Tuesday's theme: Surface

In one of the Swedish blogs I regularly read with a great pleasure (and in order not to lose my Swedish) , I found a Tuesday topic: 'surface' and decided to be game.

I am choosing the surface of the sea in the rain, storm approaching. There are almost no waves, yet, but you can (can you?) feel the approaching fury of the elements.

And then the surface during the storm:



And finally after:

I

Noni fruit

A friend gave me some local fruits ... in a bag, just as I was leaving to go home. She was in hurry, too, so I thanked her and took the bag with fruits home, where I unpacked them. Most of the fruit I knew, but one was new to me. It looked a bit like a pear - or a small green mango - but with cactus like "pricks". I put it in a fruit bowl together with the other fruit.

Now, I have got to admit that I sometimes neglect my fruit bowl, since many of the fruit I get need to ripen additionally before it could be eaten.

And as I had no idea whether the fruit in question was ripe or not, or what it was (I kept forgetting to ask someone what it was and what to do with it) I left it alone for about a week. First it turned yellow from green and then the yellow started paling to almost white. Finally one morning when I was in a hurry to go to work, I sensed a vague but rather unpleasant smell in the kitchen. Sort like a cross between dirty socks ( which seemed strange, since I do not keep dirty laundry in the kitchen) and a ripening stinky French cheese (which I knew I did not have). So, like presumably all people that have another being in their dwelling, I mentally blamed it on Sweetie-the-new-kitty's as yet unknown mischief, which I did not have time to investigate further at that moment... and left.

As luck would have it (since I would have thrown the fruit, have I found the source of smell) this day another bag of fruit have been offered to whoever wanted them, and that bag smelled suspiciously like my kitchen the same morning, only much stronger and much more unpleasant. Yet, to my surprise, one of my - local - colleagues felt it at the same time as I and exclaimed happily: "oh, noni, ripe noni". Then, taking out the stinky, now almost white and almost jelly soft fruit, she added: "it is so ripe I need to put it in a jar right away." She did. Added drinking water and closed the jar (thanks heavens, since the smell started getting to me).

That way I found about noni - a fruit, originally from Tahiti, which grows also in some other tropical places, Puerto Rico included - called both a miracle of natural medicine (its juice is selling for a really pretty penny... and with a litany of health claims... at many health stores) or a "starvation fruit" (locals supposedly don't eat it unless they really, really starve) or a "stinky cheese fruit".

I did the same to my noni as my friend did, then drained a bit of the - diluted - juice, mixed it with hand pressed orange and tangerine juice and drank. The taste of the concoction was not nearly as offensive as its smell and I managed a small glass. Every morning till it ended ... waiting for health miracles, of course.

I am still waiting for any medical miracles, though... and so far not looking forward to the next gift of noni.

My unusally well filled refrigerator

Here's what I found in my fridge looking for a snack.

Funny, just a moment ago she was outside a guestroom window


Apparently the "fish" she was exploring turned out to be inedible, so she tried the fridge....

but there she found mostly fruits and vegetables ... aah, and raw catfood, of course:

Smart kitty!

Poor retirement

I enjoy reading the keywords that lead people to my blog. Obviously, since my blog has a word "retirement" in it and is about my retirement living, a lot of key words are about retirement.

Most of them are different versions of "Puerto Rico retirement" ( cost of living, cars, acommodations, etc) but some are amusing and/or provoking an answer, which I have no idea how and to whom to deliver

"Don't you wish retirement came with an instruction manual? " was one of them. If I were to answer, I'd say:

"Jeez, I don't know. I'd hate to live MY retirement according to somebody elses instruction manual.

If "International Living" wrote that manual, it would instruct me to - even before retiring - take a 7 or 9 days trip to place unknown but being currently touted by them, and immediately, without a slightest hesitation, purchase property there, because then I could spend my retirement days looking past my gardener busily pruning something in my garden... or such other nonsense.

It would not pay any attention to the fact, that I might want to explore hundreds other places and NEVER buy any real estate... or that I might prefer to do the pruning myself : more fun and healthier than just passively staring at a gardener.

If a very family or "I want to live all my life in one place only and in the same social circle" oriented person or organization were to write such a manual, they'd probably stress an importance of being close to family, possibly old friends, of deriving joy from playing with - and taking care of - grandkids. And I have no grandkids, make new friends easily while keeping in a - light - touch with old ones. I can see myself yawning ear to ear just trying to read that type of a retirement manual, and if I were to live it, I'd probably shot myself.

If I were to write such a manual I might extoll virtues of a retirement merry-go-round : of travel, of exploration, of work - just for the fun of it."

No, no, wait a moment. I would not. I can extoll it in my blog, but I would never do it in a manual, which should fit many different personalities, a plethora of needs. And heavens know how suitable - even for me - are some aspects of my retirement.

There was another of those asking for answer keywords: "what should I say to a friend, who is about to retire?" That one made me laugh, but it also made me alarmed that the author of a keyword might, after visiting my blog, recommend a merry-go-round type of retirement to someone who is not suited for it. It almost made me want to warn the author: "Now, please, don't try to push any retirement lifestyle on him/her, unless you are sure you know what they would like. Retirement should be fun - and can be, ANYWAY it is lived, as long as it is not filled with -unwanted - loneliness, passivity and depression. "

And today, when I was feeling a slight pity for myself, having spent the entire weekend working, despite a gorgeous weather, fabulous surrounding and my body desiring to be on the beach or anywhere outside the office, a new retirement related keyword hit me: "poor retirement".

Just in time: today is an - obscure to me - holiday in Puerto Rico: Natalicio de Eugenio Maria De Hostos and I can't observe it by going to the beach, I can't even find time to research what it is all about, because, for the the fifth day in a row I am slaving in my office, all day long.

Why? Because somebody screw up and to "unscrew it" required an immediate action. Yes, working for fun has its disadvantages, too. The world, also the world of non-profits is full of both dimwits and egomaniacs.

Perhaps having from time to time to deal - voluntarily, for the sake of social profit - with that kind of nonsense might qualify my retirement as "poor". But I'll still say: let's toast the poor retirement! Cheers!

El Faro de Cabo Rojo and La Playuela

At the beginning of this year I promised to show you more of one of my favorite spots in Puerto Rico. It is a nature preserve on the southwestern cap of Puerto Rico, Cabo Rojo, with great hiking areas, a lighthouse, dramatic cliffs,

salt fields
and the most beautiful beach in the entire Puerto Rico, la Playuela.

The beach is in a shape of a half moon, bordering a cove, enveloped in two "arms" of cliffs.

There is a lighthouse on one of the arms,

and a fan shaped escarpment at the end of the other.

Both arms have walking and hiking paths with tremendous views toward the playuela, the salt fields and the Caribbean sea on both sides of the cap.

La Playuela, lying in a protected cove, has a very calm water and the most azure caribbean color you can ever imagine. Its water is also very salty, so swimming and playing in it makes your skin very soft. Free natural thalassotherapy!

The beach is undeveloped, since it is within a nature preserve and only the most sturdy 4x4 with most skilled drivers are able to get there.

All others have to walk, leaving their cars somewhere along the road bordering the salt fields. But that is a small place to pay for having this place remain pristine, accessible to everybody and not marred by any housing and condo development. I love La Playuela and El Faro de Cabo Rojo and try to enjoy them once a week - preferably during the week, when there are a lot fewer other La Playuela lovers there.

I am a snapdragon

"Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh" pronounces the test I found at This Garden is Illegal (what a funnny name) blog.

Yesterday I went to Home Depot in Mayaguez ( the nearest relatively big town) for a prozaic purpose of purchasing a garbage bin, as instructed by my landlord, since here a garbage collection company does not provide you with garbage bins, but I found fun patio furniture, which I could not purchase yet, since it would not fit into my Mazda.

And, Eureka! I also found seeds, even organic seeds, which I purchased: a few kinds of basil, chives and garlic chives, dill... and my favorite nightbloomer: moonflower - ipomoea alba or noctiflora.

because I knew I wanted to have a - mostly white and very fragrant - moongarden around my patio

I admit I haven't purchased snapdragon yet, as I haven't even attempted to do a garden design (now I am "slave driving" myself at work, so I haven't have time), but, just like I made an exception for moonflower, I should have made an exception for snapdragon, which, after all, is ME, and - white, or pink and white - would fit perfectly into my moon garden !

Hope you like snapdragon - both as flora and fauna (me) ;-)

Help, the Christmas season continues here...

... and, according to speaking boricua, will do so for the next 12 days!

Please, remind me anyone to stay far away from Puerto Rico the next Christmas season if I don't want to become deaf!

Today is Tres Reyes Magos - the present holiday in Puerto Rico (as it is in Spain as well, and perhaps even in other countries with Spanish traditions) - so yesterday shops were packed with crowds making last minute purchases of toys and sweets. It felt like shopping on Christmas Eve elsewhere - sheer madness. And all I needed was some household items. Should have waited till tomorrow.

(the pictures are of Christmas season's decorations in Anasco, a lovely little town south of Rincon)

This morning I was awoken at 7:20 am, no, not by my kitty, but by a travelling parranda - just outside my windows. Poor kitty got so scared she dived under my sheets and crawled all over me, occassionally punching holes in my belly - and other parts of my anatomy - with hert oh, so sharp little claws. Finally, I managed to calm her, and hoped to snooze a little longer, but less than half an hour later the parranda noise terror returned.

When it did for the third time, I got up and went to work - no matter that it's holiday today - taking the poor scared to death kitty with me. I have to work a lot during this season - hiding from the parranda noise terror. 12 more days? TWELVE??? I am already starting to be considered a - boorish, of course - slave driver - by my coworkers, since, when I work, I usually need some stuff to be done by others for me, on time, or I can't continue to do my work ... and - since it is the Holiday Season - everybody involved may get pretty cranky. I, because stuff is not done, they, because they - rightfully, I admit - think I am inconsiderate giving them so much stuff to do during holidays, when they have other priorities. And all of this just because of the darn parrandas - or rather their noise levels (I would have enjoyed the music had it not be so loud).
Ok, I shut up already, before you call me a grouch. ;-)