Me and the Translator

Probably ... I give this more attention than it needs, in Dutch we say maybe it's: “**een scheet in een fles” but... I must write this post because I was a little embarrassed.

I placed a comment on Jen's comment* in her blog, but because the translator deceived me, the joke that I made there... became a real blunder.

Maybe I am an "old tart" but, in the first place... I interpreted what she said correct! I know what "to break up" means, I don't need the translator for this but her comment came so suddenly, it was so unexpected that I started to doubt myself. Therefore I consulted the translator with the result that I made a fool of myself.

My problem is that I can say it in English and of course my conjugations are probably not always correct but I need the translator to check my spelling. I also need sometimes the dictionary because one word can have so many meanings.

Let me say.... the translator and I... we supplement each other but, today I would give him: "een stamp onder zijn gat**"! He fooled me!

From now on... if I have doubts ... I am only going to follow my own intuition.

The translator will never have the same capacity to translate as the human brain .... even not as that of an old lady!.

Do you think that “that" will ever be possible? Do you think that the translator might ever “reason” as a human brain?

I don't!

PS: * if you are interested look for my comment in Jen's post on July 14. ( Update: Jen's blog exists no longer.)

** I invite you to use the translator! Could you find out what it really means?

America... Here we Were!

To day, July the fourth.... now 30 years ago we were at this place!

Probably you shall not recognize the place, it's a small village called Sweetwater. It's situated in the state Tennessee and it lies in the environment of Chattanooga and Knoxville.

There we experienced independence day with a real American parade! (see pictures)

I almost can't believe that it's already so long ago!

We made this trip to America with a special reason.

My husband had been in the U.S for the company he was working for and he was interested to emigrate to America!

I was not so keen at it because, we had bought only a few years before a property ( a penthouse). If we would move to the U.S then we had to leave everything behind! Therefore we made this trip to have a little fore taste of America!

First we flew to New York and with a rented car we drove to New Orleans. There we experienced hurricane Bob!

From there we took a plane to Los Angeles. Again we rented a car to drive to San Fransisco. From there we flew to New York and afterwards we flew back home to Europe. (I hope that you could follow this)! We visited many places, the whole tour took 32 days!

It was a very exciting experience and now it's still a beautiful memory!

Maybe ....I will write a post about this tour some day.

Because at that moment, there were still too many uncertainties and headaches, we decided not to emigrate. In fact we have never had regret of that decision because, starting all over in an other country is not always without risks and also, my husband had a good job here in Belgium!

He worked with much pleasure for this same company till his pension.

He had a beautiful career!

Now, we are sure that we made the right decision then and we are still happy to live in Belgium!

PS: The boy on the forefront is my son. Do you recognize me on the picture?

Warning: Indecent Exposure!

Jen said in one of her earlier posts that maybe, one day she will show us her "ass" on F.B, well in expectation of that, I will show you mine here on blogger! A real “Belgian” ass!

Maybe it's a little over the edge but, it's the way it is!

What did you expect? That... I show you my "own" ass,..ha..ha ..I show you the ass of a real Belgian horse! In fact the real Dutch name is: Belgisch trekpaard! (the translator translates this literal as: appetite horse!! Ha ha ...funny..LOL!

Of course it must be: a Belgian draft horse or Belgian heavy horse. They are one of the strongest of the heavy breeds.

Are you curious...do you really want to see it? Then look at the end of my post. I have put it there so that it will not shock you immediately, I have warned you!

I took these pictures not so far from my home (approx.3km.).

In fact the result of the first picks. could have been much better (too much back light) but, because of the barbed wire of the fence i could not take the picks. from an other angle. They did not want to pose for me at another spot, and you can't ask them to do that:):)! I took these picks. on June the 1^st.

.

Because I knew that there were foals at an other place I went there on June the 15^th to take more pictures! Oh, it was so beautiful to see the foals romping in the meadow!

You must know in earlier times Belgian draft horses were famous in the whole world. In 1910, 34,576 draft horses were moved from Belgium to America, Canada, Russia, Swedes, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Italy.
In the port the horses were used to transport freight. There they were called nation horses. They drew the ships in canals and rivers. Along most of the canals still lies a towpath. That was the path for the horses. They were also used in the coal mines where they entered as a foal and never more came out because they became too heavy and so they could no longer be up hoisted.

After the second world war these splendid heavy horses were repressed by the motorization.

In 1950, there were still counted 200.000 draft horses on Belgian floor. In the eighties remained only 6,000. Now there are 15,000 Belgian draft horses in Belgium and there are again more foals born. .

Cutting the tail at draft horses happened for practical reasons. At the work on the land the horse sways with its tail to chase off the flies. So it was not easy to control the horse because at swaying it's tail the rein came under the tail with the result that the horse became uncontrollable. With a short tail one does not have this problem, but the horse has more charge of the flies.

Since 2001 it has been prohibited in Belgium to cut horse tails.

Now these days here in Belgium draft horses devotees and enthusiastic breeders are stimulated to keep this unique race alive.

I found out that there are at least five places in the U.S where they are still bred. One of those places is Blackleg Acres in Blackville South Carolina.

They are a living monument!

I have a living monument in my neighborhood that must walk around with an “indecent exposed” ass but, that does not disturb me, I like them as they are!

I hope that also you are not disturbed by it and that you can laugh with it!

Here it is!:):):)

P.S: Hm..hm.. Danger panda said in a comment to Jen: If you can make a blog banner out of the hind end of an elephant.... and so on!

Imagine yourself that this Belgian hind end would be “my” blog banner, ha ha!:):):)

That would be not very tasteful I think...too much exposer!!

Of course I would never change my blog banner, it will always stay Pipke's nest, she is a duck with a dog's nest! She is unique!

Not the Appropriate Time

The last 14 days I prepared a post about: my Belgian ass.

I had planned to publish the post yesterday.

After I was informed about the sad situation of *Jen's Grandfather, I have changed my mind. Now it is certainly not the right moment to tell naughty jokes about a Belgian ass!

Jen gave me the opportunity and a place in her own blog to write my first post. She inspired me to start my own blog.

Out respect for her, I let my "Belgian ass" wait and I hope that one day.... in the future...when she has processed a little what happens now, that postponed post... will cheer her up!

To Jen

Fran

P.S: *for those who don't know Jen yet, read my first post: Oei..oei..ai..ai..plop!

Photography: a New Challenge for me

In fact I had not planned this but I had so much pleasure when I took pictures* (see link below) during my running circuit that I have decided to do this more often!

The day after I took those first pictures, I went back to take some more!

This time from the part that is already history and that I run no more! (Until a few years ago I ran 3 km. more).

Now I have my complete running circuit of 9 km. on image!

I like to show you a few images of that last part! (Click on picture to enlarge.)

You must know that photography is something “new” for me although I am the daughter of two generations of professional photographers. My grandfather learned his profession during W.W 1 in Blackpool, England around 1915 and my father (who was born in Blackpool) learned it from his father. After the war they came back to Belgium.

Of course I know something about making and developing photographs, but... that was the photography from more then fifty years ago.

I can remember, my father used a camera like this (see picture) when I was a toddler.

I even have known that they used “glass platelets” instead of film. They also had to use a separate flash light, (they had to install it on the camera) and light bulbs to use the flash! For every flash which they had to make they had to change the light bulb!

Those used bulbs were very special and useful for us (it was just after the war).

We prepared them to decorate our Christmas tree! (On the link you can see the tree.)

We plunged them into glue and covered them with very tiny silver flakes (almost a powder) and so it became a very original and sparkling Christmas tree!

I think it must have been until around 1948, I'm not sure about that date because I was still too little.

Not so long thereafter came a flashlight with light bulbs they could use several times again (approx. 10 times max. I think).

They also had to use a separate hand light meter. They had to take into account that a moving object needs a shorter opening time than a stationary object and therefore they had to adjust the closure time of the lens manually every time the situation of the object changed.

In fact nothing went automatically!

I saw my father working in the dark room. That was a room with special red light, white light would have ruined the blank photograph paper. (We kids have sometimes ruined it, because we had put on the white light when the blank paper wasn't covered and so it could be used no more)!

First he developed the film and put it in a projector. Thereafter he projected the film on the blank photograph paper. It was fascinating to see “how” after been exposed to light and going in a development fluid the picture appeared on the photograph paper. The exposure to light and the development bath, they both needed an “exact” timing or, the picture became too light or too dark.

As a teenager I was sometimes his help and then I had to dry press the wet photograph sheets in a special machine, a hot press! (you can compare it with a big iron** machine in a laundry but smaller and not turning around).

In fact those days were the “middle ages”of photography!

And yes, I know “a little” about photography but now I must bring it into practice and I must learn to work with the new technology! I must enter the digital era! Once...I wanted to become a professional photographer but my father's opinion was that: it was not a profession for a woman!

So now: I am going to do it just for pleasure and.. practice...practice..practice !

*See my post: Will you be my running mate?

**Iron machine: I don't know if it's the good translation in this context but it's not easy to describe it.

P.S: Excuse me, although I left out many handling's and details, the explanation about developing and producing photographs became a little longer than I expected it would be.

It gave me the feeling that I stood again in the darkroom, beside my father!

I hope that you had a little bit the feeling that you stood there too!

 

 

About: Blah..Blah..Blah!

*Jeannie's last post gave me much substance to reflect on.

Why are we all blogging!!

That's a question I asked myself before I came on blogger.

Why do people blog?

I couldn't understand that someone could have to tell so much...and now... I am doing it myself. What is the purpose off this all? Maybe you also can wonder yourself : why do writers write books, what is their purpose? To tell a story, to share their thoughts with you, to give you their view on the world! Why is there spoken language: to bring over knowledge and that knowledge became the base of written language, and why do we read? I think everyone has a different reason for it. Some do it as entertainment, to learn or to be informed about everything that's going on in the world.

Of course I am not a writer and this is my first blog and it's also the first time in my life that I have written so much! (Except my love letters.)

Why I myself like to blog!

To learn from your experiences and to let you know mine. I think we can always learn from each other. To exchange thoughts and also maybe sometimes to release steam.

To read your story's and to tell you mine. Sometimes it will be “small talk” but it can better be “small talk” than calumny I think.

I have just started this blog and of course “now” I still have fun in it .

I hope that I will have enough inspiration to go on for some time and that I still enjoy blogging when we are a year further. I also hope that you will still be here then and that you still like to read it!

Maybe It will lose the luster that I have now and then I know that it's better to stop because you always must do things with pleasure, you must have fun in it.

I will do my best not to become boring!

Blog...blog..blog!

This was really bla ... bla ... bla!:) :)

PS: Goodbye Jeannie!

This was a beautiful written farewell!

Have much pleasure in reading!

* Unfortunately Jeannie's blog does no longer exists.

A Wish Fulfilled!

Three months ago we made a wish and now that wish became reality!

It seemed almost an impossible wish at that time, but today we are celebrating Pipke's 14^th birthday.

Often we feared to lose her but every time she pulled through. At the moment she's not recuperated entirely, but the main thing is that she's still among us.

She's now a real “old lady” like you can see on this picture taken on January the 26^th 2009.

She can't walk so well and she wants to swim no longer when it's cold. She's also not eager to go to and in her small pond because she has a problem to get out of it and sometimes we must help her. She has lost the force in her muscles to do that herself. She also has lost many feathers and she's no longer waterproof. She's always outdoors and most of the day she sleeps in her little dog's nest beside our back door and when the weather isn't good (and also at night) we turn on the warmth lamp.

When we are working in the garden she still ”helps” us although no longer so much as before! She still likes to fight with my husband and can be sometimes very cheerful. She enjoys to walk in the garden lying in my arms, she's still my little cuddlier.
We enjoy every minute we are together with her!

I think I mustn't tell you “what” my next wish will be!!!!

We are so happy that we “can” celebrate your birthday Pipke!!

These three pictures were taken this morning!

PS:This is something I still like to tell you because it touched me so!

Yesterday evening there came a beautiful Dutch song on TV. One little sentence is still hanging around in my head because it's in fact on the one hand a little cruel to say it, but on the other hand so very true.

These are the words:

Sometimes It's better to lose something beautiful, better to lose it... than to have never had it!

My dear sweet Pipke!