THE ROLE OF CHEMISTRY

You were right Antonio Ontiveros! A few days ago, apropos of my letter to Santa, you told me:

“We don’t have to reject advantages but, when something hurts, you can just think of getting better.”

On Boxing Day an ear infection reminded me what pain is and what medicines are useful for. As soon as the pharmaceutical gave me the medicine I rushed home to gobble them down with the anxiety of an addict. I fell asleep, wrapped in a hundred thousand blankets and made up sleep lost during the last night.

And when I woke up the pain was gone. I would have kissed the feet of him who invented painkillers and even the filthy overall of the first person who ground the prescription ingredients in a mortar.

I wish to thank all those who spend their hours searching for a remedy against pain. The greed of big pharmaceutical companies often undermines their work. Yet business and vocation are different things, even nowadays.

 

http://www.fernandezbaladron.com/

 

 

 

 

Copyright Luisa Fernández Baladrón

 

 

THE TOUGH CYCLIST'S BAND

A difficult week comes to an end.

Last Saturday I went to “Sa Vileta” on bike for private tutoring and the cold air rushed into my lungs. So on Monday I already had a cold. I hadn’t caught one for the last TWENTY years. I had to muddle the whole week, teaching with a stuffy nose.

Late on Monday evening I had to give a private lesson to a fifteen-year-old girl. We were reading a book when the young and foreign stepfather burst into the room, thrusting “niceness” and requiring an explanation, because the teenager had not passed her English exam. Actually, the teenager’s mother moved her into a new school this year and the new institution has a level of English which is too high for her. Now the “baby” urgently needs more than three hundred hours of English lessons to put up with the rest of the class. Instead, the family has decided to “help” her with one private lesson per week. More than a month ago, I reported this to the mother, who promised to study the issue. And, when it seemed that the subject was already forgotten, the glossy twenty-seven-year-old second husband turned up.

An acquaintance of mine has the habit of humming a “pasodoble” whenever someone tries to provoke him. The higher the grievance, the stronger he hums. I was so amused reminding that habit of my friend, that my though unwittingly knocked at the door of “The Tough Cyclist’s Band”. The band is made up of a trumpet, a violinist and a former Santa’s reindeer who retired due to certain intestinal problems which caused him a terrible aerophagia. Now Pudolf, the farty reindeer, enjoys his musical retirement while the fans of the orchestra are absolutely delighted with his hight sense of rhythm. However, Pudolf does not perform popular “pasodobles”, but the most exquisite Vienna Waltzes. For this historical broadcast opportunity, the master of ceremonies chose “The Blue Danube”.

Blaue Donau (Johann Strauss)

Orchestra conductor: Xosé Troitiño (The tough cyclist).

(The conductor approaches the podium and takes the lead).

 

PA – RA – RA – RA – RA

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PA – RA – RA – RA – RA

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PA – RA – RA – RA – RA

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                                                                                  Quickly....

 

PA – RA – RA – RA – RA

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PA – RA – RA – RA – RA

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PA – RA- RA – RA - RAAAA

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PA – PA - PAAAAAAAA

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PA - PA - PAAAAAA

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PA - PA - PAAAAAA

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PAAAAA               

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PA PAAAAA

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 PA PAAAAA

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FART – FART – FART – FART – FART – FART – FART – FART – FART – FART – FART –

FART – FART - FART – FART – FART – FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART– FART – FART – FART - FAAAAAAAAAAART

 

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A hug from Palma and a new photograph for the “throw back Thursday”.

http://www.fernandezbaladron.com/aid-with-spanish/

Copyright Luisa Fernández Baladrón

 

 

 

A LETTER TO SANTA

Children get really bored when they have to repeat. This is why we transform the most difficult words into passwords when we have to teach them. I point at their eyes with a hand-held torch (a gift of Mr. Meyer, of “Es Fangar”) and I say “new password”... and add the longest word I can think of at the time: hot-air balloon, rollerskating, fire engine.  

Kids love it. So much, that I have sometimes used full sentences, such as “I like oranges”, “fruit is healthy” or “apples are crunchy”. The current password is “a letter to Santa”. In fact we have promised to write to the plump version of Saint Nicholas de Bari which was invented by a freeze drink some years ago.

Amid this climate I have started to feel tempted to write my own letter. I don’t mean the perfect one that a “Miss Universe” would read in her appointment (I want the peace in the woooooorld), but a childish, long list. I want this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this...

It is a pleasure to dispose of the funds of the European Bank in good times, even if this only happens in our imagination. I have been able to ask for a helicopter to fly from time to time to the mainland.

After all, dreaming is free. Why shouldn’t we do it from time to time?

A big hug from Palma

http://www.fernandezbaladron.com/aid-with-spanish/

 

 

 

 

Copyright Luisa Fernández Baladrón

 

 

A CUP OF TEA

When we were kids, it was forbidden. In those days, children were not allowed to drink stimulants. This included tea, coffee and all cola drinks. In fact, children used to drink orange Fanta - though a few years after we would also had the option of drinking “Mirinda”-. But tea was no option at all.

But in summer used to come aunt Laura, always accompanied by tea, coffee donuts and “La Violeta” candies. She used to prepare a huge pot and give us each a bit, serving the beverage in our cups directly from hers. Even in pijamas, we climbed on a stool to reach a glass cup. And we went secretly out of Laura’s room with a cup of tea.

Today has been a rainy day; one of those cold and annoying ones which are so typical of the North. When I saw the way it was bucketing down, I preferred to take the underground instead of going on bicycle, so as to open my umbrella. However, when I came back home the rain was leaking through my heels, leaving a trace of water on the floor. And just then, when my whole body was cold and numb, I had a hot shower, dried my back with big towel, put my flannel trousers on, wrapped a blanket around my shoulders and bundled up my neck in a shawl, still smelling the scent of the cologne.

I took the cup with both hands, warming my face with the smell of raspberry. And I sat in my favourite chair, listening to RY X and enjoying the truce of the house once again. Let’s get the day off to a good start enjoying a cup of tea.

A hug from Palma

http://www.fernandezbaladron.com/aid-with-spanish/

Copyright Luisa Fernández Baladrón