7 Differences

Many people say you’ll find love when you find someone just like you. Someone who likes the same things as you, has the same hobbies, someone who has the same goal in life. Sorry, but I don’t agree.

I don’t think love has to do with opinions, goals, or whatever. Love is a feeling (now it’s when scientifics kill me, and say love is a chemical reaction… okay, okay…), and therefore love has to be with feelings. If you feel happy when you are with that person, if you feel special when you are with that person, if you feel safe and confident with that person, and most important, if you LOVE that person, then you have found love. It doesn’t matter if he/she has different opinions of yours, it doesn’t matter if he/she (but mostly “he”) loves football and you don’t. What it matters is that he/she will be there for you. He/she will listen and take care of you. Always. And THAT’s true love (of course both of you have to share some basic points of view: killing is bad, being a terrorist is bad… you know, the typical things).

So, I’m fed up of people thinking Jimmy and I love the same things and share the same points of view. We don’t. We love each other. We take care of each other. We enjoy being together. But we are different. Fortunately, we both think killing is bad, and fortunately, neither of us is a terrorist (which is something basic, you know). And we share some dreams and goals. But we are different.

7 things Jimmy and Chloe don’t share:

1) I love peaceful computer games, such as The Sims 3. Jimmy, however, prefers computer games involving guns, martial arts or war.

2) I LOVE movies like Meet the Parents or The Proposal, while Jimmy hates them and enjoys Alien vs. Predator (Ugh!) or Terminator (how can anyone enjoy that?????? Robots, robots, monsters, robots… And I’m afraid of all of them!!! I can’t watch a movie if I’m hiding behind my Doritos bag!).

3) I hate CSI Miami, because I HATE Horatio Caine! And Jimmy LOVES it! and LOVES him! (I prefer Ghost Whisperer…)

4) I’m very impatient. If I want something to happen, I want it NOW. Jimmy, on the contrary, is the most patient person I’ve ever met. And that drives me crazy!!

5) I love blogging, Facebook, Twitter… Jimmy finds them a waste of time. That’s why I’m still waiting for a guest post written by Jimmy…

6) I love taking photos, GOOD photos!! And Jimmy gets bored when I bring my camera with me and start taking pictures of everything. Maybe I have Japanese ancestors!

7) Jimmy loves sport, mainly soccer… I fall asleep when we he’s watching a soccer game.

And so on.

But despite all this, I LOVE Jimmy. I LOVE Jimmy sooo much! And maybe our differences make our life more interesting 🙂

Unless there’s a soccer game…

Maybe we have found it

After two crazy weeks, I think we have found our future house. That’s why I couldn’t write many posts (or any at all)…

But now we can relax. We don’t have to worry until the end of September. Why? Because the bank manager (who is our friend) is on vacation, the owner is on vacation and in September WE are on vacation. So we’ll sign everything at the end of September or at the beginning of October. YAY!

And since I know you love posts with pictures… Jimmy took some photos of the house!

Living room

WC

kitchen

back yard

back yard

back yard and garage (and me, next to the garage door)

our back yard and our neighbors

All these are BEFORE photos. Once we sign all the documents, I’ll post the AFTER photos. And all the process: furniture, paint, all kind of improvements and changes…

Oh, here is some information about the house:

• big living room
• kitchen
• 3 bathrooms
• 3 bedrooms
• porch
• backyard
• garage for two cars
• air conditioning

Now you know I’m still alive! 😉 And we’ve found our future house!!

UPDATE!! House plans:

First and second floor

On Our Way Home

As I said the other day, I don’t have any picture of our MAYBE future house (since it isn’t built yet). BUT yesterday, while Jimmy was driving to our MAYBE future “house”, I took some pictures of the landscape and surroundings. Just for you! I want you to know everything!

So. The first thing you should know is that Jimmy and I have decided not to buy a flat. Why? Because we don’t like flat. Personally, I have lived in flats all my life. And I’m fed up. I want a house. A beautiful house. And Jimmy has lived all his life in houses and he loves it! So we’ll live in a house. We think we’ll have more privacy and space.

The second thing you should know is that we will live in Lagos del Serrano, near a small village, called El Ronquillo. About 30 minutes from Seville (where Jimmy has a job). It’s not very far. And we’ll have peace, tranquility and serenity: our MAYBE future house would be surrounded by trees and nature. AND building a house there is cheaper than in Seville.

And now some pictures:

Here our MAYBE future house would be built (with or without those trees). This lot is bigger. This is only a part of it.

We'll live near a lake!

So. That is. Now we are planning to build a house of these characteristics:

Image from here.

This is just one of the MANY options we have. We haven’t decided yet.

I promise I’ll keep you informed with every step we take. 🙂

Back from the hairdresser’s

I’m back from the beach, and this morning, I’ve gone to the hairdresser’s.

And here is the result…

New look (Why am I so happy???)

Yes, I admit it. This is my bathroom. But it’s the only place where there is a big mirror, and a lot of light!! Sorry!

I really tried to take pictures, like Camille {Archives of our Lives}, from different angles and perspectives… But let’s face it, I’m not such a good photographer.

So this is what I was able to do…

From another angle (oops there's the lavatory...)

And this picture was taken by my brother…

I didn't dye my hair blonde... It must be a strange effect or my camera wants me to be blonde! lol

Meanwhile, Stitch (my ferret) was all alone in my bedroom, and guess what I found when I got in…

THIS!

What a mess!

And then he looked at me like this:

Hi mom!! What? It wasn't me who messed up the bedroom!! I was playing with your cardigan!

That’s what I did today (and what Stitch did today)… What about you?

One of the happiest days of my life

Today has been one of the happiest days of my life. And the responsible is this one:

Jimmy!

Thanks Jimmy for that huge hug, thouse beautiful words and that sweet kiss. You made me smile. You made me feel the luckiest woman in the world.

I love you.

My in-laws

Although Jimmy and I aren’t married (yet), I know his parents as my in-laws. And I thought I should introduce them to you, since they are an important part of my life. And Jimmy’s life, of course. I spend a lot of time at their house. I work there as a private teacher two days a week. I teach English, French and Spanish to their little neighbours. And then I have lunch with them on Sundays. So they are already my family. Even though there aren’t any legal bonds yet.

Well, let’s start. First of all, a picture.

Jimmy and his parents

Oops. My father-in-law is going to kill me. I better upload a better picture…

I think he is better in this picture

As you can see my mother-in-law just LOVES me. She loves everyone, I think. But she loves me as her daughter. I’m very lucky. Our relationship is great. I really love her. Not as my mother, of course. But she has all my love and support. She is gossip, as my mother. But apart from that, she is quite different. And she is quite different to her husband. My father-in-law {who is quite different from me…  but we try to forget our differences}. She loves cooking {she is a great cook!! I love everything she cooks}. He’s indifferent. She loves classic music. He loves popular songs. She plays the piano {she’s a piano teacher}. He used to play the guitar. She loves foreign languages. He hates them. She loves France, Paris and French. He hates everything related to French or France.  He loves England. She loves dogs. He loves cats. She loves her sisters. He is an only child. She loves soccer. He hates it.  She’s always laughing. He’s a serious man. And I could go on… As you can see they are quite different!! But they love each other. And it’s cute. It’s cute and sweet seeing how much they love each other. They’re still in love after so many years of marriage. I admire them. I’ve learned a lot from them. I wish Jimmy and I had half the love my in-laws have when we are their age. They are just the best example to follow for young couples. I’m so happy for them!!

Jimmy is sad

Since Jimmy hates blogging, I’m going to write a post for him. So on behalf of Jimmy, I say that today hasn’t been his day.

He started work at 7:45 am and he should have finished at 5 pm. BUT he had to work until 7:15 pm. Hello overtime! Obviously we couldn’t see each other. And besides, this long day was worse than it may seem.

{I have no idea of what his job is about. He’s an engineer, that’s all I know. What a bad girlfriend, you may say. Yes. I think I’m not a good girlfriend, because when he starts to tell me things about what he is doing… I listen! But I must admit I don’t understand a word. All I do is nodding. Yes. I nod like a robot. I say “I get it”, to avoid a deeper explanation of what his job is about. And believe me, it’s better. If I say “I don’t understand”… God help me! He will start a monologue about computers, computers, more computers… and even more computers. And about other things I can’t even pronounce.}

Having said that, he has explained me in all detail his bad day. I won’t go into details {you know why…}. All I can say is he’s right. It’s been a horrible day. He did it all wrong. He had to help his colleagues, do his work, and help his colleagues again, and then phone to some clients and then work again, and then help his colleagues… Stress, stress, stress. And that’s not good. And he had to work overtime. And they don’t pay him for these hours overtime. And that’s unfair. So he’s upset. And tired. Really tired. Exhausted. Sad. So I feel the same. 😦

Chloe’s mood: sad.

Jimmy’s mood: (tired+tired+tired+tired) x upset x sad = …..

… Guess the result!

As I promised…

I’m going to talk about my family. You may think it will be boring. Well, maybe. But I think my family is quite entertaining. Let’s start:

Stitch:

Stitch, my ferret. Yeah, he is my family. Any problem? I think he is the sanest member of my family. And he is not human.

Stitch is the latest member to arrive to my family. And he has got used so well… He knows every corner of the flat, he knows where the “magic” water is (he loves drinking water from the sink, where he can play with everything… that is, my mom’s things: her brush, her curlers, her towels… ho ho!), he knows what he mustn’t do (and that’s why he must do it!), he loves stealing my shoes and, after playing with them, he puts them in a Stradivarius bag, he loves sleeping on my lap and licking my hands/arms every morning… and now the newest trick he has learned all by himself is to jump from the bathroom’s sink on my shoulder. That means “Come on, mom, I’ve just finished here. I don’t want  to drink more water. Let’s play”. And he is also a great techie! He has done things with my laptop I’ll never know how to do (or undo) them!

Stitch follows me wherever I go

My mom:

She is a housewife now. But she was a teacher some years ago. Her friends describe her as a sweet woman. But I’m her daughter and I DO know her. I’ll tell you how she really is. She is forgetful. She is the most forgetful person I’ve ever met. But also a terrible gossip. And that’s worse. I think she has a special antenna in her head and that’s how she knows things. I don’t know how she can remember the names of almost all our neighbours. And I don’t know how she can hear me wishpering something to anyone else at the other end of the flat. When I want to ask for something, I usually turn to my dad. He is more understanding. I’ve just said “dad, could you…?” and then, she appears, with a big smile and her words “what are you talking about?”… I think she has a special ability or something. I can’t figure out how she can keep her ears open all day, and walk so stealthily… until she is behind you!! Maybe she is an alien… Who knows. But believe me, having such a gossip mother is not good. When I was a teenager and was phoning my friends, when you least expect it, she was there, listening. When I was writing an e-mail to some friend… there was a little head behing my shoulder, reading what I was writing. When I met Jimmy, she was the first reporter who interviewed me asking for any detail. Believe me, horrible. But after all, she’s a good mom and friend who was there to tell you all the latest neighbourhood’s gossip!

This is my mom. She is posing. So vain...

My dad:

He is a teacher. A Physics and Chemistry teacher. Yuck! We are quite different. He hates English, he loves scientific things, he loves opera… And though I said before he is an understanding person, he always disagrees with my decisions. It’s like a teenager. I mean, it is said that teenagers contradict what their parents tell them, isn’t it? Well, in my family, my dad has always contradicted me. Seriously. I wanted to study English. He said “No, you better study Translation“. I wanted to study Arabic. He said “No, you should study German“. I wanted to study Japanese. And he said “No, Chinese is the future“. I wanted to buy a ferret. He said “ARE YOU CRAZYYY????!!!!“. And after that, he said “No“. See? He’s always contradicting me. Like a teenager. Then when I do the opposite, he accepts my decisions with resignation. I’ll be always be the black sheep. But still he loves me. And I love him.

He looks serious... But he is hilarious!

My brother and his birds:

I can’t describe my brother, without his birds. His life is about Medicine, his plants and his birds. That’s all. Mmm. Oh, I forgot the most important thing: he is always needling me. So his life is about Medicine, his plants, his birds and needling me. Every word I say, my brother goes with some sarcastic comment. Every thing I do, there he goes with some joke. From my parent’s point of view, he is the best. And I don’t blame them. They are right. He is brilliant. He is nice (not always),  he has done whatever they wished. He has followed the “right path”. It’s okay. Because he thinks I’m better than him, and I think he’s better than me. He supports me and I support him. Always. Even when I launched  a toy baby trolley against a wall with my 6-year-old brother in it. Or when I kidnapped his Action Man and made it up. Or when I wanted my ferret to become friend of his cockatiel and lovebirds. And Stitch wanted to hunt them. Or when I… Humm I better shut up. Enough examples for now.

I could be writing about my family for hours. But it’s 1:00 am and I’m falling asleep. I promise to write more about them tomorrow, on this same post. Stay tuned!!

Great Saturday!

This weekend has been great. And Saturday was the best day! {Even though I had to work in the morning…}

Why was this Saturday so good?

Jimmy and I decided to go out and have a coffee near the cathedral (in the center of Seville). I wanted something different. So I had a coffee in Starbucks®, for my first time!! 😀 I’d never been there. And I loved it. I took a picture of my coffee, to show you {I’m sorry, but I took the photo with my old cellphone… So the quality is not good}. Here it is:

There were three Starbucks® coffee shops in the same street!! I chose the second one… because I saw one of my English professors in the first Starbucks® {I know I’ve already finished my degree and they are history now, but I found it horrifying…}.

Then we walked and found this:

A medieval fair!

We had lot of fun!! We could see some “traditional” animals, craftwork, cheeses, cakes, cold cuts… And some “monks”, “jesters”…

You were allowed to stroke this cute donkey, and he wanted to play!!

Bread

Finally, we tasted some of the cakes, and we bought a little present for my brother 🙂 And we got home at 9:30 pm!! More than 4 hours of fun!!! Great Saturday!

I hope you had a great weekend as well!!! And…

Have a good week!

Chloe doesn’t share food!

Okay, let’s do an experiment.

Mmm, no, I don’t think it’s a good idea. You can ask Jimmy how it ended.

Remember Friends? Remember Joey Tribbiani?

And do you remember this?

Well, it seems Joey and I are quite similar. Only that I don’t shout. I don’t shout “Joey doesn’t share food!!!”. I yell “get your hands out of MYYYYYY FOOOOOD!!!”. And then you’ll hear “food, food, food…”, because of the echo. Don’t believe me? Did you think I was well-mannered??? Ask Jimmy. And he will tell you a creepy story about me. Mmm I’ll tell you, since Jimmy doesn’t have a blog. It was last weekend. We were eating lasagna {one of my favourite food, I must say}. He had already wiped his plate clean. I was savoring my last bite of lasagna. And then… {Please let’s see the scene again: Pay attention to the 12 first seconds}

I see how Jimmy puts his hand and his fork in MY plate. And he STEALS MYYYY lasagna.

Have you seen Joey’s face??? My face was WORSE! I was quite like this:

It seems Donald and I are quite similar too!

And then it turned into this:

And then I shouted “get your hands out of MYYYYYY FOOOOOD!!”. And he got angry! YOU stole MY food!! I should be angry {and I was!!}, and not you! And then, to my surprise, he repeated the action!! He ate a little bit more of my lasagna again!

I can share food. Seriously. But I go mad when someone {even if this “one” is Jimmy} puts his/her hands in my food AND without asking my permission.

Anyway…

Some days later,  I was with Jimmy. We were talking. And he remebered the food incident. And he said “it was funny!” And he has promised to repeat the same scene next Saturday!!

Obviously he is insane and wants an express suicide…