Circle of life

I had a great day today.
I haven't been to the theatre for ages, and I love theatre, especially musicals... and we went to London to see "The Lion King"! One of my favourite Disney stories, with so many beautiful songs... On the stage it looked and sounded incredibly fantastic! I was impressed with the costumes, decorations, and with the voices!
Very moving experience. I hope we'll be back soon :)

Lost and found

When I am emptying my stationery box to use it for muffins transportation, I found my notebook from high school and early uni times...

Life is a song - sing it.
Life is a promise - fulfill it.
Life is a secret - discover it.

Baking

I've gone crazy.
I went shopping, carried heavy bags, spent the whole evening in the kitchen measuring, pouring, mixing, burning... :) The result - 35 medium sized muffins (36 actually, but I had to eat one to check if they are fine). The size is not overwhelming as for muffins, someone could call them rather big cupcakes, but at least it is very clear that they are home made :)
The last stage was decorating. I used icing to make flowers and funny faces. Some of them look rather scary though. Well, I'm not a professional.
I just don't know how I will pack them all tomorrow morning to take them for the cake sale... Hope they are not squeezed too much :(

Shots from the last week

First snow this year... in Poland ;)

My favourite tea in my favourite cafe...

Surprisingly, looks like cooking time for has begun... But seriously - just tried to impress my family with my skills, preparing American-style pancakes :)

Two homes, one heart

I think it is hard for one heart to keep two homes inside. There's just not enough space, at least at the beginning. It seems impossible to be able to love so much two worlds and do not suffer, do not let the heart tear apart.
After a while however the heart might just simply grow a bit. And handling the overwhelming feeling becomes slightly easier. It's never easy enough, though. The comfort of knowing that ones who love us are spread in different places does not drown the consciousness that all of them are equally loved back and very rarely can be gathered altogether in one time and space.

Meantime

It has been a while since I visited my own blog for the last time...
Not much has been happening really, but the business of random, quickly passing days keeps me away from slowing down to relax and reflect... What can I do? A couple of emails to my friends still wait to be written and I cannot gather five or ten minutes for proper writing...

In the meantime, however, I managed to do some things.

I had my final exam for Diploma in Religious Studies. The place where we were writing essays was so cold that I had to sit in my jacket. On the other hand, I think it helped my brain to stay cool ;) The results? In December...

I also used the rest of my annual leave and the opportunity to buy really cheap tickets, and went home for a couple of days. A well deserved rest after stressful study time. At the same time I realised that the cool autumn breeze turned into freezing cold wind, the days became shorter and evenings - immensely dark.

I saw "Despicable me" in 3D and I was laughing loudly in the cinema, just like a kid... not feeling guilty at all, because all the kids around were laughing loudly as well :) The movie was pure fun with some really moving bits. Also I cannot wait to see tomorrow amazingly looking and sounding (in the trailers) "Legends of the Guardians".

Relieved after the exam and a bit upset that - for now - the studies are over, I got myself a pile of books. If I add the pile I already had at home, it makes a pretty high number of things I really want to read but I didn't have time due to my studies... for the whole two years! :D

I booked birthday presents for my beloved. One is a surprise, so I won't reveal anything for now. The other is a present, honestly, equally nice for him and for me - we are going to see 30 Seconds to Mars concert, a band that we both discovered pretty recently... They will play in our small town in the end of November, in the same place were we went for our very first concert together. It was Velvet Revolver and their last performance before they split up, so quite memorable...

Another book and a thousand thoughts

Some time ago I read a new book by one of my favourite contemporary writers, Jostein Gaarder - "The Castle in the Pyrenees". The book doesn't seem extremely original in its form, as well as in the subject (who knows Gaarder's books, knows what to expect). But it was lovely to indulge myself in good literature again.

The story is told through email correspondence between two people, who used to be a couple in their twenties (or even more - soulmates, I'd say) and after 30 years they meet again for a while. Why did they break up and what has led to their meeting after so many years? In the emails they come back to events which had place when they were young and which in some way led to their break up. They also write about their world views, beliefs, ideas about the world, life and death.

The ending is quite surprising, the story finishes in such a moment that the reader can hardly leave and just forget about it. The characters from "The Castle in the Pyrenees" where hanging around in my head for a while, going away and coming back. Together with them - thoughts about what life really is, what the universe is, where is the end of the world and what its beginning was. And who are we?

Lazy

I am lazy.
I love my sofa.
I hate autumn weather.
What could be possibly better than sitting on the sofa and snuggling in a warm blanket?

Eat Pray Love

Lovely movie. Based on a book, which is a real story of a woman leaving her everyday life and starting a journey of her dreams.
What else can I write? Probably most of you know the book (I haven't read it), and even if not, you will definitely be enticed by the breathtaking views of Italy, India and Bali, and by the role of Julia Roberts (sweet and so authentic, as usual).

The movie leaves us with well-known thoughts about how to discover ourselves and what we really need in life, and with alive dreams about travelling... Some of us might have enough courage (or enough luck) to undertake a trip of a lifetime. Most of us will just heave a sigh. Maybe some other time.
The only downside I notice is the fact that India and Bali again will become one of the most popular holiday destinations, the prices will rise and rise, and I won't be able to afford even a small exotic journey... And I was thinking about Bali for a while now... :(

Autumn

First day of October - for me autumn starts today.
It arrived in our town with dark clouds and heavy rain, wet streets and pavements covered with puddles and yellow and brown leaves. From now on I probably won't leave the house without an umbrella too often.
I miss greek sun, hot (very hot!) days and long warm evenings. And I also miss amazing food from Alexandra restaurant, where we have met really friendly people.
But autumn means not only rainy days, thank God. It also means long evenings when I can indulge into books and movies (so many of them to read and to watch!) and enjoy time with my beloved :)