mcalpena's Profile

As seen from outside (Spain), Thanksgiving cuts off all the creativity from American food blogs. I read a HUGE number of them, but around this date it's all about pumpkin pies and brining turkeys, and very often not much else. While this is fairly understandable, at the same time it doesn't seem to happen during other holidays (we don't have Halloween either, but there seems to be life beyond candy).

...and don't forget Anís del Mono's colourful history. The monkey on the label is supposed to be a humorous portrait of Darwin, who at the time of the company's foundation was on every headline because of his evolution theory. By the way, don't overdo it when you use it as its flavour can be overpowering.

I'm a recent convert, too (one year next weekend) and I never ever suspected something as small as a cat could provide so much happiness. I'm so grateful to my cat that sometimes I think I'm her pet and not the other way around. And I used to be one of those people who ridiculed pet owners!

When I finally moved onto my flat, my sister suggested turning the master bedroom into a home office library, and a small guest room into my sleeping quarters. She couldn't have been more right.
I own tons of books and although I don't work at home sometimes I get some freelance work with writing or translations, so I love having a real room where I can concentrate and be inspired. If I had gone by conventional wisdom, now I'd have an oversized sleeping place with no real use and I'd be cramming my computer and books in some untidy corner of the living room.

I never allowed my cat on my bed when I lived in my old flat, as she was a kitten then and would bite my hands while I slept. But now I've moved, and she has got wiser, so about an hour or so before bedtime she goes into the bedroom and hides under the bed. She absolutely cannot be coaxed to go out. In the morning, I will find her sleeping on the bed, sometimes between my feet.
Oh, and she doubles up as an alarm clock, too. On Saturdays and Sundays she meows loudly at exactly the same hours I wake up on weekdays.

I used to live in a tiny flat that belongs to my mother. When I moved into another, bigger appartment, I offered to lease it to a friend who had always said it would be ideal for him (as the flat it was small, but could be used as a home and an office for a small practice). The only problem was that the building was located in the number 666 of its street, and my friend is a professional psychic (a serious one, not the kind who wear purple ropes), so he had to pass on it, as the street number would a deterrant to his clientele! It's not that he believes on the numbers thing, but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't look too good in his business cards.