People in the Park

This is the park, close to Eyüp Mosque. Some people went out with their children on Sunday for walking arround, getting fresh air and sitting on banks in the park. Suppose they enjoy themselves.

Helvetica

This post was very inspiring for a post of my own about something Swiss that you'll be using every day yourself: Helvetica is a typeface that is extremely widely used today. The name derives from Confoederatio Helvetica, the official latin name of Switzerland. It was designed by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann in Münchenstein (a few miles away from where I live; Roger Federer hails from there also) in 1957. Thanks to this 50th anniversary of the typeface, there is even a documentary available about it. Happy Birthday, Helvetica!

Grand Canyon Skywalk

The Hualapai Tribe (pronounced WALL-uh-pie) once roamed the great plains and rugged hills, hunting and foraging. The tribe now lives on their 1600 square mile reservation along the western edge of the Grand Canyon. Out of the way of major highways and towns, the tribe has only the land to earn it’s living from. They had poor luck with casinos and while they do have rafting and sightseeing businesses, it is not enough to support the tribe. So when Las Vegas businessman David Jin approached them with an idea, they listened. The result was the Skywalk, an engineering marvel that hangs over the rim of the canyon. David came up with the funding for the $30 million structure on the tribe’s land and will share in the profits for the next 25 years. Then the skywalk will be the sole property of the tribe. The tribe plans to add supporting attractions that will make the trip out to the site attractive to more visitors and provide jobs and future security for their children and grandchildren.
While it saddens the tribe to see the building on their ancestral grounds and many call it a blight on the landscape, most tribe members accept it as the way to cope with the 21st century.

Photo source

Queen Noor visits Costa Rica

Jordan's Queen Noor, second from left, speaks with high school students during the Opening Ceremony of the United World College of Costa Rica in Santa Ana, Costa Rica, Tuesday, March 20, 2007. The Queen was on an official two-day visit to Costa Rica. The United World College is dedicated to peace, protection of the environment and cultural tolerance. This is the 12th branch of the college to open worldwide. (AP Photo/Kent Gilbert)

a snapshot of my country

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/117215614263.htm

Lebanon: Spring and Mother's Day

Photo: Sassine El Nabbout

What happened here in Lebanon the past ten days, away from politics and other boring stuffs?

Well for one: Spring officially began on March 21.

And two: This is why we celebrate Mother’s Day on the 21st of March.
And the Lebanese do take this day seriously. So on Wednesday, as I went, with my family, to visit our mothers and have some cake with them, the streets of Beirut were clogged with unusual traffic jam. We could tell that this was due to other people, just like us, going from one place to another to celebrate with their mothers.
How could we tell?
Because they all had bouquet of flowers and/or cake boxes, just like us, in addition to that mushy “I love mom” smile on their faces.

What else happened because of spring?
This brings us to three: Daylight saving time was officially announced and started on Saturday night, 24 March. So now we have to wake up an hour earlier to go to work but on the other hand the sun seems to shine for a longer period each day giving us more time to enjoy it while having our leisure activities.

Happy spring everybody and may God bless all mothers.

Peru VIII

Huacaypata: the heart of the land of the Incas.

The Phantom of the Opera

The Phantom of the Opera is here in Singapore, performing at the Esplanade theaters. Just caught the musical yesterday and i really liked it. The stage production was excellent!

Lavender Fun

We're enjoying summer in the Philippines. Perfect time for this comfortable footwear. I just bought my Crocs last Saturday and I love them. I chose a fun color, lavender. See those cute things on it? They are called jibbitz. I love the idea of accessorizing my Crocs. I chose a sunflower, butterfly, Aries zodiac sign and pink Crocs seal.

The Crocs are very popular in the Philippines right now. You can see many Filipinos wearing them because they are so comfortable. I also bought one for my husband. My 3-yr old son has one too which he got as a Christmas present last year.

PORTUGAL - BELGIUM (4-0)

ALVALADE XXI (stadium) LISBON

(saturday, March 24)

'

City of sculptures

That is the way people from my country call the place where I live,Resistenica, in Chaco- located 1,000 km from Buenos Aires, in the North East.

Resistencia is today like a great Open Air Museum. A museum where there are more than three hundred sculptures in display. But, what is still more surprising is the high degree of concience, respect and pride its inhabitants show at possessing such an artistic wealth.

Stone and marble, cement and iron, wood and assamblages, may be seen in avenues and squares, in parks and buildings, representing a grate variety of artistic conceptions .

More info

The Sculpture Contests Read more

When entering the city -if you are coming on the road, you can see this sculture under the WELCOME notice



Gorgeous, isn't it?

As explained above, sculptures are in the open air, in the streets, sometimes entangled with people passing by




______________________________________________________________

even under the bad weather, wet by the rain that sometimes get parks temporary flooded. Then the sun enters the scene and the cycle starts again...

Today is the 50th anniversary since the signature of the Roman Treaty on March 25, 1957 which was the beginning of Europe . This fact has changed Belgium and it's capital Brussels, because it became the Capital of Europe. The country was choosen because of it's central situation just in the middle of Europe.

Two of the main institutions of the European Union - the European Commission and the Council of the European Union - have their headquarters in Brussels: the Commission in the Berlaymont building, and the Council in the Justus Lipsiusbuilding facing it. The third institution, the European Parliament, also has a parliamentary chamber in Brussels in which its committees meet and some of its plenary sessions are held (the other plenary sessions are held in Strasbourg (France), and its administrative headquarters are in Luxembourg).

Brussels is also the political seat of NATO, the Western European Union(WEU) and EUROCONTROL the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation.

All these institutions brought a lot of foreigners to Brussels and made it to a quite international city. Only for the EU 23,000 European civil servants and their families are living here plus those from the NATO and the other institutions.

Yesterday evening this anniversary has been celebrated at the Atomium (Brussels sign) with a concert given by European singers, such as Helmut Lotti (belgian), Zucchero (italian), Nana Mouskuri (Greece) the Gipsy Kings (France) and many others. All of them wished a happy anniversary to Europe.

Present were of course the royal family, King Albert II and Queen Paola, Crownprince Philippe and his wife Mathilde, his sister Astrid and her husband Laurenz, and of course members of the belgian government and European presidents, for Estonia, Lettonia, Malta, Macedonia and Croatia amongst others.

Interpol and Justus Lipsisius (European Council)

The Berlaimont

Bakery

This is an examples of one of the bakeries in İstanbul. Some of them use electric and Some of them use wooden fire. Breads will be tasty, when you use wood. the bakery on picture use wood. Bread is very important part of meal for Turkish people. We eat during whole meals. I personally eat 2-3 slices of bread at the breakfast, do not eat at lunch and 2-4 slices at dinner.

Red carpet for the citizens

Last week there was an event going on in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, called Open Government.

It was one of those events when the building is open for the people, and tours are held in the name of the improvement of the relationship between the Government and the masses. But, the big thing is that it was the first time in seventeen years [since Macedonia departed from Yugoslavia], that the Macedonian Government opened its doors for the 'ordinary people'.

I study Politics, so we had an organised tour by our Proffesor - I was there and saw what's going on.

The whole event was decently orginised, I mean that's a hell of an organisation, there was a warm and kind guide through the building [composed by seven towers], and we met some officials, including ministers, deputy prime ministers and the prime minister personally. We had the opportunity to ask questions [directly to the officials]. For me, personally, as a rebel with a cause type of guy, that was the perfect occasion, and I got my time - asked several questions which are treated merely like taboo [for example, the anti-discrimination laws, the cost of their campaigns, the education]. But, it was the government, and they gave me just some generic and politically correct answers like:

• That's a provocative question, I must admit, and must be discussed as soon as possible.
• The government has not adopted position yet.
• We'll consider that as an important one.
• We have more important issues in that area, and we merely have time for that one.
• You can find the answer on our official website or you can ask in the info center.

It was an interesting experience, but all in the manner of political propaganda. All the people were literally fighting to get to the ministers chairs and sit there for a minute, and could not put their smiles off their faces while sitting in the conference rooms. And for some of them, their individual political opinion was worth a handshake with the prime minister. Before we entered the building everyone was critical and sober; when we left the building, everyone were just smiling and petting their power-hungry asses because they had an opportunity to sit in the PM's chair.

Generally, after this Red Carpet Show, the Government is no longer a mystical place approachable only for the chosen ones. Now it's a huge brain laundry for all the citizens.

How much is that doggie in the ......field?

As i was making my morning coffee a week ago, I heard a tiny puppy crying.
It tugged at me but i assumed someone just had a new puppy.
The day began to get hotter and the cries still came.
It hurt to hear a tiny sweet animal crying and i decided to go look for it, even if it was in someone's apartment, then i'd know it wasn't a hurt or lost stray puppy, just a new one getting used to his new house.
I grabbed up a bottle of water and a shallow dish and a straw in case it was an abandoned new puppy and only knew how to suck and not lap up anything.
The day was soooooo hot the sun stung me when i got outside.
I walked up and down making 'come here' noises and snapping my fingers, poking around places i would usually be too scared to invade.
i just HAD to find this poor little guy!
The crying stopped and i worried that the puppy succumbed to the heat and died.
I was heart broken and about to cry when my mother spotted him jumping around in a nearby bush.
I picked him up and hugged him and he licked my face appreciatively.
I looked for a mother or other puppies but there were none.
I set him down and gave him the water. He barely wanted to drink, but only wanted to drink out of my hand. My mom tried to help by pouring the water into my cupped hand but he snapped at her. It was SO CUTE.
Almost like ' hey lady butt out i just met a new friend leave us alone'
He really just wanted to play. He didn't care for the water.
We played until a man came and told me that he had found him in a drain earlier and one of the guards was going to take him home.
I was so grateful the little guy had a home to go to but was worried as the silly guard had left him all alone all day in that horrid heat.
The man stood there waiting for me to hand over the puppy so i offered the bottle of water for him to take with the dog, he said they had some so i kissed the puppy and watched heart broken as the man walked off with him.
I REALLY want a dog, but we're technically not allowed to have any.
It breaks my heart to think of all the loving sweet dogs that are abandoned all the time. I get so upset when i see doggies dead on the highway :(
How does your country handle stray dogs?
It seems here that most ignore them, some will feed them or take them to our version of ' the dog pound'.

Pasmo and Suika

New service launched on 18th March.
In Tokyo, we can use one IC card in common to ride train,subway,and bus,although they are run by different companies.

Actually, JR(Japan railways) issues "Suika".
Tokyo Metro,other private railway companies,and bus companies issue "Pasmo".
We can use both cards seamlessly.

These cards also function as digital money.
We charge money into them,and we can ride conveyance and shop by them.
Some cards are affliated with a credit card,we can auto-charge money with this linkage.

This photo is a memorial card for this launching.

Peru VII

Shoes of height.

The deers of Limnos island in Greece - An uknown story

Two years ago I visited Limnos, one of the Greek islands. My friend and I decided to visit the Castle of Myrina (Myrina is the capital and the port of Limnos). The Castle is located on a hill. The time passed and it became dark. Finally we arrived there and I have to ommit that the view from the Castle was fantastic. Myrina looked beautiful, illuminated and the lights appeared at the sea creating a magnificent result.

Then we decided to come back as it bacame dark. At the way down I felt a strange feeling like somebody or something watching and following us. I was scared. My friend who her origin is from Limnos started loughing. She told me that I should not be afraid and that these creatures that were following us in the dark were the deers of Limnos. I had never heard of them.

I started asking her how the deers have been found at Limnos, how many they are, how they are feeded etc etc but suddenly a noise was heard and the deers running away disappeared. Frightened from the noise and in the dark I ran towards Myrina while my friend was running after me loughing!!!!

The next day my friend guided me at a place in the center of Myrina where currently there is a church and next to it a memorial to the dead people. She explained that about half a century ago in the same place there used to be a cinema which was destroyed one night by fire. The cinema that night was full of people. None survived. They all died.

Some months later, the children of one of the couples that had lost their life during that night, decided to make an offer to the memory of their parents. So, they offered two deers!!!! The first years the deers were living within the place where the cinema used to be. Passing the years, the number of deers started increasing and one day they became so many that the local authorities decided to liberate them by transferring them on the mountains next to the Castle.

Today the deers live free on the mountains of the Myrina Castle. Sometimes though they come closer to the city of Myrina reminding that once there were some souls which one summer night, in a cinema have been lost by accident.

If it happens to you to visit Limnos island and you suddenly feel a pair of eyes staring at you do not be afraid. It will be a deer trying to tell you the story I just described you!!!!!!

The finnish classteacher of the year 2007

IN FINLAND The Union of Classteachers have named already nine times The Classteacher of the Year. Today The Union told the name on the nominee. She is classteacher Elina Hiidenpalo. Elina Hiidenpalo has been 15 years as a teacher. She is specialized to teach the first- and secondgraders. She works in an elementary school in Helsinki.

THE MOST of the teachers of younger children are women. To support the level of salaries of women, teachers of younger children have gotten extra money. Now the system in changing, and the classteacher of the Year is very worried about the decision.

The Boss Speaks

Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, the chief of caretaker government, talked with Time on the reform issues of Bangladesh. Here is the full article from Time Magazine:

Fakhruddin Ahmed: The Boss of Bangladesh

Fakhruddin Ahmed doesn't strike you as a tough guy. He's mild mannered and academic in the way you might expect of an economist who has previously served as a central banker and a World Bank bureaucrat. He talks about spending time with his family and watching movies with his wife. He uses words like "epistemologically" and "baneful." But, as Bangladesh's current boss, the 66-year-old Ahmed is showing a steely resolve. Beginning last October, the capital Dhaka was struck by violent street clashes between rival supporters of outgoing Prime Minister Khaleda Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party and opposition leader Sheikh Hasina's Awami League. In January, a state of emergency was imposed, elections scheduled for that month were indefinitely postponed, and Ahmed was named Chief Adviser—in effect the Prime Minister—of a caretaker government made up largely of technocrats backed by the military. Since then, Ahmed has gone after allegedly corrupt former officials, beefed up the country's antigraft body, initiated measures to make the judiciary more independent, and agreed in principle to establish a human-rights council, something Bangladeshi civil society has long demanded.

(more from Time)

Doors of Tunisia

Sri Lanka sink a billion Indian hopes

Last night all sri lankan watched the India & sri Lanka Cricket match.it was a great cricket mach I have seen after 1996 world cup matches…..
http://www.cricinfo.com/ Says “ Sri Lanka sink a billion hopes” But True is
Sri lanka will Sink all other Hopes except sri lankan hopes…….:)
Go Sri Lanka Go !

Country of 100 persons: Zimbabwe

Hallo All, i am currently in Australia, and will be for a while, so I will probably get most of my posts off the Internet.

These are estimates (mostly 2006).

37 are aged between 0-14 years
59 are between 15-64 years old.
4 are aged 65 or over.
The median age is 20 years.
3 will have babies this year.
There are 50 males and 50 females.
The average Zimbabwean will live for 39 years :(
*Approximately 18 people have HIV (changing figure; most information on the Internet is out of date).
98 people are African (Black): 82 Shona, 14 Ndebele, 2 other.
1 person is of mixed race or is Asian.
1 is white.
90 people (aged 15 and over) are able to read and write English.
80 are unemployed! And 80 are below the poverty datum line. (So sad).
8 have access to the Internet.
5 have cell phones.
50 have syncretic beliefs (part-Christian, part indigenous).
30 are Christian.
30 have indigenous beliefs.
10 are Muslim.
9 have radios.
3 have TVs.
9 live in Harare, the capital city.
5 live in Bulawayo (where I live).
Approximately 30 are outside Zimbabwe.

If I can find more facts, I will add them to the bottom of future posts.

Thanks Ahmed and Jane.

Taxing times

It's that time of the year again - time to hand in your personal tax filing! In Switzerland, both the federation and the states (the cantons) are entitled to raise taxes, and they do, even though the federal tax only has a provisional constitutional basis. Even though the tax level has been raised considerably over the last two decades, Switzerland is still well known for its moderate tax level - some would say notorious and predatory I guess, but why should the Swiss tax level be at the same discouragingly high level as that of its neighbours? The regular Swiss VAT rate currently stands at 7.6%. Compare that to Germany's 19% and France's 19.6% ...

The actual tax handling is done by the states, so there will be 26 different ways and authorities dealing with their citizens. That's probably why (technical) progress is rather slow to come. Nevertheless, I was really happy to discover that Easytax, the cantonal tax form application, has become available in a Macintosh version for the first time this year! Yay to that!

Friday in Islam

Friday has a special flavor religiously in the Islamic world.

It is believed that in this day from every week that prayers which come out form the heart are granted to who ever requests them from Allah (= God).

This is the religious view of the Friday where every Muslim can re-vitalize their self with faith & forgiveness every week.

On a more social view from Kuwait, the weekends to most Kuwaiti family mean "Al-Jama'ah in a Kuwaiti accent pronounced as as Al-Yama'ah" the word Al-Yama'ah means the gather up, the day which all family members try to meet for hours, a meal or a whole day.

Family gatherings take different forms, in my family we have 2 kinds of them weekly, one on a big scare an other on a smaller one. A big gathering each wednesday where all my uncles gather up in their eldest brother's house, as for our small family my house hold & two married bothers with their kids we mostly have Friday as the official gather up day unless other engagements come up.

Friday is our family day, it might differ from family to family in Kuwait, but we still do keep it up, some might have been caught up in life & cant do it as frequent, to them & to all I say life is good but keeping your family bonds is important too.


Next topic! Kuwait & sea :)

Dictionary:

Allah = God = الله
Al-Jama'ah = Al-Yama'ah "in the Kuwaiti accent" = The gather up

P.S: Sorry for the delay in posting

Salamanca

Two friends from Czech Republic came to Spain some weeks ago and I have been hunging out with them on holydays. We have been visiting many interesting places and I will try to tell you about some of them.
First I would like to begin writting about Salamanca, a very beautiful city which is said to be one of the best cities to learn spanish. Its university is one of the oldest in Europe, and right now, the oldest one in Spain. Many students come here becoming the real soul of the city, which has got a very rich and funny nightlife.
Salamanca is full of enigmatic corners, lots of legends and funny histories.
There is a place in the old town, called Cueva de Salamanca where the Devil himself was told to teach, and that is the reason why, in some countries of South America, "Salamanca" means a place where witches and demons enjoy "dark meetings".
There is an old monument in a roman bridge which looks like a bull, and this place appears in the Lazarillo de Tormes, the famuos anonymous XVI century spanish novella. There, the old blind man tells the Lazarillo to hear the river inside the rocky bull. When the young boy put his head on the bull, the man hit him with the rock... Don't worry, because the young boy got revenged many times...;-)
In the picture below you can see the famous frog of Salamanca (on the skull in the center), which is in the old door of the university building. Tradition says than all students have to been able to find it if they want to pass. Probably the real thing is that this frog was carved as an advice for students, which had to forget about lust (represented by the frog) which guided to death (skull), and study hard...
Fernando.

In Egypt ... The Baron Palace ... The Palace of Ghosts

When you visit Cairo and on your way to downtown from the Airport road, the first district will meet you is Heliopolis. On the Left side of the Airport road you will notice a mysterious building that looks like Hindu temples, this Palace is called Baron Palace and the name is taken after the Belgian builder and the resident of the Place Baron-General Edouard Louis Joseph Empain (1852-1929), Baron Empain founded Heliopolis district ( Modern Cairo ) 10 Km from old Cairo, as he bought the land of 6000 acres in desert with one Egyptian pound from Nubar Pasha.

Baron Empain was the first resident of that palace after finishing construction in 1910. The palace is opposite to the Presidential Guest House, the former residence of Sultan Hussein Kamel who ruled Egypt between 1914 and 1917.

The palace hosted King Albert and Queen Elizabeth of Belgium during the Pre-World War I visit to Egypt.

Years after the palace became deserted, rumors and legends have spread about the palace that it is full of ghosts and bats. In the late 1990s, the palace has become the destination for the devil-worshipping teenagers who entered the palace in the dark from the back area and practised their strange beliefs with tattooed arms and totally black clothes with blooded cats and heavy metal music.

© Photos Copyright: Ahmed Shokeir

The palace is not owned by the government; thus, they can't convert the deserted palace to be a museum. The owners of the deserted palace are two families who failed to sell it with $ 50 millions to be a gambling casino, as laws in Egypt forbid the selling or purchasing of buildings that are considered to be antiquities.

When you come to Cairo next time, don't forget to have a look on the left side of the Airport road may be you will see some ghosts wandering about.

Our National Airline...Now

Winter in Norway

The winter in Norway is actually over, but I thought I'd show you a few pictures of what happened here a few weeks back.
I live in the south, south of Norway, and although we are used to snow, we are also used to it disappearing again after a couple of days. Now, what happened in February, was that the south actually got a snowstorm, worst thing in 60 years or something. Roads were closed, even the highway was so full of snow that it had to close. It was mostly the winds fault, because they would shovel, and then half an hour later the road was so full of snow again that nobody were able to drive there. So, roads were closed, people were evacuated (about a thousand cars were already on the highway when it got closed so they had to get them out of there) and ALL the buses stopped! And nobody was allowed (or would have managed) to drive anywhere on their own. If you were going somewhere, you were instructed to take a cab! Writing this, I have to laugh, because it sounds insane, but it's actually true. The snow buried cars, going 3 meters up into the air, and took up most of the road, and that's actually what I was going to show pictures of. Now, these pictures may not seem very special, but in the first one, FIVE cars are buried!! You can't even see the top!


Now, this may be normal winter-weather for some of you (and even is in the north, north of Norway), but this is NOT normal for me, and I have to say, I hope it never happens again :)

BigBrother in Slovenia

It finnaly arrived. We have it now for the first week.

Huge interest. Like everywhere ...

http://24ur.com/bb/bb_front.php

The family that tables together.......

Throughout history, humans have tabled together to break bread.

The simple ritual of the shared meal reunites us with our families and brings balance to our lives.

These words are taken from thereviewof Art Smith's book,Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family.Art is Oprah's personal chef.

Counterbalance this with the views of Australian educationiststhat more children than ever are present at school with language difficulties. And what do they think is to blame:

"Families aren't sitting around the dinner table any more every night talking about what's happened during the day and engaging with the children," Ms Trimper said.
"Children are sitting in front of televisions more and computers playing computer games. It's dinner in front of the television, video games after dinner, or parents both working and time poor — all those issues have to impact on children."

Back in 2005, Miss Eagle recalls hearing or reading that Kathy Letts, that well-known expatriate Australian, had rid her London house of the dining room table so that the room could become a home theatre. Miss E was horrified. Letts was reported as saying that, if the family wanted to eat together, they went out to eat. More horror!

What about privacy - what if something unforeseen invaded mealtime: argument and debate, outrageous laughter and hysteria, practical jokes? All of these Miss E knows can arise at family meal time and a good thing too. But what happens in a restaurant or some public eating place: a child’s terror of having to behave?

The failure to table together as a family shows no respect: no respect for the food, where it came from, the person who prepared it. It shows no respect for ourselves and what connects us to life and to each other. And now the kids are paying the price at that most basic form of human connection, language.>

In Britain, there is now a movement called Back to the Table- because Mealtime is Realtime they say. There are some big names swinging behind the campaign - including celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay.

Miss Eagle would love to hear from you, dear Reader, on this subject: your projects involving food and kids; kids recipes; fun meal time stories etc. If you want to email me to include your contributions as a post complete with pictures, all the better. If you really have something to say about families, food, and connection you might also like to guest on Food from Oz at http://oztucker.blogspot.com. Please email me there. But not only there - stimulate us all here at Topix with your contributions, ideas, and sheer joy of life and living.
Lets put fun, families, and people into meals. Let's get rid of the pit stop mentality where food is just a refuelling of whatever is handy. Let's take time to think about our food, how it is produced, where it comes from. Then let's take time with its preparation. And above all, let's take time for one another.

And the nominees are...

These are the people who have been "validated" to be candidates for President of France... Because... in France... you need to be "validated" to be candidate. Democracy ? huh...

Interesting thing : 6 of them are marxists, communists, and things like that. One is from the center, one of them is from the right-wing, three from the far-right wing, and one very funny left-wing woman who said so mny mistakes/bullshits during the campaign that there are even some websites collecting those unforgettable sentences :-) Did I mention that she had chanes to be elected ? aaaaaaaaaaah. Who will welcome me as political refugee in this case ? :-)

Vista Rocks……..

Last week I was lucky to Istall Microsoft Newest Operating System called Windows Vista !. Yeah I got Vista Ultimate Licence version from my Company .Only One problem is Most Software vendor haven’t Devlop drivers which are Compatible with Vista. I had to Eat The Internet to search for Drivers….Sound Drivers and Network NID Drivers.
anyway Finaly I got it Works……… !
There are Lot of Features to learn…….It is a Amozine OS for me………

See my Blog www.nishshanka.net

Village Flea Market

Our village had a small flea market of some sort last Sunday after the mass. Some residents sold different products at bargain prices. There were children and adult clothes, pizza, barbecue, suman, longanisa, (Filipino delicacies), soda, beer and fresh seafoods.

This man was nice enough to lift this big fish for the camera. I forgot to ask him what kind of fish it was.

I was able to buy a pair of jeans for my son, longanisa and fresh prawns. My husband and I also had some barbecue, pizza and beer with some neighbors. We also met some new people. It was a nice activity arranged by the village officers to give residents a chance to get to know each other better. It was a successful community project.

Maple Syrup

IMG 0807 edit by newyork808.


Maple syrup is a Canadian and American product used for breakfast syrups and various treats. Jane is blogging about maple syrup and asked me to join her. She presents some facts and an interesting slide show. I will just add some of my thoughts on the subject.

When I was growing up I learned about maple syrup in school. I had tasted the bottled syrup you could buy in stores but not the raw syrup that had been freshly made.

The first time I tasted 'real' maple syrup was during Rendezvous (the local winter carnival). Several kegs of the stuff were brought from eastern Canada and a tent had been set up to heat and sell the taffy made from it. The syrup was then poured over sticks laying in snow or ice. When I tasted the taffy I probably looked as happy as this child.

---

Topic shared by Jane (USA) and Leon (Canada) since maple trees do not care about national boundaries.

Maple Sugar Time (part 1)

As the sun creeps northward, the days get above freezing in Sugar maple country: southeastern Canada and northeastern United States. These warming days start the maple sap rising and begins the harvesting. Just as the native people have done for centuries, people tap the mature maple trees and collect the sweet sap. It is then boiled down to about 1/40th of its volume to make the delicious syrup.
Townsfolk travel out to sugar shacks to watch the process and sample Tire sur la neige.
Maple syrup is mainly produced in the Canadian provinces of Quebec (75%) and Ontario (5%) and eight states of the United States (18%). Black Maple is also used, but it has a lower sugar content so more sap is needed for each batch of syrup. The season lasts about 6 weeks and produces about 19,000 kL of syrup, which is mostly gobbled up in the USA and Canada, but can be found all around the world.
Real maple syrup has been described as: "a unique ingredient, smooth and silky textured, with a sweet, distinctive flavour - hints of caramel with overtones of toffee will not do- and a rare colour amber set alight. Maple flavour is, well, maple flavour, uniquely different from any other, and ultimately quality is determined by what they call the long mouth feel". (Delia Smith, British culinary expert)
You can see the production steps in this slide show by Peter J. Singhofen

Topic shared by Jane (USA) and Leon (Canada) since maple trees do not care about national boundaries.

photos: "maple syrup" posted by Bonnie139 on Flicker
"tire sur la neige" posted by Kenya the Duck Toller - James Charron on Flicker

LISBON - half and mini marathons

Yesterday, on a glorious sunny spring day, over 36.000 people run across "25th of April bridge", one of Lisbon's bridges over the river Tejo (Tagus), from the south entrance to the north side located at Praça do Império facing the magnificent Mosteiro dos Jerónimos (Jeronimos Monastery).

Two "Weathers" in Belgium ?

When you live in a bilingual country (although Belgium is officially trilingual, with german) sometimes funny situations can happen.

Usually people of both languages French and Flemish (dutch) are going very well together. They marry, they are neighbors or friends in the bilingual areas like Brussels and surroundings.

So would it be if there were not the politicians. They claim loud their right to speak either french or flemish and not both although they should and then they start to fight like little children.

For example a sign is only in french in a certain place around Brussels and has no flemish "subtitle" then the flemish politicians get very angry or when it's only in flemish then the french part politicians blow up. They insist that flemish (or french) has to appear on the sign too, which of course involves that the sign has to be taken off, a new one made and put back. Before follows a long discussion in the parliament, with translations from flemish to french and vice versa although usually the flemishs always know french and most of the french speaking politicians speak flemish too and even if they don't speak they understand. It takes at least two weeks until it is decided what to put on a sign.

There is nothing to do, both parties keep on their rights and the funny situations come up. This week the weather was extraordinarily warm and sunny and Radio and TV announced smog. The flemish government therefore decided to reduce the speed limit of 130 km/h (70 m) to 90km/h (49) for the environment and made it official. Each car driven with more speed as 90 got a fine, but only in the flemish part ! Because in the french speaking part the government didn't see any danger and only decided on a suggestion of speed reducing to 90 km/h.

So what happened when for example you drove to Brussels ? You had one part of the drive in the flemish part and you got a fine because you drove at 95 or 100 while in the french part they only had put signs for "suggesting" speed reduction. So if you were in a hurry you drove 90 km/h (49 miles)in the flemish part and 130 (70) on the french part to win the lost time and nothing happened.

So what the Belgians concluded was that in a country of only 10 million inhabitants and a surface of 30,000 square kilometres (11,700 square miles) there were two weathers one with smog and the other without.

And not to confuse the poor population, instead of putting the french or flemish word for Smog on the signs what did they do ? They put it in English. On all signs in the country was written SMOG, nobody could complain then that the signs were not bilingual !

Fortunately most of us have a lot of humor !

Saint George Church

This is the St. George Church in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. It is a hundred meters from where I live. At midnight on Easter day many people gather here for the Divine Liturgy, they light candles and the dark streets turn into rivers of light. This year Easter day is on April 8 for both Western and Eastern Christianity.

St. George was a soldier of the Roman Empire and is one of the most venerated saints in the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was immortalized in the tale of George and the Dragon.