El Tiétar on fire. (In Memoriam of Nature)

These fruit trees, the flowers, the wineyards, the fig trees and the colours won't be the same for a long time. It takes 30 years for Nature to recover from a big fire. And this is what El Tiétar is suffering today. Arenas de San Pedro, Monbeltrán, el Arenal those beautiful small villages have been on fire since midday.
Not a storm, not any natural cause. Human irresponsibility. This ill fascination some people feel towards fire is causing great suffering in the country. Besides the economical loss, there is beauty loss and much worse, personal loss. A teacher from Arenas has died in the fire and there is a disappeared woman.

Ancient constructions also in danger, as the castle in Mombeltrán, have witnessed all kind of disasters. But will they understand this madness? I'm afraid not.

Transformation

The park near my home has a new appearance. I had no time to go there for a few months and this week I was totally amazed by the way it has changed. I've known it for ever, and walked there in its bad and not-so-bad days, but now it became a really nice and new place: new alleys, tidy grass, terraces, nice music, lots and lots of playgrounds, sports terrains (football, basketball, tennis, roller skating), a reading point, new benches and furniture, flowers ans exotic plants, two scenes for cultural events and entertainment.
People seem to enjoy it, I've been there even around midnight and it was full of people biking, running or just having a beer at a terrace. And, what's more, they seem to appreciate it, to keep it very clean and in good shape. Amazingly, I saw a young man picking up a soda can left by someone else (the only piece of garbage, I must admit), and throwing it in a bin. Maybe things are changing for the better. I'm seriously considering voting for this mayor again.

Some enjoy walking...



...biking...on only one wheel!

...or even swimming.

This is a reading point for kids, empty because it was the nap-time. I saw some kids there the other day.

The poster for an all-summer event called "Bucharest, summer district"- theater and music performances in four parks every week-end day from July until September.

The older performances place in the park.

And the new one.

One of the many playgrounds.

And a zip-line.

100 X 100 Serrat

El Lienzo Norte, the Congress Palace was opened in April. the Town Hall has invested a lot of money to have a place for big events to be held in Ávila. There was nothing similar. It hosts an Exhibition Room, two Concert Rooms, smaller rooms for meetings, a cafeteria and a wonderful terrasse viewing the Walls.
The idea is using it for both working and amusement events.
It was amusement yesterday. 100 X 100 Serrat concert.
Serrat is one of those singers that became famous when we were still fighting for democracy and freedom. He dared to put music to those poets who had to leave the country after the Civil War, he dared to write about everyday's feelings and emotions, he dared to demonstrate in favour of conscience prisoners. He is the music of our youth.
This is why the room was full with people my age who had taken with them younger people to share that old emotion.


On a very simple stage, with his guitar and his pianist, a bottle of cava, two glasses and the lights Serrat took us on a journey to his best songs. Dressed in jeans and a blue shirt, he talked with us, the audience to make us live a magic evening.

May this spirit of freedom gets everybody.

Street theatre festival

This initiative wants to encourage young theatre groups to show their work in the streets and make the amusement something active and collective. It combines a mixture of youth, smiles, music, participation and interaction.

there are three different sceneries in the town. Here, young couples with children, grandparents, very young people dressed in sunny ways get into el Grande and sit on an portable installation for these days.
Actors always require somebody's help and make jokes with them. there is a samll stand with a make-up workshope. children have their faces made-up in a variety of colours and drawings: butterflies, sea-horses, flowers, cars.

And the most important thing, everytbody gets fun under a justice sun.

Colours

Just a short view from the park. The beauty of a second.

Groups

The July festivals started with this concert, there were people, although not many. Even so, I always think about the power of music groups. This one is led by a very young lady: Nena Daconte. More than a group is a band and there is a mixture of music: jazz sounds, pop, some reggae. With so much diversity the audience was also diverse. Very young people drinking in big groups created in the different neighbourhoods. These groups are called "peñas", young couples with or without babies, adults, old people. Everybody had a song they particularly liked.

The Child City in El Grande has been a real success. There were less children in the Reading workshop. I had a look at it, activities were interesting, but..... it was reading and we are in summer. Perhaps it needed more preparation.

For the brave ones, this invention that went up and down according to the weight and strength of the sitter. It's a mazing but there were quite a lot of very young girls that were trying it. their parents waited impatiently around it.

But I liked this collective bicycle. It reminded somehow of your Munich bicycle. Moving it was not an easy task because users didn't obey instructions. but they were having great time.

I asked these boys to get down for a betterphoto, but they wouldn't do it. They thought I was taking their turn.
People, people, people.

Glog

To see it full scale go here.

Flight

This is the Aviation monument on the Kiseleff Avenue, that bares only two simple words: „Eroilor aerului" (To the heroes of the air).

As a coincidence, today, as the whole world thinks of flying because of the 40th anniversary of the first man's step on the Moon, we also celebrate the Aviation Day. It's Saint Ilie's (Eli's) Day, the patron of storms and of the daring flying people. It's supposed to be a stormy day, with thunders and all, but today it was not. There were celebrations all over the week-end, demonstrative flights, and people were invited to see and even try aircraft, helicopters were brought to Herastrau Park and the big planes could be visited at the Otopeni base. Unfortunately, I could do nothing of all these, but I am bringing my humble homage to the heroes of the air here and all over the world by mentioning our most important names in this adventure of the humanity.

Traian Vuia was a Romanian inventor, who designed, built and flew the first self-propelling heavier-than-air aircraft in Europe, in 1906. The possibility of such unaided heavier-than-air flight was heavily contested by the French Academy of Sciences, which declined to assist Vuia with funding, rejecting his project for being utopian, with the comment:

"The problem of flight with a machine which weighs more than air can not be solved and it is only a chimera."

He encountered many difficulties, the most important being of financial nature, but he succeeded in overcoming them.
The thing that has been emphasized ever since about Vuia's achievement, is that his machine was able to take off on a flat surface "only by on-board means", without any "outside assistance", be it an incline, rails, a catapult, etc. However there was, and is, much disagreement over precise definition of the "first" airplane.

Aurel Vlaicu was a second important inventor and pilot, who built three original, arrow-shaped airplanes, with flight controls in front and two coaxial propellers, starting in 1909. Unfortunately, he died in 1913 near Câmpina, a town on the way to Sinaia, while attempting to fly over the Carpathian Mountains in his second airplane.

Maybe the best known name in our aviation history is Henri Coanda, aerodynamics pioneer and the builder of world's first jet powered aircraft, the Coanda-1910. He discovered and gave his name to the Coanda effect, as well as a few other inventions. This effect has been used in many aeronautical inventions and is crucial to successful supersonic flight. Bucharest's international airport in Otopeni is named after him, while the smaller one in Baneasa has Vlaicu's name.

"These airplanes we have today are no more than a perfection of a child's toy made of paper. In my opinion, we should search for a completely different flying machine, based on other flying principles. I imagine a future aircraft, which will take off vertically, fly as usual, and land vertically. This flying machine should have no moving parts. This idea came from the huge power of cyclones." H. Coanda

And I have to mention the only Romanian astronaut, Dumitru Prunariu, who flew for almost 8 days with the Soiuz 40 mission. The only one…so far…

Summer in crisis time

Nothing escapes this money crisis time. However and perhaps with more intensity, the usual summer activities are being held in town.
Ávila en Tapas, the Pottery Fair and the Summer Festivals were born to get tourists when beaches start to attract most the people who travel.
Nevertheless, this year nothing has been the same. Ávila en Tapas is a very good opportunity for bars which enter the competition to get more customers. After the week end there were many complains because some bars had not presented any original tapa. They had entered the competition to be part of the list and make business, but they offered tapas they have everyday.
As a matter of fact, what you are looking for is creativity.
The Pottery Fair had less stands and there was not the Pottery workshop for children. The Town Hall usually opened this workshop paying each of the craftmen in the fair to teach people, especially children how to work. At the end, the craftmen complained that people had bought much less.
The Summer Festivals started yesterday in the evening. The chairman of the basketball club: Óbila, was in charge of giving the announcement speech. He said at the end of his words: "Abulenses, forget about money problems, rush into the streets and enjoy".
The concert after the beginning was good and free. But there were not many people. It was a cool summer night.
Not everybody is happy with the activities programme, although there are some curious moments, for example a Reading Workshop in el Rastro. But once again, citizens complain about the lack of variety and the problems with timetables and prices. There two best concerts are the same day the same time.
Even so, I think we will enjoy. I'm thinking about the Reading Workshop, and a Serrat concert, which is not very cheap by the way.

Practicing with Prezi

This is just for practicing, but I thought you might like to see it. (I can send the link if you want).
I like Prezi presentations because they are dynamic and different. This s my second, the very first is in Using Media. I hope you like it.