Back from holidays

I am just back from holidays. Isabel and I spent 12 days at Pinetrees in Lord Howe Island. I can’t explain how soothing and delicious it was to spend 12 days just doing nothing but walking around, riding the bikes, reading, beachcombing and dining very well. We took a few hundred photos of birds, plants and landscapes, and sighted a quite large number of bird species for being winter time, including the mysterious Woodhen. Isabel even climbed Mount Gower!

Cesar on bike and Mount Gower

LHI White-eye

The place being so special is what made our time there so enjoyable. Also, a large part of the great experience was due to the friendliness of the Pinetrees staff, the Stardust musicians and the other guests. Congratulations to them.

I believe Lord Howe Island is overall the best part of Australia that I’ve seen so far. It is amazing how very primary things such as the silence and the relaxed pace make such a huge difference when compared to the ugly and big city. But I will not get myself started this time

Highly recommended.

Make war not love

I’ve just finished watching a documentary on SBS about the wave of puritanism that is taking over the USA. Not that the USA used to be a forward-thinking place, but it seems that, in the last few years, prudishness and terror to nudity and sex are becoming really big.

One guy was reporting to the interviewers how he was fired from his job as a popular radio host for explicitly talking about sex on air. He was also showing to the interviewer his collection of guns, which included a sniper rifle and an assault weapon like those they use in the army. As he was saying, “I cannot say ‘asshole’ on air but I can own a rifle that can take out a hundred people”.

Also, the film showed how the law in different states of the USA establishes at which age one can have sex. I am not talking about rape or forced sex here but consensual sex. In some states it is 18, in some others down to 16. If you have sex there and you are below the “legal” age, you commit a crime. And, if you are caught, you can be charged, indicted and perhaps sent to prison. Your name will also end up in the newspapers so your family and friends don’t forget that you had sex before you were allowed to, and your name will also end up in a registry of sex offenders, together with paedophiles and serial rapists, that is open for public scrutiny. One 18 year old guy was caught after having sex with his girlfriend, who was under age, and sentenced to 75 years in prison. He killed himself.

It seems that, in the USA, it is OK to take war into Irak or Afghanistan, but you can not have sex with your partner. You can make war, but not love.

Leaders of the free world? My ass. I am outraged.

Going back to Galicia: Why: Lifestyle

Continuing with my discussion on my return to Galicia, there is something in Australia that I don’t like and that I could not put in words until recently. It was just a sensation, something in the air that escaped verbalisation.

The closest word I can find is “lifestyle”: the “official” way of doing things, of conducting your life. And don’t get me wrong here. There are many people in Sydney, as far as my experience shows me, that do not live by the “official” way, which is great. But the mere existence of an “official” way is important, and what the “official” way tries to impose is important too. Let me explain.

First of all, all this is extremely subjective and based on my personal experiences in Sydney and in Galicia. Other people would certainly have different experiences and therefore may well disagree with me. It is important to understand that what I am about to explain is not claimed to be a universal truth but something that is true for me, inside my head. Thus, it is probably irrelevant for the majority of Australians, but extremely important for me.