Hello again blog. I kinda missed you but I’ve had nothing to write. No Ovulation, no period, no doctors appointments, not even a spike in my chart. That was until Tuesday when I started spotting. Wasn’t sure what it was because I was quite sure I hadn’t ovulated. It went on till yesterday and that evening the flood gates cracked open a little. So I guess this is a period… An anovulatory cycle (One where you don’t ovulate).

I’m quite glad I’ve at least had my period, waiting was making me cranky. It’s been 6 months. I was very tearful and emotional yesterday and still feel a bit glum today but it’s not so bad.

I’m going to check a little later I still have a light flow and then I’m going to start my action plan. Metformin, Agnus Castus, Baby asprin (which I have to take any way) and continuing my new low carb diet.

I reckon I’ve lost a couple of pounds already. Mainly by cutting out bread and potatoes. If I have cake or bread it needs to be full of fibre and/or fruit but I try not to have them too often.

My one treat is chocolate and I have a small bar, about 12g, every other day maybe. I’ve cut out most dairy though to try and curb the fat intake and increased veggie and fruit consumption. In fact I’ve eaten half a punnet of grapes nearly every day hehe. I love me some grapes.

Other than that I am getting ready for christmas and the impending birth of my Niece or Nephew. Luckily, since we haven’t spent too much time there I’ve not felt bad about it at all.

That’s good because I want to look forward to it not dread it.

Windows 7′de maalesef XP ve Vista’da bulunan Windows Live Messenger’i kapatınca görev çubuğunda(taskbar) göstermeyip doğrudan tepsiye(system tray) küçültme özelliği kaldırılmış. Ben de kıl oldum haliyle. Messenger simgesi sürekli altta açık görünüyordu. Sordum soruşturdum ve gayet kolay bir çözümü olduğunu gördüm. Anlatıyorum sıkı dur:

1) Önce Windows Live Messenger’i açtığın kısayola veya exe dosyasına sağ tıkla “Özellikler”ine gir. İngilizce kullananlar için “Properties”e tıklanmasına

2) Açılan “Özellikler” penceresinden “Uyumluluk” sekmesine tıklanır. İngilizce kullananlarda “Compatibility” olacaktır. Oradan “Uyumluluk modu”, “Windows Vista” olarak ayarlanır. İngilizce kullananlarda “Compatibility Mode”un ayarlanmasına. Ardından “Tamam”a basılır ve bu ayarları değiştirilen kısayoldan Windows Live Messenger açılır. Hadi hayırlı olsun.

The editor of education hub SmartBean recently visited our school to do a piece on our establishment and the work we do – many thanks to SmartBean for a well-written and well-researched article!

Check it out here!

I never thought that the following 6 words would ever be uttered from my lips; can you guess what they are?  It is nothing about my husband (for once) or son (surprise) or even the bitchy PTA women.  The 6 words are (drum roll please)…….6 dogs are too many dogs, to have.

I know you are asking me how the heck did you get 6 dogs?  Well first I had my 3 Pomeranians (Cordy, Piper, Sparky), cute, fluffy and little.  One year my sister asked me to watch her Shiba Inu (Bruno) for her for a couple of weeks while she went on vacation and I said ok.  After realizing that he was going to be better off with me I just kept him.  My sister realized that it was in his best interest and she could be off the hook for that responsibility and didn’t give me any grief over the puppy-napping.

Bruno got along with all the poms and I liked having a slightly bigger dog running around the yard, especially when a coyote went walking down my street one night.  So along we go with my little pack, I feel perfectly content and do not want another dog but BAM!  Life hits and I agree to take on my SIL’s Schipperkee (Pecka) because she has to figure out a new place to live.  Now, I have 5 dogs with the chance that one of them will be going back to her mommy someday, when I receive a phone call from my brother asking me to puppy sit his puppy (an American Eskimo 6 month old named Hobby) for a couple of weeks while his landlord fixes the radiator in his apartment (was told should only be 1 week). 

So now I have 6 dogs running around and it’s kinda fun, except for Hobby not knowing that the outside is for potty not the inside – he gets a bit confused about where to do his business – so I had a lot of business in my house – and he is not small.  After 2 weeks of jumbo absorbent pee-pee pads and steam cleaning my floors twice a day, yesterday my brother came to pick up his puppy and take him home (I breathe a great sigh of relief.)  I don’t expect Pecka to be going home soon but she is a pretty mellow girl and not a big mess maker.

I still love dogs, mostly more than people, but I can never take on that many again.  If you hear me talking crazy, you have my permission to bitch-slap me back to reality.

Peace and Puppy Love

Meriah dan heboh pastinya, yup bener Urban fest tahun ini yang diadakan di Pasar seni ancol banyak menarik perhatian pengunjung ancol. Terutama dari komunitas lowrider itu sendiri, beberapa club lowrider yang datang dari luar daerah pun ambil bagian dalam kesertaan dalan lowrider kontes, diantaranya club Slowly  (semarang) kemudian BLS (Bandung) dan masih ada beberapa dari daerah lain. Untuk Jakarta sendiri diantaranya GPRS Priok, LowBat, SIL, LowTe, dan beberapa club lain. Sunset Rider IKJ sebagai penyelenggara yang di ketuai oleh Gandung mendulang sukses seperti urban fest tahun lalu, GPRS sendiri ikut ambil bagian dalam peserta kontes, kelas kontes yang diikuti antara lain : Kelas Street Custom 20’ oleh Alam dengan konsep “Taxi California” dan eQo, Kelas Radical Custom ada nopi,  Kelas 26’ Custom ada Reynal Bob, Kelas Chopper Andri dengan konsep “Waru” dan konde, di kelas trike adalah kelas yang banyak diikuti oleh club GPRS, ada tiga peserta yang mengikuti diantaranya Farid dengan konsep “Trike From Hell”, Kren dengan trike ban mobil, dan rengga yang bertemakan “Go Green”. Dari sekian banyak kelas yang dikuti oleh GPRS hanya beberapa saja yang terpilih membawa trophy pulang diantaranya nopi mendapat juara II pada kelas radical Custom dan farid yang mendapat 2 trophy untuk juara II kelas trike dan best display.  Yang disayangkan kami tidak terpilih menjadi best club… hehehe. Urban fest 2009 tak hanya habis pada kontes sepeda lowrider ini saja, mengunjungi beberapa sudut pasar seni terdapat keunikan yang bisa di bilang “amazing” , juga panggung panggung yang isi oleh band band yang ditampilkan dari music reggae yang slow hingga music punk dan rap. Radio prambors turut ambil bagian dalam hal ini, acara acara yang ditampilkan memang menarik perhatian seperti ada kampanye anti stereo foam, plastic, dan masih banyak aktifitas yang peduli terhadap lingkungan. IKJ pun tak mau kalah yang menampilkan panggung berupa televisi berukuran besar yang didalamnya terdapat reporter dari pelosok negeri, mulai dari ambon, manado, padang, dan tempat lainnya… seru dan happy yang pasti. Sukses buat Urban fest tahun ini… ditunggu kelanjutannya tahun 2010 nanti… cheers.

Beberapa Dokumentasi dari Urbanfest 2009 bisa di lihat di sini.

Sumber Dokumentasi : GPRS Dokumentasi, Tono SIL (thnxs bro

Ok, I will be the first to admit that not all in laws are bad. In fact, my husbands Dad’s side is pretty amazing. For the most part, his Mom’s side isn’t too bad either. I don’t really know them, so I can’t really say much about them. However, my mother in law and my sister in law… well, let’s just say they suck.

My husband has been seeing through them for years, but has finally started speaking his mind about them since we’ve been married. We cut his mom out of our lives last year when she lied to him about me, and tried her hardest to tear us apart. It didn’t work, he chose to stay with me, and now, according to her, I came between them.

I think it’s funny that she says that because according to my husband, she drove the wedge between them long before I ever even came into the picture. She told her side of the family that we told her that we didn’t want her to come to the wedding, which is complete bullshit. Plus, she has always made it obvious to him that she favored his sister.

Well now, my SIL is acting stupid. Her and i got into an argument over something really petty, and instead of just keeping it between us, she posted in on FB and had all kinds of people flaming me, including her husband,who is supposedly a pastor. I guess what pissed me off more than anything is the fact that she let them do it and never even stood up for me, and she left all the demeaning comments up for everyone to see. That seemed like bullshit to me.

But whatever. Let them say what they want. I told my hubby that I didn’t want to put him into another position where he felt like he had to choose, and he said that he had decided a long time ago that he didn’t need them in his life.

Funny, cause I know that I’ll get blamed for driving yet another wedge between him and his family, yet he hasn’t been able to stand his sister or mother for years. He sees them for what they are. Lying, manipulative, lazy, crazy bitches. All I can say is good riddance to bad rubbish.

So guess what bitches? He chose me. He loves me. He knows who treats him right, and who makes sure he is happy. It isn’t you two. You only look out for yourselves. Neither of you can even raise our own kids. You have to have everyone else do it for you. Stupid stupid bitches.

Here, then, is the crochet I’ve been doing in the last couple of months, since arriving in my new home. It’s nearly all cotton, and all (including the hooks) bought from a little shop in the city that my DH found while we were engaged. I did, in fact, keep one half done project in my luggage the entire journey through four countries and three continents. It’s still in its bag…

Since I wasn’t online for much of the time since we arrived, I don’t have proper details of most of the projects (like hook sizes used or yarn details), but what I do remember is in my Ravelry projects. They are mostly things I felt we needed in the flat. In no particular order…

A sheep’s head for our Rosh Hashana table:

One of several potholders I made, in front of one my SIL made several years ago, that my DH has been using ever since. It’s lovely, but we needed more! Also multiple tea towels (all but one returned to the cupboard after I took the picture) I crocheted hanging loops onto this evening. I don’t like such things falling on the floor.

The edging for a handkerchief I still have to get…

Hm, the next one would be a gift, and seeing as this blog is now copying to my Facebook page, the recipient might see this entry, so I’ll stall for now. Ravelers can see it here.

One of the cottons I got was this pretty variegated red and green, so I decided to play with the basketweave stitch pattern from the dishcloths and make a triangular tichel. It’s between an isosceles and equilateral triangle (ie the sides aren’t straight) in an attempt to reduce bulk, but that still wasn’t enough in this thick a fabric, so I haven’t worn this out of the house (it’s also heavy) yet, but I’ll work something out with it.

Next up are some bits and pieces for the bathroom. First a small pad for applying toner to my face:

Next a washcloth/scrubber (and I promise, those marks on the tiles have been scrubbed at – though not with this!):

And a hanging basket to hold a spare toilet roll without risking it falling anywhere wet. I did most of this in the dark one night when my DH was asleep, but I wasn’t getting so. I didn’t keep the hook with it, and when I went to finish it a day or two later evidently chose a smaller one, which is all to the good, as it pulled the top in, which prevents spillage.

That’s most of the crochet I’ve done since getting married, but there is one more picture I have to show you. This is the first thing I saw out of my window, the first morning we were in America, and is scary, in my opinion. Every single person we met there was lovely, but this was still strange…

Att försvenskningen av Skåneländerna fortfarande pågår är ingen nyhet, men frågan är om inte den svenska skamlösheten har vuxit sig för stor för att få lov till att stå oemotsagd från officiellt danskt håll när tentaklerna når ut över svenskt territorium och in på vad som statsrättsligt fortfarande är dansk jord: Efter påtryckningar från svenskt håll anerkänner den lingvistiska organisationen SIL inte längre den gamla östdanska dialekten “SCANIAN”.

FUEN påtog sig nu i oktober att beskydda “SCANIAN”, och det kan behövas – tungomålet hamnade på UNESCO:s lista över hotade språk tidigare i år, utan att man har försökt uppmärksamma händelsen på seriöst vis i svensk media. Men någon lade märke till det och beslutade sig för att handla:

“Scanian was previously classified as a regional language by SIL International, but before the latest update, the Swedish representative to ISO/TC-37, the technical committee overseeing ISO 639, required that Scanian be removed from the ISO/DIS 639-3, the draft just prior to the final draft FDIS, or a positive vote from Sweden would not be forthcoming. The prior identifier ISO 639-3:scy, as used in the Ethnologue 15th edition, is reserved for Scanian, and may become active again if a request is submitted to have it reinstated during the annual review process. Within the previous SIL International classification of Scanian were the dialects in the province of Scania, some of the southern dialects of Halland (halländska in Swedish), the dialects of Blekinge (blekingska in Swedish) and the dialects of the Danish island of Bornholm (bornholmsk in Danish).” Källa: Wikipedia

En grotesk konsekvens av kohandeln blev att den bornholmska dialekten numera är svensk efter SIL:s definition! Märkligt då att Jens Kofoed, (skånske) Poul Anker, Peder Olesen och vännerna riskerade liv och lem för att kasta ut “sina egna landsmän” från Klippeøen 1658! Svenskarna har ännu inte hämtat sig från den chocken – att skåneländska dialekter talas i två skandinaviska länder vill de inte acceptera.

När Olof Palme i egenskap av Sveriges statsminister gjorde anspråk på Hesselø var han inte fräckare än Karl X Gustav i Taastrup – men danskarna blev rasande. Hur kommer Danmark att reagera på den senaste svenska framstöten?

(Tack till Johan på The Scandinavian Remedy för att han har grävt fram skandalen!)

Uppdatering 17/10 2009:

Danmarks Radio har nu (på undanskymd plats) uppmärksammat historien. Fokus ligger dock på att det skulle vara en obskyr grupp kristna amerikaner som missförstått sammanhanget, när SIL i verkligheten är välrenommerat och samarbetar med EU och UNESCO.

Utdrag från kommentarerna:

“I øvrigt handler hele sagen jo bare om at Sverige ikke vil anerkende Skånelandene som en minoritetsregion i Sverige og at skånelandsk derfor ikke kan være et regionalt sprog. Det er åbenbart blevet lidt for besværligt at sproget tales i en del af Danmark også og så er det jo nemmere bare at hævde at den danske del også er svensk – voila og så er hele Skåneland 100% svensk og har altid været det.”

“Ja da Ole – det var det jeg prøvede at sige – man annekterer et område og gør det svensk, siden nægter man at de nogensinde har været andet end svenske – desværre for dem fik de ikke hele området med, så nu i stedet for at indrømme at Halland, Skåne og Blekinge er noget andet end resten af Sverige, så lader man bare som om Bornholm også er svensk og altid har været det. Det er det man sædvanligvis kalder imperialisme.”

“Jævla svensk højforrædderi!!! ….snaphaner vejrer morgenluft.”

“Altså bare fordi Sverige engang henrettede en masse skåninge fordi de ikke ville være svenskere og de nu pynter henrettelspladsen med store svenske flag og statuer af svenske krigskonger, der gerne ville udrydde Skåne – så er der vel ingen grund til straks at fare op og kalde dem imperialister og neo-nationalister.
Og bare Sverige har en lang tradition for at forsøge at udrydde deres egne minoriteters sprog samtidig med de udadtil anerkender andre landes minoriteter, er der jo ingen grund til at blive så sure og kalde dem hyklere.
Men altså nu hvor de kalder bornholmsk en svensk dialekt, så synes jeg de er uhørt frække!
*stærkt ironisk*”

“Apropos dit indlæg er jeg enig – det er svensk imperialisme, og det er som sådan bekymrende at det ikke påtales fra nogen side. Hvis det var Kina ville EU have boykottet dem for længst, men da Sverige er eminente til at fremstille sig selv som minoriteternes ven og antinationalister, så er der tilsyneladende ingen grund til at rette kritik af Sverige. Desto mere ubehageligt er det at Sverige gang på gang bliver grebet i en mildest talt besynderlig fremfærd overfor deres egen minoriteter: skånelændinge, samere, kvænere, finner etc.”

“Sprogfejden er jo bare sidste del af en lang tradition for at underkende Skåne (og Skåneland) som en region med en lang historie og kultur og et sprog, der ikke har noget med Sverige at gøre – derfor forsøger man ad bagvejen at gøre krev på Skånes sprog og historie – og det inkluderer så pludselig også Bornholm, der dermed også må blive gammelt svensk område. /…/

I realiteten svarer det til at Kina hævdede at nepalesisk altid har været et kinesisk sprog, og såfremt der fandtes et område der aldrig har været annekteret af Kina men talte nepalesisk – ja så kunne Kina også gøre krav på deres sprog som kinesisk. Det er jo en højst besynderlig form for sproghistorisk anakronisme.”

“Jeg bliver ligeså sur på de danske politikere. Hvornår fanden tager de sig sammen og markere klar afstandtagen til Sverige og de mange svenske løgne? Det evigt udemokratiske land lader endda Karl XI, der bedrev folkemord på danskere og pralede af det, danne motiv på deres 500 kroners sedler. Dette uden nogen form for indvending fra dansk side!!!”

ok…so who are they? My better half’s creators. Why I would love my own company?

• Mr Roach is totally besotted by Mrs Roach.
• Mrs Roach is out and out drama queen.
• Mrs Roach still runs to give her son’s chaddi.
• Mrs Roach never experiments with food. Oh! I miss my mom’s food so much. I become a hungry dog when I go there.
• Mrs Roach’s menu has only 5 -6 items (6 years man! no joke). Coconut is her favorite ingredient. While I dislike its presence.
• Sunday’s breakfast item is standard: Puri bhaji. My mother never asks the sunday breakfast.
• Mrs Roach is good friends with “Bai”.  Mrs Roach doesn’t fail to feed her with all daily events. Imagine!!!
• She converses in english at times with my son saying “who is come?” . While you might ask me to calm down but listen!! my husband at the age of 40 calls platform “Flatform”. At first i thought, it was his sense of humor. But NO, it wasn’t. My investigation figured the cause. It is Mrs Roach who says FLATFORM.
• Mrs Roach makes her own theories. Like:

1. Dont give too much of nimbu juice to baby because it is bleaching agent.
2. I heard her advicing JC’s college going son: Apply nimbu juice on the face  and leave it overnite. Pimples will disappear. (Oh JC is my SIL)
3. Son has little fever. Give him little crocin.

• Mrs Roach is besotted by her beautiful creations.
• Of them, JC is the most favorite. Why? because she is a fullto copy of Mrs Roach.
• Mrs Roach’s ideal family: a happy family like K soaps.

I need a break man!!

Hi darl’ins,

Just a quick post on what is happening. I have decided that I will indeed migrate to word press as I find it much more user friendly than my previous blog. Eventually I’ll get around to migrating the old posts to this new blog, whenever I remember and have time to. For alas, sigh sigh, I currently barely even have time to post this little post.

Sil is moving!

Yes that’s right, for those that do know me to some extent, I’ve already mentioned this more than once. I am in fact moving homes, further from school/work but it should be worth it. It’s a much better house with much better… everything? So, it’s very exciting! Except for the moving your stuff over thing, that is tedious. Thankfully the previous owner and the landlady has allowed us to move things in before we move in so we (my house mates and I) have basically been stuffing things in our cars and moving them over. The heavy stuff we’ve hired one of those moving trucks to do it for us of course.

The sad thing is… I won’t have internet for over a week as it takes time to transfer the old connection to the new house and get everything set up. Sad, but bearable. Thankfully, it’s really only just a week so I won’t miss much.

In other news, I’m almost ready to publish the first chapter in a story that I’ve been writing… surprise? I shan’t say too much but I will definitely place the link here. I’ve also been toying with the idea of a romance story…

Basically a girl’s mother just recently died (and she’s pretty messed up), she never knew her mother as her father got custody of her when her parents divorced. Her mother, asides from a few random letters, never really showed up in her life. She’s now 19, at the funeral and the wake afterwards, she meets an older woman (close to her mother’s age) and she gets curious and asks her who she was? Turns out, her mother was having a lesbian relationship. Of course, at first she just walks away from that woman, after all she has enough to deal with. Later on she gets more and more curious about who exactly her mother was, she recently inherited a bunch of journals that her mother kept. She finds that woman again (working on that…) and the woman does indeed agree to talk about her mother, roll in the flash back chapters. Meanwhile, when she isn’t visiting the woman she finds herself almost living her mother’s life, she starts seeing coincidences or similarities in her life with her mothers (some imagined, some really just coincidences) and she meets another woman around her age, in much the same circumstances as her mother.

What do you think? It’ll be a stretch and quite a challenge to write about a grieving and possibly not as stable girl, that’s for sure!

Anyway, thanks for still reading (if you are).

Love,
Sil

Sa scapi de kilogramele in plus nu e nici usor si nici confortabil.

Ai nevoie de vointa, dedicatie, putere si nu in ultimul rand de informatii. Trebuie sa fii mereu la curent cu noutatile in domeniul nutritiei si sa iti croiesti o dieta adaptata nevoilor corpului tau – de aceea este bine ca inainte sa te apuci de un regim sa iti faci un set complex de analize si sa consulti un doctor care te poate indruma in directia potrivita.

Sfaturi La Mignonne:

1. Renunta la mancare de tip fast-food – este nesanatoasa si iti aduce un aport caloric insemnat;

2. Incearca sa elimini carnea rosie din dieta ta – incearca sa o inlocuiesti cu peste si carne de pui;

3. Este de preferat sa consumi carnea la gratar sau fiarta;

4. Acorda o atentie deosebita dimensiunilor portiilor. Este indicat ca farfuria sa nu fie foarte mare si sa nu iti pui de doua ori, chiar daca a fost delicios.

5. Daca intre mese ti se face foame, mananca un fruct sau bea un pahar mare de apa si rezista tentatiilor gen covrigei, chipsuri, batoane de ciocolata, biscuiti, cornuri cu ciocolata, etc. Sunt bombe calorice care nu vor face decat sa te incurce in planul tau de a ajunge la greutatea dorita. Un fruct iti ofera mult mai multe beneficii: vitamine, energie si un aport caloric scazut;

6. Bauturile carbogazoase sunt prieteni falsi – contin foarte mult zahar si ne cresc apetitul pentru dulciuri. Daca pofta pentru ceva acidulat este foate mare, iti recomandam sa inlocuiesti sucurile acidulate cu apa minerala – este o alegere mult mai inspirata;

7. Incearca sa iei cina cu cel putin 4 ore inainte de culcare astfel incat sa oferi organismului tau timpul necesar sa digere si sa nu ii dai de lucru pentru toata noaptea. Este un sfat bun si pentru un somn sanatos si odihnitor, care sa iti ofere energia necesara pentru o noua zi plina;

8. Daca te numeri printre persoanele care nu pot trece peste zi fara sa guste ceva dulce, La Mignonne iti recomanda sa ai in permanenta la indemana esenta de vanilie, cea care taie instantaneu pofta de dulciuri.

9. Nu uita ca orice dieta devine mai eficienta daca o insotim si de miscare. Gaseste sportul potrivit personalitatii tale, care sa iti faca placere si exerseaza de 3 ori pe saptamana, iar rezultatele nu se vor lasa asteptate.

10. Propune-ti la inceputul dietei numarul de kilograme la care vrei sa ajungi si recompenseaza-te pentru fiecare mica victorie in drumul tau catre greutatea ideala. Greutatea ideala este cea la care te simti bine, frumoasa si sanatoasa.

Restul depinde numai de tine!

La Plataforma Universitària pel Català ha editat un guia sobre les llengües a la Universitat Pompeu Fabra amb la col·laboració de UPF i el suport del Comissionat per a Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Innovació, Universitats i Empresa de la Generalitat de Catalunya que té com a objectiu donar una informació específica sobre la realitat lingüística de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra de forma amena i objectiva. Aquesta guia està dirigida als estudiants, especialment als de nou accés als estudis de grau. El tiratge és de 3000 exemplars i la seva distribució s’intensificarà aquests dies coincidint amb el període d’inici de classes. A més també està disponible per Internet, a la pàgina www.puc.cat/guia en format PDF i previsualització SlideShare.

Sota el títol “La realitat multilingüe de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra i la llengua catalana” la guia vol fer conèixer la realitat sociolingüística i el marc regulador de les llengües de la UPF. La guia a més vol servir com a presentació a tota la comunitat universitària de la PUC i, al mateix temps, oferir-los serveis com el SIL.

D’aquesta manera la PUC pretén complementar la informació sobre llengües de que disposen els estudiants, sovint molt genèrica. Per aquest motiu la guia s’ha fet molt focalitzada en l’àmbit universitari de la UPF. S’analitzen en profunditat reglaments específics de la UPF com ara el Pla d’Acció pel Multilingüisme i l’Acord de la Junta de Govern de 8 de març del 2000 de Regulació i foment de l’ús del català a la Universitat Pompeu Fabra, sempre emfatitzant en els efectes pel dia a dia dels estudiants.

Com a estudiants que volem viure a la Universitat en català, tenim uns drets lingüístics. Si tu també vols viure plenament en català a la universitat, deixa’ns que te’ls expliquem!

Tenim drets lingüístics, i te’ls volem explicar per tal que els puguis exercir.

• Descarregueu la versió en PDF.
  

Amb el suport:

Something else I discovered from my visit with SIL this past weekend is that after dating for 4 months, New Boyfriend and her are looking for a flat together.  I realise that anything I say to her about this is going to end up sounding jealous or bitter, and I seriously doubt that at this point she would listen to me anyway, but I don’t think this is a good idea at all…  The most obvious reason to be concerned is that in the 4 and a half years I’ve been in Cape Town, this will be the third boyfriend she’s moving in with.  But this is not actually the main reason why I want to tell her not to do this, not yet.  Moving in with your partner completely changes the dynamics of your relationship, and looking back now, I wish I had left things the way they were before S and I moved in together.

For the first year of our relationship, he lived in Piketberg, 130kms away from me, so obviously we would only see each other on the weekends.  At the time I thought it was a nightmare and was so happy when I could see him every day, but looking back, some of my happiest memories of us are from that time in the beginning.  Thursday evenings were spent analysing the weekend weather and trying to decide what to pack.  Friday mornings I would wake up extra early to have enough time to get ready – I had to make sure I looked fabulous!  Friday afternoons dragged by so slowly until it was finally time to leave.  I had to time my trips very carefully – if I took too long he would worry that something had happened, but if I was too quick I would get into trouble for being reckless.  Turning the corner and seeing him waiting for me on the pavement outside their house was the best sight in the world, stepping out of the car into his arms was the best feeling in the world.  One weekend I told him I wouldn’t be able to come through for whatever reason and hatched this elaborate plan with his family to surprise him.  He was sulking and in a foul mood because I wasn’t coming through, and to add insult to injury they told him some guy kept knocking on the door asking for donations and wasn’t taking no for an answer.  So when I knocked I heard him stomping down the passage, ready to give the collector a piece of his mind (and possibly a piece of his fist as well).  The look on his face when he opened the door to see me standing there is something I’ll never forget.  Surprise, disbelief, joy and I think a bit of disappointment as well.  It’s just not a look you’ll see every day.

Because we had so little time together, we couldn’t bear to be apart for 1 second.  We would practically camp outside the bathroom if the other one needed to go!  We would only go to sleep when we honestly couldn’t keep our eyes open for another second, because sleep was such a waste of precious time.  If S woke up in the middle of the night to find I had moved away from him in my sleep, he would pull me closer – as I said, we could not bear to be apart at all.  Leaving on a Sunday was absolute agony, but somehow during the week the agony transformed to excitement, and then the cycle started again.

That all changed when we moved in together.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sorry we started living together, but the fact is that a relationship becomes a lot more settled, “ordinary” even when you’re living together.  A lot of the passion fades as you become more and more comfortable with each other.  Again, I don’t think this is a bad thing, it’s the natural progression of a relationship.  It doesn’t seem as necessary to be in physical contact every moment you are together, because you know they will still be there tomorrow and the next day.  And be honest, no matter how much you love someone, dealing with things like dirty dishes and washing takes the glamour out of any relationship.  I’m glad we were there for a year, but knowing what I do now, I would have kept it up for a lot longer.  Obviously SIL and NB are in this for the long haul (I hope) and it seems so sad to me to give up those exciting beginning times after just 4 months, which is a drop in the ocean compared to what lies ahead, as you won’t ever get them back.  A different kind of passion perhaps, but not the same.

If you had the chance, are there any aspects of your relationship you would choose to handle differently?

Dear SIL

On Saturday I saw you for the first time in over 3 months.  Since I was in your area I thought I’d make a plan to visit, something that you clearly don’t think is important.

I was really saddened by how much things between us have changed.  We’ve been friends since we were 18 and for the first time I found you to be cagey and distant with me.  New Boyfriend tagged along, of course, and I even felt like the spare wheel, which was really not cool, considering the fact that I was making an effort to visit you.

We’ve all had a rough year and it has taken its toll on our friendship.  Or perhaps the problem is that the common denominator in 7 years has gone and we no longer have such strong ties to each other.  I’ve thought about it a lot since Saturday and I realised that I just can’t relate to you or your family the way I used to, and you are all behaving in ways that I don’t want to be involved in.

Do warning bells not start ringing when your parents suggest that you rent a 2 bedroom flat that you can’t afford just so that they have free accommodation when they come to Cape Town?  Do you not find it strange that last year at the same time they couldn’t get time off or have enough money to come to my and their son’s wedding, but this year they are coming for a month and a half and will help you to pay for this flat you can’t afford for the duration of your lease?  You know as well as I do that they do not keep their promises, and it makes me so angry that at 26 years old you will go along with a plan like that, instead of telling them to piss off.

I no longer feel comfortable with a family asking their daughter to consult her psychic or angel communicator or whatever she’s called, just because they are having nightmares about their son’s death and want to know what it means.  And I don’t feel comfortable with the fact that you don’t see anything wrong with this.  If it hasn’t helped you deal with what happened in the past 6 months, it’s certainly not going to help now.  I also find it very strange that none of you have ever bothered to find out what happened to his ashes.  For all you know I could have flushed them down the toilet.

I spent the whole visit telling you what I’ve been up to in the past 3 months, and all you could manage was “work is kak”.  If that truly sums up the time since I last saw you, I feel very sorry for you, but what I suspect is more likely is that you no longer want to tell me what’s going on in your life.  That’s ok as well, if that’s how you choose to take the friendship forward.  And you may have thought it was funny to offer me a cigarette right after I’ve told you that I’m heading for 2 months without a smoke, but I thought it was cruel and unnecessary and not what I would have expected from you.

I want you to know that you will always be my friend.  I will always love you and remember the awesome times we’ve had together.  But right now, for the first time in years, I’m taking care of myself first.  I’m surrounding myself with people who make me feel good and contribute positively to my life.  I’ll always be here for you if you need me, but don’t be surprised if it’s another 3 months until I see you again.  I’m ok with that, and that also says a lot about where we are right now…

I have just returned from Pretoria where I spent the day helping a group of church leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo learn either Zulu or Tswana on the streets. There was one person from Congo-Brazzaville and another from Cameroon. So my language learners were all French-speaking. I teach a self-directed approach to language learning which implies that learners usually need a so-called bridge language, i.e. if you want to learn Zulu you need another language that both you and your Zulu-speaking language helper can understand.

Thus my French-speaking language learners had a challenge. Most of them can’t really speak English and only one or two out of the eighteen are fairly fluent in English. Also, in the four or five years I have been teaching this course at Missions Exposure and Training, I have never encountered a French-speaking Zulu or Tswana person in the inner-city of Pretoria.

So here’s what we did: I made sure that all of them could at least greet in English which was not a problem at all. I then asked if they were comfortable asking the following question in English: “Could you help me to greet in Zulu/Tswana please?” They were happy with that and then added that they would form small groups around those in their midst who could speak some English.

We were ready to hit the streets. Their assignment was to obtain a simple greeting in either Zulu or Tswana. They had to ask anybody on the street to write them a simple dialogue they could use in most communication situations. They also had to make a recording of two native speakers reading the dialogue if possible.

The results were phenomenal. The language learners were far from perfect but within about 3 hours they went from knowing nothing about Zulu or Tswana to practicing a simple greeting with real speakers on the streets. Bear in mind that they had the added obstacle of not being able to communicate in English with their language helpers.

After some feedback and reflection we went out into the streets again, this time requesting people to repeat the greetings dialogue a few times. First the learners had to simply listen without repeating after their helpers. Then they had to listen and repeat, asking the speakers of the language to correct their pronunciation.

It was amazing to witness the learners’ excitement grow as they returned after each session. One of them remarked “If we continue these exercises we will learn the language in 2 or 3 weeks!” During their third practicum they had to see how many people they could greet within 30 minutes.

At first glance this might appear to be an unintelligent parrot-style type of learning that doesn’t allow the learner to think and adapt his/her speaking. This is however just one of many different language-learning techniques to be found in the LinguaLinks Library, developed by SIL International (formerly known as Summer Institute of Linguistics).

The aim of this technique, known as the dialogue technique, is to get a language learner talking with real people. Not only is it a great confidence booster, but here’s the real benefit: It sets you up for further learning because it connects you to speakers of the language. Watch this space for more about relationships and language learning in the near future.

In future posts I will also explore other techniques, some of which are geared towards more “intelligent” language learning if you want to put it that way. My next post will be about TPR, Total Physical Response, which is what we did in today’s afternoon session. TPR is a very poweful technique and one of my personal favourites.

You might have wondered how I taught this course to a group of French-speaking people. I was able to conduct some of the course in French but yes, I did have an interpreter. I love working through an interpreter because that way I also get to improve my French!

To book a Vulavula Language Encounter, please have a look at my contact page. Also have a look at the Vulavula Language Learning Group on Facebook for upcoming events. Please feel free to post any questions about language learning in the comments below.

My mother and I spoke yesterday. I called her twice on Saturday but she never answered. On Sunday I had work to do so I was putting off calling her again until it was done, but she beat me to it. Our conversation was basic, just about my borhters and sister and the other grandchildren that she has. Basic. I am betting that we will never talk about her pending divorce or her behavior that has stunned and dissapointed me. My sister-in-law wrote both me and my husband on Friday night telling us the story again (although this time it was just a little more embellished….her syntax more than anything. She doesn’t seem to understand that synonyms don’t always exactly mean the same thing. “Steal” does not exaclty mean “take” and you can’t always interchange them. But she swears that she isn’t lying; that she never lies, blah, blah, blah. I don’t think she is lying, or better said, I don’t think she think she is lying. She is a bit crazy, everyone I know who knows her would attest to that. What is even more crazy is that my mother believes her. How many times has my SIL embellished things my own mother has said? Like her claims that my mother told her she needed to be placed in an institution (when my mother told her she needed to get some help and therapy)?

Maybe my mother needs some therapy. She wrote to her husband that my SIL “has never once said anything unkind” about him, which is a total lie. The whole fiasco at my own wedding brought out some of her worst tongue lashes against my stepfather to my own best friend. It is all just so strange. I remember the aftermath of my wedding well. I can see my mother with tears running down her face as she asks my brother why he believes his wife over the five other witnesses to the event. And I can see my stepfather roaming the strange town looking for my SIL who had stomped off in the middle of the night with her 6 year old daughter in tow, not knowing the town or the language spoken.

But what does it matter? I can go on and on. And I do in my head and with my husband, but it is all to no aveil. Apparently everyone believes my SIL because they want to. I refuse to talk about it any more with her as it has now just become gossip. I told my stepfather I couldn’t talk about it anymore with him either because we were getting to the point of crossing the line into bashing my SIL instead of just talking. We know just talk about things unrelated to the divorce.

It is unfortunate because I think my mother is making a mistake. The same mistake that many women and men make these days because they don’t see marriage as something to fight for. Instead it is something that they are allowed to throw away once they get hurt or someone does something they don’t like and society backs them up. “You don’t need to put up with that” we all say. “You deserve better.”

But the truth is that people are just people and they make mistakes. We all hurt the ones we love the most at some point in our lives. When it happens we can only hope that those loved ones will accept out apology and our actions of love to make up for the hurt. Of course there certainly are times when divorce is necessary. I know that. It was necessary with my mother’s second husband. He was unwilling to change, unwilling to be nice to anyone of us, unwilling to stop seeing other women and unwilling to recognize the hurt that he was causing. And there are other reasons for divorce….but I don’t see this as one of them.

I can’t say for certain that neither my husband nor I will hurt each other in the long course of our marriage. Stastics say one of us will hurt the other pretty badly to the point of giving us a 50% of getting divorced in the future. What I hope is that we are not stupid and bull-headed to keep from trying again. What I hope is that we will look back on the good times, the happy times, the love that we have shared and work together to get that back. I can only hope that my husband (if he hurts me) is ardent enough in his love for me to be willing to stick around for any length of time to show me how truely sorry he is and how he wants to work it out. I can only hope that he stands outside for twenty minutes begging me to come talk to him. And I can only hope that I will not be stubborn enough to refuse.

This is all good for one thing at least: an education for me on how not to be in my marriage. It has honestly brought my husband and I closer together. It has made me look deeper into myself and see what I possibly need to change about my character that is the same as my mother. My husband has been a great encourager and pillar of strength through all of this and I am sure will continue to be so as I try to rebuild my trust and respect in my mother. Again. Whew. Here we go….

Here are sections of two interviews with Nabil Shaban, Sil from ‘Vengeance on Varos’ and ‘Mindwarp’. The first part is ‘Doctor Who’-focused, and you can read the original here. The second part is from a Channel 4 documentary in which he talks about, among other things, his reasons for becoming an actor and his experience working with Derek Jarman.

“Ron Jones was searching for someone small to play Sil… he’d interviewed and auditioned many ‘dwarf” and ‘midget’ actors for the part but he wasn’t satisfied with any of them. Time was running out and rehearsals were scheduled to start within the month. Then Martin Jarvis, who had already been cast as the Governor of Varos asked if Sil had been found yet, and when he was told No, he said he knew of the ideal person. Apparently his wife had seen me in a TV show a few years previous, and reminded Martin that I could be what ‘Doctor Who’ was looking for. So as a result of Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis’ suggestion, I was invited to read a couple of scenes of Varos at an audition with Ron. At the end of the interview / audition, Ron offered me the part outright. However, I nearly didn’t make it to the interview because I got stopped by a traffic cop for carrying out an illegal motoring manouver, and because I insisted on arguing with the pug when I had no right to – I knew I was in the wrong but I don’t respect the law and I despise the pigs. He very near arrested me. However, I like to think that the ghost of William Hartnell was looking after me, as I was his biggest fan, and he planted a thought-form into the ‘Rozer’s brain and so I was allowed to continue.

“As a fan of ‘Doctor Who’ since its birth in 1963, I was extremely excited and nervous on the first day. By chance, I got into the lift with Patrick Troughton. Of course he had no idea who I was or what I was doing at the BBC, and I didn’t tell him. We just smiled at each other. I took teh coincidental encounter as a good omen. Because I was an inexperienced, untrained actor and disabled, I didn’t want to appear a dud, so I learnt all my lines before the first day. I assumed all the actors would have done anyway, well I then became embarrassed when I discovered I was the only actor to know the script word-perfect, so for the first few days I had to pretend not to know my lines, but Forbes Collins and Colin Baker saw through my ruse and Colin Baker announced that I was a swot and trying to win Brownie points from the teacher! Also, by the first day I had the Sil laugh off to a tee. I’m met a snake the week previous, and got my inspiration from watching it flick its tongue back and forth.

“I took up acting for several reasons. One, I wasn’t supposed to act. As a disabled person, it wasn’t expected of you, the best you could hope for was to be an accountant. Secondly, it’s a great form of escapism, being something that you’re not in your normal life. I’ve had the chance to playAyatollah Khameni, Haile Selassie, Jesus, Hamlet – a whole range of experiences which you wouldn’t normally be able to have. And thirdly, I like story-telling and being part of the story-telling process.

“I was able to get started as a professional actor as a result of setting up a theatre company for disabled actors. It was myself and an able-bodied guy named Richard Tomlinson set this up, round about 1979. It got going in 1980, we toured the States for a bit, went to Canada, and made a bit of a name for ourselves. We got press attention in Britain and attracted the attention of the Arena arts documentary makers at the BBC, and a combination of touring Canada and the Arena documentary allowed me to get seen. As a result, I was offered a few weeks’ stint as an actor on stage.

“The theatre I’ve done, I’ve enjoyed them for different reasons, so I wouldn’t say I enjoyed Jesus in ‘Godspell’ or Hamlet more, because they all enabled me to discover something in myself. I think it’s very hard for disabled actors and performes to get work, there’s still a lot of cliches within the arts industries and people tend to think of… for example, you get very few disabled people in leading roles, unless the script actually says ‘This person is disabled’, then they might get the role. I say ‘might’, because they might prefer to get an able-bodied person to ‘black up’, so to speak, and have that role. But generally because our culture’s very body-fascist, you’ve got to be beautiful, you’ve got to have a nicely-formed body, as a man or a woman, if you’re going to play a romantic lead, for example.

“In the case of ‘Wittgenstein’, it’s possible that Derek Jarman thought of me because we’d met before, when he was making ‘Caravaggio’. He was a very easy-going person, very open to suggestions, so I actually found it a joy working with him and it’s a great tragedy (that he died), there’s no-one to replace him.

“As a disabled person, there’s a lot to be achieved through the arts. Writing, acting, performing, it’s all about presenting mirrors of society, and the trouble for disabled people is that the mirror is one-sided, in other words we’re like vampires, the vampire’s not reflected in a mirror, and 99% of the time disabled people are not reflected in the mirrors that are presented to the people. And that’s perhaps one of the most important reasons for me being an actor”.

David Guetta release his new album called “One love”, the material was released on 26th August and was made with Kelly Rowland , Estelle, Akon, Chris Willis & many more, “One love” can be found here

Sil(Sylver) performed this week on “Hit the road”, the new single “Love don’t come easy”, soon for this single Sil will do and a video.

EMA 2010. Here you can vote for the best Danish artist at EMA 2010. Aqua or Infernal ? The choice is yours… (Karine Sanche)

Maria Lisa is nowadays a member of the band Soul Addiction. You can listen to a cover of Gnarls Barkleyss they recorded(Karine Sanche)

Jalan-jalan Malam minggu telah menjadi tradisi bagi kami anak2 lowrider priok, apalagi malam mingguannya di Taman menteng wah seru banget, ditemani juga oleh komunitas dari daerah atau team yang berbeda tetapi satu tujuan (jiaaaah ribet bener ngomongnye hehehe) diantaranya : Sunset Rider (yang punya taman menteng ni hehehe), Lowbat (Lowrider Batavia), Lowte (Lowrider Tebet), dan ada jg yang jauh2 dari selatan saat itu yaitu SIL (Sweet Iron Lowrider). biasanya sih nongkrong ampe bedug subuh ketemu pagi trus mejeng deh di HI, tapi melem minggu kemarin cuma nongkrong2 biasa aja sambil ngobrol2.  tapi ada yang berbeda kali ini kami bertemu dengan anak2 lighting graffiti mereka sedang membuat liputan tentang lighting graffiti untuk tayang di stasiun TV Belanda beruntung dari salah satu sepeda kami ikut masuk dalam liputan tersebut, sepeda andri dan beberapa sepeda teman2 yang lain ikut dalam dalam pembuatan lighting graffiti, sekilas tentang anak2 “I Light This” adalah komunitas graffiti (hobi corat coret) tetapi media yang digunakan berbeda dari yang biasanya adalah sejenis kembang api dan diberi waktu +- 30detik untuk mengambil image berupa foto, jadi saat foto tersebut diambil dalam waktu yang ditentukan itu yang tersisa hanyalah  corat-coretannya dengan kembang api tersebut, satuhal yang bisa gw bilang untuk komunitas ini “Keren banget bro..” coz gw saat itu gak bisa ikut menyaksikan secara langsung hanya dapet cerita dari anak2 dan kiriman foto melalui email…

Note: Dokumentasi dari anak2 “I Light This”, dan beberapa foto diambil dari dokumentasi “Iko S.I.L”

Courtesy : eQo & Andri – Priok