I lived through a somewhat schizophrenic weekend with a lot of travelling and little sleep. I had a rather weird but very special birthday. Halfway through the shoot in Greece and Turkey, I was with Ana Piterbarg for about 36 hours in England to support Todos tenemos un plan taking part in the London Film Festival. I arrived on Friday morning 10/19 straight from the filming of The Two Faces of January in Athens. On arriving in the English capital, I received my first gift when I learned the trust fund had been approved in the Porteña Legislature. The Return to Boedo is getting nearer all the time! The following day, my birthday, while I continued doing interviews with the English press, I received other extraordinary gifts. The most important was to see my son, who is in London studying anthropology. And then, during my last promotional commitment before returning to the airport to grab a night flight to Istanbul, I received some super cuervo gifts. First I briefly met some visitors from Boedo after an incredibly long interview (some 100 minutes) that they had me do for the Festival's "Screen Talk." I was becoming tired during that interminable chat, until I became aware of the presence of some Cuervos in the last row of the auditorium. I looked toward where "Vamos San Lorenzo!" [tr. note: "Go, San Lorenzo!"] was heard and I saw a few of ours wearing the colors. When I invited them to approach the stage, they gave me their hats, one of them exactly the same as the one that Gata Fernández wore when we ended up champions in 2007.

When a colleague from our English crew saw me walking around the hotel after arriving from the Istanbul airport this morning, he told me I should be careful if I walked through the city looking like that. "What are they going to say?" I asked him, "that I'm a walking minaret? Let them die of laughter or just stop dead in their tracks, for all I care. I'm not taking this hat off all day." A very nice German woman who's had the courtesy to come and see me do theatre in Madrid and to film premieres and photography exhibitions throughout the world gave me another San Lorenzo gift. She is tremendously generous and usually brings me unique gifts, always linked to CASLA. This time she gave me a small, old flag from our Matadors era.

Lovely, isn't it?

And as if that wasn't enough for a Cuervo on his birthday, then I was approached by a representative of the Suttons Seed company which produces seeds for English gardening lovers - which would be almost all of that country's population. A couple of years ago, they had written to me from Suttons Seeds to invite me to name a new flower that they were going to produce as a benefit for youth soccer in England. I answered them, half in jest, that if they were going to name a new flower it would have to be azulgrana [tr. note: red and blue] in color and it would have to be named 'Casla.' I'd forgotten that email exchange, but after yesterday's "Screen Talk," the young lady gave me this packet of seeds for their new petunias. (They had to produce two new varieties to come up with our colors.):

If I didn't show you the photo of the 'Casla' seed packet, you'd never believe me. A priceless gift. Imagine how many English people are going to plant azulgrana emblems in their gardens next year...

And the final gift was being able to watch the first part of the match against Godoy Cruz in Heathrow Airport before boarding the Turkish Airlines flight to Istanbul. You can't exactly say we played like Barcelona, but in Pizzi's debut, we didn't play badly. Our team was valiant, looking for goals, and we defended pretty well. When we landed in Turkey at 4:30 in the morning, I found out that we'd tied, and that there hadn't been any media fuss after the match like we'd been accustomed to having to put up with from the previous San Lorenzo coach. Back to work, let's see if we can advance, adding [points] little by little to climb out of the danger zone.

I just saw Higuaín's goal for Real Madrid in the match against Celta de Vigo on my laptop. Tremendous goal. Almost better than the one he scored against the Chileans last week. El Pipita is a soccer beast and a gentleman. As with Messi, you have to shoot him for him to take a dive or complain seriously. It's impressive what he contributes as a sportsman and as a person. A team player with a champion's fighting spirit.

Well, that's all. In this instalment, I don't offer you film, philosophy, or literary meditations. I just give thanks for my good fortune in staying alive and Cuervo in this world.