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.