Global Express - February 24th, 2012

Global Express - February 24th, 2012

Hello Everyone …. so nice to be visiting with you again …. hard to believe a week has passed by already and this will be the last newsletter for February.  I hope everyone has been enjoying a great week.  Yesterday I was busy doing some work on the computer and it was so delightful to glance outside my window and see blue skies and brilliant sunshine ...I understand this is going to change with snow in the forecast for the weekend.  

This edition is dedicated to our friend Pami from New York who was one of our founding members.  We will miss you Pami and we love you.  I came across the following on her FB page.  It has helped me cope with her death.

"I'd like the memory of me to be a happy one, I'd like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done. I'd like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days. I'd like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun. Of happy memories that I leave when life is done." RIP

This newsletter is a little disjointed but I know Pami would like us to get on with our lives so I will continue with news from Paradise island.  Lady Madysen, our English Bulldog, is doing well; her puppies are expected to arrive early next week -- we had originally thought that it would be on Monday but Yvonne seems to think that Wednesday is more likely the date.  We have a spare office/bedroom converted to a nursery and we are all set for them.  This should be a fun month but I am sure we will get through it just fine.  We can always catch up on our sleep in April.


Kendra and I have taken on the position of “Admin”  for three groups on Facebook,  Nanaimo Buy, Sell & Swap, Victoria Buy, Sell & Swap and Campbell River Buy, Sell and Swap.  It is a lot of fun and is like going to garage sales every day!  The membership of each group is quite small at the moment but hopefully will grow.  In this past week however I did manage to pick up a gently used Quilters Frame and a full size chest freezer -- FREE!  I am also trying to de-clutter my space so this will be a good place to “recycle” some of my items. 


One of my friends on these sites has opened up what she calls a Free Library -- the idea is that you donate a book and can take a book … or knick knack, etc.  She is looking for donations and I am certain I can help her stock up her community library.  Isn’t this such a great idea!


The passing of our dear friend, Pami from New York this past month has made me think about my own health and taking better care of it so I went to the doctor’s (Dr. Derek Poteryko) for a physical on Wednesday and then Thursday I went for for blood work.  I was quite surprised to discover that an individual can get their lab results online as soon as they are available.  Up until recently they have been electronically transmitting lab results to physicians but now they are making this service available to us.  I think this is a splendid idea and it is FREE.  What do you think?   My doctor seemed quite happy with my health but in addition to being a a family physician he is also the medical director of the Central Island Smoking Intervention Clinic and he would like me to quit smoking.  He is the author of a book First You Smoked, Now You Live so at the very least I should try to get my hands on a copy of that -- maybe at Charlene’s Free Library!  Interestingly though he noted that Obesity is surpassing smoking as most significant health risk.  Only 16% of British Columbians smoke, but 26% are overweight and guess what I fall into both of those percentages.  All this aside, I am quite blessed to have had such a caring doctor all these years.  He mentioned that his son, who was a newborn, when I first went to see Dr. Poteryko, will be graduating high school this year -- OMG - is the doc ever gettting old!!!!!!


The mother of one of the young salesmen I work with has just opened her own hairdressing shop here in Nanaimo and is offering a special deal for his co-workers so I am seriously contemplating a hair cut again but I only get my hair cut at a salon that send my long locks off to be made into wigs for cancer patients.  She is supposed to be checking into this and once she has that set up I will be happy to give her my business.   My hair has become dangerous to my health this past month -- not once but TWICE I have scorched it while cooking on the gas stove.  Time for a change and not the stove either as I really like it, ha ha ha.

Well I think that must be enough about me and now on to our world news and let’s start with Daphne’s report from Argentina where there has been so much going on.

Thursday was the Civil wedding ceremony (it is always a day or two before the church ceremony) for Maria Elena and Bernardo.  A simple 5 minute ceremony followed by a midday finger-food meal, about 30 of us.   I love this picture as with the exception of Bernardo, I had the pleasure to meet each of these wonderful people when I was in Argentina.

There was a gorgeous sunset on the way to the church and the ceremony included  a complete mass.  The reception was held some distance outside the city at a casino club.  We were 100 in the hall, decorated in lavanda and white. The menu was a traditional Argentine BBQ, and then there was the wedding waltz, first just the couple, then their parents brothers sisters and family, each taking turn to dance with the bride or groom, and this time there was a novelty bubble machine which all the kiddies loved.  The came general dancing , the ice cream dessert (at about 3 in the morning) then a ceremony they often do at weddings here, where the groom fishes up the brides legs and removes a series of garters, which the bride tosses to the single girls present, and the groom chooses from his single buddies to put the garter on the girl's leg that caught it. Next the bride tosses her bouquet to the group of single girls, and finally they all pull on a ribbon each - in this case embedded in  lavanda coloured petals. There is a charm tied to the end of the ribbon, and the girl who gets the ring is supposed to be the next to marry.

Then there is more dancing, this time with a carnival theme as this is also officially carnival weekend,  the cake is cut and the couple toasted. It was a lovely party and they were so happy.  We lasted till 6.30 in the morning with a spectacular sunrise over the city coming back in.  Congratulations to all from everyone at the World Wide Web Circle of Friends!


On a much sadder note from South America …. A commuter train crash at a station in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires killed at least 49 people and leaves more than 600 injured, officials say.  Daphne thinks it seems the railway there is cursed; there have been so many accidents in the last year with trains.  It was a rush hour accident after the four days for carnival, and so many people crammed into each wagon, they say many didn't even have anything to hold on to, it was quite a tragedy.  Our prayers are with those people and their families and friends.

Lena from Ontario Canada wants us to know …
The key to preventing moldy berries? Vinegar!

Berries, particularly super-fresh berries, are just wonderful, aren't they?  They're also kind of delicate. Raspberries in particular seem like they can mold before you even get them home from the market. There's nothing more tragic than paying for a pint of local raspberries, only to look in the fridge the next day and find that fuzzy mold growing on their insides.  To prevent this wash them with vinegar.  When you get your berries home, prepare a mixture of one part vinegar (white or apple cider probably work best) and ten parts water.  Dump the berries into the mixture and swirl around. Drain, rinse if you want (though the mixture is so diluted you can't taste the vinegar) and pop in the fridge.  The vinegar kills any mold spores and other bacteria that might be on the surface of the fruit, and voila! Raspberries will last a week or more without getting moldy and soft. So go forth and stock up on those pricey little gems, knowing they'll stay fresh as long as it takes you to eat them.

A whole lot of fun comes to us from Australila via Jan’s Report which follows:

 Ukulele Clubs are really taking off in Australia, and we attended our first meeting with the Lismore Club tonight.  There were 50+ people there and it was a great, upbeat time. I am a beginner and so were about 30 other people...LOL. and we all went well I think.  We thouroughly enjoyed ourselves and are looking forward to a number of activities and workshops next month.


Love and Blessings, Jan

UK Chrissie  says  Don't look a gift horse in the mouth

Meaning

Don't be ungrateful when you receive a gift.

Origin

Proverbs are 'short and expressive sayings, in common use, which are recognized as conveying some accepted truth or useful advice'. This example, also often expressed as 'never look a gift horse in the mouth', is as pertinent today as it ever was.

As horses develop they grow more teeth and their existing teeth begin to change shape and project further forward. Determining a horse's age from its teeth is a specialist task, but it can be done. This incidentally is also the source of another teeth/age related phrase - long in the tooth.

The advice given in the 'don't look...' proverb is: when receiving a gift be grateful for what it is; don't imply you wished for more by assessing its value.

As with most proverbs the origin is ancient and unknown. We have some clues with this one however. The phrase was originally "don't look a given horse in the mouth" and first appears in print in 1546 in John Heywood's A dialogue conteinyng the nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, where he gives it as:

"No man ought to looke a geuen hors in the mouth."

Heywood is an interesting character in the development of English. He was employed at the courts of Henry VIII and Mary I as a singer, musician, and playwright. His Proverbs is a comprehensive collection of those sayings known at the time and includes many that are still with us:

- Many hands make light work

- Rome wasn't built in a day

- A good beginning makes a good ending

and so on. These were expressed in the literary language of the day, as in "would yee both eat your cake, and have your cake?", but the modern versions are their obvious descendents.

We can't attribute these to Heywood himself; he collected them from the literary works of the day and from common parlance. He can certainly be given the credit for introducing many proverbs to a wide and continuing audience, including one that Shakespeare later borrowed - All's well that ends well

In case you have not heard a few of our members need some extra thoughts and prayers 
..

Pat Broatch (formerly from the UK but now living in Alberta, Canada -- welcome to the Great White North Pat) tells me that she has been diagnosed with thyroid cancer and she saw a surgeon on the 12th for removal.  She does not want us to think she is ignoring us.  Pat  asks us to please not post anything on her FB page as she has not told anyone except us and her daughters and her parents.

Maxine Lauzon spent some time in the hospital with heart problems.  She is home now thankfully and had 2 stents put in.  

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Back to me again, sorry, something has come up concerning the lack of respect between parents and their children that has really been bothering me and I would like to rant about this topic for a bit with the hopes that you will add your feelings on the matter.  It is all about Family.

By definition …

FAMILY - the fundamental unit of society, of the economy, of our culture and of our governments.  Our families are a priceless blessing and the focus of our greatest ongoing, not completely successful but definitely challenging work. 


It is the responsibility, in my not so humble opinion, that every member of a family (including extended family such as brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins) to do what they can to protect and strengthen the family with the highest of standards of respect, love, compassion and forgiveness.


I believe our responsibility as parents is to do our best keeping in mind family values of respect, love, compassion and forgiveness.  Regretfully as parents we can not control what our children do, they have each been given their own agency to make decisions in life but what must be understood is that they are responsible and accountable to those choices and they need to understand that without harmony on some level there will never be happiness.

A slight change FYI … I will not at the present time be emailing members to remind you to send something in for the  newsletter.  

This year I would like to try leaving it up to each of you to submit something about your corner of the globe -- anything would be great and pictures would be so wonderful.  So email me, Sharon, today, tomorrow or anytime before next Wednesday.  Thank you. 

Before you go please enjoy some pretty fabulous Canadian Landscapes and Wildlife photography


I would like to close with something we received from Bea in the USA

To all of my Family and Friends ..

Have a Happy WEEK.

Remember

Go Ahead

Make Someone SMILE

BLESS YA!