A Trip in Warsaw Is Always Good For The Heart

Dear friends,

What can I say? Having a trip to Warsaw is always good fun, either if you are there on business or on pleasure. The last Friday of May I had to run to Warsaw for a day - Thursday and Friday I had my 2 last days off from my previous workplace and I knew that for a while I would not be able to have a break so I made the most of it. My passport needed to be renewed with the new name + I was still searching for wedding shoes => a trip to Warsaw was due :)

This time my awesome husband did not have time to go with me so I went with my faithful guardians: The Ladybug & The Friendly Moose :) and for the first time I went with Polish trains, and it was not that bad, I must admit!

The Screen Showing The Time - Date

Reading and hydrating is always very important!

Getting from Krakow to Warsaw took around 4 hours but time passed by fast as I was very much engaged in the 2nd book of The Inheritance Cycle by the amazing Christopher Paolini - to be more precise, I am speaking of Eldest :) SPOILER ALERT: Saphira learns that she is not the only one dragon alive - fun times to come!

Here you can see a few pictures from the Rainbow monument in Warsaw. It was previously burned down as the anti-gay community was outraged. Right now it has been redone and it is fire proof + extra cameras are installed around it.

And I also bumped into these weird colorful manequins that were showing off some of really creative handmade goodies - they were not here last time I passed by ;) so this is evidence to how much Warsaw is changing and how colorful this place can be.

Guess what else I bumped into while I was roaming around the Romanian Embassy Area? An Italian Expo with sale ;) Just check that huge salami, bigger than me! Quite a challenge to do that, I bet! Below you will see a few pictures from the fair and read some lovely quotes related to Italian food - which is always very yummy ;) + you will also see the LadyBug & The Moose dropping by the wine stand to check the vintage ;)

Who likes some dry tomatoes?

If your mother cooks Italian food, why should you go to a restaurant? - Martin Scorsese

The trouble with eating Italian food is that five or six days later youre hungry again. - George Miller

I am not one to turn down macaroni and cheese, even late at night. I love Italian food. I love pasta... A refrigerator full of water and Gatorade? Honey, thats just not gonna happen. - Queen Latifah

Chi va a letto senza cena tutta la notte si dimena. - Italian proverb
Translation: He who goes to bed without eating, will regret it throughout the night.

Mangiare per vivere e non vivere per mangiare - Italian proverb
Translation: Eat to live and not live to eat.

A tavola non si invecchia. - Italian proverb.
Translation: At the table with good friends and family you do not become old.

La cucina piccola fal la casa grande. -Italian proverb
Translation: A small kitchen makes the house big.

Non si vive di solo pane. - Italian proverb.
Translation: One does not live by bread alone.

"Everything you see I owe to pasta." - Sophia Loren

A Small Piece of StreetArt in the City Center

A Colorful Spot :)

A Light Cheesecake with fruits & Maracuja Milkshake for the LadyBug

After a long day, waiting for the train back to Krakow we met our lovely friend working in Warsaw. We even managed - during her lunch break! - to get one pait of shoes for the wedding :) They are all white, ballerina shoes made out of leather inside-out. And they are so comfortable! Soon you will see pictures, I promise!

I had the newest milkshake from Coffee Heaven - yes, if you feel the name is familiar for you, you are right ;) as it is one of my (and my dear friends) favourite places. The milkshake is with Maracuja and it is very smooth and soothing, perfect to relax and sweet enough to give you the kick ;)  I topped it with some cheesecake with fruits, and everything was just magical :)

The last picture = magical sweets I brought from the Italian Expo. They look like figs but they truly are indeed sweets shaped as figs, sweets made from marzipan... green marzipan inside out and even the beginning and the end and the shape makes you think of figs... makes me think of Greece :) I also bought some pistacchio cream and I am waiting for the proper ocassion to try it out or else I would just eat it like Nutella, by the spoon :))  Any good receipe with pistacchio cream? :) I would love to hear from you, and if you ever visited Warsaw what magical things did you see?

Yours truly,

The Warsaw Fan LadyBug

Thoughts Upon The Upcoming Christmas

My dearest friends,

For a while now I have been taking pictures of Krakow facing Winter with a smile upon her face. How does one do that when outside is so cold, so chilly and windy that your bone marrow freezes? Well... here is how I put a smile on my face: I think of my beloved ones and I think of Christmas. I like to think of happy things, things that make me warm inside-out... like when I was small and everything was a game. When little things mattered more than money and time and deadlines.

I love having long walks and at Christmas time, when everything is well prepared and decorated, its a pleasure to have the camera with you to see what else came up. Due to my awesome husband now I no longer have to carry the camera with me. With my new Samsung Galaxy S4 I can do photos good enough to quickly upload on my new Instagram profile or on my Facebook Page :) On Facebook I already have an album dedicated especially to the Christmas/Winter season of 2014. I try to upload things on a daily basis, when I find a new #windowdisplay that catches my eye :)

Everybody was rushing in head on into the holidays! Ever since beginning of November... Actually, to tell you the truth, once Halloween is over and then Thanksgiving Day, everybody starts thinking of Christmas. I can already see the counters of how many days till Christmas remain... It is a bit of madness there, but hey! Who am I to judge? I wish Christmas could stay all year round! With more than a month to go until Christmas, the shops/stores were competing whom will have the most fancy look so I thought I might give it a go and record them :)

Its odd, you know, that only at Christmas we open up more. We are more warm and caring to one another. Like we would like to take out all the generosity in the world and fill it in only 31 days... Only in December people could care, people would buy gifts for others and care for anyone else then their person. Its sad how we forget the principles of forgive and forget in our day-to-day but we miraculously pop them out of our pocket when December comes...

Christmas was always a special time in my heart and December was always close to my heart. Of course having the Civil Wedding in December helps it get to the top of my favourite months :) As Dr. Seuss said, Christmas does not come from a store. Christmas means more than lovely decorations, kick-arse window displays, rushing into malls and buying dozen of gifts (most of the times at the last moment, as we are all so very busy nowadays...). Christmas for me = love.

Christmas for me is a time to love and be loved. Of course, you may object and say that actually we should love eachother and ourself at each moment of our lifes. I can totally agree with that but what I would like to underline is that less and less people think nowadays about love in its more true and pure form: God. Christmas should be a celebration where we speak of the love that God had for us, to come to Earth, be as us, and teach us about the true love.

Bob Hope once said "My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?" - I can agree with him. God created us so we could love and be loved in return. We live in a world where people forgot what Christmas really is and what we really are celebrating. It is sad how far away we always seem to move from the truth...

“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.” ― Laura Ingalls Wilder

Christmas Fair At The Main Market Square

I was also thinking this month, as we were packing things to move into our new home - oh, yes, this is a surprise for you guys, but we are not ready yet to tell you more :) - I was thinking about how many things that we actually do not need, we store during our life... on the possibility that one day we may need it or it may come in handy. I remember my mum telling me about a friend of hers who would buy per season 2-3 pieces of clothing that she would give away at the end to get new ones... she never had a full closet but she always looked gorgeous. On the other hand, I watch Downton Abbey and you see all those wardrobes with so many clothes and accessories... the temptation is so big, so how do you actually fight that?!

“Want to keep Christ in Christmas? Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto others as you would have done unto you.” ― Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience

So many different thoughts and feelings come to me, as Christmas closes in. Not to mention the end of the year and closing the book, checking statistics and figuring out if the year was good... All these mixed up emotions between the material and the imaterial in life... I hope you will celebrate Christmas nonetheless and I hope you believe in God. We tend to forget that Christmas comes for Christ. Maybe we should put a sticky note on our forhead with that :) In the meanwhile, I for sure, will keep you posted on my new Instagram profile and on my Facebook Page on how Krakow looks. How it transformed for Christmas, how it transformed for Winter and the Holidays :) 

Yours truly,

A Passionate LadyBug

Musical Friday I See You In All The Other Women

Dear friends,

Today I shall tell you about a special Romanian band, a band that I listen to even since I was a teenager. You probably never heard of it before but it is very dear to me so I need to share at least a song from them with you :) Taxi is a Romanian pop-rock band. Their sound is an eclectic mix of rock and contemporary pop, occasionally introducing other influences such as hot Nashville-style guitar licks.
The band was founded March 13 (guess why I wanted to present them to you this month?! :p), 1999 in Bucharest. Dan Teodorescu, songwriter, lead vocalist and the bands leader, first recruited Adrian Bortun, with whom he had previously played in Altceva ("Something Else"). Bortun recruited his former bandmate Andrei Bărbulescu from Sarmalele Reci ("The Cold Sarmale"; sarmale are meat rolls with cabbage - traditional romanian dish served usually with mamaliga); Dan recruited Georgică Pătrănoiu with whom he had also played before.
Their first Romanian hit was "Criogenia salvează România" ("Cryogenics saves Romania"), which gained them fans even among the members of the Romanian Parliament with its ironic political lyrics.

Hai să ne băgam cu toţii-n nişte frigidere mari

Să ne congelăm pentru vreo sută de ani

Şi să-i aşteptăm liniştiţi pe-americani

Poa să vină japonezii, poa să vină şi nemţii

Să ne facă reformă că noi nu avem pretenţii

Doar atât le vom cere: să nu ne uite-n frigidere

- Dan Teodorescu - "Criogenia salvează România"

Lets put ourselves all in some huge refrigerators

To freeze for about 100 years

And let the Americans come and solve our problems.

Even the Japanese and the Germans may come

To reform our economy;

We will not complain, but we have a small thing to ask:

"Please, do not forget us in the fridge!..."

It was followed by an EP Jumătate de album (Half an album), after which drummer Andrei Bărbulescu left and was replaced by Lucian Cioargă. Shortly after their song "Luna" ("The Moon") became the Romanian nominee to the 2000 Eurovision Song Contest. They came in seventeenth, a higher rank than any other Romanian band ever had, but disappointing nonetheless. A few months after the Festival in Stockholm, they debuted an English-language song called "E.B.U - European Broadcasting Union": "We played poker by their rules... But in the end, they told us that four jacks are stronger than four aces." The song continues on, using an obscene expletive to express their disregard for the contest.

 Taxi welcomed the 2000 millennium with a song "Doi zero zero zero" ("Two zero zero zero"). Jumătate de album was expanded in July 2000 to a full album Trag un claxon (Honk a Horn). A succession of Romanian hist included "Comunitaru" ("Stray Dog"), which addresses Bucharests plan of spaying and euthanizing ownerless dogs from the point of view of one of the dogs. The song describes, ironically, the state of the Romanian economy and society, then goes on to a chorus:

Castraţi-mă, castraţi-mă,

Sau, dacă vreţi, eutanasiaţi-mă,

Pentru că singura voastră problemă

Sunt eu, câinele comunitar.

- Dan Teodorescu, "Comunitaru"

(Castrate me, castrate me,

Or, if you like, euthanize me,

Because your only problem

Is me, the stray dog.)

This appeared on their 2001 album Americanofonia, the title track of which is a song about the flood of English-language expressions entering Romanian:

Business, meeting, briefing, trading,

Casting, shopping, fashion, trend,

Dealer, broker, leader, joker,

Manager, advertising, P.R., brand,

Lobby, hobby, weekend, party,

Timeout, fifty-fifty, supermarket, copyright,

Discount, cash, card, net, mail, chat, standby,

D.J., V.J., L.P., C.D., bye-bye!

Oops, yeah...

Suntem anglofoni, americanofoni,

Suntem bu-bu, bu-bu, bu-bufoni.

- Dan Teodorescu, "Americanofonia"

(Were English-speakers, American-speakers,

Were foo-foo foo-foo foo-fools.)

Teodorescu was married for four years to Melania Medeleanu; the autumn 2006 divorce was amicable, and Medeleanu sings on one track of the 2007 Taxi album Romantica. There are several other collaborators on the album, including Cheloo of Paraziţii.
In late 2010, they released the single "Cele două cuvinte" (The two words). The video featured more than two dozen male Romanian celebrities (actors, singers, TV personalities, athletes, filmmakers) explaining mens inability to say "I LOVE YOU" and became a YouTube hit, receiving more than 1,500,000 views in less than 2 months.

(source)

The song of today is named Te Vad In Toate Femeile (I See You In All The Other Women) and it is a wonderful ballade about the way a man passes through the ending of the relationship with the one he loves. 

The lyrics talk about how he is trying to have a normal life, how he has no problem with that - that he is just existing now, no longer living. He drinks his coffee as usual, he has walks in the evening and maybe sometimes he thinks of her... The chorus is beautiful and basically states that he is looking for her in all the women he is meeting or the ones that he sometimes wants physically. He still sees her in all the women he has the impression that he loves... The rests of the song tells his daily struggle of shutting her out of his mind but not succeeding that. It is sad when we also find out that he sometimes meets her friends, that in the meanwhile they become his friends as well and they do tell him that sometimes she asks about him as well...

***

For me this song is also the story about 2 very stubborn people... We know that he made the mistake, from how the lyrics are written but we know not what separated them. The lack of communication though is a problem!

Yours truly,

The LadyBug who hopes you liked this song ;)

the incredible garage photo of Jean Yves Lemoigne ought to be titled the benevolent power of duct tape

this and two others won JYL the silver CLIO award for Print campaign in 2009.

see this and the other photography marvels at http://www.jeanyveslemoigne.com/ in the catagory of Commisions

May The 4th Be With You!

Dear friends,

You may not know this, but today fans WorldWide celebrate the wonderful Star Wars day. The traditional greeting is May The 4th Be With You! and as I grew up with Star Wars and I am a huge fan of the movies - be it the original or the prequels - it would not have been proper if I would not have celebrated it also :)

May 4 is considered a holiday by Star Wars fans to celebrate the franchises films series, books and culture. The date was chosen as "May the 4th" due to its sounding similar to the series phrase "May the Force be with you" in which fans commonly say "May the fourth be with you". The reference was first used on May 4, 1979 when Margaret Thatchers political party placed an advertisement in The London Evening News following her taking office as Prime Minister that stated "May the Fourth Be with You, Maggie. Congratulations." This reading of the line has also been recorded in the UK Parliaments Hansard.

In a 2005 interview with George Lucas, German TV news channel N24 asked Lucas to quote the famous phrase, however the interpreter simultaneously interpreted the sentence into German as Am 4. Mai sind wir bei Ihnen ("On May 4 we are with you."). This was captured by TV total and aired on May 18, 2005.

 ***

In 2011, the first organized celebration of Star Wars Day took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the Toronto Underground Cinema. Produced by Sean Ward and Alice Quinn, festivities included an Original Trilogy Trivia Game Show; a costume contest with celebrity judges; and the webs best tribute films, mash-ups, parodies, and remixes on the big screen. The second annual edition took place on Friday, May 4, 2012.

The Los Angeles City Council declared May 25, 2007, as Star Wars Day, in honor of the 30th anniversary release date of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. A separate initiative for observing Geek Pride Day on May 25 is based on the Star Wars connection along with ties to The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (see Towel Day) and Discworld.

 ***

How about you, lads and lasses, are you Star Wars fans? Have you ever watched the originals or the prequels? Which Episode is your favorite one? And how do you feel - if you saw the original and the new additions - about the remastered classics? I would love to hear what you think :)

Yours truly,
A Star Wars fan - May The 4th Be With You!