Have You Seen a Fat Vampire?

Have you?

Seriously.

Have you???

Diff Diff Sniff Sniff

Today I noticed my knuckles turning dark.  They started to form scales over the joints of my fingers.  When  I washed my hands they all stung--dry and scaly skin are friable.  I hope this word means what I think it means otherwise if it means close to how it sounds then it means my fingers are more or less fried.  That's how I remember new worlds, you know.  Some times it helps, some times it doesn't.  Like for example:

Ear = Ohr
Hair = Haar
Cup = Tasse (tasa, quite close to the Bisaya version).

...and when it doesn't help:

Bein = Leg
Leaf = Blatt
Tree = Bauch

But exercises like these make the day less cold:

B:  Ist Herr Janssen nicht hier?
A:  Nein, er kommt heute nicht.
B:  Ist etwas passiert?
A:  Ja, zwei Polizisten waren bei Herrn Janssen.  Sie haben geklingelt.
B:  Polizisten?  Was ist denn passiert?
A:  Na ja, er war nicht da.
B:  Ist es schlimm?
A:  Nein, das nicht.  Aber die Polizisten sind wieder gegangen.

B:  Hast du es schon gehoert?  Die Sache mit Herr Janssen?
C:  Nein, was denn?
B:  Zwei Polizisten waren bei Herrn Janssen.  Sie haben geklingelt.
C:  Mein Gott!  War es schlimm?
B:  Ja, die Polizisten sind eine halbe Stunde geblieben, dann gegangen.

C:  Haben Sie es schon gehoert?
D:  Nein!  Was denn?
C:  Zwei Polizisten waren bei Herrn Jansen.  Sie haben geklingelt.
D:  Was ist denn passiert?
C:  Die Polizisten haben Herrn Jansen mitgenommen.
D:  Das ist ja schrecklich!

Gossip.

I was feeling unusually buoyant Saturday as Leia and I had a walk [no no no no, I keep forgetting.  She had a seat and I had a vigorous walk].  I kept wondering what it was that set my spirits soaring, now I remember.  As I passed by one parked car, this man had his stereo on high volume and the song went...

Pretty woman, stop a while
Pretty woman, talk a while
Pretty woman, gave your smile to me...


Anyway, what I wanted to note was, before I forget, that I never saw anyone combing their hair, or fixing their hair for that matter, in public.  I've never seen anyone fixing themselves.  I've never even seen anyone run their HANDS in their hair either.  I mentioned this to Nils and he said I was right.  And I pointed out that you see people doing this all time in public in the Philippines, why not here?  All he said was 'it was not appropriate'.  I went away in a huff like I imagine Hufflepuff of the house of Hufflepuff would have huffed and puffed.


We do so many things that are inappropriate.  We bathe in the rain.  Half-naked.  As kids.  Adults run naked in the streets and call it Oblation Run.  Why cover the face, though?  Ah.  I've been reading this book and it's great.  Here's a taste:


"What we refer to as customs or culture is inscribed in our genes.  Cultural evolution began in prehistoric times.  That was when our mind was laid out.  Sure, these days we design aeroplanes, helicopter carriers and opera houses, but only to continue our primitive activities on a so-called civilised plane..."


I am not done reading it yet.  I will be soon.  That will make me really sad.


Yeah.  It's like a Greek Tragedy.


But seriously, Greek Tragedies do not compare to Norse Tragedies, they just didn't have Ovid or Homer to write theirs.  Take Signy and Sigurd.  Ah Signy.  Can Medea really compare to her?  Or Clytemnestra?  Sadly, I think not.


I had found this one single word that I thought perfectly described Terry Pratchett's novels, but I forgot it about 2 hours after having thought about it.  Then about after 1 day of obsessing about it, I remembered and I thought I'd never forget it again because I already had, but then, to my dismay, I did, I have, and until now it still eludes me.  Damn.

3

I tried 3 times.

It was snowing heavily [for me], and I thought it would be great to make a snowman.  My first attempt was christened by a huge golden labrador.  The second one was in the balcony, which I had to abort because there was not enough snow there [I had initially planned on making a miniature snowman but I became ambitious and ran out of snow].  The third attempt I wasn't able to finish although it look very promising because it was getting dark [at 3 pm].

So no snowman.

I thought the fates were playing with me.  It first started snowing November 24.  It was just some tiny flakes, hardly visible, like dandruff falling off the sky, more like swirling down from the sky.  They swirl.  Unlike raindrops.  And just when I was starting to think I scared the snow away [I had just heard it was snowing heavily everywhere else], it had started to snow.  The next thing I know I was plowing through several inches of freezing snow.  And here's the prize:  it's the coldest winter recorded in 79 years.  Even before the 2 world wars.  And they thought last year was a record.  This year topped that.  This negative temperature range is driving me out of my mind.  Where I come from the temperature is 32 degrees Celsius PLUS.  I was telling the girls at the Integration Class that in the Philippines we never need pullovers that we walked around in shirts and shorts and slippers and their jaws dropped.  I told them during the rainy season kids bathe in the rain and people often did that because we don't freeze there and catch our deaths when we did it. They jaws dropped again.  A few centimeters more and they'd have been licking the floor.  I said all those in my broken German so I may have said something entirely different.

My colds is letting up.  My nose has started to bleed.

Have you seen my feet?  I haven't.

I attempted to use my bare hands to make the first snowman.  Bad idea.  That was funny.  Very stupid.

Leia and I went out for a walk.  Correct that.  I went out for a walk [she sat in a stroller].

Nils once said that the dangerous part is when you start to feel pins and needles after getting exposed to the cold, and I said no, the dangerous part is when you don't feel anything at all anymore.  He insisted.  Fine.  He grew up in this place.  Who am I to argue?  Anyway, I felt pins and needles on my hands yesterday and I thought I was losing some of my fingers.

I had once thought my thick hair could protect my brain from freezing and found out that I hadn't counted in the wind. It works like this:  the wind blows and parts the hair exposing the scalp and thus chilling the calcium box encasing the brain.