miedo y mierda

up and down
round and round
miedo y mierda
shit and fear

ghosts are eating my soul
afraid of my own shadow
voices behind closed doors
shadows slip down the stairs

when I look harder
they disappear
what I can´t see
I most fear

dancing with skeletons
hugging cold bones
with memories like these
I´ll never be alone

the mystery of debirthing - things we´re meant not to understand

you can´t ever touch
the brightest jewel
like a drop of water falling
as the sun´s shining through

and I´m sending out
my healing heart
it´s covering you over
a soulful bubble of love

the wind brushes over
with the ocean´s wave
and the moon gently bobs
in the swell of the bay

the trees whisper
to the desert sand
the stars twinkle
life lives without you, man

and although you´re a million miles away
I can feel you here like breath on skin
and these things we can never explain
just feel so good kept locked deep in

Tofu Temptation

Weird stuff in the raw, like many was unimpressed by first attempts, but persistence proved it´s well worth getting a handle on. Have never got round to giving soft (silken) tofu justice, have always gone for the firm stuff, always something new to learn, I guess.

I always stick it in the freezer first, the water makes big ice crystals, making the tofu spongier and better at soaking up flavours.

After defrosting and squeezing out the water I always chop and splatter with soya sauce and leave it to infiltrate. Tofu is intrinsically bland, really bland!

You can chop it in cubes, diamonds, triangles, thick slabs - the main thing is to make sure what you add gets to soak through.

Recently I´ve also started squeezing lemons over it, it´s summer and it feels and tastes like the right thing to do!

Grill, bake or fry...
drizzle with olive oil
add a splash of toasted sesame oil to the olive oil for a nuttier touch

Marinade Madness
Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce

Coolcumber and Salmorejo Summer Soups

Two culinary revelations with style and simplicity to cool off the heatwave:

Algerian Cucumber Soup
(converts even the no-cucumber people!)
1 cucumber
4 pots of natural yoghurt (bio if you like)
1 tooth of garlic (looks more like a claw to me!)
salt, pepper
shake of any red powdered spice combo of your liking,
I used Moroccan Baharat

chop and liquidize, taste, swirl, taste, leave to chill out for a few hours in the fridge,
add iced water or cubes to texture as desired
shake over some red powder or flakes for effect

thanks to Andres "El Uruguaxo"

Cordoban Salmorejo
Lots of juicy reddy ripe tomatoes, a kilo or more
1/2 loaf Country-style bread, if it´s dry, soak it
1/2 cup Olive oil
1/4 cup Vinegar
salt, pepper
1 clove of garlic
a raw egg, or for the more careful, hardboiled and chopped

chop and liquidize, taste add taste again, leave to cool off for a few hours in the fridge
sprinkle with chopped bits of what you like!

thanks to Diego "El Cordobaño"

Kroonos team in Kiva

Well it´s all getting very interconnective as I´ve now created a team in Kiva, the micro-credit lending website, for Kroonos, the time bank I´m participating in. As an incentive I´ve offered an hour of credit (hours are the currency in this barter system) to the first 10 loans made by members of the Kroonos team. I´ve also had a bash at translating instructions on how to do it into Spanish. Kroonos is currently being translated into English, so watch out world, interesting changes are afoot! When I get back from NZ you´ll get to hear more about my experiences in Kroonos so far!

Here are the villagers from Cambodia who I´ve loaned to through the Kroonos team (click on the photo to find out more):

Other good news from Kiva is that they´ve reached $50 million in loans, and my first loans are being paid back (see the earlier article for details). I´ve made two more loans (it gets radically addictive - I don´t go shopping very often!), one in Cambodia (above) and the other in Benin, next to Nigeria (below). The plan is I´ll be able to put the $100 back into circulation helping other mini-entrepreneurs in developing countries. That´s the kind of cash flow I like to see!

This is Félicienne, a vegetable cultivator and mother of 6, with three kids in school. Every year the river floods the land she farms and they have to buy food for the family. She plans to use the loan to grow food on 1 hectare of land, which in turn will increase her reserves after the harvest.