From some time now I have been thinking about self publishing something dear to my heart.
And here it is – a collection of poems from my teenage-years – vampire poetry in kindle edition.
Popular Hits of the Showa Era – Ryu Murakami
The Finkler Question –
The snow child –
Missing Person –
1Q84 –
Norwegian forest –
Sputnik Sweetheart –
The vegetarian –
The Minds of Billy Milligan –
Happy People Read and Drink Coffee –
Fahrenheit 451 –
I’m a communist old lady! –
Roadside picnic –
The 5th wave –
How moved my cheese? –
The lucky one – Nickolas Sparks
I often ask myself in what I believe. What’s there for me?
I do have a general issue with religion and I find Buddhism, and moreover the notion of karma, as being more and more a believe that suits my values.
Basically, karma is a sort of cosmic system invented by the Buddhists to determine who gets upgraded when the next game of life starts again (reincarnation).
Karma is the way in which the kinds of seeds we sow in our lives tend to create similar results. It’s like a return of your investment: you invest in your life, your commitments, and your relationships and then karma rewards you; you cheat, you lie, you steal, karma gets back at you.
Surely, there is a very long debate about the interpretation of karma and you can go ahead and search for it.
My believe is that karma is the universe balancing all aspects of live. There’s nothing related to fate or reward and punishment for being a good human or a bad one. Good men have terrible fates and terrible people can be successful, it’s a fact.
I see karma like a guide to wholesome and harmonious way of life. If we understand that our actions influence the quality of our lives (cause-effect) we can make a shift in the way we do things. Karma doesn’t punish – it sets an example, it teaches you about life. Often we learn it the hard way by enduring the same type of suffering that we did to others. History repeats itself until we learn to change our paths.
Each step you make leads to the next one and the next one …. Past, present and future are connected. Whatever we put out in the universe it will come back to us in some way.
Be happy, at peace and in love … and you will find happiness, peace and love.
I haven’t “said” anything in a while now. Didn’t feel like I have something to say, neither the inspiration to put something in written. I was busy with work, with getting in shape and exercise more, reading a lot (I started this year in a full reading mode) and, believe it or not, I do some sort of cooking (I’m becoming an expert on salads and greens to have for lunch).
What else did I do?
By mistake, I watched several youtube videos, and by several I mean a lot of them, and also read some books like The Happiness Project and L’art de la simplicite, about minimalist life style and how to ease your life by reducing the number of items you own.
I don’t have a rich life because I have my house full of things – I do believe experiences are the most valuable items we can buy for us and for our loved ones.
It’s ok to have, for example, a memory box with concert tickets, small tokens, a dried flower and other small things to make you remember certain events and important moments of your life, or magnets on your fridge, or some postcards from places you visit.
However, to keep your closet full of things you never wear, don’t fit or are in a bad shape, it’s not the case. Same for shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, toys, books, electronics, etc. Why keep’em if never use them?
So, I donated some of my clothes, got rid of old cosmetics, sold some jewelry, sold some books I don’t use or I don’t like and moved on without purchasing anything in return.
And I felt so damn good.
More space, less dust.
I cleared every space I got the chance to: the house, my desk at the office, my drawers in my parents’ house, my boyfriend’s things in the house and in the car.
And I want to keep doing it. You want help with decluttering your life? I can offer some tips.
First off, you have to be courageous and accept a change.
Start small but start.
Over the years I went through many hobbys and collections: used to collect coins, stickers, sailor moon and garbage pail kids figurines, make handmade earrings, etc… The only thing I have stayed true to was collecting postcards.
Looking back, I think it all started during my childhood. My parents used to take me to the sea side almost every year and each time we used to send postcards to people at home – the classical postcards with Romanian beaches, hotels and summer gardens.
I already had some from my mother – old black and white postcards that she inherited from her mom too. My mother had several collections – coins, stamps and napkins. So I guess that’s how I ended up collecting postcards – it runs through the family.
During university I joined an online site called postcrossing.com – a postcard exchange project that invites everyone to send and receive postcards from random places in the world, for free! The main idea is that: if you send a postcard, you will receive one back from someone somewhere in the world.
Why? Because there are lots of people who like to receive real mail. The element of surprise of receiving postcards from different places in the world (many of which you probably have never heard of) can turn your mailbox into a box of surprises – and who wouldn’t like that?
The site randomly gives you an address where to send the postcard and a code, so that the receiver can register the card in the system. After your postcard is received, your address will randomly be given to someone to send you a postcard. Where the postcard comes from is a surprise!
This way I ended up having over 300 postcards from all places around the world, besides the nearly 200 I already had from Romania. Have you heard of Granada or Taubate? I didn’t before receiving a postcard.
With the traveling I have done so far, my collection grew bigger and bigger – ‘cause yes, I’m like Mr. Bean, sending myself postcards from the places I’m visiting. Now I have photo albums where I store them depending on the topic and I’m thinking of making a whole wall in my house for them.
Like any collector, I do have my favorites: the ones with lighthouses, the ones with St. Basil Cathedral from Moscow, and some from Malaysia. I like postcards picturing one single thing, not the ones with several interest points on them.
If you ask yourself which one is the dearest or, in some case, probably the most valuable card I own, is a black and white one with the Island of Ada Kaleh, submerged by Ceausescu in order to build the Iron Gates hydroelectric plant in 1970.
As with most collectables, it’s difficult to put a prize on when you invest time and passion. As for the cards, pretty important is the postmark and the message on the back – which shows the age of the card and its provenience.
Next time you go on vacation or on a small tip, don’t forget to buy a card or to send one to someone you care about. They will appreciate the real mail!
Dupa 3 ani petrecuti pe partea de educatie si training a venit timpul unei schimbari.
Desi imi pastrez si lucruri din vechiul job (cum este partea foarte draga mie de teambuilding sau de urmarire a senioritatii in companie) de ceva vreme ma ocup de tot ceea ce tine de procesul de comunicare, la nivel local, si se cheama ca sunt specialist in comunicare.
Ce fac:
Pare simplu?
Uneori este, alteori nu. Mai ales cand inspiratia lipseste – poti lucra si cateva ore la un material pe are ceilalti il privesc cateva secunde sau la unul care, dupa ce e terminat, il schimbi cu altul care iti ia doar 5 minute inspirate.
A lot of travelers skip Stockholm because it’s an expensive city. There’s no denying that Stockholm is really expensive compared to other cities around Europe but a visit doesn’t need to break your budget.
Me, Mau and Gri went to Stockholm for 4 days (3 nights) – from Friday ‘till Monday. We bought a very cheap flight from Wizzair and we booked the hotels via Booking, like always – 2 nights we stayed in a ship in the Gamla Stan shore and 1 night at the airport hotel in Skavsta.
What we did
We took long walks along the promenades: even though it was gloomy and rainy half day and the other half dark and cold, we couldn’t help but walking and watch the ships come and go, admire the city’s majestic profiles and enjoy the views – we walked 20km /day.
We visited the Vasa Museum – which is truly amazing – beside the big wooden ship being conserved, there is also a beautiful space dedicated to world geography and history. Face the world program and the Vitruvian man of DaVinci were impressive.
In Tivoli Gronalund – a very big amusement park – we only took a slight look because it was closed. No rides in those frightening carrousels.
We only used public transportation once – we took the ferry from Slussen to Skansen which is a park and a zoo at the same time. Really nice to visit – we got to see how glass is made during a workshop.
Fotografiska Museum is also a must see – besides the expo itself, you get to take photos in a photo booth setting and print them out. Unfortunately, I lost ours. It has also a nice shop with books, supplies and souvenirs.
The Ericsson Globe seemed awful to me. It’s a sort of ferry wheel except here the gondola actually goes around the side of the building. Awful!
The Pedestrian street near Gamla Stan has many different shops, if you want to buy a few small trinkets and souvenirs to gift people back home, I suggest you do it here.
Main highlight of the trip: We tried to get a Surstromming can back home but the airport security didn’t allow us to do it. No stinky meal for us!
What got us by surprise
In the last 2 years I’ve been looking for the perfect map to put on one of Mau’s walls.
I thought about buying a classical one, then moved to actually print out on shinny paper a big world map and stick it to a wooden panel so we could use pins to denote the countries and maybe the cities where we’ve been too. It wasn’t very nice!
When I came across the notion of scratch off map – I was excited. This type of map comes alive on the wall revealing a whole new world below, featuring color and geographical details.
Each region has its own colors, making it quite visual if you’ve been all around the world.
I got mine on etsy, from Korea. The poster arrived in a sturdy cardboard tube designed to protect it. Inside, there was a thin sheet of paper over the top of the map to keep the gold tin foil from accidentally getting scratched. The poster material itself has a nice shiny feel. It measures 60 cm by 96 cm, which is a good size for such a beautiful map but a bad size in terms of find a frame.
The biggest issue we had was figuring out how to scratch the countries we traveled too. I mean, if we’ve only been in a single city, do we scratch off all the country so that the map will look better? What do we do with the countries we visited by ourselves?
In the end we managed it very well. This map is the perfect way to show where you’ve been traveling while spicing up your place.
One thing though, when you finish scratching where you’ve been, you’ll realize you’ve gone nowhere at all.
A good travel story is usually the result of something that has gone wrong.
We call it the matzic effect, those moments when you know, you feel, it’s gonna be something unpleasant but it will make a very good story. And it usually happens when we are the most sure we are on the right track.
Like the moments I’m gonna talk about now – from the Europe tour.
That time when we couldn’t find the border
First day of the Europe tour. Just wanted to leave the country and head to Budapest. All good! Until we wanted to cross the border and we didn’t seem to reach it anymore.
We drove in circle for nearly 2 hours; around small lakes and quite dark atmosphere. First time the GPS showed us a road where we could cross – but we didn’t. The border was at the end of a small town, in the woods – it could be crossed only by foot or bike. What a joy!
Second time, following the classical map. It didn’t help much because a dead badger was put on, by a possibly mad man, on the road sign covering everything written on it.
In the end we followed our gut and made it out.
That time when we booked a hotel room in the Red District in Zurich
Iei, we are now on the Europe tour! We book each day the hotel for the next stay. After a full day of traveling from Barcelona to Geneva across France with a flat tire, 70 km/h on the truck’s lane, arriving in Geneva on the 14th of July (France national day that they celebrate) and without any spare tire, we forget to book for our stay in Zurich. Saturday, after half-day spent in a service trying to find a good and fitting spare tire, we arrived at sunset in Zurich.
First of, no internet – so we headed to the first McDonalds we saw – to eat and get connected. And that was the most expensive McDonalds menu I had in my life. However, we did the booking and headed to check in.
When at the reception desk the front man got a look at us, checked the reservation – which was on my name and was freshly printing in a corner – and then asked surprised: „are you staying the whole night?”, „you want the breakfast?”, „should I use the name on the id card?”.
Not long after getting the room we saw what was starting to happen in the street.
We were in the Red District and the fun was starting.
That night, while wondering around towards the old center in Zurich, Mau held my hand the tightest.
That time when we joined the Gay Festival in Munchen
Same Europe tour! Rainy and cold day in July in Munchen. We headed to have a wurst and we ended up at a festival in the old city center. People having fun, beer, shows, all good until Mau wanted to get closer to the scene. „I don’t think you want to get any closer. Have you looked around? They are going to steal you from me”, I joked. He wasn’t aware we were in the middle of the Gay Fest in Munich. Obviously we stayed and had great fun.
Do you have any fun, embarrassing travel moments?
Even if I don’t write much about travel, we do travel.
For example, we went for a weekend getaway in nearby Golden Sands Bulgaria. Pretty much every year in the past 4 we went there for a weekend.
Golden Sands is a very well known (for us Romanians) sea destination in Bulgaria and probably the most popular. Cheaper and better than some of our resort on the Black Sea coast, this is a destination for young people with plenty of activities.
1. the beach – all beaches here have sand and are very clean, you can pay for sunbeds and umbrella or you can sit in the classic way with towel on the sand; bartenders from beach bars come on the beach to ask if you want drinks; the water is shallow and you can swim long distance.
2. infinity pool at International Hotel Casino – I’ve always wanted to enjoy an infinity pool and by mistake we ended this time at the outdoor Skyfall infinity pool.Very nice place!
3. Varna karting track – follow the main road from Golden Sands to Varna city centre, on the road to Vinitsa (you will see the signs). This is the largest in Bulgaria and has 200cc and 270cc karts.
4. Muppet Bar is my favorite – one of the hottest night clubs with a wide variety of drinks. You can enjoy karaoke with your friends until 11PM and after join the club’s party.
5. shopping – all you can think of is here – and it seems like there is a new trend of cat faces on t-shirts.
6. trips – if you want you can book a trip to the monasteries, do off road, scubadiving (I have to try it someday).
7. portrait painters and tattoo artists – there are a couple of people which do incredible paintings and some others which have beautiful tattoo saloons. Let me know what you think about them.
8. Varna’s city center is beautiful – a park, the naval museum, open air exhibitions, some kitty cats having siesta. For a hot summer day is perfect!
9. Dalboka restaurant – situated in a very nice location (great view of the sea from all tables), in a small bay, 30 minutes away from the Romanian border, in Kaliakra. They have the mussels farm just off shore and all dishes are freshly made. I recommend the mussels soup, rapane and the desert which is, surprize, mussels with caramel. You have to try it!!
10. And if you have tryed it all – then take a bottle of wine, some friends and have your own party in the hotel room!
The book of Meow 