Sammy's end of year school report.

Rebeca wrote this... (in Spanish obviously)

Sammy is very intelligent, hard-working and a perfectionist. Throughout this year he has become more independent and sociable.
In terms of reading, writing and mathematics he is a child who stands out. He also speaks and understands spanish very well.
Finally I would say that it has been a pleasure to be his teacher.

Aaaaaawwwww

And the winner is...

The Darwin Awards are always worth waiting for. If you've not heard of them before they are the Best of collected true stories of people who do monumentally stupid things and kill themselves in the process thus removing themselves from the gene pool. The Awards are a small way of honouring those who improve the species.

Zookeeper Friedrich Riesfeldt ( Paderborn, Germany) fed his constipated elephant 22 doses of animal laxative and more than a bushel of berries, figs and prunes before the plugged-up pachyderm finally got relief. Investigators say ill-fated Friedrich, 46, was attempting to give the ailing elephant an olive oil enema when the beast 'unloaded'. The sheer force of the elephant's unexpected defecation knocked Mr.Riesfeldt to the ground where he struck his head on a rock as the elephant continued to evacuate 200 pounds of dung on top of him. It seems to be just one of those freak accidents that proves... 'Shit happens'

Sammy's 4th Birthday

Being a thoroughly technically aware young man; Sammy would like to say...


"Mummy can you scan that in and put it on the blog please for everyone?"

And so I did.

Sammy's Story

Sammy wrote this story with Paul yesterday and he read it to me today because he decided he wanted me to put it on the blog for him. This is what it says (according to Sam):

Welcome to the island and the 7 show bottles and 16 parents and samuel or sam. Sam and you is very good and can stand on your head. samuel and sammy and blogs, they want to play. We did and rock the print and put it on your head.

Then Sammy has written a collection of animals and these he has typed here all by himself:
cat dog gato perro vaca oveja pajaro cerdo leon tigre
gato(cat) perro(dog) vaca(cow) oveja(sheep) pajaro(bird) cerdo(pig) leon(lion) tigre(tiger)

Why?

I have looked forward to this day - ish. Paul apparently used to do this A LOT when he was little and to now hear Sammy doing it is quite comforting; to know that he's following the same path. After all Paul turned out alright.

So the conversation went like this:
Me: I have to get the keys out for the other apartment.
Sammy: Why?
Me: Because Donna will be here shortly needing them.
Sammy: Why?
Me: Because her son will be using it for a couple of nights.
Sammy: Why?
Me: He's got some work to do and he can use my wireless router from there.
Sammy: Why?

and so on the conversation went.

Our Little Sunflower.

The artist is very meticulous in handling the ugly details. He provides almost every possible unflattering angle.
All of the flowers appear to be in various stages of decay; some have only begun to droop, others are completely broken. One head already lost its colour, others are on the way, having lost all of their petals.

Differences in value also account for these metamorphoses: the darker the yellow, the closer the sunflower to the total withering. But even the livelier, fresher flowers are somehow exposed.

It seems as though the artist makes this still life a botanical study — a painterly herbarium.

Swearing like a small trooper

Paul and I are pretty careful to not use colourful language in front of Sammy.

What am I saying ? We don't swear, ever.

So when Paul exclaimed "Flippin' Nora!" a few days ago, it was something Sammy had never heard before. Paul made a joke of it as a distraction and it was forgotten.
Or so we thought.

On the way back from school today Sammy was climbing on a wall, had a little slip and in his mild shock he exclaimed "Flappin' Norris!"

I think I prefer Sammy's version.

Our Earthquake - if anyone's interested.

Not wanting to be outdone by Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, we in Spain, had our very own earthquake early Sunday morning! Paul and I were in bed, 5.03 am, and we were immediately woken because suddenly our bed was moving as if it was trying for a part in The Exorcist !

We could hear glasses chinking together (just like in the movies) but because it was dark we couldn't register anything visibly moving. It lasted about 4 to 5 seconds (I reckon) and there was an impressive rumbling noise throughout which sounded like it was coming from the depths of the earth !

The epicentre was south west of San Miguel de las Salinas (2 miles from us) and measured 3.3 on the Richter scale. So just about under my bed then.

Disappointingly there was virtually nothing about it in the news the next day but I did some research on the net to find that in actual fact earthquakes in this region are quite common. There have been 5 quakes registered since the beginning of January 2008.

San Miguel, March 2nd magnitude 3.3 on the Richter Scale
Almeria, Feb 24th, 2.8
Almeria, Feb 6th, 4 (!!)
Santa Pola, Jan 27th, 2.3
Murcia Region, Jan 8th, 2.2

So that's why there was nothing in the news - Spain is so used to them they're not even worth reporting.

And another thing: Sammy slept through it.