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

Hi Les,
maybe this link could help you in some way with your Spanish. It is the oficial institution for the Spanish language and culture.
I´d recommend you to read anything written in Spanish that seems interesting to you. Reading and writing is the best way to improve the written aspect of your Spanish.
This place, h2 is helping me to improve mine. Although sometimes, my English shows "my accent" and I make some mistakes.

http://cvc.cervantes.es/ensenanza/default.htm
::
"There it is, in black and white for all to see - and see what a mess I've made of it!"
YOu are too hard with you! no a mess at all. It needs to be polished, nothing else. YOu make sense.
::


I´ll send you this while the h2 artists make a sun smiley




Mar

Hi Les,

until next wednesday I won´t know when it is the date of the surgery.

I´m a bit sad today. My father has had a heart attack this morning. He is ok now. He must stay at hospital about 2 days until the risk has passed.
My father will be 84 next april and my mother 80. It makes me sad to be so far away from all of them.
It´s hard to think about the death. My mother has her heart with valves that need to be changed soon. She has all kind of diseases related to a bad heart. She is fed up with so much suffering; besides life in the village is really boring for them and I guess that that helps her be too much down.
Life has been really hard for both of them. Now that there are not worries, health is the problem. I wish my father recovers soon.

Sorry Les, I´d like to say something positive, refreshing or less dark. But, I think it´s better you to know how I feel now.
I hope that all this clouds dissapear soon.
I think of my parents. I wonder how is to get old and be sick. I wonder how and when we humans accept clearly the fact of death.

I only worry about my death if it happened now. Because it would create a lot of harm to my loved ones.

Sorry. I hope to bring more hopeful news soon.

Un abrazo
Mar

Hi Mar!
Thanks for your messages. I'm really sorry to hear about your father's health problem but glad if he is recovering now and can return home soon. I do know how hard that can be. In the last 4 years my wife and I have lost our remaining 3 parents - my father died when I was 8 years old and I never really knew him. They also lived at a distance from our home and during the time when they were ill we spent a great deal of time travelling across the country.

There are really no words I can say that will change the situation as we all know. We have to take what life gives us and try to make of it the best we can. I do promise you though that I shall hold you all in the light - I now have that lovely image of your mother and the candles she lights for you. Let's light one for her!

On a brighter note, thank you very much for the link to Cervantes. I had a quick look just now and it looks interesting. I shall enjoy visiting there whenever possible and I shall work at my written Spanish too. You are very kind about it! I think one problem is that I don't have much reason or opportunity to speak or write Spanish in between visits to Spain or other Spanish-speaking countries and I forget too easily nowadays. It's my age you know!

It's a pity that you are having to wait longer for your surgery appointment when you really wanted to have it all settled. Maybe a few extra days are what you need right now to cope with your other concerns. Try not to worry Mar, I'm sure it will all come together in good time.

Remember how much you are loved and accept an extrafrom me too!

Hasta pronto my dear friend,
Les

"I think one problem is that I don't have much reason or opportunity to speak or write Spanish in between visits to Spain or other Spanish-speaking countries and I forget too easily nowadays
"
Read then. Reading is a perfect way to keep it "alive"
YOu can start with wiki entries, or spanish newspapers, or any topic of your choice.

"It´s my age you know!"

No I don´t, the brain keeps itself young if you give it good food. Your poetry shows you have very healthy neurons.(btw, I told my age a few posts back, but I don´t know that of Amelia nor yours!) Never mind, really. It´s just curiosity.

Lovely poem that of the lizard, as lofty says, you have a hand with them
::
I´ve been talking with my sister. Every thing is ok. My father is getting over fantastically according to doctors. He is joking with the nurses and the doctors! He has always a very good sense of humour. Doctors say that he has been very lucky,It was caught in time. Well, all of us have been lucky.
::
I´ve put the daffodils as wallpaper in my PC. they are preciosas!
thanks a lot

Mar

I think Amelia has been reading Thomas Hardy! This poem certainly has a feel of my part of the country, the south-west of England that Hardy knew as Wessex. It's a very 'English' poem I think.


The hedgehog and the toad are gone to rest;
All breath suspended, life traded for survival;
The silent forest wears its shroud
And mourns the passing of the year,
The meadow sheds its coat of many colours.
Old John forsakes the highway, seeks the barn
And we turn in upon ourselves as though we might deny
The last dark remnant of the year.

The lamp spills out its light across the frozen lane
And fire-side voices from the inn weave tales
Of winters past to keep alive
Their legends saved from long ago.
The shepherd and the cowman turn their collars
To cheat the spiteful wind, and head for home.
The children's snowman grins its welcome in the yard
And supper beckons from the stove.

The dark days pass; the village wakens. Cautiously
We steal a glance from deep inside ourselves
To wonder at the sun-roused meadow
Rehearsing colours it once knew.
Old friends return to fill again the dawn with song,
Among the trees the life-blood newly rises,
The waking hedgerow tries a gown of freshest green,
Old John is seen along the lane.

What a picture!

You must put it in the BP thread!

That's wonderful news about your father! I hope that he'll soon be back to health and strength and home where he belongs. His sense of humour has helped him on his way, I'm sure. They say that laughter is the best medicine and he is proving it.

==

I don't like to ask Amelia her age, I think she may be a little sensitive about it, but I don't have that problem. You know that I'm an abuelo so you won't be surprised that I'm 62 - though I am, frequently!

==

I'm so glad you received the flowers and liked them. I'll work on the 'slide show' and try to make it a more manageable size so that you can download it.

Hasta pronto
Les
sys

Thanks, my friend,

I´ll also work on the ppt.

s and s

Mar

¡Hola Mar!
You posted while I was writing!
I do like you to have these little pieces of Amelia's before they go on BP - if they are going to, 'Grey-lit the morn' was just for you. OK, I'll pop over there in a minute and post it.
I hope you're enjoying the sunshine today as we are here.

Les

Yes, lovely sunny day, I´m enjoying it as well as your warm sunny words

Mar

Grey-lit morn,
I have memorised it. I will recite it when I´m at hospital. It surely will help me. Poetry works for me in difficult situations. In this case it will be still more effective.

I'm pleased!
Let me know when you will be in hospital so I can think of you. Do you think you will have to stay there for a day or two or is it a one-day job and then home to recover?
==
The state of my battery and the need for evening meal will soon dictate that I go so I'll wish you a very good evening and I'll talk to you again very soon.

Abrazos,
Les

I will know tomorrow.

Mar, I want to make a small adjustment to the last line. I think it flows rather better - what do you think, you have a beautiful sense of rhythm...

The dark days pass; the village wakens. Cautiously
We steal a glance from deep inside ourselves
To wonder at the sun-roused meadow
Rehearsing colours it once knew.
Old friends return to fill again the dawn with song,
Among the trees the life-blood newly rises,
The waking hedgerow tries a gown of freshest green,
Old John along the lane is seen.


Hugitos
Les

Hi Les,

I wouldn´t change it. For me the last line sounds fine. Keeping the asonant rhyme centers the attention on the character. We can imagine his face, happily walking along the countryside, enjoying the new lively landscape.

Me sense of rhythm?! ... You´re too kind, you flatterio!


::
I´ll have my operation on March the third, more of what I had expected... but, It´s just a week more, and I´ll be walking properly soon. I Don´t want to worry any more.
::

"tomé una mirada rápida" we say "eché un vistazo, eché una ojeada"
"fui impresionado" = Me impresionó.

I love when you say mia querida amiga, that´s why I haven´t corrected you, but you must say:
Mi querida amiga or querida amiga mía.

My= mi
Mine= mía/o, míos/as.
My is a determiner and must be followed by a noun, the same in Spanish.
Mine is a pronoun.

My dog/ that´s dog is mine. Mi perro, ese perro es mío.
Amigo mío: mío put there is to give emphasis.
::
Yesterday took a Neruda book to read it in the tube. I was reading the introduction. He was very prolific at the age of 60 and there were yet a lot more to come. Also, I watched on tv a man, 66, Francis Pisani, talking about the social communities in the web.
I find that he is mature and wise. An agile mind. Like yours.
::

Hasta pronto mío amigo

Mar

there´s not assonant rhyme.

Hi Mar,
Thanks for all of that. I really appreciate your help with the language and you musn't be afraid to correct me. You are my friend and I can accept that sort of help with thanks!
==
Actually I was in two minds about the last line of the poem too. The sound seemed to flow better with the change but the meaning was diminshed. I shall leave it as it was!
==
So, now we have a date to work to! Not too far ahead. Then you can put your mind to recovering and getting on with your life. That's good - I'll be with you "in spirit".

Les

Hola querida amiga mía
I really wish I could have shown you the sky here yesterday evening! When I returned to the apartment I went onto the balcony and had to stop and stare.

Low in the sky, near to the horizon and with the low buildings silhouetted against it, the light moved from purple to crimson, then orange, pale cream, turquoise and a pale birds-egg blue-green - each colour bright and distinct yet merging softly where it met the next. From there, as I looked slowly higher the colour deepened quickly through all the shades of blue until it reached the deepest, darkest blue which continued right on up as far as I could see. In the darkest part of the sky was a single star - quite the brightest and clearest I have ever seen. It was totally magical!
Les

Hi Mar,
Wherever you are, whatever you're doing, I hope everything's ok.
We continue to enjoy the sunshine and it's carnival in Quarteira this weekend which is fun.
Thinking of you, querida amiga mia.
Les
sys

Hi LEs,

it seems you are having a great time. You are in a beautiful place and it´s carnival!

Lovely picture that of the sun setting. You are a painter with words, a good one. It´s so easy to feel what you say, what you see is what I see. Thanks for that and for the picture of the sea wave.
I´m lucky with you sending me, like a mirror, all that beauty. It reflects first in your mind and then you reflect it to me.

YOu are "in spirit" with me. Indeed. YOur words are your "spirit", and it´s so kind, so pleasant... you are always wellcome.

Yesterday and on Friday I was at college again. Gosh!! what a lot of work to do!
My subjects now are:
Psychology of education
Mathematics and its didactics
Teaching Investigation
Teories and laws on teaching.
I have to study and do some projects in group.
::

Could you send me the poem I call " the laughter" I had it but the archive disappeared. I love it. I feel it "mine" or "to me" when I read it, I know you had it written before meeting me, but it never minds, that the magic of good poems, they "work" any time with any one

s n s
Mar