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Chrissie Hynde slays me when she sings this… every time
have yourself a merry little christmas
21 Wednesday Dec 2011
Monthly Archives: December 2011
the tree is up!
20 Tuesday Dec 2011
It took some thought but last night I tried this hopefully cat-proof set-up, taking a tall bookcase thingy from Peter’s room into the living room and putting it in front of one of the windows. I think it looks okay, don’t you? So far the kittehs haven’t shown too much interest in it (the lower three shelves don’t have anything “interesting” on them) but Luna has a thing for strings and cords, so I tuck the cord away when it’s not plugged in.
Yay! I love this little tree.
my loaner ipad
19 Monday Dec 2011
A week or so ago I was telling my friend Juan (who owns the Vineria San Telmo, one of my top-five fave tapas bars in Sevilla) that I was seriously considering getting an iPad. He’s had one for a couple of years and, in his opinion, thought I’d do better getting a small MacBook Air. And well, I could see his point because an iPad is kind of just a big iPhone, except you can’t make phone calls on it.
BUT… it really would be useful for when I want to visit clients and show them my social media presentations, or their page on my Sevilla Tapas blog. It would easily fit into my handbag and doesn’t weigh much, so I could pretty much always have it with me. I wouldn’t always carry around a small computer, no matter how lightweight. And besides, the MacBook Air costs twice as much as an iPad. But Juan insisted that it was worth it because it was actually a computer, whereas the iPad is, well, just a big iPhone.
BUT… I already have two laptops. And if I have to upgrade at some point, which may actually happen soonish, I’d want a proper laptop with a decent sized screen, not a mini-sized MacBook.
And so I was telling all this to Juan and he suggested that I borrow his iPad for a few days to see if it was actually suited to my needs. What a generous offer! So I picked it up on Saturday (photo was taken outside Juan’s restaurant) and within five minutes I was hooked. I LOVE it. But now that this decision has been made I am suddenly faced with another dilemma, because apparently the iPad3 is coming out in March. So do I wait until March to put myself into debt 600€ or do it now? Will the iPad3 be that much better that it’ll be worth the wait? What if it’s even more expensive? Or maybe I should wait until March and pick up an iPad2 for a song (if possible)?
What should I do? What would you do?
what’s with all the scrooges?
18 Sunday Dec 2011
First posted on December 18th, 2006 – exactly five years ago!
I still feel the same about the scrooges…
It seems to be turning into an epidemic.
Lately I’ve been coming across so many people complaining about the Christmas season in various ways, ranging from mild dislike to out-and-out hatred.
It seems that those who dislike/resent/hate Christmas the most are those who feel somehow pressured or obligated to do things they don’t particularly like doing during this time of year, or they dislike/resent/hate the way other people celebrate Christmas.
But surely they are placing the blame erroneously. If one cannot say no to family and/or friends, should they blame Christmas? If they don’t like the manner in which some people exploit the holiday season and the crass commercialism that goes on … why say it’s the fault of the holiday? And if it’s the religious aspect of it that they dislike, well, this is easy enough to ignore.
It seems to me that these scrooges are redirecting their frustrations in order to avoid acknowledging where the real problems and issues lie. Though of course there are some people who just complain for the sake of it because they enjoy complaining. 😉
Another anti-Christmas argument I often hear is that people should always behave with compassion and generosity towards their fellow man, not just once a year. And I quite agree. But like birthdays, anniversaries and such, Christmas is a once-a-year reminder to behave this way and I see nothing wrong with that.
Anyhow, I really love Christmas, though my best Christmases started happening after I left home at age 15. I’ve had a few nice family Christmases since then, but my best ones have involved cherished friends and loved ones. And one quite memorable one when I was in my early twenties, doing my laundry and then going out to the cinema as I was on my own. I reckoned that since I was all alone I’d get all pathetic and do all these sad and pathetic things … but then I saw that I wasn’t actually on my own. There were plenty of other people at the laundromat and at the cinema and it was somehow comforting to be in their company.
So basically, Christmas is what you make it, though it may not always turn out to be exactly what you expect.
joy
17 Saturday Dec 2011
casa azahar 