Hijack the Conversation Topic!

[Mia]

Once stayed in a tiny thirty room hotel in Cuba, at the end of a very long bumpy ride in the back of a workman's truck. I stood up up straight for the entire forty minute trip as it was packed with people standing up and there was no room to sit down. The truck didn't slow down as it dodged pigs and chickens and dogs that wandered in the road.

When I arrived at the hotel there was a recreation room where guests left books that they brought on vacation with them. One of the books on the table was, "The life of Grace Kelly." Before I could pick it up, the hotel manager came in to tell us our room was ready. So, with our suitcases in tow we followed the manager to our room.

That evening after a dinner of cuban black beans and roasted fish I went back to the recreation room, but the book was no longer on the table. Instead, we listened to a Cuban musician playing guitar that evening.

 

[zurb]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen any Cuban freshwater tropical fish in the shops here, but I understand they have some nice marine fish. I’ve always thought marine tanks look nice, but always felt it was too much work. I know others that say they are easy, so maybe one day.

 

[Progster]

Artists in my music library from Cuba: Anima Mundi (symphonic progressive rock), Naranja Mecanica (which roughly translates to Clockwork Orange), and Sintesis. Thre is also an musician who goes by the name of Fish, whose real name is Derek William Dick, former member of Marillion who left to embark on a solo career. One of the few artists I have actually seen perform live.

 

[Mia]

One day on vacation, I wandered into an artist's cooperative in a tiny fishing village in cuba. They didn't seem to mind that I was there, some smiled, other's went on with their work. It was a huge one story white painted building, and it looked as if it was made from cement blocks. There were skylights all over and small windows let bright light in everywhere.

There was an artist in a corner area, working with thin sheets of dried oil paint. All the oil paint in many colour combinations that dropped on the floor and dried, she scraped up and used in her work. I watched her, as she carefully cut pieces of thin dried paint and combined them to create new paintings.

There were two small paintings on her table, they were local tropical fish that I had seen when I went swimming. I pointed at them, "Cuánto cuesta?(how much)" She shrugged her shoulders, ¿El par de peces, diez cuc cada uno. (The pair of fish, ten cuc each). Then she looked at my feet, pointing at my sandals and then pointed at her plastic flipflops. We exchanged our footwear and I left in flipflops, after having paid her the money she requested.
Those beautifully delicate collage like paintings hang in a special place in my house.

 

[zurb]

Did you know that in New Zealand we often call flipflops ‘jandals’. We like to think of jandals as being a unique kiwi thing, but anyone that has travelled knows they aren’t. The word Jandals is derived from ‘Japanese Sandals’ as Japan is where they were first imported from.

 

[Aspychata]

I think our Japenese guest wore them. When l was a rugrat,my engineer father hosted a engineer from Japan to stay a short-time with us,and that is how l learned to use chopsticks as a child and learned to eat raw eggs on Sukiyaki.

 

[tree]

My mother used a chopstick to turn things (cloth toys) she was making right side out.