text:
Archive for the Portugal Category

Aveiro the Portuguese Venice

Posted in Aveiro, Portugal with tags , , , , , , , on July 20, 2011 by gannet39

is known somewhat tongue-in-cheek as ‘the Venice of the West’ due to its network of canals, and the fact it is losing a battle against nature as its watercourses silt up.

Historically the town made its fortune from the salt industry which was of course essential for making bacalhau with salt-cod. Although dried cod had been around for centuries before, it was the availability of cheap Portuguese salt in the 17th century that made the alternative salting process commercially viable. Aveiro was the capital of the industry and it’s legacy can be seen everywhere..

If you like you can take a tour on one of the moliceiros, the gondola-like boats which are moored on the canal just by the hotel.

Saltboat stern

They were originally used to transport the salt from the pans to the warehouses back in the day.

Saltboat prow

Some of them have quite risque decoration on their prows and sterns!

Fisher porn

Saltboat stern detail

Sarcastm aside this is a very pretty town with lots of beautifully tiled buildings on the streets around the fish market (directly behind the hotel).

Number 10Number 10 edificeNumber 10 doorway
There are several lovely art-deco houses further along Rua Barbosa de Magalhães.Number 7

If you have time, there are two large beaches but they are a bus ride away. In July the weather is usually sunny in the mornings but it often clouds over in the morning with fog and wind at the beach.

A local sweet you will see advertised everywhere is Ovos Moles /euvesh meulesh/  where sweetened egg yolk is encapsulated in a soft edible covering reminiscent of those sherbet-filled spaceships you could get when you were a kid. Not a fan personally as they are far too sweet and give me toothache.

Hotel Moliceiro, (Advanced B), 15-17 Rua Barbosa de Magalhães, Tel. 234 377 400

Located on the Canal Central in the picturesque old town, this upmarket hotel has good service, very comfortable rooms, an excellent breakfast buffet and free Wi-Fi, as it should when double rooms cost €105 a night.

If you’re staying at the weekend, you might want to get a room at the back as there is usually a free concert in the square next to the hotel every Saturday night which goes on till about 12.30 pm, although the sound check starts much earlier.

Stage next door
My attitude is if you can’t beat them join them and this time I was lucky to get a quirky ten-man Portuguese group with a competent brass section. Much better than the rappers from the previous year!

Band next door

Marisqueira Mare Cheia (Intermediate A), 10 Rua Jose Rabumba.

This unpretentious seafood restaurant is the people’s choice and all 70 seats are always full, whether you come for lunch or dinner. I come here every time I’m in Aveiro (this is my third visit in six years) and have never been disappointed. Sorry about the lack of local names for the dishes but the atmosphere was too frenetic for me to get all the information I wanted.

On this occasion I was given a starter of very large mussels with green-lipped shells (a first for me) in a sauce with onions and red pepper, which were ok but slightly overcooked (B-).

After ogling the choice of my four neighbours (their pan was nearly the same size as my table!), I went for the main of fried prawns, butterflied and cooked in a cast iron pan with lots of oil and slithers of garlic, absolutely delicious (A). With this, a side of very skinny and tasty Patatas Fritas (A).

Prawns and chipsButterfly prawn

I had two half-bottles of wine; a fruity Cabriz from the Dao DOC…

…and a drier Planalto from the Douro DOC, both of which were excellent.

In July 2010 the grilled sea bass was very good (B), as was the side dish migas  here made with less (or no?) bread than its Spanish counterpart but with lots of black eyed beans, kale and some rice if I remember correctly (B+).

The lobster with rice looks like a very good option too. I’ve had it in a Galician (where the cuisine is very similar) restaurant in Madrid and it was great. You might want to pass on the ‘salad’ though as you will get strawberries, pineapple and papaya on the same plate as lettuce, tomatoes and cucumber, as is the modern Portuguese style.
For dessert my excellent English-speaking waiter brought me the local speciality of Torta di Ovos Moles which uses the same tooth-rotting egg yolk and sugar mixture that is in the famous local sweet but this time in cake form (and hence much more palatable in my opinion) (B+).

Torta di Ovos Moles
This was followed up with an aged local aguardente called Sao Domingo from Anadia (20km from Aveiro) in the DO of Barirrada which was one of the best I’ve had here (A). Total cost for the wines, mussels, prawns, chips, dessert and three aguardentes this time was just under €40, slightly expensive for Portugal but worth every cent.

Sao Domingo aguardente

This is a great place for seafood and should be your first stop in Aviero. I also liked the fact that the head chef came out of the kitchen to say hello and have a chat with his customers.

Salpoente (Advanced B), 82 Cais de San Roque, Tel. 234 382674
One of the best upmarket places in town, located in an atmospheric old salt warehouse next to the Canal de San Roque, a fifteen-minute walk from the hotel. The staff are friendly and I like the smiley young proprietor.

Cheese and olives
The menu features regional specialities, especially fish dishes, although there are some meat options on the menu. The unordered starters they give you usually include Azeitonas Marinada (B), Pataniscas de Bacalao (saltcod fritters), which were a bit bland this time (B).

Pataniscas de Bacalao

In the past I’ve also had some tinned mushrooms with ham (C) but this time got some tasty cow’s cheese (A) which went well with their excellent bread (A). They charge you if you eat them (only €1.50 a plate).
Without reading my last review I inadvertently ordered exactly the same as last time! Camarao ‘Al Ajillo’, a rack of prawns grilled with garlic, olive oil, parsley and brandy (which was a B last time but now B+). It was very similar to the dish I had at Mare Cheia but not quite as good or well presented.

Camarao Al Ajillo

The main Arroz do Mar (B), similar to Caldeirada with chunks of fish, clams, mussels and prawns in a soupy paprika stew, which was nice but slightly oversalted on this occasion (B-) and big enough for two.

Arroz do Mar in the pan

Arroz do Mar on the plate

My white wine this time was another citrusy Vinho Verde called Alvarinho Deu La Deu. The waiter told me this was the name of the cantina but I’m sure Alvarinho here refers to the grape, but correct me if I’m wrong. It’s supposed to be one of the best (€14 in the airport) and it was good (B+) but there are others I prefer.

Alvarinho Deu La Deu

In the past I’ve wanted to try a white from the local Bairrada DOC but the owner told they were too powerful for seafood.
To finish the Tarta de Maca com Gelado de Baunilha (apple pie with ice cream) was thin and tasteless (C).

Tarta de Maca

On a previous visit the Crepe a Salpoente was ok but the sweet egg yolk filling (the same as in Ovos Moles) didn’t do much for me (C). Guess they don’t really do desserts here.
This time for my digestif I had a Beirao, a Portuguese liquor with a sweet herbal flavour that is much more easy on the palate than aguardente. It was ok (B) but was too sweet for me to want another. In the past I also had a C.R.F. Reserva Aguardente Velha which failed to impress (C).

Conclusion: the atmosphere is more refined and the surroundings are more attractive than Mare Cheia but the food isn’t as good, so it’s now my second choice, although I still like to come every time I’m in town. You can also buy bags of sea salt here, €5 for half a kilo. There’s a bar next door and a couple of others along the same street.

On the way back along Cais de San Roque you can admire this beautiful art-deco house with its maritime motifs. The fish ceramics and anchors make it my favourite building in town.

Maritime Art DecoFish ceramicsAnchor windowPulleyAnchor balcony

O Batel (Intermediate B) Travessa Tenende Resende (off Rua Tenende Resende, turn right at Ferra above). Tel. 963 218 900

Lots of recommends on the net for this small and slightly hard-to-find place, but I didn’t have time to give it full
justice. The waitress was very pleasant and spoke excellent English (as most of the younger generation of Portuguese do) and the boat-like furniture and decor (reminiscent of those classic Italian speedboats; sleek dark varnished wood) is relaxing if not particularly comfortable (slatted wooden deckchairs). I had the cheap lunch time special; a soup stew of bacalao and bread in a tomato-like sauce, which at the time suited my head cold, but was not something I’d have again (C). The salad of mixed leaves and tomato quarters was well-presented and good quality but over-dressed with oil and balsamic-type vinegar (B-). Needs to be visited again in the evening, when I don’t feel so ill for a better analysis.

O Telheiro, (Intermediate B), 20-21 Largo da Praca do Peixe (fish market square). Open Sunday.

This is a good choice for Sunday evening when most other places are closed. There are two sides, the ‘sala’ with tables properly laid up with linen and a bar area with wooden benches and paper tablecloths. I prefer the dark wood atmosphere of the bar. The staff don’t speak any English but the hand-written menu is just about decipherable if you have a knowledge of other Latin languages.

On this occasion I had the Cosotleta de Vitela na Brasa, a thick medium-rare veal steak (B) which was just what I needed after a week of eating seafood. I ordered a salad and a side of chips (B-) but was only successful in getting the latter. To drink I took a chance on a red from the local Bairrada DOC, Termiao Passaro Branco, which was drinkable (C+). To finish; pears in red wine, a popular Portuguese dessert (B+).

Ferra (Elementary C),32 Rua Tenende Resende (off the fish market square, it has a nice art-deco shop front displaying the mottos ‘labour’ and ‘honour’).

Very busy at lunch time, this seems a very popular place. It’s cafe-style with paper table clothes and plain decor. It took a while to get served as the waiters were so busy and mine forgot everything I asked for because he was so overworked. They had run out of my first choice of grilled sardines so I had the tuna and black eyed bean salad for €6 which was ok but a bit tasteless. You can probably get better food if you know how to ask for it. A cheap choice with basic but perfectly edible food, but it wasn’t good enough for me to want to go again.

Lots of other places to try but personally I’d say work your way through the menu at Mare Cheia and then Salpoente.
There is a Spar at 48 Avenida Dr Lourento Peixinho where you can buy these fancy tins of good-quality tuna in olive oil for about €3. They make good take home presents I think.

Tenorio Tuna
I also got some Vinha Verde for €3 which I’d paid €12 for in a restaurant in Oporto.

Casal Garcia

They also sell Gallo olive oil which some local friends recommended for dressing salads, although their first choice was the harder-to-find Romeo oil.

Quick dip into Porto

Posted in Oporto, Portugal with tags , , on July 19, 2011 by gannet39

Sadly I only had one night in Oporto this time, which is a shame because I’d really like to  get to know this intriguing city much better than I do.

Old bridge

Port boat

Last time I was here I took a couple of tours of the port wine lodges; Sandeman I think and also a smaller Norwegian one called Krohn, They both do tastings so I was a bit tipsy by the end!

All the port lodges are on the South bank of the Douro which is called Vila Nova de Gaia, a name that you should see on all quality bottles of port.

Gaia port boats

The North bank, called the Ribeira, is very pretty too with lots of picturesque tiled buildings.

Both sides have lots of restaurants, but choosing a good one can be tricky.

Ribeira from the bridge
Four of us went to Restaurante Douro Velho at (Intermediate D) 302 Avenida Diogo Leite in Gaia on the evening I was there.

I decided to retry Francesinha, a famous Oporto dish which is essentially a ham and sausage sandwich topped with cheese and doused with a spicy tomato and beer sauce, with chips on the side. Apparently it can be really delicious if done well but I don’t think this could have been a good one. The meat was tough and the sauce tasted like an over-salted tin of Campbells soup had been poured over it (C). Sorry Carina, I tried to like it!

Fortunately the slightly sparkling, young and fruity Casal Garcia Vinho Verde, made from a blend of several grape varieties, was really good (B+) if overpriced at €12 (it’s less than €3.50 in the supermarkets) and better suited to seafood.

Casal Garcia

Also, although the waiters were friendly, their service was some of the worst I’ve ever come across. After one of them ignored the female Portuguese member of our party in order to speak English to me, another one then proceeded to forget her husband’s order until about 30 minutes after we had all finished! It didn’t help that other waiters kept asking if he’d ordered yet! In their defence there was a big concert on a stage on the river that night and they were overrun but all the same, it’s probably best avoided.
There’s a restaurant called Bacalhoeiro at 74 Avenida Diogo Leite, a bit further along the bank from Douro Velho above. They only sell bacalhau (saltcod) dishes and if I remember correctly they have more than a dozen on the menu! (Portuguese folklore has it that there are at least 365 recipes for saltcod, although others say there is 1,001!). I went in 2005 and it was pretty good, although I don’t remember what I had.  A good choice if you see it might be Bacalhau com Natas, saltcod baked with cream and mashed potato, which I had in Agueda later on this trip where it was abslolutely delicious (A).

Baked cod and potato

Cafe Majestic (Advanced A/B),  112 Rua Catarina (the main pedestrian shopping street).

Built in the early 20th century in an art-nouveau style, the decor consists of ancient leather seats,  lots of carved wood, mirrors and plaster cherubs. It’s quite posh with the  waiters in white tunics and tuxedos, but they are friendly and give great service. It’s the first time I’ve ever had my olive oil and balsamic vinegar poured for me as if they were wine.

It’s really about the coffee, sandwiches and cakes here but on one occasion I was starving so I had the Tagliatelle ai Frutti di Mare (with king prawns and mussels) which was ok (B-) if a bit pricey at €15. In addition I got a tray of olives, tuna spread and a basket of delicious bread, including a wonderfully dense brown variety. It’s worth coming here just to look at the decor. Sorry but I don’t have any pictures for this place but click on the name to look at the website which will give you an idea.

Sunset on the Douro

So just a quick visit, but Porto is definitely somewhere I’d like to return to and explore more.

Viana do Castelo

Posted in Portugal, Viana do Castelo on July 12, 2011 by gannet39

Viana do Castelo is a lovely little Portuguese town just a ninety-minute train ride over the border from Vigo, where the River Lima meets the sea. The Castelo do Nieva, a low fort with a moat, guards over the estuary. The town has a long maritime tradition. Many of the 16th century Portuguese explorers left from here and today it has the only working shipyard in the country.
Stone crown

The centre of town is the pretty Praca da Republica which has a few simple but attractive buildings.

Another nice building

Building in the square

GargoylesThe centre piece is the ancient fountain which has several bizarre faces spouting water from different heights.

Fountain detail

Strange heads

There are lots of pretty churches dotted around the town as well.

Capela das Malheiras

and another chuch

Igreja de San Domingos

Statue on Igreja de San Domingos

Capela das Malheiras carvings
The nearest coastline  is about twenty minutesIgreja de San Domingos brisk walk due west from Praca da Republica. It’s a bit  disappointing, a narrow band of wind blasted sand, probably artificial, separated from the sea by lots of rocks.

Rocky beach

However you can get a good run or walk in along the seafront and the long breakwater. There is a rather bleak modern bar/restaurant complex called Scala where you can sit outside protected from the wind by high glass walls. There are other beaches but I didn’t have time to check them out. You can also get the ferry to Praia di Cabedelo which is supposed to be quite undeveloped spot. There is a municipal swimming pool at the beach end of sea road.

Cozinha das Malheiras (Advanced A), 19 Rua Gago Coutinho, Tel. 258 82 94 34
Described by web reviews as the ‘best’ and most expensive restaurant in town, this is indeed a very good place with great food, friendly service and  a nice ambience (stone arches, lace tablecloths, mandolin soundtrack). The food is actually much cheaper than equivalent places in Spain or Italy and not that much more expensive than other places in the same town.

When I asked for a local white wine, the very friendly English-speaking waiter suggested an excellent Vinho Verde from the Ponte de Lima co-operative (A).

Ponte de Lima Vinho Verde
To start I was given the Aperitivos Regionals; a slice of Parma style ham (A), more cured lomo ham on dense brown bread (B), a small wedge of cheese (B) and some tasteless black olives (C-).

Aperitivos Regionals

For the main I had the local speciality of Cabrito à Serra D’Arga; baby suckling goat served with tiny roast new potatoes (B+), turnip leaves sautéed with garlic (B+), boiled carrots (C) and a large tureen of plain white rice (B). The meat was perhaps the best goat I’ve ever tasted (A+). The only complaint was I wanted to dab up all the juices with my bread but wasn’t allowed near the serving dish because everything is put on the plate for you, silver service style.

Cabrito à Serra D'ArgaThe waiter (owner?) explained that the semi-wild goats spend the summer in the mountain range (Serra D’Arga) before coming down to the town with their kids for the winter. Besides leaping around the hills, they have to dodge Iberian wolves and wildcats which all probably keeps them quite fit. The area is very famous for its wildlife and I wish I’d had time to go walking in the hills to try and spot some.
To finish Leite Creme Quimado (B+), a local Creme Brulee.

Leite Creme Quimado

Also a glass of Antiqua, a heady aged aguardente (made like grappa but similar in taste to a cognac) from a town near Lisbon (A).

Antiqua aguardenteTotal cost a very reasonable €30. There is also a tourist menu for €17.50. Other dishes to try might be the Bacalhau à Cozinha das Malheiras (salt cod in the house style), or Papas com Rojões (a typical local pork dish with potatoes).

Adega do Padrinho (Intermediate B), 152/164 Rua Counho, Tel. 238 826 954
Picturesque little place with stone walls, lots of traditional blue and white ceramics, gypsy scarves on the walls and a soundtrack of traditional guitar songs. You can sit outside but it was a bit windy on the night when I went so I took cover in the warmer interior. All ten tables were full of Dutch tourists so it took quite a while to be served and the kitchen seems only able to dispense meals every five minutes. The last of the table of four next to me got their meal when the first was just finishing and it must have taken 45 minutes for mine to arrive. It was worth the wait though.

Adega do Padrinho
With my half litre of house Vinho Verde blanco (B) I was given a big pot of fantastic tiny black olives (A) and a bread basket with four rather unspecial types of bread (C).

Bread, olives and Vinho Verde
My starter was a huge salad of lettuce, grated carrot, tomatoes, pickled red cabbage, more olives and some great sliced white onion (B) that would have been enough for two but would have been overkill for one given what was next.

Very large salad
The star attraction for me was the main of grilled Sardinhas, drizzled with olive oil, which if I knew would have come with new potatoes, a side salad and even more olives, I might have forgone the starter. The tiny fish were fantastic (A+); charred salty oily perfection.

There was no room for dessert (I’d also had a three-course lunch!) but a shot of Tawny Port (Porto Alegre) finished things off nicely (B+). Total cost an amazing €18, with a free lacy place mat as a parting gift.

Tawny Porto Alegre

Maria Perre, 118 Rua de Viana, Tel. 258 822 410.
In an alleyway just behind my hotel, this homey place was recommended by a local teacher. It’s yet another trad-style restaurant with stone walls, ceramics, gypsy scarves and a soundtrack of folk songs accompanied by guitar. It’s a good everyday option; very cheap but with huge portions. It was also a reminder of how bizarre Portuguese food can be to the uninitiated palate.

Maria Perre
Things started simply enough with four croquettes (veg, prawn,tuna, codfish, all B) and some lovely creamy cheese similar to Camembert (B+) and dressed olives (B). The bread was good too but I ignored the usual tubs of fish paste and spreadable cheese you seem to get in cheap Portuguese eateries everywhere (C-).

Cheese and croquettes
I went for the house mixed salad but regretted my choice when I arrived as it could have fed a small army by itself with eight ingredients on a very large plate: sliced boiled egg, cucumber, beetroot, rolls of boiled ham, grated carrot, pickled cabbage, lettuce, rings of white onion, tinned tuna, sweetcorn, tomato, and a cubes of a cheddar-like cheese. It was nice (B) but was swimming in a pool of water as is the Iberian habit.

House salad

The local speciality of Rojoes a moda de Minho completed the rout with a massive overkill of nine kinds of meat and offal along with a dozen boiled potatoes AND a side-dish of boiled rice. This was the one-person option but it would have fed three.

Rojoes a moda de Minho

The carbs were fine (B) and I loved the marinated pork and chicken (B+) and the chorizo was good too (B). However, I wasn’t keen on the black skinned sausage (C), the tripe (D) or the liver, which I usually love but this was cooked till rock hard and had a very strange taste (D). There were a couple of other things which neither I nor the waiter could name, including something which I think was made from blood and flour and fried in slices till it was hard and dense (D).

Chorizo and offal
I would have liked to try another local Vinho Verde but ended up with the same bottle as the previous night from the Ponte de Lima co-operative, which thankfully was excellent once again (A). I couldn’t manage the dessert so went for another digestif of aged brown aguardente which put hairs on my chest after raising the ones on my head. It came free and the flagon was left on the table but I felt it was probably best avoided! (C).

Total cost an extremely reasonable €26. This spot is a good everyday option and you will eat well and cheaply here; however I’d defy two people to eat what I had let alone one so order with care. They also have Cabrito à Serra D’Arga on the menu. Friendly non-English speaking service.

The school I was working at very kindly treated me to lunch at the Yacht Club (Iate Clube) restaurant. Iate Clube

It’s located in a very pleasant spot by the river under the road and rail bridge over the river.

Yacht Club
I had perhaps the most bizarre dish so far with what was essentially three dishes on one plate: a Bacalao salad (salt-cod and potato forme which was served with salad (carrot, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, chick peas) and several kinds of fruit (water melon, two kinds of plums, grapes and Chinese Lanterns, cherry tomatoes with coconut and a date served on a chicory leaf) so no need to order dessert separately as it was on the same plate. A nice spot but probably best to try and keep things simple if you can, or maybe just come for drinks.

Bacalao Salad
A great cake shop or pasteleria is Notario, just off Praca da Republica.

They are famous for their Bolas de Berlim, a filled doughnut made famous by Kennedy when he said ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’. They are ok (B), but there are lots of other interesting cakes in the display cabinet.

Bollas de Berlim
Personally I only want to eat Pastel de Nata, (aka Pasteis de Belem) egg custard tarts which are one of my favourite things in the world, and done very well here (A+). These great little cakes are truly international. I’ve eaten them in London and in several cities in China (they spread from Macau), but none of them are as good as the ones in Portugal.

Pastel de Nata

Residencial Jardim, 68 Largo 5 de Outubro, Tel. 351 258 828 915

A not particularly attractive dingy old place with fairly spacious rooms (€45 for a double) that have only one plug socket and a virtually non-existent Wi-Fi signal. The breakfast is ok (cereals, fruit, yogurts, cheeses and boiled ham) and the front desk staff are friendly.

%d bloggers like this:


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Type: response

text:
We Are Your Most Trusted Garage Door Technicians For Superior Services

An impressive range of garage door services can be provided by our top notch and highly skilled garage door experts. We have what it takes to solve even the most complex issues for we are a your trusted and reliable garage door technicians. We are you trusted service provider for all your tricky garage door or parts problem. We aim to make new customers to be among our long term clients by means of providing quality services at great prices. Whatever issues you are dealing with garage door whether it's a broken parts or you simply in need of replacement, our company is your safe harbor for the right solutions.

Presently, burglary takes can take place in every house, no matter how big or small it is. Offenders are always creating new methods in breaking and entering homes, thus, an added layer of security is a must. This is one thing that you can do to keep you family safe and your valuables protected from thieves. One of the best ways to increase your home's level of security is to install a garage door. What's more is that it adds value to our property so long as it is maintained appropriately.

We can deal with a garage door problem that could leave you calling our reliable garage door. We can do:

  • We have licensed, secured and bonded garage door technicians to do the task for you.
  • Emergency garage door assistance will be provided at the time you need it most.
  • Advanced amount of technical knowledge to ensure total customer satisfaction.
  • Every product we sell and service we render are all backed by warranty.
  • We pride ourselves in the expert services we offer and therefore all our repair work is entirely guaranteed.
  • Our friendly customer service representatives can speak with you anytime.
  • Same day service, which means that our technicians can come to your location right after your call.
  • We've got you effective solutions for all your garage door needs that will not cause you an arm and leg.
  • Our firm remains dedicated in supplying effective solutions, good customer support plus competitive rates.
  • We deal with garage door opener with different types and brands.

So, if you are having problems with your garage door or need to install it, then contacting a professional garage door provider is a must. Our company is the name you can trust when it comes in rendering a general excellence of garage door services. If you are experiencing emergency problems, you don't need to worry because we are available 24/7 for you. Get your phone and call us anytime of the day to give solution to your garage door problem. For any garage door issue you may have, we will be using upgraded tools and current methods to assist you. Never wait for tomorrow, if you can give solution now. If you allow the time to pass by, you will surely experience huge problem in the future. It is highly recommended that you take an action fast.

Hire our licensed, reliable, dependable garage door experts for the following services:

  • Garage Door Openers
  • Garage Door Installation
  • Emergency Garage Door Services
  • Residential Garage Doors
  • Garage Door Tune UP and Maintenance Services
  • Repairing Garage Door
  • Garage Door Parts and Accessories
  • Commercial Garage Doors

Apart from providing quality garage door solutions, we also offer garage door supplies that are both resilient and efficient when it comes to operation. You will not feel disappointed you called us first. With us, you'll get fast, reliable and affordable garage door service. To give a more convenient way of reaching us, we made our customer service hotline open for all inquiries 24/7. You will surely have peace of mind again.

Zipcodes: 19503,

warcinfo:
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2019-13
publisher: Common Crawl
description: Wide crawl of the web for March 2019
operator: Common Crawl Admin (info@commoncrawl.org)
hostname: ip-10-143-92-167.ec2.internal
software: Apache Nutch 1.15 (modified, https://github.com/commoncrawl/nutch/)
robots: checked via crawler-commons 0.11-SNAPSHOT (https://github.com/crawler-commons/crawler-commons)
format: WARC File Format 1.1
conformsTo: http://iipc.github.io/warc-specifications/specifications/warc-format/warc-1.1/


text:
• Store furniture carefully on boards or pallets.
  • Mattresses should be covered.
  • Use trash cans to store shovels, hoes and rakes.
  • When packing toys or smaller objects, remember to fill boxes completely, stuffing open areas with plain newspaper to prevent collapsing when stacked.
  • Larger appliances, such as stoves or refrigerators, provide additional space for storing towels, blankets, etc.
  • Break down items such as table legs and store tabletops and sofas on end, to save space.
  • When storing business files and inventory, label all boxes and construct aisles so files are easily seen and accessible.

  • When storing delicate heirlooms, use specially constructed boxes, such as wardrobe boxes. Remember to label these boxes “Fragile“.
  • Use furniture drawers for delicate items and as “Fragile“.
  • Use protective covers and treat wood surfaces before storing.
  • Bubble wrap and packing paper are excellent protectors.

  • Be careful not to store anything combustible, (such as paint and chemicals), or perishable, (such as food that is not permanently sealed).
  • When storing lawn and garden equipment, drain any fluids prior to storage to avoid corrosive damage.
  • Always use high quality locks on your unit. Locks are available for sale.


text:
Hi there and welcome to my new home on the Internet.

What this site is about?

At the moment, this site has content which can be best classified as

  • My experiences with mobile development
  • My talks & perspective on some of the world’s leading tech conferences
  • Tutorials, articles and videos on Salesforce1
  • Tutorials, articles and videos on Salesforce mobile development
  • Rants, Bragging et al

What this site is NOT?

While the objectives may not be in stone yet, this site is definitely NOT

  • Magic wand or cheat sheets to learn mobile, Salesforce1 or Salesforce mobile development
  • Substitute to any official Salesforce mobile/ Salesforce1 documentation
  • In any manner, an endorsement of views of my employer and/or clients
  • A reflection of my relationship with Salesforce or any of it’s business units

In addition to this site, I maintain an active presence on the following channels

2 thoughts on “About

  1. Hello Gaurav,

    I see that you are a guru in mobile SFDC applications.
    I am facing an issue with the login page of my mobile application.
    My team has build an hybrid html5 + Adroid app, this app is used by sales reps (partner community users ) to market product to potential clients.

    The issue comes with the login process, we use the default community login page.

    Here i explain the process when everything goes well:
    1-User enters security credetials and submit
    2-User asked to allow permission access
    3-APP gets started

    Here i explain the process when it goes wrong (it happends from time to time):
    1-User enters security credentials and submit
    2-User gets redirected to the community webview page instead of the APP

    Please let me knnow if you have face the same issue or know how to solve it.

    Thanks very much in advance!!

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Ever felt the need of taking notes on the go? It’s 21st century “The digital era”, and everything is going paperless. Even taking notes. We hate carrying too much stuff, well “I do”. You might have heard this phrase ” We are going to change the world” well some companies are doing their bit. There are many apps available today in the android store for taking notes. The next time somebody tells you their phone number, you need not find a pen and paper or write it in your hand. You can simply use one of these apps for taking notes and get your work done.
Today the way people use their phone has changed. There are many apps for taking notes available in the play store. But not all are worth using. So we downloaded the most famous one and tested many of them and shortlisted the top 5. Here below are the 5 best apps for taking notes for android or iphone.

 Top 5 best apps for taking notes.

You can’t go wrong with this one. This you may say as the “Editor choice”. I personally use evernote app for taking notes. Since I am a blogger, I am not always with my PC and sometimes need to write on the go. Evernote always comes in handy at these times. First I thought it was just an app for taking notes, but when I started using it I was stunned by its possibilities. There are ton of features available in the app, like you can save an article for reading later and it will be saved in your account. Now you can access that article anywhere. You can also take pictures inside the app and add them to your notes.
 The best thing is that you can sync all your devices and can get info wherever you want. you can share your notes with friends without switching apps. And there is also an app lock feature which can provide security to your notes. It also include to-do list and other basic stuffs as well.

If you are just looking for some simple app for taking notes, reminders, to-do list app. Then color note is what you should be using. Their simplicity have fetched then millions of download in the google play. The app is quite basic, but will get your notes taking work easily done. The UI is simple and easy to understand.
You can easily get through it. If you are looking for a simple note taker which can do simple task then this is it.

If you say that even the functionality available at colornote are too much for me then I offer you Notes. This is the simplest of all apps for taking notes present in the list.
The app is quite simple and can only be used for taking notes. You can’t expect more from it. Their is no other feature like to do list or any other. If you are looking for an app for just taking notes, then notes is the app you should go for.

 You can Type, hand write, draw, and clip things from the web to get down your thoughts into your notebook. The best thing about onenote is you can even scan handwritten notes or pages straight into OneNote then make them searchable.
The OneNote has all the features of the Evernote and is a worthy competitor for Evernote. The only thing they still lag behind is with their Web based interface, which can still get a little better. Since even the desktop client is available for Onenote it becomes easier to take notes form laptop and other device and then sync them with any device you want.

Google keep

The Google keep is similar to oneNote. There all the feature similar to onenote. There is not much to say about the app. But the thing I didn’t like about the Google keep is their UI is not upto mark. I mean come-on you are google. You cannot have a lazy design. This is my view. So I used it for quite a while but stopped using it, since I was already using evernote and my exception from the apps were high.
This was my view regarding the best app for taking notes. To you I would recommend Evernote or OneNote. I personally use Evernote as my daily app for taking notes on the go and I am in love with it. I love the way in which it sync’s my content and makes it easy for me to write article from any place.
That’s it with this article for the best apps for taking notes on your smartphone. There are many apps, which I have not mentioned. Either because they are not so popular or I might have not encountered it. Do you know any other app for taking notes? If yes then write them in the comment section below. And thanks for stopping by and reading the article.

Just trying to give some valuable content. A crazy guy, with love for food, football, gadgets and internet. His love for technology made him share his thoughts through this blog.

Write A Comment


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
{{:: 'cloud_flare_always_on_short_message' | i18n }}
Check @genius for updates. We'll have things fixed soon.

About Googoosh

Faegheh Atashin (Persian: فائقه آتشین, born 5 May 1950), better known by her stage name Googoosh (Persian: گوگوش), is an Iranian singer and actress of Iranian Azerbaijani origin through her father and the Azerbaijan Republic origin through her mother. She is known for her contributions to Iranian pop music but also starred in a variety of Persian movies from the 1950s to the 1970s. She achieved the pinnacle of her fame and success towards the end of the 1970s. Her overall impact and contributions to Iranian pop made her the most iconic female pop singer in the Persian speaking world and Azerbaijani music. She has recorded songs in multiple languages such as Persian, Azerbaijani, Turkish, English, Spanish, Italian, and French.

Following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, she is famously known for remaining in Tehran until 2000 and not performing again due to the ban on female singers. Still, her following grew. Younger Iranian people have rediscovered her music via bootleg recordings. Outside of Iran and Azerbaijan, she has a significant following in many other Middle Eastern as well as Central Asian countries and has even caught the attention of European and African media and press. Recent projects include a new collaboration with singer/songwriter Hassan Shamaizadeh for the track Hayahoo from her 2012 album Ejaz, as well as serving as head judge and head of academy for the popular reality show Googoosh Music Academy which is broadcast on London based satellite channel Manoto 1.


text:
 Learn German in 90 minutes - The Best of 2018

Learn German in 90 minutes - The Best of 2018

Danke für die Bewertung! Teile es mit Deinen Freunden!

Danke für Deine Bewertung!

Eingetragen von ava
18 Aufrufe
Get your Free Lifetime Account to finally get fluent in German with PERSONALIZED lessons!. ↓ Check how below ↓
Step 1: Go to
Step 2: Sign up for a Free Lifetime Account - No money, No credit card required
Step 3: Start learning German the fast, fun and easy way!
With this video compilation you'll be able to catch up with the best lessons of 2018, and review German phrases to master the language!
You've decided to start learning German, so let's build up your vocabulary! In this video, you'll learn some of the most important words and phrases in the German language. If you want to start learning German, this video is made for you. Our hosts express themselves in simple German, with English subtitles. This video will challenge your listening comprehension skills and help you progress in your German study.
Let us help you through this 2018 Recap video compilation as you continue learning German! This is the fastest, easiest way to pick up basic German!
Follow us here:
■ Facebook:
■ Instagram:
■ Twitter:
Click here to get started with the German language:
Also, please LIKE, SHARE and COMMENT on our videos! We really appreciate it. Thanks!

Schreibe einen Kommentar

Du musst Dich Anmelden oder Registrieren, um einen Kommentar zu schreiben.

Schreib als Erster einen Kommentar zu diesem Video


text:
Orlando Parker(PS Karlsruhe) This Is A Team Of Unselfish Players Who Only Want To See The Next Man Do Great

Orlando Parker is a 25 year old 203cm forward from Orlando, Florida playing his third professional season and second in Germany and first with PS Karlsruhe. He started his basketball career with Wagner (NCAA) in 2010 playing a total of 118 NCAA games. As a senior he played 26 games averaging 6.7ppg, 6.7rpg, FGP: 44.7%, FT: 62.0%. In 2014 he turned professional with UL Eagles Limerick (Ireland-Premier League) playing 17 games averaging 19.9ppg, 8.6rpg, 1.1spg, 1.2bpg, FGP: 45.5%, 3PT: 42.4%, FT: 78.5%. Last season he played with Baskets Vilsbiburg (Germany-Regionalliga) playing  26 games: 22.6ppg, 9.4rpg, 1.5apg, 1.3spg, 1.4bpg, FGP: 55.6%, 3PT: 33.8%, FT: 79.3%. He spoke to German Hoops after the 82-73 win against the Dragons Rhondorf.

Orlando congrats on the big 82-73 win in Rhondorf putting the PS Karlsruhe record at 7-1. Seven wins in a row. How good is basketball life for you at the moment?

Basketball Life is going really good at the moment, the everyday routine and work ethic is what I dreamed of so I can’t complain.

PS Karlsruhe has a 7 game winning streak and city rival BG Karlsruhe a 5 game winning streak. Is the basketball fever being felt in the city right now?

I can’t speak for BG but I know PSK is enjoying every moment of the success while still making sure we are prepared every week for our opponents

Do you sense like that last regular season game against BG Karlsruhe won´t be the last meeting this season?

I’m not good at predicting the future but I’m sure whatever happens around that time PSK will be ready

The club remains unbeaten on the road. Do you feel as comfortable on the road as home or does it have to do with the team´s mindset?

Me personally I’ve always been a road warrior and I enjoy playing on the road when the odds are against you the crowd is cheering for you to lose, that atmosphere is always exciting to play in. As far as the team goes we just play every game with the same mindset and that’s to win no matter where we play

PS Karlsruhe was in control of this game and except for a few big runs that you gave up to Rhondorf, How content were you with the effort of your team?

We understand as a team that there will be runs, that’s just part of basketball but we also do a good as a team on staying together and making sure we stay all positive

PS Karlsruhe scored 52 points in the paint. Is that a number that you always want to reach as a team to be completely satisfied to how you utilize your strength as a team inside?

If we can get that many points in the paint on a nightly basis that’ll be great, but it’s no surprise that we are all capable of being aggressive and penetrating when on the attack

I guess you can´t ever totally shut down an Aaron Nelson as he was averaging 24 and 14 coming into the game and scored 31 and hauled down 15 rebounds. Is he the best big man that you have come across this season so far?

We’ve played against some pretty solid bigs in the league so far, we know he wants to score and we allowed him to take open 3’s which he banked in so other than that we can live with the results.

After a poor showing in the home opener against the Fraport Skyliners Juniors, the club came back the next week beating rival BG Karlsruhe. Was there something in this game that has secretly sparked the play of the team to span this 7 game winning streak?

No secret we just knew what it felt like to lose and it wasn’t a good feeling, especially the home opener and ever since that loss we definitely didn’t want to feel that way again.

PS Karlsruhe have this focus that I really haven´t seen from any team this season. How much does this have to do with the characters of the club and how much with the guidance of head coach Alexander Scepanovic?

This is a team of unselfish players who only want to see the next man do great. I think our teams character is what makes us good. We have guys who might only play 5 minutes and score maybe 4pts but are cheering the entire game. So I definitely think we have a team full of guys who are more concerned with the teams success over themselves. I give Coach a lot of credit he definitely enjoys the game of basketball and his passion and love for the game is definitely part of the teams success, he knows what it takes to win and he makes sure we are prepared throughout the week to be in a good position to win games.

PS Karlsruhe have the top rated defense in the Pro B. The club doesn´t have real size inside, but how natural is the team athleticism which seems to drive opponents crazy?

Basketball in general is becoming a more versatile sport where size isn’t always the main factor, so we have guys who can play and defend multiple positions on the floor so it helps a lot with our defense

The club seems to have so much self-confidence at the moment. Does the team know how good it is and how much potential does the team have and how better do you feel can you still get?

We tend to not think that we just play every game with the same mindset and hungry attitude

Is the front line of Orlando Parker, Bill Borekambi and Jordan Talbert the best athletic trio in the Pro B south?

We are good players

How valuable has German Deon Mcduffie been this season. What besides his nonstop energy is his biggest asset on the court?

He’s the energy we need on our team, I think his role and his leadership is very important to what we have going on. He plays with a lot of heart and shows no type of fear whatsoever.

You had your best shooting game of the season against Rhondorf going 8/12 from the field something you also did against Leipzig. How much do you actually think about this during the flow of the game and the quick ball movement that PS Karlsruhe possess?

I never think about numbers during or after a game. I just go out there and play, there will be nights where I’m having a good shooting night and there will be some bad ones, but I just play

You are playing a solid season so far. What have you been most pleased with with your own game and what do you still want to work on on the offensive end?

I’m just happy for the teams success, I work on my game every day so whatever I can do to help the team win Is all that matters

Did you think much about the last game where you shot only 4/12 against the ScanPlus Baskets or are you bale to block that out quickly?

I just go out there and play

You only had your third steal of the season. How much of a priority is it for you to continue to work on your game on the defensive end?

I think I play good defense. I could have 30 steals but that doesn’t mean I’m playing defense. So I don’t think having steals is a big part of defense, defense doesn’t really show up on the stat sheet. Playing defense is closing out to a shooter, not allowing your man to get easy touches in the post, being in help side, not allowing easy penetration in the paint, diving on the floor for lose balls etc that’s what I consider playing defense not gambling trying to go for steals.

The next game is against the doormat of the league Wurzburg. How will PS Karlsruhe not underestimate this team?

We are going to enter this game the same way we have the past 8 games with the same mindset

Who wins a one on one you or Jordan Talbert?

We still haven’t played NBA 2k17 yet I have to go buy another controller for my Xbox lol

With Curry, Thompson and Durant and the supporting cast, shouldn´t the Golden State Warriors be even better than how they started or is that big man presence missing?

They need an inside presence, there not the same team at all and their bench isn’t the same as well

Does a 0/10 shooting night by Steph Curry prove he is really only human?

It proves that saying “live by the 3 die by the 3

What was the last movie that you saw?

Thanks Orlando for the chat.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Google photo

You are commenting using your Google account. Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
What’s the meaning of the word – “commandment”?-  This word is a noun and it means “an important rule given by God that tells people how to behave.  It is a charge, a decree, a command, an order or instruction given by God to His creation – man whom He made in His own image.(Gen.1:26a)

Now what are these commandments God Gave to us?

We are going to view the ten commandments God gave to His children and see if there are some insights we can derive from them as to guide our daily lives or paths and have a better living with those in our neighborhood first which will translate with time to affect our communities then to the entire world making it a better place to live in.

Image result for free images about the commandment of God

Exodus 20: 3-17 gives an account of the ten commandments which shall be highlighted here-under:

  • Thou shalt have no other gods before me;
  • Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a Jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
  • Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
  • Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days shalt thou labour, and do all they work; but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, they manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:  For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it.
  • Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.
  • Thou shalt not kill
  • Thou shalt not commit adultery
  • Thou shalt not steal
  • Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour
  • Thou shall not covet they neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.

Image result for free images about the commandment of God

The Bible stated in verse 18 that “all the people saw the thunderings and the lghtnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they remove and stood afar off.  The thunderings from God’s voice or words who can withstand it or them?  No one hence it is expected to listen, learn and obey His voice or commandments.

Why Do I have to state the entire ten commandments or its purpose?

This is to remind us once more of and or define  our duties and relationship towards God and  with Man(who is our neighbor, our relative, our friend, our communities; nation and the world at large).

What are those duties we owe God and Man?

  • To Our God is Love, honor, reverence, obedience to His commands and to do His will all the days of our lives.  We are going to cite some bible passages to confirm this.  John 14: 15, 21  reported thus:  If ye love me, keep my commandments.  He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to Him.  Also Deut. 6:5 stated thus: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  The love you render to God should be total because it has to be done with your entire being.  Hear what the Greatest teacher and our master Jesus said when questioned about which commandment was greatest.  He summarized the ten commandments into two as  seen in Matt.22:37 – 40;  ” …Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  So we can see the importance of that word Love.  So it is also to our neighbor.  Let’s see what we have to do for him.  It is not only love although it is the greatest;  but also God desires our belief in Him, trust, to set aside time to worship only Him the true and faithful God, pray and to study His words/ways

Image result for free images on love of God, christ

  • To Man, love your neighbor as you love yourself and to do to others what you would wish them do unto you(Matt.22:39; Luke 6:31).  And I want to ask a question here.  Is there anyone on earth who hates himself or does not love himself?  This question is for us all  to ponder on.
  • We have to love, honor and help our parents and family; to honor those in authorities and to meet their just demands.
  • To show respect for the life God has given us; to continually pray for peace; to bear no malice on anyone; prejudice or hatred in our hearts; and to be kind to all the creation of God as well as use our bodily desires as God intended;
  • To be honest and fair in all our dealings with all men; to seek justice, freedom, and the necessities of life for all people; and to use our talents and possessions as one who must give account and answer for them to God
  • As humans, we must be honest and speak the truth at all times and not to mislead others by our silence; and to resist temptations to envy, greed, and jealousy but to rejoice in other people’s gifts and graces; and to do our duty for the love of God who has called us into fellowship with him. (Some of these  are culled from the Anglican Book of Common Prayer p.847).  These were things I learnt from childhood and to deviate from loving and put on some other character into my life has been a very difficult one which I still pray God should continue to uphold me in His ways to remain loving no matter what comes my way.  Loving unto Him and to all His creation- most importantly to man(His image).

For the bible makes me to understand in Leviticus 19: from 16 down to 18 that,  “Thou shalt not go up and down as a talebearer among thy people; neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy neighbor; I am the Lord.  Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him.  Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself; I am the Lord.

This is God instructing us all on how to live with our neighbors.  Yes, initially it was directed to His chosen race but now through Christ we have been made heirs and co-heirs and are recipient of Abraham’s blessings as well as becoming Abraham’s children hence all rules and commandments are pointed and or are directed to everyone created by God.

Another passage of interest is that reported in Romans 12: 17-21 which says: “Recompense to no man evil for evil.  Provide things honest in the sight of all men.  If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.  Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.  Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.  Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good”  This shows that no matter what happens in life’s journey, we must keep on loving, caring and provide things of necessities to our neighbors at all times when it is in our power to do so.

Image result for more free images on love for God and man

We shall also look at Romans 13: 8 – 10 which says:  “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.  For this, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, thou shalt Love thy neighbor as thyself.  Love worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.  Every where you turn what it says is love.  Love God and love Man.

In IJohn 4:8,16 says “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.  And we have known and believed the love that God hath for us.  God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”  So many books, chapters and verses abound concerning how we ought to love God.

First is loving God with all our heart, mind/soul.  Second, love your brother/sister/family members- especially in their needs/wants when God has filled you with His goodness.  Our duty is to render assistance – although a lot of people have taken this kind gesture rendered to mean foolishness of the person and have caused so much harm on such benevolent hearts- in some cases caused death of such people hence the restraint in people’s lives, yet we are admonished to continue in well doing.

I John 4:20-21 continues;”if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?  And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also”.

If we allow the fear of God which was experienced on the day these commandments were given to remain fervently in us, we would not hurt or plot any evil against anyone nor negate God’s commandments against Him or man as they are these days.

Do you fear those things happening these days whether natural or man-made.  The bible is clear about the last days and their signs and how the love of many will wax cold including the love for God  because men will be lovers of themselves and hear those things they want to hear and not things of God hence even in His presence people’s ears are itchy and complaining of lengthy services and sermons in that one day you have to come to His presence and worship Him.  It is only Him that will deliver us.

Image result for free images on love for our neighbor

Someone may ask who is my neighbor?

I thank God no man can be an island, we all need each other for one purpose or the other.  “Neighbor” here does not necessarily mean those living around us but the generality of people.

Hear how Jesus explains who a neighbor is by citing the story of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel according to Luke 10: 25-37.  The Bible mentioned that a certain lawyer stood up as to test Jesus and asked:  “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life”? and Jesus responded and said “what does the law of God state – and the lawyer of course knows the law so he responded intelligently to Jesus by saying “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.  And Jesus praised him for the correctness of his response and requested that he should go and do as he has stated so that he could live.

But the man wanting to justify himself asked Jesus again, “And who is my neighbor”?  There and then Jesus cited this case of a certain man who was going from Jerusalem to Jericho and was attacked by thieves who stripped him naked, wounded him and left him half dead.  He said that, by chance a priest came to that road, when he saw this man lying down half dead, the priest took another way; likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side of the road.  This is what is happening today – no more show of love nor compassion to anyone that is suffering or dying.  If we must show love, there must be reward we are getting from such service(s).

Let’s see it to the end- i.e the last scenario of the story- verse 33 says But a certain Samaritan, as he journey, came where he was.  And when he saw him, he had compassion.  So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, poured oil and wine and set him on his own animal; brought him to an inn, and took care of him.  On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave to the Inn Keeper and said to him, “Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.  When Jesus has finished his story he asked the lawyer “Which of there three do you think was neighbor to the man that fell among the thieves?”.  And the lawyer responded “He who showed mercy on him”  Then Jesus told him to Go and do likewise.

‘Then a Samaritan who was traveling that way arrived on the scene. When he saw him, his heart was filled with pity. He went over to him, poured oil and wine on his wounds and bandaged them – Slide 9

Showing mercy, being compassionate to one another is what the law of God and even every land demands – ie. showing love to your family, sharing, eating together in lack; when in need and wants; when there is love water that is everywhere when it is taken in given and taken in love brings peace to the receiver as a result of that love, compassion and mercy shown in sharing.

Water is no more ordinary people have realized its importance as life giver hence so much is being expended to get  it for our daily needs.

Let’s revisit our ten commandments and explain how to love God with all our hearts, body, soul and spirit and also love our neighbors as ourselves.

Image result for free images about the commandment of God

Of course if you love your neighbor as you love yourself, you will not want him dead or murder him for any reason; you will not rob him, covet any thing of his; you will not deceive him or lie to him

First is to Love God then your neighbor.  This is all that is required of us for God Himself is Love; and He loved us with an everlasting love even in our sinful nature hence He said Isaiah 1:18, Come now, and let us reason together, though your sins be like scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.  After giving us this invitation he still sent to us his Only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

So what do we need to do?

Just believe in His son Jesus, whom he sent to the world who took over our infirmities or sinful nature, and died on the cross of Calvary so that whenever we look up to Him – we are saved. The Bible stated in Hebrews 12:2 that: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Also Repent and be transformed because that was the essence of Christ coming so that He will reconcile us back to our Creator- God.

Let’s  conclude this discussion by citing some passages regarding God’s love towards mankind:  1John 2: 3-11 stated thus:  “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.  He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps Hi word, truly the Love of God is perfected in him.  He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning.  The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning.  Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining.

He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother is in darkness until now.   He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.  But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness had blinded his eyes.

Image result for more free images on love for God and man

Again, 1 John 3:1, 11, 15 – 18 reported thus: “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.  For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.  Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.  And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.  But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?  My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth.

Will greed, selfishness etc; in every sphere of life allow us to love in deed and in truth?  Even something you are qualified to have or are entitled to are being denied you right before your face.  So it seems too difficult for some to practice this word called “Love” because they refused to let go what they held onto forgetting that everything here is temporary.  If we all can genuinely love our neighbors that may be too far, lets bring this closer, our brothers and sisters and be willing to do what’s best within our power, then the love of God dwells in us.  In our offices, churches, neighborhoods and wherever we find ourselves, let the love of God radiate through us so that Christ will be lifted up and the name of God will be highly exalted.

 Let us examine some characteristics of this word Love

Love is considered as the greatest gift.  Hear what the Bible says concerning it as stated in I Corinthians 13:1 to the end and paraphrased in some cases; “Though I speak in

tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though i have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.

Image result for more free images on love for God and man

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; it does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity but rejoices in the truth; loves bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things, love never fails.  But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away….  And now abide faith, hope, love, these three but the greatest is love.”

That is the nature and importance of love.  Let’s love and make this world a better place this is the mind of God concerning His creation on this earth.  Living in Love with all Creation for the love of God to be manifested in us.

Want to turn whatever passion you have into a lucrative Online Business, this is a good opportunity for you to Join Me as to explore the vastness of knowledge and hidden talents and bring out the gold or stuff you are made of.

Feel free to contact me on this website and I will be glad to respond to you.  Your comments will be highly appreciated.

Your Friend.


text:
Yesterday, I discussed the extension of DC’s alphanumeric street naming system into Maryland. But there are other naming systems which are perhaps less logical but quirky enough to deserve mention.

Bowie, Maryland has a quasi-systematic set of named streets. Most of the suburban style housing built in the post war era falls in to sections where each street starts with the same letter. I’ve been told that many Bowie residents refer to their neighborhood simply using the letter, as in “E-section.”

Another place worth mentioning is Bethesda. Several of the streets in and around the central business district are named after places in Northern Virginia. Arlington Road, Clarendon Road, Del Ray Avenue, Fairfax Road, Norfolk Avenue, St. Elmo Avenue, and Woodmont Avenue all reference places on the other side of the Potomac.

The region has not one, but (at least) two neighborhoods with streets named after places or characters from Star Trek. One is near Gaithersburg, the other in Largo.

As I pointed out yesterday, College Park uses university names as a part of its alphabetical street naming system. But two other Maryland neighborhoods also use colleges to name streets. One instance is in College Gardens, near Montgomery College. The other is Glen Echo.

Image from Google Maps. Click for interactive version.

Takoma Park has two different street naming patterns. In the central part of Takoma Park, streets tend to be named after flowers and trees. Closer to Silver Spring, streets are named after American cities.

There are probably other places in the region with interesting naming systems. Do any of you know where else we can find them?


text:
CITYTECH Looks To Earn Trust Of Enterprises With A Business Blog

April 6, 2016By
CITYTECH Blog Analysis

A long-term commitment is required for success with a business blog.

If you search for the term “enterprise” on the CITYTECH Services page you’ll get seven results. That’s how many times they mention their target client on that page. And they do it in other places throughout their website.

It’s great when a company really knows who their target client is. CITYTECH isn’t looking to connect with all businesses of all shapes and sizes. They know that they work best with enterprises and that’s where their focus is.

CITYTECH, as the name implies, provides a few tech solutions for their enterprise clients. They seem to work on large enterprise content management systems or what they call experience systems. They offer cloud services and also build mobile applications and custom applications or software for large companies to use in various ways to do business.

You can learn more about what CITYTECH does for clients on their website, but we’re going to divert to what they’re doing with their blog and how they’re looking to earn trust from their potential clients.

1. 10+ Year Commitment To Blogging

The first item that stands out to me is their blog archive in the righthand sidebar. They have links to past posts for all the years that their blog has been around and you’ll see that they’ve been blogging since 2006.

And there are posts in every year during that span of ten years, which is really cool to see. It always makes me happy to see a company with a long-term outlook at blogging and CITYTECH must have really been in it early. Blogging was still pretty new in 2006, but companies have been creating content for much longer as a way to earn trust in their industry.

Anything in life usually requires consistent commitment. Doing something once in a while won’t likely lead to the results you’re looking for. Instead, consistent commitment with a long-term outlook usually leads to improvement and success.

CITYTECH seems to maybe be waning with their blogging at the moment. They haven’t had a post yet in 2016, but there’s still time.

2. Explanations With Screenshots, Internal Linking

Here’s a recent post with a few great things.

First, the post builds on something that was mentioned in a previous post. That’s a question we get sometimes regarding business blogging: Should we leave a topic alone after we’ve written on it?

You don’t want to write about one thing over and over. That can get old, but it’s good to revisit topics especially if that topic is important to your target readers. Plus over time you’re going to learn new things about a topic so it makes sense to revisit a topic after some time to provide new insight.

And a great thing right away in the post is the reference to the prior post and it links to that post. It’s great to link to previous posts. It’s good to link to outside posts too when it adds value to your post.

Finally, the overall nature of this post is that it’s explaining something. It’s over my head, but for the target reader I can see that this would be a great post with lots of good screenshots. Those screenshots are great for posts when you’re explaining how to do something.

3. List Posts & Industry Insight

Here’s an interesting post.

First, it’s a list post. It’s a short list, but that’s totally fine. The number in a list doesn’t matter as much as the answer you provide to the reader’s question. It can be 101 or it could be 3.

It does seem, however, that lists are great for blogs. They get a bad reputation sometimes because it seems every blog out there has a number of lists. But that’s just fine. People like the list format so using them on business blogs is totally okay.

Second, this post is good because CITYTECH provides some insight into a trend in their industry. Anytime there are changes in an industry people will be looking for instruction on how to respond. They want to know what the change means for them. So this is a great opportunity for businesses to provide that insight and it helps those business build a strong reputation as well as trust with potential clients.

4. How It’s Done

Here we have another list post, but another type of list post.

This post is a little different. It’s more about exactly what CITYTECH has done to make sure their clients experience as much uptime as possible. This type of post is good from time to time because potential clients would be interested in getting a little behind-the-scenes look at how it’s done.

A good prequel post to this one could be on the topic of uptime. Maybe a history of how it’s changed over time, why it’s so important as well as answering some general questions readers have about uptime. That would lead well into this type of post.

5. Other Possible Types Of Blog Posts

CITYTECH has been blogging for a long time and I’m sure they’ve done lots of different types of posts. It seems like late last year the blogging started to fall off just a bit, but things definitely get busy at a business from time to time and the blog can take a backseat.

But if they were looking for more things to blog about it’s always good to start with questions that the target audience is asking in relation to the industry. Start with a question and provide the answer with a post. Commit to doing this every week and in a year you’ll have about 50 great blog posts that are on your site to provide ongoing value to your audience.

You earn trust when you answer questions. Think of how appreciative you are when you are stumped on a question and someone provides a good answer.

It works the same in blogging and businesses have the opportunity to provide answers and earn trust.

And remember, the majority of your target audience doesn’t know your brand exists or they’re not thinking about your brand most of the time. So focus on the questions they’re asking about their job, their industry and not about your company and your service.


text:
Monday, 20 August 2012

Today began week two of the busiest course of the year. We’re putting some five hundred students through the five weeks of academic square bashing known as a pre-sessional. It’s fraught, sweaty and exhausting. In every classroom you could scoop flabby wodges out of the air and serve them up as junket. I had two days off last week with the summer cold from Hades and am still itchy-eyed, achy, snotty and sneezy and very much Not In The Mood. I’m even more irritated than ever with weather forecasts that would have us ‘basking’ in this muggy heat. ‘Basting’, more like.

Courses with five hundred students are always rather chaotic. Everything takes more time to complete than has been budgeted for. One day last week I reduced the lunch break to half an hour so as to cram in a brief overview of the course aims and assessment and to read the riot act about lateness and absence, all between police registration and a tour of the library. As I was returning early to class to start this, a young colleague was approaching. Her veil covered her hair entirely, her garments revealed no flesh. As befits a Muslim lady in Ramadan, her demeanour was gentle and modest. ‘It was a right bloody load of fucking shit this morning’ she said evenly. ‘We got sod all done.’ But we’re British, we muddle through.

‘Steve, why you giff me only fifferty-two bercent for my bresentation?’ Hamid asked me as I was returning to class in another building after lunch with only two minutes to spare.

Hamid, do not ask tutors to justify the mark they gave for a presentation they assessed three weeks ago: you might as well expect past-life regression.

‘I have here’ he said, pulling out his smart-phone and bringing up a photo of my feedback sheet reduced to the size of a bus ticket.

‘I can’t see that, you must be joking!’ I said, and made vague noises about discussing it later. I hope he’ll forget, but doubt it. What the hell makes him think I’d remember anything about his presentation out of the seventeen or so I assessed in two days three weeks ago? I don’t know if it’s a complement to me or a sign of megalomania in him.

‘My presentation, I wan discuss abow litre on chaining’ a young Chinese boy told me later. Litre on chaining? It took me a minute or two to think about that and conclude that I hadn’t a clue what he meant. After an embarrassing number of requests for repetition, I had to ask him to write it down. He wants to talk about ‘return on training’.

Unfortunately for us, our unfailingly cheerful and highly efficient administration officer is moving on to a job down the Smoke next week, and apparently we are getting a new admin person who is to be joined by a ‘front-runner’. ‘Front-runner’ is management-speak for ‘mug’, i.e., a young person who is being offered the once-in-a lifetime opportunity to do all kinds of office drudgery for no remuneration. Somebody should be walking around rather stiffly from having shoved this ‘job’ where they might justifiably have been told to shove it, but nobody is that I can see.

Students submitted their essay plans for feedback today. I wrote comments on seventeen of them on the train on the way home. Most are reasonable, if over-ambitious for a thousand words. I have a lovely, enthusiastic Chinese PhD student who seems to have submitted an outline for her thesis. On the opposite side there’s this:

  • In this essay, firstly the situation will be mentioned.
  • After that the problems and causes will be discussed.
  • Finally the issues will be carefully examined and deeply analysed.
Imagine we were running a catering course and the task had been to plan a celebratory Sunday lunch for a family birthday. Would this have been sufficiently informative?

  • First I will be serve a starter
  • Next I'm put a main course (various things)
  • Finally it is a dessert

    What do you reckon? Should I just append a red tick, and see what she comes up with?

    Candy said...

    Oh God, I feel quite delirious and faint. The thought of all that tartrazine and benzoate the you have to plough through; the ramblings and wrenchings of the language into something utterly unrecognisable; the placatory justifications; the head banging frustration of it all. Pour yourself a gorgeous G&T. Wish I had a solution, or effective therapy of some sort. By way of empathy, I have a student who REFUSES to accept that we WILL NOT guarantee his TOEFL result and won't pay us until he gets over 100,(he is with us for 6 weeks and smokes and chews gum), a student who challenged me this morning and said, "You are Candy, no? You are head of school? I hear from boss you no like Russians", and a Spanish chap whose dentition needs total overhauling before I will understand a single thing he says. That's three of the six we have this week. Jayzeezz. I need to find someone to support me.

    Vilges Suola said...

    Re G&T, if only - got some red, and would love a gin or a screwdriver, but will have to wait for the bonk holiday.

    At least I get away at 14.50. Do you till have to breakfast,lunch, dinner and socialise with your lot?

    Nik_TheGreek said...

    Varia indeed... I'm sorry for you.

    Candy said...

    Oh yes. Well breakfast and teach til 3.30 then bollocky paperwork and dealing with 'head of the school who doesn't like Russians' stuff, like trying to make them pay.......bonk holiday? I should be so lucky.

    Vilges Suola said...

    Hi Nick, thanks for the sympathy - I actually intended 'varia' with the Latin meaning of 'miscellany' rather than the Greek meaning of 'heavily', although in the end it isn't really a miscellany, just a long moan about the course, which is indeed vareto.

    Having breakfast with one's students - cannot get over it. Breakfast is absolutely not to be communal for me. I'm up at 5.30 even though I don't leave the house until 7.55, just so as to have this time alone.

    Blog Widget by LinkWithin


text:
Remineralization-For Better Vegetable Gardens

Last winter I read about remineralizing gardens and how it’s not enough to add compost every year as minerals will eventually get depleted too as the plants use them up. I’ve been adding compost to my vegetable garden for ten years and have created a fairly rich soil but have never added minerals or trace minerals to my whole garden. So this season I decided two things-add something to remineralize the soil and get a soil test to see how my soil was. I haven’t had a soil test done in about 4 years so I knew I was long overdue especially since I garden so intensively.

The test results showed my soil was good except it was low in manganese, sodium and iron and medium for copper, boron, salt, magnesium and potassium.

So I researched out what product I should add and I decided on AZOMITE. Azomite is a rock dust mined from Utah and is actually an ancient deposit of aluminum silicate clay and marine minerals. It is a rich source of available potash (0.2%) and over 70 trace minerals, including calcium (1.8%), sodium (0.1%), and magnesium (0.5%). I bought online a 44 lb bag of micronized (consistency of flour) Azomite from Peaceful Valley Farms Organic site but they are not the only source-Amazon sells it in smaller size bags. After I added my usual 2-3 inches of compost in the spring while prepping the beds, I sprinkled Azomite on top of each garden bed and and gently turned it over in the top four inches of soil. I also read you can top dress your plants after you have them in with it. So for my strawberry plants, I just sprinkled it on top of the plants and watered in.

Here is my strawberries in April. It is just coming back from winter but was struggling

The results are amazing-WOW! is an understatement.

Strawberries grew 14″tall with the addition of Azomite this year

I don’t think I’ve had such a lush garden ever and I’ve had some amazing gardens. My strawberry beds went from struggling last year (part of that was the drip system wasn’t working very well but part of it was it needed something) to the tallest, happiest, most fruitful plants.

The main thing I’ve done differently this year is add Azomite. Now I know we’ve gotten some good rains in August which can only help a garden but all the plants in my veggie garden have gone ballistic growing and producing veggies-it’s like a frigging jungle.

I only used around half the bag in my 3000 sq foot garden, so a little goes a long ways. I will sprinkle the other half in next year and will get more for my perennial plants and fruit trees as well for next year. Once done, you won’t have to keep replenishing it every year but every few years, I’m going to add Azomite again.


text:
Blog Post

Amazon Kinesis should be a real-time wake-up call for Google

Amazon(s amzn) Web Services announced a new streaming data service called Kinesis on Thursday but one could argue its biggest impact is more business than technology. Google, Microsoft and any cloud provider that thinks it wants to compete with AWS needs to step up its game if it wants to stand a real chance at winning new developers.

New instance types, databases and security protocols are great, but they’re not necessarily huge points of differentiation between clouds. At least not for long. Hypothetically enabling entirely new types of applications because of services that let users capture, store and  transport streaming data to various data stores or processing engines (e.g., DynamoDB, Redshift, Elastic MapReduce and even Storm) is a pretty big point of differentiation.

Capture with Kinesis, send to EMR, Storm or wherever.
Capture with Kinesis, send to EMR, Storm or wherever.

Forget streaming data — Microsoft(s msft) just rolled out its batch Hadoop service; Google(s goog) doesn’t technically have one for Compute Engine.

While announcing Kinesis onstage at AWS re:invent, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels quoted Netflix’s Adrian Cockroft (and I’ll paraphrase him) in noting that a company like Netflix is a log-generation application that happens to stream videos. The same could be said for just about any application dealing in mobile, video, media, social, sensors or whatever. If the companies running those applications want to do something with that data in real time, and they want to do it via a managed cloud service, Kinesis (to the best of my knowledge) is the only option around.

I wrote last week that Google has the technologies internally to build an incredibly compelling cloud platform should it choose to deliver them as services. Gartner analyst Lydia Leong fleshed out that idea in a blog post on Thursday. She wrote

“I expect Google is going to launch truly innovative capabilities that will turn into customer demands. It’s not that AWS is going to simply mount a competitive response — it will become a situation where customers ask for these capabilities, pushing AWS to respond.”

The live workload migration service that inspired her post does sound impressive and is something that AWS doesn’t offer. Microsoft, too, has promise in terms of having a technology portfolio capable of disruption if exposed as services.

Right now, though, it’s still AWS doing most of the innovating (I forget the exact number of major features Vogels said AWS has released so far this year, but it was north of 200), while we just talk about how disruptive the others could be. If they really do intend to attract new developers and keep them away from AWS, it seems like other cloud providers might want to pick up the pace.

3 Responses to “Amazon Kinesis should be a real-time wake-up call for Google”

  1. Werner Vogel needs to lose some weight. Seriously. If something happened to Werner Vogel due to being in bad health, Amazon and the world would lose an importNt person and human capital. Perhaps Jeff Bezos should come up with a plan which motivates and rewards employees for good health, as Ariana Huffington reminded us earlier this year in her excellent presentation at the HunSpot conference about the importance of holistic well being. Addiction to the cloud is not a good thing!


text:
Life After ~ by Shefi Nelson

She could hear voices. There were too many people in the house. Her grandmother poked her head through the door and smiled. She walked in, picked up a brush and sat by the bed. “Theodosia, you need to get up. We leave in less than two hours and we can’t afford to be late.” With her eyes closed, Thea sat up as her grandmother brushed her long hair. It was naturally made of three glorious colors. The roots were a dense color of black coal, the middle had a russet color and finished off with sunset tips. Thea’s hair was so beautiful; her immediate family would spend hours brushing it in turns.

Today, she cared less about her hair, or what her grandmother would turn it into. She impatiently waited for it to be braided and walked to the bathroom. Her chest was clogged but she dared not cry; at least not today. She shut the door and started to bathe. The water brought tears to her eyes and she quickly turned off the shower, grabbed her purple towel and walked into the room naked. Her grandmother was waiting. Thea was eighteen years and yet, she warmly let go as her grandmother took the towel to wipe her body. They both sat facing each other as Thea raised her feet up to be wiped. Her grandmother started with her little toe and stopped to say, “You know how much your father…” Thea quickly stood up and cut her off. “Grams, please! I’ll take it up from here. You should go!” The old woman slowly made her way to the door and left.

Within seconds, Thea had locked the door and put on her underwear. Tears filled her eyes as she managed to take her dress off the hanger. She had always wanted a little black dress but certainly not for this purpose. She slowly made her way into the dress. For the first time, she felt so girly and yet, everything felt terribly wrong. She started to cry as she looked into the full length mirror. She thought about him and how he would have impulsively complained about the dress being too tight. Her clothes were just the right fit and yet, the opposite was what he always said. She smiled as she imagined him walking around her, looking for a hemline that could be released. She could feel her chest clogging and she struggled to focus on the dress. It was her mother’s Vera Wang. Sleeveless and form-fitting, it ended just above her knees. The top half was made entirely of black lace that went down diagonally from her left shoulder to just above her right breast. The skirt was beautifully plaited with a belt that drastically reduced the girth of her waist.

Thea quickly crossed over to her dresser, as she heard her grandmother call for her to get ready. She brought out her make-up set, held her hair into a perfect bun and started on her tear-stained face. She moisturized her face with a foundation primer to plump up her skin and filled in the fine lines and large pores. She added a sweep of bronzer before adding a bit of powder to prevent her skin from appearing too shinny.

Theodosia never forgot the importance of her eyebrows in making her face pop. She brushed her brows with an old toothbrush and tweezed the strayed hairs. Thea went on to fill in sparse spots with a brow pencil and a soft eyeshadow that matched her brow color. Moving onto her eyes, she thought of mascara with a swipe of powder on her lids to keep the grease at bay and to even out her skin tone. Instead, she applied eyeliner, setting it over the shadow for a heavier look. She set the make-up powder to keep the shadow from melting into her eye crease. She finished up her eyes by curling her long lashes and applying thick black mascara.

He would have gone crazy! They would have argued until she had wiped off the make-up from most parts of her face. He had never really understood the concept of wearing make-up. She could literally hear him going on and on about how make-up was meant for people who were troubled or had something to hide and frankly, she was beyond troubled and had so much bottled up. She picked up her mahogany red lipstick and smeared three and two coats to her lower and upper lips.

Thea applied enough perfume, released her hair, stepped into her surprisingly comfortable black pumps and walked out of the door. Everyone was waiting downstairs. Everyone but him! Her brother held out his hand as she walked up to him. He kissed her cheeks and whispered, “He would have said you looked stunning. You were always his perfect little baby.” She sent everyone laughing as she chuckled and replied, “No Jeremy, he would have said the makeup was way too much and sent me right back to clean up.”

Her mother signalled for them to get going. It had been two weeks and she had already lost so much weight. In the days that followed after the news came, she had begged her mother to eat. She would begin with a small bite and burst out in tears. Thea had given up and was grateful when her grandmother moved in.

The church was a few minutes away and the moment Thea had been dreading came faster than she had hoped. There were family and friends already seated as she entered the church with her mother, brother, sisters and grandmother. They were almost at the front when her brother caught her mother in his arms.  Her mother, seeing his body stretched out in an open coffin, lost the strength in her knees.

Thea stood there as her family passed to their seats. She gathered the courage to look at him. Her father, her entire world was stretched out in that coffin, right in front of her. He never drank, he smoked nothing his entire life and yet, he had battled with lung cancer. The doctors had said he had two and a half years but in six months, her father was no more.

She wanted him to get up and wipe her make-up off. She wanted him to get up and laugh so hard at her silly mannerisms. She wanted him to get up and be alive, and be the father he had always been. She felt her brother’s touch and followed him to her seat. Father Jacob approached the pulpit and started the service. There were tears from everyone but her. That was the whole point of making up. She couldn’t break down, not yet and definitely not here!

They sang for several minutes because that was all he had loved to do. He would sing to them when they were happy, excited, sad or troubled. He had bought her a musical set for her tenth birthday and they had become best friends ever since. She would stay up late waiting for him to walk through the door just so they could sing half the night away. She had loved him all her life. She loved him even more as she sang her heart out.

The Bible passages preceded the tributes and soon, it was her turn to read her tribute. As she walked past the box containing her father to the pulpit, it finally hit her that he was gone. Tears threatened to flow as she held the pulpit for support with one hand and struggled to open the piece of paper with the other hand.  This was it! He was gone! They would have to get through! It was exactly what he would have wanted.

Slowly, Theodosia aligned the sheet and started, “Daddy Dearest…”

Shefi Nelson
Shefi Nelson, an alumna of Ashesi University College, is a calm, goal-oriented individual who cognizes the power of words and their ability to shape people’s perceptions and outlooks on the world they find themselves in. Shefi made her literary debut in 2015 with the story “Tatale” – published on Flash Fiction Ghana website. Shefi seeks to make a special contribution to the world by breathing life into the simplest string of words to create a connection, and have a lasting impact on her readers. Her hobbies include reading, sewing, writing and managing people.

You may follow the writer on Twitter: @life_as_shefi


text:
Support Global Voices

To stay independent, free, and sustainable, our community needs the help of friends and readers like you.

Donate now »

See all those languages up there? We translate Global Voices stories to make the world's citizen media available to everyone.

Learn more about Lingua Translation  »

Mexico: The Story of a Deported Teen

Nathan Gibbs and reporter Amy Isackson produced a video piece about a 17-year-old boy, who was deported to Mexico, and who subsequently returned. He links to the video and accompanying photos on Flickr.

Start the conversation

Authors, please log in »

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.

Receive great stories from around the world directly in your inbox.

Sign up to receive the best of Global Voices!

Submitted addresses will be confirmed by email, and used only to keep you up to date about Global Voices and our mission. See our Privacy Policy for details.

Newsletter powered by Mailchimp (Privacy Policy and Terms).

* = required field
Email Frequency

No thanks, show me the site


text:
A new study by Columbia University suggests that eating low-fiber, high-fat and sugary foods leads to waking up at night and less time in “slow wave sleep,” the critical restorative phase. If studies have shown that sleep deprivation leads to bad diet choices (which lead to obesity and diabetes), this new study suggests the whole “bad diet thing” is a vicious circle.

Read the study at

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


text:
Stella (8.2m2)

Made just for you
This product is made to order in our workshop in Herefordshire. We’ll normally have it ready for you in 14 days. Lead times can be longer during very busy periods but once you have placed your order we will confirm your delivery date. If you have any questions, please give us a call on 01442 620213.
  • Product Items
    (inc VAT)
  • ?

Need Help?

Call us for expert advice and help finding a local installer

This website uses cookies for analytics and to deliver improved service. By using this site, you agree to this use.