Tuesday, October 31, 2006

The Mummy returns



Romanian joke:
Alinootza, please take grandpa's body to the window, the postman is coming with his pension

OK, I'll try to keep it short and simple...

A Romanian guy has lived for more than a year with a mummy in his house.

Tough, hein?

well, let's dig and say more. Reexpress, Monica!
A Romanian has lived for a year and a half with his mother's corpse in the house.
He says the woman died a night when he was watching a football game, somewhere in 2005. When he discovered her, in the morning, he covered the body with a blanket and the face with a handkerchief( yeah, people, we, in Romania, still use handkerchiefs!)
He told everybody who was asking about the 77 year old woman she was away, in a Spa...until some relatives alerted the police.
The blue guys searched everywhere they could, except for the house. Until last night, when they could see the mummified body through the window ( those people were living at the first floor).
The neighbours admit they could feel a strange smell( yeah, roses and cinnamon) but thought it came from the garbage bins inside the block.

The guy says he was afraid the other heirs would kick him out of the house and especially of the fuss the unhappy incident of a human being death would create around him.

This is 2006, Bucharest Romania. The Halloween news program ends here.

full story here, in Romanian

people...

...just don't understand me...

Give me novocaine- Green Day

Monday, October 30, 2006

I've been literally and literary tagged



by Irene, in a chain that began here and where I've been before in [RO] ...

but I take it and promise to explain you a little what Romanian literature could do to people like me:)

It's about 5 Romanian novels that made me stay in the house for days (I was little, what do you know?)

so, so, so:

1. almost anything by Hortensia Papadat-Bengescu ( Romanian inter war female author) a little devil made me read her works when I was to little to understand everything...I read the books when I was older too ( Mommy, you should have arranged the books in a different manner on the shelves, so I could reach only literature for my age at that time! )

2. Ciresarii- by Constantin Chirita. Specialised in policiers ( The White Rose, The White Dove, The White Angel), he became famous for this series for children, a group of teenagers have all kind of adventures through the country...solving misteries is their goal. I cried when the fifth volume ended and I read this book for so many times ( I know, we don't have time to do that in a life, but I did it)

3. I also cried when I read In Medeleni- by Ionel Teodoreanu, when I realised I had only one volume to go... I cried when one of the strongest characters, Olguta, that I saw growing up, saying and doing so many naughty things and falling in love died. I cried when Danut fell in love with Adina, since I liked nice and kind Monica, I cried when I saw them growing up and all that childhood charm vanished from the action.

4. Mircea Cartarescu- Nostalgia, I am not denying the Glaring (Orbitor) and I am still waiting for that thick book Cartarescu is dreaming of, that thick you could write the novel name across.

5. 5...5...5…it's not about novels but about autobiographies and monographies: Jeni Acterian, Monica Lovinescu, Ioana Parvulescu, Gabriela Melinescu

final 5: George Calinescu Poor Ioanide and the Black suitcase( even for the moment when one of the richest women during the pre WWII era, now down, in the early communist era, refused to sell one of her best pair of shoes, because she could still find inside them some sand from an Argentina beach)

Guess who's tagged, Gorgeoux?

in the picture, on of the five libraries at the Oxford's Magdalen College.
Where I have longed to go since I was 10, after reading some English literature...

Sunday, October 29, 2006

beating springs from heaven



An old Romanian saying that could tell a lot about the mentality here, near the Black Sea.

How could anyone try to change it, since an old saying preaches beating is the real method to sort things up?

A domestic violence case became a hot story in Romania, when a minor political figure ( a former nationalist party MP, then runner with no chances for Presidency) was arrested in Los Angeles after applying a physical correction to his mistress, whom he caught with another lover in her house.

Feel free to judge him after his name. Raj Tunaru was and is quite a character.

His parents loved Raj Kapoor (the Bollywood star) so much that named their little brat Raj.

Well, he proved to be more than a parrot actor since considered that being an EX ( MP) he has all the rights to claim diplomatic immunity during his arrest last month at a residence in mid-Wilshire.


Everything turned out to be false, and he was packed off to Los Angeles County Jail.

Then we, the Romanian media, started calling.. we've got bills to pay, hein?

American officials said he faces four counts, including felony assault, assault with a deadly weapon, making criminal threats and trying to prevent a witness from reporting a crime.
This sound very not unusual in some places here in Romania...


Of course it's not what everybody does, but remeber the saying...what other people is guided by such a word sequence? Buddhists would laugh, my opinion...




LATER EDIT: Tunaru was freed but still has the interdiction to leave the US teritory until the judges will pronounce themselves in this case.

full article on Raj Tunaru's adventures in the US here

Saturday, October 28, 2006

yeah! a choco toy!


Just Jared let's us see the boy Madonna tries to adopt from Malawi...

I have a dream..or my first words in English

Like anyone in almost his thirties, ABBA meant a lot in my childhood...

we didn't know English, but pretended to speak..and sing together with what we heard at our Russian cassette player on the old BASF or AGFA tapes...music recorded by somenone who knew somebody, friend with a guy who had a relative abroad or somebody who worked for the national radio station( one and only)

I was more than a fan..I knew( as a child with no internet connection or too much access to music magazines) everything about the four of them..I wanted to be Agnetha and I was in love with Benny...I was so happy to have those white jeans ( was 5, forgot to tell) and I used to play a game called ABBA, with my bro, meaning we sang as long as we could ABBA songs...

this is to granny Irma, now 81, who really thought then we speak English..

Friday, October 27, 2006

NOTA BENE


...we all die

Found a piece on Reuters and remebered the frenzy with which, some years ago, we were forwarding the deathclock link...

Does it matter when you die, when you don't do the Carpe Diem thing?
Ok... people wishing to know their expiry date can indulge in some online
trick-or-treating at websites which predict the date of their
death.

The worst thing that you can read is "I'm sorry, but your time has expired! Have a nice day," expressed in the DeathClock "sadistic mode"


that's a Salvador Dali - Dance of Time

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

reasons to come home, in a nice autumn evening

my evening!


- leaving very late from the job

- surprise at the building entrance

- nice envelope waiting for me( that I already knew, since I've been warned)

- inside- those kittens, those little gloves, that mauve like the scarf I got from mummy years ago

- Cristina, thank you, I should have imagined what I'd get( U taught me a nice present is the one the other likes but wouldn't buy himself...I REMEMBER)

- typing will be nicer, in this cold apart...

PS: I already put them, last night, drove with them...smooooooothies!

forbidden things #2




well, no more opera airs under the shower, Nelly Melba fans!

One of the most important Australian energy supplier made an unusual appeal to its customers, in an attempt to save electricity and water: stop singing in the bathroom, shaving under the shower or daydreaming while washing yourselves!A cold shower for the hot shower amateurs indeed, but the reason is serious. Statistics show Australians spend more than 7 minutes under the shower...and if they were more efficient they could save up to 100$ a year.

Monica suggestions:

  • if you really feel like singing in the morning, chose a short song
  • go with your lover under the shower( this way you get a clean back every day)

    Song suggestion, of course Rossini! Enjoy! Figaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaro!
    PS not under the shower, of course:)


full story here

cartoon found here

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

disappointments


I am not happy at all with what happens now in Budapest...
OK, the events that took place 50 years ago disappointed me, since nobody realised we here in the Eastern Europe were in game whose rules were established 10 years earlier... Berlin 1953, Budapest 1956, Prague ten years later were only proofs we were alone, here...It was only a beautiful sunrise.

I always admired the Hungarian politeness and almost cold way of being.( blame my Hungarian half, if you don't like my "warmth")
I know the last four years weren't what Hungarians expected from the Socialist Government.
But, please, don't ruin my memories of one of the most beautiful cities I ever saw, people!



Kerem szepen, to say it so:)

pics found here and here

i can do it!


OK I am not an artist like others...you won't find me painting or sketching or sculpting...but knitting I can do( the first money I earned were made of knitting sweaters that my mother put into junk shop [ consignatia RO], in my town...so I could see a lot of my creations on the street:)
When I found about Knitta please! I knew granny would finally approve the urban behaviour of the third millenium
Guess what I plan:)

more knitting tags, here
if you see one in Bucharest guess who did it!

Monday, October 23, 2006

forbidden pleasure



well, bad news for those who couldn't go to the loo, in Vienna, until they found a nice mouth to pour into their kidney products...

An Austrian company agreed to withdraw the toilets as you see in the pic, that were installed in a public toilet near the Opera house.

The toilet seats were considered misogynist, injurious and of very, very bad taste by the Austrian feminists who did all their best to make those seats disappear. Of course, no man pronounced himself on the issue:)

full article: here

other loo stuff here: #1, #2

Saturday, October 21, 2006

Saturday early morning mood




Je voudrais du soleil vert
Des dentelles et des théières
Des photos de bord de mer
Dans mon jardin d'hiver

Henri Salvador- Jardin d'Hiver

or my Saturday early morning mood

drawing found here

Thursday, October 19, 2006

read the signs!


..or accept the consequences...

since life spanked me twice in all these almost 30 years, I kind of became a freak regarding signs HE sends..warnings to change behaviour, I mean...

I found out, via Guillemette, that the little plane who destroyed a building days ago in NY didn't just crash into anybody's apartment.
It exploded into the empty bedroom of Kathleen Caronna, the Manhattan woman who was critically injured when a balloon knocked part of a lamppost onto her head during the 1997 Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Fortunately, Caronna wasn't at home but still...that was another sign, can't u see?

This story takes me to a doc I saw some years ago, about the Hiroshima bombing...an old Japanese was telling an amazing story:
He used to live in Hiroshima and was there, when the big mushroom happened. He only remembers he was extremely dizzy, lost his hair and teeth, and took the first train that came into the station. He slept for days...and when he arrived at the destination, four days later, he heard another boom...that was Nagasaki.
The two booms didn't kill him, he was in his 80's in the documentary...what was the lesson he learned? That life is short and u never know when you get that spank?

full article here

obsessing obsession of obsessed people



or how France Gall did this and then...nothing for years...unless you like "Elle l'a"

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

i really shouldn't write this...


If those TVs showing everything and nothing in public places such bars and restaurants( yes, there are some, in Romania!)piss you off and you can't find the remote controler whenever things go way to far, TV Be Gone could be the solution. Yeah, something that " only has a power button that allows you to switch a TV on or off. You control when you see, rather than what you see. Second, the device is so small that it easily fits in your pocket, so that you have it handy whenever you need it wherever you go: airports, bars, restaurants, laundromats, etc."

The thing I needed so many times during the quarrels with: my bro( fights, even, and he won:( ), my mum, my dad( a real gentleman, always let me watch what I wanted) and last, but not least, my soccer maniac BF, who could watch a football game for the sport's sake even if Uganda played against Togo...

The site is very complex, has even a QA section. One of them is crucial for those angry with loud neighbours...
and I quote:

Q. I tried to turn my neighbor's TV on and it didn't work. How come?

A. Because your TV-B-Gone® remote control works by infra-red light (IR), it won't go through ceilings, walls or some glass. It also has to be aimed within 30 degrees at the remote control receptor on the front of the TV, and so you must be able to face the TV or just be slightly to the side of it.


that's the worst part, I believe...

these people wouldn't agree with me:)

Monday, October 16, 2006

benefits of living on your own #6


...or of being alone for some days...
you can walk around the house having a bad hair day, or some velcro rollers on your head, not to mention you can wear a facial mask whenever, or to sleep with stinky creams ( but very efficient!) on your face...

Celine Dion doesn't know it yet, so she keeps singing



other benefits of living on your own: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5
picture found here

like i needed a confirmation

You are worth1000.com You like drawing pretty pictures, and consider yourself to be quite the artist. You dislike cliches.  You think you are better than other artists.
Which Website are You?

Thursday, October 12, 2006

:O is back!



I told you I am linked to Munch...

can somebody read in a crystal ball what was the relation between the two of us?

Remember: :O

photo found here, thanks to Hiacint

other Munch bla blaas: #1, #2,

getting ready for marriage


well, according to Romanian myths a good wife is something to dream about, these days.

good wife tasks:
  • cooking ...hmmm...yummingly!
  • tidying the house..." as a museum, thanks SOB!"
  • ironing everything she finds in the house...including socks, to look as if they were new( wow, D., I will never forget what you did to L.!)

Ironing? where's my iron and my starch?

I am going to take it to the extreme! Thanks to this site, I started practicing "the latest danger sport that combines the thrills of an extreme outdoor activity with the satisfaction of a well- pressed shirt". As the EI Bureau people say, participating " involves taking an iron and board ( if possible) to remote locations and ironing a few items of laundry". isn't Bucharest a remote location?

Of course, beginners get to learn the basics if they buy the DVD presented there ( comprises a documentary with " more outdoor ironing action from around the world than other documentary" I BEEEEEET

Tell me, is there anything like wearing freshly pressed clothes deep into the Ocean?

pics found here

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

I am not ready for that!


OK...flirting, kissing, smoooooching, then, soon, moving in together and realise the relation is closer than I imagined!
Hey, CarrotTop, take your hands off poour BLUEy!!

strange sensation

If have the feeling that the 11th of October is a key date

Did I miss something? anybody's birthday? a bill to pay? a deadline?
keep you posted if I remember...

joke: you know the benefit of being a scatterbrain?
you learn all the time only NEW things!

horoscope freak, or what?


I just can't help myself reading the horoscope and feel glad whenever I see something I agree with...
" New channels of communication may open up for you today.
A female author whose works you enjoy could come out with a new book, MONICA.
You could meet some new neighbors who share your interest, or you could come into contact with like-minded people via e-mail or the Internet.
This promises to open up new territory for you, with regard to both your intellectual and social life. Your mind is going to be working overtime!"


I already have zaza, Iulian and Anamaria coming, the last 2 days...what's next?

I don't have a favourite female author...could I put Helen Fielding here, just because I love Bridget?
Of course I can, it's my blog, doooohhhh

dreaming girl found here

stay alert


I just realised everyone I talked to these days has a cat! I was always afraid of the little creature, finding inside the fluffy animal a little tiger always willing to jump at my neck...
Well, it seems the world is full with real traumas, not imaginary ones, like mine...
If you reach The Childhood Goat Trauma Foundation you know for sure here you will find comfort, documentation of petting-zoo atrocities, photographic evidence and stunning statistics such " Each year, over 6,000 people are traumatized by goats in the US alone". Are you one of them?!
Those who know what to search for( and I don't mean mugs, T-shirts or hats) but also help for goat victims could find this site extremely funny.

Anyway,if you read those testimonials, you might believe soon goats are by far the evilest of the creature on Earth, and you might even become part of the legion of goat trauma victims.

And when I think I only eat goat cheese and I even milked a goat, sometimes...So I was this close to become a victim:( !

last warnings:
the people from the CGTF have recently learned that goats have learned to climb trees and drop down onto unsuspecting people. Freaky!

Stay alert. Goats are deceitful and can hide just about anywhere.

Monday, October 09, 2006

monday afternoon mood


pic of the evening: taken in an era when Monica was completely happy

song of the evening: Nazareth- Love Hurts, listened in an era when Monica wasn't at all happy

that's life, afterall! + and -
Now I'm on a + wave, thanks God!

ruuuuuuuude



come on, galleryoftheabsurd.com, did u have to do that?

Sunday, October 08, 2006

a new week, a new day..


my horoscope says this week will bring me new friends and more than sure a love story...
so, come on everybody, clap your hands, count till three and sing, of course!

Regarde ta montre
Il est deja huit heures
Embrassons nous tendrement
Un taxi t'emporte
Tu t'en vas, mon coeur
Parmi ces milliers de gens
C'est une journee ideale
Pour marcher dans la foret
On trouverait plus normal
D'aller se coucher
Seuls dans les genets

R: Le lundi au soleil
C'est une chose qu'on n'aura jamais
Chaque fois c'est pareil
C'est quand on est derriere les carreaux
Quand on travaille que le ciel est beau
Qu'il doit faire beau sur les routes
Le lundi au soleil





pic found here

smell like '80s


I don't know what's with me, with this '80s nostalgia...haircuts, make-up, Gatsby trousers and American Football like shoulders, movies we saw, food we could afford and especially music...
how rocky do I look?

Nena and 99 Luftballons, for those who know

Saturday, October 07, 2006

counting sheep


OK, I'm a night bird and today I pay the price...
I haven't been able to really sleep for over 36 hours, now and I don't even feel tired...
I stayed, though, inside, being afraid the sleep will come while I drive or God knows when..
blogged, chatted, spoiled myself with people I know or I don't
got compliments, hugs and kisses
ate rubbish I found in the fridge
watched TV
talked for hours at the phone
took some plant pills to help( don't even think I drank a coffee in the last weeks! or other energy drink)
I wonder how long it will last and what could happen besides collapse:)
Laughed heavily remembering Jules Renard's Carrot Top, who once decided not to drink water anymore...so he managed to live without liquids, until one day he got thirsty and realised his mug was now used for other purposes in the house( his mum kept ash in it, as I recall), so everybody was happy with him quitting drinking water for good.
How would that be, to realise, one day, all the beds in my house are gone?

I know what I need and I am close to get it, but until then hot tea, a warm bath, good books reading, TV, internet are the only options...

sweetie is wating and seems very close to what she wishes:)

counting sheep found here

I am total zero. B III, in fact


OK, the next time I need to boost my self respect I'll leave the laptop alone!

Just found out there's another reason to call myself selfish: according to the Romanian site Blood for life my blood is for my single use, only.

conditions to be a donor, in Romania:

age 18-62...OK with me
blood pressure- max 200 mgHg, min 100 mgHg...OK, again
no diseases like ulcer, TBC, hepatitis, whatever...OK
weight- over 58 kilos...WHY?!

blood drop donated by

Friday, October 06, 2006

taming of the shrew or what's in a smile



today, police station. car damage. one policeman for 10 people in a line. me tired. the policeman shouting. angry. me silent and soft. my turn. i smile. talk soft. he calms down. i ask politely why is he angry, since he is going to work all day long. he pours his soul out. he is sick. the other colleagues weren't there. i told him, using the same soft voice it's a pitty. suddenly he finds in me a conversation partner. the others at the line astonished. me intrigued. or proud. i tamed the shrew.
me, my smile and my soft voice. my fortune, to be short. for my head is in between all these

Tagged Bucharest


Got tagged by Gorgeoux, gotta live with it..and how I love the idea, since these days I celebrate 10 years from leaving Targu Mures to Bucharest...
10 years of illegal staying here( meaning no Bucharest ID, but I don't mind, neither my employers)
3 places I like in Bucharest: Calea Victoriei with the adjoining little streets, Cotroceni green shadowy streets in May, old Bucharest by night
3 places I hate in Bucharest: Piata Unirii, Electrica headquarters( or any headquarters where you pay utilities at the end of the month), any market except Amzei ( snobbish me)
3 venues in Bucharest where I like going out with friends: Amsterdam cafe, L'Institut Francais( including Cinema Elvira Popesco) a place on the top of the Ascensorul building, where you can see a nice Bucharest panorama( though I haven't been there for years:)
3 things a Westerner would not understand about Bucharest: why there's so much garbagge where you expect less, how comes trucks go almost everywhere their drivers want, with their loading uncovered( e.g the truck I was driving behind, today, loaded with stones), how comes there are no Bucharest Guided Tour Buses( idea, idea!)
Most snobbish neighbourhood: Snagov-Corbeanca-Gruiu
Ugliest neighbourhood: Ferentari- Zabrauti, never been there, though, but the echo keeps me away

I tag Clitemnestra, hoping I will finally get to meet her personally, and hoping too she doesn't hate being tagged...it's a trend, sorry, and I waited so much to be tagged on this issue considering that 10 years aniversary in Buh!


Calea Victoriei pic found here

Thursday, October 05, 2006

a kiss on the hand may be quite continental...


So, since my Bday is sooner than everybody would want( me, afraid of stepping into the next decade, you wondering about a proper present :) )
I add this to my wishlist... and my friends' list

A 603-carat diamond, the biggest found in 13 years and the 15th largest in the world, went on sale in Antwerp on Wednesday after being uncovered in Lesotho in southern Africa, the owners said. "It's about a third bigger than a golf ball," a spokeswoman for the owners said. It was hard to peg a valuation on the find since that depended on how many cut diamonds could be fashioned from it. A handful of the world's top diamond cutters would be allowed several hours to examine the stone before they submitted bids. The diamond, named the "Lesotho Promise," was found at the Letseng Diamond Mine high in the mountains of Lesotho, a kingdom surrounded by South Africa. REUTERS
Diamonds Are a Girls' Best Friend...sing it, MM!

friend picture found here

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

music for your evenings...


enjoy!

Bonbini to Aruba!


well, until my special guest arrives, let me tell you a little about Aruba.

It is the place you want to be right now (despite the hot autumn we have in Romania, and the cloudy sky in Aruba, as their site says) ...it's all about the landscapes...it's a Caribbean Island, dohhhh!

Bonbini means welcome and most of the tourists that get here are more than welcomed, pay attention, to the Beatrix International Airport( I told you some time ago, my daughter's name will be Beatrix) I have to go, I have to go!
So the Airport is named after the Netherland's Queen, since Aruba is a member country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

You can't say you wouldn't love this island. As the CIA world factbook says, this country's only natural resources are the white sand beaches and everybody loves them, since nobody leaves Aruba, imagine that! The source I named claims the net migration rate is 0!
According to the Netherlands Embassy in Romania, we need a visa to get to Aruba, and as I searched the web it's quite difficult to get it. Papers, papers and papers... and some 2500$ to feel comfortable there.


Tips from the Three best beaches in the world

Hotels are pretty full, even during the off-season (from mid-April until mid-December), but you can save up to 50%!

What to wear: Dress is casual. Shorts, nice shirts, blouses. Some restaurants are "elegant casual"; long pants, sundresses. Reservations are appreciated.

If you hurry, you could catch Lionel Richie and Styx, invited to the Aruba music festival !

It so much to write about this place and that Godot I am waiting for didn't come back, yet, to give us some details:)

pictures got from Arubian(?) sites

curiosity killed the cat, I know


but still...

I can see who is visiting this blog, everyday. The last days, I had a guest, a SPECIAL GUEST STAR, from ARUBA.
I wonder who he/she is...what he/she dreams
I wanna know!

cartoon found here

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

and action!


Ok, I've had enough..while sailing on the web I bumped into this site and realised the little fluffy, inconcent, cute Teddy bears are in real danger-danger.
No more "Free Willy" actions, "Save the penguins" or the pandas!
Teddy bears are on the top of my list!
The guys from the RTD invite us to " watch in horror as pathetic, sentimental, and utterly defensless bags of fluff are shot, burned, beheaded, electrocuted, drowned, roasted, torn apart by machines, and more"
What that MORE is, I wasn't eager to know..

All I know is I'll get a SAVE TEDDY T-shirt, stand up and fight. For my right to have a cuddly, gentle and safe Teddy bear. For who knows where's that bloody Teddy buster.

pic found here, with tears in my eyes

Monday, October 02, 2006

forget about the bottle!


message in a chocolate...via Wallpaper

"Sinnvolle has added some sweetness to its goods with a 15-word emotional insight on every chocolate bar.
The collection’s flavours pivot around chocolate with vanilla, cinnamon or
cardamom infusions, and while some poems include advice on syrupy subjects such as love and happiness"

More on Choco, Chocomania and Chocofashion #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6

chocoSTUFF

go, Laura, go!


Name: Laura Codruta Kovesi
Age: 33
Height: 1.80 m
Basketball European Vice-champion- 1989

new Romania Attorney General

likes: woman, young- so with no links to the communist era
dislikes: she was the only person proposed by the Justice Minister for this position.nobody else able to?

picture found here

presents we don't really want


this idea came some years ago, but I didn't know if to put it or not into practice...

briefly:

there are some presents we get from people we care about but that are not always welcomed...such fragrances that are not suitable to our PH, or that we just cannot stand...

why not trading? find somebody else with the same sorrow, agree on the exchange and be happy without hurting the one who made the present( anyway: I am not a perfumes given as a present fan...how do you know what the other one likes?)

I got this Air du temps from a young lady with the same issue, and I am looking around the house for something to give in exchange...a Gucci or a Dior? still thinking...and have to ask her, anyway.

what else you can exchange: books you already have, CDs
what you cannot exchange: personalised stuff, presents that come from his/her heart:)

being too lazy to take a pic of mine, took the image from here