Good afternoon from Starbucks, Madrid.

No more titles from now on for my blog entries. Why? Because I often find that each post consists of a number of unrelated items that can’t be grouped under one heading.

Benjamin Franklin: When you’re finished changing, you’re finished.

Yesterday the public swimming pools in Madrid opened. They are the closest thing you’ll get to a beach in Madrid. I went to one with some friends. Lots of people, but then that could have been due to the fact that on the opening day there is no entry fee. There were a few television crews covering the opening day too. We got asked if we wanted to do an interview but we bottled out by claiming that we couldn’t speak Spanish 🙂

I just Googled myself and this blog is currently 7th in the results list. Woohoo!

… me. Let me explain. The language school I am at here in Madrid had a party Friday evening. Anyway, it’s traditional at these parties for the school to hold a raffle at the end. Prizes include things like 2 weeks of lessons free in their school in Germany if you are studying German etc. Anyway, I won a weeks worth of intensive lessons here in Madrid. I have never won anything like this before, although that probably has something to do with the fact that I never enter into competitions. Hmmm! Maybe I should try the lottery.

I have a question for all you photographers out there. Over the last couple of weeks I have been taking some pictures of Madrid with my digital camera and on several occassions I keep coming across the same problem: how do I reduce glare when taking a picture? I have taken a couple of pictures that haven’t come out properly because of glare from the sun. It’s annoying. If you have any suggestions, please post a comment. Thanks!

If you have Tiger, the latest version of Mac OS X, you can use F12 to toggle your Dashboard widgets on and off. Much quicker than clicking on the toolbar.

Well, here I am in Starbucks with my wireless Internet connection. I have uploaded some photos I have taken here in Madrid. You can view the photos here.

I used the Flickr Uploader tool to upload my photos to my Flickr account. It’s the first time I have used it and I have to say it’s pretty slick, although a bit slow. All I have to do is drag and drop my photos from iPhoto into the uploader and then hit the “Upload” button. That’s it. Nothing to it.

It’s official, Spanish TV sucks! Last night, while channel hopping, I came across a program that looked like the Eurovision song contest. Surely it can’t be that time of year again. Anyway, I checked the TV guide and to my horror it was the Eurovision song contest, only it wasn’t the final, it was the semi-final. I didn’t even know they had semi-finals. Needless to say the talent on display wasn’t very talented.

Finally. After 3 days of showers and low temperatures, the sun is shining and it´s warm again here in Madrid. Maybe I shouldn´t complain. It could be worse. I could be in London.

Meanwhile, the search for decent wireless Internet access continues. I discovered the other day that Starbucks has wireless access. I had been to Starbucks a couple of times before but had failed to notice the tiny sign stuck in the corner of the window informing customers that Internet access was available! It´s expensive and there´s a cap on bandwidth too. For example, 30 days unlimited access costs around 190 Euros.

There seems to be quite a few wireless hotspots around Madrid, unfortunately most of them appear to be located in hotels and airports. Not exactly convenient as I am not staying in a hotel or an airport. Saying that, I have only been here for 2 weeks so I am still finding my way around. If anybody has any suggestions, let me know.

It has taken me a while to get started but here it is, my blog. I am not sure exactly what I will blog about. I have no game plan. I figure I´ll just write whatever comes into my head, minus the expletives of course.