<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><rss xmlns:atom='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0' version='2.0'><channel><atom:id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525</atom:id><lastBuildDate>Sun, 03 Jun 2012 11:55:44 +0000</lastBuildDate><category>the media</category><category>asia</category><category>the sole of a woman</category><category>animals</category><category>education</category><category>technology</category><category>3.9 stars</category><category>jazz</category><category>5.5 stars</category><category>poems from the ropewalks</category><category>4.7 stars</category><category>news</category><category>night time</category><category>comedy</category><category>fights</category><category>movies</category><category>books</category><category>oddball</category><category>the rock river files</category><category>death</category><category>lists</category><category>prose</category><category>liverpool</category><category>The sunday service</category><category>usa</category><category>nature</category><category>relationships</category><category>art</category><category>youtube</category><category>photos</category><category>football fuckeries</category><category>middle east</category><category>war</category><category>The Bachelorette Menus</category><category>hope</category><category>grammar</category><category>5.9 STARS</category><category>sex</category><category>travel</category><category>The diagnosis of…</category><category>social networking</category><category>stories from the ropewalks</category><category>polls</category><category>uk</category><category>4.5 stars</category><category>celebrity</category><category>class</category><category>podcasts</category><category>tv</category><category>heroes</category><category>the omar roadshow</category><category>review</category><category>science</category><category>the monday service</category><category>racism</category><category>sport</category><category>children</category><category>wales</category><category>politics</category><category>The Portal Diaries</category><category>lifestyles</category><category>free flicks</category><category>music</category><category>dedications</category><category>links</category><category>pugs</category><category>fashion</category><category>australia</category><category>writers</category><category>time</category><category>vlodcasting</category><category>africa</category><category>3.2 stars</category><category>short story</category><category>food</category><category>europe</category><category>seasons</category><category>religion</category><category>poetry</category><category>quotes</category><category>celebrations</category><category>1 star</category><category>Key</category><category>blogging</category><category>love</category><category>drugs</category><category>4 stars</category><category>google</category><title>cheyelle omar</title><description>Without feeling, whatever you do amounts to nothing - Billie Holiday</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/</link><managingEditor>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</managingEditor><generator>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>189</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-3436375318761609447</guid><pubDate>Sat, 02 Jun 2012 08:34:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-06-02T11:25:53.178+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>uk</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrations</category><title>Luvly Jubilee!</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–Bunting, Bangers and Boats&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5MmOd-1mJEA/T8nIB67ivBI/AAAAAAAABI0/KMNvIqjgPLc/s1600/English+CMYK+colour.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5MmOd-1mJEA/T8nIB67ivBI/AAAAAAAABI0/KMNvIqjgPLc/s200/English+CMYK+colour.jpg" width="141" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
The&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2012/05/30/liverpool-s-glory-days-of-cruise-liner-travel-return-as-ocean-countess-sets-sail-video-100252-31072607/"&gt;inauguration of&amp;nbsp;Liverpool's Cruise Terminal&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;(props to anyone who signed the &lt;a href="http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/16466"&gt;e-petition&lt;/a&gt; I placed in the sidebar)&amp;nbsp;took place on Wednesday, on Thursday I discovered a shop – here in &lt;a href="http://en.aixenprovencetourism.com/"&gt;France&lt;/a&gt; – that sells my favourite brand of vegetarian sausages and today marks the start of celebrations for the &lt;a href="http://www.thediamondjubilee.org/"&gt;Queen's Diamond Jubilee&lt;/a&gt;. It's been a good week.&lt;br /&gt;
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Sixty years on the throne is no mean feat. And I know I say&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;tit,&lt;/i&gt; &lt;i&gt;fuck,&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;wank&lt;/i&gt;&amp;nbsp;a lot but I'm extremely grateful to Her Majesty for being a constant in my life. I've got mad respect for her (click &lt;a href="http://www.thediamondjubilee.org/send-message-queen"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; to send a message to The Queen).&lt;br /&gt;
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I'm particularly looking forward to the &lt;a href="http://www2.thamesdiamondjubileepageant.org/Default.aspx"&gt;Thames Jubilee Pageant&lt;/a&gt; at 2.40pm (GMT) tomorrow, when the Queen, in a Royal Barge, will join 1,000 other vessels travelling down the Thames and&amp;nbsp;I'll defo be doffing my baseball cap to her.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;i&gt;Luvly Jubileeeeeee!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;div style="display: inline !important; font: normal normal normal 8px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"&gt;
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COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-3436375318761609447?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/06/lovely-jubilee.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5MmOd-1mJEA/T8nIB67ivBI/AAAAAAAABI0/KMNvIqjgPLc/s72-c/English+CMYK+colour.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-8225182589273209073</guid><pubDate>Tue, 29 May 2012 16:45:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-05-30T12:50:24.187+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>pugs</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>science</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>animals</category><title>Disabled Dog: Before &amp; After Wheelchair</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–Parapuglegic&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"&gt;
For your enjoyment!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;i&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZZrTxuIMLE0" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"&gt;COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-8225182589273209073?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/05/disabled-dog-before-after-wheelchair.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/ZZrTxuIMLE0/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-8572410676165250635</guid><pubDate>Mon, 28 May 2012 23:51:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-05-29T01:29:26.612+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>movies</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>free flicks</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>Free Flicks #1</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–'Blind' (2011)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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What with the recession, I've had to place austerity measures on my entertainment budget. So it's goodbye iTunes and hello iTubes. Yep, the YT has a slew of full length flicks pour gratis (for free).&lt;br /&gt;
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Tonight, with a €2 microwave meal and a tub of sliced pineapple, I watched&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2025506/"&gt;Blind&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;. Totally enjoyed the experience. Click &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xz_TgM3UOD4"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for the trailer, or below for the main feature.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/X7_9hLkVTTM" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-8572410676165250635?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/05/free-flicks-1.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/X7_9hLkVTTM/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-4520141717171487619</guid><pubDate>Sun, 27 May 2012 23:04:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-05-28T00:36:30.308+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>vlodcasting</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>europe</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>uk</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>travel</category><title>The Omar Roadshow: Aix-en-Provence</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–A Pound of Flash&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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For your enjoyment…&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cRHm_zZJ-7o" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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Train Ticket: 1 Adult, 4 Pets (chien).&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MkSPtXnUbkU/T8K5K-hRcwI/AAAAAAAABIY/FSJzwpMvJL0/s1600/IMG_2136.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MkSPtXnUbkU/T8K5K-hRcwI/AAAAAAAABIY/FSJzwpMvJL0/s400/IMG_2136.JPG" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;div style="display: inline !important; font: normal normal normal 8px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"&gt;
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COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-4520141717171487619?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/05/omar-roadshow-aix-en-provence.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/cRHm_zZJ-7o/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-7060903081515184520</guid><pubDate>Thu, 03 May 2012 20:14:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-05-29T01:09:31.566+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>europe</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>travel</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>the omar roadshow</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>animals</category><title>Astronauts &amp; Juggernauts</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–The Omar Roadshow: Cactus Falls&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RtBg9qiUq9M/T6KqIHXgtbI/AAAAAAAABGo/8i-UNV7zgjo/s1600/IMG_1904.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RtBg9qiUq9M/T6KqIHXgtbI/AAAAAAAABGo/8i-UNV7zgjo/s200/IMG_1904.JPG" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
My happiness is not a weapon. Some people, especially celebrities, on Twitter and Facebook et al. seem to use their happiness as a weapon. They only post pictures of holidays, new shoes, celebrations and the such. It's one of the reasons I rarely use social networks–happiness is &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; a weapon.&lt;br /&gt;
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The post I wrote &lt;a href="http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2011/12/rock-river-files-file-3-pt-2.html"&gt;when I left France&lt;/a&gt; needs to be amended, I didn't tell the whole story and by failing to do that, my words created an unacceptable lie. I'll revise the post, I promise.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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It was meant to be Sicily. But I'd read an article about a region in Spain that had voted to outlaw bullfighting, so I decided upon &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalonia"&gt;Catalonia&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-37fw-lzREyI/T6Kqo7szZ-I/AAAAAAAABGw/Tpnde-MqKpI/s1600/IMG_1809.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-37fw-lzREyI/T6Kqo7szZ-I/AAAAAAAABGw/Tpnde-MqKpI/s200/IMG_1809.JPG" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;A meal with Joan and family&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;The little fishing village just outside Barcelona had a flat-roofed train station that wouldn't look out of place in one of them ole black-and-white westerns. The town is &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caldes_d'Estrac"&gt;Caldetas&lt;/a&gt; and I was the tumbleweed that rolled into town. Man, I was truly happy there.&lt;br /&gt;
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I don't know if it was the kindness my landlord Joan (pronounced: wan) and his family showed me, the sea air or the spirit of the bulls [past and present] but Caldetas made me strong.&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Ti2wWf6wgo/T6KrwRyE-EI/AAAAAAAABG4/_ATEo9AgVyU/s1600/IMG_2094.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Ti2wWf6wgo/T6KrwRyE-EI/AAAAAAAABG4/_ATEo9AgVyU/s400/IMG_2094.JPG" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;Caldetas&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jEs1NNbhyfk/T6LqtYfjLPI/AAAAAAAABIA/mh0x3-s_FYA/s1600/IMG_2078.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jEs1NNbhyfk/T6LqtYfjLPI/AAAAAAAABIA/mh0x3-s_FYA/s400/IMG_2078.JPG" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"&gt;my yard, on the left&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
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&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6Ti2wWf6wgo/T6KrwRyE-EI/AAAAAAAABG4/_ATEo9AgVyU/s1600/IMG_2094.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
The town has many virtues: bucolic little parks, sandy beaches, rows of spice-coloured houses and a picturesque tree-lined high street, but it is also bisected by a huge fly-over, below which runs the coastal main line to Barcelona. Caldetas is the kind of place where both sides of the tracks are the "right side".&lt;br /&gt;
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&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k6l5lixRD2M/T6KsrengCmI/AAAAAAAABHI/W9CKoUcrfnE/s1600/IMG_2073.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k6l5lixRD2M/T6KsrengCmI/AAAAAAAABHI/W9CKoUcrfnE/s400/IMG_2073.JPG" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CGqgROdCZH0/T6Ktl5cK2zI/AAAAAAAABHQ/FYN1r5HrHpI/s1600/IMG_1842.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CGqgROdCZH0/T6Ktl5cK2zI/AAAAAAAABHQ/FYN1r5HrHpI/s200/IMG_1842.JPG" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Despite the town's aforementioned attributes, I often put my dog in his little basket on the back of my bike and cycled to a patch of waste ground (pic above) at the edge of town. We hungout between the trains and the &lt;a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Talk:juggernaut"&gt;juggernauts&lt;/a&gt;. I like it up there; no one bothers and the flowers have an amaranthine quality (pic, left). I set the dog free and sat on the wall, just thinking 'bouts how lucky I am. The lorries wailing as they pass, like ghosts that can't cross over. And me on the wall at the foot of cactus falls, happy.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qDPBQVv-3T8/T6KsKfl9_DI/AAAAAAAABHA/0OZ6oksHKvo/s1600/IMG_1570.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qDPBQVv-3T8/T6KsKfl9_DI/AAAAAAAABHA/0OZ6oksHKvo/s200/IMG_1570.JPG" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
Remember when you was a kid and folks would always ask: &lt;i&gt;what are you going to do when you grow up?&lt;/i&gt; And you'd say: &lt;i&gt;lawyer, writer,&amp;nbsp;singer,&amp;nbsp;actor, arcitect (sic), astronaut etc. etc..&lt;/i&gt; Well here, in a Catalonian pit stop, I realized I'm probably not going to make it in any of those fields. Thing is, I suspect the question is often misinterpreted, cos the answer should ALWAYS be: &lt;i&gt;I'm going to survive.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
My dad was a lorry driver.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;–Cheyelle&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;Ps. Remember about a year ago when I spent a night in Aix-en-Provence and loved it so much that &lt;a href="http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2011/05/omar-roadshow-finish-line.html"&gt;I pledged to return&lt;/a&gt;? Well, on Monday I left my magical, little, Catalonian fishing village and rolled into "Aces" – thus making good on my promise.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-7060903081515184520?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/05/astronauts-juggernauts.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RtBg9qiUq9M/T6KqIHXgtbI/AAAAAAAABGo/8i-UNV7zgjo/s72-c/IMG_1904.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-2181491452906848312</guid><pubDate>Wed, 25 Apr 2012 12:44:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-04-25T20:11:49.480+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>oddball</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>europe</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>drugs</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>books</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>polls</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrations</category><title>One for the Books</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–Return of the Mac&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xhm4gVE7yNM/T5fN2agu0mI/AAAAAAAABGE/6Um8okApi_U/s1600/IMG_1539.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xhm4gVE7yNM/T5fN2agu0mI/AAAAAAAABGE/6Um8okApi_U/s200/IMG_1539.JPG" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
Some of you may remember my old iBook, Delores. Yeah, you remember - I &lt;a href="http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2010/01/mi-sweet-sweet-love.html"&gt;wrote a post&lt;/a&gt; about her when I retired her to make way for my MacBook Pro, Millicent?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Anyways, last week Millicent died. God knows what happened to her? All I know is the bitch got &lt;a href="http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Rigamortis"&gt;riga mortis&lt;/a&gt;, so I suspect the problem may have been with her hard drive. I'm disappointed in Apple cos she was only 2.5 years old. SMDH!!!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Truth be told, me and Millie never really hit it off; my heart always belonged to Delores. Remember how I made a pledge to Dolores to make her:&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;Honorary Lifetime Director of Archives&lt;/i&gt;?&amp;nbsp;Well, true to my word, all these years post retirement she has remained by my side. Matter of fact, sometimes I'd fire her up and we'd just kick it. Often behind Millie's back. Perhaps that's what killed Millicent, perhaps she died of a broken heart?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
As displayed in the picture in the top right-hand corner Dolly – true to form – has come to my rescue. Note: If you're wondering why there's a big black lady next to a little silver box on Dolly's display, I'm currently watching 'The Wire' box set.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I won't be posting much or making any vids due to Dolly's lack of camera, her age, fire-up time and dementia. Sometimes she just won't wake and other times her keyboard locks in Caps or Greek Symbol. If this happens, don't worry I'm not shouting or speaking in tongues.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Despite Dolores being, as illustrated above, literally held together with tape, me and old girl are doing just fine. We been reminiscing and shit - bouts the old dayz.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In other news, Monday here in Catalonia was La Diada de Sant Jordi (St. George's day). The tradition here is that women buy their partner a book and men, their partner a rose (God knows what the gays do?).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
It was a bloody lovely occasion. The streets were lined with book stalls and children sold roses and cookies up and down the avenues&amp;nbsp;(pictured, below). I cycled up the coast to a picturesque town called Arenys de Mar and, because I'm single, purchased myself a rose plus TWO books (what else am I gonna do come nightfall?): Robert Louis Stevenson 'The Isle of Voices' and Oscar Wilde 'The Canterville Ghost' (pictured below, left).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sPoZZ7nhedI/T5fZiGSKqAI/AAAAAAAABGQ/E3W_kE7PxcU/s1600/IMG_1946.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sPoZZ7nhedI/T5fZiGSKqAI/AAAAAAAABGQ/E3W_kE7PxcU/s400/IMG_1946.JPG" width="300" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The brilliant day was all the more significant because I had read a headline in the MailOnline&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133422/St-Georges-Day-2012-Give-England-anthem-demand-MPs.html"&gt;lamenting the lack of national pride in St. George&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;I didn't actually read the article cos I find whingers incredibly dull.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lvesiNNXs54/T5fjqbDvTHI/AAAAAAAABGc/PbiD9-I14dw/s1600/IMG_1955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lvesiNNXs54/T5fjqbDvTHI/AAAAAAAABGc/PbiD9-I14dw/s200/IMG_1955.JPG" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;But I gots to thinking about the hoopla that they make over here for&amp;nbsp;La Diada de Sant Jordi, and I wondered if the English have missed a trick?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Perhaps what the Anglo-Saxons need is a gimmick? Maybe what the English should do is replicate the Catalonian tradition of exchanging gifts?&amp;nbsp;You know, celebrate the day by exchanging with their loved ones something quintessentially English: I thought maybe a pasty and a magic mushroom might make a good pairing.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Just imagine all the little English cherubs on estates up and down the country making a killing knocking out them mushrooms. And who doesn't love a &lt;a href="http://www.ginsters.co.uk/"&gt;Ginsters&lt;/a&gt;?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Thought we could call it Spores Gorge's Day and the anthem could be set to the theme tune of the &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fI7zm7RXHs"&gt;Magic Roundabout&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;– in &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estuary_English"&gt;Estuary English&lt;/a&gt;, of course. Just an idea.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;–Cheyelle&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-2181491452906848312?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/04/one-for-books.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xhm4gVE7yNM/T5fN2agu0mI/AAAAAAAABGE/6Um8okApi_U/s72-c/IMG_1539.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-1785656944039995960</guid><pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:43:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-04-15T10:43:15.210+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>uk</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>death</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>sport</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>time</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>love</category><title>iRemember</title><description>&lt;div&gt;
&lt;i&gt;–The Anniversary&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"&gt;In&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/history/hillsborough"&gt;memory&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;of the victims of the&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster"&gt;Hillsborough disaster&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OTAhB2EJlME/T4lBL_A9tQI/AAAAAAAABFs/GjVlXU0IrG4/s1600/culture-secretary-jeremy-hunt-apologises-for-appearing-to-blame-hillsborough-disaster-on-football-hooligans-$7031631$300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OTAhB2EJlME/T4lBL_A9tQI/AAAAAAAABFs/GjVlXU0IrG4/s1600/culture-secretary-jeremy-hunt-apologises-for-appearing-to-blame-hillsborough-disaster-on-football-hooligans-$7031631$300.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;"…&lt;a href="http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2010/04/bombed-out-churches.html"&gt;love, survives&lt;/a&gt;."&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-1785656944039995960?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/04/iremember.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OTAhB2EJlME/T4lBL_A9tQI/AAAAAAAABFs/GjVlXU0IrG4/s72-c/culture-secretary-jeremy-hunt-apologises-for-appearing-to-blame-hillsborough-disaster-on-football-hooligans-$7031631$300.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-6792167633665927848</guid><pubDate>Sat, 14 Apr 2012 09:54:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-04-14T10:54:00.343+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>news</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>death</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>liverpool</category><title>Titanic: One Hundred Years</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–On the Eve&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;iframe width="425" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1XeQattn01E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-6792167633665927848?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/04/titanic-one-hundred-years.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/1XeQattn01E/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-1762933966610301131</guid><pubDate>Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:23:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-04-13T21:11:36.201+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>vlodcasting</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>technology</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>tv</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrity</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>google</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>science</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>Monetise on YouTube: A Moral Dilemma</title><description>&lt;i&gt;–Addcents&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Yeah, so what happened was, today, YouTubes (click on image to enlarge) sent me the following email…&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OkNprY2y0pE/T4cB-OJyE_I/AAAAAAAABEI/5Tw3_73dfRA/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-04-12+at+13.42.00.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="250" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OkNprY2y0pE/T4cB-OJyE_I/AAAAAAAABEI/5Tw3_73dfRA/s400/Screen+shot+2012-04-12+at+13.42.00.png" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
…and now I have somewhat of a moral dilemma.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;Enjoy!&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RZLPBfFSDKc" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-1762933966610301131?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/04/monetise-on-youtube-moral-dilemma.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OkNprY2y0pE/T4cB-OJyE_I/AAAAAAAABEI/5Tw3_73dfRA/s72-c/Screen+shot+2012-04-12+at+13.42.00.png' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-5421254335078944617</guid><pubDate>Sun, 08 Apr 2012 13:30:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-04-08T14:33:09.479+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>writers</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>poems from the ropewalks</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>war</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>politics</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>middle east</category><title>Günter Grass: "Persona Non Grata"</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–The Singing &lt;a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sod"&gt;Sod&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;b&gt;What must be said&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
Why have I kept silent, held back so long,&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;on something openly practiced in&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;war games, at the end of which those of us&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;who survive will at best be footnotes?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;It's the alleged right to a first strike&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;that could destroy an Iranian people&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;subjugated by a loudmouth&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;and gathered in organized rallies,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;because an atom bomb may be being&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;developed within his arc of power.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Yet why do I hesitate to name&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;that other land in which&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;for years—although kept secret—&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;a growing nuclear power has existed&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;beyond supervision or verification,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;subject to no inspection of any kind?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;This general silence on the facts,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;before which my own silence has bowed,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;seems to me a troubling lie, and compels&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;me toward a likely punishment&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;the moment it's flouted:&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;the verdict "Anti-semitism" falls
easily.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;But now that my own country,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;brought in time after time&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;for questioning about its own crimes,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;profound and beyond compare,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;is said to be the departure point,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;(on what is merely business,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;though easily declared an act of
reparation)&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;for yet another submarine equipped&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;to transport nuclear warheads&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;to Israel, where not a single atom bomb&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;has yet been proved to exist, with fear
alone&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;the only evidence, I'll say what must be
said.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;But why have I kept silent till now?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Because I thought my own origins,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Tarnished by a stain that can never be
removed,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;meant I could not expect Israel, a land&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;to which I am, and always will be,
attached,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;to accept this open declaration of the
truth.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Why only now, grown old,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;and with what ink remains, do I say:&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Israel's atomic power endangers&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;an already fragile world peace?&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Because what must be said&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;may be too late tomorrow;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;and because—burdend enough as Germans—&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;we may be providing material for a crime&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;that is foreseeable, so that our complicity&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;wil not be expunged by any&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;of the usual excuses.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;And granted: I've broken my silence&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;because I'm sick of the West's hypocrisy;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;and I hope too that many may be freed&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;from their silence, may demand&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;that those responsible for the open danger&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;we face renounce the use of force,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;may insist that the governments of&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;both Iran and Israel allow an international
authority&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;free and open inspection of&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;the nuclear potential and capability of
both.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;No other course offers help&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;to Israelis and Palestinians alike,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;to all those living side by side in emnity&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;in this region occupied by illusions,&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;and ultimately, to all of us.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;-&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCnter_Grass"&gt;Günter Grass&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Click &lt;a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/05/gunter-grass-israel-poem-iran?intcmp=239"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;and &lt;a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/04/08/arts-us-israel-grass-idINBRE83704L20120408"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; for full story.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;† Translated by Breon Mitchell&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-5421254335078944617?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/04/gunter-grass-persona-non-grata.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-3263104914993740589</guid><pubDate>Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:51:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-04-07T13:58:55.797+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>vlodcasting</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>oddball</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>music</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>middle east</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>Easter: The Resurrection of Caves</title><description>&lt;i&gt;–Redemption&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Enjoy…&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/n4aEc8JX0qo" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-3263104914993740589?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/04/easter-resurrection-of-caves.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/n4aEc8JX0qo/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-4484905741820913618</guid><pubDate>Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:23:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-04-05T21:01:57.913+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>writers</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>the media</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>oddball</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>uk</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>news</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>The diagnosis of…</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>Samantha Brick: Vanity Flair</title><description>&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;–In defence of &lt;a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2124246/Samantha-Brick-downsides-looking-pretty-Why-women-hate-beautiful.html?ito=feeds-newsxml"&gt;Samantha Brick&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Enjoy…&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Xsrf70IY0tk" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 8px;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-4484905741820913618?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/04/samantha-brick-pretty-syndrome.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/Xsrf70IY0tk/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-638217580563102309</guid><pubDate>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 21:58:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-03-25T23:36:48.455+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>The sunday service</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>5.5 stars</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrations</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>The Sunday Service: 'Honors'</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–#82&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Bearing in mind the number of people who would rubberneck the entrails of a dead lamb on the &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M4_motorway"&gt;M4&lt;/a&gt;, I'm not really sure how much of an accolade this is. However, today, YouTube (my new bestie) anointed &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/Cheyelle?feature=watch"&gt;my channel&lt;/a&gt; with the 'honor' of being the 82nd most viewed in the UK (click on image to enlarge).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vpgdjKNIjbs/T2-Uh3IAb8I/AAAAAAAABDs/8zrAky2njjE/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-03-25+at+13.46.18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="250" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vpgdjKNIjbs/T2-Uh3IAb8I/AAAAAAAABDs/8zrAky2njjE/s400/Screen+shot+2012-03-25+at+13.46.18.png" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I couldn't have done it without you.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Innit thou!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;i style="font-style: italic;"&gt;–Cheyelle&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i style="font-style: italic;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-638217580563102309?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/03/honors.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vpgdjKNIjbs/T2-Uh3IAb8I/AAAAAAAABDs/8zrAky2njjE/s72-c/Screen+shot+2012-03-25+at+13.46.18.png' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-5396120434064783799</guid><pubDate>Sat, 24 Mar 2012 14:42:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-03-25T15:53:04.644+01:00</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>vlodcasting</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>war</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>comedy</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>politics</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>Regarding Death Threat &amp; Hate Comments</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–Snap!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Enjoy…
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HDf5KkRaDgM" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;i&gt;
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;i&gt;
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;i&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="font: normal normal normal 8px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-5396120434064783799?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/03/black-cok-response-video.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/HDf5KkRaDgM/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-2929799244806566371</guid><pubDate>Fri, 23 Mar 2012 15:55:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-03-23T15:55:25.160Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>sex</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>oddball</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>uk</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>relationships</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>music</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>comedy</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrity</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>My Take on Tulisa Talks</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–It's The Real Thing!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Enjoy…&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Pz07LwYxj-g" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;i&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/i&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-2929799244806566371?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/03/my-take-on-tulisa-talks.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/Pz07LwYxj-g/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-6176505913897968867</guid><pubDate>Thu, 22 Mar 2012 21:06:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-03-23T01:01:15.081Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>usa</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>oddball</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>children</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>Baby Mama Drama</title><description>&lt;i&gt;–Fallopian YouTubes&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GYmM46cwitc/T2uH1U1w_hI/AAAAAAAABDY/KxvlBWt98CY/s1600/youtube-baby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GYmM46cwitc/T2uH1U1w_hI/AAAAAAAABDY/KxvlBWt98CY/s200/youtube-baby.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;© copyright: YouTube&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
Listen, today I had every intention of bringing you something deep, meaningful and profound…then I logged onto YouTube.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The rest is a blur of videos, vitriols and &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksbgjkg4aQw&amp;amp;feature=relmfu"&gt;couponing tutorials&lt;/a&gt;. I've Googled, &lt;a href="http://www.bing.com/"&gt;Bing&lt;/a&gt;-ed and &lt;a href="http://duckduckgo.com/"&gt;DuckDuckGoGo&lt;/a&gt;-ed to the point of being boggled, bonged and fuckfuck gonzo-ed. I AM SPENT!&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
With&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVaW3rfCwq8"&gt;&lt;i&gt;Eastender's&amp;nbsp;&lt;/i&gt;Ben killing off Heather &lt;/a&gt;with a picture fame (WTF…a picture frame??!), and British&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;X Factor&lt;/i&gt; judge &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVaW3rfCwq8"&gt;Tulisa Costasuckalot confessing&lt;/a&gt; it WAS indeed her videoed slapping herself in the face with a black man's cock in a leaked-online sex tape – you'd think we'd get some drama respite. But no, YouTube was on fire today, and it all centers around four babies and a popular YouTube advice guru…&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Basically, the "guru" had been, for the past year-or-so, giving advice to her THOUSANDS of subscribers. Having previously announced to her followers she was expecting triplets, she uploaded a hospital-bedside video (below) featuring the babies, which turned out to be quadruplets (yes, they found an extra one during labour – like you do).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
In the meantime, another YouTuber decided – after hearing the celebratory news – to make a video wishing the guru well and asking her OWN subscribers to head over to the guru's channel and "show love" and perhaps help out with some baby accessories/supplies.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/10Jc19xXEqk" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
And all was fine…until one or two eagle-eyed viewers noticed that the babies featured bore an uncanny resemblance to plastic dolls. Some viewers were so incensed by the perceived dupe, they produced&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZr8GM48XlI&amp;amp;feature=related"&gt;exposé videos&lt;/a&gt;.&amp;nbsp;In response, the guru released an extremely vociferous video (below) denouncing her doubters as "haters". But her predicament was compounded when another YouTuber discovered what he/she claims is the guru's &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LcYHPcCHaQ&amp;amp;feature=related"&gt;Ebay page&lt;/a&gt;, which seemed to confirm the guru had indeed purchased two biracial &lt;a href="http://www.reborn-baby.com/"&gt;Reborn dolls&lt;/a&gt;. Cue: the perfect YouTube shit storm.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-Gvh0eHLNGo" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Now, as anyone who knows me knows, I am about as maternal as a Jimmy Choo shoe in Oprah Winfrey's closet. &amp;nbsp;It doesn't matter how cute, sweet or goo-gooey your newborn is, eventually I'm gonna turn the conversation around to my puppy. That's just how I'm wired. That said, despite a large amount of certainty amongst the YouTube community, I genuinely can't tell if the babies are real or not. To me they look like Mimi's &lt;a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-moms/news/nick-cannon-7-month-old-twins-moroccan-and-monroe-are-talking-2011512"&gt;Moroccan and Monroe&lt;/a&gt;, but with ginger &lt;a href="http://www.cockneyrhymingslang.co.uk/slang/barnet_fair"&gt;barnets&lt;/a&gt;. I've Googled the heck out of the subject, and I'm still not 100%.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
What do you fink?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Holla&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;–Cheyelle&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-6176505913897968867?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/03/baby-mama-drama.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GYmM46cwitc/T2uH1U1w_hI/AAAAAAAABDY/KxvlBWt98CY/s72-c/youtube-baby.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-7872712697070466692</guid><pubDate>Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:43:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-03-20T21:44:06.089Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>night time</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>death</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>relationships</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>love</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>animals</category><title>The Podigal Daughter' Vlogs #2</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–A Puppy's Tale: The Endgame&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&amp;nbsp;Enjoy…&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&amp;nbsp;

&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/vi-kHUEdQxI" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="font: normal normal normal 8px/normal Times; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-7872712697070466692?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/03/podigal-daughter-vlogs-2.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/vi-kHUEdQxI/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-4778196280629496360</guid><pubDate>Sun, 19 Feb 2012 02:07:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-02-21T23:29:26.541Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>usa</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>night time</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>death</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>religion</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrations</category><title>The Procession</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–"A
God of Second Chances"&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ucM6-iQK5jk/T0BNEW1oMMI/AAAAAAAABBQ/lD6efggVdio/s1600/220px-ThePreachersWife-movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ucM6-iQK5jk/T0BNEW1oMMI/AAAAAAAABBQ/lD6efggVdio/s200/220px-ThePreachersWife-movie.jpg" width="129" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;© copyright: &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchstone_Pictures"&gt;Touchstone&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
As
you know, I've been lamenting the passing of Whitney Houston (I promise I'll
stop talking about her…in a month or six). Today was her funeral.&amp;nbsp;I got a
&lt;a href="http://www.toblerone.com/"&gt;Toblerone&lt;/a&gt; in, special.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
It
struck me, halfway through the uplifting service and long after the demise of
the Toblerone, Whitney had played us all - she had got us all to go to
church.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Kevin
Costner's eulogy was touching and insightful, and Tyler Perry preached. Bebe Winans made us laugh with
his "Crazy Whitney" yarn, and Stevie and Cece sang. Dionne was composed, Alicia cried, R. Kelly faltered,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;Aretha was a no-show and&amp;nbsp;Clive Davis's speech made for a
perfect toilet break. It was epic…and yet intimate. Plus, there was a couple of black&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_Ratched"&gt;Nurse Ratched&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;lookalikies wandering round the place.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
I
crooned, I swayed and I clapped. I said out loud, just as the pastor instructed:
"prioritise" and "I stand". I amen-ed, I laughed and yeah, I
cried.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
The
service finished at around 10pm Spanish time; &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEQMuEEYfpI"&gt;the coffin carried up the aisle&lt;/a&gt; to Whitney's&amp;nbsp;&lt;i&gt;I Will Always Love You&lt;/i&gt; interspersed with the sound of sobbing from those in the congregation
who returned the sentiment and lacked the resolve of a stiff upper lip.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
I
logged off &lt;a href="http://new.livestream.com/aplive/whitneyhouston"&gt;Livestream&lt;/a&gt; and closed my laptop. The dogs were in the yard so the house
was quiet. It was light when the service started and now it was dark. I went to the kitchen. Trust Whitney to have such a sensational funeral, I
thought to myself as I loitered by the fridge. I felt a little
deflated. Spent. Lonely. Afraid?&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
But
then came the magic. Music – as if orchestrated specially for me by Denzel
Washington's character in &lt;i&gt;The Preacher's Wife&lt;/i&gt;. A wall of sound breached the
shutters on the windows, echoed in the hollow of the unoccupied bedrooms, gushed
down the hall and overflowed in my ears and heart.&amp;nbsp;The sound filled the empty house and washed over the back garden, making the dogs bark like mad.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;I
grabbed my keys and opened the front door. A night procession (pictured below) was making its way
through town; through the one-way streets of my little fishing village and past
my temporary home. The floats, which were decorated in gaudy fabrics and flashing lights, rocked like little fishing boats in a moonlit harbour, as kids onboard danced to the beats&lt;/span&gt;. As the carnival convoy&amp;nbsp;– its
source, destination and raison d'être unknown to me –&amp;nbsp;passed by, the costumed-children waved and threw handfuls of glitter and confetti.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
That was the exact moment I exhaled. I smiled, grabbed my camera and,
not for the first time that day, waved my heart out.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pdTrDobyic8/T0BNYFd9l9I/AAAAAAAABBY/t1VoaoKFWgk/s1600/IMG_0890.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pdTrDobyic8/T0BNYFd9l9I/AAAAAAAABBY/t1VoaoKFWgk/s400/IMG_0890.JPG" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;i&gt;–Cheyelle
Omar&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 8px;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"&gt;COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-4778196280629496360?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/02/procession.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ucM6-iQK5jk/T0BNEW1oMMI/AAAAAAAABBQ/lD6efggVdio/s72-c/220px-ThePreachersWife-movie.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-6600195241570062061</guid><pubDate>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:59:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-02-13T19:02:14.330Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>usa</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>vlodcasting</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>podcasts</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>death</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>music</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrity</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>Podigal Daughter Vlodcast (new for 2012!)</title><description>&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;–The Whitney Edition&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I've decided to extend my hugely successful podcast &lt;a href="http://itunes.apple.com/bw/podcast/cheyelle-omar-the-podigal/id418949468"&gt;The Podigal Daughter™&lt;/a&gt; into the realm of vlogging or, as I like to call it: vlodcasting.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Enjoy…&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rqM5WftHBh8" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-6600195241570062061?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/02/podigal-daughter-vlodcast-new-for-2012.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://img.youtube.com/vi/rqM5WftHBh8/default.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-7624032304906253837</guid><pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:16:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-02-13T08:09:18.271Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>death</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>music</category><title>The Voice</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–Sunday's Song&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Her's was the first album I ever bought; a cassette purchased from a branch of &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woolworths_Group_plc"&gt;Woolworth's&lt;/a&gt; on &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/40134547@N06/3687330638/in/photostream"&gt;Albany Road&lt;/a&gt;, Cardiff. The album was called &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitney_Houston_(album)"&gt;Whitney Houston&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
I don't have any tears for her, but I &lt;i&gt;do&lt;/i&gt; feel that inexplicable and irrational sense of loss that one feels when someone turns off the radio before the great song is played out to the very end.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0" height="275" id="flashObj" width="425"&gt;&lt;param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" /&gt;







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&lt;embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=74843350001&amp;playerID=72333616001&amp;playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAELCxmdE~,1oWWRiqLbAeLjMuYe-TK5P1NVK4UNFQa&amp;domain=embed&amp;dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="425" height="275" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" swLiveConnect="true" allowScriptAccess="always" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"&gt;&lt;/embed&gt;&lt;/object&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;For previous Whitney articles click &lt;a href="http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2010/12/perfect-10s.html"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2009/12/substance-abuse-police.html"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-7624032304906253837?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/02/voice.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-5143465966020695561</guid><pubDate>Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:57:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-02-15T00:59:34.087Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>australia</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>uk</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>time</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>science</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>polls</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrations</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>youtube</category><title>2012 New Yr's Fireworks: Sydney v London</title><description>&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–The Big Vote-off&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9XINVSEFRiA/TwCSAhqTEzI/AAAAAAAABBI/VqmFrK4SCoY/s1600/Annie-film.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9XINVSEFRiA/TwCSAhqTEzI/AAAAAAAABBI/VqmFrK4SCoY/s200/Annie-film.jpg" width="126" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;© copyright: columbia&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;The film &lt;i&gt;Annie&lt;/i&gt; musta had a real profound effect on me because to this day, wheneva I orgasm, I see my name scrawled
across the night sky – just like in the &lt;a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOxbMXe_xx0"&gt;closing credits of &lt;i&gt;Annie&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;i&gt; &lt;/i&gt;– in red twinkling sparks,
surrounded by an unrelenting cacophony of exploding, multicolored, fireworks.
Such is the intensity of this recurring, lucid, visualisation, sometimes it is all
I can do NOT to scream out: YAS, DADDY WARBUCKS! YASSSS!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Yes, I know, that was waaaaaaaaaaay too much
information. But, it does illustrate just why I look forward to the New Year’s
Eve displays so much, and tend to replay them on YouTube well into the new
year. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;I love it. It’s that uncontainable flash of
brilliance, which can only be lived-out in darkness, and occurs in those fragile
seconds between the kindled powder’s return to ash that gets me every time. Never
once have I, on hearing the explosion’s final cadence, not wished for just one
more. Just one more…&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;The BBC’s live coverage of the fireworks didn’t disappoint (although I preferred last year's soundtrack), and
neither did Sydney’s &lt;a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8986232/Sydneys-4m-New-Year-fireworks-display.html"&gt;six-million-dollar display&lt;/a&gt;, which I watched on YouTube.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sU71K1Fjs5Y" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;As discussed in &lt;a href="http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2011/01/bongs-bangs.html"&gt;last year’s New Year's Day' post&lt;/a&gt;: Sydney used to be, in my opinion, the gold standard in
pyrotechnical excellence. But these days, that’s a title I’m increasingly
inclined to award to London.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="275" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/q1yLRK2M8YQ" width="425"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
As a bona fide "&lt;a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Whinging+Pom"&gt;whinging pom&lt;/a&gt;" (that's Australian for: British person), it’s hard to tell if London’s [fireworks] really are better than Australia’s – or if &lt;i&gt;I am&lt;/i&gt; a tad bias.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a name='more'&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Of course, I'm
being extremely pyro-nickety (that’s a homemade &lt;a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mash+up"&gt;mash-up&lt;/a&gt; of the words ‘pyrotechnic’ and
‘&lt;a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pernickity"&gt;pernickety&lt;/a&gt;’); after all, both displays were absolutely dazzling. But just for
fun, and in honour of Daddy Warbucks, I've decided to post both videos and add a
little poll&amp;nbsp;(in the sidebar, right)&amp;nbsp;to the old blogaroonie, where YOU can cast
your own vote. Cos, as the old adage goes, “If you want flame, you gotta
sparkle”…or was it “sweat”?&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Anyhoo, I’ll leave the poll up for a month
and the city with the most votes, if anyone votes, will receive a cameo in my
next big orgasm.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Thanks for stopping by and feel free to
leave your thoughts – or links to your favourite firework displays – below. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Have a great 2012!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;i&gt;–Cheyelle&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Update!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"&gt;Well, the result of the poll was 4 votes apiece (see below). Therefore it looks like both London's big dong and Australia's golden showers will both feature in my NBO (Next Big Orgasm). My thanks to anyone who took the time to vote, comment or read the post.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"&gt;&lt;iframe allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="180" name="poll-widget8455213199672933669" src="http://www.google.com/reviews/polls/display/8455213199672933669/blogger_template/run_app?txtclr=%23335566&amp;amp;lnkclr=%23336699&amp;amp;chrtclr=%23336699&amp;amp;font=normal+normal+103%25+Verdana,+sans-serif&amp;amp;hideq=true&amp;amp;purl=http://www.cheyelleomar.com/" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; height: 148px; width: 214px;"&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 11px;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;COPYRIGHT
©2012 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp;
CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-5143465966020695561?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2012/01/2012-nye-fireworks-sydney-v-london.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9XINVSEFRiA/TwCSAhqTEzI/AAAAAAAABBI/VqmFrK4SCoY/s72-c/Annie-film.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>2</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-4614725565341242806</guid><pubDate>Sat, 31 Dec 2011 20:36:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-02-15T01:05:07.784Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>oddball</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>poems from the ropewalks</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>poetry</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrations</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>animals</category><title>New Year…</title><description>&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;…Same old problems&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: red; font-family: inherit;"&gt;"Crimbo's done and anova new year's about to begun."&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;i style="background-color: red;"&gt;– Cheyelle Omar&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;That's poetry from a professional. Don't say I don't never give you nuffin.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
Here's a snapshot I took of my one-testicled, epileptic, paraplegic, 12-year-old pug smiling through the pain, on the beach today.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align: left;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5NmsTe-ocFc/Tv9sVg694DI/AAAAAAAABA8/DW3FH_SwrMs/s320/IMG_9779.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="240" /&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;Boycie&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5NmsTe-ocFc/Tv9sVg694DI/AAAAAAAABA8/DW3FH_SwrMs/s1600/IMG_9779.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
I've got a feeling we'll all be doing a bit of that in 2012 – smiling through the pain. But with any luck there'll be warmth, grit, and blue skies. And kindness to carry us when the going gets tough.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;Be…lucky!&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;–Cheyelle. x.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;COPYRIGHT ©2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-4614725565341242806?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2011/12/new-year.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5NmsTe-ocFc/Tv9sVg694DI/AAAAAAAABA8/DW3FH_SwrMs/s72-c/IMG_9779.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-4984031766978309194</guid><pubDate>Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:37:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-02-12T15:13:17.769Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>europe</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>nature</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>celebrations</category><title>Shells…</title><description>&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;&lt;i&gt;…with holes in them&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O6_OKwRzb40/TviQRRJrouI/AAAAAAAABAw/GjVTlkVsrdk/s1600/IMG_0357.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O6_OKwRzb40/TviQRRJrouI/AAAAAAAABAw/GjVTlkVsrdk/s200/IMG_0357.jpg" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Last year, &lt;a href="http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2010/12/unexpected-tree.html"&gt;I found my Christmas tree&lt;/a&gt;. This Christmas, I found my adornment.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The tree was purchased for €1.25 at the Euro Store (that's the Spanish equivalent of a Pound Shop/Dollar Store – the Chinese get about, don't they?). With the exception of a little woollen fairy (to sit atop), which cost €1, I had no intention of buying decorations cos I'm on the road. So, I decided to make them.&amp;nbsp;I resolved – because I walk my dogs along the beach more or less every day – to decorate my tree with shells.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There was a time, in my youth, when I'd comb the beach for the most beautiful shells I could find. But in this year of my life, I combed the shoreline for the imperfect,&amp;nbsp;the wounded,&amp;nbsp;the worn down; shells with holes in them. It's amazing, if you take the time to look, just how many shells there are with precise little holes in them. It's like there's a production line of mermaids somewhere under the ocean, doing it with &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drill_bit"&gt;drill bits&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nblLFRR_DJo/TvcgCpqwF_I/AAAAAAAABAY/ayKsxlflsxg/s1600/IMG_0606.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nblLFRR_DJo/TvcgCpqwF_I/AAAAAAAABAY/ayKsxlflsxg/s400/IMG_0606.jpg" width="300" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a name='more'&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
It was whilst in pursuit of my quarry that I had thought: I am a shell with a hole in it.&amp;nbsp;What if we're &lt;i&gt;all&lt;/i&gt; shells with holes in them and we don't know it – we can only feel it,&amp;nbsp;in the fragile hours? And supposing that were true, then wouldn't it also be true that despite all the coveted, beautiful, most perfect shells that wash up on the shoreline – there must be others, like me, looking for the one with a hole in it?&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To my readers: I'm glad I found you, and you me.
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b style="font-weight: bold;"&gt;Merry Christmas!&lt;/b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="font-weight: bold; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s3pTFlbxVYA/TvcgauQ29iI/AAAAAAAABAk/7GvrS6O00hg/s1600/IMG_0636.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s3pTFlbxVYA/TvcgauQ29iI/AAAAAAAABAk/7GvrS6O00hg/s320/IMG_0636.JPG" width="320" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small; font-weight: normal;"&gt;my dogs, this morning (L-R: Wilberforce, Boycie, Harpo)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;i&gt;–Cheyelle&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 8px;"&gt;COPYRIGHT ©2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;b&gt;
&lt;/b&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-4984031766978309194?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2011/12/shells.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O6_OKwRzb40/TviQRRJrouI/AAAAAAAABAw/GjVTlkVsrdk/s72-c/IMG_0357.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>3</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-538022639179924602</guid><pubDate>Fri, 23 Dec 2011 19:09:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2012-01-03T18:09:08.161Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>lifestyles</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>europe</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>the rock river files</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>photos</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>food</category><title>The Rock River Files | File 3 | Pt. 2</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–Potamolgy 101&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;b&gt;Roundabouts&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pc-qakpDWDw/TvS9Ov1momI/AAAAAAAAA-s/j_aTi3K54Sg/s1600/IMG_7889.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pc-qakpDWDw/TvS9Ov1momI/AAAAAAAAA-s/j_aTi3K54Sg/s200/IMG_7889.jpg" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Despite the staggeringly beautiful views
the house afforded me, I decided to stop and sit by the big &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_circle"&gt;roundabout&lt;/a&gt; at the
edge of town. I can’t swim and can’t drive, so rivers and
roundabouts are more or less the same to me; they both ebb and flow, they both
have the potential to take you somewhere great (if you judge them right), and they both can kill you. But most
importantly, roundabouts and rivers often have nice banks to stop, sit and
think at.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lyzB1TSBpr4/TvTDG2X6cdI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/TJ-WzhqMNq0/s1600/IMG_8953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lyzB1TSBpr4/TvTDG2X6cdI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/TJ-WzhqMNq0/s200/IMG_8953.jpg" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;I was sat on the &lt;a href="http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gabion"&gt;gabions&lt;/a&gt;, watching
tributaries of cars flow around the island, thinking: It’s over. And
I’ll probably never come back. But that don’t mean fuck you. It’s just the way
it is, the way it should be.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;I remembered it all, all at once, so I’d never
forget: the most beautiful &lt;a href="http://www.thefreedictionary.com/greengrocer"&gt;greengrocers&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;I’ve ever seen (pictured below), my elderly neighbour Madame Francine (she hugged so hard I could hardly breathe, and helped me when my electricity
cut out), the shortcut –&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;through the field of purple flowers –&amp;nbsp;between the supermarket and square (pictured left), my hamlet and its little winding streets (pictured three below, right), the sun, the
light, the warmth, the smell of jasmine and freshly
baked bread, the figs, the olive tree and the lazy cat by the drinking
fountain. I smiled on the inside (where it really counts), then I didn’t think
of nothing much, I just enjoyed sitting there knowing I was leaving…not knowing where the Disco Rollers would take me next.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fFI8nnfi2B4/TvTKyibND9I/AAAAAAAAA_0/i2yCJpZtKUM/s1600/IMG_8809.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fFI8nnfi2B4/TvTKyibND9I/AAAAAAAAA_0/i2yCJpZtKUM/s200/IMG_8809.JPG" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;As I watched the drivers going round, shadows of scudding clouds in the October sky made the distant mountain look as though it was
bleeding, and the autumn leaves in the carbon monoxide slipstream flashed by like undiscovered gold. Yes, I thought to myself, this place is definitely a woman… a woman who knows a thing or two about &lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libert%C3%A9,_%C3%A9galit%C3%A9,_fraternit%C3%A9"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"&gt;Liberté&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;. I thanked her for letting me in and letting me go. Adieu, &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%A2teauneuf-Grasse"&gt;Châteauneuf-Grasse&lt;/a&gt;. Goodbye, Michael's Castle. Au revoir, France.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AjqIfKjeNLc/TvTCt_MuEzI/AAAAAAAAA_E/g29wrRYj-hY/s1600/IMG_8903.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-AjqIfKjeNLc/TvTCt_MuEzI/AAAAAAAAA_E/g29wrRYj-hY/s400/IMG_8903.JPG" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a name='more'&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2Xl8RZSz45M/TvTGY1pPSlI/AAAAAAAAA_o/-pckZ3BC5Gg/s1600/IMG_8719.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2Xl8RZSz45M/TvTGY1pPSlI/AAAAAAAAA_o/-pckZ3BC5Gg/s200/IMG_8719.jpg" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;My friend from Glasgow asked, whilst we were
sat at the dining room table, six weeks earlier: “How do you do it, all by
yourself? I kinda envy you.” She was referring to the way I travel alone (I think). I thought about it for a while, and then said something like: &lt;i&gt;You’ve got to really like yourself, like your own company&lt;/i&gt;. As soon as I said
it I regretted it. It was such a crude Dr. Phil-esque thing to say and she
deserved better. What I should of said is…&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Don’t expect too much from humanity. There
are some parts of humanity I/you will never get to experience, and that’s just
how it should be – how nature intended. I think the expectation on humanity
is what makes folks feel so empty…on the inside (where it really counts). It’s
like the dining room table, the one we’re sat at; I ain’t got enough time or space
to fill it with all the food and drink I’d like to taste, but that don’t
mean I ain’t gonna gorge myself on what’s there. That’s how I do it. I gorge
myself on what’s there.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FNTBtVTmIxY/TvTAYEMwiXI/AAAAAAAAA-4/p2fO6tS6kA0/s1600/IMG_8522.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FNTBtVTmIxY/TvTAYEMwiXI/AAAAAAAAA-4/p2fO6tS6kA0/s400/IMG_8522.JPG" width="400" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
Sometimes you’re waiting on a river,
sometimes you’re rolling on a river, and sometimes you’re drowning in a river.
But if you’re really, really, really lucky – sometimes you get to live in the
mother-fucking&amp;nbsp;&lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Riviera"&gt;French Riviera&lt;/a&gt;. Go with it.&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;b&gt;***&lt;/b&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;I left France at the beginning of November.
My dogs and I currently reside in a petite, flat-roofed, single story house, which, funnily enough,
is situated beside a little roundabout in the heart of a small fishing village
just outside Barcelona (or as I like to call it: BarcelOmar), Spain. And you, my
friends, are rollin' with me.&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;Olé!&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;i&gt;–Cheyelle&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;div class="MsoNormal"&gt;
&lt;span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Times-Roman;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: xx-small;"&gt;COPYRIGHT
©2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp;
CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span lang="EN-US"&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-538022639179924602?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2011/12/rock-river-files-file-3-pt-2.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pc-qakpDWDw/TvS9Ov1momI/AAAAAAAAA-s/j_aTi3K54Sg/s72-c/IMG_7889.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></item><item><guid isPermaLink='false'>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3995132885753704525.post-5202620823320029960</guid><pubDate>Sat, 26 Nov 2011 19:23:00 +0000</pubDate><atom:updated>2011-12-13T23:57:34.857Z</atom:updated><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>grammar</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>europe</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>travel</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>photos</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>love</category><category domain='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#'>animals</category><title>Gone Fishing</title><description>&lt;i&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"&gt;–Back to Back&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Sometimes just the mere thought of a comma turns my stomach. I'll be back when I'm done enjoying the sun on my back.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3q2cHGe7bqc/TtE-oqCYNiI/AAAAAAAAA-g/mCfHAMFH45c/s1600/IMG_9971_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3q2cHGe7bqc/TtE-oqCYNiI/AAAAAAAAA-g/mCfHAMFH45c/s400/IMG_9971_2.jpg" width="300" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"&gt;me and boycie – today&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div style="font: 8.0px Times; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"&gt;
COPYRIGHT ©2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:&amp;nbsp; CHEYELLE OMAR&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3995132885753704525-5202620823320029960?l=www.cheyelleomar.com' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description><link>http://www.cheyelleomar.com/2011/11/gone-fishing.html</link><author>noreply@blogger.com (Cheyelle Omar)</author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3q2cHGe7bqc/TtE-oqCYNiI/AAAAAAAAA-g/mCfHAMFH45c/s72-c/IMG_9971_2.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>3</thr:total></item></channel></rss>
