Money is everything

Sad but true. I realize it every once in while, unfortunately. Why is it so difficult to realize more happy things happening than that? I must try harder :)

The end and the beginning

Today is the last day of May and, for me, summer should officially begin. Well, the weather today was beautiful, we were even tempted to try swimming in the sea... but how long it's going to be like this? Our neighbour said this weather, as for this country, is perfect - and perfect things never stay for too long :/
Anyway, this was a nice month I have to say. Some cool jumps out to concerts, the biggest gig - my birthday ;), relaxing time on the beach, good changes at work, and some fruitful conversations...
We really have to sort out the formal side of our wedding, so at least we can sleep peacefully. As long as this legal part is done, I won't care too much what kind of flowers I will have on the wedding or what kind of cake we will eat... I mean, of course I will, but all these things don't matter that much...
Also, as I have my new desk (since yesterday! the room changes its image :)), I will try to get my powers together and in spite of the sunny weather, finish the next block of my studies. If I manage to take another course in January, and pass the exam in October 2010, I will get Diploma in Religious Studies! Will it be enough to apply for PhD? We'll see, but it's always something.
I had some slight thoughts about teaching course to be able to teach kids religion. Might be useful, however I don't necessary dream about that kind of job :)

Place on earth

Sometimes I am so jealous of those older people, who already lived the huge part of their life, who have their homes and families, and who can smile peacefully and say: I found my place on earth.
I guess I am still looking for it. But I don't think any 26-year old person should be able to say for sure they actually found their place already. That requires some more time and experience, and some more searching. Or maybe it's just me, too demanding as usual :)

Today is my birthday!!!

Yeay!
Well, I am not REALLY happy that I am one year older again, because this number starts becoming dangerously high... But still, it feels so good to celebrate being in this world for so long (and: to survive - for pessimists, or: to seize every happy moment - for optimists; I choose both).
Small chart of birthday wishes and presents!
- my Loompy, a cosmetic and a new desk! from my beloved
- a scarf and a gift card from colleagues at work
- a beautiful red and white blouse from my mum
- a book from my sister (both sent in a package)
- fantastic birthday cake, balloons etc.
- birthday time out in fun fair
- birthday dinner in Italian restaurant with and from my beloved!
- 5 birthday cards
- 1 virtual (e-mail) birthday card
- phone talk with mum
- lots of birthday wishes and Internet birthday messages...

Isn't that an awesome list?
I am so happy :D

Today is also Mother's Day in my home country. The present and the card I sent to Mum last week haven't arrived yet, hopefully they will be there soon. But we talked today anyway :) It's our special day in a year, for both of us. Thanks to her I came to this world, and thanks to me, just as soon as I was born, she could celebrate her first Mother's Day in life :)

A day to remember...

It's still two days to my birthday, but it's Sunday and tomorrow is banking holiday, and also it's sooo sunny and beautiful - a prefect day for celebrating birthday - so here it is! We are celebrating today!
Although we both agreed on it, I wasn't sure how it's gonna look like, and so my beloved took me totally by surprise! There were balloons all around the room and a delicious birthday cake with candles, and with my name on it, painted with chocolate! I guessed it was from our favourite Italian cafe, which we call "deliciossa" :) It had lots of delicate cream and fresh strawberries, yummy...
Of course I got presents, and they were amazing - big, extremely soft and cute elephant from Disney store (we called him Loompy), and a luxurious cosmetic I really wanted (and needed) to have. I will also have a new desk! It's gonna arrive next Saturday, and will be bigger than the one I have now, so I will be able to spread all my stuff around without it falling on the floor ;)


This afternoon was one of the best I had this year so far... The weather was great, we went to the fun fair which was set up for the weekend near the beach, we drove bumper cars, ate candy floss and had lots of good laughter. In the evening we were soaking the last bits of the sun sinking in the sea...

Work/life balance

Is it the expected, but delayed springtime warm air, or the slight change in my daily schedule (going to work and leaving work half hour later), or just the new job I have for three days now, I don't know - but recently I feel really tired and sleepy in the evenings. I hope this "weak" time will finish soon for me, as I want to have some fun during summer months, starting from my birthday!
Anyway, I am allowing myself for some more chilling out after work these days. I think it's the new job and new responsibilities that make me unable to concentrate on studies or to clean the house in the evenings...
So, I am looking forward to tonight's date on the sunny beach :)

Hurray!

I got my results from the last essay I was writing for my religious studies. Having in mind how much I was struggling with writing about human rights in Islam and the case of feminism in Christianity, and putting it altogether in a quite short form, and also having in memory my weaker result from the essay before this one, which I thought was quite decent and easy, I opened the envelope nearly with shaking hands... And yes - my effort was worth this - I got 86%! Here I rise again! Motivated enough to win another battle... I wish I just had more nergy to concentrate on reading some very boring or just not well-written chapters of the next book, while the sun is shinig outside...

A very nice surprise...

Okay, so I thought nobody really likes me at work (about that I will have to write a separate post I guess), I mean likes me like really LIKE, which includes more caring that just saying "hi" in the morning and "bye" in the afternoon...
Today was my first day at my "new" job in the same department. I don't like the place I sit too much, as it's quite crowded and busy around there, and I like to sit on the side and have some peace... Well, anyway, apart from that everything is good so far, guys are helpful and I am getting into new things quite easily :)
And, what a surprise, in the morning, right after I settled down at my new desk, one of my colleagues came around and she asked me if we could talk for a moment - and I got a beautiful present from her! It was a small cute handbag, as a "thank you" for all the time we spent in one team working together and helping each other. It was sooo nice, I was shocked and really surprised... I knew I am gonna miss her, as she is always so nice to me, but now as I know how much she really cares, I am gonna miss her even more...

Oh what a night!

I remember one of my first posts in this blog - it was about my Valentine's present for my beloved, tickets for Stratovarius concert... which was yesterday, finally! I have to admit, I love heavy metal, at least in the form presented by those guys! The gig was awesome, we both had a great time. And I have some pics and videos, which I will try to put here to give you some little taste of this what happend last night in Islington...
Stratovarius rocks and kicks - you know what! :)






"A million light yeeeeeears awaaaaaay from you!" :D

Change and trust

As I wrote before, I got bored and a bit fed up with my current work, and I started looking for something new. Well, change came to me without hesitation and delay really :)
My manager talked to me yesterday and I am leaving my team next week! I am not going away too far though. I will stay in the same department, working on the same floor, just a couple of rows closer (to the entrace and the senior manager office, hehe). But I will do totally different things and most of them are new to me, so I will have lots to learn - which I like. Finally something is going on! And, I will be working in a different team, which means new people. I know them a bit already, but not much. So, lots of opportunities, new responsibilities to occupy my mind... Of course, I wouldn't refuse any brand new job outside the company I work in now, but, suprisingly, the change which I needed came quick and without struggle...

The other thing I wanted to write about fits this situation perfectly. I finally got some old songs by Sixpence None The Richer and I was listening to them on my way to and back from the gym on Monday. I liked one song very much, it's called "Trust". Especially I like the second version of it, recorded mainly with the piano and the cellos. The delicate, sweet (in a very good meaning of this word) voice of Leigh Nash sounds pure and intensely. And the words describe exactly what I feel now, thrilled by my latest experience.
There they go:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
Lean not on your own understanding
In all of your ways acknowledge Him
And He will make your paths straight
Don't worry about tomorrow
He's got it under control
Just trust in the Lord with all your heart
And He will carry you through

Lord, sometimes it gets so tough
To keep my eyes on You
When things are going rough
But then I turn my eyes up to the sky
And I hear Your voice it says to me
Trust in the Lord… with all of your heart

You will have much trouble in this world
I have overcome

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
Lean not on your own understanding
In all of your ways acknowledge Him
And He will make your paths straight
Don't worry about tomorrow
He's got it under control
Just trust in the Lord with all your heart
And He will carry you through
And He will carry you through

And if you actually would like to hear it and see - not it, but her, here you go (the video is REALLY old I think):

Placebo and the night full of adventure...

So the big day came! I was so excited about the concert of my favorite band that I couldn't concentrate on work! Finally we were on a train to London about 4pm... The weather was really nice and we had a long but decent walk to the club where the concert was. The queque in front of it was already huge when we came there! Unfortunately, but as we could expect, pictures or videos or any recordings were not allowed, but we managed to sneak inside with our small camera. We had some great stuff on it, but at some point the stupid fat guy from security took our amazing recording device, and erased all the precious images we had... What a pity! But we didn't give up and I used my mobile to catch some of the moments of the amazing performance!
Of course the quality is poor, but what is the most important will stay forever in my heart and memory :)





The other "attraction" of the night was the fact that we missed our train home... We had to wait till 1am for the last train and pay for it - ouch - well, a lot of money, but we didn't have a choice... We arrived at about 2.40 and walked home in the rain... We slept about 3,5 hours that night...
But except these two (however exciting) incidents, the night was amazing! Including delicious and warm Burger King meal after midnight on the railway station, free Placebo badges we got (they were throwing them from the stage and one hit my eye!) and a great Placebo T-shirt which I can't wait to wear! (maybe on Friday, when we don't have the dress code at work). And the concert itself, of course, was rockin'! Placebo is always good, one of the best bands live I know.
Small update for the fans - Brian Molko has long hair! Really long!

High time

Okay, I know it's credit crunch right now and everyone who has a job is perfectly happy with it, just because they do have a job. But, unfortunately, I was always backwards, and also in this case and right now, I am not fully happy and rather eager to reach for more, although it seems impossible (see: current economic situation).
But, who knows, it's always worth trying, if only there are job offers. If I feel like I could do better, and I do feel like this, why not? And also, again I catch myslef on not liking boredom and loving changes! So, after some time being perfectly happy with my "new" job, I am refreshing my CV and start hunting again. Maybe a new opportunity, a new challenge will arise? Maybe someone will give me a chance to work in a different environment, where I can check my skills and abilities, and discover another likes and dislikes in my career vision?
I know it will be difficult, but we'll see what time and luck brings :) I am fed up enough to start new adventure (not cosidering yet all the stress that comes with it, haha...).

Shah of Shahs

Finally I had some free time to read "Shah of Shahs" by Ryszard Kapuściński. Great book. Two important conlusions are now on my mind, and I have to note them down in case they fly away, pushed out by my everyday responsibilities and things-to-do:
1. I have to read more books by Kapuściński, last time I read him was I think 3 years ago, before my XXth century literature exam, and it was just "The Emperor". I forgot how amazingly interesting are his books and how much pleasure and knowledge brings reading them... (unfortunately he was waiting too long for his Nobel Prize...)
2. I have to read more about Iran, as the history, political, social and cultural changes in this country, the whole complex process of huge transformations is even more interesting than I expected...

Here's some basic information about Ryszard Kapuściński:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryszard_Kapuscinski

Yummy part II

And yesterday I made muffins :)
Yes, I am trying to cook. To cook, bake, fry, boil, peel, cut, stir and mix, basically to make something to eat, which actually can be eaten and give some pleasure. I was never ever good at it, or maybe I just didn't give myself enough chance (and enough time for such a trivial activity as cooking). So, although recently I am getting more involved into kitchen stuff, I still don't see myself as a good cook. Luckily, I found a couple of good recipes, and I have to admit I am doing quite well with them! And my faith in my skills slowly grows :)
These are the babies that came out of my oven, hehe:

Yummy...

Today we were having dinner in a Polish restaurant, which is placed less than ten minutes from our home (by bus). It's been here for nearly two years now, but today was the first time we went there. I had great expectations and really wanted it all to be good... and it was! The restaurant looks really nice and is very cosy, with relaxing atmosphere. The food is delicious, which is the most important part of it :) I even had a dessert, which was a piece of warm apple cake... Definitely we will come back, especially because it was just so different than all these pizza/pasta/burger/chicken/fish/kebab places around!

Majówka

I love these longer weekends in May - one of the advantages of living here :) First and last Monday of this month is a bank holiday, which means for me - no work, yeah!
This weekend we decided to have a short one-day runaway from the city. We went on a trip to Canterbury and then to Leeds castle. The weather was beautiful and we had such a great time... It felt like on looong holidays really, although it was just one day :) It's good to run away sometimes...


on our way - fields of... sheep :)


old, lost garden somewhere in Canterbury...


the entrance of Leeds castle and one of its inhabitatnts...