in the space between

In the space between I can get lost, I can live.

Space between paper and real, between outdoor and indoor,  between the two faces of a wall, between public and private, between up and down, between mine and yours, between successful or not, between past and present, between conscious and unconscious, between what I am and what I think that I am.

There is always a gap, a space between, between my real and everybody else’s real. There is a gap between what we do and what we wanted to do, it’s not a line, a wall it’s not a line, it has thickness, the space between has thickness,  sometimes so big that you actually live inside and cannot scape. There is gap, it has no point to deny, I want to embrace the gap, the gap makes things interesting. a gap in the professional practice, in the understanding of our job, our life.

Unfolding the space between, discovering it, living in it, enjoying it, feeling confortable in the space between.

The space between cities, between friends, between jobs, between moments, between events, between your eyes and what you look at,  space between thoughts and words, between action and reaction.

I live in the space between

dedicated to a longtime friend.

e.

visitors

I still think this was really cool.  Bedroom door – visitors trace

In one year and 3 months these were the people that visited me. (some missing)

questions

Today I had a lot of questions, but I was not brave enough to ask all of them. Normally when I start making questions, one questions leads me to another one, so I end up with hundreds of questions and no answers, but normally I ask that type of questions that normally don’t need an answer….. more or less.

BACKGROUND.
Today I had an appointment for lunch with a friend (it sounds more formal that it was, but I didn’t know how to write it), sometime before we were supose to meet I got a call from my friend telling me that she was going to be 30 min late, basically because she was not able to take a shower before because her flatmate was taking a very long shower.

ok, so…
why people are always late when they meet up with friends? why are they never late when they go to a job interview, or to work, or to catch a plane? (i know some people are late in those situations, but percentage in hugely smaller) do they do it because their jobs are something that give them money to live? does that mean that money is more important that friendship? if so, why people say the opposite and assure that friendship is the most important thing in life? why do people tend to believe that jobs are only temporal and that sooner or later you’ll change your job while they think that friendship should last forever and ever? but then they are late when they are meeting friends, not when they are going to work. If it is not the money, is the fear and hierarchy what determines that people are not late to work, maybe  the power of the superiors? so, being late when meeting a friend is a sign of abuse to their feelings and patience?

how can an adult say that is late to an appointment because someone else not related to the appointment was taking a shower? how can you be a “successful” professional and cannot use the shower at your place whenever you need or want, and if you have to share a flat, cannot you talk with your flatmates to see the daily schedules and make the necessary adjustments so everybody is on time to their respective meetings? why people don’t make those small efforts?how architects can build a 4 bedroom flat with the two bathrooms inside two bedrooms, so 2 rooms have to go through another bedroom to access the bathroom? why nobody cares? how can someone say “i started walking out of my place a bit late, I’ll be 15 min late” and not be terribly ashamed? didn’t you know how long does it take you to get to the place? why didn’t you check? what was the reason that made you walk out of your place late?….. and this is only about a small, tiny issue like being on time to your appointments and meetings and the abuse of friendship.

sometimes people ask me, why are you such a solitary person?… I guess answers are easier than one normally thinks, but normally you don’t want to hear them.

not related
Why am I so lazy with household stuff? because I don’t care a shit, but my conscience tells me I should care.

today is video day. why not 2

I used to go through this station everyday, abit earlier though…. thy not?

This is PEC watching rush hour some months ago.

office recap-

After one year, I have finished working for SOM London, and I think it’s time to upload some of the pics I took on my cell during that period. It’s been an intense year, I worked at the office more than 2700 hours which means i worked like 1.5 years time in one year. It’s been crazy, instructive and I have to say fun. It was not fun to work like crazy, but it was a great team and we had fun together. We went through a lot of different situations, we had sleepless nights, some parties, some triumphs and quite a bunch of defeats. I think we spent more time together than with any other else this year. So, this is just a small taste of what we have gone through, some pics that I /we took with my cellphone.

I am not sure where this blog is heading right now, and probably it will change the direction and the topics of the post a little bit but on the meantime, this is what we did at the office.

 

… and the leader said, there might be light to illuminate our world

and light was created…

also a big dildo was created  in the middle of the world, but that’s another story)

of course we had a list of famous visitors… (we kept the cards as souvenirs)

as a good navarricos that I am,  we celebrated San Fermin (7th of July) with Kalimotxo (red wine and coke)

 

…. and some people were really enjoying it. (Bernard- Brian)

We had guest DJs, like San Miguel bottle…(rocking the studio sessions on wednesday nights)

 

We cried the death of our beloved model…

Towards the end of the year, SpiderPig came to visit, but it was more like GodzillaPig.

 

dedicated to the team

“lazyness” / 4 in a row

I was thinking that I was not going to write while in Spain. I am going back to London tomorrow night, I was feeling lazy, I guess I just change my mind.

After touring Spain the week before I basically decided to spend this one disconnecting myself from the world and planning the next steps after the rush of the end of the year and the end of my employment at SOM London. Surprisingly enough I’ve done much more things that I thought and I have been more efficient that I would have expected. Probably I just haven’t done what most people consider work, or productive tasks, but I have achieved more things in 2 weeks than in the previous 2 months at the office.

First week I devoted it to travel with my frien Fly through the wonders (some of them) of Spain and Portugal, second week I devoted to reading, watching movies, researching and writing.

My Spanish/ Portuguese tour. 

sunday 21st . Madrid. 
Monday 22nd. Madrid-Bilbao-San Sebastian
Tuesday 23rd. San Sebastian-La Rioja-Madrid
Wednesday 24th. Madrid-Cuenca-Valencia-Alicante
Thursday 25th. Alicante-Granada
Friday26th. Granada-Sevilla-Lisboa
Saturday 27th. Lisboa-Belem
Sunday 28th. Lisboa-Sintra-Merida-Madrid
Monday 29th. Madrid
Tuesday 30th. Madrid-Alicante. 

Probablynext time I should include some ore places, but I would love to do it slowly, like taking a month to tour Spain and enjoy it. Great country to visit, bad country to work in… at least today.

this road movie was change drastically to a movie marathon and some late night conversations.  As an example, in one night, from 22.00 h till 6.oo am I watched.

CASABLANCA-PERFECT STRANGER-THE DEPARTED-CLICK

tomorrow back to London. This is as far as I know my life..

lost in wanstead

It takes me so long to finish the posts normally, I start and then I stop`, then I take it the next day and it doesn’t make sense anymore, sometimes I have an idea but I don’t know how to express it, sometimes I have a story but I don’t know which way would be the best one to write it. It’s been a week since my firends got lost in Wanstead on the way back home. Funny enough this is my first 2 days weekend in a month and I am sick, but at least I am home, and I am warm and confortable, which brings to my mind my poor friends lost in wanstead.

You feel home because you know the place, you know how thing work, you have memories and feelings attached to it.
You are lost when you are somewhere you don’t know. Knowledge gives you confidence, confidence gives you security, security makes you feel at home.

Some friends came to visit last weekend, on sunday they went out and came back by the Night Bus. At 1.20 am they called they were lost. They were in wanstead. So, technically they were not lost, they knew where they were, but the context was completely unknow for them, therefore they felt lost. They didn’t have the knowledge, not the language, nor the resources to get away from that situation. Then you feel weak, then you feel lost.

It is not only about knowing the place, but also about knowing you, about having experience in similar situations, having resources and abilities, having external useful knowledge is what makes you confortable, about not panicking. Normally when you feel lost, your brain just blocks, is not able to react and bring to the spolight the objective situation and the resources needed to move on, normally you just paralize and drama begins.

This fact of not being able to stop for a moment to think, to forget the rush, the anxiousness, toput feelings aside and think about the actual facts is what leads to a series of bad decisions that make the panic feeling grow. Just call a cab, write down the address, you loose 25 pounds and you are home. Or as they did, take the same bus back, tell the driver the address and get back home at 2.oo am. They left back to Spain at 5.oo am. Tough night.

Today I am off to get an aspirine. Damm it.

does your washing machine print plans?

no!!! come on, what kind of washing machine do you have?

Funny that the other day I compare buildings to electronical appliances, because today I had a really funny conversation with one of my friends.

- What are you doing?
- I am doing laundry and printing some plans?
- wow, both at the same time
- Yes, but I am not using this computer
- So, which computer you have the washing machine plugged into?
- No, no, I am at the office

At this point I just started to make hypothesis, like thinking that my friend was able to control the washing machine at home remotely from the office computer, so from one laptop he could send the plotter some plans ad choose laundry temperature. There was a slightly less sophisticaded option that was my friend ordering laundy online, like a courier or food. there was athird option which meant he actually was doing laundry at the office while printingplans at the office. You know, office small, 3 people, so you have to multiply yourself. Small offices are tough, you work on sundays, you work at home, you print while doing laundry, Obvious logic my dear Watson.

Anyhow it would be really cool to have a washing machine able to print plans. like a multi combo device.

By the way I am getting overwhelmed by the amount of texts that are uploaded to a very cool website. AAARG They have philosophy, cultural, political, architectural texts about almost everything that are uploaded by the members, it is reaaly a very good resource, but I get an email everytime someone uploads a text that is everyday and I cannot read them, I am freaking busy, so I get anxious about that, rrrrrrrrr

well, enough for today, it will be another 6 days week at the office

Through Canada. Through my mind

Well, after my New York visit, I’ve spent my last few days in Canada, mainly Montreal, though we made a quick visit to Lac Saint-Claire.

It’s been quite an interesting trip, and certainly I’ve learnt a lot, among other things;

I’ve learnt that I should practise my french more and that I shouldn’t be so lazy.
I’ve also get to know this group. Sigur Ros, and they guys really rock it. We went to one of their concerts last Saturday. 
I’ve learnt that you can have a pleasant, not very stressful life and keep earning money (god, so clear my mind is out of London),
I’ve re-learnt that the sun is bright when it shines outside London. mmmm I think I am bitching to much London today.
I’ve learnt that is really easy to stay where you are and that it requires a great effort to move, I’ve learnt that is really easy to complain and destroy but no to propose,
I’ve learnt that is really easy to make the same mistakes other did before and you might even don’t notice it . I’ve learnt  that identity is really important for some people,
I’ve learnt that I should be on holidays more often, or forever.

The trip was also really good to keep going with my research and my thesis, reinforcing some arguments, dismissing others, and overall i gather quite a lot of material.

Today’s post looks quite reflexive and lacking of action but it has been truly some nice relaxing days, and I have to really thank a lot my friends Louis & Lisa, for hosting me, showing me so many things, riding the bike with me through the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit, Canoeing on the lake and do so many things we have done together these days.

It was a true vacation. Next stop…. Spain.

reseting your life

suddenly I had around 20 absolutely surrealistic hours.  I was completely detached from the real world, I forgot about my worries, my life, my job, basically about everything.  It was one of those situation you just live outside your life. (now that I write about it, easily it could become a movie)

Monday between 21.3o and 22.oo hrs someone stole the handbag of my friend S. I was with her in a pub having a beer, no big crowds, quiet place, nice chat and when we were leaving, oops no bag.

No bag means my friend lost everything, Wallet, ID, Passport, credit cards, cell phone, house keys, absolutely everything. As she said in one of the few sentences she could articulate “I am nobody right now”. Just a blank person, no official name, no way to get in contact to the people she knows, no house to go and sleep, no money to buy anything, no transport card, just nothing.

One day after she has managed to get the keys of her apartment from the agency and even to change the lock and get new keys; she got money from the bank and asked for a new card; she got a new phone with the same number as before; and she managed to get a paper from the consulate to travel back to her country and redo the documents (this part sucks, having to travel back to get your documents it is absolutely nonsense). But basically she could reset her life (or at least put everything rolling) in one day.

Pretty amazing how you can restart from “the beginning” again, and quite scary that you could start it with any other name. Do you wanna change your life, you can reset yourself in a couple of days……

A funny point was that the first thing we did  after assuming that she had lost her bag was buying cigarettes. Then we went to the police. The officer was the more insensitive guy I’ve ever seen, S. was freaking out which is quite normal, and more even if that happens to you in a country that is not yours, and the officer only could articulate, OK, OK; I cannot do that, OK, OK; normally we don’t find anything.

When you are going through these situations you just basically fall into a different world, it doesn´t even make sense people going yo work in a Tuesday morning.

P.S. I know I have a lot of posts missing, parcel boundary definition missing, my latest trip to Cambridge and a lot of delayed issues from the office and the project.