The painter and his dreamt house and family

Six years ago he started building up that house. For the first time he was not going to pay rental anymore and would have his own house. He was going to be the owner of the place where his wife and he would live happily. They were going to have children. They wanted a boy and a girl. The house was going to have a swimming pool, a garage - for the car he would buy, not the bicycle – a big garden, lots of flowers.

Being a painter didn’t give him much money, but the necessary to live with his wife, who helped the tumbledown house being a maid. After lots of years of saving their money little by little, they finally started building the dreamt house. Five years eating cheap food, five years without buying clothes, without reading the newspaper, without having an ice-cream, without a coffee downtown. Five years of effort, five years of happiness. They had a boy and a girl with a year of difference, their two greatest treasures. Brick by brick, slowly and with great effort the house lifted up and the family finally moved.

One year living there, the happiest of all. Their house, no more rent; their car, no more bicycle. Now the preoccupations were taxes, education for their children, having every detail on time. Life didn’t let them live peacefully. They had lots of duties and preoccupations to go on living like a regular citizen.

And suddenly it came. It arrived from one day to the other, without telling anybody, without any warning. It just came in one second and destroyed it all. It took the dreamt house, the car, the old bicycle. It took, God knows where, the bills, the children books, their toys, the pots of paint. It just came and in one second took the woman, and her son. The hurricane destroyed it all. Destroyed houses, cars, streets, families, women, men, children, dreams, happiness, illusions. It just invaded the area, made a whole mess and disappeared again. The hurricane took his wife, his son, his car, his bicycle, his dreamt house, five years of happiness, lots of years of effort. It took his dreams, his reason for living. It took nonsense details and preoccupations as well as his job. Just when everything seemed to be going incredibly, an enormous disaster almost ended up with a great city and all what their citizens had lived, had dreamt, had done, had had.

Pic: my eye illuminated by a strange, modern and funny object I got in a 15th party. (Those things didn’t exist in our 15th times…) =P

Iván Noble in Tucumán ·· Santa Rosa School Week 2007

Friday, August 24th, excitement around. Vale Marún, Anto and Chechu came home to have lunch – pizza!! – and we went to the Campus of Santa Rosa School. We arrived at 22:15 and presentators were starting. The winners of the different sports showed up in the stage and Elephant Sexual Chocolate, the band of a friend of us, started the night. Some changes had to be made in the band, as the singer left, so Rodri is the new singer – and he does it really well. Energy grew incredibly in the crowd and we had to wait with all our excitement while watching the video of the class. The presenters again to stage and seconds later, the ex singer of Caballeros de la Quema was being deafened with applauses and shouts.

Iván Noble started singing at 23:20. Blue jeans, a black t-shirt with some red drawings, his curly hair not as long as he used to have it. He has been up in stage for an hour and a half in a very enjoyable and full of energy show. I really don’t know how many people was there, but it was a very good audience: enthusiastic, noisy, knew most of the lyrics, sung, jumped, and didn’t make any disturbance. A small “pogo” showed up in some of the songs, with boys and girls who jumped and sung, but didn’t bother much the ones around. The night went on with some old songs and classics of the Caballeros de la Quema, like “Oxidado”, “Un minuto antes de dejar de quererte” and “Sapo de otro pozo”, as well as new ones like “Olivia”, and “Bienbenito” – dedicated to his son. The crowd was calm in order to problems that could have appeared, and there were young people and adults bringing back some memories too. Iván and his band got off the stage twenty minutes before 1 am not having sung Avanti morocha. After a lot of noise, applauses, whistling and shouting, they came back again and ended the show with their most famous song.

This was the moment when I had to leave everything there. Iván Noble is one of the few national artists I really like, so it was an unique oportunity. ValeMé lifted me on her shoulders and I sung more than half of the song up there, at the same level of Iván. He looked at me while I sung with my hands up in the air and he smiled at me!! I felt so crazy up there... but it was an incredible sensation! Thank you so much Vale!! I shouted, I sung, I jumped, I enjoyed and I met him!

It was a really great show.

Rodrigo Posse ·· Elephant Sexual Chocolate



Iván Noble

Un minuto antes de dejar de quererte:

Oxidado:

Sapo de otro pozo:

Avanti morocha:

Constantly writing for 30 minutes: time.

Tuesday, 19:31, “Every rose has its thorn” by Guns and Roses is being played in my iTunes list and I’ll follow Charlie’s instructions about how to write on the blog for the first time. I will write about whatever comes to my mind and won’t stop moving my fingers round the keys until half an hour, or forty five minutes have passed. Let me sum up… yes, I will have to finish writing between 8 an 8:15 pm.

So, now that I was thinking of time, hours, minutes, something came to my mind. A reflection a friend of mine (Joaku, whose birthday is today!) did about time. When is it that one second ends up to let the other one arrive? One day ends, the following starts just at the same time. But when exactly? Well, we have to pay attention to the hours, to the minutes, to the seconds if we want to be precise. But what if we want to be even more precise? We can analyse the little parts in which a second is divided, because many of those parts make up one second. For example, one second is made up of a thousand milliseconds… and at the same time those milliseconds are made up of other small pieces of time… even smaller. And that’s how time is made up. We can divide time in infinite parts, so there’s not such moment in which one time device ends up to let the other start. That’s why my friend concluded that time was an “asíntota” (I lost some seconds looking the word up in the dictionary and I didn’t find it). The “asíntota” is that line to which the graphic in axis “cartesiano” (failed when looking it up, again) gets each time closer but never touches it. The units of the axis get each time smaller, but the graphic never reaches the “asíntota”. So, that’s the same as time. Time devices get each time smaller and we really don’t know when one ends up to let the other one start. Our human senses aren’t so perfect as to catch that moment, if there is one.

I turn my eyes to the bottom right of my screen and I find the numbers 19:44. I still have some time… Again to time… Well, I’ve just finished with my physics homework. Yes! Exactly an hour ago, I started it! So, at 18:45 I was starting with that… What was I doing an hour before that? 17:45… I was round the internet, leaving comments on fotologs, posting something in mine and reading some e-mails after having my chocolate milk with biscuits. I was a bit sleepy, as I’m still now… I will go on with my whole day, hour per hour… Let’s see… 16:45… I was playing volleyball at school! I didn’t watch my clock while doing it, as it hurts my arm when the ball hits me just there. But, yes, I was playing volleyball and my team was loosing… only few scores behind the other one! Jeje We lost both matches, but not with much difference.. It was not one of our good days! =) (I was sleepy again). One hour before… 15:45 break had just finished, and I was waiting for Silvia Bartolucci and Laurita Cararcedo with Anto, to talk with them about going tomorrow to see the play Drácula. Maybe I was yet talking with them… and Silvia told us we couldn’t, as we needed to be at school to listen the other proposals of the Garbage Proyect. Then, 14:45. Maths test! I was surely struggling with one single exercise that I couldn’t make out. I handed in my test some minutes before 3 pm, so by that time I was finally getting the right way to the exercise. 13:45 I was on the taxi on my way to school, maybe talking with Sofi López Rubio, one of the ones I go with, about the musical the school is preparing. Before that, at 12:45 I was having lunch, a great hamburger at home, with mom and my two brothers. TV very loud with a guy talking about football and me and my mom talking about my morning at school and complaining about the TV volume. 11:45… In Maths class, revising for the test I had on the afternoon. 10:45 I was bored in Lalo’s philosophy class, waiting for the bell to ring, and very hungry.. =P Then, 9:45 we were in groups with Lalo, preparing some arguments in favour and against a topic… 8:45 it was English class… By that time we were surely analysing two texts as exercise for the IB… 7:45, I was again in the taxi, arriving to school, but this time very awake. 6:45… I was happily sleeping, 15 minutes before the alarm clock started pipipi pipipi pipipi!!!

It’s 20:02 now… and Simply Red with “If you don’t know me by now” is on the loudspeaker. I think on what I have to do now… History! Hhmm ¬¬ I’m already sleepy… I don’t want to imagine after doing the summary about Cámpora and Perón’s third government… I don’t like studying Argentine history… I liked a lot the World Wars… but this topic… It doesn’t attract me…

Oh! A great song has just started!! Mick Jagger and Sheryl Crow sing “Old habbits die hard”, the soundtrack of the film Alfie (which now that I think of it, I never finished watching it!)… and I want to sing too!! “Old habbits die haaaaaaaard. Old soldiers just faaaade away”…! And so on..! I love that song!!

Well… Now I’m definitely speaking nonsense… What time is it? 20:07. I’m in the rank (is that “rango”? I look up in the dictionary… yes!) I placed when I stated writing…

Now I will reread all this and post it!!

=)

Life was running away

And he felt life was running away from his hands. Everything was ending and he couldn’t do anything. Had he lived enough? He didn’t know. But life was leaving so quickly that he couldn’t even think about it. He felt no happiness, no sadness, anything at all. All he felt was that life was ending up just like sand had gone through his hands when he picked it up at the beach last summer. His clock was running backwards. It was a countdown, not a clock anymore. Just like sand goes through one’s hand. Little by little it goes. But it goes forever…

The single part

I’m one human being in the world,
Just like a small sand grain in a huge desert.
Feeling as a drop of water in the whole ocean,
I’m a single leaf in the big tree.
I’m just one of the billions cells that form a body.
But I’m there. Without me it would be the same
But we’re there. Without all us, it won’t be the same.

(Pic taken by me, click on it or here to enlarge)

"I don't wanna miss a thing"

“I don’t wanna miss a thing”, from Aerosmith is a song that marked me. For me, it’s not just a song dedicated to a guy… it’s more than that. I see more than that on the lyrics. It is really a great song to dedicate to the person you love. But it’s a song that, for me, means the not missing anything in life. You have to enjoy every single moment of it, and don’t miss anything.

(In blue and italics the lyrics. In black and normal style my words)





I could stay awake just to hear you breathing
We must find the good part of even the boring activities of life. We have to learn how to enjoy or take all we can from things that for one might be interesting while for others not.
Watch you smile while you are sleeping
While you’re far away and dreaming
I could spend my life in this sweet surrender
I could stay lost in this moment forever
Every moment I spend with you is a moment I treasure
There are things in life that we really treasure and want to stay in them forever. But we can’t, so we have to learn how to enjoy them while we have them.

I don't want to close my eyes
I don't want to fall asleep
'Coz I'd miss you baby
And I don't wanna miss a thing
We don’t have to waste a single minute. Life is short and we have plenty to enjoy. We have plenty to watch, so we should close our eyes and sleep less. We have many great things in life that we have to learn how to enjoy them all.
'Coz even when I dream of you
The sweetest dream would never do
I'd still miss you baby
And I don't want to miss a thing
Even dreaming with what we really like is a waste of time. We have to do it. To stop dreaming of it and go ahead and do it.

Laying close to you
Feeling your heart beating
And I'm wondering what you're dreaming
Wondering if it's me you're seeing
Then I kiss your eyes
And thank God we're together
When we find what we like doing, what we want to stay in forever, we have to thank for that. We all should find what we really have been born to. What we really like and are good at. Because that’s what life is for. To find our true vocation and enjoy our life with it.
I just want to stay with you in this moment forever
Forever and ever
And when we find that thing that we really love, we don’t want to leave it more.

I don't want to miss one smile
I don't want to miss one kiss
I just want to be with you right here with you just like this
I just wanna hold you close
Feel your heart so close to mine
And stay here in this moment for all the rest of times
Baby, baby

So, we shouldn’t miss one smile, one kiss. We have to enjoy every single moment. Take advantage of every situation. Learn to enjoy even what we don’t like and learn to find our vocation, what we have really been made for.

I feel I’m living a great time in my life. The best I’ve ever lived. And I know that this is a very important stage in everybody’s life, but not everybody enjoys it as I am doing. I really don’t want to end up this phase, I don’t want to grow up in this sense. But I know I have to, so I just try to enjoy it as much as I can. And when the moment of letting this secondary girl go, I know I will suffer, as I am already sad about thinking of it. I don’t want to leave this place that watched me grow up, watched me smile, cry, brought so many great people to my life… I don’t want to leave all these people, I don’t want to leave that green place that made me so happy although it gave me so much work. But with all I got from it, I am who I am and what I am.

I can say this song is the one that expresses exactly what I felt the last 2 years of my life (about school). This is what I think about every time I listen to this great song. And this is what I will think every time I listen to it after ending up this best period of my life.

Chronicles of a snowy, cold and incredible trip

(Written long ago but - I don't know why - never posted)

After crossing out the dates of the calendar, doing our countdown, feeling excited, packing our luggage and dreaming with ski, we finally went to San Martín de los Andes and Bariloche!! And we’re back… that’s the worst part… Wanna know what we did, how it was, where we went? Wanna see some pictures?

It was Friday 29th of June and at 8:30 p.m. we arrived to the school. After the sad and fearful farewells with parents, friends and relatives, we started our trip round 10:30, with no strange or shouted “No’ vamo’ a Bariló Bariló Bariló” song at all.

Flechabus, two new double-decker buses, two coordinators (Juan Pablo and José María), two teachers (Norita and Laurita Bravo), two tutors (Inesita and Dolores), two sons of an owner of school (Jari and Abal), 65 students, more tan 65 suitcases, more than 65 bags. A boring journey it can be called. Sleep, snacks, a guitar breaking all silence and people complaining about their fatty hair. After several stops and 40 hours on the bus, we finally reached the dreamt city of San Martín de los Andes. Quickly we packed Colonos del Sur, had lunch, were introduced to “PocoEstrés” (Martín), the guy who took pictures and filmed us. Then we finally could have a bath.

We were divided into boys and girls and went on a city tour on the “Red Bus”, like the ones in London! Very exciting at the beginning, but we were kind of bored, so we didn’t listen to the woman talking on the microphone very well… Undoubtedly, she ended up pleading us to get out of the bus! We didn’t listen much, but admired the great city and the wonderful landscapes it offers. Then we rented our skis, sticks, uncomfortable boots, and the “teletubies” (name we gave to the snow equipment).

The following three days we skied. Beginners took some classes with instructors and went out skiing. The others went by our own to have our adventures in the snow. Each time more people added up to the group and we all laughed at our bloopers! Some heads under the snow, some knee pains, falls, each ski going to a different side, some open legs with a tree in the middle, people buried under snow. Well… many bloopers! At 1:45 p.m. a big crowd dressed all the same as teletubies invaded “La Base”, made a long line and all ate the same food. At 4:45 the mass disappeared in some white vans and after half an hour it was at Colonos del Sur again, drinking hot chocolate.

Silence ruled in the hotel for two hours, with people having a bath and sleeping. At 9 we had lunch and prepared for the night: two nights of disco and three of pub. Music, some alcohol, people chatting, jumping, dancing… having fun!

After skiing three days and suffering a lot of muscular pain (back, arms, legs, neck, knee some), Quila Quina was waiting for us. A great ride through the lake and wonderful landscapes.

Our 6th day consisted on a long trip to Bariloche. We did in eight hours the 200 km we should have done in three! The path was full of snow and we had to stop several times to put the chains in the bus tires, to wait until a truck was taken out from the middle of the road, take the snow from the road with spades, and then one of the chains cut down. It was a complicated trip and we finally reached the wonderful city of Bariloche, with its lake, blue sky and white mountains. We had lunch at 5 p.m. in the hotel Copahue. As soon as we placed our suitcases in the rooms we went walking, suffering the enormous cold that pierced our bones, through the city. We knew a bit of it, rented our equipment for the mud and some people rented costumes for the party that night. We ran back to the hotel and starting preparing ourselves.

The first night at Bariloche we had the custom party in Genux. Boys went dressed as pirates and girls as women from the caverns; it was funny! The place had only one dance floor, but offered a spectacle in a screen of drawings made as in neon lights. Then a man dressed in phosphorescent clothes hanging from the roof made some acrobatics jumping from a fence to the roof, and then touching people’s hands. Finally, a man with a saxo played with the rhythm and notes of famous songs, which were then hitched to the original ones. We danced all night and then, going back, the seller of hamburgers outside the hotel became rich with us!

After a morning listening and learning about, smelling, watching and buying chocolate in Fenoglio, Nahuel Hue Park was next. We started climbing a wall as “rapel”, “A” vs. “B” and “A” won supposedly two buckets of alcohol that night, but no one ever paid them! Then we played the zoo game and laughed for a while, followed by the football in pairs. Then we did “tirolesa” and a 15 minutes horse riding. Many people stayed the whole afternoon inside the hut because of the cold! That was the coldest day of the whole season: -18ºC!! And we were out there… just walking in the wind. Then we were given mate with a fried cake to which no one did more than three bites!! We danced in the hut until all the other groups went away, and we had our candles dinner, in another cold hut. Then most of us cried with the monologue given by “El Indio”, talking about life in the secondary school, what we were, what we are, and how things will be. Then back to Copahue.

The second and last night at Bariloche, By Pass was the target. It was a whole adventure, as all night, to get out of the hotel in t-shirts, running and screaming until we got into the bus. Then the same, and all 65 entering to the disco running and screaming of cold. Once we were in, the temperature was perfect, and sometimes it was even hot! We just ended up entering and the show began. Another presentation on a screen and then the famous lasers show! It was something incredible how the lasers moved, the colours, the lights, the shapes, the music accompanying. It was great! And after some minutes of it, everything went off and the famous voice said: “Bienvenidos a By Pass”. That’s when the party began. After a great and quite long night we started our cold operation again; we ran to the bus screaming. Then the hamburger, then breakfast in the hotel, and a different activity: it was 6:30 and at 8 the bus was going to look for us to go to the Catedral hill.

Some slept, some arranged the suitcase, some continued dancing, singing and laughing round the corridors… It was 8 a.m. and only four of us where down the lobby, with the teachers. After some expeditions to wake up people and get them down, we finally could get 20 out of 65 downstairs, sleeping in the lobby! “It’s a good percentage” one teacher said. The bus driver was tired of waiting, and it arranged with the teachers to come back at 10. People downstairs weren’t allowed to go up again and the ones up were supposed to go down! It was a mess the lobby!! Sleeping corpses everywhere!! The only four waken up went to have a hot chocolate milk with Jari to the YPF and went back at 10. I don’t know how, but everybody went to the Catedral hill. The guide in the bus talked only for five people awake and we got taken the panoramic photograph, with big rings under our eyes and sleepy faces. Teachers didn’t allow us to go up to the hill through the flying chairs because of our state… it was dangerous. So we quickly went down to the city. We had lunch, gave back the equipments, prepared our things, and went back to Tucumán in a very silent journey, with people sleeping most of the time. The school saw us arrive at 2:30 a.m. because of the snow and ice on the road until Río Cuarto (Córdoba), what made the road slower.
40 out of 65 went to the doctor in the whole trip… The top problems were knee and throat pain, fever and cough. The pharmacy owner might have been very happy with us there! Flechabus behaved incredibly! It amazed more than one of us. And the companions we had were really great! A very good group, wonderful people, very helpful every single moment. We are all grateful for them, for the companions, our parents and our partners. Some of us got really sick, but still enjoyed enormously the great trip!! And it was thank to all these people!!

In one blink of an eye the dreamt trip passed by and we are back in Tucumán, with no snow in plans. It is incredible how quickly things go from being plans and future, to memories and past. It is all over. All we have now are good memories and great adventures to remember… but the trip is over. And it is just like that how things go by and we do nothing! We should stop for a moment, think a bit, and start enjoying more every moment we have, because very soon this period of our life will have ended...