What my internet looks like

A puzzling question posed before the browsing public has recently startled me when I displayed the usual search page in my browser. What does your internet look like? Indeed, what? Seduced into responding the twenty questions of a Webify Me quiz, I hereby enclose its result - a picture of what my internet looks like. Allegedly showing how and what I use the internets for. Doesn't seem too graphic... just the everyday stuff, really. I don't understand how a bottle found its way there, though.

P.S. I'm noticing my style tonight seems strangely influenced by the baroque (click at your own risk - I've just had a warning page displayed about malicious infectious content within it, first time ever in years of visting) newyorkshitty blog (a.k.a. thatgreenpointblog, coming "to you from the garden spot of the universe") No clue as to why, either.

Perhaps not a good day for linking to that particular blog... I really had nothing to do with infecting it with anything, folks. I sincerely hope Miss Heather has her blog cleaned up and lets us savour her writing (and photography) again soon!

Late night before summertime

Yestarday night I was listening to Bibi Andersen performing Call me Lady Champagne for Musikladen on youtube and sampling Krymwein Krasnyi Krymskii Juznobiereznyj, i.e. Massandra's Crimean sweet red wine from the south bank of Crimea. The wine is very sweet, I suspect around 150 mg of sugar per liter, 18% proof. A good substitute for the Moldovan Kagor I ran out of the day before yesterday, although of somewhat more developed and complicated taste, more oaky I'd say, with distinctive honey notes. Eight medals plus an award cup on the label convinced me to buy it.

Tonight I'm continuing with the Juznobiereznyj and watching a person I actually dated - many years ago - on youtube. The person looks quite beautiful, has become somewhat famous, in certain circles, should I say, and has appeared in an awarded documentary. I saw the documentary a while ago when it was first released and it was indeed good and true to life, I certify. However, the comparison with the real person I remember made me acutely aware of how deceiving media can - un- or perhaps intentionally - be. The person I knew didn't at all resemble the person I might have imagined based on the documentary. The person's real energy is just not there on the screen or is almost impossible to guess. One friend's comments about the person were indeed 100% true, however without having met the subject you just wouldn't know what to think of them. Very deceiving. What makes you dream about someone on the screen is a pure illusion. It would take a mere one or two dates in reality to realize they're just not for you. So much for fantasy.

Off to watch my new favorite show - an interactive fortune teller show. Wow. I've just discovered it and I'm mesmerized by some of the tellers. They do Tarot readings on request from the viewers, they select runes for them and even consult a yet mysterious angel deck. Just pure whoa, I can't resist. Unfortunately the show begins the earliest before 1 a.m. to end at 3 a.m. I haven't slept properly for at least a week now. But this too shall pass ;-) Looking forward to switching to daylight savings time, or whatever it's called, this very weekend, when my days will become longer by one hour, to end before 7 p.m. Summertime ahead !!

Kindzmarauli wine revisited and more February blues

I secured a bottle after noticing it had been gone from my usual supplier for quite a long while. Upon opening, I was surprised I liked it less than my recent dry red Viňa Maipo! This time it tastes exactly like very slightly fermented cherries with plum undertones, and, like the previous one, is extremely fruity, without a trace of acidity. Not well suited to fried food which I currently consume in large quantities. To me, it's definitely a dessert wine, gentle and refreshing, remininscent of lazy summer afternoons.

By the way, I'm now watching Dominick Dunne's Power, privilege and justice episode dealing with the Texas millionaire Cullen Davis and boy what a disgusting jerk he was. Enraged by his daughter Dee, he killed her kitten by throwing it twice against the floor. He emerged from the basement wearing a woman's wig, said "Hi!" and shot his wife's lover dead, while he had gotten himself a mistress long before she did. Et caetera. An unbelievable, old-school a**hole. (Conclusion of the story: thanks to his money, he got acquitted of the killings and went free; in the 80s ultimately lost his oil fortune, found Jesus and now travels around the world as a missionary, preaching.)

I've been feeling quite exhausted after some job and family related stress as well as my own health issues, manifesting in pain and sleepless nights, all happening in a close sequence during the last three weeks. On the family front, my father spent a couple of days at the hospital being re-diagnosed for his heart problems, and I had to help my mother care for his needs. Quite a draining experience. Luckily dad's back home now and after over a week of worry I've had two days to relax, today being the second day. I inteneded to visit my sister at the farm tomorrow but gave up the thought, I need some time to myself. So tomorrow I'm staying home and hope to enjoy my day as well as accomplish at least something tiny. Right now I feel so drained I'm having a problem taking the laundry out of the washing mashine.

February blues

With another Valentine's Day upon us, which is supposed to be a happy occassion, and depressed as I felt today, I found it appropriate to check out the 30 greatest, gayest videos of all time as listed by Out magazine. Of that list, I'm not familiar with all, but the following have always, and still do, tickle my fancy:

29. Dead or Alive, “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” (1985)
"Classic in all its ugliness". Ugly? Those were Pete's best years. I just wish his lip surgery didn't go as wrong as it did. Although his new personas are just as engaging - if not more - as the one he bagan with.

22. Bronski Beat, “Smalltown Boy” (1984)
"A heartbreaker". Jimmy Sommerville had the most amazing voice, loved to hear him sing.

21. Deee-Lite, “Groove Is in the Heart” (1990)
"A loopy, tranced-out masterpiece." This was sublime and no song ever came close, musically or visually. And won't, either.

20. The B-52’s, “Love Shack” (1989) "Yes, that afroed beauty going into orgasmic convulsions is a pre-“Supermodel” RuPaul". One screaming (David Byrne-influenced?) heck of a party that was.

19. Erasure, “Take a Chance on Me” (1992)
"Andy Bell and Vince Clarke make the shabbiest drag queens ever." They're so cute !!! And the song - what can I say - immortal.

16. Right Said Fred, “I’m Too Sexy” (1992)
This makes me giggly and happy quite instantly. The meshed muscle, the bald heads, the seductive smiles are just as good as the lyrics. A blast.

14. Eurythmics, “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)” (1983)
Annie Lennox looked so stunning in this video I almost couldn't watch but never had enough. I absolutely adored her looks, act, voice.

9. Village People, “Y.M.C.A.” (1978)
"Pure vintage NYC" in a nutshell. Why oh why do I keep browsing forgotten NY and other such blogs. Bringing back memories and dreams, old and new, of people whose hearts I touched, places whose soul held me still, lives lived with passion.

6. Marc Almond, “Ruby Red” (1986)
"Flaming". Well, this one I didn't know. But definitely, "They just don’t make queens like Marc anymore." While not many of his own songs are remembered, Marc had a striking persona, lots of visual appeal and quite a powerful voice. Loved him in duos with Gene Pitney and Jimmy Sommerville.

5. Madonna, “Vogue” (1990)
Now this was one darned hit when it first came out. Love the mustached black? Latino? dancer - in fact all the male dancers are quite gorgeous, the white ones least so - and their flowing shirts towards the end. Beautifully styled.

2. Wham! “Club Tropicana” (1983)
"It’s not just that it’s the campiest song ever or that George looked so hot back then, but that the video really, really tries to make these lads look butch." A-men.

I peeked into the readers' comments and hey, true! They forgot about Geri Halliwell's chico latino! Understandably, Geri looks so much better than any of the guys in this video. I like her soft voice - a perfect holiday song. For hot guys, see Madonna's Don't tell me.

Back to life, back to reality.. Three more working days to go before my long deserved vacation.

Viňa Maipo - Carménère Cabernet Sauvignon

I was thrilled to purchase four travel-size (180 ml) bottles of the above bi-varietal Chilean wine at the same moderate price regular 750 ml bottles are sold. Each bottle contains two glasses of wine - perfect for single dining. I only bought four bottles because the wine was described as dry, which means not exactly to my liking. It turned out to be surprisingly tasty, very fruity and well built. It is the first dry wine I recall drinking with pleasure. Regretfully, it does give me some headache the day after but it maybe just me. The wine is perfect for drinking on its own as well as to accompany a meal. Tonight I had it with a veggie stir fry enriched with cut-up frankfurters.

Since travel size bottles are raraly available, I've been looking for a good boxed wine, if such a thing exists. So far, I've tried an Australian Shiraz - Quay Landing - and the French-German J.P. Chenet's Cabernet-Syrah. Neither exactly threw me to my knees so the search continues.

Update Feb. 04/11 10:15 p.m.:
Talk about making assumptions! I actually checked the price of Viňa Maipo Carménère Cabernet Sauvignon 750 ml sized bottle on the store shelf, and it's half of what I thought it was! This is a four dollar wine, folks, and not a nine dollar one. This might perhaps explain the headache factor. I'm not in the least discouraged, though, and I'm having it as un poco after dinner digestivo this very moment. Still tastes fine to me.

Update Feb. 18/11 4:45 p.m.:
A final update on the price of that wine. It is an eight dollar wine, after all. It simply went on sale which I didn't notice. Today the price is back to normal. All the wine is gone from the shelf, nonetheless. I wanted to buy a bottle as a gift for my sister but there's nada.

Good news regarding the price, though. It turns out I did not pay too much for my travel size bottles and I've just spotted travel size bottles of another Chilean wine at the same store! They also lowered the price of their Sauternes in 325? ml bottles from over twenty dollars to sixteen but it's still too much for what I earn.

Got junk?

I'm having a hard time cleaning my place up. It's become so messy I find it difficult to live here but cleaning up seems such an overwhelming and tedious job that I've been postponing it for weeks. I'm watching Hoarders which really helps me get up and get going. I tackle one little task at a time and keep sitting down to rest and divert my thoughts every couple of minutes, which seems a good strategy. From lack of sleep and rest during over half a year of working two jobs I'm simply too physically tired to accomplish much in one or two days but I'm making a slow progress.

It helps that the fleas seem to be largely gone ever since I sprayed the cats with medication (Frontline, a single dose for large dogs divided into four doses of 0.7 mililiters for each of my little possums, as I sometimes call them) two weeks ago. Before that, there were so many fleas I couldn't really enter the cats' room to clean it because several fleas would instantly jump on each of my legs. But once the cats became, so to say, poisonous to them, the fleas seem to have died. Of hunger, I guess. Although I was afraid they'd move on to me to feed on, it didn't happen. Today I managed to wash a part of the floor in the cats' room under their toilets, and, surprisingly, didn't see a single flea in the process. And I haven't even used the spray I ordered from the vet to treat the floors.

Tired

I hardly managed to make a frozen vegetable stir-fry upon returning home tonight. It's been followed by chocolate - 50 grams, to be exact - and a medicinal quantity - three tablespoons - of Southern Comfort to warm me up before going to bed. Ah, what a nice drink it is. I'm off to bed to watch a National Geographic episode on the universe titled Stargate.

The LED TV flop

Today I attempted to equip myself with a TV for the kitchen. The old one won't transmit some channels I mostly watch because they have been moved to frequencies beyond its reach. Therefore I can only watch my favorite channels on a newer TV in my bedroom, which successfully prevents me from cooking basically any day. After a long day at work I will choose eating cornflakes with milk in front of a favorite program rather than cooking a meal while watching something I'm not really interested in. In the hopes of becoming able to both cook and watch the programs I want I first visited several stores to compare the prices and next followed my colleague's advice to buy a 22" Toshiba LED TV currently on sale. Not that the sale has made it cheap, mind you, merely somewhat cheaper than usual. I dragged the box home by bus, freezing in the wind and drizzle at the stops, unpacked the unit and spent two hours testing it, or rather trying to set it up to the standards I've known so far.. Unpleasant surprise. The (at least) ten year old bulky SONY in my bedroom is way better picture and especially sound-wise than the flat screen wonder I've just bought. I'd say even the old TV I use in the kitchen is better. I mean the Toshiba emits sounds resembling a tiny portable radio and remains disappointing even after all its enhancing features like audio surround, enhanced bass and treble reduction are turned on. While the picture on many channels is blurred and the faster the objects in it move, the more blurred it gets. Dang. I'm returning the Toshiba to the store first thing tomorrow. I may still do some shopping for a "19" LED with a good audio" but I'm coming to realize such a thing may not exist. I'd either have to buy external speakers for the kitchen TV or buy a comfy TV table with wheels and continue to move my bedroom TV around the apartment..

Host of the fleas

Tiger, the largest of my cats (as well a cute, very social and oversensitive gray striped male), must be hosting an impressive flea population because he scratches often and leaves several eggs behind wherever he jumps down or spends some time resting. Why do I mention that? Well, I attempted to clean my place a bit today and, while hanging laundry, must have left the bedroom door open. You know the rest. I continued to clean for a while when suddenly it struck me Tiger was nowhere to be seen. I looked in the kitchen, I looked in the bathroom, I looked inside the operating washing machine. No trace. Peace and quiet, no sound to be heard (I turned the TV and washing machine off). At that point I pretty much knew and turned my step to the bedroom. Where, on my unmade bed, curled upon and against the messed up covers, Tiger was preparing to take a nap. I only managed to say "Yyyyyyyy" and look directly in his eye as he looked in mine! He got up immediately and left the room in a hurry, miaowing and demanding to be let outside, probably to get as far from me as possible. I attended to his wishes, letting him out through the window, and was left with a huge pile of bed covers to inspect for fleas (found one, it was large, so probably a female) and wash, to be safe, twice each.

I mean my hands dropped. I have so little time to myself and now this. I can't wait until I get rid of that one hour of work each day so that I can pull my.. self together a bit better than I do now.

Update: watching Nadia Giosia's Bitchin' kitchen, quote: "a little selfishness is a good thing. Too much selfishness, on the other hand - even better."

I changed the sheets on my bed to all white/pale green/pale blue so that any fleas are clearly visible.

About five minutes ago the queen mother cat threw up because she had too much chicken liver for dinner. But she didn't throw up directly on the floor, oh no. Upon waking up, she puked from atop of the armchair down one of its sides. Luckily, the armachair was covered with a blankie and on the blankie the puke went. Very fresh, too, basically the pieces of liver came back without much fluid. The poor cat can't stop eating when there's still food left in her bowl - she probably somehow remembers going hungry when she was still feral. I gave her too much to eat beacuse I bought a large tray of livers for both the cats and myself but forgot all about it until the livers went past their expiration date. Now I also have to wash the cat blankie.

The cats are snoring

while sleeping on my best vintage table as flea eggs continue to drop off them. Mhnhhh... mhnhhh... mhnhhh... One of them has taken to sleeping in a large ficus pot near the window. I read fleas simply love dry sand. I'm sick at the thought of having to vacuum again. I had to get up slightly past 3 a.m. today to make it to the other side of town for a work-related training. I was 30 minutes late but noone said a word, and, furthermore, at the end of the day my further training was cancelled! Hooray! Instead of several employees travelling - each for a week - to be trained by a head of the department at a very far away company location, the head of the department will be travelling next week to train us all at the same time at the place where we work. I think they realized we're disrupting their work too much. Just in time - I only had to get up that early and take a train with smelly masses once instead of six times I had scheduled.

I'm off for a small nap as I can hardly keep my eyes open.

A good brandy is...

Quote of the day: "A good brandy is like a tiny cat in velvet slippers scampering down your throat. A bad brandy is like that same cat, barefoot, being pulled out by the tail."

I had an afternoon off the day before yesterday and wandered around several neighborhood stores carrying luxury food and drink items in search of belated Christmas gifts for my family who had duly presented such gifts to me. I purchased various teas, the most expensive one - by Niederegger of Lübeck - marzipan, i.e. almond flavored, as well as halvas (one of them a Pişmaniye or floss halva, in the form of wool-resembling nests for my thirteen-year-old niece), and unusual chocolates, such as marzipan and anise-flavored. I also noticed a Pedro Ximenez sherry at one of the stores and was appalled at the price of almost 17 Euros for a regular 0,75 liter bottle but todays web search revealed that price was indeed the lowest I encountered. So I decided to buy the bottle tomorrow and sample the PX once I finish my current sweet (we're talking at least 100 grams of sugar per liter) oak-aged white Crimean wine - Kрымвейн белый крымcкий, one of the delicious products of the renowned Massandra estate, made of the white Kokour, Aligote, Rkatsiteli and other varieties.

I can only enjoy wines occassionally these days as I work a lot, too much in reality, and I don't have enough time to sleep not to mention sobering back into shape. I must have had the Crimean bottle opened for a month and there's still enough left for two small sippings. Being a fortified wine, though, it hasn't really gone bad taste-wise, only the best parts of the aroma are gone. I basically only buy fortified wine now so that it doesn't go to waste if not drunk within tree days, which I can't possibly accomplish. I'm planning to work somewhat less by spring and hopefully will be able to make the necessary formal arrangements with my employers in the coming weeks.

Of other news, the cats have brought in fleas and my place is quite badly infested. I mean a flea jumps on me at least once a day. I saw it happening, that is, I saw what I now know were flea eggs falling out of their fur a couple of weeks ago but - alas - at the time it didn't occur to me what they were. What kind of a strange sand is that in the cats' toilet?, I thought. Does clay litter indeed decompose into such tiny, round, pearly granules? Well, hello, the answer is NO, and on top of working outside the home I now have loads of cleaning and spraying to do inside my apartment. Luckily I don't find fleas particularly disgusting or I might have gone mad thinking about the 95% of the flea population sharing the place with me in any available crevice of the floor and furniture.

I'm off to at least do the washing up before watching today's episode of Colin and Justin's Home Heist... I felt so tired yesterday that I fell asleep at 11:30 p.m., missing all the fireworks, and woke up today at noon.

Sick

I'm a tad sick. And I've been able to take some time off work now that I work two jobs and do not have to worry if the last pennies of my wages will last me until the next payday. While the symptoms are mild they persist even though I've been taking an antibiotic, so it might be something viral. It actually began around October 4th and although I do feel better, especially when making sure I stay warm and at home, I still don't feel completely healthy. I hope it will not last an entire month like it did last December when I went to work sick with another something for over thirty days, hoping it would go away any day but it didn't, I just kept getting better and worse in a couple of days' cycles.

Cat Dumbo found

I've spent an entire month worrying about Dumbo the cat - first his whereabouts, then how to bring him back home and, finally, how to introduce him back to the cats who had driven him out of the house in the first place. I'm pleased to report that I've managed to solve all three problems. With considerable help from the web - had I not read about the experiences of others who lost and found their cats, I might have given up. However, having read about the virtue of patience, incessant search in the close proximity of the cat's home and setting food-baited traps to catch the lost pet, I regained hope and continued searching and calling him early mornings and late evenings, i.e. when cats tend to be most active.

My first sighting of Dumbo took place two days after I had started putting out food at night, which was almost two weeks after he went missing. He emerged from behind my neighbor's shed, thin and scared to death, crawling close to the ground with his ears down, at 6 a.m., heading towards the food bowl. He was actually being led towards it by a free roaming neighborhood cat, who must have first found the food. They both fled back to the neighbor's shed when they saw me, but the food began disappearing from the bowl ever since. Two or three days later Dumbo actually showed up next to me in the garden at his evening meal time! He then began showing up for both breakfasts and suppers, and then one day, when I miaowed at him with the 6 a.m. breakfast bowl in my hand, he emerged from the tall grass bed close to the house, where he was hiding, approached my extended arm and let me touch and pet him profusely! Over the following days we proceeded to have his meals first closer to the house, then in the hallway with the front door open, inside the apartment with the apartment door open, and then, when it was raining, I closed the apartment door when he was inside, eating. 

I first kept him separate from the other cats, whom I locked in the cats' room and was letting outside through the window, while Dumbo had both another room and the hallway to himself, so that he wouldn't feel too imprisoned. After two or three days of this arrangement, he began demanding to go into the other cats' room. I opened the door slightly so that they could smell each other. I instructed them to be good and not fight with each other. They reunited over the following five hours, first staring at each other suspiciously, then slowly approaching. After their first night together in the same room, I found all four cats sharing the same window sill and watching the garden from there. This was two days ago, and exactly four weeks after Dumbo went missing.

As I said at the beginning, the reason he went missing in the first place was because his own mother wouldn't let him back into the house after he first went outside! I was busy working at the time and did not expect that an interpersonal conflict would arise between my cats due to being let outside. Therefore, I heard the queen-mother screaming her lungs out chasing away some cats who tried to enter the cats' room through the open window, but I thought she was dealing with the local feral population. It didn't for a second occur to me that she was chasing one of her own children and companions, the poor Dumbo! Which was actually the case. It must have happened several times, Dumbo trying to return to their room through the window and she chasing him away viciously, and Dumbo got so scared he hid in the neighbor's shed and decided to stay there so that she couldn't see and chase him again.

Dumbo is a bit of a dominant male and it might have been the reason why the queen mother decided not to share her territory - newly enlarged via the open window - with him. I'm so glad I managed to reinstall peace among them and have all four back together. I'll certainly be much more careful introducing any changes to their routine from now on.

Cat Dumbo missing

One of my cats, an almost one year old male named Dumbo has been missing for four days now. I've just returned from the garden - searched for him everywhere but couldn't find him. I'm worried and sad. On Saturday I opened the window to the garden for them for the first time since I adopted them last summer. They were hesitating for an hour or two but then he finally decided to step outside. He climbed down the pile of wood to the lawn and that's when I last saw him. It didn't occur to me that being so shy he might have the courage to go anywhere farther than a couple of steps from the window. But either he had the courage or got scared and hid somewhere. He was so small and thin, barely over six pounds of weight. I'm worried what might have happened to him if he wasn't fed for four days now. Please send positive energy his way.. I'm still hoping he will show up. 

Easter begins

Finally. Got off work around 6:30 pm and spent the rest of the evening at home, trying to warm up. The combination of a glass of, you guessed it, red wine, the heat back on and a heaping plate of spaghetti with olive oil and garlic finally worked. Since I'm presently out of red wine (only red, mind you), to further enhance my mood I treated myself to two old Scenic Boys videos I haven't seen so far and man. Dusty truly takes being cute to another level. Garet is one lucky man although obviously they are both lucky to have each other. I'm now heading to the basement to turn off the heat and then to watch some more TV in bed.

I'm coming to realize I must be somewhat depressed, as most that I think of is sleep.. but then I wake up in the wee hours and proceed to have nightmares when I doze off again. More on that, if at all, later.

Off - night three of three

I decided to withdraw the cash I need to pay the one outstanding March bill from my credit card. I recalculated my expenses again this morning and it turned out I would only be about 11 Euros short to pay it. The 11 Euros will be saved from my - and the cats' - daily food expenses, and the bill will be paid in due time March 15th.

I decided I need to pay it thus getting rid of any extra money I'd be left with this month because it's more than certain that money would be spent on wine. The wines I've been recently mentioning, and in particular the unfortified, standard 12% alcohol medium sweet reds are so good it is extremely difficult to stop drinking them once you begin. Remember an episode from "Anne of Green Gables" where a little girl fell asleep heavily drunk because she had consumed an entire bottle of red wine which she mistook for blackcurrant juice? That's exactly how good they are. The only way to stop drinking them I can think of right now is getting rid of any extra cash. And I just know I will find a way to sneak in a bottle or two before Easter using my credit card, anyway.

The ones I buy are supermarket wines costing about 8 Euros per bottle. Believe me at Carrefour you can get a tasty, decent wine for that price. I was reading articles from our local online Wine Magazine yesterday and they shared my conclusions regaring that particular, as well as another French supermarket I haven't yet tested.. wine-wise, that is. Last time I left Carrefour it was with no less than four bottles of wine. Of which only one remains untouched in my kitchen - the sweet, deliciously golden colored Spanish Moscatel from Castillo de Liria. All others are memory.

A night off - the second of three

Drinking vinho regional Estremadura - a medium sweet Portugese red by the name Portada, 2006, which is a combination of the fruit of Tinto Roriz, Touriga Nacional and Alicante Bouschet vines. A very delicate wine resembling the mildest blackcurrant juice. Delicious. Not too sweet, not too acidic, perfect on its own as a thirst quencher or perhaps with mild tasting appetizers or the lightest of desserts.. anything else will overpower the wine.

My cats - the teenage bunch of three, that is - have been criminals tonight. After I finally managed to wash the floor of my TV room not once but twice of weeks of dust and, here and there, in the darkest hidden corners, their urine, they managed to throw my tall euphorbia tirucali plant off the sill, covering the floor with soil and gravel from its pot. Despair! I screamed at them but they were too curious of what was inside the pot to listen. I clapped my hands loudly and threatened but they wouldn't run. Instead, they placed themselves above me on the window sill and watched me crawl on the floor sweeping the soil and gravel back into the pot with my cotton-gloved hand.. Arrrgh. It needs to be added that normally it's me who overturns a pot after the floor has been freshly cleaned and spills its contents onto the floor.. or a bed.. if the sheets have also been changed. So I forgave them easily.

But the door to my TV room is now closed and the cats are sleeping on their armchair in the hall, while I'm sipping the wine and, with one eye, watching Padma Lakshmi present the cuisine of the South of Spain in Planet Food. Very tempting. I visited continental Spain once - Andalusia - and the islands at least twice, I think, and I loved it all - the landscape, the people, the language, the music.. everything. I have not tried any of their gourmet food, though, such as the hams and seafood, and I miss that a lot. They would be so delicious with their lovely wines ;-) (Wow, here's Padma entering a Moorish bath, wrapped merely in a towel.) Now she's talking lamb stew with garlic.. now consuming Serrano hams.. yum!

The truth is I walk around hungry these days because I have no money left to feed myself properly (by properly I mean the way I like.. and I like it exotic.. and elaborate.. within reason..). My first winter season heating bill has materialized - payment's due March 10th - and after paying all (but one) other bills due this month I will be left with about two Euros to my name until my next wages arrive at the beginning of April. My food will be purchased with a credit card, payable mid-April. Along with the single bill I left out this month cause I just have no cash to pay it with.

I don't think I've ever been been this short of cash in my life. I realize many people are worse off than myself, like feeding children off the same wages, but still it's tough. I must find another job or a second job because I won't be able to live like that for much longer. And considering that prices continue to rise, more or less subtly, while my wages do not.

Reluctantly, back in the business

I've managed to avoid my obnoxious colleagues for twelve consecutive days. Today was the first day since mid-February when I actually showed up to work with them. That is, not with the obnoxious ones, actually (they were absent today except for one, the very loud young man) but at the spot where I normally work these days. Sigh. Wasn't so bad although the young man did try to purposefully hit me with the door. Sigh. I've been giving him the silent treatment and he's been taking it badly. For weeks now. Perhaps I should stop because I feel it's draining me of energy. The past twelve days was a combination of my days off and days of working elsewhere at my own request. Very satisfying and relaxing. I didn't have vacation and I nearly feel as if I had one!

Right now I'm watching TV - a series of episodes of a documentary entitled "Very Bad Men".. nothing too graphic this evening, though.. a "Sweetheart Swindler" and such.. - and sampling a white port wine. In case you have not tried it, it's not as tasty as a ruby or tawny. The flavor of white wine is not strong enough to balance the fortifying liquor, resulting in a wine a bit lacking in flavor and character when drunk on its own. Of the three, ruby tastes the smoothest and tawny the most interesting - the white one comes third. Still, here's to a good day tomorrow!

My schedule for March looks much better than the one for February, for ninety percent of the time I'll be working with the part of the team I do like or at least don't mind: the very temperamental young lady born under the sign of Leo - just like myself, hence the understanding perhaps, the elderly very diplomatic lady (liked by everyone 'cause she never says anything mean to anybody - how I wish I could do that!), and the two twentysomething boys, one very - babyface - cute.. both suspected by the majority to be gay, which, however, they blatantly deny. I wish myself luck.

The highlight of the month will undoubtedly be the Spring or Vernal equinox when we switch to Daylight Saving Time - Sunday March 28th - immediately followed by four days off work I duly planned last December and was granted this February to celebrate the coming of More Light and to begin the much needed spring cleaning. I can't wait!

Reluctantly, a day off

Today I took a day off on request, the first of four such days I'm entitled to in a year. I suddenly felt so tired I decided I needed to stay home for two days (I had a regular day off yesterday) instead of just one. The stress of working closely with several people, some of whom I don't like - despite attempts patiently repeated over the last four months - has gotten to me with full force.

Were it not for my charming colleagues I'd have to work with today, I'd march to work smiling. Unfortunately, the already not so young lady who gave up her maternity leave (wrongly, 'cause apparently she can hardly take the demands of her daily life and takes out her stress on anyone she feels she safely can) will be there, as well as the hyperactive young man who never ceases to speak in a very loud voice (and I mean LOUD). I called it quits - I couldn't get out of bed at the thought of having to spend at least six hours of an otherwise lovely evening in their company. I hope I'll manage to avoid both in the coming days so that I relax a bit myself.

I've been considering requesting to move back to the position I held last year because there at least I could work alone, which is definitely my preference. I honestly didn't think the change would turn out to be such a bad move.. hoped they would get to like me or at least be polite around me without liking me. Neither seems to have happened with some of them and I will have to work with them for several days each month. The salary has not changed and the hours did change - to worse. Was it really worth it.

Lots of wine

I am going through a wine-drinking period and boy are the wines good! Most of them Spanish. I've tried Malaga and port for the first time and I recommend both. Malaga tastes literally like fluid raisins while port - a fine ruby I am currently drinking - tastes like the mildest of kirsch - a gentle but rich cherry or berry taste. Exquisite! Very strong, too, 19% alcohol. Don't be fooled into drinking half of a bottle in one standing 'cause man you're going to look a drunken old sod the next day at work ;-) It's not easy to stop, though, especially if you sip them slowly in front of the PC or TV, like me.. So sweet and warming! I'd say it's safer to drink them if you have company.. hopefully they'll persuade you to stop once your speech becomes blurry ;-)

I love the traditionally shaped black bottles, too. I haven't thrown away any yet.. I store them in my pantry in the hope of filling them with some sort of an equally delicious fruit syrup in the summer.

Having inspected the bottle shelf, I can tell you that this fall and winter I've gone through five sherry amontillado ("Piconera" by Bodegas las Urtas at El Puerto de S-ta Maria, 15% by vol.), one golden sherry 15% by vol. ("Don Pablo" by Bodegas Bellavista), one Malaga Dulce 15% by vol. (Quitapenas Malaga Vina with bright red cap) by Bodegas Quitapenas and one fine ruby port 19% by vol. by Westport I've actually just opened this evening.

Yummers all of them, Malaga best to pour over ice-cream while the others perfect on their own as aperitivos. Don Pablo appearing a sherry of lesser quality which I do not intend to purchase again (unless I become an alcoholic), if you don't mind, messieurs - or senores - manufacturers ;-)

As for non-fortified wines which tickled my fancy, I also drank two random bottles of Merlot, one semi-sweet Australian (Cudgee Creek, as encouraged by the previously drunk Merlot by Jindalee.. I was pleasantly surprised to discover both brands came from the same producer/family) and one semi-dry from the Veneto region of Italy. The latter perfect to accompany pasta, not so much as an aperitif.

Ten bottles alltogether in a several months' period. That's a lot of wine for (the innocent little) me.. and all by myself!

I'm enormously tempted to buy even more wine when I see store shelves filled to maximum capacity before Valentine's Day.. I mean where have I been not having tasted all those gorgeous wines before? The white port, the cream Osborne sherry, the sweet Sauternes, the Gewurztraminer - along with the Greek Metaxa and the long forgotten Southern Comfort - are all there waiting for me! I can't believe how greedy I've become for them!

I can't really afford any of them either, mind you. I've just read my gas meter and, well, I've used four times as much gas during the last - winter - months as I had used during the summer. This translates into a bill almost four times as high.. which I can't possibly pay even though I've been saving towards it from each of the last three monthly salaries. I can only pay abouth two thirds of that bill, splitting the outstanding amount between the three "summer", or non-heating period, bills of May, August and November. The latter marking a beginning of a new heating period, in fact. What can I say but "be grateful that you can still pay them"?

Spring! You are anxiously awaited!! I've planned my first vacation days this year at the very end of March, right after we switch to daylight saving time. I can't wait for the miracle of light.. as if it could cure.. or make everything right. Or more bearable.