Day 1 Babysitting Barfi

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Well I spent last evening and the entire night at my sister & brother-in-law’s apartment. While they are away on holiday with my two nephews and niece, their 1.5 year old pug Barfi is being taken care of by my sister’s in laws (who live in the same building). However to give them a break from the energetic young monster, my sis asked me if I could go and take Barfi in to her apartment and stay there for a few nights during the next 7 days. I said ok and so yesterday evening at around 7 I went to the building and took Barfi off of my sister’s in laws’s hands.

Barfi was happy to see me (I have only spent time with him twice before this) and came with me eagerly. We went in and he settled down after a few minutes of me playing with him and a teddy bear. There wasn’t much left to do in the evening so I waited till 8:15 pm and then heated up his food and gave him his dinner. Once he also had some water, I took him outside so he could do his business. We came back up to the apartment and then I made myself some dinner while he started dozing off.

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At around 9:30 pm I lay in bed with a novel while Barfi kept playing with his chew toy and the teddy bear. In between he would nap while sitting – he looked like a funny looking Laughing Buddha in that pose :D. However my sister neglected to tell me that Barfi sleeps on the bed – on either of my two nephews’ beds. That’s what he is used to. So he kep jumping on the bed in the room I was in and I kept chasing him away! I tried leaving him outside the room and closing the door but he kept scratching at the door!

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At around 11:30 pm I let him back in and switched the lights off to go to sleep. He fell asleep on his little doggie bed but at around 2 am I woke up to find him sleeping right next to me on the bed. LOL, I actually got a fright as I opened my eyes to see two big eyes in the dim light :D. Then I put him out of the bedroom and on his doggie bed and he was too sleepy to come back in and so I closed the door and slept without incident. I guess tonight I’ll let him sleep on the bed near me.

RIP Gabriel García Márquez

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The literary world lost a legendary icon as Nobel prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez died yesterday. Marquez, whose novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” put Latin America and the style known as magical realism on the international literary map, was 87. He died yesterday at his home in Mexico City surrounded by his family, Rafael Tovar y de Teresa, head of the Mexico’s cultural agency, said in a telephone interview.

The Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. Considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century, he was awarded the 1972 Neustadt International Prize for Literature and the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature. He pursued a self-directed education that resulted in his leaving law school for a career in journalism. García Márquez started as a journalist, and wrote many acclaimed non-fiction works and short stories, but is best known for his novels, such as One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), Autumn of the Patriarch (1975) and Love in the Time of Cholera (1985).

The international recognition García Márquez earned with the publication of his novels led to his ability to act as a facilitator in several negotiations between the Colombian government and the guerrillas, including the former 19th of April Movement (M-19), and the current FARC and ELN organizations. The popularity of his writing also led to friendships with powerful leaders, including one with former Cuban president Fidel Castro, which has been analyzed in Gabo and Fidel: Portrait of a Friendship.At the time of his death, he had a wife and two sons.

Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014)