Gear and pinion

I'm fighting an uphill battle here. Trying to keep a blog alive, in gear and meaningful, goes against all odds. I'm sure (not going to bother to actually find out) there are millions of blogs starting daily. After all, who doesn't think has an interesting story to tell? I'm sure only a tiny amount of them survive the first 2 months. And of those, an even tinyer quantity make it through the first year of existence. Very few of any kind will continue with a daily cadence beyond the first 2 or 3 weeks. You know, commitment, interesting stuff to share, time are all difficult things to secure daily. I'm one that worries about stupid stuff, and starting a blog and not keeping it afloat feels wrong, shallow, whimsical. Very very similar to my relationship with Facebook or Twitter or Instagram. They don't click into place with me. I feel attracted to that communication stream, to the instant reward of likes and putting out there stuff that probably shouldn't be there in the first place, by reaching lots of people across geographies instantaneously, but I never got that inner peace with its purpose in my life. In a sense, I feel like just unplugging it all, but then I feel I might benefit from having those electronic ties established, but I feel inconveniently at odds with the best usage of it all. Grrr. Having a blog has the clear advantage that you have a more wholesome control over the content. You choose when, how, how long, independently of what other people tweets or FB posts. However, it has a bigger toll in the way of your own exigence as a blogger on the content and the overall depth you want to put to it, since here it's all about developing an idea in a few paragraphs. Of course, the target might or might not be better defined and it's entirely possible that you write for yourself but somehow this feels more personal and less show-off. It's Sunday morning on a Barcelona weekend. Haven't really prepared for the weekend and as a result it's going nowhere. Total waste of a weekend. Shame on me! I'm thinking going for a hike/walk to the Llobregat wetlands to see what's up there with the birds and see the planes landing at BCN airport. Should be pretty busy today with the MWC starting tomorrow. For the record, there's a Subway strike planned for tomorrow and Wednesday. Well done, boys and girls! For those of you that aren't familiar with today's Barcelona social scene, and in my humble opinion, there's an excess of complaining going on in here. Granted, harsh times are upon us, but I can't see how complaining about public health, which is one of the best and cheapest of all of Western Europe, is going to get us anywhere. Lots of complaints about tourism killing the neighbourhoods and all of that, but the target of the complaint is not clear to me. Some of them want to stop the cruise-ship tourism and turn it into a kind of high-brow cultural tourism. Yeah, sure... We're so full of ourselves that consider we can advise how visitors must spend their time. We blame this tourism for the poverty and inequalities going on in the city but challenge the actual source of the income, rather than the poor way the money is distributed. We can't seem to find the balance between the two. When the current Mayor's team got in office, they announced they were reconsidering the MWC and the conventional tourism/hotels licenses to ensure BCN was going to turn into a socially fairer city. All the economic powerhouses freaked out and within days she was curbing her stance. Previous incumbents were top-heavy (ie, free traffic to expansion of the income sources, read the Port attraction to cruise liners, more hotel licenses, look to the other side when the illegal tourism apartment rentals mushroomed, etc) but not very engaged in making the inequality rate lower... These rich-poor easy discourses are all the rage nowadays and probably the root of the conflict that will impact quite visibly tomorrow's MWC mobility, in the world's spotlight. Pragmatism and calm aren't virtues related to us fiery Mediterraneans.

New beginnings

Hiya!
well, talking about the Revenant (I went to watch that one just last night), the passage of time, the changes... here we are again. A lot of water is under the bridge now. This blogger's life is in a completely new space but still feels like writing every now and then. Still wondering who's this for, if it should be for anyone at all. I guess it's for me and perhaps for my kiddos one day. Perhaps this should be the approach. If along the way someone else enjoys reading it for whatever the reason, happy days! welcome.
The price to pay for so many changes from this blog's point of view is going to be the choice of language, I guess... but let's be polite and bring you up to speed. It's going to take me a few posts but even the strongest of athletes need warm-up, don't they?
I am Pablo. Same guy, just older. I live in Barcelona now. I don't work for good ol' Intel anymore. I work for Accenture now. As a consultant. Go figure... My life is now in transit and I must bring my family down south with me. So... lots of stuff to do, tons of thoughts to be had, choices bad and good all over the place and the adaptation is the name of the game.
If I had to tell you what's the most interesting thought I felt like sharing with someone, in writing... that would have to be the realization of who I have become with my trips. Myself and my family.
I am from nowhere, really. I gained a country, Ireland and to be honest, I feel half of everything. Hard to state where am I from. Not in a sentence no less in a word. I personally despise as cheesy that "I am a citizen of the World" statement. Lame. Lame. Pathetic.
So... I feel like I am..... well, me! and that "me" makes me smile, cherish it, love it...
Ireland has been really hard. I love tons of things from it, love the people and definitely feel close to them. I have spent more than a quarter of my life there! Do I romanticize the country? not a chance! But in fairness, it has become fully livable after so many years, I miss it to bits and I definitely want to remain very close to it.
I really never engaged to the level of engagement you have in your own country, I guess... I hardly remember the political parties, or how the State is organized or... all that jazz. I won't probably read too much Irish mainstream press. But I will always remember how I was one of them at work, how we struggled with kids' stuff and discussed their shenanigans with other parents, how I enjoyed the few invites of our friends there (or in America, for that matter), Eilish and Ger, Siobhan and Andrew, Shane and Maina, Mark and Rosie, Dave and Ann, Suzanne and Kevin... and the Scots, too! George and Claire (of acclaimed "Claire's bread"), Stephen and Susan... To name the ones my melted head prompts me as having had us over for dinner or lunch. And how important is to share a table! that I can't escape it's a Med thing.
Of course I'm not denying my Spanish-ness. Not at all! But I get back and I miss the simple concepts I had as my Spain. I obviously blocked my mind from all the shite the actual Spain has... and here it hits me with a vengeance.
So my conclusion is that the traveller (and please don't take this in any kind of pretentious way) is lucky to be able to build his or her own world, his or her own Country of origin. His or her self.
And that, I have found, it's a treasure worth living for. More coming soon.