What a load of Hack!

This week, the news has mainly been about The Hacking Scandal that threatens to bring down Rupert Murdochs media empire. An empire that spans some very decent newspapers, some lesser newspapers and the most entertaining yet tragic news source on the planet... Fox News!

I have spoke to a couple of people to find out what they think of The Hacking Scandal as it's clearly BIG NEWS so have decided to share my thoughts.

I suspect this sort of thing has been going on for decades. If I were a journalist, it would make sense to keep the police sweet by buying them coffee/ lunch from time to time. I don't think that I'd be that interested in people's phone messages though in the sense that I wouldn't appreciate people going through my private phone records. Meh, each to their own. I don't really care about who Celebrity-Dater has been texting and what the Prime Minister is having for tea/ put on his expense report and I find it repugnant that the mobile phone of a dead girl was hacked... However, if they had managed to find a clue that would have lead to avoiding the tragedy that happened, this would be a different story. All in all... investigative journalism is just that - investigative. I have an altogether quicker, easier and less painfull solution...

STOP READING THE CRAP.

If me (I include myself in this as I have a weakness for trash) and you stop picking up celeb-anorexia-club-no-wait-she's-too-fat magazines and don't read what's published, there will be no need to forever be scouraging for the next headline piece. There are many articles that have come to light as a result of this (Expenses Scandal comes to mind) that are of the public interest but for the rest of it... Leave it out and let's get back to reading about REAL news.

Calama – Don’t judge a book by it’s bad reputation

Chile is divided into regions from north to south. These regions are numbered, with the exception of a couple, including the region surrounding Santiago - known as Region Metropolitana. The numbers ascend from north to south. This week I have been in Calama in the 2nd Region (ie. pretty far north).

Calama is a mining town in the Atacama desert. It has a tiny airport, principally used for business visits to and from the mine and for ferrying tourists to the neighbouring San Pedro de Atacama (been there but that will be another post). Calama itself is most definitely not a tourist destination and has got a pretty bad reputation for being ugly, unsafe and expensive. It is known for the 3Ps:

• Polvo "Dust" - sand from the desert and the mines that blows into town and gets EVERYWHERE
• Perros "Dogs" - specifically street dogs that roam the town and generally look underfed and skanky. This is a problem throughout Chile
• Putas "Prostitutes" - lots of money and people working away earning lots of money in Calama... Nuff said

I can verify the first two but did not bear witness to the third... Can't say I was on the lookout. Anyhoo, as mentioned, Calama has a bad rep but I can honestly say that I had a lovely week there.

The first day of my visit involved a magical mystery tour of the city on the hunt for cars in an inventory check. I noticed that there are a TON of roadworks there, which is nice because my customer and honorary tour guide told me that locals had got a bit sick of all the money being taken out of Calama. At least now, they're working on improving the roads, etc. Another thing that I noticed and loved was the sunshine. Clear sky, warm weather, lush. This was definitely needed after a month of miserable weather in Santiago and my batteries are definitely recharged.

Well, I shall summarise. In my four days in Calama I was invited to lunch at the house of someone I barely know, I found some cute little cafes for lunch, saw the main square, got some sun, admired the view of the mountains and the mines and got alot done at work.

All in all, Calama was a resounding success. Hooray!

Chilenismos Part 1

What are Chilenismos (Chilenisms)? They are things that I've only heard here in Chile. There are tons floating around that you can find in many a place online (the award winning blog "cachandochile" has a great Chilenismos guide) so I'm going to be focusing on the ones in particular I like or haven't heard before.

My most recent discovery is the phrase "Cortarse las venas con una lechuga" (to slit your wrists with a lettuce) which rougly refers to a person who comes across all sad, moody, grim about thinks but they're not too serious about it.

I also think I should share my All Time Favourite even though I can't remember what the hell it means... Ready?... "Huevo con cejas" (Egg with eyebrows)!! Like I say, cann0t remember what it means but I laughed my butt off when I was told. Will refer back to the speaker and let you know.

I'm sure more will be coming.

Saludos, Jen

(work)Life in the Fast Lane

Today I had a "little chat" with My Esteemed Colleague (MEC) about the fact that I am "muy accelerada" (rough translation = very accelerated) and I need to slow down a bit and take my time with things - specifically tasks and decision making.

The people who know me well and especially those (really unlucky ones) who have lived with me are able to confirm that I have the attention span of a bored gnat....

It's really foggy today...

Anyway, I am veeeery easily distracted and like to lots on the go to be able to switch from one project/task to another when I get bored. However, I do take pride in getting things done: 1) Well and 2) Quickly and was not aware that I sometimes tip more heavily to one side of the scale than another so the observation of MEC really hit home.

Nowadays, everything is at your fingertips and generally being "Fast" is a good thing. You get things done quicker, you hit/ exceed your deadlines, if someone wants something done fast, go to X, HarderBetterFasterStronger, etc... This is all well and good until you step in it. Which, let's face it, we've all done at some point in our lives.

At (my) work (and probably yours too) everything is due YESTERDAY or, if you're lucky, an hour ago, which results in your having to make quick decisions, being able to produce the goods in five minutes flat and ready to present in ten and generally being able to operate under pressure. Today MEC helped me to realise that there's always time to leave things to one side to breathe for five minutes before deciding/submitting/sending - no-one's going to die. So from now on, I shall be imposing a cooling down period after finishing a task, dreaming up a brilliant idea, making an onthespot decision so to avoid over acceleration resulting in a nasty crash! Thank you MEC.

Slow and steady may not always win the race (sorry Aesop, I still think you're very wise) but sometimes you need to be more tortoise and less hare and I for one will be dusting off my shell for the time being.

Now, what else to do?...

(ps. this blog post had spent 5mins relaxing in my drafts folder before publishing. Start as you mean to go on)

Testing 1-2

So, many a friend of mine writes a blog and, given that I write a journal and the longest emails known to man, I figured I might as well jump on the bandwagon.

This first post is going to be a little-un to determine the type of thing one can expect from my ramblings:

• Tales of my trips in and around the countries I have lived in (currently Chile)


• Thoughts on current affairs


• The occasional useful insight


• Reminiscence of times of yore


• Current likes & obsessions

So, should this seem appealing, keep reading...

Welcome to blogland to me!!

Saludos, Jen