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Dawn at our place. GH took the photo, obviously. At this time of day either I'm already off to work, not home yet or sound asleep...

PS: The dinner mentioned on the previous post was here

12th Anniversary

Yup. GH and I have been stuck with one another for twelve years today!
And trust me: it is not easy. Putting up with me for all this time?
Presents will be swapped, a special dinner will take place on a special place and some more celebrations will occur... nobody is invited of course, today is just for the two of us!

Third Strike

Yet again GAP contracts slave work. After the cases in 2004 and 2006, another factory is found using slave children to make GAP products, this time in India.
Again GAP denies any knowledge and discards any responsibility, claiming they simply won’t market the products made by the said factory.
Not enough I’d say. Maybe that would do the first time it happened, but if this kind of situation happens systematically with the same company something smells fishy.
Well, if instead of a big corporation we were talking about a two bit criminal in California he’d be in for life… well, maybe neither US nor international laws would have a way to force GAP out of business, maybe there is no third strike law to prevent companies from using slave work.

But buyers can surely force GAP out of business and with that show all other companies that the world has had enough of slavery.

So if you’re reading this please let all your friends know what is going on and start boycotting all GAP products.

Relativity?

GH's finding on an alleged "gourmet store" in Lisbon: pop tarts!
Ok, I do admit we sometimes shop there for some specific items...

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Inside Santa Clara's Convent, in Funchal. On the beautiful Madeira Island.

Check out where it is

Not really making up for the lack of posts

Try and listen to this:

Dazkarieh

Making do

with what I have around here.

Holiday rant

6 minutes

That was the exact time elapsed from the moment I left the building for my holidays to the moment I got the first call from the lab.
Two more hours went by 'til I got the second call.
Rats!
I'm stuck here, too broke to travel abroad, with my cell phone on because my family must be able to reach me. Problem being everybody will be able to call me.
Money doesn't bring happiness, but it sure helps when you want to have fun and travel!
Of course I shouldn't be complaining. Yes, I do know plenty of people have it worst than we do.
Well, we'll make do whit what we have for now.
Sorry for the bad mood. A couple of days at the beach and it will surely improve.

Despair

Last May a desperate mother of a disabled girl drove her car off a cliff killing herself and her 25 year old daughter.

The despair of having to take care of her child eventually overwhelmed her.

After 25 five years of devotion to someone she knew could never have hope for a better future, that mother decided to put an end to both her child’s suffering and her own.

This week another desperate mother killed a son and tried to commit suicide too although she survived. A six years old epileptic boy died after his mother’s boyfriend dumped her.

Reading the news about it, especially the comments from the neighbors who say the little boy was a lovely kid, most people claim for the murderous mother’s head.

Me? Not sure.

I really don’t know.

I can’t even start to imagine how desperate a mother must be to kill her own progeny, so how can I tell if another mother is faking such despair?

Summertime salads

2 tbsp chives
1 tbsp mapple syrup or honey
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup plain yogurt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 oz cider vinegar
1 tbsp ground garlic
1 tbsp mustard

Or at least it seems to me these are more or less the right amounts... I never actually measure stuff for a salad dressing. Mix it well and chill it before serving.
Give it a try and tell me about it.

Old fashioned thermal container

The cork oak (Quercus suber), native to southern Europe and most common tree found in Alentejo (the southern part of Portugal just north of the Algarve), is used since ancient times not only to produce corks for the local wine but to create several other objects.
This is a "tarro", it is basically a traditional food recipient that would allow taking hot food to workers in the cereal fields.
The craftsmanship is extremely simple: cut a section of the tree trunk, hollow it from the wood except in the bottom and voilá thermal insulation used even before the Romans invaded the Peninsula some say.

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Évora's Roman Temple. Or a detail of it, to be accurate.