Disturbing news

What happened in Mumbai this week is truly disturbing. While it is a fact that in other parts of the world higher numbers die daily due to disease, war or famine; when almost 200 lives are lost in the hands of crazy men who don’t even make their cause clear, it is impossible not to feel perplexed.

BBC is calling them ‘celebrity terrorists’. These madmen managed to monopolise worldwide media attention by setting luxury hotels and tourist spots on fire and by singling out victims according to their passport. Incredibly enough, these terrorists were doing nothing to hide their identities. It’s almost as if they did it all for their 5 minutes of fame.

They obviously got more than that, plus loads of media speculation on why they did it. Speculation has been driving this news. It is almost as if the terrorists committed such a horrendous act to allow the world to make up the story behind it depending on what suits each of us best.

And this, unfortunately, sounds terribly familiar.

A princess view on 40

Back in the 1950s a beautiful and talented American 27 year-old actress married a European Royal Prince and became Her Highness The Princess of Monaco.

We all know the fairy-tale story of Grace Kelly and how her glamorous life had a tragic ending; but few know that apparently she lived ‘torture’ about 12 years before she died. That is, when she turned 40.

For a woman, forty is torture, the end.

This is what the famous princess apparently said at some point around the time she blew 40 candles on her birthday cake… and that was in 1969 … the year I was born … 40 years ago!

So I bump into this quote at a time when I have been writing my thoughts on turning 40, and when I have even created a website for forty-something women to pour all my energy on this subject into something positive.

But torture, believe me, is not a positive thought.

Once upon a time ...

One day, long, long ago there was a woman who did not whine, nag or bitch.



But this was a very long time ago ... and it was just that one day.

The End

¡No seas cascarrabias!

Así le dije a mi hija el otro día, y se me quedó viendo con cara de “WHAT?!” ¿Y es que como explicarle sobre la cueva de las orquídeas susurrantes, la llave de cristal, el pobre dragón mejor conocido como ‘la torpe sabandija alérgica’ al que ese enano pelirrojo y bigotón siempre le gritaba: “¡Atrápalos dragón, es una orden!”?

Terry, Bip y la Princesa Amanecer siempre huyendo y visitando lugares exóticos - y Cascarrabias insistiendo siempre en quererlos convertir en picadillo.

Un gruñón hecho y derecho. Que junto con Gargamel de los Pitufos y el Eco-Loco de Odisea Burbujas fueron para muchos de nosotros los primeros malvados enojones de los que tenemos recuerdo.

¿A poco no?

Forty-something dot com

I am very excited with my latest online project: www.forty-something.com. I decided to stop moaning about turning 40 and put my thoughts to some good use by creating a website dedicated to all 40-something women out there.

This is a live project, so what you find now on the site is just the beginning of what I hope will become a complete source of information and articles covering everything that is interesting for a woman in her 40s: beauty, fashion, health, jobs, romance, shopping, etc.

There is little out there that targets women by age, so this should be an interesting project with - hopefully - good potential.

The site includes a shopping section with gift ideas and more.

Take a look and let me know what you think!

Don't bully me just because I am young

Do you remember when the older kids at school used to bully the younger ones because they were … well, younger and inexperienced? And isn’t it something that the pattern keeps repeating itself even as we grow ‘older and wiser’?

I have to confess that I’ve found myself a few times thinking that nobody under 30 would be able to do my job as good as me, simply because I’ve been doing it longer. And that’s a fallacy. A myth that if we all truly believed and followed would probably bring disastrous results in all domains. Doing something longer does NOT necessarily mean doing it BETTER.

And that brings me to the mantra that McCain chanted during his whole campaign and that many Republicans keep singing: 'Obama is inexperienced'. Why? Because he is much younger than McCain and as a result he’s been in politics for fewer years?

Obama will be president of the USA at age 47. But, the other two North American leaders were also elected to their posts in their 40s: Stephen Harper of Canada at 46 and Felipe Calderon of Mexico at 44. And it’s not as if Angela Merkel or Gordon Brown are that far behind having been elected to office in their early 50s.

Are they really too young? Sorry, but compared to McCain EVERYBODY is too young!

American author Kurt Vonnegut once said on aging:

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

So my message to my childhood friends is simple: stay away from politics and let’s remain friends forever!

The new job market

Not much to say on this one ... When a black man with roots in Africa can become the president of the USA, it is a clear sign that times are changing and absolutely everything is possible! So what makes us laugh today could very well be our reality tomorrow.

Enjoy the video and consider changing your brand new saloon for a pick-up truck and that Armani suit for flannels!

Gracias a Griselda por compartir.

The guy who got away with murder

Can you imagine a man who already had six wives by the time he reached his early 50s? What if I told you that this guy actually had two of them killed and got away with it? And not only that, but this bloke managed to change the official religion of his country so that he could divorce his first wife.

If you are Mexican, you probably think this is a good plot for a telenovela … if you are American you might be wondering if this is what the next season of ‘24’ will be all about … if you are British, you better know who I am talking about!

Henry VIII was king of England back in the early 1500’s and was quite a character. I seriously don’t want to bore you with a history lesson; it’s just that I was wondering if a country’s ruler would be able to get away with so much these days …

Let’s pretend that a mainly Catholic country – Mexico for argument’s sake – had a king and not a president. Let’s call him Enrique, which is Henry in Spanish.

Well, Enrique decides that his wife of 24 years, Caterina, is not good enough because she has not given him an heir and wants to divorce her and marry his wife’s maid: Anita. Now, the obstacle here is that they are Catholic, right? So, he goes to Benedict XVI and asks for an annulment of his marriage and the Pope says ‘nein’. So Enriquito, decides then and there to make Mexico a Protestant country, and calls himself head of the Church of Mexico.

He marries Anita just to get bored of her three years later and puts his eyes on Anita’s maid, Juanita (told you – soap opera material). So he accuses Anita of links with a drug cartel (actually he accused her of witchcraft, but this is the 2008 version after all), has her beheaded (ouch!) and 24hrs later marries Juanita. Juanita dies while giving birth to a son within the year; so Quique (short for Enrique) goes to a dating site online and finds a German gal called Anita (yes, he also had a thing for Anas and Caterinas).

But when he sees Anita the German in person, he realizes that the photo she used on her profile is much better than the real thing. He marries her, but divorces her 6 months later to tie the knot with 19 year-old Caterina. Quique is already 49 by now, so Caterinita starts having fun with some younger boyfriends around the palace making her hubby jealous. Good’ol Quique does what he does best and has her beheaded.

That same year he marries yet another Caterina who looks after him in his old age – yes, 50 is old age – until he dies 4 years later.

I learned all this gossip while helping my daughter revise for a history test. No wonder she keeps telling me that she loves history!

Mathemagic

Math is one of those subjects that most students have a love or hate relationship with. If you hated it you at school chances are that nowadays you make a living as a lawyer or maybe a historian. If you loved it, there is a good possibility that you became an engineer of some sort or probably an actuary.

But even if you loved the subject to pieces, I doubt it if you would have ever thought of becoming a “mathemagician”. I’d never met one before. That is until this morning when I came across Arthur Benjamin. Not the man himself, but a video of one of his shows. And let me tell you that the guy is quite amazing!

And since this morning I cannot stop to wonder: if he is that good with numbers …maybe he could do a little trick with my age?

De elecciones y catafixias

Estas elecciones en Estados Unidos me recuerdan al programa de Chabelo: Comenzaron demasiado temprano; estuvieron llenas de juegos, mañas y sorpresas; hasta las mamás jugaron y el final se decidirá en las catafixias.

A poco no? La diferencia es que son millones de jugadores los que pasaron a las catafixias y solamente tienen dos en lugar de tres puertas a escoger, y de paso nos tienen a billones de espectadores en ascuas esperando a ver si se deciden por la puerta correcta!

Es algo asi como que cada gringo con derecho al voto ya se sacó una "dotación completa de productos Marinela" – es decir, un montón de basura que ha sido azucarada y empaquetada para que se crean que es “good for them”.

Detras de la Puerta #1 se encuentra una “fabulosa dotación completa de productos Ricolino”, en pocas palabras: más de lo mismo!

Pero tras la Puerta #2 hay nada más y nada menos .... señoras y señores ... niñas y niños .... chan-chan-chan-chan-le-che-con-pan: una flamante sala - comedor de Muebles Troncoso!!!!!

Si, lo sé, la verdad es que a mi también me gustaría mas que hubiera una flamante bicicleta y la colección completa de juguetes Mi Alegría ... pero, hay que ser realistas ... esperemos que el resultado de estas elecciones mejore la situación, no que Obama haga milagros!

Y mientras esperamos ansiosos el resultado de las elecciones, los dejo con otro recuerdito del pasado dedicado a aquellos que, como yo, se despertaban tarde los domingos!

40 is the new 30 ... but it's not!

Since I started writing about my thoughts on turning 40 many friends came back to tell me that “40 is the new 30”. Problem is, I am not really sure how that one actually works.

Does it mean that when you turn 40 a whole decade just wipes out and we are magically 30 again? Or does it mean that nowadays, 40-somethings look just like 30-somethings?

The first theory is that the 20s actually blend in to the 30s and by the time we are 40 is like we are actually 30 again! Got it? I didn’t think so.

So, if 40 is the new 30, what happens to our 30s? Well, we would have to make them disappear! Yes, David Copperfield style.

Think about it. All the things you would erase from your life:

Some would skip getting married – and would still be single.
Many of us would miss our kids early years – but also the struggles of getting / being pregnant.
Others would skip painful divorce procedures – and would still be married to that same person. (ouch!)
Our CVs would be at least ½ a page shorter – many guys’ hair at least 5cm longer!

For those of us turning 40 these days we would also skip the entire presidency of George Bush, 9-11, the birth of Google, the Blackberry and eBay, and the introduction of the Euro.

Would erasing all these things from our lives make us 30? Really? No, I think it would make us a whole bunch of 40-somethings with 10 years of missed experiences, some good, some bad, but experiences that shape who we are after all.

So I vote for the second assumption. Most of my friends and I keep telling ourselves that we look and feel much better now than we did in our 20s (especially early 20s!) and we definitely don’t fit the image we had when we were kids of people in their 40s. Back then people in their 40s dressed and acted like … well, I guess people their age!

So I insist that being 40 is not the same as being “40 minus 10 = 30” but I should love being 40 because I know better than a 30 year old and still look as good.

Day of the Death: una ofrenda virtual para Little Johnny

Traditionally, Mexicans are not afraid of death – we actually are great at making fun of it. Every 1st and 2nd of November, cemeteries around the country are full of people celebrating with their loved ones, alive and not, el Dia de los Muertos or the "Day of the Dead." The deceased receive orange flowers, their favorite foods and drinks and many times are even serenaded by a mariachi band playing the tunes they loved when they were alive.

This celebration has nothing to do with Halloween, which is a holiday imported from the USA and that conveniently falls one day earlier, giving everybody a good excuse to party for three days in a row.

So in this year of nostalgia, I decided to follow one of the traditions of the day and build up an altar for Little Johnny.

Great idea - in theory. It’s not like I can walk into a shop in Nicosia and buy calaveritas de azucar (sugar skulls) which are a MUST in every "Day of the Death" altar. Also, Little Johnny was quite fond of antiques, antique cars and Hershey's bars, and since I am supposed to put all his favorite things on the altar so that his spirit can come to enjoy them, I was faced with quite a dilemma. There is not even one toy car in my house, and the only chocolate I found were some rather stale Easter chocolate eggs at the bottom of my fridge.

Then I thought that these days pretty much everything we do is online so I thought it would be OK to make a Google Images Altar! Yes, I simply had to google “Dodge 1939”, “Ford 1928”, “Hershey’s chocolate bar”, “gramophone” and “calvera de azucar” and in less than 30 seconds I had everything I needed.

All I had to add were a few candles I have always ready for that really long bath I can never take due to the water cuts, a papier mache papaya (always had some for breakfast), a bottle of wine (he was a wine club member), some books, and, voila!

Just hope he is not too disappointed if his spirit decides to actually fly all the way from Mexico City to have a go with the real things.

Maybe I should add some more Oreo cookies just in case…