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 :)

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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...

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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 :)