99 pumpkins?

Lula

One of the purposes of this blog is to give the reader some sort of account of Clea's life and to provide some insights into the sort of person Clea was. Preparing these notes helps me remember things I do not want to forget, but I also hope they will help the reader have a meaningful perception of who she was, if you never met her; or to help  create a better defined picture of my daughter, if you were fortunate enough to meet her.

Just like every child, Clea loved watching cartoons on TV. She had many favourite shows (“Arthur” was one of them), but as a toddler she had discovered the Spanish program Los Lunnis, which she was able to see in Spain over a month. Here in Australia, I would record episodes for her whenever I was able to from the internet.

Her favourite character was Lula, a bit of a femme fatale in the magical world of Lunalunera. Clea had learnt all the Lunnis songs and loved listening to them when she was little.

Though she was bilingual, there were of course many idioms she could not understand. One day I downloaded the videoclip of a song titled ’99 calabazas’, which was a play on words, based on a Spanish idiom, ‘dar calabazas’ [to give someone the brush-off, to give somebody a cold shoulder]. The song is rather an amusing ballad about how Lula has given the brush-off to Lulo (the extraterrestrial rapper) 99 times, and pleads for her not to give him ‘number 100’.

The clip shows a forlorn Lulo considering all the pumpkins he has been ‘given’, while in every other scene Lula appears to be truly annoyed or fed up with him.

Clea laughed every time she saw Lulo regarding his many pumpkins with a glum air about him. I suppose what she found hilarious was that someone would give pumpkins to express dissatisfaction or annoyance.


I hope you will enjoy seeing one short videoclip Clea liked.