A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 29 July 2025 - T for WWII history, wine and orange nails

 

Hello lovely girls, How are you all? I'm writing this on Sunday evening with some lively worship music playing on my TV. Usually I'd write on Monday but tomorrow (Monday) I'm driving to the coast to pick up another son and his family. Woohoo! I'm excited! They had booked flights to come before but then Civid hit and the flights were cancelled. Somehow they never got round to coming again. Now it's happening.

My postcard today is not a happy one. My brother-in-law and his wife went to Kracow in Poland and one of the things they did was visit  Auschwitz, the former Nazi concentration camp. I asked him to send me a postcard and here it is:

The info on the card reads: "A warning notice outside the camp. Beyond this point, the SS opened fire without warning." 

The former concentration camp is now a museum, so that nobody will forget what happened there.

I assume you all know about Auschwitz, but I'll just quote what the Internet says: The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum is a museum on the site of the Nazi German Auschwitz concentration camp in Oświęcim, Poland. The site includes the main concentration camp at Auschwitz I and the remains of the concentration and extermination camp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau. Wikipedia

A lot of Dutch people died in the camps. Luckily in my family nobody died although I have one auntie who went to Teresienstadt and survived. She was only a girl and she got separated from her sister. It must have been such a traumatic experience. She never talked about it, although in later life she wrote a book, which I have. She died a few years back.

The stamps are interesting:

The one on the right celebrates the 250th anniversary of the establishment of the National Education Commission. 

On October 14, 1773, on the initiative of King StanislawAugust Poniatowski, a national education committee was established.

Wikipedia writes: Born into wealthy Polish aristocracy, Poniatowski arrived as a diplomat at the Russian imperial court in Saint Petersburg in 1755 at the age of 22^[1] and became intimately involved with the future empress Catherine the Great. (image below)

With her aid, he was elected King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania by the Sejm in September 1764 following the death of Augustus III. Contrary to expectations, Poniatowski attempted to reform and strengthen the large but ailing Commonwealth. His efforts were met with external opposition from neighbouring Prussia, Russia and Austria, all committed to keeping the Commonwealth weak. From within he was opposed by conservative interests, which saw the reforms as a threat to their traditional liberties and privileges granted centuries earlier.

A controversial figure in Poland's history, he is viewed with ambivalence as a brave and skillful statesman by some and as an overly hesitant coward by others, and even as a traitor. He is criticized primarily for his failure to resolutely stand against opposing forces and prevent the partitions, which led to the destruction of the Polish state. On the other hand, he is remembered as a great patron of arts and sciences who laid the foundation for the Commission of National Education, the first institution of its kind in the world, the Great Sejm of 1788–1792, which led to the Constitution of 3 May 1791 and as a sponsor of many architectural landmarks.

The other stamp is an Easter stamp. I looked up the word Wielkanoc (It means Easter).

What has happening at this end? I have taken my Italian son to the airport, after having spent two nights with them in a hotel near the airport. As today we have theT-Party hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard, I will show you a drink:

This was my breakfast at the hotel. There was an interesting buffet but I stick to my Andalusian toast and tomatoes when I'm away from home.

When my son and family went to spend a day in Malaga, I stayed in the hotel (peace and quiet) and then had lunch in a nearby cafe. 

It was a glass of white wine and a tapa of squid and bread.

After they had gone home, I had a nail appointment the following evening. I went for orange this time.

I'll leave you with a photo of my cat Ronnie who is peacefully asleep next to me on the sofa.

That's it from me today. I don't know how much time I'll have to visit you all, but I'll do my best.

Happy T-Day all,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 25 July 2025 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely ladies! How are you all? I have another postcard for you today:

It comes to me from Taiwan. It was sent by a lady called Queen. She writes on the back of the card that we're looking at face threading. It was popular decades ago, though not so much now.

Queen writes that she has often had it done to her in the past.

Printed on the back of the card is (In English): "Taipei Night Market: Face threading is the oldest facial purifying technique by using one single cotton thread to transform all girls into superstars."

The stamps are fun and colourful:

Good old Google translate tells me the stamp on the left is called 'Intergrity'. And the one on the right is 'Inheritance'.

What have I been doing? This week as my son (from Italy) was staying with his wife and son, we  had many smiles. The one thing we didn't smile about was the scorpion that had the audacity to bite my son's toe!

Here he is, all battered to death. I don't like killing animals but this one was definitely not welcome on my patio!

Scorpions in our area are not lethal for humans, but bites are extremely painful. So my son was on a lot of painkillers for a couple of days. 

They have now flown back to Italy. I drove them to Malaga, where the airport is. As they had to be at the airport at 5 in the morning, I booked us into the Travelodge hotel 5 minutes from the airport. But.... I got the date wrong and the booking was non-refundable, so I had to book another night. It did mean we had two nights and a whole day to explore Malaga.

The pedestrianised streets in the centre had sun shades which was good as it was so hot.

In this same street there were people playing chess. The end tables were for children and several of them were playing too.

Now I'm back and I can finally unpack my suit case as I'm not going anywhere for at least a month.

This might make you smile. Ronni hiding in my suitcase.

Another thing that made me smile was that the missing box of patio furniture finally turned up. I had ordered some patio furniture and thought it might be nice for it to be here when my son comes. He had already volunteered to put it together for me. But the consignment was 3 boxes and only two arrived. After a bit of communicating back and forth, the last box arrived on the day my son flew home. In fact I wasn't home yet when it arrived and had to ask the driver to deliver it to a nearby petrol station, owned by a friend who often takes in parcels.

Anyway, this is the result. I'm very happy with it.

That is all from me today. I'm going to have my nails done this evening, and then Im going to visit my friend Patricia. All nice things.

Of course I'll be off to Annie at A Stitch In Time for some more smiles. And there will be some funnies at the end.

Enjoy your weekend,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 22 July 2025 - T for baptistry, coffee makers and a hippopotamus

 Hello lovely girls,

How are you all? Enjoying the summer? Some of you , I know, are not having summer weather, snd some are having too much heat and sun. I'm in the last category.

I received a postcard from another sunny country, Italy:

It shows the Baptistry of the John the Baptist church in Parma (In Italian: San Giovanni Battista). 

The postcard has an octagonal shape as the building also has an octagonal shape. Wikipedia writes about the Baptistry: The Baptistery of Parma features a cycle of sculptures representing twelve months of the year. The sculptures are attributed to Benedetto Antelami, a renowned sculptor active in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, and his workshop.

 
These sculptures, along with two seasons (Winter and Spring), are located in the first loggia on the east side of the interior. 

They depict the typical agricultural tasks associated with each month, showcasing a blend of religious and secular themes. 

These are (from left to right): February, January and December.

Above from left to right: August, July and June.

From left to right: May, April and March.

And lastly from left to right: November, October and September

There is some info on the back of the card:

The stamp is the normal Italian Europe stamp:

What have I been up to? I have my son and his wife and son staying with me. It is unbearibly hot and it's difficult to know what to do.

We had a lovey time at my sister's. I had asked my son to bring his own coffee maker as they love their Italian espresso. But what a disappointment to discover that my sister has an induction hob and their little coffee maker doesn't work on that. So I quickly went on Amazon and ordered a plate to use:

It worked a treat.

One evening we went for a beach walk and ended up in a chiringuito (beach bar):

It was called the Hippopotamos Bar. There we are, all sat in a row.

I'm on the right with the black dress.

This will be my drink reference for Elisabeth and Bluebeard's T-Party. I think it is my sister's rum & coke.

At the moment we are in Malaga, a large city on the south coast of pain. we have booked a hotel near the airport as my son and family are flying back on Wednesday morning early. their flight is at 7 and they have to check in at 5!

So I'll love you and leave you, as the saying goes. I'm going to link with Elizabeth and Bluebeard to join the T-Party.

Happy T-Day,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Friday 18 July 2025 - Friday Smiles

 Hi everybody! 

I have been smiling all week as I have been in the company of my son from Italy and his wife and son. I don't see them very often and now I am seeing them twice in one year. (I have been to Italy for the communion of my grandson, so I was with them then).

But first the customary postcard:

I don't know what it represents. I suppose it's just a pretty composition. It comes from China and was sent by Hugo who works in Xiamen, a seaside island city in SE Fuijan.

Wikipedia writes: Xiamen, historically romanized as Amoy, is a sub-provincial city in southeastern Fujian, People's Republic of China, beside the Taiwan Strait.

It looks very nice, I must say.

The stamps are interesting:

I don't know what Beethoven is doing on a Chinese stamp.  Let's look that up....

This is a stamp from a series Foreign Musicians issued on the 25b July 2010. There is Bach, Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart:

They issued these to coincide with  the World of Music Education Conference. 

And I have also found something about the 'peacock'. It's part of a Rare Bird series:

They issued these stamps in 1997 together with Sweden:

There was an image rubber-stamped on the card:

"Ignorantia juris neminem excusat" is a Latin legal maxim that translates to "ignorance of the law excuses no one". This principle means that a person cannot avoid legal consequences for violating a law by claiming they were unaware of its existence. In essence, everyone is presumed to know the laws of the land in which they reside. 

In don't know why that stamp is there. Is Hugo a lawyer?

What have I been up to? I have joined my son and family in Marbella. My sister lives in Marbella and has a nice house with a pool. As it is very hot here, the pool is wonderful. It was so hot, even I went in the water (I don't usually get wet)

There was a skateboard park in Marbella (near the bus station) and my grandson is quite good at that sort of thing so we took him there. It's huge. (6600 square meters)

Here he is just about to jump down a very steep slope (on his skateboard). His mother was 'having kittens' as they say. She doesn't usually watch him do this kind of thing.

One day we went to Puerto Banus to watch how the other half lives., (It's a place near Marbella where there is a harbour with huge yachts and posh cars). My grandson (and his daddy) wanted to see the Lamborghinis and Porsches etc. I'll spare you the photos of cars and yachts.

There was one 4x4 car that had a fun sticker on it:

We got to Puerto Banus by boat:

We were sailing agains the wind and every time there was a wave, we got wet and we squealed. That was fun. (On the down side: I got sunburnt).

One day my son and family went off on their own to visit Gibraltar (I wasn't interested in going there):

As they were only two and a half people going, my sister was kind enough to lend them her two-seater car, which they loved!

On the last day we visited a Van Gogh immersive exhibition in Estepona, a bit further west along the coast.

We were allowed to take pictures:

It was amazing! I had seen a similar thing last year in Madrid. The staff offered to take a picture of us in the lobby before going in:

My sister on the right, me with the black dress.

Here is another image:

Have you had any smiles this week? Please join us with yours at Annie at A Stitch In Time.

That is all from me today. There will be some funnies at the end.

In the meantime I wish you all a lovely weekend,

Lisca

Be careful how you place your ceiling lamps: