Identity

This is my id card on the left, and this is a recent photo of me on the right. Quite a difference wouldn't you say?

The dreadful photo on the left is the one on my id card. It was taken three years ago, when I finally managed to get out of the house after having a broken shoulder and broken ankle at the same time. I couldn't use crutches because of the shoulder, so I'd been stuck indoors for months, and I certainly hadn't been to the hairdresser.

The photo on the right was taken a week ago, when I was all glammed up for a Christmas dinner. I'd made a mess of blow drying my hair, but I like the cut and colour. Well, these days I have a friend who's a hairdresser, lucky me. But I've looked more or less like this since a week after the id photo was taken.

Here's the fun part. Every time I use a credit card, they ask to see my id card too So I hand over an id card and they check the names match.

I've had this card three years. It looks nothing like me at first glance. And yesterday was the first time in three years that a shop assistant did a double take. I wonder what would happen if I covered up the photo on my ID card with a picture of Mickt Mouse. Do you think anyone would notice?

We Wish You a Messy Christmas

A friend just emailed photos of the decorations in her house. My goodness, her living room is tidy! Mine always looks like a tornado just passed through.

Several years ago, one of my friend's got burgled and of course the police came round. One officer said sympathetically, "My goodness, they made a mess, didn't they?"

She had to admit that she hadn't even noticed anything odd until she tried to put a tape in the video machine, and realised the machine wasn't there any more. The mess was perfectly normal.

My house is like that. It's not dirty, you understand, just chaotic. I think my mission in life is to make house proud friends feel smug at the comparison. I'm not showing you photos! You'll just have to use your imagination.

The singing cereal box

It's been a busy weekend. I put the Christmas tree up in the living room, and the little Nativity scene in the hall. Julio had a ton of homework that had to be supervised.

On Saturday afternoon Julio went to the observatory kids' Christmas party and had a great time. We got home at 8:15 and I went straight back out again to meet my friend Norma in town. Then it was my turn to have a great time. We had one of those marvelous rambling conversations about ex-boyfriends and music and how to give kids confidence and childbirth, until I came home decidedly merry at 1 a.m.

A couple of months ago, Norma bought a very old car from me, and she mentioned that it was struggling up the hills. So I invited her round to Sunday lunch so that my husband could take a look at it. I squeezed in a bit of housework this morning, then we all had lunch. Somehow or other, we wound up converting an empty cereal box and two potatoes into a singing puppet. I videoed it, and afterwards Norma signed up for You Tube and we put it up.


While Carlos was sorting out the car (fixable, thank goodness), I added audio clips to Norma's site at http://normawilow.com She's a singer-songwriter, and a good one too. The clips are on the "Records" page. It's the first time I've done audio clips, and I'm pleased with the result.

Making some Noise

Last night I went to the inaugaral party for the island's new cultural magazine, Ruido. My husband had hoped to go, but we couldn't get a babysitter so he stayed home.

I had a good time. There was the inevitable speech to begin with, about the magazine, its aims and the contents of the first issue. I wasn't mentioned, so I assumed I'd been bumped into issue two. Fair enough - they probably have enough egos to deal with. Then someone read some of the contents, and to my surprise, this included my micro fiction, "Dream On" (Sigue Soñando), so I'm in after all. I don't get paid, but I got paid when the English version was published in Chat. It'll be the first time I've been published in Spanish, and it's the first time I've done my own translation. Best of all, people laughed aloud at the end, which felt GREAT!

Then we had music from a funk group. At the interval there was free beer (Thank you Dorada) and exhibitions to look at. I briefly helped out at the desk collecting signatures on a petition for a concert hall. There isn't a single one on an island of 80,000 inhabitants. Can you believe it?

After the interval, we were supposed to see a documentary about local groups, but that was cancelled due to a technical hitch. On the other hand, the best jazz group on the island played for longer than planned to compensate, so we were all happy.

I'm also pleased to say that the concert raised enough money to pay for printing Issue 1. It's early days, but I think this baby is going to survive. And like any baby, who knows what the future holds?

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelp!

My goodness, December already. As my brother put it in an email, Christmas is "rushing up like the ground at the end of a parachute jump!" except that in my case I forgot to pull the ripcord.

I lost most of the last week to flu, and the rest of it to helping a friend with a particularly traumatic house move (which still isn't over.) But the overseas cards and parcels should really be in the post already - and in my case, that's an awful lot of cards and quite a few parcels. I think I feel a major internet shopping spree coming on. I usually write the same letter to go in most of the cards, and haven't even started it. And just to make things really fun, my son, who is bright but rarely works at school, has to hand in all his coursework on Monday. He has a ton of work to do this weekend, and won't do any of it unless I'm there with him. It feels like pushing an elephant up the stairs.

Oh well, I'll do what I can and leave the rest. But I won't get much done on the novel for a week or so.