Sunday 10 March 2024

The Truth

I have been living on standby for some weeks now. Finally, the waiting is done. Which is a good and not so good thing because my expectations were shattered.

Last summer, this pretty flower came into our home. For those that do not know, I don’t like having flowers inside the house and nor am I very interested in learning how to care for them. But this one charmed me with its beautiful blue and so I took it home.

After the petals had fallen, I have been waiting for it to bloom again, refusing to believe others who insisted that it will no longer be a blue blossom.

And here it is, it’s not blue but white. I only now found out that the plant must have been injected with ink and so the beautiful color can be explained.

(yes, it's true, I have strawberry string lights on my balcony)

But it’s ok. I must consider my winnings, and this one is not at all a small one – a plant survived me. Which is not an easy thing to do, actually!

 

P.S. Please don’t read this as an encouragement to give me plants in pots!

Monday 12 February 2024

The Power of Music

I spent the last weekend unable to speak due to a cold (yes, it's sad that I could not shriek as I normally do when we visit my folks), but music did it instead. 

And it keeps going, since someone told me that in time music tends to remind you of the moments you lived. I listen, I live and I dance. And I hope you do, too. And if your soles hurt due to so much jumping on this song then you are doing it right.

Sunday 28 January 2024

Everything Everlasting

I first listened to the An Experience of Being CD when pupils where running around me, telling me to switch it off because it was too sad.

So I started singing to them about happiness and Hope street. The pupils loved it, learned the song and sang it at their parents’ house, who were also happy about it.

But I took the CD home and listened to it. And I very much liked it. The way the songs connect with the poems it’s really extraordinary. You can listen below the wonderful voice of the actress Leopoldina Bălănuță and the singer Narcisa Suciu. And I do have to warn you, it will touch you to the very core.

Leopoldina Bălănuță - unfortunately, none of the poems on the album can be found on the internet. One of my favorites is the Poem of the Woman Who Loved Spring by Magda Isanos. Below, you can see Leopoldina Bălănuță reciting one of Lucian Blaga's poems called Silence:


Narcisa Suciu – You could have been


Wednesday 24 January 2024

You are not alone

For those that feel they are stuck, stressed, helpless, ignored, at the end of their wits or patience - you are not alone!


Monday 22 January 2024

Ideas

I haven't worked for ERs, but some crazy work experiences have taught me the importance of making a plan and clarifying priorities. 

A positive work environment might seem like a utopia, but I sincerely think it is not. It starts with you and with the fact that you alone can give the tone to how you deliver your tasks, in a real or a crazy way.

And this is also explained in the video below.

Wednesday 17 January 2024

Solution

Are you looking for solutions to your problems? Well, this is it, I have the answer. The universal one, actually.

Stop it!

My sis knows best. Shw was the one teaching me the saying 'An oak does not fell at one stroke'. And there are so many strikes...

Sunday 31 December 2023

Books I've read in 2023 and I dearly recommend them

Dintre cărțile citite în 2023, cele de mai jos m-au încântat și le puteți lua în considerare dacă sunteți în căutare de ceva bun de citit’.

 

A Sweet Death - Simone de Beauvoir 

Stela – Simona Goșu

The Invisible Woman and Other Stories – Slavenka Drakulic

Origins - Saša Stanišić 

Dominant Genes – Ștefania Mihalache

Who watches over the Watchers? – Dorel Vișan

Battles in the Desert – Jose Emilio Pacheco

Daniel Stein, translator – Lyudmila Ulitskaya

Strălucitor (Irradiant) – Viorel Ilișoi

Uprooting – Sașa Zare

Call me Esteban - Kalamujić, Lejla

Alice's murders – Guillermo Martinez

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership – Daniel Goleman

The Yellow Eyes of Crocodiles – Katherine Pancol

Whereabouts – Jhumpa Lahiri

Strung to the Ground – Lorina Bălteanu

Fresh Water for Flowers – Valerie Perrin

One of Us is Too Many - Sidonia Drăgușanu 

Freedom – Virginia Woolf

Outgrowing God – Richard Dawkins

The Need for Memories – Gheorghe Filip

I never belonged to You – Horațiu Lașcu

Traveling through Babadag – Andrzej Stasiuk

My Heroes – Viorel Ilișoi

The Dedauls Book of Slovak Literature – Peter Karpinsky

Humans – Matt Haig

When We were Happy – Jiyoung Gong

The Winters of the Soul – Katherine May

Vorbe la purtător în izmene pe călător – Ohara Donovetsky

The Bitch – Pilar Quintana

The Masks of Exile – Constantin Arcu

Killer Motive – Ann Girdharry

Echoes in the Memory of Time – Claude Spaak

About Woman's brain and Other Demons – Sofia Nădejde

A Lot of Force and a Gramme of Gentleness – Andrei Dosa

The Lost Shadow – Carmen Firan

The Analysis of the Mind – Bertrand Russell

Mariana Trench – Jasmin Schreiber 

Undoctored – Adam Kay

God is One Block of Flats Away – Ciprian Măceșaru

Lost on Planet China – J. Marteen Troost

Hatred – Anne Holt

Zen in the Art of Writing – Ray Bradbury

Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Adichie

The Physics of Sorrow – Gheorghi Gospodinov

The Sexual Life of Cannibals - J. Marteen Troost

The Queen – Liliana Nechita

The Book of Illusions – Paul Auster

Floriography – Jessica Roux 

Cousins – Karen McManus

All My Colors – David Quantick

The Lady with Dark Sunglasses – Sidonia Drăgușanu