Four Hundred Trees Plus One

It must have been at least a year ago, or longer, when I wrote a Blog about my 400 trees. Straightly speaking these trees are not exactly mine in the sense of possession. I don't have them in my garden, heck, I don't even have a garden, nor orchard nor even a back yard. I was just given to understand one fine day, out of a blue, by a government report that there are a great number of trees all over the place in Spain, and that dividing the number of trees by the number of inhabitants, each of us has 400!

I remember I was absolutely delighted by the news. That revelation made my day; I was happy as I could be, almost proud. I love trees, especially the very, very old ones, and have collected quite a number of photos or drawings of such ancient trees, cross-grained, twisted, knotted, bent, and gnarled, but still living and, to me, majestic and magnificent!

I just found this one in the photo below. Isn't it just incredible and sublime? If I don't tell anybody about it, maybe I can include this one as my own? 401 trees!! What splendid treasure, I am rich!!


Tags:401tree

Current Mood: Ecstatic

The Spy Out Of Facebook

Spies are not like what they used to be. Not even the British secret service. No matter how intriguing and mysterious they had been written about in books by renowned authors, from John LeCarre to Graham Green to Ian Fleming. We have been led to imagine a secret agent of MI6 with the face of Michael Caine or Sean Connery, even though one day we discovered their faces on the menu card of Langan's Brasserie or an advertisement of razor blades. Something never would have been permitted to a MI6 agent, to protect their identity.

A secret agent on active duty has no name, only numbers or initials. Sir John Sawers is a diplomat with ties from Jermyn Street, suits from Saville Row and academic degrees from Saint Andrews and Harvard. He was selected by Gordon Brown to direct the MI6, the service of exterior espionage of the United Kingdom. He was the ambassador of his country in the United Nations and, since the appointment, became simply 'C', to safeguard to the maximum his personal biography.

However, on the same day he was nominated for the post, his wife posted on Facebook a huge collection of their family photos, and a list of personal references that illustrate details of their family life, including even their home address. At the blink of an eye 200 million people have access to the private data that should have been securely protected. The spy coming out of Facebook. Contemporary spies are nothing like those of past years, nor are their wives like those of their predecessors, some of whom never did know about their husband's real jobs.

The chief of British diplomacy David Miliband remarked that everyone knows now that Sawers wears tight 'speedo' type swimming trunks, called 'braga nautica' here in Spain - nautic panties! It's being debated in various quarters whether it's appropriate for the politician, the maximum responsible for the secret external services of Great Britain. Given that, since the great success of James Bond, elegance and sophistication are trademarks of the secret service agency.

Lady Shalley Sawers not only posted on Facebook, for all to see, her husband in the dainty little 'panties', but also hundreds of photos of him with the children, other Family members and friends, his relationship with his father and half brother, etc.Tags:spysectetservice,

Could it be that with so many friendly smiles, John Sawer wishes to send the message to Ahmadineyad and Co., that we are good guys, there's no need for bombs?

Tags:spysectetservice

Current Mood: Bitchy

Rules For Women To Live By ...

** Aspire to be Barbie - the Bitch has everything.

** If the shoe fits - buy them in every colour.

** Take life with a pinch of salt... A wedge of lime, and a shot of tequila.

** In need of a support group? - Cocktail hour with the girls!

** Go on the 30 day diet. (I'm on it and so far I've lost 15 days).

** When life gets you down - just put on your big girl panties and deal with it.

** Let your greatest fear be that there is no PMS and this is just your personality.

** I know I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here.

** Don't marry the man you can live with, marry the one whom you can't live without.
** Don't get your knickers in a knot; it solves nothing and makes you walk funny.

** When life gives you lemons in 2009 - turn it into lemonade then mix it with vodka.

** Remember where ever there is a good looking, sweet, single or married man there is some woman tired of his bullshit.

** Keep your chin up, only the first 40 years of parenthood are the hardest.

** If it has tires or testicles, it's gonna give you trouble.

** By the time a woman realizes her mother was right, she has a daughter who thinks she's wrong.

Good friends are like stars ....You don't always see them, but you know they are always there.

Remember yesterday, dream about tomorrow, but live for today. Now smile and those of you wasting time at work, suffering from a hangover, or just suffering from life, try the rules above. If they don't work, blame someone else.

Tag:rulesforwomen

Current Mood: Amused

Menu Of The Day - Cerca 1777

With the passage of time, we change our perceptions of things and beliefs as well as customs and habits. Consciously or unconsciously, systematically or hazardously. For better and for worse. With everyday things one takes for granted, and others even more trivial that one never ever bothers to give a second thought of. Coffee for instance. Or the so denominated 'Menu of the day' in a restaurant.

Today nothing could seem more innocent than taking a cup of coffee, at any hour and at any place. But when the first establishments started to offer coffee in Barcelona, in fact the very first one opened it's doors for the public in 1750, by an Italian, Caponato, it was seen as something transgressive, almost sinful. Perhaps in part due to the 'clever' advertising of the beneficial properties of coffee, that's energising, stimulating and, aphrodisiac!

This first cafe was situated in the now very famous Rambla, right in the centre of the city. It took half a century before the number of cafes in Barcelona to have increased to 22, but was still seen and thought of as somewhat 'naughty' or rather daring for people to go to a cafe and drank this strange dark and bitter liquid. It had to be special or peculiar that even Anderson wrote about them.

Soon after there were cafes with singers and later other performers, so going to a cafe was not just for the coffee but to be entertained at the same time. This atmosphere attracted the prostitution, delinquency and epic brawls, while those advertised as Cafe Concerts became social meeting points for the professional class, writers, poets, journalist, reporters, and business people.

As to the restaurants, the first ones appeared in 1777. Carlos Schenone, a chef from Genoa was the first that had implanted a then novelty, the menu of the day, originally concocted to use up the left-overs from the day before!

Tags:coffee,menu

Current Mood: Accomplished