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Post by htmb on Mar 18, 2016 16:26:08 GMT
Bizarre
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 19, 2016 14:43:34 GMT
Love it!
Camembert does come from Normandy, so it could be considered an appropriate & thoughtful gift from visiting country cousins, no?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2016 18:43:59 GMT
Camembert was "invented" in Normandy but it never applied for name protection, so it can be made anywhere in the world. I have bought camembert made in Ireland, and my parents often bought camembert made in the United States.
Obviously, real raw milk camembert made in Normandy is considered to be the best. Which is why the stores in Paris are already full of it.
I failed to mention another subject of conversation covered by those two people: Blabla Car is the absolutely best way to travel when the option is available.
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Post by bixaorellana on Mar 19, 2016 19:49:27 GMT
Yes, but ........ you just know that they probably bring that cheese to the relatives each and every time they visit Paris. And for the last umpteen years the Paris cousins have graciously oohed & aahed & said how they never get anything that wonderful in Paris. Are you turning into a curmudgeonly urbanite?
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Post by htmb on Mar 20, 2016 17:25:05 GMT
Turning into? Today I was heading downtown and had to drive past an area before making a u-turn on a street that would lead me into a parking lot. Before turning, I saw an elderly woman with a walker. She was all dressed up, like she was on her way to one of the area churches. From a distance she appeared to be slowly making her way down the sidewalk, but looked like she was having a difficult time of it. I drove past, made my u-turn, and could still see her as she struggled to walk. Then she stopped, like she had dropped something. I don't know how she did it, but at some point while I was parking my car she must have bent down and picked something up off the ground. She waved it to me as I walked across the parking lot and I thought I heard her asked, "do you know this person?" It turns out she'd found the driver's license of a young woman; quite possibly a college student. There are a lot of bars downtown and I'm guessing the girl dropped her license on her way home after the bars closed at 2:00 AM. I told the lady I'd try to contact the girl, took the license and watched as she rolled her walker on down the street. I'm amazed she would risk falling to recover the lost license of a stranger.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 24, 2016 22:25:44 GMT
Young parents are delightfully funny and also a bit admirable in the way they are raising their children. This afternoon I ran into my neighbour Tarik downstairs. He was returning from the playground with his toddler. I said hello to both of them and Tarik said to his son "Say hello to our neighbour!" After a brief hesitation, the kid said 'bonjour' but he was more intrigued by what I was doing, which was throwing trash in the metal-plastic-paper bin. "What is he doing?" the kid asked his father. Tarik said "he is recycling because he is eco-responsible." I had to laugh to myself that this kid is going to be saying things like "recycling" and "eco-responsible" before he even turns 3.
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Post by htmb on Mar 30, 2016 20:50:51 GMT
I hate going to see the doctor, even though I really like my primary care physician. I usually feel just fine until I walk in the door of the medical center where my physician is on staff. Walking through the halls brings me face to face with many extremely ill people. I get so agitated, my typically normal blood pressure starts to climb as irrational anxiety begins to control my brain.
My doctor is also a professor in the medical school and today she had a student with her. The student was wonderful, and was quite surprised that I knew where her hometown of Ipswich is located. "Ipswich? Of course I know right where it is. Do you know Mossie?"
Unfortunately, she moved to the US about ten years ago, so she couldn't quite place you, Mossie. Nice girl though, and very intelligent.
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Post by rikita on Apr 4, 2016 6:11:57 GMT
Young parents are delightfully funny and also a bit admirable in the way they are raising their children. This afternoon I ran into my neighbour Tarik downstairs. He was returning from the playground with his toddler. I said hello to both of them and Tarik said to his son "Say hello to our neighbour!" After a brief hesitation, the kid said 'bonjour' but he was more intrigued by what I was doing, which was throwing trash in the metal-plastic-paper bin. "What is he doing?" the kid asked his father. Tarik said "he is recycling because he is eco-responsible." I had to laugh to myself that this kid is going to be saying things like "recycling" and "eco-responsible" before he even turns 3. yeah it is sometimes funny how kids copy what they see from their surroundings ... when my brother was maybe five, he gave me a self-made winged altar-piece for my birthday ... not exactly what you'd expect a preschooler to even know about.
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Post by htmb on Apr 6, 2016 1:34:04 GMT
The governor of the state of Florida decides he really doesn't want a Starbucks after all.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 6, 2016 1:51:23 GMT
HOORAY!!!!!
You can see how much he respects his constituents. She chose the right name for him.
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Post by htmb on Apr 9, 2016 20:38:25 GMT
The governor of Florida on the counterattack...
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 9, 2016 22:20:01 GMT
All of those jobs probably involve a stick with a point on the end of it or something of the same level.
Typical conservative rebuttal, long on mocking, short on facts.
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Post by htmb on Apr 9, 2016 22:38:44 GMT
Among my colleagues and friends, he is not liked at all.
A few weeks ago in the press there was talk about him running for VP with hairdo guy.
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Post by fumobici on Apr 16, 2016 20:35:35 GMT
Just a slice of Bologna last Sunday.
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Post by rikita on Apr 16, 2016 22:16:06 GMT
not made by me, but this shows one of the u-bahn-lines i regularly take ... let's see if anyone watches the whole video ...
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Post by htmb on Apr 17, 2016 3:44:33 GMT
Have YOU watched the whole video?
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Post by htmb on Apr 17, 2016 4:40:12 GMT
Thanks for taking us to Bologna, Fumobici!
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Post by Deleted on Apr 17, 2016 5:03:18 GMT
Just a slice of Bologna last Sunday. It seems incredible now that unlimited vehicle traffic used to be allowed in such places.
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Post by fumobici on Apr 17, 2016 5:51:17 GMT
I took this video last Sunday, the streets may have been closed for the day or weekend, The last time I was in Bologna, all those streets were full of traffic,
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Post by rikita on Apr 17, 2016 6:56:37 GMT
Have YOU watched the whole video? no, but i've been to all stops of the line ...
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Post by rikita on Apr 30, 2016 23:41:55 GMT
day before the first of may, walpurgis night. there was a demonstration announced for six p.m. right on the square we live at. when we left the house at six thirty, however, only about ten people were there - and about 100 police men, distributed around the area. when during our search for a restaurant we came back near to the square some of them wanted to know where we are going and check my backpack in case we are going to the square (we didn't, so they didn't - and later when we returned no one checked us anymore) - at that time then, there were already about 100 people there, and yet a bit later, when a concert on the square started there might have been 200 or 300. all relatively quiet, a bit of chanting against the police whenever the concert was over at midnight, but not much, and the music was not too loud either. lots of glass on the street though, but just now it sounds like a street cleaning truck has arrived, so it might actually already be gone in the morning. oh, but my bank is closed and barricaded for the whole weekend, and this means i can't reach the atm. the sign says the next bank is at a place a couple of kilometres away (they don't mention the atms in the train station on that sign).
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Post by Deleted on May 1, 2016 4:14:52 GMT
Here too there are sometimes overreactions by the police for tiny demonstrations because they just can't calculate ahead of time how many people will attend. Unfortunately, it does not compensation of underreactions when there are not enough police to handle a huge unexpected crowd.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 1, 2016 4:54:30 GMT
Here they turn out in full riot gear for every little thing, so if anything big ever does happen, probably everyone would initially discount it.
Rikita, what was the demonstration for?
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Post by rikita on May 1, 2016 9:30:23 GMT
apparently for a nearby house (where a group of people live and i suppose organize some type of events, not really sure, some kind of alternative community) that is supposed to be modernized and thus made much more expensive, making it impossible for that community to continue their thing.
the big demonstration today is passing very nearby though, and currently my dad (who is at his bungalow over the weekend) is trying to figure out how to best get home tonight, as the demonstration basically goes around the place where we live (so we are surrounded on all sides). same goes for my mom, who has agnes over the weekend and normally would drive her back home in the afternoon. i might have to take public transport out there to pick her up myself, though i am not sure how the situation in public transport will be either, might be very crowded.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 12, 2016 19:10:56 GMT
In keeping with Rikita's local color, here are some snaps of local electioneering. Note that they all honor the city of Oaxaca's official motto, "Anything to Block Traffic!" This was Sunday. The dogs & I had to wait for a very long train of cyclists to pass before we could cross the avenue to the park ~ This was a different candidate from the one on the flags of the cyclists preceding this truck. Doesn't his face inspire confidence?! These were from late afternoon yesterday. I had been hearing amplified chanting and drum beating for quite a while inside the house. As it happened it was all passing on the cross street when we went out for the dogs's walk. The Green Party ~ Across the street & rather obviously hanging back, the PRI was coming along. The guy on the left is standing next to a pickup truck crammed with giveaway t-shirts. Every time he pulled some out to shake and display, he'd notice my camera and hurriedly bunch them up. The man on the far left with his cap on backwards is a permanent afternoon fixture. He sells baked goods. The woman facing the camera in the doorway next to him is a vendor of fried flautas, quesadillas, etc. She does a booming business all day long. One of the PRI minions came up and offered me a t-shirt. I told him I couldn't vote & he said I could have it anyway. I asked it it was PRI and, when he said yes, I politely declined. When I saw two lady store owners I know accepting the shirts. I said, "You took PRI shirts?!" They laughed and said, "Yes, but we'll only use them for pajamas so no one will see." Now I am in Los Arquitos -- the neighborhood of the old aqueduct. We see the source of the noise close up. I can't tell you how obnoxious it was -- a repetitive short chant amplified to distortion level accompanied by the nerve-wracking drum beats ~
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Post by htmb on May 12, 2016 21:46:41 GMT
Lolol I love the pained expressions on the doggies!
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 14, 2016 23:19:51 GMT
Local color last week ~Local color this week ~
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Post by fumobici on Jun 15, 2016 22:20:32 GMT
Whoa, disoriented me there. The first two shots are *very* Mexican, the third could be almost anywhere but I was thinking that those people on the bus don't look Mexican at all and while I expect Mexicans know all too well about Trump, it seems less likely they would about BoJo, then I realized you must be in Ol' Blighty.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jun 15, 2016 23:27:47 GMT
I yam! I yam! Well spotted, Fumobici. Selfie Girls is a sneaky shot because you have to look at the stuff in the background to catch that it's Mexico.
Anyway ~ yes I'm in London, a life-long dream realized, and the city is definitely living up to my expectations and more. smile, smile, smile!
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Post by mossie on Jun 16, 2016 8:28:34 GMT
Glad you are enjoying London Bixa. I would encourage you to take the river cruise, and the big wheel.
And fumobici, that ain't no bus, that's the tube out in the suburbs.
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