PREPARING BIRTHDAY PARTY

"Twist" pictures are here

Today is Mr. Gattino's birthday and I am busy to prepare the party !

This morning I found the the longest Spam I ever got since I am blogging ! To "read" it all you have to scroll down from top to bottom, that gives you an idea about the length !

It started with :
Unfuck Planet Earth::::The gods will do everything in their power to prevent this, maintaining ...

and at the end this
The gods don't admit any of this because people woudl freak, especially as we approached the big day.

Before Google decided : [Message clipped] View entire message ....

I just would like to meet one of these over talented brains and see how a world improver looks like !

SHOW & TELL FRIDAY - NO FRIDAY FEAST

is here



here





There is no Feast this week, our Chief took one day off, probably due to an indigestion of all the bad menus we had to eat the last weeks. Some survivers are serving their own feast menu, I prefer to eat only fruits today !

Kelli is hosting SHOW & TELL. If you wish to participate please go to her blog.


A few years ago I went to ceramic lessons and here are some things I did at that time.



A holder for make up items



saucers



and a vase. After one year I gave it up, because I couldn't work on it at home it requested an own workshop equipped with a high heat stove.

THURSDAY THIRTEEN

13 Cat Quotes

1. "As every cat owner knows, nobody owns a cat."
- Ellen Perry Berkeley

2. "Perhaps it is because cats do not live by human patterns, do not fit themselves into prescribed behavior, that they are so united to creative people."
- Andre Norton

3. "I love cats because I love my home, and after a while they become its visible soul."
- Jean Cocteau

4. "The playful kitten, with its pretty little tigerish gambols, is infinitely more amusing than half the people one is obliged to live with in the world."
- Lady Sydney Morgan

5. "It always gives me a shiver when I see a cat seeing what I can’t see."
- Eleanor Farjeon

6. A cat is a puzzle for which there is no solution."
- Hazel Nicholson

7. All loyalty has a little fur in it."
- M. Malloy

8. Only cat lovers know the luxury of fur-coated, musical hot water bottles that never go cold."
- Susanne Millen

9. One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home."
-Pam Brown

10. "I can’t decide if I have a cat or a cat has me."
- Esther Marton

11. "Two cats can live as cheaply as one, and their owner has twice as much fun."
- Lloyd Alexander

12. "Like a graceful vase, a cat, even when motionless, seems to flow."
- George Will

13. "Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function."
- Garrison Keillor

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Mousies !!

COMPILED NEWS

Man wrestles croc to rescue wife

The crocodile locked its jaws around its victim's legs
A woman has been rescued from the jaws of a crocodile in Australia after her husband jumped onto its back and forced it to flee. I only hope he won't regret having safed his wife in a few years !



UAE stages camel beauty contest
Ten thousand camels will be fluttering their long eyelashes in a unique international beauty pageant being held in the United Arab Emirates. The contest in Abu Dhabi is one of the richest and biggest events of its kind, with more than $9m (£4.5m; 5.8m euros) and 100 cars in prizes up for grabs. I wonder why they are not veiled ???



Prickly weapon ... a hedgehog
'Hedgehog thrown at boy'
A NEW Zealand man is due in court later this month over a thorny issue - an alleged assault with a hedgehog. Police say William Singalargh, 27, is accused of picking up the creature and throwing it at a 15-year-old boy. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison. The poor litte hedgehog ! But what a case for a new CSI serie ! Imagine them to find out that the weapon was a hedgehog !!



Prince discharged from hospital
The Duke of Edinburgh waved as he left hospital
The Duke of Edinburgh has been discharged from hospital and is recuperating at Windsor Castle after being treated for a chest infection. The devil still has to wait a little !



Japan's 'geisha guys' the latest accessory

The latest must-have item in Japan is a male 'geisha' More busy women executives are willing to pay for male companionship. The cost for a night of flirting and compliments can run to $50,000. Why not ? Men do it since ages !




Mum of Eight boys wants a girl
Supermum Wendy Bowen wants a girl after eight boys, she's not finished having babies yet. "I'd like more," she says, with a coy look towards her husband. "Just one. But my midwife friend says I should stop now." I say the same ! But maybe she doesn't know she can make love without getting pregnant ???

MANIC MONDAY - GETTING USED TO THE EURO

MANIC MONDAY LINK



The euro is the official currency of the European Union, used in 15 member states : Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain. It is also used in 9 other countries around the world, 7 of those being in Europe. Hence it is the single currency for over 320 million Europeans. The Euro was introduced in all these countries on January 1, 2002, except in the United Kingdom and Denmark.

This of course was a big change for all people and especially on the psycological side. In Belgium for example for 1000 francs which sounds a lot you suddenly only had 25 € in your hand. For the Germans it was not better because they got "half" of their salary the one who earned 1000 DM had to be happy with only 500 € with the same value of course. The worst was for the Italians. They all were millionaires with their Lira and to fill in a tank you had to pay millions. Suddenly for 1000 lira they only got 50 CENTS !!

To get used to the European currency was difficult for every adult and we all needed to calculate a lot with the help of all kind of conversion tables. Even lighters had the Belgian Frank = Euro table printed on them. But the once who suffered the most and still do were the elderly people. Some of them really couldn't understand why something which was worth 1000 francs was only worth 25 €. And the Italians instead of their millions only had 10 €.

A lot of people still calculate in their old currencies. The younger once got easily used to it and now there is the new generation who never knew another currency than the Euro. Amongst all my friends and people I know I think we are 4 or 5 who only calculate in Euro and don't think about the old currency anymore. But all the others still calculate in Belgian Francs or other European former currencies. My sister in law even in Lira ! When she tells me that she had bought something for 10 thousand lira you can imagine my face ! It sounds such a lot and in reality it's only 5 € !



Euros and cents

FUN MONDAY

Jo Beaufoix wants to know about our first ‘celebrity’ crush. The one we fancied from that band, or that film, or who read the news, or who won Gold at the Olympics.

There is nothing to do ! The whole week I raked my brain about an idol, or if I had crashed on somebody or if I had been a fan of a group or of an actor, I found nothing !

I came to the conclusion that probably I don't belong to so said "normal" people ! I remember very well that when I was 13 I liked very much Toni Curtis, Rock Hudson and Burt Lancaster.



Toni Curtis and Rock Hudson



Burt Lancaster

I even had pictures of them sticked on my wardrobe. Posters didn't exist in 1956 in Germany. I had cut them out of Star magazines. But that was it. What I was really looking for was a boy who looked like them, but in flesh and blood and not on paper.

Sometimes I found one who looked alike, but then he was so big-headed about his looks that I couldn't stand him for more than a few hours.

At that time I also discovered Elvis, loved his music and the songs, played them whole day long but only liked his voice and not the man !

Today I like George Cloony apparently I always have the same taste concerning men because he too is the same type than the once I liked when I was 13.


and then I married this one !

OLD LOVE DOES NOT RUST

Yesterday I met a friend I hadn't seen for a while. She looked quite radiant and much better than the last time I had seen her. As we were in the middle of the street, we decided to go inside a café. And there she told me that she had met her real first love again a married man she had known when she was 24. He had decided to stay with his wife and she had married another man. Now he was a widow and she was a widow and what happened ? He apparently had thought of her during all these past years and had taken information on her. When he knew that she also was widow he called her they met and they fell in love again. In between she is 64 and he is 74 !

I thought, that's strange it is already the third story I hear. First my neighbor who after 30 years found her old love again because he is a widow and she is a widow and now they are together again at 69 and 88 ! Another friend had divorced 25 years ago from a man who had cheated on her and had married the other woman. Now he was a widow and suddenly showed up during an exposition of my friend's paintings. And what happened ? After 25 years they hadn't seen each other, they are back together. She hadn't married after her divorce. They were both very young when they had married and now at 65 and 70 they found a new relationship much to the joy of their two children. But they decided not to move in together and keep their own houses.

Life is strange but one thing is sure apparently : Old love does not rust