La vida sin libros de papel ... ¿pero tú estás loco, o qué? Living without paper books? Are you crazy??!!

My neighbour Gonçalo and I had a heated argument the other day over a cup of coffee. It was not about the cats, nor about sardines or anything like that. 


It occurred to me (unfortunately) to ask him what he knew about e-readers and if he knew which one was the best as I was thinking of buying one.
  

He looked at me as if I had told him I was dating Satan. 

'What is the problem Gonçalo? why are you looking at me like that?'

'Sit down, Matilda'. He gave me close to one hour of uninterrupted lecture about the perils of replacing 'real objects' (like books, I guess) by their virtual equivalents, meaning e-books. 

After a second cup of coffee I ventured to say this: 'Gonçalo ... books contain virtual worlds just the same as tablets or e-readers, whether you turn a page or you touch a screen it is not reality that you find in books, it is fiction! ... so what is the difference?'


The cats were following our argument without blinking. I had the feeling that they were siding with Gonçalo and this pissed me off quite a bit.

'Matilda you are such an ignorant, you are so naive that I can't believe you are my friend ... let me tell you this:  blah, blah, blah ...


I was going to throw him out of the house but I resisted. I did not want to hurt Sandy and Freddy G. because of such an idiot!

He kept talking for a little longer (while I was doing my nails) then he stopped.  He realized that I wasn't listening.  


'Come on Freddy, it's time to go home'. He got up, Freddy followed him and they left.


What an arrogant pr*ck! how opinionated!  what self-importance! how patronising! what a loser.


I have not seen him for a week and I don't intend to see him ever again.

So, that's all for now,

                                                                   Matilda :)

La mitad del aire en un espacio dado (half the air in a give space)

Living with a cat or not living with a cat? .... that is a question that Hamlet never asked, but it is one that I DO ask myself on a daily basis. Is she worth having or is she not? What do I really get from her besides admiring her good looks? The answer is always the same: I don't know.

The thing is that we were watching the news on SBS the other day when they showed an original display with blue balloons from Martin Creed, an artist from the UK. I loved the title, both in English (Half the Air in a Given Space) and in Spanish (la mitad del aire en un espacio dado). The display was in the Museum of Modern Art of Vigo a city in Galicia, northern Spain.

Shortly after I found a post-it note from Sandy next to her plate: 'I want to go to Vigo and burst all those balloons. I feel such a strong urge to pop balloons! Matilda DO something NOW! 

 

Trying to argue with a cat that Vigo is at some 14000 km away is a waste of time, but I tried and failed.

The next morning there was another Post-it note: 'I said yesterday that I want to go to Vigo and pop those balloons'. Next to it was a small fur ball.

(Just in case you don't know, my cat has 2 powerful negotiating weapons: fur balls produced at will and accidental wees).

What could I do? It was Saturday, so I thought I might as well organise a little party with balloons she could pop. Then again, knowing her it would have to be something decent, she would not settle for anything that wasn't similar to the Vigo display.

I invited Gonçalo and Freddy for dinner and left Sandy with them. I wanted the 3 of them at my house at 6pm on the dot.

Then I rushed to the party shop where I bought all the balloons they had and a small pump to inflate them. It costed me a small fortune, but what wouldn't I do for Sandy? 

Once at home I started to inflate balloons and didn't stop until there was no room to move. I could hardly see my watch: it was 4pm.

Since I didn't have the time let alone the space for cooking, I went out again to get some dinner. I bought take-away food and some delicacies from a new shop near home.

At 6pm the bell rang and Gonçalo, Freddy G. and Sandy arrived, all spruced-up. Freddy had spiky hair and Sandy was wearing a pink ribbon around her neck. (Oh, please!!!) I felt like shutting the door on them but Gonçalo didn't let me. 'Be understanding - he said- they are young and are very much in love.'

When they saw the balloons they went crazy and started to pop them as if there was no tomorrow. I feared the neighbours would call the police thinking there was a terrorist attack or worse. Luckily nothing happened, no one came. Half an hour later no balloon was left unpopped in the house. We had dinner and the rest (cleaning, tiding up etc) is history). It was past midnight when the boys went home.

Matilda