Pullup Orchestra: ufae und abae

Finished project!!!

Makeover

I always want to try the makeover of old jeans. Now I did it! A mini-skirt. Colorful quilts and bias binding really make it divertido. :D
The leg part...I made a tea mat. Zigzag stitches for the tree and a small bird quilt.

Felt egg cozies

Look at these cute egg cozies. I used the idea from the book "Scandinavian needlecraft". It turned out to be gorgeous!!! It is a housewarming gift for J and A.

Tossa de Mar, Sant Jordi day

For Easter holiday, we took a small relaxing trip to Tossa de Mar. Luckily we had a nice sunny weather on Saturday. If you just wish to visit the old town and the castle, an one-day trip is enough.
Again Sant Jordi day...:D And again...I complained about why men can get a book. All the chocolate figures in the show window are lovely. I took a picture of this pinky HelloKitty. It just pops out from all the footballs and Messi(s).
Talking about the football, I love the joke about the suicide cup (Copa de Rey).

Happy Birthday and gelatine chocolate cake

Happy Birthday!!!
I prepared a gelatine chocolate cake for today. My own invention!!! The original idea is to have the chocolate cake as the base. Later I will pour the gelatine on the top with bosque fruit inside. Hmmm...you know...plan is one thing and the reality is the other thing. After I pour the gelatine liquid over the cake, the cake started to float inside...Ok...maybe another unsuccessful baking attempt. Juan is one eye-witness for my many attempts: the poor muffin bounced back when it hit the ground.
Hmmm...it tasted not bad at all. But it is heavy though...like spacecake...quoted from Phil :D

The famous apples

Here I quote this funny Chinese message: 历史到今天为止有三个最著名的苹果：一个诱惑了夏娃，一个砸醒了牛顿，一个现在握在乔布斯手中~这三个苹果说明了，性爱、求知、装逼，是人类进步的阶梯…我们已然进入欲望膨胀的最高境界.


Through the human history, till now there are three most famous apples: one seduced Eve, one hit the head of Newton, and the other one...now in the hands of Steve Jobs. They symbolize the three steps of human progress: sex, knowledge, and snob.

Lazy Sunday and Bangkok cafe

Bangkok cafe is still the best Thai restaurant on my list. This Sunday we went there again for lunch. Really nice curry sauce! Unfortunately I forgot my camera. But...next time


Bangkok cafe
Calle Evarist Arnus 65
Barcelona

Raspberry-mousse-pie

Here is a nice recipe from http://et-laine.blogspot.com/. The orignial post has a loverly photo of the cake. Now I just copied it here so that I could try it later by myself.
Crust:
250 grams of flour
125 grams of sugar
150 grams of cold butter
2 grams of baking powder
3 egg yolks

Mix the flour with the baking powder in a bowl. Make a whole in the middle in which you put the butter in pieces, the sugar and the egg yolks. Mix these last three ingredients with a fork without mixing them with the flour. When this mixture is homogenous (you will have butter flakes), mix it with the flour. Do this as quick as possible to prevent the butter flakes to get too soft. Cool for at least 1 hour in the fridge.
Roll the pastry with a rolling pin to a 5 mm thick sheet. Transfer it to your buttered cake tin (I used a 26 cm diameter round tin). Put in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Heat the oven to 180 °C. Butter a piece of parchment paper that will fit in your cake tin while covering the sides. Put in buttered side down on the pastry and fill it with for example dried beans. This is to prevent the pastry to fall down from the walls of the cake tin when it bakes. Bake the pastry for about 10-15 minutes, remove the parchment paper and beans and bake until the pastry starts to get color. Remove from the oven.
Raspberry mousse:
600-700 grams of raspberries
150 grams of sugar
50 grams of flour
3 egg whites
optional: some dinner spoons of raspberry liqueur
Cook the raspberries with the sugar on a medium fire under occasional stirring until they have fallen apart completely. Reduce the volume a bit by letting it cook for some minutes. Remove the seeds by pressing the raspberries through a sieve. Add flour (and liqueur) and stir well. Beat the egg whites to snow and mix them with the raspberries. Fill the pre-baked crust with the raspberry mousse and bake in the oven at 180 °C for 15 min.

Gnocchi！ 手工馬鈴薯麵疙瘩

Recipe:

• Potatoes 2 (0.5 kg)
• eggs 1 (or no egg)
• flour 1 cup (200 g)
• salt

I tried to make Gnocchi before. Here I corrected the recipe from using 3 eggs to 1 eggs. It was quite successful. :D
I will make a lot of them and freeze them for my lovely work-lunch.
Tip from Andreas: bake the potatoes instead of cooking them...

PeixBlau and Kukades

Needlecraft course

I am taking a needlecraft course at Patchwork-Kukades shop. It is fun. :D Kukades is a catalan word, something like mono...You can say Kukada to little cute things. I learned some new embroidery technique! :D And...my first cross stitch work.

New books

Fish motif, from a book (Scandinavian Needlecraft by Clare Youngs), sewing machine, zigzag stitch
Made in France: Cross-stitch and Embroidery in Red, White and Blue

Look, who is riding a bike now!

After one week of bicing, I finally got my bike on this Monday: a black brompton! Hmmm...Black is a bit plain. But I JUST can not wait for two months. In order to put some color, I chose a orange color cycle helmet. I hope I will stand out in the traffic. Cross my fingers!

Indeed the folding of this bike is great. It can not get easier. The bike is still quite heavy for me. At first, I thought about getting a supertight frame. But my budget is quite tight and it would not make too much difference. Maybe I can take this as a weight training opportunity. The only problem I have is with the wheels: they are small. You do have a bumpy ride.

My not dark not tall stranger: Heroi

He is Heroi. We are his foster parents now. You can see that he is at his favourite lazy location.

Now he starts meowing during the night. It sounds like he is in heat. But we all know...Poor thing. So...just being blue??? Also his meowing sound is quite different. Maybe he has never learned the correct meowing sound??? I do need a cat expert.

Who is the winner?

On Saturday, we went to this "LA GRAN FINAL". :D There were four groups: CIUDAD NEÓN, THE LADY SOUNDS, THE IDIOT, and S.YM. At last...the winner is S.YM. Here is their link at MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/emersym.

卢安克不是“洋雷锋”，也不该另类

作者: 南方周末评论员 戴志勇 2010-05-26 22:33:33 来源:南方周末


自德国人卢安克十三年前到中国投身志愿教育以来，关于他的各种猜测从未停止。最新消息是，这个十多年未领一分钱工资的洋雷锋，因为既“没有获得正式的志愿者身份，也没有获得中国的教师资格”，为了和那些与自己命运相连的“留守儿童”呆在一起，也为了自己喜欢的生活，不得不更低调了。

他关闭了自己的博客，完全隐身于广西的乡村。在关闭博客时说：我不是本国人，却去管一些外来人不应该管的事情，使得本国人有些难受。为了不伤害你们的自尊感，我是不应该管留守儿童的事情。

究竟是谁的自尊感，比留守儿童的教育更重要？从央视对卢安克的访谈来看，显然不是孩子们的，他们都非常喜欢这个懂得如何激发自己创造力的外国老师。也不会是当地村民的，在他的带动下，素来散漫的村民们共同修筑了连接各家各户的水泥小路。那么，只能是伤害了 “有关部门”的自尊感了——不去直面和解决问题，却因一个为中国留守儿童奉献全部心血的外国人而觉得被揭了家丑，感觉被冒犯——这是一种怎样不可理喻的自尊感？

排斥卢安克最强大的理由，是有人怀疑他有恋童癖。其实，如果愿意，还可以说他是偏执狂，是德国社会的失败者……类似的质疑再举出几十上百条，不是难事。如果只用传统社会的眼光，这些对外来的“闯入者”的怀疑就都是人情之常。但毕竟，我们早已经跨入了现代文明，除非经法庭判决，我们都无权把自己的猜测当作定论，以之决定一个人的命运。总不能说，一切不谋利、不求名的行为，都需要自证无罪吧？

如果真有这样一个地方，善行是例外，不贪腐被视为异类，人们只追逐权势与财色，它会是圣经中那个恶贯满盈的城市索多玛，而不应是我们深爱的这片土地。可是，面对卢安克，某些人的精神世界的确已不习惯这个 “没有目的”的人。国人害怕退回到贫穷的农村，他却看成是一步步接近自己喜欢的东西。对这样的价值观与人生选择，用世俗的眼光当真看不明白——这才是时代的大悲哀。

社会的精神维度，已经贫瘠到难以理解卢安克，这并非一日之过。九十年前“打倒孔家店”是只是矫枉过正；四十多年前“破四旧”，却几乎彻底废黜传统价值。如今，我们认可了自利，却未建立公正规则；突破了许多禁忌，却未做到克制欲望；发展了极大的物质财富，驾驭得却非常尴尬。

正因缺乏精神的力量，当地政府才害怕家丑外露，才无法在同样的精神深度上理解一个真心帮助留守儿童的外国人，从而显得疑虑重重。卢安克以一个常人的标杆，衡量出了社会的精神单薄症。

把强者的肆无忌惮与弱者的举刀屠童，都归咎于大环境，这很容易。但倘若人们看到善人的第一反应，居然是怀疑与不适，而非认同和追随，我们又靠什么驱除附着于内心的软弱与恶念？又怎么去改变不公不义？

把卢安克比成白求恩或雷锋，并不恰当。他既非一个国际主义战士，也未自小受到“狠斗私心一闪念”的灌输。甚至，他也不是一个富于牺牲精神的宗教徒。他不赌博，不喝酒，不吃肉，不恋爱，在回答记者“不为这些，你为了什么生活”的问题时，他只说：有更大的乐趣啊，比能表达的更大的乐趣。

这就是最好的回答了。勇者拍案而起，并非为了博得令名，而是不公不义触疼了他的眼睛或耳朵。智者孜孜不倦，只不过是探索未知可以带来精神的满足。卢安克每个月只花一百多块钱，不是因为他讨厌物质，只是他更爱自由，以及教育留守儿童给他带来的深沉乐趣。

这个时代最缺乏的，不是伟人，不是圣徒，而是一大批拥有起码精神修养，能包容不同价值追求，理解一切美好与善意的平常人。他们对生命意义的领悟，对幸福的理解，建立在人之为人的天性与良知的基础之上，而不是建立在利欲的计较、权衡与满足之上。他们随时可以为了生命的自由，选择独特的生活方式，放弃不必要的物质羁绊。

而这，需要我们返本归源，重建个体的精神世界。只有当卢安克不再成为社会的另类，社会才会回归正常，循着内心指引自由生活的人，才会渐成主流。

St. Jordi day

Chocolat!, Divinas (Club Capitol Barcelona)

It was a big surprise from St. Jordi day. We and "Slovenians" just bumped into them on the street (Rambla). They performed for a radio station there. They was singing "Crazy people". I love it! And...the big surprise is that there is a 50% off for St. Jordi week. Haaaa....

Looking forward to Dec

Yesterday finally all of us met on Skype. We booked the tickets from Cartagena to Bogotá. It was just around 50 euros per person. Nice!

Now the plan is to take a bus from Bogotá to San Gil. From San Gil, we can make some trip around. Later we will continue with the bus trip to Santa Marta. Then we will be just at the beach.

Now I have to apply the visa for Colombia. Visa...

Fabric Fever

Now my sewing fever is really growing. Bàrbara gave me an address of one fabric store. Lovely!!! :D Now my fingers are dancing...my sewing machine is calling me.

Unfortunately my budget for sewing machine is low. I could only get a normal home deco machine ¨Elna 6200¨. Maybe one day I will buy a serger with overlock function. Now...Hmmm...I will work with zigzag.

Spinning Jenny

K invited both of us for the event of Spinning Jenny. The idea of presenting new designer's work in such small scale event is quite nice. Designers provide a short clip of video of their collection. However, only few of them really serves the purpose. They should be clear with a outstanding theme.

巴黎的兰州拉面

It was a surprise for the trip to Paris.

Night Ride Home by Joni Mitchell

It was an amazing song for me, which few can take you somewhere else with them. I still remembered those old cassetts, which came with the magazine "音乐天堂"。Unfortunately...I lost most of them...but...of course the memory will be always there.

The "both sides now" from "Love actually" touches me again. I was looking for the singer... then once again I found Joni Mitchell after all those years. I checked out both version of the songs from the internet. One is from 1970 and the other from 2000. 30 years...her voice becomes...rich...

Zenet: Club Sala Apolo Barcelona

My first concert in Barcelona: Zenet. I bought the CD immediately after I watched MTV video of "Estella" on TV. The voice attracted me. The concert at Apolo was amazing. He has the charm. :D The magic of his songs on me is that now I really would like to learn Spanish. The language is really passionate.