A Postcard A Day - Friday 14 October 2022 - Friday Smiles

 Hello lovely ladies,

Here we are on Friday again. Boy did that week fly by! I'll tell you what we've been up to but first let me show you a postcard which hopefully will make you smile. It's a sweet smiling Japanese girl called a Maiko-san:

“Maiko are the apprentice geisha who are still training to perfect their cultural and entertainment skills. Maiko’s outfits are more eye-catching to divert attention from the lack of knowledge and experience. Geisha’s fashion is usually more mature and subtle. Maiko must live in the “mother”s house and depend on the little stipend she receives from the geisha house. Geisha, on the other hand, are more independent and live in a separate house of their own in the geisha neighborhoods. You can easily distinguish between geisha and maiko based on the images below”. (Source: Geisha by Liza Dalby)

 

The main differences between maiko and geisha (geiko) are age, appearance, and skills.

Maiko is usually younger than 20, wears a more colorful kimono with a red collar, and lacks conversation skills. Maiko means “dancing child” which refers to apprentice geisha who are still training. Maiko have to live in the geisha lodging house (okiya) with their mother (okami-san) for 5 years. Maiko is not allowed to have a cell phone, carry any money, or have a boyfriend.

The stamps are lovely. The one on the left is called 

"Toward the Morning Light" by Yumeji Takehisa

I assume it is a work of art but I have not been able to find much information about it. 

The other one is a stamp from 1965 described as:

Imperial yacht "Meiji Maru" (1876) and Japanese gulls (Larus crassirostris)

The airmail sticker on the right is cute. I have never seen one like this.

So much for my postcard. Let me think upon the smiles of this week. Many smiles are for lovely friends who are ready and willing to help us. Our Danish friends came to put the chimney pipes up again in readiness for the colder weather. (We use loose pipes that we take down in summer). My friend Antonia who just phoned me out of the blue asking if I wanted to come out for a drink. Yess! That was what I needed at the time. The pastor of our church came to dinner on Sunday and had a listening ear and celebrated communion with us. Friends and neighbors popping in with fruit and produce from their land. We have a bowl full of apples, plums, and all sorts of other things.

We harvested spinach from our land as well:

The weather is still warm and sunny. Here is the village square where the post office and the library are. The building you see in the photo is the town hall.

The library is on the left and the post office is to the right not visible in the picture. There is a funny sort of fountain with water coming out of the ground.

I still phone my mum every evening and recently my cousin and his wife visited for a few days. They took her out in the wheelchair when the weather was sunny and sent me some photos.

Mum still enjoys a glass of wine when she has visitors:

Another smile for me is that the gym is starting again today. I go three times a week. We do half an hour aerobics and then upstairs on the machines, doing the circuit. A few minutes on each machine.

My hubby continues not being well. Chemo therapy has been postponed yet again because he is not well enough. Next appointment being Thursday and I hope it will go ahead then. I have spent time cleaning the wheelchair and the commode that we have in the back of the garage (Used when my mum came to stay). And I have taken these items down and I have put the wheelchair in the back of the car so that I don't have to borrow a hospital one .

That my friends, is it from me today. I will find some funnies and will put them at the end as per usual.

Have a lovely weekend,

Hugs,

Lisca

Translated: "If a banker doesn't know how to work the land, why does a pensioner have to understand how to work an ATM?"