My Wish List

Still At It!

Since last Thursday was Book Day, I found a perfect book to give to one of my students, whose whole family love to read.  It's called 'Ten Centuries / Ten Cities'.  It starts with Jerusalem in the 11th C and finishes with New York in the 20th. The reader is given a bird's-eye view of each city and important events surrounding each century are given. For example, there's an excellent picture story of the dreadful Bubonic Plague, along with a written explanation of each picture.  The best thing of all is that I'm seriously getting rid of more clutter. Have I mentioned that this particular book is very big?  Among the pages, I found a drawing of my dog Honey, who had gigantic ears and was appropriately named because she was a honey. The artist is one of my nephews who got his artistic abilities from his mother.

This weekend has definitely been t-shirt weather. It's also the nicest weekend weather-wise that we've had so far this spring - not very conducive weather to staying inside to say the least.  However, I did clean out my freezer and decide on what I should be cooking this week.  For tomorrow I'm going to make pork knuckle, which if you've never had it or don't go to German restaurants, you might say 'yuck'.  I assure you pork knuckle is anything but yucky; it's tender, tasty and all-meat.  It's typical to have it with sauerkraut, but I'm having it with vegetables and maybe mashed potatoes.  I'm going to rub the knuckle with a bit of butter and pour some beer over it, which makes a delicious sauce.  Too bad this dish hasn't got a better-sounding name.  It's 'codillo' in Spanish by the way, and I think it tastes similar to corned beef.

That's all from me for now.  Hope everybody has a good week and I'll post some photos of my newest great-niece when I see some photos myself!

Stranded Passengers

Being stranded in an airport, or any other place for that matter, is seldom fun. Having a serious illness such as multiple sclerosis is even less fun. Here's a joke that my friend squiffy2,  webmaster for the Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre (http://www.msrc.co.uk/), posted. I hope lots of people laugh and contribute to this worthy cause:

Gordon Brown has responded to criticisms that the government is not doing enough to get stranded British citizens home.  He has today authorised the dIspatch of Royal Navy vessels to key locations.  Announcing details to the press he said: "We are about to undertake a significant logistical challenge to get our citizens back home.  This will not happen overnight but we have drawn up a schedule starting tomorrow and running through to May 7th.  We obviously need to prioritise cases so that those with the greatest need are repatriated first.  We have therefore drawn up a detailed questionnaire which will allow us to prioritise."

The questionnaire is as follows:

Question 1: Which party do you intend to vote for at the General Election?

Homer Simpson's Postcard

I just had to grab and post this from last week's Post Secret. It adds a bit of laughter to an otherwise difficult week full of clouds and rain in Spain (Madrid anyway) and ash clouds from the Icelandic volcano over other parts of Europe. Wednesday was the birthday of the mother of two of my students and I took her a little gift. She excitedly told me to guess where they were going on Friday and I said, "Don't tell me you're going to Pepe's!" Pepe's is what we call our local Chinese restaurant, because that's the name the owner has given himself. "No", she answered, "we're going to Paris for the weekend!" It was just going to be the two of them as the aunt was going to stay with the kids. Without thinking too much, I answered that I hoped the erupting volcano wouldn't affect their trip. I felt really bad for them when they returned while I was giving the younger child class on Friday afternoon. When I finished class, I said, "I hope you don't think I'm a witch!" I had little idea that air traffic in Europe would practically come to a standstill. I suppose it was lucky they didn't go to Paris on Friday because who knows when they would get back - by plane anyway and I think the French trains were on strike too!

We've had all of 5 minutes' sun today. Around 2 p.m. it was as if it were at least 8 p.m. and I knew we were in for real drencher. The building across the street has big ledges and when the rain came they made a nice waterfall. It reminded me of when we were little talking about getting some soap and going outside for a shower. I think it was just talk because I don't remember ever doing it. The tree in front of my windows has lost all its blooms. I know at this time last year it still had lots left on it. It's got plenty of green leaves though. There's a saying that claims that a year of a lot of rain brings wealth. One thing is sure: we'll have water to drink.

We have enough economic problems already, so I hope things get back to normal very, very soon in Europe at the airports. If not, there will be disastrous results, not only for the airlines. Hope everybody has a sweet week, preferably with doughnuts. Me, I've just remembered that I'm going to be a great-aunt again any day now!

Somebody Said

If you don't consider a thing useful or beautiful then get rid of it", and this is what I've been trying to do.  I suppose I'll just probably collect more junk, but I am trying to, at least, dispose of some things, which I know won't be missed once they're gone.  One such item is a textbook, in Spanish of course, on Information Technology from the year dot.  Now, with the exception of those blonde days I've been having lately, I'm quite familiar with the contents of this book.  I won't throw it away, because maybe there's somebody out there who's a newbie and this book could be useful.  Well, I do have a friend who doesn't know how to do most things on the computer, because she's afraid she might break it.  Then another friend has three brothers - one who's a computer technician, one who's quite useless and the youngest one who's completely computer illiterate; the latter I find a bit unusual for someone from his generation.  One day she mentioned to him about cleaning out the computer to which he answered: 'But it's not dirty!'

Why do some of us have more stuff than others?  I hope I never become sick like some people and refuse to throw anything away, including spoilt food. You know the kind of people I'm referring to.  I think there's one, if not more, TV programmes where the hoarders are convinced by professional organizers to part with some of their rubbish.  I can only imagine how unpleasant it would be living in a detached house and having someone like this for a neighbour, but can you imagine having hoarders living in an apartment block?  I complain about the smell when someone's frying sardines!  Anyway, just to make things clear: I don't think I've got a big problem.  It's that I think things like: maybe I'll wear that in the future, or that belonged to my mother or whatever other sentimental reason.

So I've come to the conclusion that there are three things I'm going to pack up today and palm off on someone: the textbook, a jewellery box and a stuffed cat that was my mom's, which I'll give to a child.  If I'm successful in parting with three things today, who knows what I'll throw out tomorrow?  Oh, and an article on Yahoo tells me I shouldn't go to the Containers Store (can't since we don't have any) and buy all kinds of cool containers.  They could have published the article before though as I've ordered some cool boxes from the company Vie (used to be Virgin Vie (I'm sure some of the Brits will know Vie).  One thing that won't go in the near future, and I've had it for years, is this unusual dish/dust collector (see photo).  It's still beautiful to me.  

Clean Windows = Rain

It never fails or almost never anyway.  I wash my windows and that very night or the next day, like today, it rains and they're dirty again!  Since I've had a few days off work for the Easter holiday, I've done a bit of light spring cleaning (in a month or so I'll think about getting summer clothes out) and washing the windows has been the last thing I've tackled.  All in vain because they're getting dirty with water splotches again.  When are they going to invent self-cleaning bathrooms, floors, windows, etc.  like they have with ovens?

I think today must have been the weather intended for us yesterday - Good Friday.  We had quite a bit of sun then and the temperatures were milder.  I laughed though because I saw that in my hometown it got up to 28º C (83ºF) whereas here we were lucky if we saw half that.  Does that mean that it's going to be a hot summer in the US?

Apart from cleaning and looking around shops without having to worry about the time spent doing so, I've been watching the processions, especially those from Madrid.  With permission, I'm going to put a link to Tracy's photos of a procession that she attended yesterday, so you get the idea, more or less, of what they're like.  If you're ever in Spain at Easter time, you must see one.  They're all impressive, but I think the most memorable ones are those in Seville.  We were so lucky to get accommodation to see the processions there so many years ago.  If you see Tracy's photos you'll see the penitents wearing costumes that will remind you of the Ku Klux Klan.  Actually, I'd imagine the KKK will have copied their costumes from these penitents.  In Tracy's photos they're wearing different colours - it depends on the brotherhood.  The big difference between these masked men and the KKK is that they carry crosses instead of burning them.  I still remember from my days in Seville hearing that they cover their faces because they're shamed by the cross.  For whatever reason, the processions are very emotional parades.You see people walking barefoot, dragging chains - all worth watching and experiencing.

I know I haven't written a proper blog for quite some time.There are times that I'm very busy, and then times when I haven't a lot of good things to say.  I sure don't like always being negative or a whiner.  I must say that there are several people who seem to have given up blogging, at least on multiply, and I really miss them.  I won't delete them with the hope that they'll somehow find their way back from wherever they are.  And I ask again: when are they going to put 'blog' and 'blogging' in the dictionary?  With this, I'll wish everyone a blessed Easter Sunday and a good week ahead.