Tampere

Tampere

Sunday 21 June 2015

Oh Arturo!


We're all a bit confused at the moment.

Chile's star player Rey Arturo Vidal (King Arthur) went to a casino, had a few drinks, crashed his Ferrari into another car and then with all the air of the Lord of the manor threatened a policeman who refused to let him off.



It seems that most people are dealing with this in the way that we deal with most issues that, though wrong, would be inconvenient for us to take a stand against. Better to say no more about it and carry on as we were. Principals are often the loser when they have to fight with personal interests.



Apart from the media, perhaps the most obviously guilty of such behviour is Chile's head coach Jorge Sampaoli. The tiny man has taken a big brush and swept everything under a now very lumpy carpet. It's hard to imagine his predecessor Marcelo Bielsa, a man he is often compared favourably to, doing the same. Bielsa is all about principles, so much so that he once refused to speak to President Piñera at an official reception for the team.



So on Friday we settled down to watch Chile, with Vidal, play Bolivia and it all seemed a bit different to me. Then Chile won 5-0 and everyone drove around the streets celebrating until the early hours beeping horns and dancing on statues.

Maybe it's just me that's a bit confused.

Happy Father's day.


Sunday 14 June 2015

Five weeks and nine days to go - Ringworm and Finnish

Here in Chile everybody has football fever. What time is it? It's football o'clock, Who's your favourite player? Pele, etc etc. Yes. It's the Copa America.



The main difference this makes, apart from the increasingly annoying Chile chant (above), is that the streets are full of Chinese-made football tat and you can just about make out the occasional vuvuzela above the noise of the traffic. Apart from the amazing tension tangible throughout the city when the national team are playing, my favourite thing is the random cheers erupting as various immigrant groups celebrate their team's goals. I live in the centre surrounded tower blocks filled with Colombians, Peruvians, Bolivians and, as I discovered today when their cheers almost shook the cat off the balcony, Venezuelans. So, go red wine!*



Apart from football, it's cold. Today the temperature dipped down to zero for the first time this year (in Santiago). I took Dog for a long walk in the park around 8am and I don't think either of us particularly enjoyed it. My hands hurt and her ball chasing was particularly lacklustre. I had a quick check on temperatures in Finland and discovered that most years there are between 60-80 days when the average (AVERAGE!) temperature is below zero. Dog and I are going to have to get our act together quicksmart. 



Finally, Cat has tiña, ringworm in English. Strangely this is neither a worm nor a ring but a fungus. It also means that I have to shampoo his ears three times a week. How has it come to this? I found him on the bloody street!



Right, time for the final espisode of Game of Thrones. Speak soon. 

*The Venezuelan national team is nicknamed the Vinotinto, red wine, because they play in burgundy shirts. 

Sunday 7 June 2015

Six weeks and four days to go - Smog, More Strikes and Incan Gods.

So. Lots to report on.

Firstly, winter has arrived; however, this doesn't mean snowy streets and snowmen with inappropriately placed carrots but instead disgusting levels of air-contamination trapped in the city by the cooler air which, as any science teacher will tell you, is less disposed to rising and taking the filth with it. Normally this is assuaged (big-word high-five!) somewhat by winter-rains washing the air clean but this year Kon* is angry (or not paying attention) and it hasn't rained since Kon knows when.
Kon-man

Pre-emergency level has been declared for the last couple of weeks which means that children aren't allowed to do Physical Education at school because breathing too heavily might turn them into Dickens style urchins coughing up black lumps into a dirty tissue.

A very long snorkel please

Talking of school, there hasn't been much of it lately, nor University neither because everyone's on strike. I've mentioned the strikes before, they're kind of a tradition. That said, normally they'd have resolved themselves by now and we'd be back in class making up for lost time. This year the strikes have become quite hardcore: sporadic and passionate. Not quite at the level of the impressive 2011 protests which saw running battles day and night between students and police and eventually caused the academic year to be cancelled completely, but serious all the same.

Video recorded from my balcony. 2011.

The main problem is that Chile is The Neo-Liberal paradise. State control has long been sold off to the highest bidder and schools are now independently run much as any other business is. As we all know, businesses exist first and foremost to make money; that means reducing costs (low salaries, little investment) and increasing profits (high tuition fees). Teachers are pissed off with the low salaries, students are pissed off with the high tuition fees and everyone is pissed off with the lack of investment. You don't need much of an education to see that A+B+C = Strike!

Let the lesson be that education is not a good to be bought and sold (Who voted 'Cameron?').

OK. That'll do for now. I'll be back soon with details of my cat's scabby ears.

*Godchecker.com. YOUR GUIDE TO THE GODS
Discover almost 4,000 gods, goddesses and spirits from around the world - Genius.

Monday 1 June 2015

Seven weeks and three days to go - Getting old.

Well, birthday week has been safely navigated and my liver still seems to be working. I'm not a big fan of birthdays. Every year it seems to me that having to organise a party seems to be more of a punishment than a present. Having to stress about where and when and who and then buy all the bloody food/beer and then having to clean up after. I'm a bit of a humbug I guess. I think the birthdayee should get a day off in which he or she should stay at home watching telly until after tea and then go down to the pub. If you want to see him then you go and visit him at home and have a nice cup of tea or you can meet him later at the pub and have a pint. Easy. No announcements, invitations, RSVPs, obligation nor cleaning up. That said. I had a lovely time.

Dog on birthday walk on San Cristobal Hill, Santiago

They say that with age comes experience. My experience in the last few years has often been at the hands of physiotherapists, doctors and even surgeons. The paces I've care-freely put my body through ever since I learned to walk/fall are beginning to show and I now have a collection of scans showing healed breaks and wonky joints and curvy bones. When archaeologists dig up my bones in a thousand years they'll presume that I was either a terrible driver or a human canon-ball. So, with a couple of new aches and pains I've been checked in for some more physiotherapy, this time with the rather exciting prospect of a paraffin bath. I'm also trying to improve core-strength every morning with the help of the lovely Adriene. 



As for the move, all is good. I've sold a few more pieces of furniture and Girlf. is trying to find us an apartment on an island. I hope it's craggy island.