Blogger grandma & more

Well, I won't translate my posts word for word, but I can tell you that this week's highlights on Disentangling the Web, Romanian version, are:

1. the 95 year-old blogger from Spain. She says she received her blog as a birthday present from a stingy grandson [lol!] and has been dictating her posts to him ever since. I imagine her grandson must be 30-something if she's 95, and rather than being stingy, I think he was actually very smart. The blog is very nice because of her way of telling the stories; I haven't read it all, just parts of stories from her childhood and youth in Corcubion and she has a very tender modern-yet-old-lady tone. I've been to a Medieval Fair in Corcubion some 4 years ago and I have very good memories of the place and the people. And I love Galicia, so I'm biased.

2. my participation in the RoBlogFest contest. You can vote for me here! [voting page in Romanian] You will find my blog under 3 categories: Best Blog [Disentangling the web]; Best personal blog [Chrismilla] and Best blog post [Disentangling the web]

3. ... well, I've recently started to develop a very special relationship with a miss Histamine, who's confused enough to give me an allergy to cold when I least expect it. Cold urticaria it's called, and apparently it can also be caused by underlying health problems, such as liver or kidney problems; abuse of aspirins or antibiotics or an allergic reaction to anti-flu vaccines. I don't know the causes of my urticaria; it looks quite ugly and comes out on my face, hands, neck and basically any part of my body that's exposed to cold water/ cold air or wind (even if it's a sunny day). I've been keeping it under control lately with heartsease or Viola tricolor pills. In Romanian this plant is called "Three spotted brothers" for some reason, and Mihai says they're spotted because they take upon themselves all the allergies of the world :-)))

I'm planning to go to the doctor soon, for a full check-up, just in case.

Suzi, here I come! :p

You Belong in Dublin

Friendly and down to earth, you want to enjoy Europe without snobbery or pretensions. You're the perfect person to go wild on a pub crawl... or enjoy a quiet bike ride through the old part of town.

What European City Do You Belong In?

The fatal moment - or the influence of Hollywood

Sometimes all I want to do is sip some coffee and watch an American movie "with beautiful people". The subject of the movie is irrelevant. All that matters are the characters: a beautiful girl, or an attractive couple; a friendly family of 6-12 members living in a huge house that is absolutely identical to all the other houses around, on a long street, bordered by chestnuts; a young girl with more problems than anyone could possibly take, but with a very cute and calm face... give me any of these people and I'm stuck on the sofa from the beginning till the end.

Whenever I'm tired of my "real life", of the normal people I meet every day and the routine that gets to you no matter what, I turn on the TV and look for a nice movie. The characters of the movie are, of course, supposed to be normal, everyday people. Yeah, right! Like I don't know they're actually perfect individuals that accept all the hardships the movie director sees fit to face them with, just to show us that they can beat anything with minumum effort, in about 2 hours. Always on a good hair day, always perfectly dressed and ready to cope with the hardest problems in the easiest way.

The treacherous moment is similar in all these movies and comes unexpectedly. Just as the boy is taking a difficult u-turn in the most important race of his life, and the parents are watching him with huge grins on their faces... just as everybody's at the peak of happiness, something happens. The boy's head falls on the wheel, the car leaves the racing lane, the parent's expression changes dramatically and your heart stops for a second, even though you know it's just a movie.

Well, it's all about this split second when something irreversible happens and you cannot control it. The second when you break your mom's most favorite vase; the second when your whole world comes apart and you're left to put the pieces back together. I've learned to fear this second. Even though vases can be mended, and lives too.

I still prefer the movies, where things end well all the time and at the end of the two hours there's no sign of the cracks whatsoever.

Winter-spring nostalgia

On the way back from Baneasa airport, where we went to wait for our "daughter" ("Getitza") and take her home, my head swarms with memories of early school years. I remember an old stupid joke, known as "the ix-pix joke" that we used to tell in 6th grade, scared of being caught and yet happy we could tell a joke that contained "forbidden" words and not get smacked for that.

And I remember my sudden decision to go to the English highschool, in the 8th grade, when I had less than three months to go for the entrance exam and I didn't know any English at all. I remember Mrs. Andronache, our nice English teacher, who managed to overcome her initial surprise when I went to ask her if she thought I could handle an English exam at that point. The answer was obviously NO, but she was too kind to do that to me. "Why not?" she said. "But I have to warn you, we're going to have a lot of work to do". We.

Mrs. Andronache worked with me for more than two months, although in the meantime I had realized the huge gap between my actual knowledge and the level of English required for the exam and I was a little bit scared that I might not be able to pass, after all.

When the day finally came, however, I was calm. I know now that this exam was the most difficult I ever took in my life. It was my first exam; I was in front of a committee of 3 teachers who expected me to speak acceptably (to say the least) in a language I had studied for only 3 months.

Looking back to that moment, I realize how much Mrs. Andronache has influenced the course of my life. I can see myself - 14, short haircut (my father's decision that I could not object to!), green pants and white sweater - possessed by some wild, weird decision, getting up and asking her if she thought I could go to Cosbuc. Against all reason. Cosbuc was the hot highschool of the moment. The place that all the "cool" people went to. I was a library rat. I wasn't supposed to be "cool" and actually I never chose Cosbuc because it was trendy, but because - at that point - it was the biggest challenge I could face.

And Mrs. Andronache saw that - or she was just being kind - and supported me all the way. I hope one day I will be able to do someone a favour just as huge as the one she did to me.

Apart from that, Baneasa airport is as small and boring as ever; Getitza recommends Wizz Air and says they're way better than blue air, and while we were waiting for her plane to land, there was a flight for Barcelona taking off and a voice was calling over and over again for the passengers to go to the boarding gates. I was so sorry I wasn't one of those passengers...

I'd like to go to some nice, foreign place. At least for a year or two.

Bol-ber

I'm about to watch Volver and I'm very very excited about it! I've been meaning to see it for ages, but somehow I never got around to doing it so far. I'm getting ready for the big moment, reviewing my knowledge about director Pedro Almodóvar and - I guess it's inevitable! - nostalgically remembering my beloved Cecilia Roth! I loved her so much in Almodovar's movie Todo sobre mi madre, that for about a year or so I insisted that everyone call me ChriSesilia ;))

I can't wait to see Volver!!! I saw the trailer and there's a flamenco song at the end that sounds very very good; no wonder, since the singer is the famous flamenco cantaora Estrella Morente. I have a feeling I'm going to have to buy the soundtrack, but let's not anticipate! :P

Mafalda

Mih brought me two Mafalda books from Argentina. The cover of one of them is featured in this picture. Mafalda is a very very smart little girl, who's quite mature for her age and very much concerned with the future of mankind and world peace.

So far, my favorite episodes are:

Mafalda wakes up and goes to her mother:

"Good morning, mom, do you know if they have destroyed all the nuclear weapons already?"

"I don't know, sweetie, but I doubt it", says the mother. "Why?"

"Oh... nothing", says Mafalda.

And going back to her room, she thinks: It would be nice, for a change, to know that one's life depends entirely upon oneself..."

Check out some Mafalda cartoons in Spanish here.

(to be continued)

Equilibrium?

I have a green frog with red eyes on my desk. It's climbing a brown ladder (or rather going down a brown ladder, now that I look better!) over an orange background. It's beautiful and I got it for my birthday. It has tons of good wishes on the back :))

Alex B.'s Yahoo Mess picture today represents an old Chinese sage wearing a blue robe. He's standing in the snow and I like to imagine he's Lee, the old Chinese cook from Steinbeck's East of Eden, waiting for Caleb to come home, or maybe looking after Samuel, who has just gone home in his old wagon. Alex says he's not a Chinese cook, but a Japanese Samurai and he's well used to the snow so I shouldn't worry about him being cold. But I think he's Lee, thinking about the correct translation of the word timshel, that gave so much trouble to a number of old Chinese sages.

Now to the subject of this post, I first saw a bottle of Balance in Germany a couple of weeks ago. It's basically water with a fruity flavor and comes in all sorts of crazy combinations: apples, peaches, pineapple, cactus and aloe vera, oranges and rose petals; absolute madness with just 5 calories! :)) The first time I bought a bottle of Balance I was just thirsty and I had a sore throat. It was cold, so it took me some two days to drink the whole bottle (750 ml).

I don't remember what flavor I bought the first time, but the second time I bought the fruity water, I was in a supermarket called Netto and they had a special offer, so I bought a whole six-pack... for the road, since we were leaving for Bucharest the following day. The flavor was: pineapple-grapefruit-aloe vera. Times 6.

I finished it up all by myself, as my family refused to taste it. My brother said I might as well drink water from a dirty bottle of Fanta; it would taste the same!

I recently found out we have Balance in Romania! It's sold in the G'Market stores and OMV gas stations, costs well over a euro and I just bought two bottles!

... when I quit smoking I thought I was free of any possible addiction. Apparently I was wrong.

Disentangling the Web

Hello everybody!

Disentangling the Web is my Yahoo 360 blog and I've been keeping it for the past two years (wow! time does fly...). I usually write my entries in Romanian, although I have had occasional attempts to write in Spanish or English. Still, Romanian is my mother tongue - and being my personal blog and all, I felt more comfortable writing in Romanian.

Today I give you the English version of my blog - in the meanwhile I've made many friends who can't read Romanian and I'd really like to make my blog available to them also.

I'll basically be translating the posts I publish in Romanian on my other blog.

Enjoy and don't forget I just LOVE comments!!