownies when he was six years old, me kissing a girl for the first time, going fishing with my grand father and collecting clams at the beach. However, there is one thing I learned there which changed my life: A cook trusted me his secret recipe to prepare the king of ceviche.

That secret lies in the fish and the way to cut the flesh. The fish has to be sierra (in English Pacific Sierra or Sierra Mackerel) and the flesh has to be “separated” from the fish’s skin by “scrubbing” it using a spoon.

This knowledge was entrusted to me almost 17 years ago by that Master, and I made good use of this information. I prepared a sierra ceviche the next day after receiving the secret recipe, but it was not until last December when I decided to use all my powers, I wanted to show the world the immense supremacy of the king of ceviche, I gathered forces from the very deep of my soul and prepared mentally to combine the experiences I had collected during my extensive mission and mixed it with the old Masters’ secret. My family and I were witnesses of what happened…

Our journey started when we departed to the Palmilla beach; there I encountered an assembly of wise old men, who made a living by extracting living fish from the deep waters of the Sea of Cortéz. To achieve that, they used wooden boats, as old as history itself. The wise men brought the fish to the land and sacrificed them at the windy sea shore. The men separated the gutter from the flesh and fed it to the schools of birds…albatrosses…sea gulls and pelicans, all hungry for fresh bloody guts.

An old wise man provided me and my cousin Laura a piece of fresh sacrificed fish to taste it…it was raw, it was mouth-watering, and yes…it was Sierra.

Laura and I, without hesitating, acquired the necessary amount of fish to feed my starving tribe. Back in our shelter we scrubbed the flesh out of the Sierra filets, marinated it with lime juices so it obtained their scent, combined it with sacred red onions, fresh coriander and tomato and we added a new component to the original recipe: avocado cubes.

After curing the ceviche for half an hour, we were ready for ingesting its powers and there it was, the king was once more with us, we all were there…we all tasted it...the return of the king.