Life without a laptop is a frustrating thing…

My laptop died the other day, it looks like the psu has gone…I don’t know where it hs gone but gone it has, now I’m waiting for the estimate for it to be fixed!!…and i’m back to using an old pc..it is soooo slow and I hate it…I haven’t got half the time saving devices and shortcuts on this pc and everything takes forever…so no fotos for a while, at least until I get my laptop back or I figure out how to make this thing run at least at walking pace…I’m also on a pc that i haven’t used since the last big love affair of my life and its a little disconcerting and odd to find still in the inbox of my Outlook Express the sugary emails sent between two people who were at that time engaged in a  perpetual lusting…Oh! how times change and what seemed like an amour now seems just plain silly…a good dose of reality checking there…

 What’s been happening in my world, well at the moment i have a chest infection and have lost my voice ( all my female friends say its man flu!), whatever it is I feel crap.

At Conversation Club yesterday, we had 6 new people, 4 Spanish, 1 Japapnese and a girl from China, it was very noisy and very busy, added to which i couldn’t speak, it made for an interesting couple of hours. After I had finished a group of us went for a coffee, we took over a local café, it was good fun although by the end i was very tired!!

Heye, Marhaba, Pryvit, Asalamualaikum, Rozbhash, Hola, Tudo Bem, Konnichi Wa

Just some of the ways to say hello in the languages of the people who attend the Conversation Club I run on a Saturday. I have South Americans (Argentinian and Venezuelans), a couple from Pakistan, a few Portuguese speakers from Africa, Brazil and Portugal, along with a Ukranian a couple of Kurdish guys and a Japanese guy. They are a great crowd, a very diverse bunch and good fun to be with.  It’s interesting watching them talk to each other, they ask questions about each others customs and countries, sometimes the questions get a little personal…

I seem to have been spending a lot of my time recently listening to other people’s problems, now I don’t mind listening, apparently I’m quite good at it…and i figure if you are good at something it is a gift. Where do I go if I have a problem…perhaps I should talk aloud to myself!!!

Autumn is rushing up fast, yesterday I picked a couple of conkers off the ground…they seem to be falling early this year..I wonder what is going to happen this year…you see..conkering has been banned in most schools this year by the Health and Safety brigade!!! ya boo sucks to them…in next weeks class we are going to have a conker competition…provided of course the H&S wallahs don’t read this!!!! I love Autumn, the cool, crisp morning and the fog and the beautiful colours..I must get out with the camera…

I love the Autumn in Amsterdam, I haven’t been over for what seems like ages, whenever I get withdrawal symptoms I look at a couple of webcams from the city and apart from the smells it feels almost as though you are there…well almost at a stretch…at least I am saving the planet and lowering my carbon footprint by webcamming!!!!!!!!

 

    

 

 

Books

Bill Bryson      Mother Tongue

Mark Abley     spoken here