Month: November 2023

Antonio y Rocinante’s Long haul flight and jet lag hacks

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Getting on an airplane

At this point in my life, I cannot tell you how many times I have crossed “the pond”. My first time was in 1976, I remember because the US was celebrating their bicentennial, so I was 11. Since then, we moved to NY for my 6th grade, then I went to college in Boston, and stayed in NY and Boston for a few years after that, then I traveled for work and vacations all over the US, Caribbean and South America, then I moved back to Boston in ’05, and you know the story since then (if you don’t, you can backtrack in this blog). So, for a conservative number let’s say over a hundred times.

Here are some of my travel and jet lag hacks:

Pre-flight:

Your body has three main built in clocks: stomach, sleep, and light. We need to prep those at least the day before the flight:

Start eating easy to digest meals this will “prep” and confuse you stomach, getting it adjusted for your new meal schedule.

Same with sleep: try getting some naps in the days before the flight. Again, you are trying to “trick” your sleep pattern.

Flight day:

Look good. Do you really want to meet someone important in your life, maybe your next boss, your future spouse, a potential client, or a celebrity, wearing oversize sweats and Crocs. Is it really that difficult for you to look good and be comfortable at the same time? Work on it; for me it means a button-down shirt, blazer, chinos, and comfortable loafers – just like George Clooney in Up in the Air (see clip below). Ground staff and cabin crew are going to like you more if you look nice than if you look like you are going to a pajama party.

Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Cabin air is super filtered and super dry, so on a long haul you are going to notice. Most of your tiredness after a long flight is more dehydration than tiredness.

Night flights: try to sleep! Take a heavy-duty Melatonin, eye mask, ear plugs, blanket and sleep, sleep, sleep, or at least try to.

No alcohol, coffee, tea, sodas, all those drinks are going to make you pee, or make you thirsty, or dehydrate you or whatever, stick to water. I also put on moisturizer every time I go to the bathroom and wash my hands, it feels nice.

Adjust your watch if you are an old fool like me.

After landing:

Do not have a big meal, stick to easy to digest meals for a day, to continue adjusting.

Try to adapt to the local schedule ASAP, no going to bed in the morning, no big meals at odd times. Be a local.

Try to go outside, if there is sun, take in the sun, remember light is one of your body clocks.

You are welcome.

Any thoughts? Additions? Suggestions? I would love to read them in the comments below.

Why is football (soccer) the leading sport in the world?

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Why is football (soccer) the leading sport in the world? Why is the World Cup one of the most watched events in the world? There are a few factors, which might surprise my American readers.

Yes, football is low scoring, but that is part of the beauty of it, each goal is precious and celebrated. American football has a weird scoring system which devalues each score. Basketball averages 70 points per game, so unless you have a final basket deciding the game, the final score is not so dramatic. Also, since the court is indoors and relatively small you cannot have a massive audience. A major tennis final might also be exciting, with each point going back and forth.

The low scoring factor also makes for suspense. A winning goal might come at the last minute -literally! (For example, Andres Iniesta’s World Cup winning goal at the 2010 final)

We also have ties, but that is only on league games, not cup, and not championship games.

All it takes to play soccer is a ball, and some are even made from plastic bags. This means that children even in the poorest neighborhood or village play soccer.

When you become a football fan, you will follow your team in all their competitions: national league and cup, and if your team is any good, in their European or Latin American championship (Champions League or Libertadores). You will also follow your national team in their continental and world tournaments (Euro, Americas or World Cup). This team is made up with your country’s best players regardless of their club affiliation. In football countries you basically inherit your allegiance from your parents. I remember my father taking me to the Bernabeu stadium in cold winter afternoons. However, there are exceptions to this rule with even some Madridista (Real Madrid) and Culé (Barcelona) marriages!!

I am passionate about soccer. Although I never played enough to be a good player, I have always loved it. I got the opportunity to coach in 2005 and I have been coaching on and off since.

We recently played our Fall game against the Miami seminary in Miami. Since we won both games last year, we were a bit sleepy for the first half, moving the ball around but without decisive finishing. 0-0 at half time. We had to wake up and we did, scoring three goals. By the end of the game, exhausted, we allowed a goal. 1-3 is a good result, and I am super proud of the boys.

The players did not order their shirts on time, so the old players played with our traditional red and white (Atletico de Madrid, Athletic de Bilbao) (not a fan) shirts, while the new players who did not buy their shirts had to play with temporary (red) shirts – fortunately the refs were ok with it if they were not blue. You will notice this in the photos, grrrr. Speaking of photos, cred. Jonathan Arias.

R.I.P. Brother Eulogio.

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Nuestras vidas son los ríos

que van a dar en el mar,

que es el morir:

allí van los señoríos

derechos a se acabar

y consumir;

allí, los ríos caudales,

allí, los otros, medianos

y más chicos,

allegados, son iguales,

los que viven por sus manos

y los ricos.

Jorge Manrique wrote these lines in his Coplas por la Muerte de su Padre in 1480, the late Middle Ages, the cusp of the Spanish Renaissance (Spain, like me, is a bit of a late bloomer, and we consider 1492 as our start date for the Renaissance if you want to be technical about it).

But these are the lines that jump in my mind every time I hear of someone passing; the best friend of one of my students three days into his honeymoon, family members of dear friends, Matthew Perry, and last week Benedictine monk Brother Eulogio in El Paular Monastery.

Brother Eulogio was a spiritual force of nature, a spiritual power who would ask you point blank questions or nonchalantly point to the spot he wanted to be buried in the Monastery’s cloister. I have written about him before (click here) and he was one of the many reasons I love to go on retreat to El Paular.

Brother Eulogio pushed me in my quest for peace. Although in his later years he was wheelchair bound and did not recognize me, he kept his aura bright. I remember one of our last conversations was about the gifts each one has and how to find comfort in our gifts. It was in the “little” chapel, a tiny chapel where the 11 monks and whoever is staying with them pray their daily prayers, only using the big chapel for high mass on Sundays and special holidays.

The beauty in Brother Eulogio’s spirituality was the joy, simplicity, and casualness of his asceticism, his humanity and humility. He could answer what you thought was a deep question with a wave of his hand or think about it for a second and go into a deep explanation. I will miss our walks in the orchard, or in the cloister.

I hope to visit your grave in the cloister of the monastery soon.

British geopolitics in Spain during WWII; Walter Starkie and “El British”

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My dad could not stop talking about Walter Starkie. I never gave the fellow much consideration, that was my dad’s thing. My dad even found and bought some of his (many) books. But a few days ago, my aunt passed along a brief bio of Starkie –particularly in his time as Director of the British Institute in Madrid (attached). And I loved it! This fellow did more for Britain than you would think.

Mise en scene: Spain during WWII is a neutral country, at least on paper. After all, Franco won the (in)Civil War in 1939 with help from Hitler and Mussolini. Having said that, when Hitler asked Franco to let him transport his troops and tanks by train to Algeciras (next to British Gibraltar -but that is another story) to get to North Africa, Franco -to his credit- said no. But back to our story.

So, in a neutral but Axis friendly country, in 1940, during WWII, what could Britain do to exert some sort of “soft” power in Spain? The answer: send a phenom of nature, a genius, a virtuoso (literally), a wonder, and let him do his thing. Make sure he looks unassuming, a roly-poly, jolly, violin-playing academic fellow. Give him a fairly vague title like British cultural representative. Finally, give him carte blanche to do as he sees fit, oh and a generous budget, I am sure.

Ironically, Starkie was Irish, from a family of scholars and artists, he graduated from Trinity College in Dublin, with honors in Classics, History and Political Science, oh, and first prize in violin from the Royal Academy of Music in Dublin! After graduating he stayed at Trinity teaching Italian and Spanish. Samuel Beckett was one of his students! During WWI in Italy, he played violin for the British troops and met his wife. Back in England Y.B. Yeats made him director of the Abbey Theatre. From there he was sent to Madrid in 1940.

Starkie soon founded the British Institute – El Instituto Británico, “El British,” where my father, my uncle, and my aforementioned aunt went to school as children of a British Embassy employee (read more about my grandad here). Eventually my sister and I would also go to “El British.” Starkie made the school a center for conferences, concerts, presentations, so forth, which is precisely what Britain wanted in Spain: a cultural beachhead in Nazi friendly Madrid. Not only that, but as a Catholic (remember, Starkie was Irish), Starkie soon made friends with influential Jesuits Heras and Otaño, and eventually with government ministers. In fact, one of Starkie’s biggest victories was to have English as a language option (together with German) in Spanish secondary schools.

On any given day, Starkie could meet with a Spanish government official, play the violin with gypsies, whom he loved and wrote his most famous books about (Raggle-Taggle: Adventures with a Fiddle in Hungary and Romania (1933), Spanish Raggle-Taggle: Adventures with a Fiddle in Northern Spain (1934), and Don Gypsy: Adventures with a Fiddle in Barbary, Andalusia and La Mancha (1936)), host a conference, write or translate a book -like Don Quijote, and then go home, which served as a safe house for Jewish, Gypsy, and other prosecuted refugees on their way to America.

I asked my uncle what he remembered about Starkie. He told me how the Embassy’s country house was used as a safe house for downed plane crews rescued by the French resistance who were on their way back to the UK to fly again. But to get to this country house one had to drive by a gypsy settlement. Because of the friendship between Starkie and the gypsies, nobody ever dared go near that house to investigate what was going on, why there were cars and vans coming in and out at all times of the day and night, another point for Starkie!

So, besides the eventual victories on the battlefield, Britain scored a major victory in WWII by sending Walter Starkie to Spain.

Walter Starkie, a true friend of SpainDownload