candy-hunting

The weather is ugly and it feels more like October than the end of May, but we decided not to give up... Action "cheering up" today included going to the gym (first thing in the morning, after breakfast of course!), followed by energetic total cleaning the flat and then facing the cold wind and going out for a walk... And then - going to a secret place where they import and sell sweets from around the globe! Well, maybe not from all the countries (the shop is very small), but we had enough choice to pick a couple of interestingly and tasty looking goodies:

1. a pack of juicy gums from Japan - of many flavours, including melon, mango and lychee (!), we decided to start with popular orange. Delicious!

2. American dream: colourful twizzlers, Oh Henry! bar and Tootsie Roll. We don't even know how they taste, but so wanted to try them...

3. Australian wave: V. picked something chocolatey, I gave a go for fruity jellies :)

4. And something from Canada. The name must speak for itself:

birthday snapshot :)

exploring moving movies

I saw two really good movies recently. One is called "Win Win" - we saw it last weekend in the cinema. The other one we watched just last night - it's "One true thing" from 1998.

First a few words about "Win Win". I was thinking for the last few days what this movie is about really. The story is quite simple, the people in the story - quite normal, not to say random. No special effects, just real life as we see it every day. A lawyer and his family, in certain specific circumstances, meet a teenager who stays with them for a while. New relationships develop and changes come into the hearts and lives... I liked the humour in the movie, as well as the genuineness of the characters. The end of the movie is somewhat ironic, especially if we want to associate it with the title... But truly, this movie is about winning in life. At least that's what comes to my mind... we might have our own idea how to sort out our life, how to win, feel like a winner... and we may plan everything in a very smart way, but at the end of the day all that we have designed can turn upside down and... turn out to be the best possible option :)
Oh, and I love the first lines of the trailer (and of the movie, I think)!
Highly recommended:



The second movie, "One true thing", is also a story of a pretty normal family... An academic teacher and his wife-housewife, and their two adult children. The movie is about family bonds, relations between children and parents, between husband and wife. It's about values and priorities, and most of all it's about fighting with terminal illness and living with the acknowledgment of never ending pain and early coming death... Meryl Streep and Renee Zellweger, who play the main characters, are amazing. Very moving picture, with a couple of really important moments and wise words.



Oh, I just realised they play "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac in the trailer :)))

sweat and tears

One has to keep their life in balance. So after spoiling pleasures of sweet donuts and relaxing time on the sofa on Sunday evening, I moved on to spending some time taking a proper care of my body. Yesterday it was just a short, half hour run. Today - my third hot yoga class.

A few words about hot yoga, or Bikram hot yoga precisely, because this is the type of class I am attending. Bikram Choudhury was the person who made yoga popular in the western world in early 1970s. He synthesized traditional yoga techniques into a set of exercises (consisting of 2 breathing exercises and 26 poses), which are done in exactly 90 minutes. Practicing Bikram yoga allows working on every muscle and organ in every part of your body and brings a lot of benefits. The ultimate conditions to practice Bikram yoga is a room with the temperature of about 40 Celsius degrees and the air of about 40% humidity. You can read a lot more about Bikram hot yoga online, just google it :) I will write about my own experience.

Well, the first session I had was hell. I thought I actually died (and went to hell? oh why???). I thought that in a few seconds I would just go out and never come back. If only I could move quickly enough to do it! The heat was overwhelming me. I was dizzy and sweating more than ever in my life (and I've been to a couple of pretty warm places). I was promising myself that this was the first and last class I was attending, and I was angry at myself and at my enthusiasm and signing up for TEN classes with promotional price. Damn it with the promotional price - this will be the most expensive class I would ever attend as I'm not coming back!

Yes... two days later I was back :) A couple of people less, a bit more air to breathe... my body got used to the heat quickly and I was coping quite well... Also the trainer was different on that day, speaking much calmer, which made me more relaxed. And, most importantly, I knew the poses we were practicing and their order, so I could predict more or less when the end was near... which is very helpful!
Today was my third class. Surprisingly, it was worse than I expected. It was much too hot for me today, I couldn't breathe at times. I felt dizzy and I couldn't do my favourite pose - tree. In the middle of the class I had a breakdown and I was swallowing my tears, trying to calm down my throat and stop shaking. And on top pf that near the end of the class my hands, up to elbows, became terribly numb. I completely didn't know what to do with them. When lying down I could not even relax them...

Will I be back? Yes, of course. Sometimes it's easier, sometimes more challenging, but I know it is always good for me. I feel lighter and more flexible and I feel how my body slowly gets rid of all the toxins. And it helps me pay even more attention to what I eat and how much I drink (water of course!). Thumbs up for hot yoga, worth the effort! I will let you know how the next 7 classes go...

This is more or less how your body looks like after about 15 minutes of the class...

Sunday afternoon tea

A boy from Asia and a girl from Europe have met somewhere on an island. And as the weather was not as warm and sunny as they wished, they decided to take part in one of the rituals of the island's inhabitants.
Afternoon tea.
With a tiny bit of sweetness ;)
Gosh, the donuts were amazing! One with raspberry jam, the other with cooked apples...

from the forest to the seaside

Back to blog after a while. And back to reality. Cleaning the bathroom, vacuuming, laundry, ironing... shopping... And working of course. Good bye lazy days, sunbathing, hanging around and chatting with my friends and family... Why is it always so difficult to leave?

Well I cannot moan too much, it's not that bad... I still have time to read (right now "Eat Pray Love" - finally!), go to the cinema from time to time and run a few kilometers by the beautiful seaside at the sunset two-three times a week... And I even signed up for ten classes of hot yoga today, which I purchased for a very good, promotional price.

I'm still looking forward to summer though... like there is something to look forward to! :) Well, maybe there is, maybe I don't know yet... I don't have any holiday plans yet. But I need more rest, I need relaxation, a getaway to be able to re-think some things... try to fix my bruised heart... put the thoughts and feelings in the right places, give order to my small inner chaos which doesn't let me create a clear plan, a path to reach my dreams in the future...

It is supposed to rain this coming weekend, but I don't mind as we are going away to the big city :) Some shopping, theatre (premium seats booked!), talking over dinner... simple pleasures which are perfect mood-increasers ;)