Great book!

A few days ago, my colleague Rafa Ramos told me about Andre Agassi’s book: Open, an autobiography. I have to say that Andre Agassi wasn’t one of my favourite players, but Rafa insisted saying that the book was worth it and that it was a very interesting story. I thought, then, that maybe I would give it a chance.

Days later, Rafa opened his backpack and took out this book and he gave it to me. He said it was a present for me. Even though I was reading another book that Rafa recommend me long time ago: A Short History of Nearly Everything of Bill Bryson, I decided to make a pause and start reading my new book.

I read the first pages in the plane when we went to London and I continued when we got back. Once I was back in Barcelona, I couldn’t leave the book. The story of Andre Agassi is great! He starts saying that he hates tennis! One of the best players of the last years, number one of the world and he says that he hates tennis? I couldn’t believe it.

Since the first page, the book catches your attention: his father trying to build a champion after failing with his older brothers and sister, his experience at the Nick Bollieteri’s academy, his hair problem, his behavior, his wins, his defeats, his mentality… And, of course, his career as one of the best tennis player who won eight Grand Slams, the Davis Cup or a gold medal in the Olympics.

As I said, I wasn’t very keen on Agassi even tough, as he got older, I did start to like him. Obviously, he had talent but, in the other hand, he was forced to play a sport maybe he would have never chosen. In the end, he became a great tennis player and a nice guy who won the respect of all of his rivals. And, as Rafa said, he has a happy ending marrying the woman he always wanted to: Steffi Graff.

The biography of Andre Agassi is a great book. You see how a great champion is built and all the episodes he has to overcome to achieve all the success he did. If you can, don't miss the opportunity and read the book.

My first year

Today, 8 of December, my blog celebrates its first year. This was a project that I started because Ben Cardew told us to in an English course I did last year. I remember that when he told me in our previous interview that he was thinking of this activity, I said it would be great.

I have always wanted to write a blog. I like writing. That is one of the things I do for living. However, normally, I always write about the same things and I get a bit tired. As a journalist, I think that there are a lot of subjects, news... to write about and give my point of view.

When Ben told us to start the blog I thought it was great. First, because, as I said, I like writing. And, in second place, and probably more importantly, because it was in English. For some years now, I have been looking for the way to keep practising my English. I try to listen to the news every morning, I watch series in English and I try to read book as well. I know I am able to hold a conversation with anybody that speaks English, but I also know I do some mistakes. That is the reason I try to improve and get better.

After a year, I think I can be happy. First of all, because I have been able to write a few posts (except in summer) and I try to keep updated my blog. Sometimes I have ideas when I am running, but then I forget about them. The good thing about it is that I have plenty of time to improve and it is a new challenge. One of my doubts to get more visits it’s to twitter or facebook my posts... I am sure that I would get more visits as I did when I started, but it is not my aim. What I really want is to keep writing in English and trying to improve every day. I know I don’t have many fans, but don’t worry: I promise I will keep updating my blog and writing about my running thoughts or anything that I consider important.

Christmas has arrived

One of the moments I like more is when we decorate our flat with the Christmas ornaments. I am not like my father, who starts decorating his office in November, but time goes so fast that I think that you have to enjoy such a nice time like Christmas.

We start decorating our Nativity display, with all our figures and animals. Next week that we are on holiday, we will visit Santa Llúcia’s market and as we do every year, we will buy a new figure. I honestly think there aren’t much left but we will try to find one that we don’t have.

I think we can be proud of it and we have done a good job between us. The only problem is that some of the figures keep falling when we open the cupboards. The solution is easy: put them back up.

Once we finished with our Nativity display, we started with our Christmas tree. Jéssica thought that the best idea was to decorate it only with read balls as we did last year and also put all the nice ornaments we have bought in shops or in London, where we will try to buy some others this year. Before we turn on the lights, we sang Our Christmas tree as Ben Affleck does in Surviving Christmas.

Our tree is really nice and it looks great with the lights. Now we are only waiting for Father Christmas to bring us a lot of presents, because we have been very good and we deserved them. I really do love Christmas. For me, and as the song says, it is the most wonderful time of the year. It is a shame that it is not a bit colder, but as we are going to London this weekend we will get full of Christmas spirit. I am looking forward for it!

Sants was great

As I wrote a few days ago, last Sunday I ran the Cros of Sants, one of my favourite races that I try not to miss since 2009. The day didn’t start very well because last weekend we had a lot of rain in Barcelona. Therefore, during the race it didn’t rain much and it wasn’t really cold so the environment wasn’t as bad as you could think before it started.

For me it was an important race because I have been training hard during this months and I hoped to do as good as I did in the Cursa de la Tardor of Sant Andreu de la Barca. Sants  is a difficult race, with continuous up and downs and narrow streets. In the other hand, it is good because you go pass a lot of places that are familiar.

I started quite behind because I met Patricia before the race and I decided it to be with her until the start. Once we passed the start line, I began to run and try to go pass all the people I had in front. I think this was one of the worst moments, because it is very difficult to keep the same rhythm and you are sprinting and slowing down constantly.

Until we didn’t get to the second kilometre, more or less, I didn’t feel really comfortable. There was Jéssica to cheer me and give me some help. I finished the first lap a bit over 23 minutes and I was a bit worried because I knew that the second half of the race was more difficult. However, for the first time in a many years, I improved my mark.

This year they changed a bit the circuit and I think that it was faster even though the last kilometre is hard because you go along carretera de Sants. In the end, I took me 45.52’ personal best of this race and much better than last year (nearly two minutes). I went under 23 minutes in the second lap and I finished with the feeling I could have gone a bit faster. I am also very happy with Patricia’s performance because she was able to finish.

This was my last race in 2014. It hasn’t been a bad year but I have to keep trying. In January I will ran Sant Antoni and later the half marathon of Barcelona, where I will try, once more, to finish below 1h 40 mins. Now it is time to train and to rest.

Our new car!

My post today is not about a running thought, but I am writing about important news for Jéssica and me. After several years, we have decided to buy a new car. Our first big buy after our wedding!

For the past years I have been driving a Fiat Punto my aunt Marta gave to me. It was a present and it has been one of the best I ever had. For me that I don’t really mind about cars, it was great. It took me everywhere –we even went to the Basque Country and Cantabria one summer- and it was easy to drive and to park.

My Ferrari, as our friend Miriam named, only had two big faults: not air conditioning and when you passed 100 km/h it was hard to keep it going. However, for me, that I used to go to work and short trips it was great.

Maybe it had another fault: it was too old. Actually, this summer it celebrated its 20th birthday and that meant a few visits to be repaired every year and money spent on fixing things.

For all these reasons we decided to start looking for a new car. We understood it was the best solution. We knew it meant a lot of money, but now we can afford it and we thought that it was the best moment to do it.

We made our decision in one day. We spent a Saturday looking around different cars and, in the end, we chose  a Seal Altea XL. Of course, as you can imagine, nothing to see with our Fiat Punto.

This car is easily driven; it is much bigger and has so many options that I haven’t been able to discover them as yet. It was very sad to get rid of our Fiat Punto but we didn’t really have any other option.

Sir Roger Federer

I have to start writing that I am not really keen on Roger Federer. It is not a man who inspires me confidence and I don’t like the way he acts. If I could choose, I would prefer to meet Rafa Nadal before him. Rafa is more temperamental and he is an example because he always fights in the tennis court. For me, Nadal is one of the best sportsmen I have ever seen in my life.

Therefore, there are some facts in life you can’t deny. You can like more or less, you can prefer one or other, but there are things that you can’t argue about. Cristiano Ronaldo or Messi are great players even I don’t like any of them, The Starry night of Vincent Van Gogh is one of the best paintings in the world or the Coliseum is a place that reflects thousands of years of history. All of them are incredible. Something similar happens to Roger Federer.

I have to admit that he is the most elegant player I have ever seen. The way he hits the ball, all his moves, the way he runs… he doesn’t ever sweat! If you like tennis, you have to enjoying watching Roger Federer because he is great. I think we are very lucky to see his matches with Rafa or Djokovic.

 

On Sunday he gave one more step after winning the Davis Davis Cup . On Friday he lost his match against Monfils and many thought he was finished because of his injury. However, on Saturday he won the double game with a fantastic Wawrinka and on Sunday he beat easily Gasquet. His last point is incredible!

I think Federer deserved to win a great tournament like the Davis Cup. He has almost won all the most important tournaments but he had never got to the final of the Davis Cup and he hasn’t won a gold medal in singles. After his success, he can be very happy because there aren’t many tennis players that have achieved so many victories.

I honestly thought that Federer was going to retire. Every year he was getting more defeats and it look like he had lost his ambition, but this season has been incredible. He has won many tournaments and has given some of his best performance in years. What will happen next year?

Questions and more questions

In terms of information there is something that happens very often: news that are on the main newspapers, radios and TV stations every day all of a sudden disappear and nobody hears about them anymore. I am sure that all of you have noticed it. 

I remember, when I was younger, that in Spain big glass stones felt from the sky. During months, in different villages of Spain, somebody informed about a big stone falling from nowhere. I remember it went on for a few months. However, since then, I have never heard about again. Maybe it is because the big stones stopped falling, but the thing is that there were no further news. 

 

Something similar happened, for example, with the dangerous dogs. I remember that a few years ago every day a dog attacked a person. Obviously, the social alarm helped to control more these dogs and the government established some rules. In any case, I am sure there are attacks nowadays that are not reported.

 

I know I am talking about topics that happened a few years ago, but I have more examples and that's why I decided to write. Do you remember all the news about Ebola? When it affected to European citizens and from the United States we had news of Ebola every hour. I think we all became experts. However, in the last weeks we have stopped hearing about this disease. Has it finished? Nobody is dying of Ebola? I am sure that in Africa there are still a lot of people suffering the effects of the disease, dying every day without anybody reporting. I think we all should reflect about it.

 

Something similar happens with the war in Ukraine. In Barcelona we even had demonstrations with the Ukraine flag in the Diagonal. We had news and reports every day from Kiev and the problems with Moscow. Does anybody know how  has it finished?

 

And what about Millet, Undargarin, Fabra  and other important people that have committed fraud? What has happened to them? Are there in jail? Have they given the money back? I remember that every day we had news concerning Undargarin but lately he has disappeared. By the way, and this thought I will extend it to other cases, what I really want is that Millet, Undargarin, Bárcenas, Pantoja and all of them give the money back. For me it is all right that they go into prision but the most important thing is to get the money back. We all know that if they go in they will spend a short time, but when they leave they will still have the money.

 

I know that things in our life happen very fast and that we don’t have time really to stop a second and think about different topics. Social Media don’t help either because everything goes too fast. However, we mustn’t forget all the harm these people have done to our society. They have to pay for it.

 

PS: It is really terrible that nowadays where most  people are suffering to get to the end of month some fans of Isabel Pantoja have decided to start collecting money to help her. Would these people collect money for homeless or people that don’t have enough to live? I do not think so.

Getting ready for Sants

It has been a long time since I last wrote about running. As you may remember my last race was the Cursa de la Tardor in Sant Andreu de la Barca and I finished quite satisfied about it. In the next few weeks there are a lot of popular races; some of them very important like the Jean Bouin but I don’t like it because there are too many people.

Before the end of the year I have decided to take part in the Cros de Sants . For me it is one of the main ones in the year because I run near home and the circuit goes through different streets which I am familiar with. I think it is one of the best races and one of the most important things is that there aren’t too many people.

The Cros of Sants is on the 30^th of November and I am training hard to be in my best. This week,since I am not working I am taking advantage to train a bit harder than usual. However, next week I will have to reduce a bit the number of kilometres to arrive to the race totally fit.

Another thing I like about this race is that Jéssica is there to cheer me and she waits for me at the finish lane. This year it will be more special because my friend Patricia is also training to run it so I think I will enjoy it more. I am thinking to run on my own –I am faster than her- or to follow her pace.

The Cross of Sants, if nothing changes, will be my last race this year. In 2015 I will start running Cursa Sant Antoni that is also very special for me because it was the first one I ran. Every year there are more people but I think it is worth it. I will also run the Half-marathon of Barcelona and depending on the training I will try to finish under 1h 40 min, something I haven’t been able yet. Last year I nearly made it, but I exceeded by just a few seconds.

As it happened last year, I still have to think whether or not to take part in the marathon. This past edition was very hard because it was very warm and I was glad not to run it. In a way I feel like trying again despite it means a lot of effort and big sacrifices. However, I think I am doing a good job and that I am in the right direction if I finally decide to take part. We will have to wait and see.

The Sistine Chapel

A few days ago, while I was running, I heard on the radio a piece of news about the Sistine Chapel. Apparently, the air pollution brought on by tourists flocking has had a negative effect on the chapel's frescoes. People in charge explained that they started to notice it four years ago and for that reason they decided to install new air conditioning to help to preserve one of the best pieces of art in the world.

Some news point out that the managers of the Sistine Chapel consider far too much the amount of people that visited it; they have even threatened with putting a limited number of visitors to preserve the paintings. Such a great piece of art shouldn’t be forbidden for people.

One of my dreams was to visit Rome. Greece and Rome are the parents of our culture and I was willing to visit one of the most important cities in our history and that gathered so many pieces of arts. Since I studied History of Art, I wanted to visit Rome because I wanted to see a lot of things and enjoy having a look to some of the best creations of a human being.

Of course, the visit to the Vatican Museum was a must. There were two options: quick or in depth visit. Obviously, we picked the second one because I wasn’t going to miss such an opportunity. I am not sure If I will be back ever again.

It was one of my dreams because I really wanted to see the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel and contemplate one of the best works of the great Michel Angelo. The view didn’t disappoint me.

I remember staying still in the room, looking up my head and enjoying that incredible painting. I wondered how this genius was able to create such an incredible piece of art that has become one of the essential art works in history.

The painting, the colours, all the work behind that fresco... When I think about it I feel a real privileged  person because I am sure a lot of people would pay to stay in that room enjoying the view. I have to admit that I would have been there four hours but, of course, I had a lot to things to do.

What really annoyed me were the hundreds of people that got in the Sistine Chapel and walked out without lifting their heads to look the frescoes. I understand that not everybody likes art, I understand that maybe not everybody is conscious of the opportunity they have, but I don’t understand why if you have the option to be one minute, just one minute, looking to those magnificent painting they just don’t do it.

I remember that Jéssica and I talked about it when we finished the visit and we were absolutely flabbergasted. Why if you pay a ticket you don’t stop in the best room of all? I would have liked to ask them and tell them the mistake they were doing and explained to them the importance of that painting. I hope that if they ever go back they don’t make the same mistake. I can assure that if I am lucky to go to Rome again, I will visit the Sistine Chapel without a doubt. It is an experience one never forgets.