FELIZ NOCHEVIEJA // Sorry, only in Spanish this time :-)

EMPEZAMOS EL AÑO MUY BIEN 

¡Dentro de nada... Nochevieja, ¿eh? ¡Qué estrés! Yo en nochevieja me siento... me siento... no sé, me siento como un elefante en una cristaleria, ¿no? Cuando llega la fiesta miro alrededor y me da la  sensación de que todo el mundo se lo está pasando bien, menos yo. 

El estrés comienza con la cena. Aquello parece una prueba del Gran Prix: Tienes que llevar calzoncillos rojos, tener algo de oro para meterlo en la copa, preparar las doce uvas... y contarlas varias veces, porque, como son todas iguales, te equivocas: 

- Una, dos, tres, cuatro... una, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis... Esta pocha ya la he  contado... Una, dos... siete, ocho... ¡Joder, las doce menos veinte! ¡Chavalín, trae el  rotulador que las voy a numerar, como en el Bingo! 

Y tu madre:  

- ¿Queréis venir, que se enfrían las gambas? 

Que esa es otra: te tienes que comer todo lo que está en la mesa... y antes de las doce... que, con las prisas, más que pelar gambas, parece que estás desactivando una bomba. 

- ¡Ostras Pedrin, las doce menos diez! ¡Mamá, no me da tiempo:hazme un sándwich con el cochinillo, que ya está terminando Cruz y Raya! 

Y no eres el único que está agobiado, ¿eh? No hay más que ver la tele.

Allí están los presentadores de turno explicando a toda España como funciona un  reloj... acojonados... por si  se equivocan: 

- Cuando la aguja pequeña esté en las doce y la grande también.. serán las doce. 

¡Pues... como todas las noches, ¿no?! 

- Y entonces bajará la bola y... luego vienen los cuartos, ¡no vayan a empezar a comerse  las uvas, ¿eh? 

Vamos a ver: ¿por qué nos explican mil veces que no comamos las uvas  en los cuartos y  nadie nos explica por qué coño tiene que bajar una bola? ¿Qué clase de reloj es ése? 

Cuando por fin llegan las doce, en toda España se oye lo mismo:

Cla, cla, cla, cla... << es la bola >>... cla, cla, cla... Din-don... 

- ¡Ah no, que son los cuartos! 

Din-don... 

- ¡Escupid que son los cuartos!
 Din-don...  

- Pfbbbbbbbb... ¿qué son qué?
 

Din-don...  

- Los cuartos...

Ton...  

- ¡Ahora, ahora! 

 Ton... 

- ¡Una!  

- ¡Que no, que vamos por la segunda! 

Ton...
 - Pues me meto dos... 

 Ton...  

- Seis... 

- ¿Cómo que seis?  

Ton... 

- A mí ya no me caben más, ¿eh? 

Ton.. 

 -¡Eh!, ¡deja mis uvas y comete las tuyas! 

Ton...
 - ¡Es que se me ha caído una al suelo!  

Ton...  

- Bgrfds...  

Ton...  

- Bggggdffffff...

Ton... 

- A mí ya no me quedan...
Ton...  

- Bgggggdffffff....  

- ¡Pues a mí mesobran cuatro! 

Ton... 

- Bfgggggggg, grounfffffff... 

Y cuando acaban, toda la familia con la boca llena de babas, a darse besos: 

- Feliz año, eeeeeeeeeh, felicidades, grfdddfd... 

Y suena el teléfono: ¡riiiiiiiiiing! 

- ¡Pero leñe! ¿Ya están llamando? ¿No se pueden esperar? 

- Pues a mí todavía me sobran dos... 

- ¡Champán, que alguien abra el Champán!

Pero, bueno, ¿a vosotros os parece lógico empezar el año así? 

¡Qué estrés, de verdad!

Pero como es Nochevieja... tienes la obligación de divertirte. Así quedespués te vasa un fiestorro a un sitio en el que, si caben mil personas, el dueño ha decidido meter a cinco mil doscientas. ¡Muy bien! ¡Cuatro mil doscientas más de las que caben! ¡Quédate en la calle si te apetece, con la pelona que está cayendo!  

Así que entras.

Lo bueno que tiene ir a un sitio así es que te puede pasar cualquier cosa. 

A mí el año pasado me ocurrió de todo. Yo estaba tan tranquilo,tomándome mi cubatita de garrafón, cuando de repente un tío me cogió por detrás y me dijo: 

- ¡¡¡¡COOOOOOOOONGAAAAA!!!!!

Y, claro, qué vas a hacer, pues te pones a bailar... ¡Eso te lo hace un tío en el autobús y le partes la cara! ¡Pero como es Nochevieja... ! ¡Pues hala! Y de repente te das la vuelta y llevas cien personas enganchadas a tu culo. ¡A ver como escapas de ésta! 

Porque en una conga: entrar es muy fácil pero salir... ¿a ver quien se atreve y puede? porque en el garito hay como doce congas girando a toda pastilla... 

Bueno, pues iba yo conduciendo mi conga... por mi derecha, cuando, de pronto, me veo venir en dirección contraria una conga suicida alucinante conducida por un gordo con casco de vikingo. Yo le iba a hacer ráfagas, pero como las congas no llevan ni luces ni nada... pues, para evitar la colisión, di un giro brusco a la derecha... ¡Y me tragué entera una columna de espejitos! ¡Siniestro total! 

Doce heridos leves y una columna de espejitos destrozada. Y yo, con una ceja abierta tirado en el suelo. 

Y en ésas, me desmayé. 

Al despertar estaba en la sala de urgencias, rodeado por todos los de mi conga. Algunos todavía no se habían desenganchado; habían venido corriendo detrás  de la ambulancia. 

Bueno, las urgencias en Nochevieja, hay que vivirlas. Si en la sala caben cincuenta personas, el dueño ha metido a ciento cincuenta... Como el de la discoteca. Y como allí también es Nochevieja, el camillero lleva un gorrito de moro, la enfermera un collar de hawaiana y el que te cose la ceja unos dientes de Drácula, ¡que te da una confianzaaaa... ! El tío te dice: 

- ¿Qué ha sido?¿Con una moto? 

 - No, con una conga. 

 - ¡Ay!, si es que van como locos con las congas... 

 Cuando salí de allí me quería ir a mi casa, pero como era Nochevieja, acabé a las ocho de la mañana con la ceja grapada en un bar... 

 - Oiga, póngame un chocolate con churros. 

 - Pues sólo nos queda Nesquick y algunos dónuses... Es que los últimos churros se los han tomado los de una conga, ¡traían un cachondeo...! Había un gordo que llevaba un casco de vikingo... ¡No le digo más! Y es lo que yo le digo a los clientes: si no disfrutas en Nochevieja, ¿Cuándo vas a disfrutar? 

 Asi que espero que vosotros disfruteis de la nochevieja.

FELIZ AÑO 2010... Y QUE SE CUMPLAN TODOS VUESTROS DESEOS.

El autor de este divertidísimo texto no lo conozco ya que me llegó por e-mail... 

La foto que lo ilustra me la envió alguien muy querido... también por e-mail, así que tampoco sé de quién es.

Photos from Nepal: 21 sites from Nepal's everyday life.// 21 Páginas de fotos de la vida diarial en Nepal// 21. Seiten Fotos aus Nepal

Link

21  Photo sites from Nepal's real everyday life.

Almost every of them were taken by Govinda Poudel from Kusma (Nepal)

21. Seiten aus dem realen Alltagsleben Nepal's.

21 Páginas de fotos de la vida diaria en Nepal

CHiNA EXECUTES BRITON FOR DRUG SMUGGLING

REVIEW
Category:	Other

By Patti Waldmeir in Shanghai
Published: December 29 2009 05:35 | Last updated: December 29 2009 05:35


China has executed a British national despite pleas from the UK government, which claimed he was mentally ill and unfit to stand trial.
Tuesday’s execution of Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen caught smuggling heroin to China, prompted immediate condemnation by Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister.
“I condemn the execution of Akmal Shaikh in the strongest terms, and am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted,” Mr Brown said in a statement issued by the British Foreign Office. ”I am particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken.”

A father of five, Mr Shaikh, was killed on Tuesday in Urumqi, the capital of China’s westernmost province of Xinjiang.

Mr Shaikh’s execution is the first of a European Union national in China in 50 years, according to the charity Reprieve, which campaigns for death row prisoners globally. China carried out more executions than the rest of the world put together last year, Amnesty International said.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Chinese Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Mr Shaikh. The official Xinhua news agency said the UK government failed to provide sufficient proof that Mr Shaikh was suffering from mental illness.
According to family members, Mr Shaikh – who said he did not know that drugs were in the suitcase – travelled to China in the belief that he was going to be helped to begin a career as a singer.
A few years earlier, he left the UK for Poland with the aim of starting an airline. A preliminary psychological report prepared by Reprieve concluded that he suffered from “delusional psychosis”.

The execution could worsen relations between the two countries but early signs of Chinese public opinion showed widespread approval for the move.
On the website Sohu.com, all respondents commenting on news of the impending execution approved of it. One commented that ”during the (19th century) Opium Wars, illegal drugs came from the UK to China, bringing shame to China. Now we should fight against heroin from overseas, and whoever has broken the law should be sentenced to death.”

“This is not about how much we hate the drug trade. Britain as well as China are completely committed to take it on,” the British foreign secretary, David Milliband, said in a statement emailed to reporters. “The issue is whether Mr Shaikh has become an additional victim of it.”

Earlier this year, Beijing caused a diplomatic rift with the Australian government by detaining four employees of miner Rio Tinto, including on Australian passport holder, on charges of spying. The men were accused of using confidential commercial information to give the Australian miner the upper hand in annual iron ore price negotiations.


________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

By Geoff Dyer in Beijing
Published: December 28 2009 15:09 | Last updated: December 28 2009 15:09


A British man is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday in China for heroin smuggling, in a case which has drawn international condemnation of China’s criminal justice system and death penalty procedures.

Two relatives of Akmal Shaikh pleaded for clemency on Monday in Urumqi, capital of China’s north-western Xinjiang province where he is due to be executed after the Supreme Court rejected his appeal last week. Appeals for leniency from Gordon Brown, the UK prime minister, have also been rejected.

Mr Shaikh, 53, was arrested in September 2007 after being detained in Urumqi with 4kg of heroin in his suitcase. His family and lawyers claim that he suffers from mental illness and that he was duped into bringing the drugs into China.

“We strongly feel he is not rational and he needs medication,” his cousin Soohail Shaikh told Associated Press on Monday. According to human rights groups, he would be the first European to be executed in China for more than half a century.

Although China does not publish figures on the death penalty, Amnesty International estimates there were at least 1700 executions last year – the highest number in the world – and other human rights groups believe the real figures could be much higher. Legal experts say that in the 1980s and 1990s, China significantly expanded the numbers of non-violent crimes that could receive a death penalty.

The death penalty has been the subject in recent years of a concerted reform effort, including a 2006 decision that all death sentences would be reviewed by the Supreme Court. State media reported that the Supreme Court overturned 10 per cent of all death sentences last year. In July, a senior official at the Supreme Court said that in the future the death penalty should be reserved for a much smaller list of serious crimes and said that lower courts would be encouraged to issue more suspended sentences.

Although China’s legal system does allow for mental illness to be taken into account in criminal cases, Mr Shaikh’s family say that his mental condition has never been evaluated during the trial process and appeals. Reprieve, the UK prisoner advocacy group, arranged for a psychiatrist to attend the trial in Urumqi last year. However, he was not allowed to interview Mr Shaikh or attend the judicial hearing.

According to family members, Mr Shaikh – who says he did not know drugs were in the suitcase – travelled to China in the belief that he was going to be helped to begin a career as a singer. A few years earlier, he left the UK and moved to Poland with the objective of starting an airline. A preliminary psychological report prepared by Reprieve concluded that he suffered from “delusional psychosis”.

China has defended the conviction, arguing that Mr Shaikh’s legal rights were protected. “This case has been dealt with according to law. Drug smuggling is a grave crime in international practice,” said Jiang Yu, a spokeswoman for the Chinese foreign ministry. “During the trial, the litigation rights and lawful interest of the defendant have been fully guaranteed.”

Jerome Cohen, an expert on the Chinese legal system at New York University, said in some past cases Chinese courts had reduced death sentences to life imprisonment after allowing a mental examination of the defendant. Given Mr Shaikh’s condition, “one might have expected the Supreme People’s Court to comply with Chinese law and international legal standards by requiring a thorough mental evaluation”, he said.

Earlier this year, state media reported that as many as two-thirds of organ donors in China could come from executed prisoners. Huang Jiefu, vice minister for health, said the government was establishing a nationwide organ-donation system to try to clamp down on the black market in organs from executed prisoners, although he admitted that hospitals sometimes bent the rules because of the large potential profits.



Death data
●China does not publish figures for executions, because they are considered a state secret. However, Amnesty International estimates at least 1,700 people were executed in 2008, although the “real figure is undoubtedly higher”.

●The number of executions has dropped sharply in recent years from as many 15,000 a year a decade ago.

●Zhang Jun, vice-president of the Supreme People’s Court, said in July the number of capital crimes should be significantly reduced and more suspended sentences issued. More than 60 crimes can draw the death penalty.



Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009

CHRISTMAS by Linda S. Mintie

  

 "I used to be a consummate Christmas shopper. By the time December hit, I was way ahead of the game. I would have a mountain of bargain finds, admired goodies and toys to die for tucked away on a shelf just waiting to be wrapped and stowed lovingly under the tree. I found that shopping ahead spread the financial burden throughout the year and helped me avoid the last-minute holiday shopping rush.

Sounds like a plan, doesn't it? I thought so, too, until several years ago. Something happened that made me rethink my supposedly brilliant strategy.

It was the night before Christmas, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, but I felt like a louse! The tree looked bulimic — only I was the one who had binged. Brilliantly wrapped packages were bulging from every available nook and cranny.
I slumped to the floor and thought, "We have only two children. There's enough here for 10!"
My husband and I stared at each other. We realized that things had gotten out of hand. We had to ask ourselves: What message are we givingour children?
One by one we started dismantling the swollen pile. This present can wait for a birthday, this one for next Christmas, this one for a special reward for hard work.
Finally the stack looked sensible.
Right then and there, we made a decision. In the future, Christmas gifts would be limited to three types: (1) A gift really desired; (2) a needed item; 3) something educational. Of course, our children hated the idea and hoped we would eventually come to our senses.

We haven't.

And we've seen a change. No longer is Christmas an endless list of "wants." There is a new emphasis on cherished gifts. This represents a stark contrast to the disturbing trend among kids today to feel entitled to get whatever they want, whenever they want it.
As I've listened to children move through the hallways of our house, I've heard the chatter of "more." "We have more videos than you." "I have a CD player in my room." "You don't have your own phone line?" "I'm asking for a laptop." "You need a cell phone to look important."They get it from their parents. My favorite is the mother who proudly boasts that her daughter will outdo everyone in the neighborhood. She will have the best of everything -- before everyone else. The daughter knows this strategy and is horrified if anyone beats her to the material punch.
Not understanding her conscious intention to overload her daughter with "stuff," I naively asked, "Aren't you worried you're spoiling her?" The blank stare she gave me was enough to answer my question.
One summer the hot ticket was a scooter. Everyone on our block ran to the stores to buy one. My kids asked, but they knew what was coming: "Tell me again why I should run to the store to buy you a $100 item?"

Materialism not only distorts the meaning of Christmas but also create ungrateful kids. It's time to stop the madness. Instead of a new scooter, take your kids to a soup kitchen and let them serve. Visit a homeless shelter or a hospital children's ward, and put things in perspective.
I know what I am saying isn't new, but we need to hear it regularly. It's so easy to indulge our kids this time of year. But we need to examine our motives.
Is our overindulgence related to guilt from being absent or unavailable? Is it an attempt to communicate love, compete with others, create an identity or look successful? Is it the result of idol worship, a lack of self-restraint or misguided thinking?
When I see kids quickly open presents and throw them off to the side without even a thank you, I know something is wrong. When little Suzie tells me Christmas was no fun because she didn't get what she wanted, I am concerned. The Grinch hasn't stolen Christmas; our ungratefulness has.

Christmas is about God's giving His Son as a glorious gift to mankind. Don't clutter that gift with so many others that He gets lost in the fray. This season teach the children in your life to cherish the gift they already have — Jesus.

(By Linda S. Mintle, Ph.D.) 
 



This year I had one of the biggest surprises of my life two days ago: 
it is the best Christmas present I have ever received... thank YOU (M) for doing that. 
              

                              

Source: this article was found in Care2 Network

Hello meaning and some popular quotes

DID YOU KNOW THAT A SIMPLE 'HELLO' CAN BE A SWEET ONE? 

THE WORD 'HELLO' MEANS : 

(H) OW ARE YOU? 

(E) EVERYTHING ALL RIGHT? 

(L) IKE TO HEAR FROM YOU 

(L) OVE TO SEE YOU SOON 

(O) BVIOUSLY... 

 FRIENDS In The Heart Are The Worst Residents ...
1- They Capture The Heart
2- They Pay No Rent
3- They Don't Vacant Easily
4- When They Leave The Place Is Broken 

 Most people walk in and out of your life, but only FRIENDS leave footprints in your heart 

 When it HURTS to look back, and you're SCARED to look ahead,you can look beside you and your BEST FRIEND will be there. 

 Everything is okay at the end. If it's not okay, then it's not the end. 

 Don't let the past hold you back; you're missing the good stuff. 

 DON'T frown. You never know who is falling in love with your smile 

 Alone I can SAY, But together we can SHOUT.
    Alone I will SMILE, But together we can LAUGH.
    Alone I can ENJOY, But together we can CELEBRATE.
    That's the beauty of FRIENDSHIP.

 Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. 

Be the living expression of God's kindness: kindness in your face, kindness in your eyes, kindness in your smile. 

 NOBODY IS PERFECT UNTIL YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH THEM.
(Isn't that the truth?) 

"Dream as if you'll Live forever,

                                  Live as  if you'll

                                            die Today" 

                                       ( James Dean)

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Greetings
Begoña