THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA

There is a story about "The Phantom of the Opera", it may be true or a legend. Every people have seen this film or have listened to this story. People said that one man lived in the underground caves of the famous Opera Garnier in Paris. His face was deformed and he looked like a monster. He loved a famous opera singer and visited her while she was asleep; he always left one rose with a signed note. He wanted that his beloved singer was de best and for this reason, he did terrible things.

Once, while a opera singer was singing, he broke the rope which held the main lamp. The lamp had six hundreds bulbs and fell over the people who were in the room and one woman died. Nobody knew what happened, but later, people said that the phantom was guilty.

He was obsessed and one day kidnapped her to live together in the caves. There were caves surrounded by water; this man lived there. That place seemed a sanctuary because there were many candles and it was very dark. The girl, who was called Christine, didn't see the face of the phantom because he wore a white mask to hide the burns and scars that he had in his face. When he took off the mask and Christine saw his face, she was afraid because he looked like a monster. He had a nice voice, in fact, Christine called him "the angel of music", but she wanted to get married with Raoul.

Raoul was a opera singer too and they sang together. The phantom disagreed and didn't allow Christine left him. Raoul went to the caves  where the phantom lived and they fought. Christine didn't  want the phantom died because she loved him a little. When she met him, she was surprised at his misterious appearance and his strong voice, but she knew that they couldn't to be together due to he was a murderer and he would kill every people who discovered the story. Christine chose Raoul, he was the best and a good person. She was sure that they could be happy.

By this way, every year it's celebrated this festival to commemorate this historical event. People get disguise and can buy handicrafts. Many tourists visit during these days this village. It's like if you came back to the  past.

Castle of Almodóvar del Río

There's a castle in Almodóvar del Río which has a special story. I was there some years ago and it's amazing. 

Thousand yearse ago, almorávides come into the península with his army. They wanted to conquer the Alcázar of Córdoba. The prince Alma'mum and the princess Zaida lived there. When the war started, the prince decided to protect his family and he sent them to the castle. Alcázar was invaded and the prince was murdered by his enemies. When the prince died, Zaida woke up startled. She climbed the tower and saw a white horse, this was a signal of her husband's death. The next day, almorávides conquered the castle and the locked her in one of the dungeons. She died of grief and sadness.

It's a sad story and people of this land think that Zaida's spirit is in the castle. People sometimes listen chains, groans, heartbeats and some of them have seen one woman with white clothes walking around the tower at midnight.

I think that the suffering remains there and walls speak.

If you have seen Game of Thrones, you should know that some scenes have been filmed in this castle (Altojardín).

THE SARDINE'S BURIAL

For the vast majority of people it's important to believe in some popular traditions, specially in small villages where there're more believes. Every country has his own way of life, religious believes, traditional food, festivals and customs which are different from other countries. Every festival or custom has an origin.

Therefore, there is a peculiar custom which is celebrated in some areas of Spain. It's called "the sardine's burial" and it's more famous than I thought. It's celebrated in Ash Wednesday, the last day before Lent, in february. The ceremonia is based on the belief of burying symbolically our own past, hoping to propitiate a rebirth for better times. Days before the burial, the children build a big sardine with sticks. They paint it with dark colours to simulate the sardine is dead.

The origin of this tradition dates from the seventeenth century, when the king of Spain, Charles III, wanted to celebrate the end of Carnival with commoners. He ordered that sardines and wine were served in a country festival. It was a hot day and there was a strong smell because the sardines started to get rot. People decided to bury the sardines to delete the smell. When people buried them, they began to mourn because had lost the free food and they had to start the period of abstinence previous to Lent.

The painter Goya painted a famous picture about this burial. It's an expressionist picture and nowdays is in The Royal Academy of Fine Arts, in Madrid. Goya criticized the catholic church in his first picture because there were monks and nuns dancing, later he did some changes in the picture. 

GUZMAN THE GOOD

I've always liked medieval stories and stories about haunted castles. With this in mind, I've to tell the story about Guzman "the Good". There are monuments in his honor and his castle is in Tarifa, where he lived long time ago. 

He was a leon nobleman and when he was nineteen years old, he went out with other leon noble men to fight against muslims. He was brave and overtime, he won positions of responsibility.

Years later (1294), Guzman was appointed governor of Tarifa. Tarifa was attacked by moors because they wanted to conquer the town. Moors had kidnapped the Guzman's son and they said that were going to slaughter him. Guzman thought it wasn't true and he threw them his own dagger to kill the child. Besides, Guzman wanted to prove his fidelity to Spain and the king, even above his paternal love.

After that, moors beheaded the child and they threw his head to the castle by catapult. The child was only ten years old. Hence, his name Guzman "the Good", is due to the sacrifice of his son an because he saved his people.

Nowdays, you can visit it. There is an enormous sculpture in the center of a square. When I visited this place some years ago, I didn't know the story, but there was a small plate where it had been written the feat.

She was a famous writer who wrote many successful novels long time ago. My favourite novel is "Pride and Prejudice". She wrote romantic novels but criticized the society where she lived because women were educated to get married with rich men. She disagreed due to she wanted to fall in love and getting married by love. Jane defended her values and never got married, although she loved one man, but they couldn't to be together because they hadn't enough money.

She died in 1871, in Winchester. She was only forty one years old. 

Her most famous novels are: Emma, Mansfield Park, Persuasion, The Abbey of Northanger, Sense and Sinsibility and Pride and Prejudice. What's more, I want to visit Derby Shire, in England, the castle of Chatsworth is there. It's the famous location of one of her novels "Pride and Prejudice". I've read it two times and I've seen the film more than ten times. 

Nowdays, Jane Austen's house is a museum. Activities are organized in her memory every year and hundreds of people wear dresses of that time. 

There are films and movies about all her novels. There are two versions of the film "Pride and Prejudice" The first version was starred by  Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle.  

Colin is one of the best actors of romantic comedies in today's films. Some of them are "Love Actually", "Bridget Jones", "Shakespeare in Love" and many others.

The second version was filmed in two thousands and five. In this film, Elizabeth Bennet was represented by Keira Knightley. Mr. Darcy was represented by Matthew Macfadyen, he is a less famous actor, but in this film, he is superb and transmits many feelings. 

ROLE MODELS

Regarding to the past, it was necessary to have knowledge about Platon, Aristoteles or other philosophers. In high society, rich people used to study art, music, sculpture or history instead of maths or sciences. In fact, these roles were featured, such as: Beethoven, Mozart, Leonardo Da Vinci and others. 

Therefore, ordinary people tryed to follow their works and inspiration to continue their lives. Certainly, most of them became famous when they died, but their plays, novels or paintings are an example even today. Taking this into account, we can suppose that in the past these artists were inspired by other famous people or maybe tried to survive. Moreover, many of them were living in bad conditions, in misery. The point is when we have necessity, but we are creatives, strong, humbles and defend our dreams, we can get everything we want. So, these artists and their backgrounds got unusual challenges and they marked a stage. 

Actually, there were a revolution in different aspects as what's happening currently. For example, one relevant issue in these days is food. Famous chefs and restaurants, even tv programmes related to this. They're creating new ways of cooking with advanced appliances and technologies. 

In conclusion, every stage has new concepts for learning in the future.

SOUNDTRACKS

For me, listening soundtracks, watching a film, writting some story, taking a photo, recording with my camera,... are essential in my life because I'm a creative person.

When you're watching a film, you're feeling emotions with the images and music. One film without soundtrack doesn't transmit anything. The first sound film was "The Jazz Singer", in 1927, whose director was Alan Crossland.

There're many films with wonderful soundtracks you can listen every day and you don't get tired. My favourite composers are: Hans Zimmer, Jhon Williams, James Horner, Danny Elfman and Jhon Powell. For example: James Horner composed the soundtracks of two famous films such as Titanic and Avatar. Hans Zimmer composed The Lion King's soundrack film. Jhon Powell composed How to train your dragon's soundrack film. Danny Elfman composed Alice in Wonderland's soundrack film and James Horner composed Jaws's soundtrack film among other.

CASTLES FOR VISITING

I'd like to visit Ireland and Nottingham because in those towns there are many castles. For example, in Ireland there're seven.

One delighted castle is called "Cahir", I'm sure you'll know it if you have seen the Excalibur film. This film was filmed into this castle and maintain the essence of those days. You can traced back to that fights between kings who died to defend their kingdoms.

I'd like to visit the Robin Hood's castle in Nottingham. The story is real, in fact, there is a sculpture in the middle of the square that represents a young man shouting arrows. This is one reason, but the scenery is outstanding: large forests, step hills surrounded empty castles that remember their ancestors and evoque peace and other feelings.

The most important is "Trim castle" because the film Braveheart was filmed there.

At first sight, we're suffering changes in our lives everyday although we don't realize. As the years go by, we're getting new things. If we would had to create something that provoked a revolution in all aspects, there would be two unavailabe options right now, but perhaps its' possible in some decades now. 

In a foreseeable future, we could see flying cars and some special means of transport to travel to another planet. I'm not talking about spaceships, I mean tourist ships for many visitors, e.g. Unfortunately, the Earth is damaged, so, it's a matter of time that scientists and researchers study a new way of life in other planet to avoid humanity to dissapear. About flying cars, this would suppose less pollution, new industries and companies with more employees. The road system would change and there would be less traffic jams. Whith this in mind, it will be necessary to finance this project and that's the difficulty.

As for that matter, the space tourist trips may finance in some way the flying cars's project. Thousands of people would pay for visiting Venus, Saturn and the rest of planets. Obviously, with the appropiate measures.

Who knows? Maybe someday, you might be taking a rum drink in a resort hotel located in Jupiter. It sounds like a fantasy tale, but if someone talked to people of the Middle Age about all our advances, have thought we're crazy.

So, at this stage, everything is possible.

APPEARANCES

One of the worst mistakes of humanity is the ambition. Most of time, we're not happy, in spite of having everything. Certainly, many people think that appearances are really important to get something in life.

Basically, they compete for the best job, the house with the best views, brand clothes, expensive trips and other material things. Evidently, most of the population cannot afford these costs, for that, ambition exists. 

In the meantime, in Africa, India or another poor countries, people only think of surviving. They don't know what the new trends are or what perfum use that famous woman, it does not matter. In this regard, desinterested people are happier than ambitious people. They live their lifes without being concerned in your new car, e.g.

Nevertheless, it is good to have ambition in the good sense; like a motivation. If we don't have any purpose, we will be stagnant forever. On balance, when we have fulfilled our wishes, we're better ourselves, but quickly we find new challenges and start again. It is like a loop that never ends and we're focused on getting it. Taking everything into account, people are satisfied when achieve what they want, but without forgetting the most important things in life: health, family and friends.