I watched this programme last night and wasn´t in the least bit surprised when Soledad (Danna Garcia) went looking for her beloved Hugo played by Mario Cimarro. She arrived at his accommodation and told him of her love which led to the ultimate conclusion … wasn´t Hugo though, it was his twin brother. Did I find this funny, oh yes. Was it obvious this was going to happen … absolutely! Cannot wait for the next episode.
One question if any La Trash fans read this post. Why does Arturo want to kill Soledad and his baby?
On this very special International Women´s Day, Spanish news included information on the number of women who experienced violent deaths from 2000 to 2009 in Spain. Total – 629, 63 per annum, 72% in the home.
During my time in Spain I have watched many “breaking news” stories showing bodies being taken out of homes, the majority female and more often than not females murdered by their partner, one of the worst was the case of Marta from Seville whose body has not been found since her disappearance over a year ago, appraently murdered by her boyfriend and possibly others.
I could not possibly comment on the reason why there is so much violence, but am saddened that in this supposed period of enlightenment, women are still being treated badly by violent partners. Having experienced a degree of violence myself, I hoped that as time passed violence would decrease, unfortunately quite the opposite seems to have happened. The only advice I can give to the women involved in a violent relationship is “get out now while you have the chance, otherwise it may be too late, the violence … IMHO and experience … only worsens”. There are organisations out there prepared to help you, find them and ask. Tell the people you talk to the truth, in other words do not make excuses and take the blamce upon yourself, no matter how much your partner may infer that it is you that causes him to be violent.
The same applies to the men who have experienced violence in the home.
Violence isn´t just physical, it can also be verbal and many of these violent partners will lie to protect themselves, just in case you seek help from friends and family.
Our family always liked to have Heinz Beef Soup on a cold winter evening with hot toast spread with butter. Unfortunately Heinz no longer make this soup so we tried to find a recipe that is similar in taste and texture, without success! We are currently trying to come up with our own recipe, again without too much success. This is the nearest we have ever been to the original, which reminds me of a favourite childhood soup, Mock Turtle.
1 lb shin beef, skirt or braising steak
4 shallots – finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
6 fl oz of Madeira wine
2 oz pearl barley
2 plum tomatoes, skinned and finely chopped
2 pints of beef stock
Salt and black pepper
Cut beef into 1” dice, place in a plastic bag with seasoned flour and shake until all the meat is evenly coated
Heat oil and butter in a large saucepan and brown meat in batches, remove meat from pan and put to one side. Add the shallots – about half way through cooking add the garlic, cook until translucent, add the Madeira to the pan to deglaze
Remove from heat and stir in the pearl barley, tomatoes, stock and seasoning. Return the pan to the heat and whilst stirring to combine, bring to the boil, lower the heat, cover and simmer for about 2 hours or until meat is very tender, stirring occasionally
Allow the soup to cool and transfer – in batches – into a liquidiser and blend until smooth, return to the pan and reheat, do not boil
Serve with fresh crusty bread
We live only a few hundred yards away from a disco and finally after a couple of weeks living here I was able to sleep through the 11 pm to 6/7 am closing time. Then last night a second disco opened. The original turned up the volume and the second followed their example. Result … sleepless night. So if you are coming to live in Torre, find a place without a disco in the vicinity unless you are one of their regular customers.
My daughter suggested that perhaps my dizzyness on standing up from sitting or lying down could be partly attributable to dehydration, so I took a bottle of water from the fridge, put it down beside me while I did my Sudoku … and forgot to drink it. So daughter said … it does you absolutely no good while still in the bottle, you need to drink it. All this in her most sarcastic tone to date. Patience is not one of her virtues!
I watched a programme on Spanish TV recently about monogamy, this programme indicated that monogamy is unnatural. Although I did not understand the finer points, they showed several diagrams on marriage customs throughout the world giving statistics on the number of countries where men are allowed to have more than one wife.
It is argued that polygamy and polyandry are often decided by statistics on gender in the population, i.e. where males are in the minority (for instance in a state of war), polygamy is the more sensible option i.e. to allow men to take more than one wife, whilst other cultures where females are in the minority, it is more sensible to have polyandry.
Perhaps when discussing this subject, the questions of the more dangerous STD´s should also be taken into account.
I would not like to say which is ideal and surely this should be a personal matter in line with legislation in your home country. But how many countries do you think would allow polyandry – how many coutries are ruled by women? I cannot see many men being happy with not having exclusivity in their mate whereas many women are just prepared to put up with anything and some females feel this is ideal!
The main question therefore is, should polygamy or polyandry be allowed in civilised nations?
I would not comtemplate marriage to an already married man (even if I were young) as I have been raised to believe in the one man/one woman ideal. If polygamy or polyandry were to be brought in and made legal in those countries who presently do not allow it, perhaps they should consider a man taking more than one wife or woman taking more than one husband should be allowed only where both partners are in full agreement. I still feel that we have not moved on from our monkey ancesters if this is being considered, and for me talking about something means it is under consideration when there are more women than men and visaversa.
• You sleep through the loud music from the local disco which goes on from 11 pm to 6 am
• You enjoy Spanish TV, like South American Soaps and get used to soft porn on late night channels
• You are not shocked to find the nice young women living next door are prostitutes receiving male visitors 24 hours a day 7 day per week
• You are not shocked when the Civil Guard raid the apartment next door and take away the nice young man who carries your bags for you, then find out he has been jailed for drug dealing
• You become used to living in an apartment block where most of the apartments are empty and used only during July and August
• You breathe a sigh of relief when the holiday season of July/August finally ends and the Brits go home
• You enjoy the out of tune music played by the brass band at Fiesta time
• You “tut” like a Spaniard when the Brits visiting Spanish stores make comments like “isn´t Spain a backward country, they don´t even sell Yorkshire tea/crumpets/and lovely soft sliced white bread (that keeps for weeks without going green)” and refer to the locals as “peasants”
• You laugh with the locals when Brits (who live in a home classed as holiday accommodation) complain about being unable to get a telephone line
• You look at visitors as if they are mad when they wear T shifts and shorts when it is only 23 degrees Celsius. You are wearing a woolly jumper, scarf and gloves
I had a really interesting and frightening dream a few weeks ago.
The dream started where the family were sitting in the living room of my childhood home, my parents, myself and daughter were there. As we looked out of the living room window a heavy snowfall was approaching from the south, in the “cloud” of snow there was a black helicopter, behind it a futuristic helicopter, a sort of dull silver colour.
Following these two craft were a large number of oblong shaped craft in the dull silver colour with no visible means of propulsion or wings. Behind them were a large number of military transport craft, some of them the dull silver colour, others were slate grey, large and quite ugly.
I said to my daughter do you think they will let us live.
The dreams continued a few nights later but this time Lisa, myself and friends and family were sat on a lea side of a mountain. In front of us a cloud of snow was approaching and in this cloud were the large military transport vehicles. They were transporting soldiers onto the planets surface. From the other side of the mountain a small number of aircraft flew over, behind them a storm force wind.
The others stood up and cheered. I commented that we should stay quiet and calm. They said we should cheer our men on and let them know we were there for them. Lisa added that we should stay quiet or they would hear us. Calm restored we watched the oncoming invaders seeking out remaining pockets of resistance. We were cold, had no food or water and could not light a fire.
I started watching this programme on Spanish TV just three weeks ago and am absolutely fascinated. I just love the actor who plays two of the lead characters. Thought of the day, are Columbian men this good looking and looked up his profile on the web. He just happens to be Cuban. After knowing the “mad Cuban” for three months (friend of my daughters), I ran screaming for the hills but am suggesting him as a possibility for the hunkies, despite his nationality. Racism? No just post Max symdrome.
My daughter applied for a landline yesterday, the engineer phoned last night, the line was up and working this morning by 11 am.
Beat that BT.
I cannot believe that the majority of women, albeit a small majority, feel that women who are raped are partly responsible for men´s actions.
I remember a neighbour saying of one young woman who had been raped quite brutally by a couple of men “she got what she asked for, dancing like that in front of men and flirting with all and sundry”. She was a young woman in her early teens who was coming to grips with her femininity. No action was taken against the young men.
We are animals that have supposedly evolved yet still many males (a minority I think) cannot control their actions and the problem is that society still expects females to be the moral compass.
In the area where I lived, many men said there was a point of “no return” and they couldn´t stop after that point, so if a woman said no they felt justified in going ahead and agreed this act could not be classed as rape. Even at that time I argued that men who felt this way had absolutely no self control. They also said girls said no when really they meant yes.
A programme on Spanish television included a comment which in my opinion was quite apt, i.e. “God gave males a brain and a penis but not enough blood to control both”.
My mother in law, when discussing a reported rape case said “when a man ´rises to the occasion´his penis takes control”. Being an innocent (and I must now add, just a bit stupid) I asked what she meant and she explicitly said “when a male is aroused and ready to mate he is incapable of controlling himself, i.e. his penis takes over and he is not capable of any rational thought until the act is concluded”.
I always felt my mother in law was a feminist and quite radical in her beliefs.
She also argued that “all men were capable of rape”.
Nearly forty years on I cannot believe that the majority of women have the mistaken belief that females are partly to blame when a man using his superior strength and body weight subdue a woman in order to have sexual intercourse. The act should always be consensual.
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