Viva Baños!

Only a week or so until Christmas, and it really doés take some reminding. Siting typing this update, and 3 guys dressed like sheperds walk past with a woman and a baby beside them on a donkey, and you think "oh, yeah, it´s christmas"

Been really busy of late with work. Getting an intensive english course underway, as well as english for business / tourism, which takes a lot of organisation and promotion. Coupled with the flu, it´s all hmmmmm.

been reading a lot of books:

"islam in crisis" really modern approach to simplifying the rifts in modern day islam and it´s vurrent crisis of identity. A cracker of a read....in stages.

"A short history of nearly everything" by bill bryson. I am pretty scared of science, as that side of my brain doesn´t function too well. I boiled the kettle for tea and, as long as it tasted nice, didn´t ever think about the fundamental facts of life around me. What a cracking read. A must if you want the story of where we came from and roughly how we exist in this form, compressed into a digestible medium.

"on great men" by thomas carlyle. This guy worships dante and napoleon, but convinces me he´s right in many ways that they are two fundamentally incredible people. Has renenwed my determination to read more dante and revel in the fact that, diminutive my stature is, but i can still see over more fences than napoleon ever could.

"the valkyries" by Paulo Coelho. A pretty inspiring book, which , although written in the general Coelho vein, has a distinct chracter to it. It coincided nicely with the moderately spiritual path i am on at the moment!

"speaking with the angel" collection of short stories, assembled by nick hornby. great cross section of contemporary fiction. Loved the one written through the personna of a dog. My friend in Sweden, the dutch Andre Van Haren has a book out at the mo, which i helped to edit, written through the eyes of a quasi-shamanistic cat named Mischa. I like that stuff!

"the corrections" by Jonathon Franzen. Very moving gritty fiction. Hits really hard. Reminds me of "something happened" by Joseph Heller, which was like Freud with the gloves off. Always nice when you´re travelling....prepared to accept otherwise outlandish self analysis and benefit from it. trick is, not to lose it when you get back.

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Harry potter film was bloody great. saw it in quito last week. Seems like it´s becoming more adult as the years progress, and glad to see it´s translation into film doesn´t shy away from that. They changed dumbledore though....this one doesnt have the same twinkle, and has lost a few kilos into the bargain. shame.
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found the skatepark in ambato, which is an hour away. at the top of a huge hill, in a town already at an altitude of 2300m. phew. Will stick some photos up asap, as it´s pretty interesting.

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Lots more to tell, but no time as usual. story coming soon, after being ripped off and lied to one too many times....is it time to tell the true story of "THE BOSS" ? (cue drum roll) Only time and accrued holiday pay will tell.

"you see, mark, this school is like the Republican Party. We´re not interested in the truth, we care about IMAGE"
"If I ask you to lie to these students, goddamit, you better bloody do it"
"I used to get woken up every morning in the navy at 5am, by getting tipped out of my hammock onto the floor by the seargent. He´d make me scrub the floor for hours, then kick the bucket over it and tell me to start again. And you know what......? I loved it"
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smell you later folks