Fried Eggs Anyone?

I just finished posting on Loretta's note that we could fry eggs on the pavement today if we wanted to. In Farenheit temperatrure, we're in the triple digits. I can say I remember summers when in July we had 45 º C almost every day. Hope that's not the case although the weather experts have predicted a hotter than usual summer. Instead of frying eggs outside, I think Lilly has a better idea. Looks like two buckets are better than a plastic pool, at least for her.

Speaking of food, a couple of weeks ago my friend Chris ordered a noodle dish that we hadn't tried before. She doesn't like thick or fat pasta like spaghetti, but she likes the Japanese kind. The dish had shrimp in it, which I didn't eat because I'm allergic to most seafood. I thought I could eat some of the noodles but apparently not. The next morning I woke up with an allergic reaction. I suppose really I should have known better.

This coming week is my last week with the kids. I am so glad because I'm tired of going out when the sun is the hottest. You know what they say about mad dogs and Englishmen - in my case it's English teachers. One of my students has passed her university entrance exams; the other one I haven't heard from yet. Two of them are going to be doing a course in Ireland and will be leaving next Sunday. I hope they have a good experience. These are the kids whose family was kind enough to take my nephew to the beach with them last summer.

Well, I'm going to save this in case I lose the text like what happened to Loretta. Do you remember when things worked well on Multiply? Now new features are for the online sellers. Anyway, I hope everybody has a good last week of June.  

Cool Way to Keep Cool

Gapazcho Coming Up

Yesterday I was watching one of those 'how to' videos. This particular one was 'how to keep cool without air conditioning'. Most of it was common sense although some of it was advice that I can't follow; for example, wearing a wet t-shirt to bed or leaving the bed unmade. I always make the bed even if I know that later on I'll be changing the sheets. I imagine you'd have to leave your bed unmade, whether you wanted to or not, if you went to bed in a wet t-shirt. I try to keep my place as cool as possible for as long as I can by not letting the sun in, especially when it's the strongest, and only opening the windows if it's cooler outside than inside. I understand my dear mother perfectly. She used to say if you couldn't microwave it, you couldn't eat it. And my grandmother always served cold suppers, which I wasn't used to in my family. Now I know they were right. Anyway, I put the air conditioning on as little as possible, and never leave it on at night because someone will surely complain.

I had lunch yesterday with some of my ex-colleagues, which the institute paid for. There were only 8 of us. I couldn't finish my oxtail stew since I ate too many slices of fried breaded aubergine (eggplant). I was reminded of one of my favourite restaurants which closed the same year as our institute. The last time we ate there I asked for watermelon for dessert. I got half of one I kid you not! I didn't eat any more watermelon during the whole summer.

Today saw a really big demonstration in Madrid led by the 'indignados' (indignant ones) and other unknown groups. Surprisingly, it was a peaceful demonstration with no serious incidents as far as I know. At least nothing like earlier in the week when the Catalan members of Congress were attacked. Protesters tried to steal one of the members' guide dog (poor blind man and poor dog), one of the women had her jacket spray painted and at least one man had his head spray painted - all very nice (not).

Hope everybody keeps as cool as possible this week - only a few more hours and we're officially in summer. Oh, and Happy Father's Day!

Taking Advantage

of the fact that it's beginning to get hot outside but is relatively cool inside still, I've been doing a bit of baking - something that I enjoy. We've passed our famous 40th of May,or 9th of June, and things are heating up. Cooking for Engineers is one of my favourite sites and these biscuits - American-syle biscuits - are easy to make and I don't have to substitute any ingredient. Most breads of this type call for shortening, which isn't readily available here.

Last week, believe it or not, we had quite a lot of rain in Madrid and Spain in general, so my windows are dirty again. As a matter of fact, on Monday I had to close the windows, especially the ones in the kitchen and dining area because the rain was coming in. Luckily I had a free day and was here to notice that things were getting wet.

I haven't been doing a whole lot except the usual. I have, however, bought a new computer that I'd seen and is quite cheap. My old one decided it had had enough and, although I reformatted the HD, I decided that if I had to re-install so many programs that I might as well get a new one. The anti-virus was from 2003 and Adobe Reader was nº 6.

Friday night was a sleepless one for me. About 9.30 p.m. the president of the building came to tell me that there were no lights in the entire building. She telephoned the electric company, which proved to be useless. I suggested she telephone our insurance company. She said she'd have to look through all kinds of papers and didn't feel like it. Don't you keep important papers like this close at hand or in a place where they're easy to get at? I'm not an electrician so had no other suggestions. I was afraid that some poor soul would fall down the stairs though - as far as I know no one did. Anyway, one of the flat owners knew an electrician who came to fix the problem on Saturday afternoon. Why do these things happen at the most inconvenient times? At least we had lights inside our flats.

Hope everyone has a good week with  wonderful weather.

When in Texas

Good show old girl!