Time to travel!

I know, Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is not the time to go anywhere. Weather is not the best: storms, humidity and heat can make your trip miserable. Some places are flooded with visitors and everywhere you go there are queues and long waits. These bring out the worst in people....everyone can be so rude. Usually, I would stay home and huddle in my air conditioned home and ignore the world. Wishful thinking! I need to go see about moving my mother to her new home in Panama.

Panama has become so popular, there are articles about the country everywhere. People ask me why I haven't made a move to buy property or to relocate there. After all, I was born there and still have family and friends I like! Well, Curaçao is my first choice, why deny that. At the moment many things stand between the island and our moving back there; but I am holding on to the desire that things will sort themselves out and we can go back. More wishful thinking my husband would say....but he hasn't discarded the idea yet and that can only be good.

For all practical purposes, this will not be a holiday. My mother lives in a small city a few hours from Panama City. Not much to do and certainly not a tourist destination....YET! Besides, moving my mother out of her parents' home into a new and modern dwelling, is going to be an uphill battle. My sisters and I are bracing for arguments, tears and pleading. We have to stand strong, she really needs to be in a house that is built to accommodate her needs: wheelchair, nurses, exercise room and easy accessibility to her car. This house is perfect!

On the other hand, if you take a plane and go to another country, that is traveling, right? I will hold on to that view. Trips to the beach house, long walks in the morning by the seashore, these are some of my favorite things when I visit my mother. It is so peaceful and relaxing, nobody to interrupt your communion with nature. Because it is the rainy season, the sea will be calm and clear and on sunny days a good swim will be welcome. Back in town, there are other things to look forward to: having someone to do all the housework and the cooking, healthy food simply prepared and friends and family to partake with. Despite the fact that the trip will involved manual labor of sorts: packing and unpacking everything my mother owns, the other things will all contribute to the sense of holiday I want to achieve. Trust me, I am working myself up to this.

Do It Yourself.....not for me!

Did I ever mentioned that I read the newspaper very day? I love the feel of it and even the ink smudges in my fingers are a welcome sight. So today, as usual, I sat with my Miami Herald and went to the commentary page. I found it very interesting.

I am a fan of Ellen Goodman who writes for the Boston Globe. Her columns are always informative, funny and well written, with a message that make sense. Today it was about the do-it-yourself craze that has hit the States in the last few years. We put together our furniture, check our bank balance and pay bills on line, we buy movie tickets and book airline tickets on line too. When we need a prescription filled, we call the pharmacy and talk to a machine. We pump our gas at these high prices and without the benefit of full-service! All this means is that paying jobs have been taken out of the market and replaced with machines, making them unpaid labor. Finally men and women have equal opportunity in this do-it-all-yourself world. She calls it self-service economy. How true!

After reading the column and pondering these truths, I came to the conclusion that this is definitely NOT for me!! Take me back to the Third World, where there is someone at the end of the phone line, people still repair their appliances, bank tellers smile at you, doctors make house calls and you can talk to the guy who's pumping your gas. What is wrong with that?

Time and again I have express the believe that everyone has a part to play in the world. We cannot all be in charge as we cannot all be followers. We need someone to do every task and every job to have an economy that works effortlessly....right? Well then, I will strive to convince my husband that we need to move to the Third World. Retire in a place with all the benefits of modern conveniences and the old-fashioned conveniences too. Get out before we have do-it-yourself medical care and cook-your-own-dinner restaurants. Sounds wonderful!

Buttons, Widgets, Logos and Sunsets

Another strange post, I am sure I can hear the comment..... It is, actually. I have been trying for weeks to get either a widget, a logo or a button on this blog. No such luck! I am so technologically challenged that no amount of instruction did the trick. At times I thought it was not important. I already have listed all my favorite sites, had joined every group that might help me get the word about my blog out there.....Still, it kept nagging me. Why can't I do this?

I am determined, if nothing else. Trying was frustrating and exasperating, following instructions and not getting results was the worst. SO...I finally gave in and asked my son. Bliss! all was well and I can look at my blog and see results!!! My friends would be so impressed....I know I am.

Now, what does all this has to do with sunsets? Everything! If I would still be living in Curaçao, every time I got in a tizzy about the buttons, widgets or logos, I would have gone for a walk at sunset. This soothing ritual always worked for me. I would have called my friend Kathy, picked her up and go walking. We would have gone up the small hill at Jan Thiel and reaching the top I would have looked upon the blue Caribbean. My worries would have melted away, right there.

Let me tell you about sunsets in Curaçao. I now that this Nature's show happens every where and every where people brag about them; but when the sun goes down in the Tropics something magical happens. It is like sensual dance across the sky. Then, you need to see these ones: there most be a thousand different kinds of sunsets that happen on this island and all are glorious! The amount of colors that appear, the play they make with the clouds, the dry heat, the sea and even the wind, make these displays truly unique! My love for sunsets is well known amongst my friends and I have made them admirers too!

So when I have one of these days, in this case weeks...., I miss sunsets more than ever. I know, you would say that I have just to step outside on my little island here in Miami and see the sunset....NEEE!!! We don't face West....so I can see some colors behind the concrete jungle that is Brickell Avenue, but not a complete picture. Sunsets in Curaçao are the thing and I am planning to go enjoy them again.

On a lighter note.....

My friend Prati is such a great help!! She advices, comments and tags my blog in hers!! I appreciate it so much...Now I am working on my first tag! and you guessed it....it will be Prati's blog!!!

I met Prati through Monica Pradhan's forum. Like Ruth, she has become a friend and a supporter and I enjoy her writing enormously. She and her husband are so talented; free spirits, artistic, warm and helpful. Prati works with a company that is developing new shows for Indian TV, she is also a fashion blogger...with a most fantastic format: street fashion, the people that attract her attention when she walks along the crowded streets of Mumbai. Her husband Tarun just got an Award from the UN for a game he developed about female infanticide..... a man after my own heart!!!

So when you are out there in the blogosphere, do take the time to check her blog:

Shotcouture - Street Fashion