Starting Anew

Just in case, or as we say in Spanish 'if for the flies' (literal translation), I'm not including a photo with this, what I intend to make short, post. With the move of the database recently, I temporarily  lost photos from blogs and a photo album, all of which finally re-appeared for me. What got stuck in the twilight zone was my entire viewing history. It somehow got corrupted according to CS and had to be deleted ; hence, the starting anew. Fortunately, I say, touching wood, that was the only part of my site that is gone forever. I know there are pages with missing photos still, and several people I know haven't got any updates recently. This morning (my morning) pages were loading very slowly, so I figured there must be some kind of maintenance going on. There must have been because this afternoon loading times have been normal on my side of the pond.

Not much going on in my life, except tomorrow I'll be a year older than I am today. I'll be celebrating both Thanksgiving and my birthday on Thursday at a Mexican, which is where I always choose to celebrate my birthday. My friends and I are quite international. For Chris's birthday, we went to an Indian and the next birthday celebration will be at a Greek restaurant.

I suppose the only thing newsworthy, though it's really not, is my phone is still being used and abused. But we all know it doesn't cost me anything. Honestly, when I get old, or should I say older than I now am, and don't forget grumpy, I hope I don't refuse to try some new technology just because. I mean, there are mobile phones which are designed especially for people who have no idea how to use a mobile and with numbers and letters that are big enough for most people to see.

Tonight will be only the second time this season that it'll be cold enough for me to put on a hat and that's because it's a bit windy out. This has been the warmest autumn that we've had since I've lived in Spain, not to mention that we're desperate for rain. If anybody has any rain that they don't want, they can send it this way but forget the floods.

Can't end this without saying something about my beloved Post Secret. Of course, you know there were a couple that I liked so much that I had to save. I plan on using at least one of them later on. Surprise, surprise! Today I got an even number on the visitor counter: 284,788,454.

And I have to add this. I've finally made use of my right rail. Just the other day on StumleUpon, I found a quote that I really liked.

So much for a short post huh? Anyway, I hope everybody who celebrates Thanksgiving has an enjoyable holiday and that the rest of us has a good week.

The Man in the White Suit

Twenty years ago, Erik started writing 'The Man in the White Suit', a novel of fantasy but with fact interspersed, and a clear message that we must respect all living things even the horrible cockroach that almost anybody, except Erik, would crush with his/her shoe, a rolled up newspaper, chase with bug spray, anything to take the life of such a disgusting creature. Because, from what I observed, no journalists or TV cameras were at the presentation of his book (I did see someone with a camera taking a home video), I thought I'd dedicate this blog to Erik and his wonderful world of UFO's and beautiful strange beings from other planets and the man in the white suit with the baby chick in his pocket (the chick has special powers too) who teaches a group of friends everything they need to know, things that they aren't taught sitting in a classroom six hours a day. The book is full of drawings of creatures. As different as these creatures may be, they all have one thing in common and which is illustrated on the front cover - the tender look in their eyes. Looking into these eyes filled with tenderness you seem to see yourself  reflected.

I met Erik (full name Herikberto, which is in itself an odd name in Spain and I like to think there's only one Herikberto. He's certainly odd in the good sense, meaning he's very,very talented) when the company where I'd worked  for almost 27 years closed down. Most people who had known this particular language institute for years (it was opened the year I was born) because they had been students there, or knew someone who had been, were naturally shocked and angry that their children wouldn't have a place in the next course and not due to demand. I mean, I can remember years that the queues (lines) to get a place in our school started even before the institute opened at 8 in the morning. Sometimes I was even accused of queue-jumping and would have to explain that I worked there. Erik's daughter was in one of the children's courses I had that last year. Some of my colleagues continued under a different name in the centre of town. I decided to pay myself to work so I began giving private classes. I'm sure this will be the last year I give Helena classes because next year she'll be attending university.

 Anyway, this is how I met Erik and I fear there will be few people in this neighbourhood who don't know him. He's a fantastic person even if he's a bit mad and doesn't stop talking about - you guessed it - E.T.'s. Once when he phoned, I said I didn't have time to talk as my ceiling fan had shorted out the electricity and I was waiting for an electrician to come before all the food in the fridge spoiled. He said. 'I can fix that' and he did, complete with drawings of how he'd made the ceiling fan stable so it wouldn't cause any more short circuits or worse fall on my head. Of course, I had to listen to his stories. At the time he was trying to get another novel published in the US, which unfortunately hasn't happened. I hope 'The Man in the White Suit' and the others that he has to be published are a big, big success. I certainly enjoyed the evening this past week when his novel was introduced. We laughed a lot. Erik's a natural comedian too. The only distraction of the evening was the child that went berserk when an E.T. entered the room and who continued making noise the rest of the evening. Not a result of a distraction, but I might add that it's too bad the novel hasn't been published in English - at least not yet.

    

Too Funny Not To Post

CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Graffiti Long Weekend

I only remembered (again) shortly before 12 yesterday morning while my head was in the oven that this was a long weekend for us. No, I hadn't turned on the gas. My appliances are all electric, and I was cleaning the oven when I realized that I might have to look in on my friend's cat this weekend. I texted her and she texted me back to say that yes they were going away and would I mind checking on Sammie. After taking Zara out this morning, I went to replenish Sammie's food and water and to spend some time with her. Actually I also got some quiet time for myself, which I used to read a bit more on the Sue Grafton novel I'd started. At least at my friends' I know a certain person won't be ringing the doorbell to ask to use my phone. She only made 6 calls from my phone last week. As she puts it, the calls don't cost me anything. I beg to differ here because I know we do pay for those calls and not in the long run either. Besides, having someone in when you're trying to prepare lunch (during the week I eat between 1 and 1.30). One day I almost burnt the stir-fry I was making, because she had to have a complaining session after getting off the phone, more or less what I'm having here. A normal person would have a mobile phone to use, but she refuses to learn how to use one.

It's probably a good thing that we have tomorrow off since I've got a busy week ahead. On Thursday evening, I'm going to a book presentation. The father of one of my students has finally published his first of five novels that he's written about E.T.'s. This past Thursday when I was going to my last class, I heard someone behind me calling my name and naturally thought it was my student and his father. Lots of times I arrive at their house before they do. When I turned around, I saw that it was Helena's father, the one who's crazy about E.T's and has written the novels, not the other little boy's father. He insisted on going with me to tell the other student's family that we would have to change the time of the class because I had to go to the presentation. I told him I was sure they would be going too so there would be no problem as they're all friends. As another mother and I were commenting the other day, there can't be many people in the neighbourhood who don't know Heric (and his obsession). He's a lovely person even if he is a bit strange.

I was debating about whether or not to post one of the secrets that I just had to copy from Post Secret and then remembered this mushroom that suddenly appeared on a building round the corner from my house. A bit of the writing at the top got cut off like one of the secrets that I was reading today. It doesn't matter because I have no idea what it says. I got my usual odd number today on Post Secret: 280,739,789.

Think I'm going to try and find time to write up that chocolate cake recipe that I mentioned before. I still have photos to post from September. BTW, it's finally cold here, so I've put the continental quilt on the bed. How I love sleeping under one! Hope everybody has a good week.

Smelly Week With Fantastic Weather

Incredible as its seems a little over a week ago I was wearing a winter coat and one of my signature hats. This week it's been nothing but summer clothes. Zara and I went to Fuente del Berro Park this afternoon, and I had to take my jacket off. The only thing that is reminiscence of autumn is the leaves on the ground, which I would have loved to walk through but didn't dare in case there was an unpleasant surprise hidden among them. The other day I kept smelling something disgusting and kept blaming it on Zara until I looked at my shoe and what I'd stepped in. I truly understand people who haven't got a dog getting angry, especially when there is no necessity to leave it where someone can step in it. Our town council provides bags with which to pick up the dog's deposits. I always make sure I have a supply, and I think if I can pick it up so can everybody else.

I guess the next smelly thing on my list is all the renovation going on in my building. The other day they were painting with that anti-mould paint, which caused me to have to close the windows since the smell was making me ill. One of the persons having renovations done is my 'favourite' neighbour - the one who drives me up a wall and who has the personality of a reptile. She's been trying to palm all kinds of junk off on me. The other day I encountered a tied bag hanging from my door knob. Inside was a mobile phone that she'd never activated, and which one of her neighbours had tried to activate without success because the phone number had probably been given to someone else. When I told her it was useless, she said she hadn't time to dispose of it properly. And I do? She hasn't cleaned any of the dust and dirt that there is in the building and which we all track into our flats, at least I do. We pay someone to clean twice a week. However, I don't think that person should have to do extra work. To top it off, I've got a nice new scratch on my door. I say a new scratch because I have two other big ones which were made by someone who is deceased but he made our lives more complicated with his evilness. We were always taking him to court.

I wanted to post the recipe for the chocolate cake that I made for my friend's birthday yesterday. It's a chocolate cake recipe that everyone needs to have when there isn't a cake mix in the cupboard, you want a made from scratch cake or there isn't a mix for this cake like there isn't in Spain. Remember this has been a smelly week, so my main computer decides that it won't connect to my wireless network. I tried everything I can think of to repair it. I'm typing this on my netbook, which touch wood has connected without problems. I'm posting this secret from this week's Post Secret(where I got an even number on the visitor counter for once: 278,763736. Looks like a lucky number to me. Sure hope so) to remind me that not everything is smelly. Here's wishing everybody a good week.