Election Day and the Trash Can

We just had these apparently very important elections. After being inundated with recordings of Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, even Pat Boone on our voice mail, and after being bombarded on television with so many advertisements, the big day finally arrived.

Did I really want to vote? No, not at all. It seemed as if none of the candidates expressed what he stood for. All of them just moaned and groaned about the opponent. Some of the advertisements sounded as if they came straight out of a children's playground. It was a case of he said this and he did that. I think children, however, are quite possibly better at expressing themselves than these professional politicians.

Anyhow, since I felt like going for a walk, off I strolled to the local school where one could vote. Standing outside was an acquaintance of mine. She was distribuiting leaflets to anyone and everyone. I took one and went inside to vote. Fortunately, I didn't toss the leaflet! I merely folded it and kept it in my hand.

When I came back outside my acquaintance looked concerned.
"Gosh. I'm almost out of leaflets! And we're getting lots of people now."
"Here," I replied, "you can have the one you gave me." Gosh, was I glad that I hadn't put it in the trash can!
"Great, that will help. But, I think I'll go inside to the trash can. That's where my leaflets usually end up. I feel embarrassed, however."
"I'll do it." What was I saying?! "I don't mind."

Off I go back inside. People stared at me as if it say, "You just voted. You don't really think you can vote again?"
I hastily rummaged in the trash can, all the while sensing piercing eyes fixed on me.

Lo and behold, I found about twenty fliers, all in good condition! I stepped outside feeling quite pleased with myself as I handed them over to my acquaintance.
"Wow. That's terrific! Thank you!" She was beaming from ear to ear.

As for the election itself? One name is very much like another. In the end, who even knows what the winner believes in? At least, the scathing advertisements have stopped. Pat Boone hasn't called back either. And now I know what it's like to rummage around inside a trash can!

The Broons and Oor Wullie Annuals

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This is the first of November, and for weeks now the shops have been displaying Christmas items. Maybe we'll be seeing Easter items soon!

Anyhow, some of the best Christmas gifts I got as a child were The Broons and Oor Wullie annuals. In case you don't who they are, they are comic strip characters that are published every Sunday in one of the local newspapers in Glasgow, Scotland. Each year, at Christmas, they come out in an annual. Usually, one year it's The Broons annual that is published, and the following year it's Oor Wullie.

Now, they must have quite a following, for I purchased the annuals you can see in the photo above on Ebay. The seller lived in California. I think he was originally Scottish, however. I even got badges and key chains.



This Oor Wullie annual I purchased in Scotland. Got it on sale.

I'm thinking I should look for more of the The Broons and Oor Wullie on Ebay, now that Christmas is just around the corner.



"Help ma boab!", as Oor Wullie would say.

"Crivvens!", as Paw Broon would say.

Do you ever purchase annuals or books that you read as a child?

British Foods

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Down in Key West shadows creep up ye olde brick wall. It will be evening soon and the buskers will be out and about entertaining the crowds. There is a huge Disney ship docked just down the road a bit. Tourists saunter about in gaudy tee shirts and loose sandals.

I spy a shop that advertises British foods and jaunt over quickly to inspect the joyful joint. It does look joyful! I'm almost certain I'll be able to purchase good old Branston Pickle and maybe some Cadbury Flake. Yum. Digestive Biscuits too? Yummer yum.



Inside the shop I'm gazing on the foods I used to eat growing up in Scotland. Wine gums anyone? A girl in her twenties appears at my side, reeking of booze. She speaks with an English accent.

"I've been boozing it up all day." That was her, not me, speaking, by the way.
"Oh?" We British tend to be polite. I really wanted to say to her that I could tell she had been drinking for she stank like dried up pee and vomit.
"My tummy aches. I really need Andrews Liver Salts."
"They still make that?" I hadn't thought about Andrews Liver Salts in years.
"Of course. And I love it! It always does the trick. What are you going to be buying? Oh, look! Maltesers! I love Maltesers!"



I leave the drunken girl in the shadows of the shop, pleased with my purchases, and wonder if she was from the Disney Cruise ship? I'll never know.

Do you ever shop for British foods?

Submarine - tiny beds

All photos and written works copyrighted sstaas.

I visited the Requin, a submarine, located on the Ohio River.


Couldn't wait to get out of it! Just too crammed and smelly for me. People actually worked and slept in it. They even shared a bed. One person would get up to work and another person would lie down and go to sleep on the same bunk bed. How narrow the beds are! How narrow the submarine is! There's hardly any room to walk about or jump up and down. How on earth did the sailors get any exercise? How did they manage to live together in such teeny tiny quarters?!

I used to have a Queen size bed and thought it was small. Got myself a King size bed now. I wouldn't be able to sleep on a narrow bunk bed, I don't think. I'd probably roll over and fall out! And,imagine sleeping so close to other people! Horrible. Add to that, imagine being below the water for weeks on end.

The kitchen is kind of tiny too. Food for around 80-100 people was cooked here. And I thought my own kitchen was small!



A submariner's life is definitely NOT the life for me!!

Falling Leaves of Autumn

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The leaves just keep falling! We're surrounded by trees, and the wind has been blowing the leaves everywhere. Time to rake them up and dump them! So glad our yard backs on to the woods.

Sometimes it'd be nice to keep the leaves. Protect them from disintegrating, drying up like an old prune.



But, with so many leaves, how can we even consider NOT getting rid of them?!



I'm allergic to the leaves. I plaster Vicks on my nostrils and use a saline nasal spray to help. I take an antihistamine as well. If I'm really congested, then I also take a decongestant. But, the leaves are so beautiful, and it's nice to walk through them, allergies or not.

Now, in the local village, close to where I live I don't have to worry about clearing the leaves away!



I can just enjoy them, admire them. In between sneezing and blowing my nose that is!

Do you enjoy the autumn?

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Learning German

All photos and written works copyrighted SStaas

Have you ever noticed that so many publications imply that you can learn new things quickly and easily? Take for example, the 'For Dummies' series. There's Photography for Dummies, Computers for Dummies, etcetera. There's also a series for learning foreign languages that make out that you can learn in a fun and fast way.

I just had my third German lesson today. We're using the textbook in the photo above. It's called "Learn German the Fast and Fun Way". I don't think I'm going to be learning in a fast way at all! It may be fun, however, but I think German is quite difficult.



There are just too many odd things about the German language. Das, die, der - to begin with.



Plural of nouns?! Don't get me started.



Umlauts? Who invented them?! I think they're something to do with forming the plural. So many things to try and figure out. In German, nouns have capital letters. Weird. Thing is, as I translated to the English the German word 'Haus', I wrote 'House' with a capital 'h'. What a silly person!



Anyhow, here's a useful link for beginning students of German. I've visited the site a few times now and quite like it. You can listen to recordings of simple conversations.

Here's another link, which I found at You Tube. It's also for beginners.

Now, if only I could figure out the umlaut, the der, die, and the das.

Guess what? There's also a 'dem'! That's got to do with the dative case. Something like that. I'd just as soon not worry about that type of case and instead have my suitcase packed, ready to travel. Hmm. Maybe I'll go to Switzerland and speak some German? Better start studying! Of course, I could always go to Switzerland and just have good food and wine.



Have you ever studied German?

Autumn Leaves

All Photos copyrighted SStaas. All rights reserved

See any leaves in the back garden? Nope. Me neither. Yeah! But, that's all going to change soon.



Every year there are tons of leaves just hanging about waiting to get picked up and dumped.



Our back garden meanders down into the woods. So, anytime the wind blows we get the leaves from the woods. And, of course, the leaves from our own trees. Now, where it can get tricky here in the suburbs, is if your neighours' leaves happen to blow into your yard. All hell can break loose! I sometimes wonder if people sneak out at night and blow their neighbours' leaves back into their own property. Tee hee. Wouldn't surprise me.

Family Biking on Hilton Head Island

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What's the best part of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina?

Is it the weather? Is it the ice cream? Is it the Southern charm? Nope. It's the biking! Where else can you bike along the beach and throughout miles of beautiful trails?



The problem with where I live, in the suburbs, is that there are no sidewalks. You can't even walk without having to leap onto front yards anytime a car comes by. Bike trails? No sidewalks also means no bike trails. If that's not bad enough, it's hilly where I live. Not a pretty sight to see me huffing and puffing up hills, especially when I slither off the saddle to catch my breath! People pushing strollers certainly get a work-out as they stride up the hills and back down the other side.



Hilton Head Island, on the other hand, is family friendly. You can rent bikes of all sizes, including teeny tiny ones. You can also rent bikes with buggy thingys at the back, where toddlers can sit. Fancy a tandem? No problem. Prices are really reasonable too.



Just watch out for the alligators!!



Give me the beach and trails on Hilton Head Island any day! If you'd like more information about Hilton Head please check out my photo tour.

Memorabilia, 1970's

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Guess what? I finally purchased a new blender! Guess how old my old blender is? Well...I bought it in 1974. Yes, it's a veritable old relic from the seventies. And, it still works!

I don't use a blender all that much. I use it to make Gazpacho, but that's about all. I'm thinking I might use the new handy dandy one a lot more. It seems so sturdy and robust. In the eighties I used my old blender to make Pina Coladas and Brandy Alexanders, but mostly it was just one of those items you pack whenever you move, carefully wrapping it in newspaper and placing it deftly in a cardboard box. It's a well-travelled blender!

My blender from the seventies got me thinking about other items I seem to have not parted with since way back then as well. Here's an old glass, or tumbler, as some would call it. I should toss it, I know, but I think it's cute, unique even, in its cheery seventies style.



Here are two brass items from the seventies. I bought them in Spain, when I was really into collecting brass.





I have two odd things. Not sure what they are. Maybe they're paperweights? One has a boat inside him, and the other has shells inside it. They're not too heavy, so perhaps they're not paperweights. I do still like them, don't I?





Here's the little Frenchman. I bought him because I liked his clothes, as well as his lovely basket complete with baguettes. Over the years he's lost his baguettes, however. My lonely Frenchman who is baguetteless.



I have keys that I've accumulated from somewhere. Why do I keep them? They must open something, mustn't they?!



I still have this huge gaudy gold leaf painting that I purchased in the seventies. His frame has broken so many times, that I feel he's a survivor. It'd be a shame to toss him now, after all those years.



The new blender I just purchased is shiny, sturdy, full of grace, and sits very proudly on the kitchen counter. It is a star, a smugly perfect specimen, a role model, an inspiration. I kid you not. Who knew that a blender could be so astonishing?!

But how can I toss the old one? We've been buddies for so long! And he still works.

Oh well, whilst I ponder this grave question, let's listen to some music from the 1970's. seventies style

Mediterranean Cruise

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I think I'm finally over jet lag! It's only taken me six days. Lol. Well, there was a six hour time difference, so I guess six days should have me back on schedule.



This was just our third cruise, so I'm far from being an expert on cruising. The first two cruises lasted for seven days and we experienced calms seas. Little did I know what could happen if there's a storm! In addition, seven days was enough to be using the teeny tiny bathroom you get onboard, not to mention the teeny tiny cabin. Even with a balcony, there's just not much space. This latest cruise lasted 12 days, so, at times, I was dying to find a real toilet. (The toilets on cruise ships are like the ones you get on a plane.) A real bathtub would have been great too! Anyhow, what's worse still is that on the last day of the cruise as we were sailing from Corfu back to Barcelona there were fifty mile an hour winds that lasted for the whole day into the evening. Guess what? I got seasick! Now I'm not keen at all to go on another cruise. :(



However, the itinerary was really good. We visited places we had been before years ago, which worked out well for we didn't feel rushed into running all over the place. Other places we visited we had never been before which was delightful as it's always fun exploring and discovering new locations.




We didn't take any of the tours as it's more fun to explore on one's own. However, one word of caution: if you really want to see Florence and Rome, then bear in mind that the ports of call, Livorno and Civitavecchia, are around two hours away from both cities. In the end, it's probably less stressful just to take the cruiseline's tours, especially for Rome.



There are benefits to taking a cruise. You get transported quite comfortably from one location to the next. All your food is included. If you like to get dressed up, you can do that on formal nights. If you have a reunion, then cruises are a great venue for there's plenty of room for everyone.

However, there are also drawbacks. There tend to be lots of people, especially on the huge ships. I think this latest cruise ship we were on had two thousand passengers. You may want to spend longer at certain ports, but you can't, for you have to get back to the ship. Don't want to miss the boat! There are extra costs that you may not be aware of - gratuities, wine, excursions, etc. These extras can really add up.



One website that's worth checking out is www.cruisecritic.com You'll get a lot of information about all the different cruise lines.

What I'd like to try is a river cruise. Yep. No stormy seas! Anybody know anything about river cruises?

Surreal Venice and the Gondoliers

We just got back from a Mediterranean cruise. Venice, Italy, was one of the places we visited. What is it about those gondoliers? They look as if they have stepped out of a movie, or the front page of some fashion magazine. They hang about, posing, their eyes down demurely, pretending not to notice the throngs of tourists taking their photos.

Photos copyrighted sstaas. All rights reserved.




Don't you think that the handsome, sexy gondolier in my photo looks sooo nonchalant, sooo amazingly modest and coy?! You wonder what he's thinking, all decked out his cute little outfit. For a second I thought I was in the Venetian in Las Vegas, so surreal he seemed, as did the canal in the background. I asked myself, is Venice real? Or, is the Venetian in Las Vegas more real?



Another cute, sexy gondolier appeared from underneath a bridge. Now, he was real, of that I'm sure. He was moving, steering his gondola out into the Grand Canal.



So many tourists, so many gondolas, canals, cameras and camcorders. Venice is like a movie. Even Coca Cola makes a splashing and spectacular entrance. The city appears as one gigantic movie set.



It was the pigeons and the sounds of the water lapping against the gondolas that brought me back to reality, that made me realise that what I was looking at was, in fact real.

We went in the month of August when it was really very hot and absolutely full of tourists. I think that May or September would be better months to visit if you want to avoid the crowds. We arrived on our cruise ship on this particular trip, but the first time I visited Venice I arrived by train. There are water buses and water taxis that will transport you around the city. Have fun exploring the narrow streets and being mesmerized by the all the activities on the Grand Canal!

In case you're planning a trip to Venice, here's a useful link that will give you lots of information: travel information