Blue Star Juniper

I thought that I was finished with my planting (as for this season!) a couple of weeks ago, but last week there were final sales in my nearby garden centre and what did I discover? The plant that I liked so much - Blue Star Juniper, but didn't buy because of the price, was now 'half off '. I simply had to rescue it from its pot, and it is now decorating my front garden.
As a matter of fact I already have two specimens, but in its original 'ground covers' variety. This one is special as it has been trained into a tree as a bonsai . All three create a nice harmony this way.

 

 

...of Czech origin

There are many foreign words that we use in the Czech language...from English, French etc., but did you know that there are some words you use that actually come from the Czech language?
Here are two examples:

1. ROBOT

This word comes from the Czech word robota which means labour/drudgery/work and was first used by Karel Čapek in his science fiction play R.U.R - Rossumovi univerzální roboti (Rossum's Universal Robots) in 1920.
The play became famous (by 1923 had been translated into thirty languages), and the word 'robot' was introduced to the English language.





2. DOLLAR

Dollar comes from the Czech word Tolar, the Czech name for the silver coin mined in today's Bohemia * - silver mine in Jáchymov first minted coins in 1519.

* Until 1918, the town (named JOACHIMSTHAL before 1898) was part of the Austrian monarchy (Austria side after the compromise of 1867), head of the district with the same name, one of the 94 Bezirkshauptmannschaften in Bohemia - Wikipedia

 

 



Jáchymov thaler -souvenir

Later the name was used for similar coins minted in central Europe, Spanish peso and the Portuguese eight-real piece. An old slang term for the 25-cent coin is a piece of eight. The coin is still almost always called a quarter in everyday speech. The first US dollar was minted in 1794/75 and is known as flowing hair dollar from the image of a man with long flowing hair featured on the coin.

Flowing Hair Dollar

After Earth ...Fear

I saw a movie the other day "After Earth". I wanted to see it because it is a sci-fi which I like.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think it was that great, so I will not even talk about it, but....there is a moment when Will Smith talks to his son and this is what he says:

"FEAR IS NOT REAL.

THE ONLY PLACE THAT FEAR CAN EXIST IS IN OUR THOUGHTS OF A FUTURE.
IT IS A PRODUCT OF OUR IMAGINATION CAUSING US TO FEAR THINGS THAT DO NOT AT PRESENT, AND MAY NOT EVER, EXIST. THAT IS NEAR INSANITY.
FEAR IS A CHOICE!"

This is the part that I really recall. I think we all face it time to time ...fear. Let's try to remember these words when it happens next time.

Forgotten ?! books...

I have just updated my new page MY BOOKS. I can't believe that I didn't list so many, but because of my 13 moves..., many were simply buried in boxes for some time.

I will definitely talk about some of them in detail, there are many "favourites" :-)

New List

I decided to create a new page MY BOOKS which is a list of some of the books I have read - in English, German or French (not my native language), mainly since moving abroad. I will keep adding new ones and occasionally write more about some of them in my posts.

I love books!

David & Goliath

I have just ordered a new book by Malcolm Gladwell:  "DAVID & GOLIATH - Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants"



DAVID & GOLIATH

"We all know that underdogs can win-that's what the David versus Goliath legend tells us, and we've seen it with our own eyes. Or have we? In DAVID AND GOLIATH, Malcolm Gladwell, with his unparalleled ability to grasp connections others miss, uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty, the powerful and the dispossessed. Gladwell examines the battlefields of Northern Ireland and Vietnam, takes us into the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, and digs into the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms-all in an attempt to demonstrate how fundamentally we misunderstand the true meaning of advantages and disadvantages. When is a traumatic childhood a good thing? When does a disability leave someone better off? Do you really want your child to go to the best school he or she can get into? Why are the childhoods of people at the top of one profession after another marked by deprivation and struggle?

Drawing upon psychology, history, science, business, and politics, DAVID AND GOLIATH is a beautifully written book about the mighty leverage of the unconventional. Millions of readers have been waiting for the next Malcolm Gladwell book. That wait is over." - B&N

Malcolm Gladwell 
www.gladwell.com

I didn't hesitate because I have already read and enjoyed his other books:



 

 



THE TIPPING POINT

"The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas." -B&N






 

BLINK

 

"In his landmark bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant-in the blink of an eye-that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work-in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? In Blink we meet the psychologist who has learned to predict whether a marriage will last, based on a few minutes of observing a couple; the tennis coach who knows when a player will double-fault before the racket even makes contact with the ball; the antiquities experts who recognize a fake at a glance. Here, too, are great failures of "blink": the election of Warren Harding; "New Coke"; and the shooting of Amadou Diallo by police. Blink reveals that great decision makers aren't those who process the most information or spend the most time deliberating, but those who have perfected the art of "thin-slicing"-filtering the very few factors that matter from an overwhelming number of variables." - B&N

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT THE DOG SAW

"What is the difference between choking and panicking? Why are there dozens of varieties of mustard-but only one variety of ketchup? What do football players teach us about how to hire teachers? What does hair dye tell us about the history of the 20^th century?

In the past decade, Malcolm Gladwell has written three books that have radically changed how we understand our world and ourselves: The Tipping Point; Blink; and Outliers. Now, in What the Dog Saw, he brings together, for the first time, the best of his writing from The New Yorker over the same period.

Here is the bittersweet tale of the inventor of the birth control pill, and the dazzling inventions of the pasta sauce pioneer Howard Moscowitz. Gladwell sits with Ron Popeil, the king of the American kitchen, as he sells rotisserie ovens, and divines the secrets of Cesar Millan, the "dog whisperer" who can calm savage animals with the touch of his hand. He explores intelligence tests and ethnic profiling and "hindsight bias" and why it was that everyone in Silicon Valley once tripped over themselves to hire the same college graduate.

"Good writing," Gladwell says in his preface, "does not succeed or fail on the strength of its ability to persuade. It succeeds or fails on the strength of its ability to engage you, to make you think, to give you a glimpse into someone else's head." What the Dog Saw is yet another example of the buoyant spirit and unflagging curiosity that have made Malcolm Gladwell our most brilliant investigator of the hidden extraordinary." - B&N

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OUTLIERS

"In this stunning book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers"--the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.

Brilliant and entertaining, OUTLIERS is a landmark work that will simultaneously delight and illuminate." - B&N

 

 

 

 

Karlsruhe

I mentioned Karlsruhe in my other post, when writing about Ettlingen, one of the places I lived in Germany. Karlsruhe was where I was attending my German classes. It is only about 15 minutes from Ettlingen, as you can see from the map below these two places are almost connected.

 

 

Karlsruhe was founded 300 years ago by Margrave Charles William (Karl Wilhelm) of Baden.

According to the legend, Karl Wilhelm is supposed to have fallen asleep during a hunting trip in the Hardtwald of Durlach and dreamt of a palace which lies in the centre of his residence like the sun, the streets of city stretching out like rays of sunlight. He named his new city Karls...ruhe which in German means Karl's rest/repose.

 

 

 

 

The foundation stone of the fan-shaped city was laid in 1715 - standing at the centre of the 'fan', 32 'axes' extend from Karlsruhe Palace (Schloss Karlsruhe).

 

 

 

The town is the seat of two of the highest courts in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice.

 

 

Other attractions:

 

Market square (Marktplatz) is the best known square in Karlsruhe.

Situated on it is the city's hallmark, The pyramid. It is a monument to the city's founder Margrave Karl-Wilhelm and protects his grave. It was initially made of wood but was reconstructed in stone in 1823.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Zoological gardens (Stadtgarten Zoo)  the combination of zoo, one of the oldest in Germany, and municipal gardens. Located in the heart of the city centre, it is one of the favourite destinations within the city.

 

 

 

 

Majolica Porcelain Manufactory (Staatliche Majolika Manufaktur) produces a variety of ceramic art - from small sculptures to tiles, vases, bowls, plates etc. I bought some "souveniers" when visiting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Ettlinger Tor - a place to shop www.ettlinger-tor.de

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Dschungelkind"

When I lived in Germany, one day I was watching an interesting interview with Sabine Kuegler and learnt about the book she wrote "Dschungelkind".

I read it in German, but as I was trying to search for it on the internet now to find out if there is an English version, I also learnt about a German film adaptation directed by Roland Suso Richter in 2011. I will see if I can find it here in the US.
















So, you can find the book in English as "Jungle Child" ...or "Child Of The Jungle"

It is about her very different childhood as she lived from age 7 to age 17 with her parents and two siblings in the jungle of West Papua with the newly discovered Fayu tribe.

 

I read the book in two days. Amazing true story! I wonder how is the English version.

 

 

 

 
"In 1980 seven-year-old Sabine Kuegler and her family went to live in a remote jungle area of West Papua among the recently discovered Fayu - a tribe untouched by modern civilisation. Her childhood was spent hunting, shooting poisonous spiders with arrows and chewing on pieces of bat-wing in place of gum. She also learns how brutal nature can be - and sees the effect of war and hatred on tribal peoples. After the death of her Fayu-brother, Ohri, Sabine decides to leave the jungle and, aged seventeen, she goes to a boarding school in Switzerland - a traumatic change for a girl who acts and feels like one of the Fayu. 'Fear is something I learnt here' she says. 'In the Lost Valley, with a lost tribe, I was happy. In the rest of the world it was I who was lost.' Here is Sabine Kuegler's remarkable true story of a childhood lived out in the Indonesian jungle, and the struggle to conform to European society that followed" - Amazon.co.uk

Are you addicted...?

It is said that many women are addicted to shoes shopping, right? Well, not me, I must have a "cups/mugs" addiction. Definitely. I have just purchased more cups. I just couldn't resist.

 

Is it because I like ceramics in general, or maybe because I love to drink tea (and coffee), or am I a 'cup collector'....?! I don't understand, but ask my husband, I am drawn to them...there must be a special force :-)

 

Here is my recent addition...

 

 

 

 

Getting back to the shoes, don't get me wrong, I love shoes, but cups are still winning..., handbags on the other hand, well that is quite a different matter!!! Shall we talk about HANBAGS next time? ;-)

 

 

New "American" Microwave

We bought a new microwave (an over-the-range one with built-in extractor hood) together with other kitchen appliances 3 months ago, but it was installed only this week. My husband was doing it himself and when he started, he realized it would be a difficult project. We wanted it venting out and as soon as he cut out a piece of drywall, there it was - a pipe and electric cables in it and a stud right in the way where the vent was supposed to go.

So we left it for a couple of weeks and focused on other projects, but at the same time were thinking what would be the best solution to this problem. We knew how to deal with the stud, but now also electricity!!! We decided to close the drywall and use the kitchen cabinet above, where was more space, to direct the piping outside there.

Finally, the microwave is working, so I started experimenting with its features. I decided for this GE Profile microwave because it is matching my GE Profile stove/ range. (WOW label)

One of the button says FAMILY SNACKS, so I pressed it and here it comes, these are my options:

1 - BURRITO
2 - CHICKEN NUGGETS
3 - OATMEAL
4 - INSTANT MAC AND CHEESE
5 - CANNED PASTA
6 - HOT DOGS
7 - FROZEN MICROWAVE PIZZA
8 - HOT CHOCOLATE

 

Well done GE! There should be a sticker on this product - "for Americans only". Definitely NOT my type of snacks. I can use only one option - OATMEAL. Even hot chocolate that I make is from fresh cocoa powder, but maybe I can trick the machine and use this option as well.

 

Well, the rest of the features are great, so let's just forget about this one :-)

 



Stove or Range

Many people use these words interchangeably, here in the US they use range.

According to the Word Parts Dictionary:

Stove came from an Old English word that meant a hot air bath, a type of sauna. Originally, to stove was to sweat. Early on, it referred to a closed basket for sweating a gamecock or a hothouse for plants. By the 16^th century, it had come to mean a closed box in which heat is produced in order to cook.

Range comes from an Anglo-Norman word that meant a row or a file. It is connected to the word rank, which meant a row, line, or series of things. More properly, range refers to the array or configuration of burners on top of an oven.  The first instance quoted in the Oxford English Dictionary goes back to 1423.

Oven came from an Old Frisian word that meant an earthenware cooking pot. Soon after, the Old English form came to mean a stand-alone compartment which is heated to cook or warm food.