Is it lost!

 

 

It is over 5 weeks since I sent my parcel to my niece in Australia , which I wrote about here. She still hasn't received it!  I just hope it isn't lost. I cannot recall any of the parcels I have sent in the past ever taking so long. 

I am going to give it another week and then I will have to go back to the Post Office here and see what they can do about it... tch!   

 🔔🔔Whoopee! The parcel has arrived...that's about 6 weeks to get there but at least I don't have to worry now!! (added 25th March) !

 Sunday morning

 After a rainy,chilly and windy week with snow falling on the mountain peaks it cleared up  just right for our Sunday outing. The outing still wasn't up in the mountains as we had previously planned but instead we went for a walk along Urbanova beach 10 minutes drive outside of the city. 

There was a chilly wind at the beach but the sun was shining and the skies were blue again and quite a few people were flying kites on the beach which was good to watch.

 

 

 

 

 It was such a pleasant stroll along the promenade watching the children in the sand and youngsters playing ball or just sitting on a bench curled up reading a book.  I saw the police patrolling checking that people were wearing their masks and also wearing them correctly and not under their chins.There was a really pleasant ambience,people enjoying the walk and chatting with family members and children happily running around playing as children do. An enjoyable sight which impressed me because it was so normal and frankly it was just so good to feel the normality of it all.

Can you see the snow on the mountain tops in the background?

 

 

 RAOCKS

 Big Red Rose RAOCK , the size of my hand, all ready to go in my stash to be left out this week.. Such a shame the camera hasn't picked up the little sparkly red gems I left under some petals.

RAOCKs are great for using up bits of yarn.  Hook  4, Mixed yarn, No Pattern

 

Books

My sister sent me this book last week from the UK.

 

She knows how much I like to find out the origin of idioms.  The English language is packed full of popular phrases and sayings(idioms) that we use frequently in our daily life. I often find myself wondering where certain phrases or expressions come from. I am finding this book is clarifying for me that question I constantly ask myself.

Let me just give you an example I found out about this curious idiom quite some time ago :

e.g "There is no room to swing a cat in here.   no room to swing a cat is the idiom

This actually originated from Navy jargon around about 16th century. When they referred to a cat in the Navy they were talking about a whip, a rather horrendous instrument called "cat' o nine tails" which was used to punish any unruly sailor.  The whip itself had nine long tails studded with spikes and to be able to strike the poor sailor in question ample space was required so they had to do so on the deck of the ship were there was plenty of space. Today we use this phrase when we want to indicate that a certain space is excessively small because there is no room to swing a cat. 

 Fascinating,isn't it? 😊

 

 Hope you are having a good week

 

Keep well

 

Amanda :-)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where's the blue?

Last weekend

The  blue skies disappeared and for a change it was snowing practically everywhere in Spain except here in Alicante City. Plenty of rain though here, three days of it and counting, most unusual but no complaints as Alicante needs the rain.

Throughout the rest of the country Storm Filomena has been very harsh indeed especially in Madrid which was hit hard by the blizzard ! The airport was closed to all flights,there was no public transport,lorries stranded on the motorways and villages in the province snowbound.  Even snow ploughs have not been able to reach some of those villages. At present Red Cross & Emergency services skiers are trying to reach those villages and hopefully helicopters will be able to get to them soon.  

As the delivery lorries have not been able to get into the Madrid there is shortage of fresh food in the supermarkets and of course shortage of toilet rolls.   What is it with this bulk buying of toilet rolls??   I don't understand it!

 

short clip to show you the situation in Madrid

I know some of you bloggers out there live in countries where snow and snowstorms are perfectly normal and it is part of your everyday in winter.   It isn't here, except in some of the  mountains like the Pyrenees and northern Spain. The people in Madrid are not used to snow at all!  It was quite unexpected and they were not prepared for it.

On a positive note schools are closed and the children are having a whale of a time 😀

 

☃☃☃☃☃☃☃☃☃☃ 

Crochet .....the ever growing baby blanket :

I am still on the same baby blanket and it is growing, in fact I shall be starting the border very soon but from the start I have found it a tad tiresome! This could be of course due to me swapping from one pattern to another about three times(hence a good deal of frogging). I just don't like too holey shawls or blankets for new born babies. Their little fingers get caught up in the holes!!  I think it looks nice but it is slow going!      Hey ho!!   I tell myself not much longer now and it will be completed and I can go on to something new ...small new!   I also hope no more new babies in the family for awhile please! 

Not very good photo!!

 

Alexa and doubts:

 

Sr P is not at all computer friendly or very tech savvy at all! He absolutely refuses to have and use a mobile phone!   However, I'd like to know who he has been talking to him lately! He only comes out the other day with he had heard about Alexa and he likes the idea of having one and being able to talk to her and ask for  the music he likes or the latest news and so on and how could we get her!  It did take a little while for me to explain to Sr P that Alexa is an it and not a her nor is it a gadget but an app which you connect up to via an Echo dot speaker connected to the internet or similar. Once that was understood I told Sr P I would be quite happy to have an Alexa in my home as well but I did have to check it out that I could connect it to my iphone or my iMac before purchasing the speaker from Amazon.   Whenever I need to buy a new appliance whether domestic or other I don't like being too hasty and always check out the pros and cons online before spending my money.  As I browsed here and there on the web I began to learn more about what Alexa can do and I began to like Alexa more and more ....but then I came across the following information online :

   Here’s a quick recap of the safety precautions to always keep in mind:

• Turn off voice input. Use Alexa voice remote instead.
• Use PIN protection or disable voice purchases.
• Turn on your device’s sound notification.
• Disable your smartphone’s address book sharing feature.
• Keep your Echo away from windows and doors. Really?
  
• Designate “Alexa-free” rooms.
• Review and delete your interactions with Alexa.
• Opt out of Alexa recordings.
• Turn your Echo’s camera off.
• Read third-party terms and conditions.

Your Amazon Echo is here to ease the day-to-day thousands of ways. However, you still need to put in a little effort to ensure you’re safe and your information is secure. Use the privacy and security tips outlined above to help your hardworking assistant keep your personal information safe.

 and ...it seems also I have to give access to my contacts to be able to set up the Alexa app...excuse me???   I can't say I like the sound of that.

I have found the above information rather off putting and I don't feel so keen about Alexa at present after reading all this. If any of you use Alexa I would welcome your advice and opinion please.

 

Keep well

 

Amanda :-)