What is important in your life ? For the Photo Hunters this week's word was important. Now it is very interesting to see what people consider important in their lives.
Besides family, friends or pets, everything can be important to you. Your car, a special book, your computer, your cooking wear or even only a telephone n°. There are so many things people consider the most important in their lives.
So please go here to see what is the most important in my actual life. Because what you consider now as important perhaps wasn't important at all when you were younger. The priority can change over the years.
I got this funny award from Siani and thank her very much ! It indeed cheers me up too !
On the request of several blog friends I continue showing my cat collection. Today I show you my wooden cats. I received them all over the years from either our son or Mr. Gattino. For Christmas, birthday, and motherday, for them it was easy to find a gift for me. As my son pointed out : "at least for that you are easy" !
Instead of Mr. Linky use this :
Appetizer What is your favorite beverage?
I always drink Karkade hot or cold with or without ice. It is a tart, bright-red hibiscus beverage. It is very popular in some parts of the Middle East (especially North Africa). This drink is said to have been consumed in ancient Egypt and was reputedly a preferred drink of pharaohs. (That's why I drink it) In Egypt and Sudan, wedding celebrations are traditionally toasted with a glass of hibiscus tea. I mix it with orange juice when it is cold or with lemon and honey when it is hot. But in fact you can mix it with everything. If you drink it pure it tastes a little sour.
Soup Name 3 things that are on your computer desk at home or work.
For instance there is my cat Rosie sitting on my desk which takes the view of all other things that may be there.
Salad On a scale of 1-10 (with 10 being highest), how honest do you think you are?
What this question again ? I haven't improved or got worse since the last time I am still on 10. You see from my answer how honest I am.
Main Course If you could change the name of one city in the world, what would you rename it and why?
Why on earth would I want to change the name of a city ? It was already difficult to find names for my 5 cats !
Dessert What stresses you out? What calms you down?
I erased the word "Stress" in my vocabulary since I am not working anymore. And nothing calms me down because I only run at high speed !
As it happens quite often you are the last one to know what happens in your own country ! Yesterday I was asked by my Canadian Blog friend Tossing Pebbles in the Stream if I would write something about the 50th anniversary of the Smurfs. I was flabbergasted ! I hadn't heard anything about it. I asked my friends, they ignored it too. Finally I found it on the Belgian Homepage !
13 things about the Smurfs
1. This year "The Smurfs" will celebraty their 50 anniversary
2. They were published for the first time in Belgium in a magazine named "Spirou" in 1958.
3. Their creator was Peyo, a Belgian comics artist born in Brussels on 25 juin 1928. His real name was Pierre Culliford
4. He named himself Peyo because his little cousin couldn't pronounce his name Pierre and had called him Payo instead.
5. The merchandising of the Smurfs began in 1959, with the PVC figurines as the most important aspect until the late 1970s.
6. the Smurfs achieved more international success, with a new boom in toys and gadgets. Some of these reached the United States, where Hanna-Barbera created a Saturday morning animated series in 1981.
7. The original name of the Smurfs is the "Schtroumpfs"
8. "Schtroumpf" is an invented word. The pronunciation of "Schtroumpf" in French is quite similar to the German word "Strumpf" (English "sock"), but there is no indication that this is more than a coincidence.
9. According to Peyo, the word came to him as he asked a friend for "salt" during lunch and, struggling to find the word that eluded him, finally managed to say "passe-moi le schtroumpf" ("pass me the smurf").
10. all the characters look quite alike — male, very short (just "three apples tall"), with blue skin, white trousers with a hole for their short tails, and a white hat. Sometimes some additional accessory identifies their personality. (For instance, Handy Smurf wears overalls instead of the standard trousers, a brimmed hat, and a pencil above his ear).
11. The smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people: Lazy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, Brainy Smurf, and so on. All smurfs but Papa, Baby, Nanny and Grandpa are said to be 100 years old, and there are normally 100 smurfs (but this number increases as new smurf characters appear: smurflings, Nanny, etc).
12. The Smurfs also speak a special smurf language. The smurfs replace enough nouns and verbs in everyday speech with smurf as to make their conversations barely understandable: "We're going smurfing on the River Smurf today." And I smurf my Thursday Thirteen today.
13. The festivities for this anniversary will start in the next few days in Belgium. A "Schtroumpf" home page in several languages has been opened here.
This is the original version of the Smurf/Schtroumpf song
I have been tagged by Sanni, to create a CD cover. This Band meme came originally from Mimi Writes, the meme queen and peace globe initiator.
Here's how it goes. You are about to have your own band's CD cover. Follow these directions to the letter. It's fun and requires no thought at all. Go to......
My compiled News will be very short today, I have a bronchitis and filled up with caughing sirop, and different anti bronchitis pills I feel rather in the clouds !
But if I remember well there was nothing special to report except that good old Bush suffers again from his persecution complex and feels menaced by Iran this time (who next ?) that Johnny Depp starts to sing (how awful), that Madonna only drinks blessed Kabbalah water at 5 $ the bottle and spends $ 10.000 for that each months, and that two men pushed a partially-dressed, pale, stiff body on an office chair to cash his Social Security cheque nothing special happened. No scandal in the royal homes either, not even a new hat for Camilla.
Now I will do my daily tour of Blogs and if I feel not better collapse in my bed again together with probably a few cats.
"I want to hear about a web site and not just about any old web site. I want to hear about a web site that's changed your life. A web site that you can't live without. A web site whose inventor you'd like to see win a McArthur Genius Grant". My first thought reading this was I don't know any web site which changed my life or I can't live without but suddenly I realized it wasn't true. I certainly can live without this web site, but indeed it really changed my life !
I came back from holidays in Egypt in Feb 2006 and was looking for informations about the cat godesses of Egypt. I didn't use Internet very often I just had learned it and besides sending emails I didn't know anything of using a computer.
Of course I don't know exactly if it was this page The Cat in ancient Egypt or another similar one but from there on I suddenly found myself in a Forum and there were people who had Blogs. I didn't know at all what that was and had to look it up in Wikipedia, which I discovered at the same time.
Now I became curious and started looking for blogs. First I dropped on Yahoo blogs and as always I don't think I just subscribed, and suddenly was owner of a blog. Now what to do with it ? I looked what the others had done and wrote. Of course nobody read what I wrote and I was not satisfied at all.
I subscribed to another Blog provider, don't remember the name but there it was not better. I don't know how, but I discovered Blogger. From that day on my life changed completely. The time I spend at the Computer increased and it wasn't possible anymore to share one with Mr. Gattino. I bought a laptop for myself. My friends thought I am crazy because I always had hated computers ! The first blog was called Travels-Cats and Paintings. Which I had to split later into one for Travels, one for Cats, one for my paintings and this one.
In some way I found the ideal thing to keep me busy. I was so bored since I stopped working and didn't know what to do with my days. Now I am always busy, I go somewhere I think "is that a subject for my blog" ? I travel and take pictures for my blog and everything I do I ask myself "can I use it for my blog ?" For me this site has changed my life and for a retired person blogging is really a very nice occupation.
The Godesses Sekhmet (a painting from me) and Bastet
Today our Manic Monday leader proposed a Carnival and asked us to show the best post we ever did so far for Manic Monday. I looked at the number of comments and found out that The murder of Mr. Frost had quite some success. So if you are a CSI go ahead !
Mr. Gattino discovered a GPS in a shop to a very interesting price. We convinced each other that we absolutely needed it and how could it be possible that we didn't think about such an acquisition before. I am blind like a mole when it is dark, I have no sense of orientation and going somewhere always is an adventure because I never make it without turning senselessly around and he doesn't need it.
I would safe petrol that also is a good reason. In short in commun agreement we decided to buy it. He jumped (for once) in his car and shortly after came back with our new toy.
Then he started to read the instructions what I never do, I usually just push all buttons and see what happens.
After he had explained to me how it works, I used it for the first time to drive to my friend who also lives in a suburb of Brussels. My GPS lady (it is a female voice) told me where I had to turn right or left but suddenly she was mute and the thing didn't work anymore. Fortunately I knew the road and arrived anyway.
To go home I pushed with my finger on "favourites" where Mr. Gattino had saved our address. Strangely my GPS lady spoke again. But suddenly there was no light anymore and I looked at a dark screen. I gave it up, put the thing on the side seat and drove home. There I realized that I had pushed on "mute" and had also touched the button "Stand By" that's why of course it couldn't work. I had put it on my knees and had probably touched the digital screen with the sleeve of my coat. This was reason enough to finally install the holder.
Yesterday I wanted to go to IKEA on the other end of Brussels. I put the address in and started. My lady told me to go right then left and then ahead. I followed the instructions. But instead of taking me to the highway and from there directly to IKEA she decided to offer me a sightseeing and directed me direction Brussels and then into an area where I had never been despite the fact that I live here for 50 years. It was very interesting. I didn't know at all where I was. But for sure I was in the middle of the city and therefore stuck in the traffic.
Suddenly I had to turn around a church, I found it strange but then realized that I had mixed up left with right, which happens very often and she had corrected my error. Now I pinched myself in the right arm when it was right and in the left when it was left, only in my mind of course. Her voice took me on the highway which I should have taken in Waterloo but far more ahead. Then she told me that I was there and it was true IKEA was in front of me. It had taken me almost an hour to get there, my usual way does it in 25 min. I decided that on the way back I would take the Highway as I had done enough sightseeing for today.
Of course once on the highway she told me to get out at the next exit. I ignored her bravely and continued my way. Apparently she didn't agree because she told me to turn around and this on the highway ! Judging this far to dangerous I refused and continued straight ahead. A few km farer she told me again to get out. I knew what she wanted she wanted me to cross the city again but I didn't want. Finally I arrived at the exit : Waterloo and there she got it ! She directed me safely home.
Now I ask myself can I really trust her when I am in another city or even in another country where I don't know anything ? One thing is for sure : I have to train myself to know exactly where right and left is ! Do you know a trick to help me ?
