Transformers

Still didn't have time to download the photos from my camera, but I will do that this week. Promise. :- Until that day arrives, have a look at this video I received by e-mail today. It is one of those "supersecret-video-stolen-from-US-Government-showing-Aliens-in-Earth". This one shows flying sources allegedly exploring the skies of Haiti. I think they are the Transformers wanting to conquer Earth! I just don’t understand why Haiti? Why not Tahiti? Or London? Maybe London is too busy and they wouldn’t get the attention needed in situations like this.

New features on blogger

Ra, although I hate blogger when she is on her pre-period, I can't help being delighted whenever I discover a new feature. Now you can upload videos straight from your computer to the post. No more You Tube. How cool is that?!

This video was shot during our trip to Munich.

Wicked!

Kelly Osbourne, the daughter of rocker Ozzy Osbourne, will make her West End debut in the play "Chicago." Kelly Osbourne debut in the play "Chicago". Osbourne, 22, will join the cast at London's Cambridge Theater, playing the role of the prison matron Mama Morton during a seven-week run from Sept. 10 to Oct. 27, the theater said Monday.

She found fame in the reality show "The Osbournes" alongside Ozzy; her mother, Sharon; and her brother, Jack. Afterward, she launched a singing career that included the 2003 hit "Changes," a duet with her father.

Ozzy's daughter also has worked as a TV presenter, hosting the British shows "Project Catwalk" and "I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!"

*****

Ra! I'm going with Cipri and Maryam on September 14th. I'll let you know how horrible she is. The role Kelly will play belongs to Queen Latifah in the film (the one with Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere).

This is me as a Simpson character. I prefer my South Park one. :-D

If you want to create yours, go to the Simpsons Movie site and select
Create your Simpsons Avatar.

This is my profile on the company's intranet. I look a bit weird. Check the job title; where's the spelling check?!

200th post

Hey, this is "The Sky Is Gray... Again"' 200th post. Not that many posts, innit? I need to do something about it.

So, this 200th post is to let you know that tomorrow I am flying to Edinburgh. Scotland is such a lovely country. Such a shame that the weather is so bad up there, because it would be a nice place to visit from time to time.

Last time (only time), I've been to Scotland was in 98. It was such a wonderful trip. just three days, but the weather was nice and we went from one coast to another by car. Sooooooo beautiful!

Have a nice weekend! :-)

Can somebody explain me?!??!?!?!

Why this damn blog is freaking out?????
When I type www.theskyisgrayagain.blogspot.com the posts I've writen just now won't show, but when I type http://theskyisgray.blogspot.com the posts are there but all messed up? And I've updated the book section as well and the book is all bizarre, but when I edit it, it looks fine.

Man, I HATE when that shit happens.

One ear is enough

I've started reading this book "Lend me your ears" a few days ago. A bit slow, I must say. Boring, but necessary, I guess. I talk too much. Sometimes I get tired of myself. I wonder if people get tired as well and they are simply too polite to say "shush, my turn". Ever since I started a blog and a fotolog, I don't feel like talking too much anymore, because almost everything is here. Some stuff I don't publicize; it wouldn't be correct. I cannot write things about work as well, one never knows who is reading this blog in English.

We've found a house. I write about it on my Portuguese blog. Lately my heart, my mind and my stomach have been working together to help me on my decisions, and in this case I cannot be so sure if it was the right thing to do. My stomach and mind are OK, but my heart is aching. The thing is: I don't have that much spare time to go around London visiting areas. The areas I like and the flats I would love to live in are so damn expensive. There are not that many nice flats available. Having said , I feel like the decision was a bit rushed. My heart is confused. Could be because we cannot move straight away, we won't be able to clean the place before moving, and my heart didn't speed up when I was there. Sometimes I think I just wanted to get rid of the task of finding a house and move on. Oh well, it's just a rented place. There will be the time that we will have to look for THE flat. The one that will cost us a small fortune and will consume 20 years of our lives to pay. That one will require loads of patience, walks, visits, talks, and the heart will have to decide.

I am a very rational person. I think everything should be explained rationally. Even love. But not home. I always remember a very kitch song by Lynyrd Skynyrd "home is where the heart is, my heart is at home". Can't wait to have this feeling again. Butterflies in my stomach just with the thought of it.

Thanks for lending me your ears (and eyes). :-)

People are strange

And I'm one of them. Today I decided to turn off the automatic pilot and place myself as a body in the middle of the crowd, a body that is at the same time part of a whole and individual. Funny feeling it was... like I was in one of those video clips were everybody is in fast forward and I am in slow motion. I was walking from the train station to work and listening to Screaming Trees.

The useful thing is that I realized that despite doing the same itinerary every single day, I saw so many different things. Reminds me of the first day - about a month or so ago - that I walked by Leicester Square at 8 pm for the very first time. There is a Swiss Clock house there and the giant clocks play various songs at 8 pm sharp.

My favourite wonder of nature: the Sun!

You know that sun is something really rare in London. Whenever it decides to shine, people's moods change completely. They look happier, politer, nicer. This week the weather has been just perfect. And so was my busy busy week.

Part of my new role is to travel around the UK. In the future, I might have to travel about four times a week. Quite exciting. Yesterday I've been to a place that I insist in forgetting the name, but the most interesting part (for me) was that I caught the train in King's Cross. It is more or less the station pictured here. More or less because I don't know exactly how this works and I am too lazy to look up on Wikipedia. But it is like this: there is King's Cross train station, King's Cross-St. Pancras tube station and St. Pancras train station. I have a feeling that the one in the picture is King's Cross-St. Pancras tube station. It is quite beautiful. But the most interesting one is King's Cross train station, because it was there that Harry Potter train scene was shot. Yesterday I saw for the first time the Platform 9 3/4. Look at the photo below. hehe

And because the sun is something extremely rare in this country, some companies have this Summer Friday thing. I have am lucky to work for one of those companies. We leave at 3 pm today. YEY!

And the plans for the weekend? Thorpe Park on Saturday. I am scared since the day we bought the tickets, about two weeks ago. I've never been to one of those (below). Last Sunday I was playing in a swing in a park nearby and I felt so sick and dizzy!! It used to be my favourite toy and until my 12's, I used to swing on my hammock in Rio to high and for hours non-stop that I thought my body balance was demaged. May the force be with me!

Sunday I will probably be recovering.

A place to call home

One of these days I was talking to my dad on the phone and I mention my plan of buying a house in London in three years time. His reaction was "wait a minute, so are you planning to stay there"? Yes, I am.

Whenever I read any news about Brazil I think this would be the best decision. I love my country and I don't think there is a better place in the world than Rio de Janeiro. But then I read about the corruption, violence, social differences,..., my friends tell me that getting a job is getting harder every year, salaries are decreasing, going to the beach by bus is dangerous. Well, it was like this when I was living there two years ago. My life was quite good, I had a nice job, a nice apartment, I walked to worked, never had to cook or clean the house, the weather was nice, blah blah blah, but I cannot pretend that all the corruption and impunity didn't get on my nerves. I would never walk alone late in the night or catch a bus coming back home from a nightclub. Not to mention that public transportation sucks!

London is not the nicest and safest place in the world to live, but at least you know that when things get a bit too nasty, authorities try to do something about them. I'm not afraid of the British policemen like I am of the Brazilian ones. They don't carry guns here and they are quite polite and helpful. They even treat suspects in a nice way - more like a therapist than a authority. That incident with the Brazilian boy in July 2005 was an unfortunate and rare one.

I think London is quite peaceful to a place with so many different cultures sharing a space. There is this culture of "pretend-you-don't-know-me-that-I'll-do-the-same" can be quite handy sometimes.

Why am I telling this? I guess it is just to justify why I would live in London for the next many years and why I wouldn't go back to Brazil to live (maybe to retire, by the beach, in Florianopolis or the Northeast). I don't see things getting much better in a near future, but I do hope my grandchildren will be able to see how lovely Rio de Janeiro can be in summer. And I confess - shamefully - that I am not the fighting person, that will demand some attitude from the politicians I voted for, that will go to the papers and complain about stuff, and so on. I’m too selfish and busy building my own personal portable paradise.

Why not going to sunny, warm city by the beach? Because those places are nice when you have money! Unless you want to sell coconut water on the beach. Or if you have your own business that can be managed from anywhere in the world. But I don't think, in my case, I could afford living in Spain now. Oh, I forgot to mention something really important: I don't like small cities.

London or Rio?! (2)

It's suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuny and warm and delicious outside!!!!!!!! Hurray!!!!! Let's dance, let's sing! And the weather will be FABULOUS this weekend! YEEEEEEEEEEEY! Let's go to Ipanema!

Ops. Wrong city again!

London or Rio?!

When I read this news on BBC online, I thought I was reading some news from my country. What scares me most is that Mr. Oyebola there didn't do anything I wouldn't have done myself.