On Books

Should  illustrations be limited to books for children?  Most people think so but  not Rebecca Dautremer (Gap, France, 1972), illustrator  and considered to be a "best seller"  for the number of sales generated  in her country, and author of books for all ages  specially for those who shun the childish books perhaps pretentious of their imaginative skills.

Rebecca is in Madrid for the Book Fair to present her recent book "Alice in Wonderland" that calls  attention for its illustrations, tact and even smell.

For this author, an image not only changes but also enhances the vision of the text.  It makes the reader see  from another perspective.

Source:  El Mundo

Lucía González | Madrid

31 of May, 2011

Orchids of Ron & Bea

This is a picture of Ron's Phalaenopsis which at first he was going to throw away because it  seemed to be dying, but look how it is now, worthy to be displayed in an ad.

Fiestas in May

In Spain as well as in the Philippines, May is a festive month and  in the town where I live, our fiestas started with fireworks last Friday.  We have all sorts of rides and also some small shops around.

Traditionally, fiestas were held to honor a saint, but nowadays, they seem to be observed  as an occasion  for the teens to gather and drink leaving their  signatures in  trash and others that cannot be  mentioned.

 

But in the Philippines, in Gumaca,  one of the oldest towns in the country, the  Baluarte Festival, probably one of the merriest and grandest fiestas in honor of St. Isidore, the people celebrate to show their gratitude for the bounty of the land by building big bamboo arches called "baluarte" a bastion decorated  with chandeliers made of bamboo, to display  their own harvests and other embellishments, called araña.

This is the araña

Display in  Baluarte

Embellishments

The festivities start Saturday night with the “Gimikan” and “Yubakan,” a competition among barangays on the best yubak and street dance. A traditional Gumaca delicacy, yubak is made of cassava or a certain type of banana "saba" mashed with coconut, peanut butter, sugar and milk.  Guests move from one baluarte to another to taste the yubak and see the youth perform their dance moves, with everything including the chairs and sound system mobile so the party hops from one baluarte to another. 

And contrary to Spain,  amid all the festivities,  among the people of Gumaca  their genuine effort to honor their patron saint, as well as their pride in the harvest and bounty of their land still remain.

Excerpts from the report by: Kelly Austria

Philippine Daily Inquirer 10:58 pm | Saturday, May 21st, 2011

Parque Europa

Parque Europa  lodges one of  the biggest areas of greens and recreation in   Torrejon de Ardoz. It extends over a surface of 233,000 m2, and has the reproduction of the most emblematic monuments of the main European cities as well as   different forms of recreation (with picnic grounds)  and multi-adventure areas, including small parks for dogs dividing the area between small ones and big ones, and best of all, it has a cybernetics fountain which is unique in all Europe, where every week-end at 11:00 pm they present a show of water, light and sound.

Last night, Ron and me marvelled in watching the show, which is free and so is the entrance to the park.  It is a place that the residents of Torrejon de Ardoz can be proud of and  is an excellent achievement of  their city mayor, Pedro Roldan who in the latest elections renewed his post with majority votes.

The 17 monuments that can be seen in the park are as follows:

Muro de Berlín-                     Wall of Berlin 
Puerta de Brandenburgo-  Gate of Berlin
Teatro Griego-                       Greek theater
Plaza de España  -               Spanish Plaza

La Sirenita-                             Mermaid in Copenhagen
Barco Vikingo-                      Viking Boat from Sweden
Fontana de Trevi-                 Italian Fountain of Trevi
David de Miguel Ángel-       Florence David of Michelangelo
Torre Eiffel-                            Eiffel Tower in France

Manneken Pis-                      Little Man Pee of Brussels
Plaza de Europa-                  European Plaza
Atomium-                                Expo 1958 Brussels
Puerta de Alcalá-                  Gate Entrance in Madrid
Torre de Belém-                    Belem Tower Portugal
Puente de Londres-             London Tower, UK
Puente de Van Gogh-          Bridge of Van Gogh (First Painting) France
Molinos Holandeses-          Holland's windmills


It was a gratifying experience and I promise to visit it again during the day.

Not without my dog

This is an advertisement published  in 1939 for  a British  railway to encourage pet  owners to  travel by train  accompanied by their pets.  However after several years, travelling in Spain with your best friend continues to be a problem.

All in all including rural houses and campings, the number of    establishments now add up to 8,200 according to Maria Azcargota, manager of  Affinity Pet Care,   whose main aim is to promote the integration of animals in society. However, she claims that Spain is still far behind France or Germany.

 
The first Travel Guide with  Animals for Company, was published with the idea that dogs were abandoned in summer when  their owners had to go on vacation.  But then statistics showed that the most common reasons were the lack of interest for the puppy  or economic and behavioral  problems.

As obtained from the  same source, hotels are not just admitting them, but more so they are providing more services which include walking them, veterinaries or "dogsitters" after all, they charge  an average amount between 10 to 30 Euros per day for the stay of the dog.

These days, hotels and restaurants are now offering chairs specially designed for dogs, non-alcoholic beer that tastes like bone, or beds with canopy.

Source: Blog of Patricia Gosálvez in El País, May 27, 2011.