Holy Toledo!

From a young age I have heard the phrase “Holy Toledo” and I have used it from time to time. Looking online and now quoting from the Urban Dictionary below here is a reference to this phrase that I would like to share:

“On May 25, 1085 Alfonso VI of Castile kicked the Moors out of Toledo, Spain; after which Toledo became one of the great centers of Christian culture. Hence the nickname “Holy Toledo”. It has since evolved into an exclamation exhibiting surprise, probably due to original surprise that a Moor-encrusted place could become Holy”.

In summary “Holy Toledo” refers to something that is amazing beyond belief. When I saw this town located in Spain I truly understood the phrase to its fullest. Perhaps looking at these photos you can begin to feel what I felt and experienced in this amazing town.

(day 164)

Wordless Wednesday- The Alhambra (Spain)

(day 163)

Visiting the Spanish Cities of Barcelona, Madrid and Sevilla

Buen Retiro Park, Madrid

 

I have been to Spain two times. Both have been memorable trips. The first time I visited with my friend Lisa before I continued on to Switzerland to be an au pair. We had some great moments, and one not so great moment on that trip. I fell in love with Barcelona and Sevilla during my first visit to Spain.

My grasp of the Spanish language at the time included the following words and phrases: por favor, (please); gracias, (thank you); and quisiera una cerveza por favor, (I would like a beer please).

I still laugh thinking back to every time we went out for tapas (small plates) we ended up with ensalda rusa, (potato salad). I was not doing the ordering but somehow it kept showing up on the table. To say the least I tried many varieties of potato salad!! Despite the odds I did manage to eat some excellent paella ( Spanish rice dish with saffron, chicken, seafood, etc.) on this trip and the next one as well.

Some memorable moments from Spain (first trip):

(1) Going to the discotheque on the waterfront in Barcelona. We stayed out until the next day!

(2) Seeing the blue, blue Mediterranean Sea

(3) Wandering around La Ramblain Barcelona; what an interesting area to walk with all the shops, live stock, cafes and flowers.

(4) Eating an excellent meal at Can Punyetes Taverna in Madrid after Lisa read the review. Our reservation was for 9:30pm and it took a good 2.5 hours to eat and drink good wines; now that is enjoying life!

(5) Going to see a Real Madrid soccer match!! Wow, I loved the energy!!

(6) Hanging out in a plaza soaking up the sun talking for hours to American students about their time studying in Sevilla.

(7) The bad moment was walking along in Plaza del Sol in Madrid spacing out and all the sudden hearing someone screaming, turning back, and realizing that Lisa was being robbed of her camera that she held around her neck! Yikes. We then went to the police station in a police van and she proceeded to give a police report and I could do nothing but support her due to the language barrier.

Barcelona (including the Mediterranean Sea, La Rambla)

Madrid (Plaza Mayor, preparing for the soccer match)

Sevilla (including Torre del Oro, Plaza de Espana and a flamenco show)

(day 162)

Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

Life is super busy right now. It is so busy that I can’t remember half of the things going on; thank goodness for post-its. The center of the chaos is the big move. We move in 7 days and I am not even 25% ready for it. I do have mental lists that I’m working on completing and boxes everywhere – some full, some empty.

One thing I have done in preparation for the move is selling things I no longer need on Craigslist (an online classifieds web-site). It started out with a bike trailer, and then a storage cabinet, a crock-pot (very easy to sell since I don’t know how to cook), a microwave, and then my record player.

My parents bought me that GPX record player sometime in the 1980’s when I was a preteen. I played all my favorite 33 1/3 rpm (revolutions per minute) and 45 rpm records on that player. I spent free time mixing tapes and recording my favorite songs off of the radio. It had some good times back in Indianapolis.

In my 20’s I took a cross country trip with two friends when my parents gave me their old car. I stuffed the car with my friends and all of the belongings I could fit. Not having much space left in the car I found the perfect spot for the record player to make the cross country journey- in the lap of the passenger in the front seat. We made it somehow from Indianapolis to the East Bay of San Francisco.

I played the record player intermittently over the next 10 years ultimately placing it in a cabinet to collect dust. That was until recently when I had a dance party with my kids. I dusted it off and the records came out. I loved their questions asking why my CDs were so big. We discovered that the speakers were no longer in great working condition, and I knew the time had come to get rid of it.

Fast forward to last week and I put up a posting on Craigslist to sell it. Originally I was going to throw it out, but Max said someone might want it. The next day I had a reply and on the following day I went to work with it and the “Pretty in Pink” movie soundtrack so the potential buyer could test it out.

By chance the song we tested the record player out on was “If You Leave” by OMD; how ironic. She ended up buying it for her boyfriend for his birthday. He is a musician into the “retro” look; I had to say, “It’s not retro, it’s just from the ‘80’s”….. am I really that old?!! As I dropped the record player into her trunk a tear welled up in my eye….it was time to say goodbye to an old friend, one that had been through so much of my life. I knew the player was going to a good home so all I could do was smile as I walked away.

After thought: I still have over 150 records waiting for the new stereo I buy at some point in the future & I look forward to another dance party with the kids, this time with a new record player that I hope to pass down to one of them someday.

(day 161)

A Nomination for the Sunshine Award- Awesome!

The other week while I was blogging about colleges around Los Angeles as playgrounds I received a most interesting comment from Jennifer Butler Basile nominating me for the Sunshine Award!!! Jennifer’s blog is called Chopping Potatoes. She originally started her blog writing about how she has dealt with handling postpartum depression after the birth of her third child. Her blogs name is a metaphor relating to the challenges she faces (and overcomes) being a mother in this crazy world! Jennifer thank you so much for the nomination! It came at a time when I was wondering what am I doing writing on my blog every day when I can’t even find enough time to relax and take care of all of my daily responsibilities.

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Now on to business. Here are the rules that one must abide by when accepting the Sunshine Award:

Rule 1. Post the Sunshine Award logo on your blog.

Rule 2. Nominate 10 fellow bloggers

Rule 3. Announce their nomination in their blog’s comment section

Rule 4. Mention links back to their blog, including a link to the person who nominated you.

Rule 5. Answer the questions. This is designed to help people get to know you better.

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Here are my nominations. Congratulations to you all! :

Joe East SF writes a blog about eateries in San Francisco, one of my favorite places to visit.

Ingredients is a blog by lisabay that talks about feeding picky boys and other food adventures she goes on.

Y’r fait beau à los angeles is a blog about adventures that a French couple experiences living in Los Angeles. Please note this blog is written entirely in French.

A (Soon To Be) Working Mum is written by a mom who in addition to a full-time student is a mom of two children. How does she juggle it all? I can’t imagine having to study on top of raising kids.

Maybe you noticed I do not have 10 nominations today. I’m working on adding to this as I continue to follow more blogs. I must say that the more blogs I follow the less time I meet my daily writing challenge, but wow there are there some awesome blogs out there!

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And last but not least here are the questions:

1. Favorite Color
I am so into the color BLUE. All shades of blue are wonderful.

2. Favorite Animal
I love giraffes! Whenever I am at the zoo I have track them down. My kids have a gigantic giraffe in their room as well called Spots so I have a dose of giraffes at home as well.

3. Favorite Number
Four- I am not sure where it came from, but I love this number. I am also a fan of the numbers one and seven. Any combination of the three and I am a happy camper.

4. Favorite Non-Alcoholic Drink
I love iced tea. I try to stay away from soda so that always does the trick. I have at least one iced tea a day and if I have time I like to drink hot tea as well…. Usually I don’t have the time!

5. Favorite Alcoholic Drink
Beer is my alcoholic drink of choice. I love it and this has been so since my college days (and perhaps slightly before). I am so looking forward to visiting the Firestone Walker Brewery in Paso Robles soon with my girlfriends!!

6. Facebook or Twitter?
I use Facebook much more than Twitter. Only recently started to use Twitter more to tweet about my blog daily and write a few choice words from time to time.

7. My Passions
Life, loving my family, and travelling.

8. Giving or Receiving Gifts?
I prefer to give gifts and see expressions on the faces of my loved ones and friends when they receive them. I like to receive gifts as well too!

9. Favorite City
I love Paris and I love San Francisco. It’s a little harder to make it to Paris so I count my blessing that I can visit San Francisco once a year usually.

10. Favorite TV Show
I enjoy “The Amazing Race” – reality television and people traveling around the world, two of favorite things.

Jennifer, once again I must thank you for this nomination. It is nice to be validated from time to time that someone likes my blog. When I started blogging I had no clue that anyone would tune into my blog, and now I see I actually have followers, and likes, and comments. It truely is amazing!

(day 160)

Small Rewards

Yesterday I took the kids ice skating as a reward for Matteo. My little man and I have been working on potty training at night for the last few weeks. Knowing that rewards lead to bigger payoffs I told him that if he went 7 nights without an accident I would give him a prize. The prize he requested was ice skating.

After two attempts at the challenge he succeeded! I found the perfect opportunity to bring him to the ice skating rink yesterday and off we went. He was somewhat afraid to go on the ice at first; he actually was terrified. I took the opportunity to become reacquainted with the ice myself taking a quick zoom around the rink. Hey, I haven’t lost my style! When he still was not ready to hit the ice I took his sister Malina around and eventually he was ready. In the end he went around 4 times in a little over an hour period.

While at the rink Matteo requested ice cream and to play video games too. I gladly complied. It was a great afternoon with my kids, just enjoying them and life. His next goal is 14 days without an accident at which point we will be going to Chuck E Cheese pizza parlor for an afternoon of playing games and eating pizza. Secretly I can’t wait for this next reward!!

 

(day 158)

Moroccan Mint Tea & the Children of Tangier

While visiting Spain and Portugal as a tour guide trainee I had the opportunity to take an optional tour to Morocco for the day. It was a teaser trip since you really need to stay in a place for at least a few days to get the real feel, but it was definitely a memorable trip. So one morning we left Marbella taking a ferry across the Straits of Gibraltar to Africa eventually arriving in the Moroccan city of Tangier.

When I think about Tangier two things from this trip come to my mind immediately:

(1) Drinking wonderful Moroccan mint tea
(2) Having young children come up to me on the streets asking in French for pencils and bonbons (candy)

We had the opportunity walk the streets with a local guide, visit a Moroccan rug shop, talk with a medicine man, and see a belly dancer. I did see more, yes, but I am still remembering those children asking for such simple things. I later learned that the guides from the company I worked for would bring pencils and candies for them every time they visited the town.

I would welcome the chance to visit Morocco again, but Max, who spent years living here as a child, does not want to return. Perhaps the day trip I took so many years ago will be it for this country, but I am sure we will visit the continent of Africa together one day.

(day 158)