Weekly Smile 47 #weeklysmile

Hello everyone! Santa came early for Him Indoors – he’s got a new car – yay!!! We got it yesterday and this weekend, we are planning to drive to Tegernsee, which is a town in the Miesbach district of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the shore of Tegernsee lake, at an elevation of 747 m above sea level. The town has its origins in the Tegernsee Abbey, which was founded in 746. Looking forward to test driving the new jag.

Got a bit of a mishap today. This morning, I woke up thinking I was superwoman and started tidying up, washing clothes, sorting stuff, etc before I went to work. I put the washing on, thinking that when I get home, I’ll be able to hang them to dry. Me, being me, forgot to empty the pockets before putting them in the machine. It just so happen that Him Indoors’ mobile phone was still in his trousers, so it has been washed. Needless to say, the phone was useless so I went to town to buy him a new one (before he got home from work). Got him a new phone and now he’s very happy with his new toy.

It has been relatively warm in Bavaria, like spring, so that’s my third smile, a lovely weather, where we can walk around the village, and glad that winter decided to come a little bit later or has given us a week of sunny weather. We just have to wait for next week, might be another story. Cheers everyone and enjoy your day/week.

What made you smile this week?

For: Weekly Smile 47 #weeklysmile, Hello There… Echoes of my neighbourhood, Three Things Thursday: Thanksgiving Day!

Thursday’s Special: Pick a Word in November

ascending

idleness

jaunty

whiff

luminosity

For: Thursday’s Special: Pick a Word in November. Also for: Three Things Thursday: November 10, 2016

My Spanish Smiles

Hello everyone! Hope you’re all feeling great. Back from sunny Catalonia so I’ve got lots of smiles this week.

a must see in Barcelona – the Sagrada Familia Basilica, which is a large Roman Catholic church, designed by Catalan Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí. The queue was really long so we bought tickets online and came back the next day. It was majestic.

Antoni Gaudí’s Casa Batlló is simply amazing! Although I bought the ticket online, I still had to queue for half an hour , but it was all worth it. It’s a brilliant building, full of Gaudi’s weird shapes, colours, mosaics, not one straight line sort of masterpieces. And from the roof, I can see the street and the people still queueing and taking photos of the building.

we joined a bus tour to Girona and Figueres from Barcelona and it was wonderful. The Dalí Theatre and Museum, is a museum of the artist Salvador Dalí in his home town of Figueres. Dali is buried there in a crypt below the stage. Some of his works are displayed there.

We went to Montserrat, which is a spectacularly beautiful Benedictine monk mountain retreat about one hour North West from Barcelona by train. We also listened to the famous Basilica choir boy performance of Gregorian chants and other genres of religious choral music. They are voices of angels!

What made you smile this week?

For: Weekly Smile 44 #weeklysmile, Three Things Thursday: November 3, 2016

Weekly Smile 42 #weeklysmile

*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*

Hello everyone! It’s cold in here and I’ve just got back from my class. Today’s the first day in the language school and I’ve got 9 students, 3 new ones! It was nice to see everyone again. We just talked about what we did in the summer. A big smile from me. Here’s a nice picture of one of the houses near the school.

Last Saturday, Him Indoors made this meat and pasta bake and we had it with green salad and a nice bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. Then we watched Strictly Come Dancing and X-factor. We enjoyed our night in.

Last Monday, I met my friend and went for Japanese again (we’ll never get tired of it!). I had green tea and a Bento Box of salad, seaweed, spring roll, salmon and chicken teriyaki with rice – it was delicious! The weather was lovely and we walked around town, here’s a picture of some buskers in front of Marienplatz.

What made you smile this week?

For: Weekly Smile 42 #weeklysmile, Three Things Thursday: October 20, 2016, Nurturing Thurs – Allow Yourself, Shh! Silence. I’m Working – Echoes of my Neighbourhood

Weekly Smile 41 #weeklysmile

*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*

Hello everyone! Hope you’re all fine. A lovely autumnal day here, I worked this morning and this afternoon is blogging time, that’s my first smile.

My sister sent me some beads from Canada and they got me working. I’ve made some stuff to hang our Christmas tree (not too long now hehehe).

I made chicken with sweet corn, carrots and spring onion soup – delicious!

What made you smile this week?

For: Weekly Smile 41 #weeklysmile. Also for: Sail With Me – Echoes of My Neighbourhood, Three Things Thursday: October 13, 2016

Corn field, pond and chicken curry

*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*

Hello everyone! Hope you’re all fine. A real autumn day here, cool but sunny. Yesterday it was raining. Can’t complain though, the autumn leaves are falling, our tortoises are inside now and they are making such a noise!

we went for a walk this afternoon and this corn field is just across our street

love the reflection of the trees and houses in the pond

our meal for tonight – chicken garam masala and brocolli – delicious!

What made you smile this week?

For: Weekly Smile 40 #weeklysmile, Three Things Thursday: October 6, 2016, Random Snaps of My Neighbourhood.

Weekly Smile 39 #weeklysmile

*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*

Hello everyone! Hope you are all fine. Allow me to share my weekly smile – as Trent said in his post, they are not just big smiles that require travel and so on. I’m smiling because the weather here in Bavaria is lovely, our Indian summer! We have just been swimming this morning and it was brilliant. I’ve hanged clothes outside to dry and the tortoises are happy in the garden. We’re also happy sitting in the garden, drinking our fizzy drinks and admiring the flowers. I have taken lots of photo, as usual, of the flowers, of the leaves changing colours, of the falling leaves, of shadows and other stuff. This morning I’ve video-called my mother. She’s getting better in using the tablet and she rang me herself, how cool is that! In social media, I’ve greeted my cousin, who celebrated their 25 years wedding anniversary and they have renewed their vows in the same church where they were married. It was nice to see them, together with their 6 children and they were all lovely in their white dresses and suits. My friend from Iran is now back from her holidays and we agreed to see each other next week. And tomorrow, Him Indoors and I are going out for a Chinese, the one where we used to eat when we first arrived here. We’ll be cycling there tomorrow evening. So that’s my smile this week. Cheers everyone!

P.S. the sky tonight’s so heavenly!

What made you smile this week?

How Happy is the Little Stone
by Emily Dickinson

How happy is the little Stone
That rambles in the Road alone,
And doesn’t care about Careers
And Exigencies never fears —
Whose Coat of elemental Brown
A passing Universe put on,
And independent as the Sun
Associates or glows alone,
Fulfilling absolute Decree
In casual simplicity —

For: Weekly Smile 39 #weeklysmile, Nurturing Thurs – Hello Fear!, Three Things Thursday: September 29, 2016, Riding at the front of the Train – Echoes of my neighbourhood

Oktoberfest, Grapes and Sunshine

*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*

The world’s biggest beer festival, Munich’s Oktoberfest, has opened with six million revellers expected just as the German city is grappling with a record refugee influx. The celebration of traditional Bavarian culture with its oompah music and beloved frothy beer kicked off when Mayor Dieter Reiter cracked the first beer barrel with two mallet blows and offered a toast to a “peaceful” Oktoberfest.

our grapes this year – yay! We’ve just been making grape juice from our nutribullet

sunshine is here! it has been raining these past days, but now, we have sunshine!

So, what made you smile this week?

For: Three Things Thursday: Animals Are Awesome Edition, Weekly Smile 38 #weeklysmile. Also for: The View From 33rd Floor – Echoes of my neighbourhood, Skywatch Friday – 22 September 2016 Edition

Weekly Smile 37 #weeklysmile

*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*

A big smile from me, everyone! It has been sunny this week in Bavaria and we’re really enjoying it. It was the first week for schools and so nice to hear children in the morning, waiting for each other on their bikes to go to school. We’re also spending a lot of times in our garden. Here are some of our flowers.

Our grapes may be ready in a couple of weeks.

Not a lot of apples this year, and they’re quite small. Still, we’re grateful to have them 🙂

Our niece from the Philippines came to see us last night. I cooked adobo, rice and pancit, followed by summer fruit and ice-cream. It was nice to see her again. She’s attending a Doctors’ Conference for a week. Have a safe trip back to the Philippines, our beautiful niece!

ingredients

marinade them

fry the meat

cook and simmer

chicken adobo, rice and peas

What made you smile this week?

For: Weekly Smile 37 #weeklysmile, Three Things Thursday, To Market, To Market – Echoes of my neighbourhood, FFF252 – DIEFFENBACHIA

Weekly Smile 36 #weeklysmile

*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*

Hello from our tortoises – Gin, Rex and Nik – happily munching their dandelions. Hope you are all fine. Lots of lovely smiles from me this week.

It’s amazing when I could just booked a flight to the Philippines after a phone call from my Mother. She wasn’t well, with temperature and flu, and I thought, I’d like to be with her. OK, it wasn’t that easy, I have to think of the timing, my sched at work and of course, Him Indoors. So, when Him Indoors got back from work, I told him about the plan and he said, why not? I looked at my sched for next term and the last class finishes middle of February next year. I’ve searched for a flight and the price wasn’t that bad, voila! I’m booked for February, 2 days after my last class. Staying for two weeks. Yay! I’m sure my Mother would be pleased.

Met my friend for lunch. We went to an Italian and she had pasta and I had risotto and we shared some mixed salad. The weather was gorgeous and we walked around town, saw nice pairs of trousers which were calling our names, so we bought them (I’ve got grey, she’s got green ones). Then we stopped by our favourite cafe and had capuccino and some cakes. Life is good!

What made you smile this week?

For: Weekly Smile 36 #weeklysmile, Three Things Thursday . Also for: Nurt Thurs – Forward!, Cityscape Dubai – Echoes Of My Neighbourhood.