Pig bladders and devils

its the time of year when its permitted to hit people with pig bladders.......carnival month most cities have their own unique way of doing things....

Dominican Life

I have no commentary about these pictures they just made me laugh.....lol

Here is the link to my other pictures

http://dominicandreaming.blogspot.com/2008/01/funny-pictures.html

Did Benjamin Press Your Button ?

Well I just finished watching this "rather too long" film and was wondering what others thought about all the fuss about it .I mean we got the gist of it in the first half hour ie person born old /gets younger then we wait for a long time to see what happens at the end .

The special affects at the beginning were well done and the film was in general a well made film, but somehow I just wanted to giving the leading lady a good slap.

There was a large period where Brad didnt seem to get any younger then suddenly he was a child again then the film ended and we didnt really connect with any character or learn anything - overall I would probably have enjoyed it more if it hadnt been hyped as a better film than it actually was

Dont even get me started on "revolutionary road" lol

Anyway to keep this thread Domincan Republic related here are some films about the Dominican Republic that I enjoyed despite their obvious faults (IE time of the butterflys being remarkable in the fact there didnt seem to be any Dominicans in it lol)

In the time of the butterflys

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0263467/

The feast of the goat

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0428532/

Sugar

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0990413/

Cambio/Change Up

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337922/

While Australia Burns

Here in the Dominican Republic we have had rain almost every day for over a month and exceedingly heavy rain for the last two weeks

Fortunately I live on a hill, but a lot of Domincans in the lower lying areas have had their homes flooded with loss of life near the rivers.

The rains seem to be never ending at the moment, although we have been told better weather is on the way by Thursday (fingers crossed)

If you are coming to the Dominican Republic on holiday please try to pack a few little extras which can be donated to various places .......things such as childrens clothes, shoes school equipment and such like is appreciated anytime, but especially now. You can find out where to donate these things by going to http://dr1.com/forums and asking where there is a local collecting areas

Thoughts for Rainy Day in Paradise

Mother Teresa's Anyway Poem

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self centered;Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;Give the world the best you've got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and your God;It was never between you and them anyway.

Saving Our Turtles

For anyone interested in endangered animals I found a great site about a program that tags and tracks turtles in the Dominican republic

Last year we had a couple of turtles that came ashore to lay their eggs in the centre of the main beach in Cabarete - people were not sure who to contact and a make-shift fence was put up around them to protect them from people disco dancing on the beach- most hatched safely and made their way to a less noisy place lol

Having found this site we now have contacts and know who to inform if it happens again

The site shows the names profile and tracks of various tagged turtles and has lots of other information

http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/where_we_work/latin_america_and_caribbean/our_solutions/marine_turtle_programme/projects/climate_turtles/caribbean_hawksbill_tracking/dr_hawksbills/

Chlorine No More ?

My poor swimming pool is looking a bit sad these days. Here in the Domincan Republic it seems we have been having problems getting regular supplies of the chlorine tablets that most people use for their pools. Indeed some of the chemicals from China appear not to have been made from chlorine at all- I suspect they may have been made of washing powder lol

Im dreaming of a nice clean pool to swim in and have been looking into the possibility of using salt....apparently its the next big thing and is better for skin and hair than chlorine

The salt is given an electrical charge to release chlorine and thats basically all the chemicals you need

Here is a link to a company that makes swimming pool salt chlorinators

http://www.haywardnet.com/aboveground/products/Chlorinators/

I have been told its just an add on device to your normal equipment- so you can revert back to the clhorine method if you choose to - sounds brilliant- hmmm let me know if there is a problem with this idea

Guide to cleaning your swimming pool

http://http//ezinearticles.com/?A-Beginners-Guide-on-Swimming-Pool-Cleaning&id=1233197

Struggling with español

So I've been attempting to learn spanish now off and on for almost two years and tried various methods

BBC spanish was fairly enjoyable and I think I learned something but after the easy bit it changed quickly to being too difficult

The most success I seemed to have is with the Michel Thomas language tapes mainly because it involves no writing or remembering. I seem to have learned a lot about the structure and tenses but am a bit lacking on the vocabulary and actually speaking and listening lol which doesnt help in conversations.

Recently I obtained a copy of rosetta stone after much trial and error on the pirate high seas and I have to say Im not overjoyed by the method.I mean I can click away at pictures and get the questions right but I dont actually remember anything later.

I would be interested to hear about other peoples methods and results

here are some not so useful phrases
Me burro esta muerto
- My donkey is dead

No me gustan los caballos
- I don't like horses.

¿Donde puedo comprar un bigote falso para mi perro?
- Where can I buy a large brown fake Moustache for my dog?

Soy Zod, el master de la destruccion. Mi mision es gobernar tu debil pais y esclavizar a sus piltrafillas por toda la eternidad. MMMWwwwhhhaaaa Hhhaa hhaaa haaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Hello I'm pleased to meet you

A mi llama se le ha caido una pata y querria comprar una rueda de repuesto, por favor.
- The leg has fallen off of my Llama and so I'd like to buy some sort of replacement wheel please.

Con este bigote, yo te desposo.
- With this fake Moustache, I thee wed.........

!Acerquense y vean! Una oportunidad de ver a un perro con un cuchillo zumbando a un caballo con una pistola.
- Rol up, Roll up. A once in a lifetime oppertunity to see a dog with a knife fight a horse with a gun.

Una vez construi un ordenador de arena utilizando ramitas y trozos de cuerda.
I once built a computer out of sand using twigs and large pieces of rope.