WHAT HAPPENED ON MY BIRTH DATE ?

"Hair" pictures are here

The charming but sadistic Mrs. Lifecruiser, who knows that I am not so keen of being tagged did it anyhow and all the other A-cruise members too ! So I had to look up in Wikipedia to see what happened on 2 x 4 of July = 8 July !

The result was : nothing special ! I choose a boring day to get out and discover the world ! Besides maybe the people who died that day at least two of them I know !

Event :

1099 - First Crusade: 15,000 starving Christian soldiers march in religious procession around Jerusalem as its Muslim defenders mock them.
That hasn't changed much there is still war in that area, a little different of course but still not a quite place to spend holidays there.

1947 - Reports are broadcast that a UFO has crash landed in Roswell, New Mexico.
Now I wonder why no others have crashed these days ? Don't they like us anymore ?

1982 - Senegalese Trotskyist political party LCT is legally recognized.
So this may be very important, but it hasn't changed my life (yet)

Birth :

1528 - Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy (d. 1580)
I choose him because he has such a funny name ! sorry nobody painted him !

1941 - Dario Gradi, Italian-born football manager.
Again for the name because it's my son's name

1983 - Elizabeth Del Mar, American pornographic actress.
She must have been hot to get into Wikipedia (no nude picture available)

Death :

810 - Pepin, King of Italy (b. 773)
was the brother of Pepin the hunchback isn't that interesting ?

1967 - Vivien Leigh, English actress (b. 1913) She at least I know.

1971 - Jim Morrison, lead singer and songwriter for The Doors (b. 1943).
I liked him very much and visited his grave in Paris

I must admit I was disappointed I thought that day many important things had happened ! In fact only one ..... I am here ! (I told you my second name is Modesty)

And to complete my duty to Mrs. Lifecruiser I even added my love life !

Your Birthdate: July 8

You love being in love... so much so that it's very hard for you to be single. Unfortunately, it's difficult for you to stay in love over time. Too many people intrigue you! Only your true love will be able to keep you interested over time. Number of True Loves You'll Have: 2 Number of Times You'll Have Your Heart Broken: 1 You are most compatible with people born on the 8th, 17th, and 26th of the month.

What Does Your Birth Date Mean For Your Love Life?

I herewith tag those who wants to be tagged !

A LIMERICK WITH WRITER CRAMPS

Please click here

I don't know if that will make me unique, but I decided to write the first limerick in my life and even in English (without looking in my dictionary !) The idea is to write a limerick which describes once blog and the contest comes from J's Thoughts and Musings blog who does a limerick contest.

and here is mine :

Since I discovered blogging
I am writing night and day
forgotten is the daily jogging
my brain is smoking and my hands
are getting severe writer cramps

FRIDAY FEAST

Pookie waits for breakfast feast in bed

Appetizer
Fill in the blank: The best thing about where I live is that it's very calm, green and near the center of the city.

Soup
Create a new name for a deodorant (like “Flower Fresh” or “Shower Scent”).

Stinky Roses

Salad
What was the last piece of software you installed onto your computer?

That's so long ago I don't even remember what it was.

Main Course
If you were to receive a superlative award today beginning with the words ”Most likely to…”, what would the rest of the phrase say?

to never travel with stupid peasants again. (if only I would know it before)

Dessert
What two colors do you like to wear together?

Black and red, just like the devil.

TURKISH CARPET FACTORY

13 Steps to make an orient carpet

During my roundtrip through Turkey I also visited a carpet factory. The most expensivest oriental carpets or rugs are made out of wool and silk.

1. This is a a picture of a silkworm in his cocoon



2. They are put in hot water and threads are pulled out


3. Closer look on cocoons


4. Dyeing process


5. Spinning


6. An on old woman at the spinning wheel


7. pulled out silk threads


8. Silk ready for weaving


9. Girls take one thread at the time and knot it in. They have a pattern for the design in front of them





10. Closer look on a weaving loom


11. Wonderful carpets hanging everywhere on the walls (in fact it was not allowed to take pictures, they didn't want their patterns copied, but I "couldn't" read the sign.


12. And so it looks when it is finished


13. A little corner to think about "to buy or not to buy"


Compared to prices in the western world these carpets where really cheap.

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Pookie is happy that I am back !

This is Rosie our new family member more about her is here

THE ISTAMBUL BAZAR

Pookie tries a turkish water pipe

When we stopped in Istambul for two days our guide took us to the famous Bazar. It contains about 4000 little shops of all kind and also Restaurants and Cafés. It is located in a huge hall.

When we arrived our guide explained to us that there were 4 entrances and that we had 2 h to walk around. My flemish companions saw this with worried faces. Alone for 2 h ?? and what if they didn't find the exit where the entrance was ? The guide asked them to note the entrance/exit name on a piece of paper so that they could ask how to get out in case they were lost. For me it was easy because there was written "Leather & Furs" in english and in turkish beneath. I entered the bazar and left the others to their destiny.

The ceilings and all decoration were just beautiful


there was nothing what you couldn't buy, cupper, ceramic, onyx, clothes, leather coats, jackets, souvenirs and jewelery etc.


in short, a real bazar !


Men were playing Black Gammon or something similar while waiting for customers.

At each shop somebody stood outside and praised his good prices and wanted you to come into his shop. Sometimes it was quite unnerving. They also asked every Tourist "Where are you coming from" and I thought I better should put a sign on my back with "I come from Belgium".

But I enjoyed very much walking and looking around until suddenly I heard two high screaming hysterical voices. In front of me in the middle of a crossing stood the two old sisters and screamed excited at each other waving around with their handbags. It looked quite funny and the people around found that too because a cercle had been formed around them.

I approached to see what happened and understood that they were lost and were nearly ready to fight with each other, because of course it was all the others fault. When they saw me coming they almost overrun me taking me by my arms and shaked me, screaming that they couldn't find the exit and that it was of course the other sisters fault. They both were near a nervous breakdown.

I shook my arms free and told them (this time in french and not in flemish, just to annoy them) that I would ask in english some shop owner and he surely could help them. They followed me like two headless chicken still fighting and I asked a man where the leather stuff exit was. He tried to explain me but the two sisters were so excited that they fumbled around under the poor guy's nose with their paper to show him the name of the exit they had written down. The guy looked at me and I saw laughter in his eyes, the two girls had noted the word "Bazar" in turkish and with that of course nobody could guess which exit they meant.

The way out was very easy but it was far too early for me so I walked them to the exit and left them to their fights and turned back to see if there was something interesting to buy.

When I got finally out I found them all standing there like motherless chicken, Buddah with Stiff Stick and Smily hadn't even dared to go in and stood there for 2 hours, the Spider family had just made a few steps inside, only Anorexic and company had done the same as me. They all pushed a deep sigh of relieve when the guide appeared and safely conducted them back to the bus !

Moral of the story if you want to travel you better learn a language that most of people can understand !

MANIC MONDAY - FRIENDLY

Pookie too is always friendly

For this Monday the words "Friends, Friendship and friendly were chosen. Now these have 3 completely different meanings, you can have a lot of friends, but only a few real friendships and friendly you can even be with your worst enemy at least from outside. Friendly is being polite or kind, because even the cashier in a shop has to be friendly that's his job.

While I was with my so said group travelling through Turkey I have always been very friendly although inside I found them ridiculous and I would have rather prefered not being friendly at all. But that's a question of education. So when Stiff stick (see previous post) vomited on his buddahlike wife's blouse in the middle of a place in a little turkish town, I didn't laugh out loud as I really wished to do, but offered friendly my help. She was of course very dirty and taking her blouse off in front of all these turkish men who are used to see women covered from head to feet (especially in villages) was almost impossible. And then I wanted to spare them the delightful view of an oversized bosom and a wobbling big belly. Fortunately one of my flemish companions had a big scarf with her so we stuck her against a wall and hold the scarf while she took off her blouse and put on a cardigan which she had in her bag despite the fact that every day we had around 30° (80F). But this time it was her luck. Friendly turkish people gathered around and also offered help and an old woman took her in her house so that she could clean up a little. Stiff Stick sat on a bank in the shade white like a bedsheet and also tried to clean himself. The whole event was observed by the locals who offered tissus and water for Stiff Stick, that really was very friendly. But Stiff Stick didn't take the water, his flemish brain stopped him from that, he was convinced that the water was dirty or poisened as it didn't come from his home village.

Poor Smiley stood there helpless in his suit and tie and grinned over the whole event until somebody from the group lead him away to join Stiff Stick on his bank.

There are sometimes situations in your life were you have to be friendly even inside yourself you all wish them to hell.

To give you an idea where this happened, this is the house where the old woman took her


and the place of the event

BACK FROM TURKEY

Pookie is happy and occupies her usual place again !

I am back from my roundtrip through Turkey and I can only say it was beautiful ! So many historical things to see ! My head is full like a balloon, I have to sort it out first. In 7 days we made about 2000 km (1243 miles) from the south up to the north until Istambul and then down again.

The group I travelled with was a flemish speaking one, because the french speaking group had been cancelled. It didn't bother me at all because I understand dutch very well and flemish (should) be the same with a slight difference in pronounciation.

The only hick was that I didn't count on the mentality of flemish (belgian) people ! I always never want to generalize but unfortunately they had all defaults what is usually said about them. Stubborn, narrow minded and not social at all. We were supposed to be a group, travelled together and had our meals together but everybody kept his "own" group. I never knew the names of all of them ! That was the first time such a thing happened to me.


our bus

The "group" was a buddah like woman with a stiff stick husband who never said a word, I don't even know if he can speak. She also had her brother with her a retarded man who had a permanent grin on his face so that I baptizised him "Smiley". She had to lead him by hand all the time and the poor man wore a suit and leather shoes and outfitted like that stumbled through roman and greek ruins.

The next "group" in the group was a red blond orang utan man with a potatoe nose who spoke a dialect that even our turkish guide who had grown up in Holland and spoke perfectly dutch couldn't understand. He was with his wife who were a kind woman (the only human in the group) who laughed a lot and spoke perfectly german and also english and french. She was the only one who spoke another language then flemish. She had her niece with her who was anorexic, a walking skeleton who didn't touch any food (which her uncle swallowed with pleasure, so he had two plates) only some fruits and a bit cheese. Then there were two old sisters, who chatted non stop in a strange flemish language all the time we were in the bus and also outside. They watched each other like watchdogs and faught and were afraid of everything especially thiefs and went to the buffet with their handbags !

A young couple was there too, she looked like a spider with long skinny arms and legs and was always busy to take pictures of her poor little daughter 5 years old who had to make this tour and also climb through the ruins and listen to the explanations. Her husband was just an accessory never opened his mouth and just trotted behind them. The last "group" was a couple which seemed to be normal besides the fact that they didn't make any contact either.

At the end I became a sort of complaint office, everybody came to me to complain and to bitch about the others, the old sisters against buddah, stiff stick and smiley, and vice versa, the anorexic against the old sisters etc. I took it with humor and made fun of it.

Fortunately I could very well understand the guide and that was the most important thing. But at the end of the trip I disappeared quickly just waving a good bye, (without bye) and sweared to myself never ever going with a flemish group again ! I really wonder why these people travel ? They never asked a question and didn't seem very interested either. Probably it just was to be able to tell their neighbors that they had been in such and such place in Turkey !

The rest of my holidays (4 days) I spent in Kudasasi a little town with a big cruise port where I could see every day another cruise ship. It was a very typical little town and there I also found an Internet café. The hotel also had Internet service but at the modest price of 10 €/hour (!!!) in my little café which a taxi driver had recommended to me I only payed 1 €/h ! A slight difference !

Of course I will report more about my trip, this is just a short message that I am back again.

Kudasasi view out of my window

My Internet café