Earthquake!

So, the weather is better, not so cold, but any complacency we may have been tempted to indulge in after the Christmas holiday has been shaken by the horrible earthquake in Haiti.  I think Hillary Clinton had it right when she said "it is biblical."  Those poor people.  Everyone has said it all in the news.  I'm glued to the news on TV everyday because it doesn't seem to get better.  All that aid is coming in but nothing is really being released to the people.....I know there is no infrastructure available to do this formally but the heck with crowds and pushing - (reasons why some US military person said why the goods were still sitting on the airport tarmac), just get a couple of big trucks that roll over concrete rubble and distribute the food and water, blankets and tents throughout the city and so what if its not in an orderly military manner - who cares! Worry about order later, these people are dying.  As for the dead, God rest their poor souls - use people in protective clothing - get trucks and stuff and bury them in mass graves - its Dantenesque, but better that than start an epidemic if these things are not addressed.  This is the 5th (or 6th) day after the earthquake and people are still lying around the streets.  I hope presidents Clinton and Bush Sr. can do for Haiti what they did for New Orleans - though this is 100 times worse.  Now let's hope, this poor island isn't hit by heavy rains.

On a lighter note - I'm in the middle of my book "Dias de otono....donde esta el Rey?" and its really getting interesting.  I never read the end of a book first but I am so tempted this time.  BUT, I am resisting.  In the meantime, my Spanish is improving and and I am getting back into the rhythm of reading Spanish and after this book, I should read two books that were sent to me by a good friend in Spain, that were best-sellers there and continue to read more books in Spanish.  Actually, one of the books has an English translation but I didn't like it in English.  Of course I can't download onto my Kindle, but like the present books, I read before going to sleep.

Anyway, its the dull days of January which will lead to the dull days of February but I prefer dull to the awful news like earthquakes reducing a nation to nothing.

A couple of books, cold weather and a wedding.

Hey there folks.  I know I have been silent since January 6th but, truthfully, there is nothing that moved me to write as I have been COLD!!  I know, I know, its winter and I live in New York.  So maybe I've been spoiled as it seems the winters in the past many years have not been this cold nor for so long, in consecutive days.  So, during the day I'm at the office and when I come home at night, I check Facebook (recently for new pictures of Patricia Muniosguren Yulo's wedding in Manila on January 10) or watching "The Forsyte Saga" on Netflix. (I first watched it on PBS and loved it, so I am watching the series all over again.)  I've also really beginning to enjoy "Dias de otono.....donde esta el Rey?" fiction-based-on-fact novel written by an old love.  When I started it, I couldn't get into it - I found the Spanish difficult and I couldn't concentrate which was weird since I know off the plot of the book.  Then I realized I was mentally blocked by the fact that I was reading it with the presence of the man who wrote it looking over my shoulder so I told myself - the heck with this - I started the book all over again forgetting who wrote it and now I am swimming smoothly through it and enjoying the story and its nuances.  Though of course, now and then finding little pieces of the author in a character or a description of a manner of dressing or the ambiance of a city - Barcelona, which I can relate to as well.  Fascinating. I also realize that my Spanish vocabulary needs stretching so I am writing down the words I don't know the exact meaning off and will look them up in my Spanish dictionary.  Not a Spanish/English dictionary but a Spanish one alone. 

Aside from the reasons above that I haven't written is that I've been paying more attention to friends from the past on Facebook which have now become - PRESENT!  How great is that?! 

In case y'all think I've abandoned my Kindle, I haven't.  I read the book mentioned above before going to sleep here at home and the Kindle I carry in my handbag to read on the subway or during my lunch hour at the office.  Therein I am reading the novel "Wolf Hall" which is a more mature and very interesting novel about Henry VIII's court, the major character being Thomas Cromwell.  The book is on the New York Times best seller list and since it is fairly new, in hardcover and a fairly long book, what better way to read it than in my slim, portable Kindle! 

And so it goes for today....

Now I will leave you to see if there are more pictures of Patricia's wedding.....