What does inspire you this photo ? Sent me your caption and check for the result next Wednesday. It's so much fun to read what you write ! Thanks
THANKS my friends for sending me your captions. This week i chose SHERIF DESOKI's caption.
"Hey guys over there, pay attention, I' m going to play now . Show some interest."
Why did i choose this one ? Because it fits Lilou's personality perfectly, she could have said this to me. Have a look at her head's position, in non verbal language it means she is asking for some attention !
Thanks to each of you for your participation.
Good morning my child, I am God. Today I will be handling all of your problems. Please remember that I do not need your help.
If life happens to deliver a situation to you that you cannot handle, do not attempt to resolve it. Kindly put it in the SFGTD (something for God to do) box. All situations will be resolved, but in My time, not yours.
Once the matter is placed into the box, do not hold onto it by worrying about it. Instead, focus on all the wonderful things that are present in your life now.
If you find yourself stuck in traffic; Don't despair. There are people in this world for whom driving is an unheard of privilege.
Should you have a bad day at work; Think of the man who has been out of work for years.
Should you despair over a relationship gone bad; Think of the person who has never known what it's like to love and be loved in return.
Should you grieve the passing of another weekend; Think of the woman in dire straits, working twelve hours a day, seven days a week to feed her children.
Should your car break down, leaving you miles away from assistance; Think of the paraplegic who would love the opportunity to take that walk.
Should you notice a new gray hair in the mirror; Think of the cancer patient in chemo who wishes she had hair to examine.
Should you find yourself at a loss and pondering what is life all about, asking what is my purpose? Be thankful. There are those who didn't live long enough to get the opportunity.
Should you find yourself the victim of other people's bitterness, ignorance, smallness or insecurities; Remember, things could be worse. You could be one of them!
Should you decide to send this to a friend; Thank you, you may have touched their life in ways you will never know!
~ Author Unknown ~
http://www.motivateus.com/stories/wwudo.htm
Definition of the words in bold from : http://www.learnersdictionary.com/
Grieved; griev·ing
1 [+ obj] : to cause (someone) to feel sad or unhappy
▪ It grieves me to see my brother struggling like this. ▪ Her decision to live overseas grieved her mother.
2 : to feel or show grief or sadness [no obj]
▪ People need time to grieve after the death of a family member. ▪ The children are still grieving for their mother. = The children are grieving over their mother's death. ▪ a grieving widow [+ obj] ▪ The children are still grieving the death of their mother
Pon·der - pɑ:ndɚ/ verb
pon·ders; pon·dered; pon·der·ing
: to think about or consider (something) carefully [+ obj]
▪ He pondered the question before he answered. ▪ The team pondered their chances of success. ▪ We pondered whether we could afford the trip. [no obj] — + on, over, or about ▪ She paused to ponder on the situation. ▪ We pondered over/about what to do.
Bit·ter - ˈbɪtɚ/ adjective
1 : having a strong and often unpleasant flavor that is the opposite of sweet
▪ Cocoa beans have a bitter flavor. ▪ The medicine had a bitter aftertaste.
2 : causing painful emotions
▪ bitter disappointments ▪ a bitter defeat : felt or experienced in a strong and unpleasant way ▪ We were struck by the bitter irony of the situation. ◊A bitter pill or a bitter pill to swallow is something that is difficult or painful to accept.
▪ The defeat was a bitter pill for the team to swallow.
3 : angry and unhappy because of unfair treatment
▪ His betrayal had made her bitter. ▪ She was still bitter toward her ex-husband. ▪ He's the bitterest man I know.
4 : feeling or showing a lot of hatred or anger
▪ bitter enemies ▪ a bitter argument ▪ a bitter reply
5 : very cold
▪ a bitter wind ▪ bitter cold
to/until the bitter end
: until the end of something that may be very bad, unpleasant, etc.
▪ I knew she would stand by me to the bitter end. ▪ He vowed that he would keep fighting until the bitter end.
— bit·ter·ly adverb
▪ We were bitterly disappointed. ▪ He complained bitterly about the crowds. ▪ bitterly cold
— bit·ter·ness noun [noncount]
I never heard this song before you posted it here, but i love it. It puts sunshine in the heart and in the house ! So here is my contribution to the "let's sing together" contest. What a great idea Greg had.
As you feast on your Iftar, i wish you all the joys a life can bring to share with your loved ones.
Manuela
Let me know the caption this photo inspires you. The best caption will be known next week, same day.
This week, the winning catpion is :
"Please come out Mommy. We promise not to drive your crazy anymore."
It really made me laugh, Thanks to Tara
Two days ago, my dear friend Selma invited me to join the karaoke group. She asked me, not only to join the group, but also to be ACTIVE there. At first, i laught because i never thought i would sing for a public, but as i promised her to try, i checked for a song and gave it a try. I was far to think i would enjoy this so much, i really had fun singing again. It was like i was a teenager again, just singing for the pleasure, not thining about anything else than the song. I invite you to try and i hope you will enjoy it as much as i did.
Dear Selma thank so much for pushing me to sing again. Now i am feeling like a bird which won't stop to sing anymore. I also wish to thank my twin Nafis for sending me the vocaroo link to make this possible.
What we can say about Elizabeth of England is that she has behind her a very long career. She became queen when she was only 25 years old and has just reached the ripe old age of eighty-five. So, sixty years on the throne of England, how much does it pay ? Before reading, have a seat or you might fall down !!! 51,000 dollars a day, yes, that’s exactely what she gets !
Each year, the Queen has an endowment of twelve million nine hundred thousand dollars or fifty-one thousand dollars per day. Her son, Prince Charles, receives twice as much as his mother which means twenty six million per year or 104,000 dollars a day.
Compared to Elisabeth’s salary, our “poor” belgian king Albert’s II dotation is only of $ 8.6 million. This amount has been set for the duration of the reign of our sovereign, but is readjusted every 3 years to ensure maintenance of his purchasing power.
This money is intended to assume all expenses related to his royal function: personnel costs, which gobble up more than 66% of the budget, his activities and his official visits (5.5%), and the maintenance of the royal residences (12.5%), heating, water and electricity,...costs,
Endowment
[count noun] an income or form of property given or bequeathed to someone.
Bequeath ( verb with object)
Leave (property) to a person or other beneficiary by a will
Duration
The time during which something continues:
Bicycle hire for the duration of your holiday
A flight of over eight hours' duration
To gooble
[with object] (often gobble something up)
Eat (something) hurriedly and noisily: he gobbled up the rest of his sandwich
Use a large amount of (something) very quickly:these old houses just gobble up money
Discussion Question:
What’s your opinion ? Do to you think that queens and kings (as presidents) from all over the world should be given so much money by our governements, to live on and to maintain their purchassing power ?
Isn’t inappropriated when thinking about all those in the wolrd who live below the poverty line ?
1. How long has Elisabeth II been queen of the UK ?
2. Compared to the "salary" of his mother how much does Prince
Charles receive ?
3. What’s suppose to be the use of the money king Albert II
receive ?
Definitions from Oxford dictionary
This sign was hanging on a lemmon tree in the garden of a 5* hotel in Turkey. I found it so strange that i took this picture.
What would you think the best caption would be for this picture ? Let me know .
Achan Malaka won the award for the best caption for this photo.
Hey..the sign is wrong..my fruits are sweet ;)
Doesn’t medicine go too far by giving birth to foetus weighting only 500 grams ?
According to belgian gynecologists weight does not matter as much as the fetus (foetus) number of weeks. A little baby girl weighting 460 grams was born at 25 weeks and was kept alive for 7 months in a special premature unit in a belgian hospital.Today, at 7 months, she weighs 4.2 kg and measures 54 centimeters. Since yesterday and though she still have many health problems, she sleeps in her own bed in her parent’s home.
Jana, that’s her name, is still very fragile and according to the doctors, it’s only when she will be 3 years old that she should be healthier. Till then, that little cute will have to fight to have a ”normal” baby life; she will have to go through eyes and heart surgeries without being assured that everyting will be fine for her in the futur. At 25 weeks, a baby has 50% of chance to survie and the chance not to have “side-effects” are pretty much the same. In that matter, medicine advances are huge, but still that, in this survival, between 15 and 25 % of the babies will have sensorineural and mental problems.
Discussion Question:
What’s your opinion about doctors trying to keep alive foetus, weighting less than 500 grams, thought they know those little angels will have to go through many pain and health problems ? Should we keep these babies alive by all means ?
Comprehension questions
1. Where did Jana live the first seven months of her life ?
2. When does her health should be better ?
3. How old was the baby when the could finally leave the hospital ?
Do you remember, Tara wrote a post about William and Kate's wedding which took place in London more than a month ago and asked you your thoughts about it.
Today, i 'm going to talk about the second "Prince" wedding of the year, the one that took place 2 days ago in the Principality of Monaco.
First, let me tell you a few things about this tiny and very rich country.
The Principality, which is a small "city-state" of about 2 square kilometers, sits along the Mediterranean sea on the French Riviera and is surrounded on 3 sides by France. It's population is close to 40.000 people, most of them are rich foreigners (only about 800 Monaco natives).
Monaco is governed under a form of constitutional monarchy with Prince Albert II as head of State. The House of Grimaldi has ruled Monaco for more than 8OO years.
To many people, Monaco looks like a fairyland for adults, amazing and luxurious 5 stars hotels among them, the famous "Hotel de Paris", 3 "Michelin stars" restaurants, a casino where millions of dollars are played every week, a little harbor where the most expensive yacht are moored and " boutiques de luxe" as, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels for jewelry, Dior, Chanel, Giorgio Armani or Valentino for "haute couture" are at every corner of the very few streets.
So, did you get the picture ?
Needless to say that, as for the british wedding, any royalties were present on the "Rock of Monaco" for that big day. I am a dreamer, so i watched the wedding and i was not disappointed. The sun was shining on the blue sea, thousand of little "red and white" (colors of Monaco) flags fluttered in the wind and smiles were on every faces. The fairy tale could start !
I found Charlene's dress so beautiful in its simplicity. I really liked it better than Kate's. Prince Albert was also very handsome in his white uniform, they both were a perfect fit. Ce ceremony was held in the courtyard of the castle, in front of a majestic white marble staircase decorated with white flowers. All around them sat their families and royal guests, most of them dressed in beautiful outfits and hats. It was a real rainbow of colors.
Though it was a prince's wedding, to my pleasure, i found it very simple, without that stiff english protocol we saw for Kate and William's wedding.
So, to make it shorter, i spend 2 wonderful hours watching that program on television.
For you girls ! Here are some data about the wedding dress. They didn't talk about the price... but that's another story isn't ?
WEDDING DRESS
Giorgio Armani Privé wedding dress with a flowing line, in off-white silk duchesse, with a long train. Crossover detail on the front and back forming a second "à l'andrienne" train. Ramage embroidery depicting flowers, crafted with stones in gold shades, and Swarovski crystals and mother of pearl teardrops in white and gold hues, embellish the front of the dress, the trim and the central main section of the train.
Long veil made from off-white silk tulle, with front tier and subtle embroidery.
UNIQUE FEATURES
2,500 hours of work
40,000 Swarovski crystals
20,000 mother of pearl teardrops
30,000 stones in gold shades
3,000 kilometres of travel for fittings in Montecarlo
700 hours of work for the embroidery
"kilometres" of embroidery thread coated in platinum
50 meters of silk duchesse
80 meters of silk organza
for the veil: 20 meters of silk tulle, 100 hours of work for the embroidery
I don't remember where I found those details about the dress, but they must be everywhere on the net.
The pictures i download up here are from
Photos: Paris Match and AFP Getty imagesWHERE THERE IS LOVE, THERE IS LIFE...
Very often, it's in the difficulties of life that people can express their love for other in many different little ways.
A few weeks ago, i received this letter in my mailbox, i read it and was completely moved by the words that were written there. All those victims lost everything, but they are still caring and sharing the very little they can find. What a great lesson of love.
First I want to thank you so very much for your concern for me. I am very touched. I also wish to apologize for a generic message to you all. But it seems the best way at the moment to get my message to you.
Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.
During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.
Utterly amazingly where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."
Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often.
We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet come on. But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do not. No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.
There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses a mess in some places, yet then a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs. All happening at the same time.
Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains are Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.
And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.
They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes, for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls, shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, so far this area is better off than others. Last night my friend's husband came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.
Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don't. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent.
Thank you again for your care and Love of me,
With Love in return, to you all,
Samantha Roddick
Tonight, on the TV news i heard a topic i wish to debate here with you.
Have you ever heard about Rozita Iza? Rozita is a young Argentinian cow, which once adult will produce milk with similar caracteristics to woman milk. This is at least the ambition of scientists from Argentina and China.
The idea of the scientists is to improve the milk produced by cows that has deficiencies for humans. They, therefore, introduced into the genome of Rosita 2 genes, important for human nutrition. Two proteins, held in human milk, the "lactoferrin" which brings iron to our body, but whiwh is also a powerful antiviral and "lizozime" that protects us from bacteria.
In China, scientists announced they had already cloned 300 cows and their milk may already be sold in supermarkets,in 10 years.
According to the producers this milk is delicious and sweeter but has a stronger taste than woman's milk. Scientists think it might be a good substitute for milk powder gave to nourrisons.
In Europe, the sound is quite different, the scientific community remains sceptical and cow's "humanized" milk seems to give european scientists some ethical problems
Now, my opinion is that, as far as searchers are sure of the good quality of the milk and that it would not arm babies, i am wondering why there should be problems ? So many premature babies who needs human's milk,but can't have it because of different reasons would take great profits if they could be fed with a milk that has the same qualities than mother's milk.
So, where would be the problem ?
I would be very happy to hear your opinion about this. Would you agree with the european searchers or rather with the Chinese and Argentinians ?
In the last few years, economy in Belqium has badly declined. In Wallonia, steel companies went out of business, as in Flanders, those making cars, as Ford, laid off a large number of their employees. In both cases, those companies were the pride of Belgium.
The minimum rate wages before income is about 1250 euros per month. To answer Expector's question, the average taxes rate is around 43% but it can go up to 70% ( for people who make A LOT of money) Most of us work the 6 first month of the year for the State !!!
In 2003, unemployment rate was 7.20 %, unfortunately, nowadays, it went up to 11.50 %.
In Belgium, people who loose their job get money from the State until they find a new job. That means that, a high percentage of people don't even try to find something anymore. The first year, they receive about 80% of their last salary and after being unemployed for 1 year, those who live with their family get around 300 euros per month, and those who live alone receive a bit more than 800 euros, and this, as long as they don't have a job. I know a man who took advantage of this system for more than 25 years !!!
As you can guess, 800 euros is far to be enough to live on in a country as Belgium, that's why many people work under the table and this bad system makes the deficit of our economy worst. It's a vicious circle!!!
None of our ministers want to change this as it would be a very anti-social low and all our politicians want, is to be popular for the elections . Isn't the same everywhere in the world ?
The average rental of a 2 bedrooms house goes, depending on where it is located, bewteen 600 and 1200 euros per month. For a flat from 450 up to 1000 euros or more if you wish to live in Brussels.
Belgium is said to have a very good social system. For exemple, when we need to see the family doctor, we can call him and he will come in our home for a visit which will cost 33 euros. 2/3 of that amound will be paied by the State. If we prefer to visit him at his office we will pay 24 euros and will get around 19 euros back for the State. Many basic important drugs are payed, for a part, by the State, those for high blood pressure, heart illnesses and diabetes.
When going to the hospital for surgery, we pay most part of the bill if we are in a private room, but if we stay in a room with 3 other people, we will hardly pay nothing.
Education, which is obligatory between the age of 6 and 18 years old, is said to be free and most part of it is financed by one of our 3 communities (dutch, french and german). But it still cost us around 200 euros per child in primary school, around 300 euros (depending of the school) for teenagers in high school and for those who go to university or college, tuition fees are between 100 and 600 euros per year depending on the income of the student's family. At this sum, once has to add the price of all the books and material once need when going to school.
Ohh, what i wrote tonight was not so much fun, but i tried to explain you why so many people think our country is a little social paradise. I hope i've not bothered you:))
Next : belgian food specialities and places where to go
For those who want to read the first part, go to :http://my.englishclub.com/profiles/blogs/my-complex-tiny-country
Photos of Belgium's capital : Brussels.
Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium is situated in Western Europe, between Germany,
the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and the North sea. It covers a area of about 30 500
square kilometers and has a population of about 11.000 000 inhabitants.
In my coutnry there are two main languages, in the northern part, people speak Flemish, in the
south we speak French. In addition, we also have a tiny little part just at the South East of Wallonia
where inhabitants speak German.
The capital of the country, but also of the European Union is Brussels. An officially bilingual (French-
Flemish) city but where most people speak french.
Since a few decades, your country is market by conflics between our two biggest communities,
Flemings ( in blue here on the map) and Francophones ( the beige part). The little purple area is the part of the country where people speak German.
Nowadays, as Flanders became economically more prosperous than Wallonia, some flemish politicians want to split Belgium in 2 parts wich i believe most inhabitants don’t want.
Belgium is known as a country of compromises as it has a very complex policy. King Albert II is at the head of the state but the real leaders of the country are the politicians. We have 4 governments, the Federal one, plus one for each region. It means 60 ministers, more than China or Canada !!! Can you imagine what a problem when they all have to agree on something !!! Not only that, but as they all (+ their employees) get a lavish salary it's not surprising that Belgium is one of the european country where taxes are the highest !!!
To be continue...
That's the question i asked myself for more than 2 months after i found out that my laptop was ready to give up. I know nothing about technic and i understand computer language as well as i understand chinese language. So my decision really depended on the arguments people around gave me. My son was one of them, i have to say he really made the difference in my decision.I always had a PC and, and though i am not a computer freak, i could manage to work on without having too many problems. The good anti-virus i had on could escape all the attacks but sometimes my PC was slow and with time, i had more and more problems that i was not able to solve.
Many of my friends had a Mac and they were all fan of it, not thinking for a minute to buy a PC again in the future. I was used to PC and i hesitated so much because i would have to start all over again, thinking that maybe i wouldn't make it! But my friends were making fun of me because one of their arguments was that it's much easier to use a Mac than a PC .
Many times i visited a computer shop, talking with the seller about the good and the bad of both computers. The bad was that all with Mac is more expensive.
But, the final argument that made me decide to go for a Mac was that the big advantage of owning a Mac is that far fewer malicious programs are written to attack the Mac. So it is said to be much safer than a PC. Another thing is that Mac also have some incredible Apple applications as Garageband which is all you can dream of if you like to work with music and videos. For graphics it also seems much better but if you like games (i don't) a Pc is more indicated.
So now i am sitting in front of my new Macbook Pro having head aches trying to learn all the applications which are new for me, making mistakes, trying again, giving up and coming back 10 minutes later because i can't quit before i understand how it works.
This afternoon i tried to listen to my friend Selma's post, but of course, it didn't work ! Why ? I will try to find out tomorrow :)) Now i am fed up :)) Yes, up to now, PC was easier for me...
According to the Cambridge dictionnary a "metaphor" is : Definition
an expression which describes a person or object in a literary way by referring to something that is considered to have similar characteristics to the person or object you are trying to describe.
Metaphors help us to express our understanding of the world around us. They add colour, vivid imagery and perhaps emotion to a sentence.
Here are sompe exemples :
My friend gave me the green light to head to his home.
Don't go on that side of the city, it's a grey area.
My family gave me a hand to move out
My father saw red when i told him i was going out with my friends.
Children often fight like cats and dogs.
Life is a long scary roller coaster.
The sky was dark and angry.
My legs turned to water and I couldn't move.
Most politicians are like sly foxes
She gave me an icy look .
I have always been an early bird, i like to do things in the morning.
Can you find more of them ???
Hello friends,
Since i arrived in Turkey a few days ago, it's impossible for me to open my hotmail emails box. Of course, you can imagine the problems it gives me. I am just wondering if it's an international problem or, if this is just located to the country i am in now. I have tried to open it in various ways, but it's no use, i can reach it and each time i try, i receive the same message :
"Oops! Internet Explorer could not find by163w.bay163.mail.live.com"
But even through live.com, it doesn't help. What should i do ? Does anyone here could help me ? I am not an internet/computer expert and this problem is really a pain the neck !
Would be really happy to have your advices here. Thanks a million times
Manuela