ADVENTURES IN EK-BALAAM

Hi there, I have been away for sometime and it's only now that I have a chance to write again since we have been in Cancun enjoying the beautiful aqua-marine waters of the Yucatan Peninsula but whilst we were there, I wanted to take the opportunity to visit more of the fantastic ancient lost cities of the Maya Route and learn a little bit more about this mysterious culture. The photos you can see here, are from the city of Ek-Balaam which is two hours drive from Cancun, it's worth the trip. There was no tour to go there but this has never been an impediment for me to arrange my own trip to go wherever I wish to go, so I hired a taxi for the whole day which came to pick us up at at 9 A.M. at our hotel. The day was very hot but there is nothing like coco-nut water to quench the thirst! Once we were at the entrance of the site, we hired a guide so that he could show us the city of Ek-Balaam. We climbed a steep temple and as I was climbing the stairs, I happened to notice a sea-shell incrusted on the floor of one of the stairs and asked our guide Casimiro about it. He told me that all of the Ek-Balaam site had been at one time submerged underneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and it has suddenly been uncovered when a huge meteorite fell in Ixalum, some kilometres away. Once we got to the middle of the pyramid I was fascinated to see a sculpture of a man with large wings behind his back like an angel. I found it very interesting that the very idea of winged men could be also be seen in this other independent culture that had nothing to do with the Greeks, nor the Egyptians or Mesopotamia who first showed in our culture the concept of winged beings but the other fascinating thing to see, was a stucco painting which looked very much like the ones you see in the Egyptian tombs, there was also a figure perched in what looked like a ledge and that similar to the figures you see in Budhist temples in Thailand. Casimiro told me that this was an eunoch who looked after the Royal ladies, he was sitting on a ledge on an enormous square slab, this slab had heads of Tlaloc in each bottom corner and the really dark square doors beyond, represented the gateway to the underworld unfortunatelly I couldn't stay too long up there because I had left Peter down below sitting on a bench underneath the shade of a tree as he had previously stumbled on a stone before the climb and he had scratched both knees and hands. Poor Peter had his trousers reduced to shreds and he looked pitiful but a nice lady had given me wet cloth towels to disinfect his wounds so I didn't want to leave him too long down there. When I got down, I hired a rick-shaw so that he could sit on it and be comfortably driven to see the stellas and the other buildings like the stadium, where the ball game was played. Some of the structures had the unusual arquitecture of triangle shape doors, which didn't come into Europe until much later. Afterwards, we headed down to the city of Valladolid founded by the Spanish Conquistadores. Valladolid is the second largest city of the Yucatan Peninsula after Merida (which we visited last year) where we made a stop over for a lunch, I enjoyed seeing this colonial town with its iron balconies and the cathedral just in front of the park. Once we arrived back at the hotel in Cancun, in the evening Peter had a warm bath and I summoned the hotel nurse to desinfect his wounds properly, in two days time his knees had completely healed. I could do this again.

My adventures In Gibraltar

Why travel across the Atlantic for seven hours? forget Floria for sunshine as just within two hours you can be in Gibraltar, a British outpost to the sun where there is no need to change your money into another currency since pounds sterling is the currency there. There is a sense of freedom in Gibraltar, from its shores you can see the North of Africa on one side and Cadiz on the other and a ferry ride can take you anywhere in the Mediterranean you heart desires like you can go to the Canarie Islands, Corcega, Malaga, Tunisia, Melilla, Tetuan etc. these are all within reach by sea as North Africa is only 40 nautical miles away, or you can simply cross the border and head into Spain and visit Jerez de la Frontera where they make excellent port and wines. The first day, we went up to the rock to see the Barberian monkeys by cable car when we got to the top, as the tourists arrived in their mini-buses we heard a woman scream: A monkey had gotten hold of her bag! the cheeky monkey took out a sandwich and she tossed away the ham being interested only in the fruity contents of the bag. She tenderly gave the cheese of the sandwich to her baby monkey and she had a green apple. When we returned to our suit in the hotel, I headed towards our room whilst Peter went to the living room and I could hear him talking to someone I went to investigate and found Peter with a menacing monkey. The monkey was standing up, arms held up in a threatening stance, showing him all his teeth. Peter stamped his foot on the floor and the monkey sat down looking at him like saying with his gaze: What do we do now? Peter reached for an apple in the fruit-bowl and threw it outside the open window, the monkey ran after the apple and Peter and I rushed to the window to close it behind the monkey who was contented outside chomping at his apple.

The Artist That Never Was...

It is said that the hoax which fooled certain Art critics as well as readers who fell for this deceit, was done with the complicity of David Bowie, John Richardson ( who is an expert on Picasso's life and times) and the U.S. author Gore Vidal.

According to them "Nate Tate" was an American artist born 1928 - 1960 the "painter" was 31 years old and he suffered from depression. One day, after having destroyed 99% of his work, he bought a ferry ticket to Staten Island and once on board, the "artist" walked towards the back, climbed the fence and jumped. His body was never found. To give it a realistic touch, Boyd included in the book paintings made by him, the photos that were shown, he took them from his private collection without any identifiable persons.

The hoax became stronger when he convinced Gore Vidal to include an anotation on the book. On the false biography Gore Vidal "remembers" Nate Tate as a "dignified drunk, without anything to say". Karen Wright who is co-director of Publication 21, where Bowie used to work said to the British press that the joke was not intended to be malicious. She added that part of it amused them a lot that people were taken in are were agreeing to have heard of him. Some went as far as saying his work was great. According to Boyd this is a fable for our times or any time in which people become Art celebrities over-night.

The Financial Terrorists

Whilst I was in Ireland I read an article in The Irish Times about an e-mail sent to the staff of the Anglo Irish Bank written by their Chief executive a David Drumm where he writes to his staff about a party themed: 'The Back To School Doombuster Party' that he organized at a time when the financial crisis was deteriorating and the economy was turning deeply negative. The e-mail read:

"Dear colleague, the stock markets are down. They say the economy is in recession. It rained most of the 'summer'. The holidays are over. This is Anglo, so there is only one thing to do - party!"

Whilst the bank's financial position was becoming more precarious in December 2008, the bank spent 175,000 Euros on a Christmas party for staff, that month the bank also spent 53,000 Euros on hampers and wine for clients and 24,000 bringing customers and their children to the annual Christmas panto in the Gaiety Theatre Dublin. The previous year, Anglo spent 272,000 on Christmas staff parties in Dublin, London and Boston and 229,000 Euros on three Christmas parties in addition to 87,000 EU on hampers and wine. Anglo Republic is the bank that broke Ireland. Like if that was not enough on September 5th 2008 ( just three weeks before the government bailed out Anglo from collapse) the bank spent 80,000 Euros on a party for about 600 staff, at the Mansion House in Dublin. The cost excluded accommodation in hotels for staff who travelled from the bank's regional offices for the party. The drinks bill alone on the night, amounted to 24,000 Euros and staff were entertained by a live band.'

Whilst the financial terrorists are having a great time, it is the poor tax payer who has to foot the bills for their extravagances, it is high time someone goes to prison, how is it possible that these people can take a whole country to the brink of bankrupcy putting it into debt with the EU and there is not even one single person accountable for all this financial fraud? I ask. The politicians are in it as well, since its not their money that they gave to the same people in the bank who broke the economy in the first place. It amounts to legalized thievery at a large scale. Its happening in many countries, one cannot help thinking that its organized to fail so that the banks can get a hold of people's money. In other words, the countries are artificially being made to become bankrupt so that they can get their hands on the tax-payers money to create a single European Super State that no one in their right mind wants.

Back from Ireland

Hi there! Whilst we were in Ireland with friends we were talking about the strange custom in the 1700 where the husbands could sell their wives in the market by simply putting her on a plimth and another man would offer a price that the husband could accept. Mischiviously, one of my friends asked Peter how much would he be prepared to accept for me. Peter got serious and he replied that there wasn't a price that he would be prepared to trade for yours truly, my friends looked surprised at this answer and they said they were very impressed to hear this after a marrriage of nearly 30 years they said that was not the answer they were expecting to hear maybe that was a reply a newly wed man would give not after a 30 year marriage. I have to say I feel the same towards Peter as well and this brings us to.. in a couple of years time it will be our 30th wedding anniversary and I'm thinking of something special and romantic where we could go to. I Thought about the Orient Express, although I'm a bit claustrophobic I do like travelling by train anywhere especially if it will be to Venice and Austria on the way and all the lovely places the Orient Express takes you to. I also like the idea of dressing up in the evenings and imagine I'm in one of Agatha Christie's stories but without the murder because I think that would spoil the romance of being in such lovely surroundings. I'm however not too thrilled to hear that the rooms haven't got their own bathroom and you have to share it with other people too by walking along the corridor, that is what it really stops me from going ahead with this plan. We have done the cruise travels and frankly, we both don't fancy doing that again besides, I get sea-sick anyway. I'm thinking of something else to do and I would love it if someone can give me ideas. Where is a romantic place to visit. Whatever it is, it has to include Venice because for me Venice is the most romantic place on earth but of course there has to be many other places in Europe that I still have not visited that might be very romantic too. I would like it to be special, so there is no room for experimentation as I want everything to go smoothly and without a hitch. Any ideas?

I may have been discovered

Well, this has been an exciting couple of weeks for me. The town cryer asked me if I would lend a couple of my paintings for a show at their church, to raise money for repairs and one thing has led to another. Whilst the paintings were on show at the church, a gallery owner saw them and he has invited me to put them up for an exhibition he is having on the 27th of August. Later on, I learned that this gallery owner is extremely well connected with famous people like Zandra Rhodes ( the fashion designer and Rula Lenska the actress ) among some of his friends and that last year, David Hockney had exhibited at his gallery. Everyone in the art world knows who David Hockney is, as he appears in every contemporary history of art book. So, I suppose this is great news for me. I also learned that this gallery owner also has another gallery in London, so I hope that this leads to more exciting things. He came to visit me to my home last Saturday and told me to be prepared to meet famous people at the show opening on the 27th of this month and to bring the paintings on the 26th. I will try and take photos. I will keep you posted...

Evil Racist Breivik

The enemy within. Billions are spent in wars abroad whilst the real danger resides in our midst as our own online bigots encouraged Breivik to carry out this massacre on its own people its about time that these racist bigots should be classed as terrorists. Is not enough to show contempt for these evil xenophobes, they have to be starved of excuses and of anecdotes, to stop them feeding their twisted bigotry to others by closing down their organizations and stop them from operating. Anyone with a modicum of biology would know that these people who fool themselves about inbred racial purity doesn't make biological or cultural sense, its only an ignorant delusion. Inbred racial purity in real terms only brings haemophilia, stunted growth, premature aging, stupidity and a much shorter span of life. It has been proven. They also cannot accept that as an enterprising, roaming and colonising nation, we are all a mongrel people with a mixture of Saxon, Viking, Celt, Roman, Greek, Norman, Arab, African, Indian etc. our blood is a cocktail. Racists fail to see that this is a source of strength and interest, not weakness and dilution. They don't know that the very language in which they rant, is a tapestry of borrowings from incomers, from the moment they drink their morning tea or coffee in pyjamas, to the last cup of cocoa under their duvet.The next thing we see, is one of the BNP chiefs Chris Hurst giving a Nazi salute crying: "Seig heil" to Breivik's heroine, a Swedish pop singer who goes by the name of Saga and who sang the Norwegian fiend's favourite songs at a rally in Hungary. Chris Hurst also spouted racist bile to an undercover reporter from the Sun who infiltrated the hate-filled festival attended by thousands of neo-Nazis from across Europe after the massacre in Norway. Chris Hurst, the far-right party's London Regional Secretary gave a chilling verdict on the massacre committed by the Norwegian madman Anders Breivik. He said: "Its good to fight back- but not by killing young white people"