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So I arrive at Cluj airport in provincial Romania for a Lufthansa regional flight to Munich then home. But when I arrive the flight is cancelled as those pesky Lufthansa pilots are striking. The poor staff in the tiny airport can hardly cope with this but I manage to get myself rerouted via Madrid. Soon I am on the bus out to the plane, but suddenly we come to a halt. This is what we see. A Romanian Airlines 737 is trying to leave but has to squeeze itself between two other parked planes (the only other planes on the apron: one of them mine). Everyone has parked badly so It’s a tight squeeze and the pilot comes to a halt. Soon ten ground crew are running about, some waving him this way, some waving him that, some saying go, some shouting to stop and one just shrugging his shoulders. The pilot creeps forward another six feet. His right wingtip is now above the nosecone of an MD80, 6 feet from the windscreen, and his left wingtip is about to take out the side of another Romanian airlines 737. Some ground crew are still waving him forward, but he shuts the engines and we have airplane gridlock. By now it’s way too hot on the bus and someone bangs on the drivers cab to open the doors, which he does. We all jump out onto the tarmac to cool down and watch the show. Security what security? The obvious solution would be to get a tractor and push one of the planes back a bit…but one of them is on the edge of the grass, and it would be hard to fit a tractor between the other two. And ... they don’t seem to have a tractor anyway. Meanwhile another plane lands, taxis to the apron and is about to block in all the other planes. As ground crew run around waving, at the last moment the pilot realizes what is going on, executes a tight U turn close to the three stranded planes and parks elsewhere. So how do they fix it..Yes! 20 ground crew put their shoulders to the landing wheels and manage after 5 minutes heaving to roll a fully fuelled 737 back 10 feet, so the wedged plane is able to squeeze through and leave. 30 minutes later my flight follows and I am now telling this story from Madrid airport! The joys of modern travel! If you saw it in a film you wouldn’t believe it.

There are lots here, about half the village. In the cemetery in the village to see 90 on a gravestone is not unusual, quite a few over 100 it is the clean mountain air and the fact that they are tough mothers Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://spanishsunshinedaydream.blogspot.com/ http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=633338979 Spanish Jam

greetings to all the old ladies! I got home yesterday after being out of town for a few days to learn that one of my favorite neighbors had a heart attack and died while I was gone. This is going to leave a huge hole in the neighborhood.

i never knew how to spell it, just spell it like it sounds. They can probably understand someone working to send money back to their family. So many Andalucians worked abroad for that reason, around here it was mostly Germany and Andorra as well as Barcelona. There is no work here. Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://spanishsunshinedaydream.blogspot.com/ http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=633338979 Spanish Jam

In my little learn-all-about Spain for foreigners "In the Garlic" guiri is spelled like that, with gu. ********************************** Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you will still exist, but you have ceased to live. Samuel Clemens

is used here for anyone not from around here, not just foreigners but other Spanish as well, by some people here now i am no longer a Giri. we have the same routine with gas here also Bob - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://spanishsunshinedaydream.blogspot.com/ http://www.facebook.com/photos.php?id=633338979 Spanish Jam

Heartwarming. Further proof that most people are decent, and the few who are scoundrels shouldn't get the rest of us down. Thanks for sharing! Conversation is always more interesting than recitation, so speak your mind and not someone else's.

Liked your airplane/infant adventure too! ;-) Have a new one about basic human kindness, so will share. The apartment building I live in here is basically all older people and me. Building has 3 floors, European (4 American), with 3 apartments on each floor-so are not too many of us altogether. When I first moved in, these older people (mostly widows living alone, from what I can tell) were friendly enough, but were obviously curious and wary of the new "Guiri" (foreigner) so strange and alone. Would catch bits and pieces of their conversation in the hall that would stop suddenly when I passed by-but suspect that this phenomena is normal in every corner of the world. One little old fiesty gal, with two bad hips who has to be pushing 90 was especially penetrating in her staring after me. One evening even had a small discussion with her in the hall on the stairs, she was trying to block me climbing the stairs, with her crutches, because I "do not belong here". One evening, I encountered her one evening coming home from work. She was trying to toddle up the stairs on her apparantely quite painful hips, carry her crutches, AND a bag of shopping. I did what every normal person should do, under the circumstances, and very politely asked her whether I could not carry her bags for her. She agreed, so we climbed the stairs together, at the pace of a snail, until we reached her apartment on the 2nd floor of the house. At the door, she invited me in, so I went with her. This woman was talking a mile a minute to me by this point-very proudly showing me her home, and that she was a good Catholic who had the required crucifix in every room of her home. Her rapid-fire Sevillian dialect was somewhat difficult to understand, but got enough of it to at least follow her general themes. She was asking me questions as well, where I came from, what I was doing here, etc etc. So I told her bits and pieces. Told her had moved from Germany to work, and that my children were still there, not too much, but the basics. "Chatted" with her for 20 minutes or so, then made my escape, telling her to phone up on the phone for the front door lock, if she ever needed help with carrying things again and fled. WELL, the next few days, noticed a very obvious new warmth in the greetings I got on the stairs, from everyone else in the building. Was suddenly "hija" (daughter) and "mi vida" and was getting genuinly warm smiles. Seems that the scouting mission of the older woman had been successful. Was no longer the "friki Guiri" but a woman with children, just like them. Greetings had always been polite enough, but never that warm before. (For a while they all thought I was a woman of "loose morals at best" but is another story :-) And then I was coming home from work the other day, and encountered the woman with the crutches in her doorway. She started her machine gun dialogue at me again, and what was coming out was this: She told me she had decided that when she is cooking for herself each day, she could cook for me as well- as"cooking for two is no more work than cooking for one", and that I "am so alone, and go off every day to work for my children, and am way way way too thin, and have such beautiful sad eyes". She said that I could knock every day to pick up my dinner, and either take it up with me, or even occasionally eat with her. I told her that this was not necessary, but was so touched that I sniffled my way up to my place, when I left her. As soon I was up the level to my floor, I encountered my immediate next door neighbor in her doorway, who told me that she noticed that I leave early in the morning, which must make it difficult to meet the gas delivery truck, when my bottle is empty (here the water is heated by a gas bottle, and a truck comes Monday mornings with new ones-when mine is empty, shout out the window to the guy that I need a bottle, and he brings it up, very archaic but very funny!!!) Anhow this neighbor told me that when I need a new bottle, I should put my old out outside the door, put the money for the new one underneath the bottle, and when the gas man came, she would take care of it for me. Moral of the story: Just a tiny bit of sharing personal information can go a long way to change wariness to acceptance, and the right basic fact being shared can turn total strangers into just another human. ********************************** Don't part with your illusions. When they are gone, you will still exist, but you have ceased to live. Samuel Clemens

the more the better..thanks TL and Bobbalee!

Tiger Lilly I knew there was a very interesting story to your photo. Usually when I see someone’s photo on this site I always try to imagine ones story of the photo which is pasted to ones words. I always look at the photo and think who is this person or what does this represent etc. I first posted my daughters photo, but then I started challenging the State, so then I decided I had to show at least my face and protect my daughter, so I decided to show my family, but then the State became too angry, so I put my photo up there for the day and thought fuck, why should a caption of me from a time that only I can explain shield the State. So I eventually put up the backdrop of my last photo. The hills and the pool. Anyway, you have had 3 photos posted so far. The first one if I can remember was a young girl with blonde hair. Maybe my memory is off a bit. Anyway, it looks as if you enjoyed the moment and let’s see more of these photos. Sexy, intelligent, intangible, and in a room full of mirrors reflecting on time. That’s what I think of when I see that photo.