The last day

And here it is - the last day of the year. I must say that this year was very long for me, very special and important, although it doesn't look like anything like that. Just a random year full of work, studies, mixed with some bits of holidays here and there, meetings with family, short trips... But I think I've learned a good piece of stuff during the last twelve months. Any summaries? I did one after half year, so now - just the second half ;P
July - it was a hard month for me, a really difficult time for my relationship. Luckily we went through it somehow... A ray of light which brighten up my time was the birth of my friend's little boy!!!
August - fun times with my siblings, who came to the UK for summer work and, of course, to see us :) Lots of trips around and good times, unfortunately, mixed with hard work - finishing my university course essay :/
September - started as great as it only could, with holidays on Canary Islands! Continued with crawling out from illness - me, just a cold, my beloved - a very serious one :( Ended up by settling a new friendship :) Feels great after not having any new friends in here for a long while.
October - gym big time! Finally we signed up in a new place, close to home and with loads of stuff and classes. Physical health equals mental health, so all four thumbs up! And also, having really nothing to do;), I decided to challenge myself with IELTS exam in 2 months' time :P
November - our short trip to Poland was an extremely relaxing break, and my beloved had, I believe, great birthday there... Except from that: working, studying and gymming, and trying to cook from time to time :)
December - all over Christmasy time, can't deny it! Christmas presents, decorations, wishes, my mulled wine party, finally even snow... all will finish with a great party time, with my family :) It was also a rewarding time for my work - IELTS exam went well, and my results from uni were great, I could not believe them!

Simply having wonderful Christmas time...

What else could I say? These might be the best Christmas in my life - so far... because I can spend them with all the ones I love the most and I know that they are safe and happy. Still, I hope every next Christmas will be even better :)
Happy Christmas time to everyone... may these days be peaceful and joyful...

Just another piece of good news

I got my IELTS results today (my certificate was folded and put into a standard envelope, so as well it could have been damaged or even stolen! disappointment!). I am very happy with the results. I've been working hard for this, especially that I didn't have much time left after coming back from work about 5.00pm every day, and most of the time I was tired and unable to concentrate enough to make my studies efficient.
So it is 8! :)

Holidays

Some people spend Christmas with their families, near a Christmas tree, eating traditional cakes and singing carols. Others - I think they are usually those, who don't want to, or simply cannot see their closest moest loved ones during that time - go away to an exotic place.
Also because, undisputably, December is a good time to visit a tropical island and have peaceful, exciting and cheap holidays!
One of my old friends and some of her colleagues went to Thailand recently, for about a month.
You can see the pictures from their trip in here. There are also comments, but only in Polish.

Yeay!

This will be short. My university course result, revealed on Friday (I checked right after midnight): distinction. That means 85-100%. That mean the best possible grade I could achieve at university. That means I am in 10% of the students who managed to get it. That means that I am able to study in English and to study well. I am so happy. And have no fears or doubts about the new course I am starting soon :)

* * * * * * * * * * *

Oh my, oh my, how wrong was I! And how happy I am being wrong in that case! Right I after I placed the post below on the blog, I looked through the window to discover an absolute snow blizzard on the street!
Well, maybe this is a bit oversizing, but still - it was really SNOWING. It looked so beautiful and - don't need to mention that really - it is very rare in here, so without hesitation we got dressed and went outside.
We walked down the street and then by the main street to the city centre, throwing snowballs at each other, doing eagles (or angels, whichever you prefer) on the ground and, of course, taking pictures.
On our way back it was snowing heavily, and today... It's still white outside. My office is half empty, but the rest is good moods :) Finally, we have a bit of real winter.




Next day at 8.00am...

* * *

Snowing. So this is the one day in a year when we have snow in here. Next chance will be next winter.
I hope it will stay at least till morning. It would be nice to actually make some footprints on the snow when walking to work. It would be awesome to hear the snowflakes cracking under our feet, but considering the heaviness of these snow "showers", this will rather remain in the dream-zone.

Music

A couple of days a go I was with my friend on a very special concert called "Melting Vinyls Christams Show". The whole event was held in church, lighten up by a couple of small lights, with three stages (and the forth one on the balcony) and mulled wine served between the performances of different groups.
I had the occassion to listen to The Miserable Rich for the first time that evening. A very interesting band and, turns out, quite popular already, touring around Europe last summer with their home-recorded first album.
If I find any of the songs we've heard, I will definitely post it here.

Where The Wild Things Are

I don't know if it becomes a standard with age, or I'm just having a hard time recently (I haven't noticed that to be honest, I think I'm doing good), but I seem to melt down quite quickly when I see a good movie in the cinema.
Today we watched "Where The Wild Things Are" and I couldn't stop my tears by the end... We didn't know the book, so there was nothing to compare the movie to, and I think it's good. It definitely wasn't a story for childern, with simple happy ending and easily solved problems, with balck and white characters and straight-forward given lessons. I think this movie goes much deeper and although, as someone noticed, every character there is sad for most of the time,this should not to be a reason to label this movie as a depressing one. It is, first of all, beautifully made, amazing to watch, and secondly, but not less important, very wise and brain-awakening, so to say. Have a try, it's really worth it.
My very personal interpretation, of one of the aspects of this complex story - it's hard to love others, to create a loving group pf people (family or friends) and at the same time, respect their freedom and their choices, bearing in mind our own priorities and desires. It is almost impossible to make always everyone happy at the same time. We have to learn to compromise, to sacrifice, to understand and to accept...
What do you think?

I found two interesting reviews here and here.

And of course, a trailer. I wanted to post here a one-minute bit of the movie, but I couldn't...

Death

Today Eva Cassidy sings for one of my best friends, here in the UK, whose best friend in the whole world (!!!) died dramatically a couple of days ago. It is extremely hard to talk about death and I think the best thing we can do to support suffering ones, is to be there for them, whenever they need.

Books

Yesterday I got a surprise - I received a package from my university, which was quite unexpected. The set of books for the next course was supposed to be sent to me in about two weeks' time.
I don't think anyone these days gets so excited about books, especially if these are study books and they mean hours of hard work. I think this is because many people don't study because they are interested in someting - in general, or in particular.
Youngsters don't learn at school, because they have better things to do, which is generally called "having fun", and getting to know new things (they don't have to be specifically related to schoolwork) is not fun, obviously. Getting to know things and, what's more, liking it, is shameful and it's better not to reveal this, if we don't want to be called geeks or weirdos.
Adults, on the other hand, have also better things to do, which is generally called "making money". This activity is obviously important in life... But I just feel sad when I think about the times when people actually used to choose to study something they like, because they wanted to be good at it, and, if possible, to connect their future life with it. These days students just rush through exams to get a paper and get a good job :( Are there any people left, who know what passion means? (and not in a physical sense?)

Nearly got it all...

Tonight I am planning to do the trial session for my mulled wine. I don't have all the ingredients yet, because I couldn't find any cloves in the supermarket yesterday. But I hope to get them today and then we can start!

Santa came to us!

Yes, we were nice this year! I got awesomely cool present - vouchers to my very favourite shop with bags and jewellery, and all the girly things that every girly girl likes... I can't wait to get something! Probably I will be staring and choosing for hours ;)
Santa Claus' Day is also the second Sunday of Advent this year, so before breakfast we lighted two candles on our wrath :)

Tonight

According to a long tradition in my country, tonight Santa Claus should come to every house and place little gifts in shoes or special socks. I don't have my great stocking which I got from Santa with the presents when I was a child. I guess because of that he might not come to my house... But at least I won't also get the "rózga", which is a gift for those who were naughty, heheh >:)
But you all, who read it today, clean your shoes before you go to bed - you may find some presents there in the morning!

Relieved

Wooohooo, it's all over! I am done with studying anything... for a couple of weeks :)
Now I can fully relax and concentrate on such pleasant things as getting Christmas presents, counting days till my holidays at home, lighting candles on our Advent wrath... I will be going to the gym, reading magazines and books, and finally I will have time to put our pictures taken in summer into the photo albums. I will also look through my clothes and CDs and give some of them to charity.
The exam itself? It was fine. I think there are parts I did better and the parts I did a bit worse. I will see how exactly it went when I see the results. I hope I will get them before Christmas :]

Scared and stressed

So tomorrow is the big day - I have my IELTS exam!!! And obviously I am scared and stressed... Funny thing, tomorrow afternoon I will be probably reading this and laughing... Well, this is how life is :) I feel quite well prepared, but I know my weaknesses :/
For now, to relax a bit and to have a good laugh - a great quality video, a great song, and a great performance by our favourite Muppets...
My favourite part - "Mamma..." by Animal!

Party

Unbelievable! Guess what? I am making a pre-Christmas mini-party! For the first time in my life I actually make a party at my place and invite some people to come over... It's going to be "just" six girls from my work, but I am so happy and excited to host them in my small place. I will bake muffins and also prepare mulled wine - I will do this for the first time actually, so I already did a research for a really good recipee. I think I better do a trial session this weekend :)

Something new

Today I drank clouds. They tasted very nice. However I am not sure what was the concentration of the clouds per litre, so it's hard to say if I tasted their exact flavour...

Decorations

I could not wait anymore for that. And, well, as it is the first Sunday of Advent today, and the happy time of waiting for Christmas has officially begun, I can allow myself for putting around some Christmas decorations :)
I prepared our Advent wreath (yes, I found this word in dictionary!) and attached the candles to it. We also have a small snowman and a Santa Claus hanging on the handle of the door ;)

Pressies

Okay, this is my little list of things which, well, I would definitely not reject and would not cry if I found them under Christmas tree ;)

Number 1: The bag which I found in my favorite shop with girly accessories... It doesn't look exactly like those above. But - oh irony - even on this store's website I could not find the picture! So... it looks almost like the one on the first picture - the ponytail handle, the size and shape, the colours. But the pattern and all the details that create the style of the baggie are somehow more like on the second (more) and third pic (less). It is just not so pink as the first one I guess... I hope you can at least imagine how it looks like and then you'll understand why I fell in love with it ;)
Actually, all the bags in this shop are so nice that I could have any of them :)

Number 2: A long-awaited new album by one of my favorite Polish artists, Anita Lipnicka. It is called "The Hard Land of Wonder" - the beautiful name and the beautiful album cover, and most of all, my past experiences with Anita's singing make me really impatient about listening to the new songs...

Number 3: Books by Karen Armstrong. I haven't read anything written by her yet, but I heard so much about her and I think we discussed one of her essays or books on one of the classes at university. She writes generally mostly about myth, God, religions, so all what interests me the most in the field of my future career development...

Number 4: I saw them once online and immediately I thought that this is something designed especially for me and my always cold feet. Cosy, cute socks, which you can warm up in microwave and then warm up yourself. And they also smell nice :)

Number 5: Last but definitely not least. Let's face it: I need a new mobile. I don't? Let's face it - I want one. I am really fed up having old, used, scratched mobile, which my Dad gave me when he got a new one. I really appreciate his generosity, but I just want to have something nice... and modern... and not breaking too often... I can't afford an iphone (please accept my apologies for this commercial) or any other fancy phone, but I can always dream about one...

Oh, and one more tiny thing... When I was kid, it seemed ridiculous to ask for something like this, because we always had enough or even too much... But the times have changed, the climate has changed... Could I have some snow here this winter? :)

Wishlist

We have this sweet Christmas tradition in my family, that every year we create our letters to Santa Clause, and then we put the lists of things we would like to get on the fridge doors in our kitchen. This way secret Santas could find ou what are the big and small dreams of their family members, and also hope that maybe one or two of their wishes would come true this Christmas.
Since I don't live with my family anymore, it's a bit harder and we have to ask each other for email versions of the letters :)
Anyway, my list of gifts for my family is almost created, I just need some more inspiration, which I hope to find while visiting small local shops.
My wishlist, what is quite surprising, is not ready yet. I know that I need a couple of things and that I would like to have a couple of others, but I haven't thought about it too much yet.
I will have to do so :)

Winter is coming

It's getting colder (UK version, especially by the seaside - it getting more rainy with extra strong wind), so soon I will have to take my winter jacket out of the wardrobe... Actually I need a new one, the best would be with a hoodie, but I couldn't find anything good so far :(
And, as I can feel the winter in my bones, I can also slowly start Christmas preparations! :)))
Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent, so I will drag out the green circle I made last year from the bottom of the cupboard and attach four new candles to it. I hope it will still look good :)

Tradition

Today we all took part in our traditional baking cookies for Christmas. We always prepare them much earlier, but as it is difficult for them to stay "alive" (well, they are just too tasty!), usually we have to arrange a second round and bake cookies again ;)
I love the whole process of preparing the pastry, cutting different shapes and finally decorating freshly baked, still hot, cookies. It's quite a lot of mess in the kitchen in the end, but absolutely worth it. The results are beautiful anf delicious :)

Autumn

There is no real autumn for me without a walk in a forest.
So, here it is today - a walk in a forest, full of leaves and mud (because it was raining recently).

Away

There is nothing better for the mind and body (and most of all, for the spirit!) than going away from the whole "everyday" world once in a while, even if it's just for a couple of days... That's why I'm looking forward to the next few days, which I will spend far away from my town, my work, my gym and everyday routine. Instead, we will be baking our traditional cookies for Christmas and other nice things :)

Recruiting

How exciting and interesting today at work was! I took part in a special event we held in our office, co-operating with one of the local colleges. A couple of teenagers came over to take part in the recruitment process we prepared for them and to see how it really is to try to get and job in a company. There was a group exercise, personality test, and individaul interviews. And we were the ones who were recruiting!
It was great that I could check myself in a new role... and I really liked it. I hope in the future we will do more projects like this one.

:)

I really value people who can laugh at themselves.
When it comes to celebrities, it becomes very clear if a certain person has a style and a sense of humour or not, when someone parodies them...
The show prepared by this guy is just perfectly funny, and I am happy that the jury - the subjects of his performance - appreciated his hard work :)

:(

My little white angel, who always sits near my bed, fell from the night table today. And... broke one of his little wings... :(

Christmas mood

Yep, this will be another post dedicated to the cinema, with a trailer attached.
Today I saw Disney's "Christmas Carol" in 3D - absolutely breathtaking graphics, not mentioning the way the whole story was directed by Zemeckis, with Jim Carrey giving voice to five of the characters!
Amazing experience. It is completely not a kids' movie... and, obviously, with universally valid and important message...

Got the tickets!

This year my attendance on the film festival in my town will be rather low, because I have lots of other things to do in that time - so I limited my choice to four movies (the tickets are 4 for 3, so no wonder why I chose four:P).
I wanted to see "The Road" with Viggo Mortensen, but the annoucement that Nick Cave will show up after the screeing made the tickets disappear in a couple of days (Cave composed the music for this movie). Well, let's hope it will be in cinemas later anyway.
What will I see then?

"Treeless Mountain" (USA/South Korea 2008)



English version of the trailer is available here.

"Dogtooth" (Greece 2009)



"Be Good" (France/Denmark 2009)




"A Prophet" (France/Italy 2009)

Quiz

Guess who is on strike?

a. Royal Mail - again
b. rubbish collectors
c. Cookie Monster

One more :)

This time - lovely Norah Jones and Elmo:

Sesame Street once again

:-)

You learn

Tonight I saw this very nice movie with my friend.
It is well-played (especially young Carey Mulligan is brilliant as Jenny) and well-made, with fantastic decorations and costumes perfectly showing the atmosphere in England in the 1960s. The story is also interesting...
Once again I have to admit that own experience is the best, probably irreplacable, yet sometimes the most painful (but sometimes so sweet as well) way of learning. These lessons are so fruitful because, simply, you won't forget them. Hopefully.

How to buy a book

Is it difficult to buy a book by a commonly known, English-speaking author (Nobel prize winner!) in an English-speaking country, in a quite big town, with branches of at least three big book-selling concerns? The answer might be surprising and unexpected - it is difficult.
I spent a month trying to buy a book for my friend's birthday (yes, that is true, and that is why I buy presents a long time before birthday and Christmas!).
I could choose an easy way and buy the book online or simply go to one of the bookshops and order it. But I wanted to be sure that I can exchange my gift quickly if my friend would have that book already...
When you order online, the process of returning stuff is obvously longer, so I turned to the bookshops avaiable. But in one of the stores I was told that if I order a book, I won't be able to exchange it later, so to have this possibility I would have to wait for the book to come with a random delivery. In another bookshop I found out that actually even if I ordered a book, I would have to wait for it way too long to be on time with it for the birthday!
Finally, when I found the book I needed (after about three weeks), the cover was damaged and there was only one copy in the store...
I was lucky I got what I needed on time :) And, much much more important - my friend haven't read the book and is happy with the present! Happy birthday once again, M.! :)

Busy time

I never thought that dark, wet and generally sad autumn time can be so busy for me! And obviously I don't mean the studies or the work here, but the additional things I could do during these long, cold evenings.
Since I joined the gym, I try to go there as often as possible. As I have tried most of the classes I could (the ones in the evenings), my weekly schedule slowly gets its shape. I like body balance classes very much (with elements of yoga and tai chi), so I will try to join them twice a week. I also definitely will keep on going to aerobics with crazy little Italian woman (an hour of sweat and tears!), and to two hours of intensive muscle exercises, including pilates.
Apart from that, my English exam in due, I have exactly one month to practise Writing and Speaking section, and to do a couple of tests just before the big day!
On top of it, there is a film festival coming soon... And obviously, I have to see at lenst a couple of movies :)
Let's add a short trip home to this... probably I won't realise when it's Christmas already!

Happy Birthday Sesame Street!

Today is exactly 40 years since Sesame Street started its programmes on tv.
I remember very well when I was 7 or 8 years old and I used to watch Sesame Street, especially when my classes would start a bit later than usually (the programme was shown in the mornings). I don't know when, but I am sure that it is Sesame Street songs, poems and games, from which I learned my first English words, including counting from 1 to 20. Although the original version had its Polish translation, not all the parts were translated, and most of the time English voices were clearly audible.
From all the characters the ones I loved the most were little cute Elmo on one hand and on the other - mean and grouchy Oscar, who lived in a big trash can. I also cannot forget brothers Ernie and Bert, and Ernie's tricks. I always felt sorry for Bert :)

Isn't it amazing...

Today my beloved, who is not even a Christian, encouraged me (both of us, actually, because we did it together) to read some fragments of the Bible and to pray.

New first things

Halloween is a weird holiday for me - it seems to me like it has to deeper meaning, a reason to exist. Every holiday I celebrate has its own sense, and its roots grown deep inside the culture and history of the nation or at least the region of the world...
Me and my beloved come from different cultures, but neither of us had celebrated Halloween before. For me much more important are the next two days in the calendar - celebrating All Saints day and praying for all those who are dead.
Anyway, we decided to participate a little in Halloween celebrations this year, just to try something new and fun, and maybe feel the spirit of this weird day ;) We bought our first pumpkin in our lives, and for the first time we carved a scary pumpkin face. We placed a small candle inside, and I must say, it looks... cute :)
I think that whatever the experience is, even if it is as minor as this one, it is good to do new things, for the first time, together.

A piece of beauty

Strange thing happened on our way back home from the cinema and weekly shopping.
I don't know how can I describe this with a word diifferent than "strange", because this was not normal.
One of the main streets of our town, buses, cars, noise, people walking from or to restaurants, pubs or clubs, Saturday evening city chaos... We are standing on the bus stop and, out of blue, we hear beautiful classical music. It is difficult to locate the source at first. Then we realise than some parts of the building opposite, on the other side of the street, is covered with red material, and there is a speaker hidden in one of the windows. Suddenly, a person appears on the balcony of the building and starts singing - an opera song!
People started to gather around. They were staring and listening, totally mesmerised. Those in cars, in buses or on bikes were turning their heads around.
We decided to stand in cold for about ten minutes instead of taking the first bus home, to be able to listen to the performance. After the lady in black, who was really amazing, there was a man singing two songs, one in Latin and one in English, and then another lady. I wish I had a better phone, soe I could record it...
It was something incredible. A piece of extraordinary beauty in the middle of a random place and time.

Still excited :)

Yesterday and today were our first days in the new gym. I am still excited, there is so much to explore!
Yesterday we just had a random workout and tried out most of the machines. Today we had two classes - half an hour of spinning and then half an hour of tummy exercise, called "Abs blast". Truly exhausting. But I feel good, despite the pain in my tighs ;)
I need a small break, but I'll be back there soon. I just signed up for Aerobics on Tuesday evening!

Finally

Yesterday we had a nice evening out together. It's been a while...
We went to see a play in town's library (by the way - the library is huge and awesome, I am signing up as soon as I can!), which was organised by my University. Some time ago I got an email about this event and we even got the tickets for free :)
Anyway, the play was good, it was based on "Educating Rita" by Willy Russell, but with more contemporary interpretation. There was also a band playing music live :)
We both liked it, and I think we have to try out one of the theatres in London now ;)
After the play we had a nice dinner out and a nice walk home. I am happy :)

Gyyym again!

I am so excited. After long research we made up our minds and signed up to the chosen gym! I can't wait to go there on Friday and start jumping around!
This gym was really the best and the only option we could choose. It has all the facilities we need plus much more. There is a small swimming pool, a steam room, and lots of different classes we can go to!
The best part is - we can get our "sign up" fee back, if we go to the gym three times a week for the first eight weeks (that can be checked, because to enter the gym we have to scan our cards). So not only I can get my money back, but also I will get sooo fit :)))

Moving on

This weekend I have signed up for another course at University - yeay! The time passes by so quickly. It feels like I just started my first course not even a year ago, in January... I had a couple of huge books in front of me and was wondering - how am I going to do this?... And now my last, final essay has been submitted and received by University, and I can wait - impatiently of course - for my final grade.
In the meantime - I take up new challenge ;) If I finish the new course in the end of the next year, I will be awarded with Diploma in Religious Studies :)))
Books for the course have already been ordered as well. Can't wait to dig in. Although, I also have a couple of book-requests to Santa Clause, which might take priority over study books, if I am good enough to find them under Christmas tree...

Coffee break

Today when I went to our kitchen at work, I saw I. making coffee and for a moment I stood mesmerised... I saw two cups filled with - presumably coffee - and a large amount of whipped cream on top. Next to the cups there was a box of Cadbury's chocolate powder and a bag of mini marshmallows...
Oh yes, this is what we need in the office - a deliciously looking, hot and tasty treat to sweeten up long hours of hard work! Yummy!

First snow

Obviously - not in here! Snow at this time of year? Never :) Maybe sometime in April ;)
But it can appear and it did appear in my home country.
This year, once again, winter "surprised" everyone, coming in the middle of autumn ;)
Well, it's cold, but at least it looks nice :)

And it's not better

Well, some time passed and right now, in the early afternoon, I can say that I am not sad anymore - I am extremely upset.
I feel so terrible after listening to the telephone conversation my colleague had with the lady, that I seriously consider writing my resigantion letter. I didn't do anything on purpose, but the reaction of this customer makes me feel so ashamed of this mistake, that I don't know if I can still work here, conscious of this what happened...

From all the other things:
- I didn't buy the present for my friend, the thing I wanted to get was not avaiable in the shop, of course :/
- I also didn't get two other things I had to buy today :/
- I wanted to go to the cinema in the evening to cheer up a bit, but there is literally nothing decent enough to see
- I think it will start pouring down any minute, and I don't have an umbrella, of course :/

Sad

Today is not a "happy" day for me. It started actually last night, when after a whole day of hard work my beloved told me he was going to France for two days and he was leaving immediately, because he had a train to Paris at 5 o'clock in the morning. It seems like a hvae another two or three days on my own. "Awesome".
And then, today I read the letter that one lady sent to us (at work) complaining about something what actually I did. The letter made me very said, because obviously I didn't mean to hurt or upset anyone, this was just a simple mistake... Anyway, now I am upset, especially that we cannot do much more about than say "I'm sorry".
What else will this day bring?
I am going for my lunch break now, present-hunting for my friend. I hope this will be more lucky.

Higher and higher

Last weekend I saw "Up", long-awaited 3d animation story by Disney and Pixar. The queque in the cinema was huge.
While the kids from the first row, absolutely mesmerised by the 3d animation (probably the first one they saw in their lives) tried to touch the objects on the screen, I was crying.
I cried at least three times during this movie. Maybe there is something wrong with me, maybe it's this time of the year when the weather is crap and you feel more melancholic, but I couldn't help it. And I am sure there is something more about it, something about the movie itself.
This beautiful, funny and interesting story was also wise - maybe on the level which not every child can reach. I think that the message included not only the words: Go and reach for your dreams, it is never to late to do it and it is always worth trying. I think that the most important and the most memorable picture from this story for me will be the moment when the main character looks into the old Adventure Book again, to discover something he had not seen before. Something that makes him extremely happy and gives him power not to give up. And what made me cry, of course.
I won't write what it was exactly, I don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, and maybe feel like having some little crying time in the cinema ;)

Life-long dreams...


...finally become reality!

Magic spice

Today we were in Polish shop to find some little goodies, and - the most important - special spice, which my Mom uses when she prepares meat (my beloved's favourite "kotlety"). We were not sure what we should buy, so in the end we didn't choose anything (except from awesome bread made from rye flour and one of my favourite yoghurts).
So, when we came back, I had to call Mom and ask her what she uses exactly... Why is this so important? Because the "kotlety" we are going to make have to taste exactly the same like the ones at home. Taste matters ;)

Nothing lasts forever

This rule applies also to the weather conditions. After three days of rain and darkness - we have sunshine back! It's lovely, although quite cold, you cannot deny it's October...

Music treat from Sweden

Nina Kinert is from Sweden and if it happened that you actually heard one of her songs, it was probably the one used as a musical background in one of tv commercials. Lovely song by the way.
This one, which I especially like, doesn't have the video, but it is worth listening. Enjoy...

Rain

Since the beginning of the week this piece of the world where I am living right now has not seen sunlight. Very depressing. Moreover, the rain is, in my opinion, taking revenge on the previous months, when it was rather absent. I think that if it's not going to stop soon, we will all drown here. My shoes already got too much water today!
I have to try hard to fight with the lack of sun. As for know, I concentrate on English tests for my exam, having naps in between ;)

Failing

On Monday I had a meeting with B., the manager of the other department, were I applied for the "fingers-crossed" job... And I didn't get it. I was expecting this, but was also a bit sad. One of my small dreams will have to wait a bit more for its chance to come true. But B. liked my application and generally appreciates my enthusiasm...
And in the afternoon I found out that, unintentionally of course, I caused a complaint and a breach of Data Protection Act :/
I'm a living failure :/

Forgiven not forgotten

Wounds heal slowly...
Unfortunately these are the wounds that affect not the body, but most of all, the soul.
Words can hurt worse than a knife. And they leave long-lasting stains. The pain isn't easy to wash away, because it's pretty smart. We try really hard to overcome it, and after a while it seems to be gone. But it's hiding, to then out of sudden come back from the depth of our heart and remind us that it's still here...
It's difficult to forgive, when somebody hurts us badly. Yet, if we love, we are able to go on.
But it's much more difficult to forget. Sometimes I guess we don't even have control over it. Some words, just like other things - pictures, views, faces, situations, sounds, smells - stay in our memory for a long time.

Maybe these little "cracks" of pain, sadness or dissapointment could actually build up something positive in a relationship between two people? If they can learn something from their experience and try to change or find a solution not to hurt each other, then probably yes... Then these "cracks" could even bring people closer to each other. But ignorance most probably would lead to falling apart.

Interviews...

As a part of my coaching process, and because of my recent application for a "I-want-it-so-much-so-fingers-crossed" role, I have to do some research and prepare well for a theoretical job interview.
I found lots of questions, which appear quite often during interviews. My task is to write down my answers to them, in order to be not only well prepared in the future, but also to find out a bit more about myself, recognize my skills, my weaknesses, think about about examples of different kinds of situations, about which the interviewer might ask. And to gain self-confidence :)
It's a difficult and kind of a funny process. I have to find the balance between being extremely honest and the expectations of the interviewer about my answer, hehe.
For example, there is a question if I check my email and voicemail "while on vacation". Of course not. Only if I need to contact my family, or I am expecting a message from them. But, as the online advisor says, it is good to mention that in case of emergencies I would be avaiable, and able to help.
I wonder how many people actually say that kind of things during their interviews. If all of them do, maybe a different answer would be such a surprise that I would get extra points?
For stating that I would never answer a phone call from work during holiday? I don't think so ;)

Girls' time out

The evening turned my mood at least 90 degrees - for better :)
I had another girly evening out - in the cinema with M., watching "Away We Go". Very nice movie, funny and moving. It is so good that we both like watching movies that give us something to think about! Our guys not necessary like that, at least not too often!
Last week we saw "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee", also a great movie. I hope this will become a weekly tradition :)

So it's autumn again...

The last day of September was the last day in here for my sister and her boyfriend. They left today in the early afternoon for their flight home... It's going to be quiet and empty in our place now...
And on top of it, the weather is getting worse, so my mood is going down :( Recently every early evening I found myself so tired that I am falling asleep over a book! I don't know what's the cause of that, but as soon as I reach home after work, I feel like somebody takes a plug out of my body, and the energy is gone.
I have to do something about it, there is so much to do - for example, I have already signed up for the English exam at the beginning of December, so I have to start studying, really hard!
I started taking lots of vitamines, but I guess my body has not recognized this change yet ;)

High hopes

Okay, so I gave it a try. I gave myself a chance, so at least, if I don't get what I am reaching for, I won't be dissapointed and won't be regreting anything. Do I have big chance? It actually depends who else decides to give it a try... I know I need more knowledge and experience, but I have good feelings about this one... I really really think positively about the results... And I am going to do my best to prepare well and perform well at the interview.
I have to keep on visualising myself in the new role. New place, new desk, new description in my email signature. I know it is possible.

New picture

Here it is, new background picture of the blog. I think it looks nice. It was taken in the first days of September, on the beach by Atlantic Ocean... Brings a lot of good memories. I think it's a good change. The previous picture was taken during a really nice winter day last year, in December, but it had a very symbolic meaning for me too. It was reminding of the difficult times we were going through, the toughest ones so far, I would say. The feeling of powerlessness I experienced back then was one of the worst I've ever got in my life.
I hope this picture will take sad memories away. Although, there are some things, from which you cannot run away, even if you forget about them. Next year a new battle for a new passport and a new visa will begin... I hope it only sounds so scary and in fact it will be much easier than I can imagine right now.

Film festivals

Every year in September (actually, from the next year on it will be May), there is a film festival taking place in Gdynia, a city nearby my hometown. This festival focuses on recent Polish cinema and I used to go there and watch selected movies, trying to find extraordinary ones, those worth remembering because of their form, their story or their message.
For the last two or three years I couldn't be there and see any movies, but I am always looking for information about the winners... And today I was reading the article by one of my favorite movie critics about this year's festival. How happy I was finding out that the overall level of the movies presented was quite high... I cannot say: very high, we are still far from that, but comparing to other years, it is sooo much better :)
And now there are, again, several new Polish movies I really have to see, and I have no idea how to do it... I used to (if I haven't seen them during festival) spot them later in the local cinemas, but now... This will be more difficult. Probably I will have to wait until they show up on DVDs or on television. The thing is, most of these movies, if they don't find a company who wants to buy some copies and distribute them in cinemas, will probably never be "famous" enough to reach a random television or DVD-watcher, or a big cinema fan, who lives far away...

Making decisions

I had a really interesting training at work recently.
It was about making decisions - how do people make them, what is the process and the methodology they use, why do they often delay making up their mind... We had an exercise, in which we had to "rescue" six people from a cave, which was filling up with water. We had to decide in what order we would we rescue those people. We got brief description of each person. The results of this exercise were very interesting and showed us how different approaches and priorities we have, what is the most important when making a choice and how we make our decisions...

Yyyh...

And so it happened. I caught cold. I'm not surprised really, with all these people coughing and sniffing and sneezing around! I wish my immune system was stronger though...
So, I am sitting at home, in big warm socks and with a scarf on my neck, having bread with cheese and garlic for breakfast (my beloved bought me a croissant as well!). I just hope I will get better till tomorrow, really want to have some good times with my beloved, my sister and her boyfriend... :(

I know

Yesterday I heard these beautiful words, which I never expected to hear in my life: You know how to make a man happy.
This made me feel very very happy, especially that I heard this from my beloved. So what have I done? I just got some letter trays for him to put on his desk and organize his papers... :)
... or maybe there is something more?

Mission not accomplished

I would so much like to say: essay plans - mission accomplished, but I can't! On Monday I was so tired that I couldn't write anything. On Tuesday I spent hours and hours writing this what was supposed to be done on Monday... Today I am trying to chase up yesterday's stuff... I wanted to work on it during lunch at work, but my fantastic and super-protected work mailbox rejects emails from myself! :P
At least I made it to the gym - for the second time this week today, as I promised myself, although some parts of my body hurt terribly...
I still have some time to write the essay and then finish it off, but maybe... I will wake up earlier tomorrow, just to write a little bit? My brain really isn't eager to create intellectual paragraphs after 8.00pm...

Achievement

Yesterday night we've made our first small step to celebrating the real Polish Christmas altogether. I taught my fiance the chorus of one of the Christmas carols. Just three lines, from which the first two are the same, but still - in Polish! And with very accurate melody :) I just had to call my parents tonight and tell them about it. I can't wait when we will sing it together, and when my beloved signs it to my grandparents as well. I will be so proud! Of course I am planning to teach him much more... ;)

A little bit of sunshine

Tonight when I came back home, I saw a bunch of white and yellow roses on the table. They look like huge, bright piece of warm, shining joy in our room. And my fiance said that they looked just like me :)

First signs...

On my way to the gym I sticked my eyes to the ground in the park and between leaves I found chestnuts, acorns and beechnuts lying around. Already! That reminded me of my childhood and the times when we used to go with my sister for walks in the forest with my dad or my mum. We were collecting beechnuts to later give them to the woodman to feed the animals in winter.
The autumn is creeping from the corners of parks and forests, she's looking around from behid the trees and spreading her beautiful signs of presence...
I wish it was more colourful here though. In my home country, autumn turns the nature into mixture of greens, reds, yellows, browns, golds... Well, maybe I remember it so well, because I could see a forest from my room's window.
Here I have the seaside, instead :)

Goals

I am starting this week with guns blazing. I have two goals: first, go to the gym, and not once only - three times! Second: write at least half of my final essay (well, 12 out of about 18 pages would be actually about 2/3, but let's not make the expectations to high...).
I really have to strain my muscles and my brain, and try to do the most of it. I know this will make me feel good. Though, hard work at work ;) doesn't help much, really.
I managed to get to the gym tonight and it felt gooood... Now it's time for the first two pages of the essay, assigned for today. The process of creation is not as easy as the process of physical tortures and sweating, but I have to hold faith in myself :)

Movies' time

September means shorter days, darker evenings, colder mornings... It's time to prepare for autumn and take the warm sweaters out of the wardrobe. And get ready to spend lots of time on - at least in my case - reading books and watching movies!
This year I started this second activity quite early (have I ever stopped that at all? ;) I can't live without good movies!), probably because when we came back from our holiday, there were so many movies I wanted to see...
The day before yesterday I saw (500) Days of Summer - a really nice comedy, which I heard about during this year's Sundance Film Festival, an event where independent American movies have their time.
I must say I really liked it, although there was no typical happy-ending. The truth is sometimes bitter, but it's good to see a piece of a real life for a change, instead of sweet, unreal stories. Or maybe I am wrong? Well, that's only my choice I guess, but I warmly recommed this movie.



And yesterday I watched Broken Embraces, a new movie by Pedro Almodóvar, with - as usually fantastic - Penelope Cruz. This was a typical Almodóvar piece of art, with hot blooded Spanish women, mysteries and funny situations. Actually I think that this one was maybe less funny. There was more of a complex story in it, with many characters involved, with different points of view, emotions and desires. There were no good or bad ones in this movie, no clear answers to all the questions. Of course it was worth seeing.

On the west coast

Another day we decided to travel across the island from the east coast to the west one. I didn't take us long, even though the bus had to visit a couple of small towns on the way, like La Oliva and Lajares.
We tried to reach the lighthouse, but it turned out to be far away from the beach outside the town called El Cotillo, where we arrived. So we decided to walk a bit south, and visit the old tower El Castillo, which was a point of defendence for this Spanish territory from English and French pirates.
After spending quite a while looking for a bakery we read about in th guide, we gave up and had some Spanish ice cream, which were extremely fruity and refreshing in the 30 degrees and full sunshine weather.
The combination of bright blue sky, white sand and blue ocean, which we saw there, is in my opinion the most beautiful and the most calming set of colours I have seen so far...

Park Oasis

On one of the days we decided to go to the south of Fuerteventura, and we visited Park Oasis - amazing place with lots of animals and plants. We took lots of pictures with elephants, giraffe, zebra, camels... We aslo saw parrot show, reptile show and sea lions' show - can't believe how smart some of these animals are...
On the way back I was thinking about how weird it is, that some people in our age find pleasure and fun in for example getting drunk and losing consciousness, and some are happy enough, when they can have tasty smoothies or see some animals...

Water and fire

One of the best days on Canary Islands was the one when we took a trip to Lanzarote island. The travel by fast boat was very refreshing. I even saw flying fish - for the first time in my life! But it was difficult to take a picture of them, as their colours are as blueish as the ocean :/
Lanzarote, as Fuerteventura, is a volcanic island. Lots of the ground here is covered with a thick layer of dried lava. These rocky fields and mountains (actually - active volcanoes!) have a whole variety of colours: black, brown, red, orange, yellow, green and grey. The guide told us also that these colours change depending on the season and the time of the day - the sun light changes its appearance in a nearly magical way...
The trip to National Park Timanfaya and the travel by a narrow, curvy path between active volcanos was thrilling!
During this trip we could also see green lagoon and boiling springs by the coast...
In the evening - chilling out in the pool :)

Mmm...

One of the little, but very pleasant and happy discoveries during our holiday: a "juice/shake/ice cream" place called Secret de Sur. Situated somewhere near the end of the main street of Corralejo, is serving probably the best smoothies in the world!
Of course we could not end up going there only once - we had to try all three fruity combinations: with mango-banana-apple, raspberry-banana-apple and strawberry-banana-orange...

Los Lobos

Close to Fuerteventura, there is a small island Los Lobos, which makes an undeniable impression of a mystery. This place is empty, with no streets, no shops or houses, no people, except from those who walk along sandy paths in silence.
There are no plamtrees giving shadow, no flowers growing around, no animals, maybe only small lizards. Smaller hills are surrounding the paths, and above them rises the mountain La Caldera. Unfortunately, the extreme heat didn't allow us to climb it...
The trip to this deserted, undiscovered, kind of lonely place, so different from the toursit centres and at the same so close to them, was one of the most interesting experiences during the time spent on Canary Islands.

First impressions

Feuerteventura is an amazing island. It doesn't look like a standard "tropical" island, where you go for exotic holidays, jumping in the waves and lying under plamtrees... This place welcomed us with rocky mountains, red and brown deserted spaces, and a beautiful, constantly changing coastline - from unfriendly rocks to beaches with white silky sand...
The weather is the kind that I love the most - it's hot and sunny, no rain, no dampness in the air. Clear sky, and light cool breeze in the mornings and in the evenings...

Back home...

Okay - so probably the next ten posts or so will be about our holidays in paradise, which have finished just last night...
I will write about our exploration of the Canary Islands and try to put some pictures as well...
Coming back to reality is a bit of a pain, but it's good to be surrounded by familiar places and friendly people. It will be fine, I just need some sunshine :)

Tomorrow or a bit later...

I am so excited about our holiday being sooo close, that I think I will start packing my stuff right now! We are going on Friday night, we have to wake up in the middle of the night, but still I will have Friday afternoon to check if I have all I need for the trip... Yeay yeay yeay!!!

Special delivery

Today at work, when I took out my box of blueberries to eat them, I realised that they grew in... my home country :))) As my manager K. said: you paid £1.00 and they sent a packet of blueberries from Poland, for you :)

Good news day

There are days when you think that life is a crap, and then there are days when you are just overwhelmed with all the good things happening around you... Today:
- my fiance got a job offer as a manager!
- I got my essay about witches back, graded 86%!
- my fiance made my favourite meal for dinner! (Sabzi polo ba mahi)
- to celebrate the new job, I brought strawberry cake, so will have this deliciossa as dessert!
Anything else, anyone?!

Awesome weekend!

We had loads of fun with my fiance and my brother this weekend. Friday night - playing pool, Saturday afternoon - sunbathing and barbeque on the beach, and today - a whole-day trip, walking up and down the cliffs in a beautiful weather...
I love the sun. I can't live without it. My greatest fear right now is that when we come back from our holidays at the beginning of September, the weather will quickly become sad, cloudy, rainy and greyish... And then short, cold days will come... Eh, nothing left but warming up with a blanket, a cup of tea and lots of sweets, which definitely would form new layers of fat on my legs and my tummy :/ I have to avoid it!
Good that the sun is still here...