Addicted

I have this terrible addiction... and I'm not talking about chocolate, nor Paris, shoes or travelling. This is an addiction I can't quite seem to manage (much like chocolate).

The thing is, even if by chance I do happen to hear the 5th alarm go off on time, I always seem to take longer and longer to get ready every morning, and I wind up being unnecessarily late. Don't ask me why, it just happens that way. And "oh, I'm late again" and I hail a taxi on my way out.

Every freakin' morning by now...

And of course it's ridiculous! And I'm totally cheap on other things, but a taxi is never money wasted. There's something in being driven to work, having all that back seat space to yourself. Not having to push your way around a  busy train station. Not holding onto your purse like a life vest, riding with the train's doors one centimetre from your  face.... I know it's ridiculous, and it needs to stop now!!

Still... there's nothing like a good conversation with a nice taxi driver!



Taxi #1: Jake&Sam
Taxi #2: Silvia.R
Taxi #3: michaelsdonovan

Why?

Why, if I went to sleep an hour and a half earlier than usual, did I keep on sleeping?

Why, if I have five alarms strategicalky scheduled at different times for me to get up ontime, I heard none?

Why did I overslept on the day I had important stuff to do before going to the office?

Why did I have to leave the house in such a rush I couldn't even see the weather forecast?

Why did I, on the coldest day of the year, leave the house on ballerina flats and no socks??

And why on Earth is it snowing all over Argentina, exept in Buenos Aires?!?!



It snowed by .bella.

Chez Pauline

So found this cute little place she took me to yesterday for tea, and let me tell you I just adored it! Chez Pauline in Recoleta, is a maison de thé where you can walk in and buy some really exquisite teas and pastries or sit down at one of their little tables and enjoy a pot of tea and a pain au chocotate, brioche or the day's cakes with a friend.

I tried the Bouquet de Provence tea: black Ceilán tea with lavender flowers from Provence and sliced almonds (to die for!). Unfortunately they didn't have any macarons at the time, I guess that's what happens when you show up for tea time at 7pm... so we settled for home made toast with butter and countryside honey instead.

I loved the look, and if you buy a can of tea, you can get discounts on refills later on, no need to buy the can again afterwards! I deffinitely need to get back for one and give those macarons a try...

Have a great weekend!


Photo from here.

Culturise thyselves!!

Today I was hit in the face with reality: I'm old. No, seriously, I'm 24, but I'm already old. I needed to get to a doctor's appointment and the train wouldn't come, so I had to fly out of the train station and I hailed, what now is, the most expensive taxi ride I ever took... Why, you ask? Why did I have to get on a  taxi and not ride a bus? Because there was the most ridiculous traffic ever and I was already late.

We din't realy know why we had to come to a halt every other 10 meters....the taxi driver kept promising that past Pueyrredón Av it would be fine and we would speed up, but we never did. Why? I was wondering the exact same thing, until suddenly I vagely remembered hearing about a band that was playing at River Stadium tonight. So who was playing? JONAS BROTHERS.




Yes, readers, I amit it, I have heard the name before, as in I have heard those two words in a sentence... but I just couldn't think of a song I knew they played, or really even picture them in my mind. Judging from the isnanity vibe and screams coming in from River Stadium (2km away) there must be thousands of teenage girls who do know them. You would not believe their screams every 15 seconds or so, carried by the wind into my room.

So who are the? Are this generation's Hanson Brothers? Are they the next Back Street Boys?? I wish I had a 14 year-old reader to explain all this to me and make me feel like I'm not really that old just yet...



To hear more songs by Jonas Brothers (and realise it's not spelt "Jona's" like I thought at first) visit their Official Youtube Channel.

Oid mortales!

Yesterday was our National Anthem's day, and perhaps it doesn't seem like such a big story to post about... but it's our anthem and I love it! And I'm not just saying that 'cause I'm Argentine, it is really good.

On the video above it's being played at Plaza de Mayo, across from the Casa Rosada, by the Regimiento Patricios Military band, who I think are excellent!

Don't really know if this is much of a story at all... but we don't usually make a huge deal of our national symbols and I thought it was a good time to spread the sound!

On the other side of the globe

There's this amazing photographic presetation at the Aliance Française of Buenos Aires going on these days, organised to celebrate Médecins du Monde's 10 years in Argentina with photos by some really good photographers depicting life in some of the harshest places in our planet.

And the serie that caught my eye is "Crisis in Congo" by Andrew McConnell. The photos are unbelievable, the kind that just take your breath away as they open a huge question mark or unleash a turmoil of thoughts in your head. The first thing I thought when I saw the first picture was: "Gosh, there's someone sleeping in those huts tonight". I know it's silly, but it's not a thought that occurs to you when you go about doing your regular stuff. It caught me by surprise as I was going to my French classes. And it made me think of the times when I wanted to work with refugees and the UN in my teen years...

There's a whole world out there, and sometimes I feel like we're completely disconnected from it, from them. And I know there's a lot of people in need right here too, but when you read about the millions of people that are being pushed out of their land into refugee camps due to the political interests of a few... it just makes you think, and not be comfortably seated in a cubicle any more.



To see more mindblowing photos by Andrew McConnell click here.

History in the making

Last week an Argentine ex-president passed away. I wasn't really planning to go to the ceremony that held place along the streets of Buenos Aires basicaly because I didn't feel a very strong connection with him, I mean, I know he was the first democratically elected President in a very long time, and that's a huge thing, but appart from that... I dunno, I'm not taking sides on something that happened when I was a one-year-old, besides the fact that I'm absolutely grateful I lived all my life in democracy.

That being said, I wound up unvoluntarily in the middle of the whole thing on my way to S's house and by fortune I had my camera with me! So you get a little glimpse of the throngs of people gathering up to see the Army escort go by. It was really thrilling to take part of it, even though I did it in my own way: seeing people's faces, reading the flags and banners and looking up at the poeple looking down on us from their valconies.

It was literaly like seeing history in the making, and I loved it.


All photos by me.

Buenos Aires {Estación de trenes Retiro}

This is what happens when there's a lot of people standing in line at the train station and you have all this time while waiting to get the train ticket, and you realise that today you brought your camera with you.

All photos by me. Click on them to view larger.

Happy Valentine's Weekend!

Another Valentine's Day is right around the corner. Wether it's your first with someone, your first alone, you're running out of ideas or you've got the perfect plan, how are you planning on spending it?

Me, I'm not sure. P and I always pretend it's not an important date, but then we are at the last second trying to figure out what to do so we don't let the moment pass. Our most memorable? Probably the year we had dinner at Azurra, a restaurant on a19th floor in downtown Buenos Aires. He'd booked a table by the window, and we had a spectacular view of Puerto Madero and we saw the Gay Cruise take off into the night all lit up. Too bad it closed, 'cause the restaurant was really nice, although the food was a bit blah. What do you care, though, it's Valentine's!!

Please post your plans for tomorrow and have a GREAT weekend!!


Photo via WeHeartIt.

Yellow chrysanthemum

I was not having a good day yesterday. I can't really put down in words and on the internets all that was going on in my head. But it just wasn't my greatest. After having had dinner with the girls, I realised I had enough money for a three blocks taxi ride, so I went for a bus instead.

Waiting and waiting and waiting.

It was enough to start going through my thoughts all over again. It was dark, past midnight and I was getting a bit stressed. After 51 MINUTES of being alone with my thoughts, a guy out of nowhere comes along with a bouquet of flowers. I started getting paranoid, wishing he'd go away as he stops two feet away from me. He turns around and hands me a yellow flower. I said "thank you" two or three times, and he didn't say a word, he just smiled and left. And there I was, standing by the sidewalk in the middle of the night, and I was speechless. I couldn't hold back the tears and at that moment all of my problems and worries got solved.

So this is a big THANK YOU to that guy who last night at 12.51 was walking around the city with a bouquet of flowers. Never underestimate the kindness of strangers.

A Starbucks proposal + opening

Just in case you guys didn't already know, we have a new Stabucks Coffee Store in our neigbourhood! You can now find it at the corner of Federico Lacroze and 3 de Febrero (Belgrano). Make sure to try out the Dulce de Leche Frapuccino Crème.... to die for this summer! (Warning: for some reason the store is full of 12-15 year olds... might want to consider the time you hit the store!)

And now something to illustrate the news: a Starbucks proposal, photographed by a friend in desguise. How cute is that??

Por si todavía no se enteraron, tenemos un nuevos Starbucks en el barrio! Abrió en la esquina de Federico Lacroze y 3 de Febrero (Belgrano). Les recomiendo el Dulce de Leche Frapuccino Crème... genial para este verano! (Advertencia: por alguna razón el local está lleno de chicas y chicos de 12 a 15 años, ténganlo en cuenta para elegir el horario!).

Y para ilustrar las novedades: una pareja que se comprpometió en uno de los locales fotografiados por una amiga en encuvierto! No es re tierno??


Photos by Cindi.
I came across this cute proposal via A Cup of Joe.

On the way to work {Retiro}

Palermo horse race tracks (from the train)

Monumento a los Ingleses

Av. Leandro N. Alem

Torre de IBM

Consultatio & Sun buildings

Microsft building

This is the bit of the neighbourhood of Retiro I get to see every morning on my way to work. Most people detest working downtown, but I'm absolutely in awe: by the people, the antique and modern buildings, the gorgeous (?) Retiro Train Station, everyone rushing to get to work around 9am, disappearing into the massive glass buildings... What isn't there to love? I get to work on a simple version of La Defense, and I love it!


Este es un pedacito del barrio de Retiro que veo todas las mañanas en el camino al trabajo. La mayoría odia tener que trabajar en el centro, pero a mí me encanta: la gente, los edificios antiguos y modernos, el lindísimo (?) edificio de la Estación de Trenes Retiro, todos corriendo para llegar a la oficina a las 9 de la mañana, desapareciéndo en los gigantescos edificios de vidrio... Qué no hay que querer? Me toca trabajar en una versión más simple de La Defense, y me encanta!


Photo credits: Me.

Museo Larreta {Jardín andaluz}

I don't know why, but lately I can't read in bed at night anymore... I just fall asleep by the time I hit the third line, so I've got to get creative on beautiful afternoons where I would just read in bed, but I know I want to make the most of the sun and the great temperatures we've been having these past few days.

So yesterday I took off with my camera and a book to the Museo Enrique Larreta, the Museum of Spanish (from Spain) Art of the city of Buenos Aires. They have this amazing Andalucian style garden adjacent to the house that's just great to go to for a walk, take hundreds of pictures or just sit under the shade and read by the fountain. The jasmin, fruit trees, bushes and roses generate an ambience that is abosultely enticing. And the many trees all around the garden provide a great cool shade, even if the scorching heat is right outside the garden walls.

The museum in itself is not very large, but they have lovely literary expositions, and for the 1$peso entrance fee I highly recommend it!

No sé por qué, pero últimamente no puedo leer en la cama a la noche... para cuando llegué al tercer renglón ya me quedé dormida, así que tengo que ser un poco más creativa estas tardes lindísimas donde me gustaría quedarme en la cama leyendo, pero sé que en realidad está bueno aprovechar el sol y el clima genial que estamos teniendo estos últimos días.

Así que ayer me fui con mi cámara y un libro al Museo Enrique Larreta, el Museo de Arte Español de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Al lado de la casa hay un jardín andaluz increíble y que está buenísimo para ir a caminar, sacar cientas de fotos o sentarse en la sombra y leer un buen libro. El aroma a los jasmines, árboles frutales, arbustos y rosales es genial y los árboles que hay en el jardín generan un clima súper templado, por más que detrás de los muros del museo haga un calor infernal.

El museo en sí mismo no es muy grande, pero tiene unas exposiciones literarias muy buenas, y por la entrada que vale 1$ es super recomendable para darse una vuelta!


Photo credits: Me.