MrsPeel's avenging adventures

...for the full three days it took me to read one if his books:

Kitchen Confidential

Anthony Bourdain

and I'm not kidding. Totally in love, starting by recognizing myself in the food experiences in early life, love growing by the minute as my laughter increased to each and every word written.....

I got the book for (yes, unbelievable) 20 pence in the library sale, and, like every other book I ended up loving to the core, I hesitated before I decided to bring it home. Nope, not stingy, just we are so short of space, I tend to buy books I most definitely know I want to possess....but one thing is for sure: I will be buying his other books, like, tomorrow.

This guy is great.

It's not like I ever harbored any thoughts of working for the food industry, I had my (tortuous) experiences as a dishwasher and waitress, in order to afford a carrier in music, and I knew always that, though I love cooking for myself and friends, and I learned how to by watching my mum and maternal grandma, there was no place in my heart for proffesionalising in that area.
I saw ,and still see, what my mum goes through since the early 90s, when my dad had to give up work, and she took the reins of the household by comercialising her (much loved, adored, I should say, by family and friends alike) arabig food.
She still does it, aged 72, and the presure is no joke, though she only cooks by order, I can't start to imagine what a restaurant kitchen'(much less a starred one)'s rithm could do to me. So, why has this book blown my brain in awe?

His writing is great, his love for food is great, his honesty is even greater.

You wont find inovative recipies or feed your family for a fiver, but you will be able to taste the oysters, to move from kitchen to kitchen from Princetown to NY city, to smile and frown, to laugh and (again) taste the food....
Kitchen Confidential does what it says in the tin: tells you what went on in the kitchens where Bourdain developed his carrier, and, as it happens he was born only 2 years before me, and I am a child of the Age of Aquarius, very word meant something to me. The likeness doesnt stop there: I share some of his experiences, though in different hemispheres, though in different proffesions....I could feel and, thanks to his brilliant writing style, live it in full blown colour. Great. Great. I can't think of any other word.
And he lives you hungry (literally) for more, so, as I said, I'm buying his other books tomorrow.
Here is another great thing about this guy: 3 of his other books are crime novels, a genre to which I have dedicated my passion for the past 10 years.....so, yes...great.

I went to his website , he is currently running a TV programme which I'm almost sure we dont get in the UK....shame, I would love to watch him in action.

So, that's it. For three entire days (I couldn't put the book down) I loved him passionately. The book is great and, as a plus, pain tends to take a back seat so, Thanks Tony, I loved you so much I may when I NY , even go against all my principales and book a table at Les Halles.... :)

I've done it.
After several frustrated attempts to put something together, I got the grip.
My friend Tiane Rocha, from Scrapblog, told me about the Windows Movie maker. So I looked at it. It took a few attempts to get the how to make the photos last the song's time and stuff, but simple enough after I sorted that....only Windows makes you sign up with some video hosting people, which I then realized I didn't need, as YouTube asks you to upload from your computer....oh well.
This is nothing much, but at least I've done it.
I can see my dad's face when he sees it though....worth all my late nights.

Obrigada Tiane, nao poderia ter feito sem vc!!!!!

here it is,though it may not show yet as I dont think it's processed yet.
(it would be just my luck if this doesnt work!)

I just (well earlier this morning, at 8:00 am) took Sarita to school with her (proudly self-packed) suitcase, they left at 8:30 to an adventure holiday center. She was so exited (the nearer we get to school, the faster my heart is beating! she says). They'll be doing kayaking, rafting and wall climbing, and, of course, a disco.
We were getting ready for this for a few months, and it isnt the first time she gies on a trip, but I can't avoid that feeling of missing my baby.....oh well, it's only for a couple of days.

On the other hand, on saturday we picked up at the Eurostar (brand new and gorgeous!!!) St Pancras Station my (no-longer virtual) friend Peggy . She is Australian, but was coming from France.
Peggy came into Scrapblog last november, and we started a nice chat, that passed onto email and then she gave us a call one day...we seemed to have the same views in so many things, the conversation flowing with laughter and reminicenses of the 60s and 70s, that when she mentioned she would be coming to London and arriving by Eurostar, I offered to pick her up, as it is only a very short drive for us, and Sarita's favourite area of the borough with the fabulous St Pancras hotel.
 We had a great time for a couple of days, the rest of her visit she dedicated to interview a second cousin of hers, where she was staying, as she is tracking down her family tree. As it happens (in a weird turn of the non coincidentional coincidences of this life), this second cousin of hers lives just a few blocks from us.
Not only did I gain a marvelous friend from my online world into my more concrete one, but also have gained another friend on this second cousin of hers: Rachel Cameron, an 84 years old lady, more lucid than I am (not yet 50!), an educator at the Royal Academy if Dance until a few years ago...a source of inspiration and amazement. Sarita fell in love with her imediately. I can see all of us shopping in Asda soon.. (they have electric scooters galore, you see).
I was amazed with her stories, here is something about her, if you are interested.

This kind of breaks my days as a recluse regarding internet internet people.

I got really disapointed with the online world by the begining of 2004, but then again, with the failing of my operations and my world crumbling in more ways than possible, I maybe should say I just git dissapointed with the world, period. But certainly was not, for a couple of years, keen on reading, viewing and (much less) meeting people from the net. Until Vox.
Some time in 2006 (it may be that it has been already 2 years, dont quiet remember) one of those net friends who had been to my place, cried over my shoulder and I in hers, laughed and talked till the wee hours and all that, reapeared into my life with an invitation to Vox.(funnily enough, she is no longer posting here or is part of my life, both the virtual or most concrete one) And I have posted about this more than once: I had tried to start a blog for Sarita to have in the future in at least 5 different sites......none which captivated me enough to come back.

Not only Vox was somewhere where I felt home, but after a few weeks I started to get interested in reading about other people, started my neighborhoiod and well, you know the rest.
But Peggy came through Scrapblog, why am I writing all this?
Well, I got to Scrapblog through another wonderful, marvelous virtual friend, someone whom, if the world was a fair place, should today have a brand new replaced knee.Now, we all know fair and our world are not well combining words, but hey....we keep praying for the NHSs and Medicares if the our world to improove.Yup, it's about her I'm talking about, the most musical of all chiks: our friend Denise, Musichick2 .

Denise created the Vox Group that allowed me to winge and moan, to find friends and understanding into my condition, she wrote to me in support, not only in Vox, but aldo took the time to write privately to my daughter to offer a friendly heart in a time in which I was having trouble communicating with her for reasons that escaped my control....she sent us the most beautiful Xmas presents....and she gave me Scrapblog, which in turn became a therapy and an oasis of simple, creative, supporting people, a free site without adverts or malicious people.
So this is in part a public Thank You and a bit of an apology for not having been there much lately for you, Denise.
We just want you to know how much we love you. (this from both Sarita and me)

There is something else about breaking my reclusion, someone I have been talking to, but that will be an entire post for some other time.

Note: only 2 spelling mistakes...yAy!!!

...we have been a bit more active socially lately.
Clare, my most precious, best ever English friend host a barbecue at hers in May, they all came to us a few weeks ago, then we had our friend Cristina (the one who married thye finish guy at the castle in Sommerset last year) with her family.

Here is something I put together from the barbecue in May.

I haven't been turning my PC on lately, as that same day in which I was oh so happy, the Trojan Horse surfaced in my antivirus scan again.....though it tells me it was deleted, the computer is painfully slow, so I'm starving myself of treats in order to save to get an IMac.

...fits a whole dictionary, to me, at the moment.

I decided to follow the marvelous Mrs Volonakis Davis 's advice and, instead of suffering for the general state of the world, or even the United Kingdom of Great Britain's system's unfairness, I took *the bull by the horns* like they say in Spanish, called my friend Clare and we sorted out enrolling for a digital photography course.

I had my reservations with this college, where I had previously started a course leading to fashion design, what I really wanted was to learn to cut patterns in order to make rubber clothing.....but ended up more ill than when I started. Not only the college was humongous and I had to walk miles to get to the classroom, but also there were no lifts, and lets not comment on the tutor. Overall, not a good experience.

But my friend Betty (the twins's mum) is doing some GCSE's here, she seemes happy enough, and sugested that I come have a look, as they went through a reform since I had my short lived passing through the building...oh well...

I'm at an state of the art library, in a state of the art computer, (they even have PCs AND Macs!!!), buit also everyone, from a (gorgeous) young boy at the outside door helping me in, to the librarian, passimng through the enrolment officers, all have a huge smile in their faces and....(this to me being vital) they listen

I'm now making some time waiting for Betty to finish her class, though I just register my mood which is, for a change, one of the best I had in a long time related to anything to do with dealing with the outside world. Sun is (intensely) shining out there, what else could I ask for?

[oh well, I can think of a huge list to write but, you know what I mean!!! :) ]

I had at least 3 folders of downloaded pictures from my Nikon I had to process, so, tired of listening to the same music files I have in my PC over and over again, I lately took to run YouTube in the back ground. I just type names of people of my past (people I worked with, people I went to bed with, people who were infamous when we were working together and are now big names) and ended up staying up late, very late, almost crying of Saudades , what you would translate as home sick kinda thing.....
I found bits and pieces of novelas, (Brazilian soap operas are a work of art, especially when Globo TV produces them) with their sound tracks, and one of the videos that took me to my mid 20's, to when I was fighting for a space in the carioca performing night, and made this.
The video is runing hiden in the first page, but as it has the translation in English I included a second page with only the video. The lyrics, well, the song overall may not be all that, but takes me back to a time that means a lot to me, wanted to show this to Sarita.....

...justice.
I learn English through music, listening and reading, asking and asking a bit more, but the main was making comparisons and finding the many similarities the latin languages have with the Shakespearian one. Lets say, for example, the words that finish tion in English, correspond to the Spanish ion, the Portuguese ao.....like composition would be composicion in Spanish, composicao in Portuguese,and if you know a little bit about these languages you will find many more (examples). But what does the language has to do with justice?

Well, probably nothing, I just spent the night thinking about the word injustice, injusticia, and the vast practice of it in this, our fast and (now more than I can ever remember) violent world.
A few weeks ago I bought the paper (I almost never do) just because the front pages of ALL London ones had articles about the 16 deaths of teenagers in the 5 months gone of the year, most of them by stabbing. Last sunday a kid actor, Ben Kinsela , was murdered by other kids (funnily enough, in the venue where the London Fetish Fair ceased to be after a management change...I bet they wish now they stayed with the kinky lot, who had no incidents in years and years of monthly events, but that would've been of more interest to me a couple of years ago...) Last night all TV channels had some program about this, teenage violence.
I'm a mother to an almost teenage girl, and though we have a good relationship, good communication, I'm scared, very scared.

Then another issue, this not so scary as enraging, the fact that we can't find many things to be *in justice*, the fact that, the more the world advances in technology and (allegedly) knowdlege, the more difficult to find fairness, justice.
And I know in this one we are all together: why, oh why, does a footballer, an actor or a politicien earn millions when a teacher struggles to meet ends in the end of the month?
or any of us cannot send our children to the kind of education that would best suit them, for lack of money?
I know, I know.
But talking about polititien is that I come to the enraging issue:

*extracted from Journalist, NUJ's magazine, FatCat File, July 2008:

You'd think that being the boss of a city of seven million people would be a full time job, but no, Boris Jhonson is to recommence a weekly column for the Daily Telegraph, for a reported salary of £250,000. That is getting on for twice the £137,579 he will make heading the administration at City Hall*

Oh well.
Scared and angry, this is the way we are lately.
I could be writing about my last argument with the Twit or what a wonderful time we had 2 weeks ago friday or last saturday(we had people for dinner in both ocassions), or the new pains in my right leg, or my minor surgery last monday...but I think I will be leaving it for now. I am still (very much) scared and (very) angry.
My therapy is the photography and editing (but that also enrages me as I have no money to do the course I would love to do, which starts in september), so here is something I've made earlier....

for my child!!!! :)

...feelings related to the powerless being of mine these last few weeks.
I would like to know why, oh why, is that in no ocassion or event, no even the most simple tasks I undertake in this life of mine, can ever anything go on without my having to put up so much of a fight before achieving it, therefore feeling exhausted on arrival.
And no, my dears, I am not talking about saving the world or even getting to the end of the month on a tight budget despite the fact of motherhood to an inminent teeanger (that was a slip pf the keyboard, but in these days in time, maybe we should call them teeangers...), nope.
I am talking about the simple fact that, after 12 hours of reckless (and tyring) fight with my computer, few (5 actually) calls to the Belkin support people (an 0845 number which is, I presume, located in India), I am still unable to install the USB adaptor in Sarita's computer.

At about 9pm (just before Roger had to go) after the first call we made, we established that I had to download some driver, from the Belkin site. It stayed, allegedly downloading) there for over 90 minutes....then I called again.
I was advised to (again) turn the firewall of, try explorer (the Firefox wouldn't install the router in my PC either...) and yup, it started downloading....only to be stuck at 3% (for 19 minutes).
I called them (again).
Close everything down, he says, start all over again, maybe the server is busy.
I did.
Again.
And again.
The time before last (after I turned the Firewall on again, replied some mail, turned it of again and tried again) it got to 35%....but no matter what: it wont download the full file.
This wouldn't be the end of it: I have to then (if I ever succeed downloading it) copy it to a disc, then take it to Sarita's PC. In the middle of all that I thought, maybe if I download the version 5..... it did, but then it wouldnt work in Sarita's PC, it was then that the (3rd, 4rth?) guy made me read (and this was so humiliating...I had to search for a magnifying glass all over) the something something ID in the actual adaptor. The version 4, he says, that s the one. But it doesn't want to download in my PC. Because it does in theirs. I know.
I'm now giving up and going to sleep. I wil probably call the UK number tomorrow and see if I can make them send me a CD with the driver. Still, I will have to wait...
Wouldn't it be lovely if I had enough money to go like:
Oh...not to worry, we can go buy a new computer all together, maybe a Mac, so all my friends will know what the heck to do with it.....
I'm borderlining tears, and I'm not ashamed to say it, write it, shout it to the world.
It isn't tha parenting thing or the fighting to make a better world that takes away my energy and make me fall appart,nope. It's things like this. Little, silly things. My pain is now taking over (of course, I'm nervous, p***d off big time,  forced my body into these two computers that, I'm sure, none would give a tenner for) so I'm gonna go sleep.

I hate technology. I hate it, I do.

I dont seem to be able to write lately. Maybe it has to do with the huge amount of events, and the stuff, emotions and thoughts that come with them. I will, I know, at some point, come and spill it all, but at this very moment my body doesnt want to syncronise with my mind...so I put it into images.
God knows the amount of money I will have to send when Scrapblog starts printing, because I will want a book for every year of them....and I had 70, I reckon, last year alone..
The beautty of it is that not only is free, -I made the silly mistake of paying for the SmileBox, which isn't as creative as Scrapblog, last year, not only it messed about with my Brussels pics, but I couldn't get through to them when things went wrong, when at Scrapblog they are so prompt not only to answer queries, but to listen patiently to each and every one of us- but also a lot more creative. In SmileBox you can only stick your pictures into the designs they have made, in Scrapblog they have themes, designs for people who would only want to stick their pics or videos, but you can start with a blank page and combine every little thing....I even found a way to stick the music I want....

If anyone is as mad as I am about their kids pictures, this is a very family orienteted site, the vibe is great, and there are some amazingly talented scrapbookers there, so here is where:

http://www.scrapblog.com/

and now as to a brief update: we had our friends for dinner friday evening, it was great (oictures will show up at some point too), Sarita made pancakes for dessert, she willingly stood at the stove at 11:30 pm and flipped a couple for each of us (8 people all together!), and ended up folling asleep in the sofa.
We only woke up at 10 past 1 saturday, and couched potato ourselves until very late last night, watched tons of movies, Dr Who, some extraordinary people documentary, more movies, some disney channel, some music channels, more movies, all generously aided by the tapas left from friday dinner (they ate a lot, I cooked too much...) and the both of us miraculously woke up in time this morning to shower and (she) to school (me) to minor surgery.
I will write about this too, some other day.

I have to try catch up with updating my Flickr pics, but we take so many that sometimes not only is hard to have the energy to download them, but also gotta give my family some pace, as my mum has to go to my cousins computer to see them...
This last Scrapblog are picture if (probably) a couple of weeks ago.

...will be performing at the O2 arena. The tickets are £65, so I turn on my stereo and make a mental note of the fact that we'll be putting away the money,that'll be half of a European trip or some toward a beach holiday (though I have the strong feeling we're more likely to get a bitching holiday, the way this weather and our finances are going)

And today is another day in which I am so, so glad I was invited to blog in Vox: The Simple-Abundance thing again....

So today I'm Grateful for:

• the fact that I have sorted out the advertising invasion in my computer, after 3 weeks of incessant search, adventurous learning and lack of sleep....
• Notherngeek and R.G.Ryan, as without them I wouldn't have been able to sort it.
• my friend Nikki
• being able to buy an external hard drive (500G!!!), even though it means I ll spend another 3 sleepless weeks trying to figure out if the files are there or not...
• My child, YouTube and Scrapblog.Oh, and Vox, of course.

So, here is Stevie. The video is in the last page, it will start playing when you get there (i think, and assuming you wanna watch this!). I couldn't figure out how to make it play all the time without stopping the pages rolling, so,here it is something I made for Sarita, I will also print and give it to her after the school play (in which she will be performing in a couple of weeks...)

by the way,is like 7am in the morning here in London.....

(and can someone please explain me the absurdity of grateful, beautiful, and all fully words in the English language spelling with one l, when the meaning is that something is FULL of...whatever?.......)