Wednesday, December 27, 2006

The gym is a serious business!


Hello everyone and don't worry I will have some pictures and more blog entries later on this week. Well maybe next week, but sometime soon.

I have been having this Gym issue for the longest of time and as a good Taurus, it takes me a little time to get my thoughts together as to not offend anyone. This posting is to vent and inform.

I go to a Gym, name withheld , and I am amazed at the things that I am a witness to. I think that people believe that because they pay for a membership they have the right to own the place, to be rude and to not clean after themselves. Some people actually have a routine and God forbid that you interrupt the routine because you happened to be there a little early that day. Please choose a comfortable and clean outfit for the gym and for Pete's sake leave something to the imagination, sometimes your clothes are just too innapropriate.

Now I have what I believe is important do s and don't s for the Gym.


1. Don't spend more than 30 minutes at the cardio machines, specially when other people are waiting.

2. Don't throw your clothes on the floor, you know, close to the equipment or machine you will be working on. Do you know how many germs are on the floor? If you do, don't wipe your face with that!

3. When you get done using a machine clean your sweat off the machine.

4. When someone says no I don't want to work out with you, don't take it personal. If you asked then be prepared to hear an answer that you may not like. Don't be a bully! BUllies get memberships cancelled.

5. There is such a thing as innappropriate Gym attire. I.E. if part of your genitals is hanging out, your gym shorts are too short; If your genitals are screaming let me out, your outfit is too tight.

I find that men are more at fault with this than women. In all my years of going to a gym I have seen one woman whose outfit was not appropriate, yet it was not offensive. Your outfit needs to be cleaned after every gym use. I am amazed at people that come with smelly clothes to do their workouts.

You need to wear underwear under your gym attire. If you bend over and I see where your lower back changes name, it is too small for you. If you squat and things fall out you need athletic type underwear. Don't burn your bra just yet, consider the options when you are working out. If you take your time, maybe do some research or ask a trainer, you may get the appropriate gym wear that fits and covers you better. Maybe even enhance your gym performance. Inappropriate gymwear does not help you at all.

6. It is perfectly ok to say Excuse Me, Pardon Me, may I get by you. I find that so many people get so entranced in the music they are listening to, that they forget there are other people around them. I don't get bother by the music, but I do get bothered by people that choose to be inpolite.

7. Don't put your things in a locker without a lock. I have seen so many people that have their stuff stolen, because they leave stuff in an unlocked locker. Think no one will like to steal your old sweater? Think again.

8. You are going to encounter sweat in a gym, deal with it. Don't get yourself all perfumed up and then go to the gym, it does not smell very nice.

9. Please don't come to the gym smelling like cigarettes, it is repulsive, and it is as bad as having someone in a treadmill beside you ,who has bad breath, giving you each of their exhaling stenching breaths your way.

10. Urinals are not for trash or gum. Have a little bit of consideration for those people that come after you and those that clean after you. If you want to get rid of your gum use a trash bin.

11. Basic hygiene, wash your hands after going to the bathroom, cover your mouth when you sneeze. Have a handkerchief handy when you sneeze, don't cover your mouth with your bare hand, then grab the equipment. Basic Stuff!

When you go to the gym and you don't bring a towel to clean your sweat off, you are being inconsiderate toward others. The least you can do is get a handful of paper towels and wipe out the equipment after you use it.

Well enough for today, just wanted to get that off my chest.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas 06


Here I finished my Santa's hat and my scarf. I get a lot of compliments on my hat and scarf making. I will be having more pictures and more things to say later on this week.

My tree is finally up and lit and just below you will see other decorations that I was working on. I was able to finish two beautiful Christmas Stockings in time and hung them on the fireplace.


Here is another picture of the tree as I was finishing it up. and following you will find the MEME from
http://bamboohooking.blogspot.com/ aka Jaye aka "Adventures of Crochet Hookery"


If you wish to participate in this MEME, the considered yourself tagged if you leave a comment. Sneaky I know, but I will leave it up to you to join in the fun. I decided to do this MEME because it allow me to share something with you and to think. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your reading!


Attach a photo of one of your current holiday displays:

1. Egg Nog, Mulled Cider, or Hot Chocolate?

First choice Hot chocolate, Second choice Mulled Cider , third choice Egg Nog or Coquito.

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just set t
hem under the tree?

Secret Santa paper stock. They are beautifully wrapped!

3. Do you decorate the outside of your home with lights? Any other displays?

No outside decorations. Wreath at Front Door.

4. Poinsettias, Holly or Mistletoe?

Poinsettias, when I was a kid we had a big shrub in front of the house, I love these flowers...


5. When do you put up your decorations?

I prefer to put them After Thanksgiving, the day after..

6. Do you prefer to give or receive?

There is equal joy in the exchange, If receiving I like gift Cards!

7. Cut tree, live tree, artificial tree, or Festivus pole?

Artificial. I go over board with decorations sometimes. Real tree's are a fire hazard. If it was not because of the fire Hazard I would not mind a real tree.

8. Have you ever made a gingerbread house?

No!

9. Do you display a nativity scene?

Not every Year!

10.When did you learn the truth about Santa?

What truth?

11. Snow! Love it or dread it?

As long as I don't have to shovel the snow I am fine with it.

12. Can you ice skate?

Yeah!

13. Do you open your gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning?

Some years I wait until a minute past Midnight and Open one Gift on Christmas Day, then go to sleep!

14. What is the most important thing about the holidays for you?

To have a good time and to celebrate Life!

15. What is your favorite holiday cookie?

Coconut Maccaroons!

16. What tops your tree?

I like an Angel or a Star. This year I have a shiny ornament that resembles a star!

17. What is your favorite Christmas song?

I love instrumental Clasical Christmas music, some ethnic Spanish Villancicos, In modern usage, villancico is the Spanish word for Christmas carol.

18. What is your favorite Christmas movie or story?

It's a Wonderful Life, Polar Express, A lot of the COmedy Santa Movies, anything that gives hope and makes you believe in the magic of Christmas.


19. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? If Yum, how do you eat them?

Chocolate covered Candy Canes are a posibility, but after one I had enough.

20. Do you send Christmas cards? If yes, do you enclose a letter or picture?

I send cards almost every year. If you are in my naughty list, you will get a card written with coal LOL!

21. What kind of lights do you decorate your Christmas tree with? White lights, or another solid color, multi colored, candles, or a novelty light such as bubble lights?

The tree this year has red lights. I really won't know until I decide what theme will the tree have.

22. Favorite Christmas memory as a child?

It was always about opening presents, my parents were great providers of presents. We had presents on the 25th od December and then on the 6th of January, the Epiphany .
23. Best present that you have received?

I could not honestly tell you. Every gift is special to me . I like them all. I guess since I never expect gifts from anyone, each is special. The least I expect is a Card or a Merry Christmas with something to eat! LOL! I always give myself one gift , I do wrap it and put it under the tree. That's the one that really counts in my book. Anything else is trully a blessing to receive a gift from someone.

24. Turkey, Ham, Seafood, or Soup for your holiday dinner?

Breakfast is usually
Panettone with some strong coffee. Lunch and Dinner is followed with Baked Ham, Arroz con Gandules(Rice with Pigeon Peas), sometimes Pasteles and if I have time I do a lot of ethnic puertorrican cuisine that's typical for the holidays.
25. Describe your favorite Christmas ornament.

I will have to say techi ornaments with lights and voices. If it is not a techi one it would be glass spheres. It is also nice to make your own ornaments from natural recycleable materials.

Friday, December 15, 2006

London 2006 Part Four, The end


Our fourth and last day was exceptional, but we had to pick were we wanted to go. We slept late, so we got up late. Across the street from the hotel is a Donut-Coffee shop. We have gone there the day before and had a nice Latte with a Ham and Cheese Croissant-Sandwich. So here we were again for another round at a local coffee shop.

Amazingly that day, we saw something we thought was embarassing to say the least. An american was being rude to a Money Exchange Teller, because he did not want to be charged to buy dollars. To make a long story short what a scene. For Americans to travel to England is not cheap, the dollar was at an old time low almost 50 cents it's value against the English Pound. Imagine to travel across the World, all this way, from United States of America to be so rude, and a jerk, it takes a lack of class, what a waste of airplane space. We decided to go to the coffee shop ahead of schedule and then come back. The Tellerwent out of his way, to give us the change we wanted, even though he had just experienced the other american side of our Nation. We wanted coins, and we wanted 20 pence coins for the public toilets.

The streets were decorated very nicely, I wish my camera had a better disposition, it was being temperamental with the moisture I believe. As we moved down Regent street we decided to go by the famous Carnaby Street .


Carnaby Street is a street in London, in the district of Soho, near Oxford Street, and just to the east of Regent Street. It is named after Karnaby House, a large building located to its east which was erected in 1683. It is not known why the house was so called. The street was probably laid out in 1685 or 1686 and first appears in the ratebooks in 1687. It was almost completely built up by 1690 with small houses.

Carnaby Street was made popular by followers of the Mod style in the 1960s, and became closely associated with the Swinging Sixties, when many independent music shops, fashion boutiques, and designers such as Mary Quant were located there.

Today, Carnaby Street is more mainstream, being mostly chain stores and restaurants, with few independent outlets, and is popular with young shoppers and tourists. Carnaby Street was also the address of high-profile fashion retailer boo.com from 1999 until its bankruptcy in May 2000.

Nearby places of interest include Broadwick Street, where you can see a replica of the water pump that John Snow famously sealed up to stop an outbreak of cholera in 1854; the toy shop Hamleys and the rest of Regent Street; and Golden Square just to the south, which during the summer is crammed with office workers trying to catch the sun.

The street and the area surrounding it are partly pedestrianised. I can tell you that there was not enough time for shopping, yet we were able to get some wonderful pashmina scarfs.

From here we kept walking until we got to the British Museum. The British Museum in London is one of the world's largest and most important museums of human history and culture. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects from all continents, illustrate and document the story of human culture from its beginning to the present. As with all other national museums and art galleries in Britain, the Museum charges no admission fee, although charges are levied for some temporary special exhibitions.

It was established in 1753 and was based largely on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. Its expansion over the following two and a half centuries has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the British Museum (Natural History) in South Kensington in 1887. Until 1997, when the British Library opened to the public, the British Museum was unique in that it housed both a national museum of antiquities and a national library in the same building. Its present chairman is Sir John Boyd and its director is Neil MacGregor.

In the time that we spent at the Museum we were able to see just part of it. We knew which parts we were going to explore first , just in case we were too tired. Nevertheless were tired, we rested 10 to 15 minutes, then continued our journey through the museum.


The have a wonderful Egyptian Collection that I am only able to share some pictures of.







Here are some artifacts from the Middle East, Mesopotamia.




This that you can see is part of the most famous discovery on the world.

The Rosetta Stone is a Ptolemaic era stele inscribed with the same passage of writi

ng in two Egyptian language scripts and in classical Greek. It was created in 196 BC, discovered by the French in 1799 at Rosetta, and translated in 1822 by Frenchman Jean-François Champollion. Comparative translation of the stone assisted in understanding many previously undecipherable examples of hieroglyphic writing. The text of the Rosetta Stone is a decree from Ptolemy V, describing the repealing of various taxes and instructi

ons to erect statues in temples.

The Stone is 114.4 centimeters high at its tallest point, 72.3 centimeters wide, and 27.9

centimeters thick (45.04 in. high, 28.5 in. wide, 10.9 in. thick).

Weighing approximately 760 kg (1,676 pounds), it was originally thought to be granite or basalt but is currently described as granodiorite and is dark grey-pinkish in color.

The Stone has been kept at the British Museum in London since 1802.





We also saw some of the greek artifacts, ruins, vases, statues, so much to see and little time, so we had to pick our sites well. There were the ruins of a complete temple that was astonishing to see. Just imaging being in the presence of structures of so long ago. I was very honored to be in the presence of such displays of art.





Sutton Hoo, (grid reference TM288487) near Woodbridge, Suffolk, is an Anglo-Saxon cemetery and the site of an early 7th century ship burial. The ship-burial was discovered in 1939 and contained a wealth of artifacts. Sutton Hoo is of primary importance to early medieval historians because it sheds light on a period in English history that otherwise has little documented evidence remaining - it has been called "page one of English history". It is one of the most remarkable archaeological finds in England because of its age, size, far reaching connections, completeness, beauty, rarity and historical importance.



We ended the journey at the Museum gift shop. There were a lot of nice souveniers to bring home, including some nice Global DVD's that we were able to enjoy once we were home. You have to be careful when yo buy your DVDs, because if the dvd is not in the NTSC format, you will not be able to watch them on your DVD or your computer, it is the format for North America..

After having a lite lunch at the Museum, we decided to take the train to the London Bridge. London Bridge is a bridge in London, England over the River Thames, between the City of London and Southwark. It is between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge; it also forms the western end of the Pool of London. London's original bridge made this one of the most famous bridge emplacements in the world. It was the only bridge over the Thames in London until Westminster Bridge was opened in 1750.



So we walked across the Thames down one

bridge and across the other. and we saw the Tower of London. It was closed, but it was just fun to be there.

The Tower of London is a dominating landmark in central London—in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets— on the eastern border of the City of London, beside the northern bank of the River Thames.

It is often identified with the White Tower, the original stark, square fortress built by William the Conqueror in 1078. However, the Tower as a whole is a complex of several buildings set

within the outer defensive walls and moat.

The Tower's primary function was as a fortress, a royal palace and a prison (particularly for high status and royal prisoners (such as the Princes in the Tower and the future Queen Elizabeth I). This last use has led to the phrase "sent to the Tower" meaning "imprisoned". It has also served as a place of execution and torture, an armoury, a treasury, a zoo, a mint, a public records office, and an observatory.

So here you got Mike at the bridge, as we were walking back by the New London Bridge, I had to have some of those hot peanuts with toffee that they were selling on almost every corner.

I will tell you that everywhere you go in London is a historic site. Imaging thousands of years of history in every corner. My experience in London was very nice. I believe London is a great place

to live with a very high standard of living.

A british lady friend of mine asked me what did I disliked from my trip. I honestly did not have any complaints, but the fact that I needed more time and more money to stay there. London was a great experience and the people are very nice. It is definitely a place to go back

and visit. The subway system is extraordinary and the amount of people that come in and out of it in such an orderly way, that you don't realize the amount of people it moves in a day. In all the time we were in London we never had the need to ake a taxi or a bus.

The London Underground is an all electric railway system that covers much of the conurbation of Greater London and some neighbouring areas. It is the world's oldest underground system, and is the largest in terms of route length. Service began on 10 January 1863 on the Metropolitan Railway; most of that initial route is now part of the Hammersmith & City Line. Despite its name, about 55% of the network is above ground. Popular local names include the Underground and, more colloquially, the Tube, in reference to the cylindrical shape of the system's deep-bore tunnels.

The Underground currently serves 274 stations and runs over 408 km (253 miles) of lines.[1] There are also a number of former stations and tunnels that are now closed. In 2004–2005, total passenger journeys reached a record number of of 976 million, an average of 2.67 million per day.

Since 2003, the Underground has been part of Transport for London (TfL), which also administers Greater London's buses, including the famous red double-deckers, and carries out numerous other transport-related functions in the region; as London Underground Limited it was previously a subsidiary of London Regional Transport, a statutory corporation.

Very cosmopolitan city with many cultures that mingle nicely. I want to thank you for your attention and for stopping by. This concludes my trip to London. I have fulfilled one of my life's dreams. Now let's go back to some crochet and kniting.

Friday, December 08, 2006

London 2006 Part Three


This is the longest day in our trip. It is also the day we get to get up very early. It is not fun to get up this early, but the day is full of exciting adventures. From the hotel we were driven to Victoria Coach Station where our tour will be departing from.

The Bus was big, but no bathrooms on these buses. Talking about bathrooms, in London , theyare properly called toilets, and they all seem to be at the basement level almost everywhere we went.

Here you will find that Michael ushers you toward Windsor Castle. The British Royal Family is not present at this time.


Our guide told us that when the Royal Family is in the Castle there is a special flag that flies and alerts the Tour Guides of their presence.

We have not gotten to the main Castle yet, but inside the Castle we saw a collection of personal photographs from the Queen's family and some drawings from the personal collections of the royal family, from Da Vinci and Michael Angelo. Now that to me was worth the trip, to see the hand drawings of Da Vinci and Michael Angelo in person, gave us lots of satisfaction.

The palace is magnificent. I have never been in a real palace, but it is how I imagine a palace was. The King had his own room and his own dressing room, he also had his own walking closet, and let me tell you, he must have had a lot of clothes. The furniture was vert elaborate, maybe to much gold color for my liking, but it was the fashion of the times. The were paintings, drawaing, statues, armors, weapons, china, clocks, thrones, carpets, and so on and so on. I do not have space in this blog to express to you all the wonders I saw. I was very fortunate to experience this wonderful place
The day was cold , but a little cloudy and when it was time to leave, it started to rain like crazy. I was glad I brought my umbrella.

All of us made it back to the Bus and were on our way toward Stonehenge our next stop before Lunch..

Stonehenge is a Neolithic and Bronze Age megalithic monument located near Amesbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about 8 miles (13 km) north of Salisbury. By the time we arrived to Stonhenge the rain had stopped. We had a premium view of the ruins, we walked to about less than 20 meters from stones and close enough to touch one that is there to be touched by everyone.


This picture of Mike and I has been fixed , Photoshoped, as we did not get to take our picture together throughtouot our tour. We had a very delightful time. This area was very green and at some areas you see these mounds or tumulus or barrows of earth that are the resting places of some very old bones. A tumulus (plural tumuli or tumuluses) is a mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves. Tumuli are also known as barrows, burial mounds or kurgans and can be found throughout much of the world. A tumulus composed largely or entirely of stones is usually referred to as a cairn. A very cool giftshop, too bad they did not have an international Stonehenge DVD, pnly PAL format.

So back into the bus we go, all of us if you don't mind. This place is very far from civilization, you really don't want to be left out there, specially if you have not eaten. So here we go toward the Town of Bath to see the Roman baths. But before we go to the Center of Bath, we will stop at St. George's Inn for a well deserved meal.

The St. Geroge was my first visit to a village eating establishment and it was very interesting. The food was different, they have vegetables to be shared. They are served on the table . I don't remeber what I ordered for lunch, but I remembered dessert, it was Apple Crumble.

A crumble is a dish of British origin containing stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat (usually butter), flour, and sugar. The crumble is baked in an oven until the topping is crisp. It is often served with custard, cream or ice cream as a hearty, warm dessert after a meal. It was delicious, with a cup of coffee. So after we paid for our meal, we all departed toward the tour of the town of Bath.

Here you have a picture of the Avon River and this bridge where they have built shops on top of the bridge.


The guide decided to give us a driving through tour in the bus, as we were not sure if it was going to rain or not. At the end it was not raining , but we had more time to window shop or just plain shop. Dozens and Dozens of shops in this city. The smell of Hot chocolate and freshly baked bread also filled the air. There were not very good sales you know!

The Roman Baths are a place of historical interest in the English city of Bath. The city of Bath is a very nice place to go, and I would recommend the tour to everyone.

Roman Baths, that will conclude with a champagne toast.We, the people in my tour, were to gather outside the Baths at 5:55 PM for a private tour of the At 5:55 the doors close to the general public and reopened for our private tour.



During the private tour we were taken to these ruins, there were plenty of other artifacts that we were shown. We were also shown a model of what this place may have looked like almost 2000 years ago. There were torches lit and at the end of the walking tour of the roman baths we had a champagne toast.

This concluded our night and we were driven toward London, and left at the Gloucester Station where we took the train Home. That night we had dinner in a very nice Indian Restaurant. Thanks for stopping by and return for the last part of this trip which is the last day we spent in London.


The company we used for the tour was http://www.premiumtours.co.uk/ I recommend this company with all my heart.

Friday, December 01, 2006

London 2006 Part Two


The next day was not a bad day at all. Even if it was a business trip for my partner, we were able to do some sightseeing. Believe it or not, this is a statue to Florence Nightingale, we found this on our way to the Waterloo train station. The day was a little misty, but no heavy rain so far. There were steps and historic buildings along the way. There is not enough space here to tell it all, but a sinapse of what we saw.





During our walk towards the Train station we saw one of the oldest parks in London, St. James Park. St. James's Park is one of the Royal Parks of London in the City of Westminster, London, just east of Buckingham Palace and west of Whitehall and Downing Street. The St James's area, including St. James's Palace, is just to the north. It is 23 hectares (58 acres) in size.

It is bounded by The Mall to the north, Horse Guards to the east, and Birdcage Walk to the south. The park has a small lake, St James's Park Lake, with two islands, Duck Island (named for the lake's collection of waterfowl) and West Island. A bridge across the lake affords a westward view of Buckingham Palace framed by trees and fountains and a view of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, similarly framed, to the east.

The Park is the easternmost of an almost continuous chain of parks that also comprises (moving westward) Green Park, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. The closest tube stations are St. James's Park, Victoria and Westminster.

From the park we were able to see the Parliament Building where Big Ben is housed. Sightseeing while going to work . The parliament is bicameral, with an upper house, the House of Lords, and a lower house, the House of Commons. The House of Lords includes two different types of members: the Lords Spiritual (the senior bishops of the Church of England) and the Lords Temporal (members of the Peerage); its members are not elected by the population at large. The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber. The two Houses meet in separate chambers in the Palace of Westminster (commonly known as the "Houses of Parliament"), in the City of Westminster in London. By constitutional convention, all government ministers, including the Prime Minister, are members of the House of Commons or House of Lords.

Finally after crossing some bridges, which London has many, we arrived to Waterloo Train Station. London Waterloo is a major railway station and transport interchange complex in London, England. It is located in the London Borough of Lambeth, near to the South Bank. The complex comprises four linked railway stations and a bus station. The whole complex is within Travelcard Zone 1.

This Station is wonderful and has many shops for your eating and shopping pleasure, even a Krispy Kreme.

We went to the town of West Byfleet where we had lunch with a business associate and after two or three hours of a nice leisure business meeting we took the train back to London.

On our way back we got lost and we saw the four faces of Big Ben. Finally we decided to look for Trafalgar square which we knew was south of our Hotel. Once we found Trfalgar we headed toward Picadilly square and our hotel room.



That night with took the train toward the London Eye.
The British Airways London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel, opened in 1999 and is the largest observation wheel in the world (a type of Ferris wheel). It stands 135 metres (443 feet) high on the western end of Jubilee Gardens, on the South Bank of the River Thames in Lambeth, London, England, between Westminster and Hungerford Bridges (Coordinates: 51°30′12″N, 00°07′11″W). The wheel is adjacent to London's County Hall, and stands opposite the offices of the Ministry of Defence. The Eye is officially the world's most popular tourist attraction, more popular than the Statue of Liberty, Torre pendente di Pisa and the Eiffel Tower.[1]


The view at night
from The London Eye is spectacular and something that everyone who goes to London should experience as you will see the city from a Bird's Eye point of view.

The ride is about 30 minutes , but you will not forget London. It would be nice to take a day trip as well. There was no waiting in line.

After that we went to one of London's many Indian restaurants and had a great meal. I love Indian food and this place was spectacular, right near our hotel. SO far I can tell you that England is a great place to live and that the Britania have a lot to offer to the tourist and to the people that called it home. "God Save the Queen!"

Thanks for stopping by and there will be more to come.

Almost two years without blogging August 2020

Life can be a bowl of strawberries when cheries are not available.   It has been almost two years since I have been in this blog.  I have s...