h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We have been to rehearsals again this evening, the children,s theatre group that I help with are putting on an original production of Aesops Fables in a local theatre, my daughter is playing the part of the boy that cried wolf, only in this case, as she is 8 years old and flatly refuses to be a boy, it is the story of a shepherdess, who cries wolf!!

The whole story is told in a song, written by our musical director, Damien, using a very beautiful melody and very poignant words, in rehearsals my daughter has a habit of forgetting her words, at home she is word perfect.

Some of the children have immense talent, and it is a joy to hear them play their parts, it is a musical and includes the stories of Androcles and the Lion, the Ant and the Grasshopper, the Ant and the Dove, the Tortoise and the Hare and the Astrologer.

The children are performing for real on Saturday night, and I have been given the job of a stage hand and continuity, I will be responsible for them getting on the stage at the right moment with the relevant props!

They are all between 5 and 16 years old, and trying to keep the young ones quiet back stage is the hardest task of all!!

For most of the kids their first language is Spanish, but all of their performance is in the English language, we are an English speaking theatre group, and many of the children have either learned or improved their English language through the medium of theatre, a really fun way to learn.

However, I must agree to the old saying "never work with animals or children"!! I must be MAD!!

Jane darling,

You are definitely, absolutely, totally, positively MAD! But hey - that's why I like you so much!

well done, honey!

kissitos,
az

Az sweetie

I know!!!!!!!!!!!!! these kid,s even have artistic tantrums as well!! one 5 year old called Matilda flatly refused to co-operate in the "monkey,s dance" because her finger hurt!!


Jane

Wouldn't it be great to be 5 again - just for a day! You could be as silly and unreasonable as you felt and people would just go - oh, well, she's just 5.

Personally, I'd love to be a cat one day a week. Particularly one of my cats. I'd love to wake up in the morning without a care in the world except - when's breakfast? And then spend the day stretching and lounging around, playing a bit, eating some more, sleeping off and on - and getting lots and lots of love and cuddles from my human. That would be wonderful. Even one day a month!

Really should be in bed.

kissitos,
az

Az querido

I would also love to be one of the 5 year olds, they are sooooo manipulative and absolutely adorable with it!!! I also envy the kids getting out there on the stage and singing and dancing, I wish I had the opportunity to do that when I was their age!!!

The group has given me a very, very, very impressive title, "publicity manager" not because of my fantastic public relation skills, more because I am the only one who can string a couple of coherent sentences together in Spanish!!! (I mean from the adults, the kids are all totally fluent in Canarian Spanish) we call a bus here a gua gua!! and exclaim frequently when talking to another woman "muchacha" and always say "gracias mi nina" (that stupid enye again) to my Spanish friends I am Helena (Helen being my first name) and I absolutely love it when I am walking to work in the morning, down the street to my main shop, to shouts of "hola Helena, que tal hoy, como estas" that,s when I know that I made the right decision to come to live here in Puerto De La Cruz!! Oh so different to England!!

Cats?? well, Fifi would make the perfect tourist, she spends her life just going around the garden searching for the perfect sunny spot and moves with the sun, she demands attention, she communicates with me using various different tones of "miaow", last night she was looking at me strangely from the bottom of the stairs, I told her that the idea was not to occur to her to go upstairs to bed with the children, she just looked at me and walked back into the kitchen with me again, a few moments later, she repeated this, and looked at me from the bottom of the stairs and made strange "miaows" once again I told her the same and she walked back to me, then she moves silently and slowly and I forgot about her, when we went upstairs later we found her in bed with Lydia!! Que Zorra!!

I also love to upset my husband, because in the morning she is behind me for her breakfast, this morning I told her to please ask "papi" to give her food, so she went to his shoes and smelt them, (crazy cat) she knew exactly what I was saying, then went to find Peter, he is so mad when I call him the cat,s "papi"!! however it was him not me, who rescued her when she was a tiny kitten left abandoned in a ruin of a house that we were renovating at that time, his heart melted and he brought her home to me, where I made a bed for her out of a shoulder pad, that was 9 years ago!! A few days later I found that I was pregnant with Lydia, after 5 years of trying to conceive.

We have a BIG rehearsal tomorrow morning, as well as being the very importantly titled "publicity manager" I am also chief biscuit and soft drinks bringer, stage hand, tantrum controller, (of the adults in charge, not the children, ego,s are big here amongst the adults, the children are a doddle in comparison)!!!

My daughter gets on stage and thinks she is "Chenoa" and starts doing her song wiggling and walking backwards and forwards on the stage, closing her eyes and things like she see,s on the telly!!

One girl, Rebecca, who is 10, has a truly beautiful voice and will go far I am sure, she really stands out and is so serious, 10 going on 35, a real diva with immense talent and of course word perfect.

Even though I really haven,t got the time to be so involved with this project, I am absolutely loving every moment of it, I am working all the hours that God sends, and every free moment is devoted to Aesop,s fables!! I wouldn,t know what bored means!!!!!

Besitos y saludos

Jane

Well, you're having lots of fun, aren't you??? And good for you!

In Andalucia it's very common to call everyone - mi niña, mi alma, mi vida, etc. Quite lovely.

Helen, eh? Have I told you that my real name is Shawn?

Your daughter trying to do Chenoa sounds totally cute.

And Fifi sounds like a total cat. She knows she totally rules!

Am envying you all this fun and extra activity - keep me posted.

kissitos,
az

Shawn eh?? that,s an unusual name, Hi, I am Helen-Jane, cuarenta y pico, although I only admit to being 39!!

You ENVY me??? all my extra activity??? I am a nervous wreck with bags under my eyes that reach my feet!!!!! Business has suddenly turned around and is pretty good, so I am working like a maniac and trying to do all this at the same time!!!! and I am not getting any younger!!! the absolute STRESS of it all!!

No, I must say I am enjoying it!! also the money we make in donations goes to a pretty good cause, a lovely residential home for mentally handicapped girls, I went to visit them recently and I was really impressed, the staff have such energy and patience and I got to meet some of the residents there, who were so lovely and affectionate.

The directora is also called "Helena" so we had something in common right from the start and I liked her immediately, she is young, enthusiastic and full of ideas and energy, it really takes a lot of patience and love for these people to do such a job and I am absolutely full of admiration for the people that work in such centres for handicapped people.

Yep!! Fifi is a real cat, if she were a human she would be a mass murderer, she loves to kill, maim and taunt mice, birds and lizards, wicked creature, that,s if I do not save them from her claws first.

Jane

Speaking of cats that rule the world, have a sixteen-pounder sitting on my lap, purring like mad and not making it at all easy to type.

Well, at least you didn't go - 'baaaaaaaaaaa - shawn the sheep!' (Wallace and Grommit). Like most people do. Yes, I KNOW it's a boy's name. But then again, I didn't name myself, did I? Used to hate my name, now I just hate my hair.

I am *almost* 46 1/2. So, probably older than you, though sounds like you'd never admit to anything regarding your age. I like my age. It means I'm still around. Sure beats the alternative.

Really good cause you are working for. Keep up the good work!

must go to bed now . . .

very az

Az, darlink,

I will let you into a little secret, next month I will be..................43!!!!!!!! aaaaaaaarGHHHH, but yes, you are right, sure beats the alternative!!! and I find that I am actually enjoying my age, luckily I have a lot of energy, I don,t think that I look my age, well I wouldn,t would I and I feel about 27 and a half!!! my kids keep me young as well!!! I have to be able to play football etc., with them and I keep fit by walking a lot, and now in summer I will be doing a lot of swimming with the children, when I have time!!!!!!!! Most of my friends are a lot younger than me, so I have to try to make an effort to keep up with them!!!!!

You certainly have a fat cat there!!!!! my Fifi is a very small cat who thinks she is a dog, some kind of identity crisis there no doubt, she even waits for me by our gate like a dog when I come home from work!!!! although she dosen,t bark, she gives special "miaows" of welcome!!!!!!

I do not think of Shawn as a male name, in England the male equivalent is spelt Sean!!! in fact, I think Shawn is a very nice and interesting name, my children are called Lydia and Hugo, our little boy was named after my husband,s beloved cocker spaniel who died before Hugo was born, when he was 15 years old, Peter acquired Hugo the Spaniel when he was 6 weeks old, and was devastated when he died, so we always decided that when we had a boy he would be called Hugo!!! our son is also very proud of his name as it is not really common!!! and the name really suits him well..


Jane

Your son was named after a dog??? That is so cute! Good name though, and yes, rather unique.

As for Shawn, aside from being Sean, it is also Shaun, Sían, Ian, and of course - John. I always thought that the 'Sean' spelling was Scottish, not English. Most girls are called Shawna (ick).

Most Spanish people have problems pronouncing my name - mostly it comes out as Chon or Chown. They always ask me if there is a Spanish translation for my name and I always lie and tell them no - there is *no way* I ever want people to start calling me Juanita!

The sixteen pound monster is certainly fat, but he is also quite a large beast anyhow. Big head, quite hefty and just big and quite solid in general. Last time I took him to a new vet, as I was dragging him out of the cage she exclaimed - 'Madre mia, esto es un gato sin fin!' He is also quite 'doggy'. The other two are definitely *cat* cats.

43 next month, eh? Cancer? I'm Capricorn, which I suppose should be quite obvious. (stubborn old goat! ) Well, good for you! I also used to mostly have much younger friends. Though recently have been meeting more people closer to my own age. It's quite nice. The thing about having younger friends is that while you can totally relate to being 25 or 30 or whatever, *they* can't relate to how it feels to be over 40. Have got some friends now who are older than me and so that creates a bit more 'balance' as I can either be the 'older, wiser' person or 'the kid'. And I like that.

hasta pronto, elena,
azharita