Accidental Week

So far this week, and it's still Sunday, I've cracked my knee on a TV table and poked my eye with cardboard. Sometimes, we just don't measure distance when we're cleaning or whatever - I mean I'm always bumping into things. But I think how I poked my eye was ridiculously stupid of me. I was tearing up a box to take to the paper bank. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not superwoman nor are most cardboard boxes super strong. At least one portion of the box was flimsier than the rest with the result that it came flying at me ever so unexpectedly. Usually I wear glasses when I'm doing any task. However, in this case I wasn't. How true it is when they say most accidents happen in the house! Now all I need is the chair I'm sitting in to break!

This week my plants, dog and I have taken advantage of what little sun we've seen. On Friday morning we woke up to rain mixed with a bit of snow. Zara just sniffed at the door and refused to go out. Around elevenish suddenly the sun came out for all of 10 minutes and I took advantage of a lull in the rain and took her out. Yesterday we had fog in the morning and more sun until it was time for me to go and do the shopping. At least the doors to the supermarket weren't wide open, although when I came out there were rivers flowing down the street. I'm not sure but I don't think in the time that I was inside that it rained so much. I was thinking probably a broken water pipe somewhere. Then again, maybe a mean cloud did dump its load right there.

I haven't posted anything from Post Secret for a long time, so I'm including my favourite one for this week. Hope everybody has a good week. Remember Wednesday is Groundhog Day for some folks. What happened to January?

For Those Fed Up With Snow

An Interesting Energy Project Too

A Cuppa

This is the second time this has happened to me. The first time what came out of my coffee machine was clear hot water. At least this time I did put a small quantity of coffee in before I started doing something else like opening a new package of coffee. For well over a year I'd hummed and hawed about buying a coffee machine, but didn't want the kind with the capsules. My bank had offered a Nespresso machine once if I invested so much money in I don't remember what plan. The advert with George Clooney is cute and I'm sure has sold quite a few capsule-using machines. I, however, prefer manual coffeemakers. That way I can make the coffee to my taste and don't have to worry about always buying capsules and getting 'creamed' by a piano.

As for the coloured hot water in this cup, I know people who call this coffee. One of them is my youngest sister. I've always liked my coffee strong and it's one of the first things that I took to in Spain. Coffee tastes of coffee and you can't see the bottom of the cup like in my photo. Of course, I recognise with the rise in popularity of places like Starbucks, which have cropped up here too, tastes have changed a bit, but for me their lattes are just that - too much latte and not enough café.

Another week has flown by. At this time last weekend I was extolling our good fortune with the weather. The only thing in common with last week is that the sun is out but so is the wind, so it's not to the kind of day for sitting on a park beach. The other day I was watching an interview with a man who uses Nature to forecast the weather. I think he looks at the first 7 days of August and some 10 days in December. According to his forecast, we're in for 3 more big winter storms. Groundhog Day is soon. Wonder what that will say about the weather for the States anyway? The other day, I was thinking that in Madrid we hadn't seen the winter solstice lunar eclipse of December or the recent partial solar eclipse due to the weather. Monday was San Antón, patron saint of animals. That day we had fog, actually thick smelly smog, all day long. The saying goes: Por San Antón, la niebla no llega a las 2 (On Saint Anthony's Day, the fog doesn't last until 2 o'clock). So much for old sayings, especially when it comes to the weather.

Hope everybody has a good last full week of January.

Indian Winter

And I'm not referring to the music by El Ten Eleven. Wednesday was a day in Madrid that I was thinking if I were a lady of leisure I'd be sitting on a bench in a park sunning myself! The day was gorgeous - the kind of weather really that we often have at the end of February. I'm not exactly sure how warm it was because I was just thinking how good the sun felt when I was going to class. I did make a point to look at the temperature gauge at a bus stop on the way back and saw 19º C, which is about 66º F! You know it was warm if I wasn't wearing a hat! And to top it all off, we've still got sun - enough to make my plants and me happy.

Rewind to more or less the same date last year and you'd see snow in Madrid (photo) so much so that although the schools weren't closed, they weren't having classes. The streets were more or less cleared by the time I had to go out thus no excuse for me not to go to class. That day I don't think I saw the temperature but believe it was somewhere in the 20's or at least - 3º C. Remember too that it also snowed in Barcelona last year. Most of those people probably won't remember ever seeing snow on the beach.

As for my first week back, by Wednesday I'd forgotten all about my holidays. If anyone is suffering from post-holiday blues, here are a couple of good tips from 'The Onion':   Compared to your every day blahs, the post-holiday blahs may not be that bad. OR: Induce coma and get woken up on Mar. 20. One thing seems to be sure about the first month of the new year: January seems to be going by quickly, so maybe Easter is just around the corner. Hope everybody has a good week and some sun in your life.    

Take Your Pick

"Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" or "Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get Me Down" because both are true. I don't mind the rain so much if I don't have to go out and get wet and have to sit in wet clothes for hours, and I suppose there's not much that can be done about Mondays except accept the fact that they come around all too soon. I'm doubly sad because my holidays have finished. Sometimes I think I was born to be a lady of leisure. LOL.

 Even if it continues raining tomorrow, the couple of loads of clothes that I've done this weekend should be dry thanks to my 'portable' dryer - that strange artefact in the photo. How does it work? You hang the clothes up inside and there's a little motor thing which is inserted on the side that blows the clothes dry Not many people have clothes dryers here, at least I don't know anybody who has one, the same as I don't know anyone who hasn't got a washer because laundrettes (laundromats) don't exist, only drycleaner's.

I've got rid of lots of old papers and am ready for the next batch. As I commented the other day on someone's page, there's both a paper and a bottle bank a few metres from my house. Well, the other day I saw this man taking things out of the paper bank, not putting them in. This reminded me that it might be a good idea to take my paper products to different banks, especially those that although shredded could possibly be pieced together by some crack head. Does anybody remember when we just threw away all those invitations for credit cards without bothering to shred them? Not any more!

Last night I posted one of my favourite recipes called hot fudge pudding cake. If you copied it, you might want to look at it again as I left out a couple of instructions. Here I am always complaining about how there are so many errors in people's written work because they don't bother to proofread or they rely on spell check too much.

Hope everybody has a good week and you don't get too much snow. I've been reading people's comments on global warming. We're having unusually mild weather for this time of year. I usually wear a cardigan at home because I can't stand places that are overheated. I hate going into banks for that reason. Is it because the money has to be kept warm? And speaking of money, I'm going to post a very interesting link to my friend Loretta's page. If you have a moment to spare, it won't be wasted, and I hope it makes you furious too!

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake

Description:
I decided to re-copy this recipe and post it into my recipe file, which is easier than having to look for the blog that the recipe is in. As you can see from the photo, I don't use a square pan but a rectangular Pyrex dish, so I ignore the 'turn it out' and don't put in nuts. I do like this served warm though.

Ingredients:
1. 1 cup flour
2. 2 teaspoons baking powder
3. ¾ cup sugar
4. ¼ teaspoon salt
5. 2 tablespoons cocoa
6. ½ cup milk
7. 2 tablespoons shortening, melted
8. 1 cup of nuts (I usually omit)
9. 1 cup brown sugar, packed
10. 4 tablespoons cocoa
11. 1 ½ cup hot water

Directions:
Sift first 5 ingredients together. Stir in milk and shortening. Mix until smooth. Then add nuts. Spread in greased 8 X 8 or 9 X 9-inch pan. Sprinkle with combined brown sugar and cocoa. Pour hot water over cake.
Bake at 350º F for 40 minutes or so. Turn out while hot. Serve with whipped cream.

New Year, No Smoke

Another year has passed and did it ever pass by quickly!  I seem to be one of the few people around who says there weren't as many loud bangers as in previous years.  Zara agrees too because she spent part of New Year's Eve sleeping on the bed when normally she would be cowering under the bed.  I also can't say that the people in my building were especially noisy either even though there was a discotheque going on in the next building.  I was seriously considering crashing the party but settled on listening to my own music.  In consideration to anybody who might be trying to sleep, I put on headphones at about 2 a.m.  and continued listening to music until about 4.30 when I decided to try and sleep through the noise of the party next door.  Zara woke me up early on the 1st to go out.  There was only one lone soul in the street who was walking, or more accurately weaving, up and down the street probably to sober up some before going home to face his parents.  Anyway, I think we've had enough celebration to last for a while.  Tomorrow night is a very special night, but for the kids.  There will be a parade to celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings.  For me, seeing the parade is a bit depressing because it means it's time to get back to a more hurried time.

Hope everyone had a good holiday and a wonderful time with family and friends.  I'm sure at least 30 per cent of the population here is not happy, because smoking is no longer permitted in places except in the street, and there one must be careful that it's not near a school or playground or within 50 metres of a hospital.  I was wondering why a bar near my house kept their tables and chairs out.  Now I know.  It's started raining again too and I'm so glad I don't smoke.

Oh, almost forgot to mention (in case anyone has noticed) that my page has a new name. Aunt Bean was what my eldest nephew used to call me because he couldn't pronounce my name, so for a long time I was Aunt Bean. Before that my brother James called me Na Na for the same reason. I'll bet they'd never be able to pronounce the 'r' in Spanish!