Bad Mood Rising

I don't know how I'm going to get through this week with one hour less. The day has come that I've been dreading. Tonight we have to 'spring forward' as in putting the clocks forward an hour. The expression 'spring forward' sounds like something anybody would want, but it just puts me in a bad mood. I think I'm going to move to Russia because this is the last time they're going to change the clocks. Until someone convinces me of the benefits of fiddling with the time, I'm going to continue complaining about it. Fortunately, I'm beginning class half an hour later on Monday.

The only place where spring has officially arrived, at least in my area, is in the department stores, their motto being 'ya es primavera' (It's spring now). We're having las marzadas, typical March weather;"En marzo, marzadas: viento,frio y granizadas" (In March, wind, cold, and sleet). My favourite March saying is: "Marzo varia siete veces al día" (the weather in March changes 7 times a day). I went out 3 or 4 times on Friday afternoon/evening and each time the weather was different.

Each to his own. I've just taken a short break to go out with Zara. What do I see but tables full of people sitting outside at a bar nearby! It's still not warm enough for me to sit out. Then, since smoking is no longer permitted inside public places here, if anyone wants to smoke they have to do it in the street. I can't imagine what it'll be like when bullfighting season begins. At times, the bars are so full that the people are outside blocking the pavement, and now with the anti-smoking law there'll be lots more people outside.
 
I'd better go think about changing some clocks. Hope everybody has a good week.
 

Sun With Dirty Windows

I've been MIA for the past couple of weeks in the blog department, but have decided to make an effort today even though it's beautiful outside. I'll go out when my clothes finish. I try not to leave things like the washing machine, cooker, oven and things like on when I go out. Sometimes surprises can be nasty ones!

Misunderstandings can be rather unpleasant too. On Friday afternoons I've only got one class this term, which is heavenly as I'm running all week. I can go out shopping, relax or whatever. But because the younger brother of the student I give class to on Fridays had a football/soccer match the day before, I said we could make it up on Friday. We always hear him when he comes home and this time was no exception. His brother understood him to say that the mother of a friend had fallen (she had a bad knee anyway); I understood it was the father, my friend the creator of species. It turns out it's their son. Poor little boy took a really bad tumble in the school hall and ended up with a dislocated shoulder. Of course, my little student was affected by this terrible accident, which is why I suppose we each understood it'd happened to a different person. Sure hope the poor thing, whose shoulder must be sore, gets better soon.

This has been a week of birthdays. We celebrated my friend Jenny's birthday at her place of choice, a Greek restaurant, on Thursday night. I gave her and my other friends one of those anti-mosquito candles, which aren't really candles, and I made her some buckeyes (chocolate-covered peanut butter balls) since she hinted she'd like to have some. I know we'll be reminded when we go to the Chinese this week that we missed going this past week. I think we're supposed to be getting some soap dispensers. Maybe the owner of the restaurant will decide we don't deserve them. LOL.

I saw that several people took photos of the full moon. I didn't because I didn't see that it looked larger than usual, not like it does when it seems to be almost touching a building. Now that's a big moon! The photo at the top there is another photo taken with my mobile, one that I took a while back but it's what I still use as my wallpaper. The other day, I changed to a football theme and some things didn't show up on IE. The theme I have now I think is okay, but I NEVER, unless there's no way around it, use IE. I like Firefox for the add-ons and the FF beta is much quicker than the previous ones, but alas it's still in beta. Other people prefer Chrome, which I also use. One of my students has installed almost all the browsers that exist on his family's computer. I don't think he's discovered Opera yet.

Anyway, it's about time to think about going out and enjoying the day, so I'm not going to wash my dirty windows. Besides, it's going to start raining again on Tuesday! Lucky for us the reservoirs are on average 85% full. Hope everybody has a good week. At least we're getting closer to Easter!

11 March 2004

In memory of those who lost their lives in the train bombs in Madrid on this day 7 years ago. So many irreparable errors were made in the subsequent investigations leaving us all with too many doubts about these horrific events. I, personally, will always believe that the terrorists of ETA were involved.

 No matter the how or why of this unforgettable tragedy, I feel very sad for the victims' families today and hope and pray nothing like this ever happens again. As Henry Kissinger once said: 'Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it' (un pueblo que olvida su historia está condenado a repetirlo). Let us always remember!

Creation of Species

This is the art work by a friend of mine. He recently had an exhibition, which included some of these works. The music for this video is composed by his brother.