The talk of the town this week wasn't the forthcoming election of the Mayor of Buenos Aires (looks like Mauricio Macri, businessman and owner of football club Boca Junoirs will win) but rather TV celeb Nazarena Velez exposing her norks on live TV.
The show, bailando por un sueño ("dancing for a dream") is the no.2 show in Argentina, after Big Brother (both bore the pants off me).
Still, norks are norks, so here's what happened (the 'good' stuff starts about 4mins in).
Great story on Tuesday, that even made it to the press here in Argentina.
A man who bet £100 a decade ago that he would live to be 100 is celebrating his birthday with a cheque for £25,000.
Alec Holden, from Epsom in Surrey, is picking up his winnings from bookmaker William Hill, which gave him odds of 250/1 that he would reach his century.
Mr Holden puts his longevity down to porridge for breakfast and "remembering to keep breathing".
Alec is a man after my own heart:
He said it was also important not to worry about anything, do as little work as possible, and go on lots of holidays.
I've fallen back in love with the internet! I mainly have to thank a 25year old Canadian guy called Sean Aiken, and his fantastic idea about how to find a career he is passionate about.
Sean has recently created the brilliant little website: oneweekjob.com where he's documenting his search for his perfect job.
The idea is that Sean travels week to week throughout Canada, working for a week at a time at various jobs that are offered to him. He's currently into his sixth week and has accepted a job as a Yoga instructor in Edmonton, Alberta.
Nobly Sean is donating all his wages to the Make Poverty History campaign.
Just a quick shout to one of my favourite poker bloggers Rob Sherwood, over at sherwoodpoker.blogspot.com. Rob's recently won his way through to a shot at $1million....he has a seat at the 6-player final table of the Mansion Poker Dome Challenge
Rob qualified for his seat at the final table by first winning a seat to the semi-final via online qualification, then winning the semi-final heat in Vegas (and $50K) in Jan 07.
It's a winner-takes-all final table, so good luck mate.
UPDATE: Rob finished 3rd, hardlines mate, but still an excellent overall performance.
So Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dumber came to town this weekend. Well, they came to Latin America at least.
Whilst Venezualan President Hugo Chavez was ranting to a crowd of 20,000 in Buenos Aires, Bush was arriving across the river in Uruguay, having just signed a bio-fuel deal in Brazil.
I watched a little of Chavez's anti-Bush tirade live on Argentine TV. I've never believed any words that came from a politicians mouth, but as this was the first time I'd heard him speak I thought I'd give the pot-bellied lefty a chance.
Chavez promptly blew it within 3mins by stating that the timing of his and Bush's South American tour was purely coincidental. Yeah, right. I changed channel there and then.
One word Hugo: enslada.
About the most concise and interesting report of the Chavez/Bush tour I've found on the internet is located here.
It's not often I get to feel proud of 'being British', but this 68-year-old granny has this week managed to do just that....allbeit temporarily.
Patricia was again convicted of possessing cannabis last week, in breach of a 6-month suspended jail sentence for possession and intent to supply, dished out in 2005. Today she was spared a jail sentence but handed 250 hours of community service.
This woman takes cannabis to alleviate constant and intense pain in her back and neck. Patricia also states she has suffered from depression since losing her teenage son in 1975. Her cannabis self-medication relieves her of these symptoms, without the nasty side-effects of costly pharmaceuticals.
Who exactly is Patricia harming? Why doesn't she have the right to cultivate and consume a plant that is clearly so beneficial to her? Why hasn't the UK legal system followed the suit of so many other countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Italy to name a few) and decriminalised the growth and consumption of cannabis in ones own home?
You can watch the 3-min BBC report on the case of this endearing woman below.
To sharpen my Spanish skills I've been forcing myself to watch Argentine TV for at least an hour per day during the last few weeks. This is how I stumbled upon this little (or should I say 'big') beauty on Foxlife.
Alessandra Rampolla, Puerto Rican by birth, is a certified clinical sexologist who dishes out advice on all things sexual to Latin America on her show "Tu Manera" ("Your way"). As you can see from the photo below she's no waif, however I think she's rather beautiful. She makes a refereshing change from your average skinny Portena you see on TV/walking the streets of Buenos Aires.
I do still struggle to understand a fair chunk (if you'll pardon the pun) of what she says, as she talks extremely quickly. However the majority of discussion seems to focus on "sexo-oral", "sexo-anal", "orgasmos multiples" and "el punto G", so I can make fairly educated guesses ;-).
The UK has been accused of failing its children, it came bottom of a league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries according to a recent UNICEF report. (Adobe)
The Netherlands finished top, followed by Sweden then Denmark. Congrats to the USA for avoiding relegation and finishing in 20th position.
This report is so unusual because it makes a radical departure. It attempts to bring together information from a wide range of existing studies across many aspects of a child's life - birth weight to health behaviour, like smoking, sexual activity, diet and exercise. It also embraces the more complicated realm of emotional well-being, including sections on relationships with family and friends and, perhaps most ambitious of all, how children feel about themselves and their lives.
You can read what the BBC had to say about it here.
The report kind of ties in nicely with the 44 seconds of genius posted by the Kersal Massive (Salford, Manchester UK) on YouTube (below), who launch into an obscene tirade about travelling Manchester using day saver bus passes, smoking reefer, stealing cars, mugging people and having sex with "back seat hos". Occasionally they break off to attack nearby Levenshulme ("Levenshulme can go fuck that shit").
The video has received over 160,000 views and 400 comments so far, with viewers split into two camps: the haters, and those who are amused.
There's since been a host of spoofs, some brilliant at Youtube. You can find a list here.
Had the familiar "you know about the results of LSD trials on spiderweb building?" conversation last night with some friends and was just searching for a link as proof, when I stumbled upon this beauty. It's pretty funny IMO.
The clip has received 3.5 million views in one month. WOW.
Wayne Schenk was diagnosed in December with inoperable lung cancer. Doctors at a Veterans Affairs hospital told the former Marine he might live for another year or, if he's lucky, 18 months.
Five weeks later, Schenk bought a $5 scratch-off High Stakes Blackjack ticket at a drugstore near his home in Ontario County and hit the jackpot. But there was a catch: The $1 million prize pays out in $50,000 annual installments over 20 years.
Mine is kinda weird? Though not really. Perhaps a bit at the end?
Uni = 3 yrs of drink etc basically. Supermarket Security Guard: 11 months. 60-70hrs/week £4.50/hr. Laboratory Technician: 12 months. 30-35hrs/week £800/month. PostGrad MSc: 12months full time. Financial support from ESF grant + £3-4K cost to me. Research Associate: 2yrs. £17K/yr. Clinical Research Associate: 18months. £25K/yr + benefits. Online card player: for the last 3yrs. -$250 today.
Today is World AIDS day, a global attempt to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS.
Some stats:
Over 40 million people around the world are living with HIV or AIDS Just under 14,000 new cases of HIV infections occur every single day 95 per cent of all AIDS cases occur in the world's poorest countries Over 4 million people were infected with HIV in 2006 3 million people died from AIDS-related illnesses in 2006 - that's more than 8,000 deaths a day
I'm still struggling to overcome the language barrier, whilst my Spanish has improved I've still got a lot to learn. I can give you an amusing example from a few nights ago:
During an amorous encounter with my GF, I encouragingly proclaimed "Si amor, chupa mi boletos".
She immeadiately stopped what she was doing (much to my annoyance) and burst into laughter.
News of Paul McCartney's divorce hit the media here this weekend. The headline in one of the Buenos Aires papers: "The worlds most expensive secret" (in reference to the millions she will receive providing she doesn't talk to the press).
It's a very sad world we live in when Sir Paul McCartney and his wife are facing divorce and all anyone seems to want to do is make jokes about her false leg. Personally, I think it's prosthetic.
In the morning: watched hardcore pornography with GF. In the afternoon: attended Dalai Lama talk on peace, compassion and harmony. In the evening: drank a lot of whiskey and gambled (poker).
Sometimes I wonder if I'm a little schizophrenic?!
Just a quick, and slightly cruel, post today.....probably only my British audience (both of them!) will appreciate this:
A while back I was poker-coaching a friend of mine online. He was in the UK, I was in Argentina. He was having a terrible run of crappy starting hands, so to relieve the boredom of folding for an hour we started talking shit, making each other laugh etc.
He was telling me his 2 cards: "8,4 offsuit"...."Ugly" was my reply. "Jack, 6 offsuit"......"You stink you twat, get some proper cards" etc etc.
Anyway, I don't know how it happened but after a while of this he said: "7,2 offsuit"....."A Beadle" was my reply.....both of us laughed long and hard.
The only way I can really demonstrate this is to link to this guy's website. He has a brilliant photo and some hilarious (if a little unkind and colourful) things to say about Jeremy Beadle, to demonstrate just what an ugly hand is!
I am a current Perpetual Traveller. I ditched a conventional career in my late 20's to become a travelling online poker player.
Currently living in Buenos Aires, Argentina after sampling South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada.
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