An invitation to my new website

Hi guys,

So the time has come for me to move on to a new domain, so please come join me at: beetheadventure.com from now on. The first NYC based blogs are already there!

See you soon and thanks for being here with me.

Love,

Magu

OK, this is serious

If I am beginning to pack two days beforehand, then we're on to something.

And I'm writing this as a break from running around my parents' place, where I have been sort of moving back to with my things since Monday, trying to figure out what I want and need to take, and being freaked out by the amount of unnecessary stuff I own and have to dig through to get to the goodies that will accompany me to NYC.

So there you go - big things ahead, it would seem!

*     *      *      *      *

Instead of getting myself sorted out before the trip, I've been spending the last days getting good amounts of sleep (most of the nights, at least) and hanging out with friends. I was waiting for the reisefieber to kick in but it was like waiting for the Godot to arrive.

My friends were giving me some incredulous looks, saying how surprised they were to see me that calm when the departure was oh, so close. I have to say I was giving myself a lot of those looks as well and was actually getting stressed out that I wasn't stressed out about leaving. I mean, I'd get those fractions of a second when suddenly it'd hit me that in 5/4/3/2 days I'd be in NYC already, and I'd get goosebumps all over, but they'd be gone as soon as they appeared. I kept on replying them (the friends, not the goosebumps) that well, there was not really all that much to stress out about - I had my tickets, had a place to stay and the money to pay for the trip, so everything else was going to fall right into place, right?

However, today during dinner (I invited my Godmother, from whom I'd been renting my room this past year, and my parents out to spend some time together and at the same time to kind of say thank you without really saying 'thank you') I could feel the tension growing until I almost started crying on the tram back, for no apparent reason. Then I told myself to get over it and well, it seems that the tension's gone.

*     *      *      *      *

What I am tense about, though, is the fact that I was supposed to have my new website up and running by now, getting ready to post my first blog from NYC already there but the friend that's helping me put it up has somehow been unreachable during the weekend. This little thing I am stressed out about, as I was so looking forward to showing you my logo!

*     *      *      *      *

OK, off to pack. Or eat. Or sleep. Or I don't know, maybe it's time to check the weather forecast or something?

Oh, by the way - if you still haven't seen  that I've entered a new travel writing piece for a contest, you can read it here. Apart from reading, I would urge you to vote for me as well. *pretty pretty please*

I can win a 2day long survival techniques training and a bunch of trekking gear, plus I'd get published in an ebook. The money will be given to charity, so it's that much better!

Speaking of ebooks, my last contest travel journal from Sicily got already published but then last night I saw that it vanished from the publisher's fanpage and ebook store. It was supposed to be available till the end of the year, so something's not right. I sent them an inquiry but seems that they don't work on the weekends. Strange much?

OK, now I'm seriously off.

Good night.

Getting my dance shoes ready

Is what I should be doing.

And what I was thinking about doing but then I realised I didn't have my dance shoes any more.

*     *     *     *     *

A lack of a job gives one a lot of time. One afternoon I decided to use that time by searching through the Groupon deals for NYC. All 550 of them.

*     *      *     *     *

5 x 3h Friday hip hop classes at BLADE

1 x flamenco class at Sabor Flamenco

20 x class at Piel Canela

5 x pole dance class at Zack's Dance Loft

6 x belly dance at Drom

20 x kickboxing at World Martial Arts Center

10 x Brasilian jiu jitsu at Brooklyn Martial Arts

1 x Zumba master class thanks to an awsome birthday present

=

68 classes bought so far

Plus, at least one 10class pass for Broadway Dance Center, so together nearly 80h of pleasure already bought.

*     *     *     *     *

Do I see my first purchase on American soil coming up?

Relationships are limiting and other stuff

Somehow, in the age where for the first time in the humankind history people could finally live whatever life they wish for, we've globally decided to deprive ourselves of all the joys and excitment in exchange for a daily routine most of us despise. It keeps on astonishing me day in day out but there's only so many "But it's only up to you to change it!" I can offer.

 *      *     *      *      * 

A couple of months back I met this incredibly positive girl Maggie, a Pole who's lived in Denmark for many years now, and she told me a very wise thing (well, she shared a lot of those, but that's the one I need today), which I'll paraphrase for you - Magda, when I was younger (and she is 3 or 4 years my junior... ekhm) I used to do that as well - use so much energy to try and convince people around me that they had to power to be happier. I'd talk, be excited, give them all the energy I could muster but you know what? Most of the time it would leave them stuck in the same old, whereas I'd be out of energy and would have none left for myself. Everyone's at a different stage and have their own pace, give them the time they need and let them come to you.

Already then I was planning to launch a couple of projects that would be about something more and bigger than myself, as it has mostly been till now. To tell you the truth, I think that's why I've been writing less and less, not publishing so many photos on the other blog - I've grown enough to realise that what I do is not all that meaningful to anybody else and even if it were, as I know people respond to me and my adventures, I don't reach out to as many as I think I could. Many factors contribute to the fact: I'm not "out there" in the virtual world, I do close to no publicity for my blogs, I don't write in Polish (and I think our market needs all the inspiration it can get, especially if one wants to get through to the average Joe, who won't necessarily speak English), the websites themselves are not too userfriendly or interesting yadda yadda yadda.

I didn't use to understand people who'd talk about how they truly want to help others change their lives, it sounded so cliche to me, but now I'm pretty much one of the bunch. These days, I see people look at me the way I used to look at others, whose ranks I trust I've now joined. To end this part of blabbing, let me just tell you that the blog and my writing will be moving onto a different virtual location in the following months and I wholeheartedly believe I'll be able to make better use of my time, energy, the amount of words typed and pictures published.

*      *     *      *      * 

However, going back to the title at hand, I wanted to share a reflection that's been coming back to me the last couple of years, whenever my relationship status was discussed. Namely, when I'd say I like being in a relationship more than being single, people would tell me something along the lines of: Well, but then you couldn't travel so much and you wouldn't be able to have all those experiences and adventures! I honesty never understood why anyone would believe that. 

When I was younger I had a long time boyfriend with whom we were planning some serious world travelling but somehow after a while all I'd hear from him in relation to those grant plans were excuses as to why we'd have to wait another year. At one point in time, we were about to break up the first day we meet personally anyways (I was living in Belgium and he was back in Poland), so one day I decided I'd had enough of waiting and booked my first solo flights, to Madrid and Mallorca. What followed later was a period of intense and, almost exclusively, solo travel. For a long time while in the relationship, I'd hold a grudge against my ex for leading me to believe we'd travel together and not following up on that promise. I used to tell him and myself alike that he was stopping me from setting off and I think it's safe to say it was one of the main reasons that we started drifting apart. Now that I'm smarter, I know he wasn't stopping me from doing anything, I was great at it all by myself. Now that I'm smarter, I know that I should have left on the trips I was dreaming about by myself and it did not in any way have to stay in contradiction to us being together. But back then, I wasn't that smart. So we drifted apart and eventually split up.

I know that for a lot of people coming out from a relatioship feels like regaining their freedom but then it just means that they weren't in a good relationship to begin with, doesn't it? Surely, you wouldn't want to tie yourself to a person who in return ties you down, would you? Or maybe it's not that that person ties us down as much as the neediness we've been taught comes with a relationship? The need to always be together, the need to share all hobbies, the need to do everything together. It's tiring to even think about all those "needs" we empose on those delicate human relations, let alone the process of executing them. 

So when you feel you're being limited by your relationship, stop. Look at yourself, at your partner, at how and what you communicate and re-evaluate. It's either your attitude or not the right partner at the time. We all grow and constantly change, even though we might not realize it. Every book you read, every person you meet, every meal you eat - all of them influence us in one way or another. Luckily, sometimes we manage to grow in the same direction our partners do, which makes for lasting relationships. Sometimes, we find each other only in a given place and for a given time to experience just a part of our life journeys together. Both cases will bring to our lives as much as we allow them to.

Coming back to the "you couldn't travel part" - why the heck not?

Here, to back up my words in the most valid way I could find, I would cordially invite you to visit this website and read all about how a relationship can be the base for a most rewarding and aventurous life.

Norwegian birthday weekend officially over

Unfortunately, time to go back home today!

I must admit that we didn't really get to see that much over the weekend (apart from two kitchens and two living rooms, that we saw a ton of!), but it's not like Oslo's one of those heavily interesting places sight-seeing wise. To tell you the truth, I wouldn't call it heavily interesting any-wise.

*      *       *       *       *

Yet again, CS turned out to be humankind's most awsome invention when it comes to individual travel. Actually, group travel as well - 5 already constitutes a group, right?

We had a most charming CSer help us out on the spot and the sweetest host (who's not even a CS host, mind you) we could imagine, which got us all very relaxed and well, kind of lazy when it come to leaving the house.

*      *       *       *       *

We managed to have some highlights, and those - for me - included:

- buying a 6pack of beer at the airport for 55 NOK and later seeing that the price of that same beer (in the amount of 1) sold for 62 NOK;

- going to a take away burger joint where a burger would be twice as expensive as a whole burger menu in a restaurant in Warsaw;

- dancing with the dance-moves-infected En in a pub where all the Norwegians looked as if they wanted to put us in a room (a white room) (a room with cushioned walls and without doorknobs);

- a kick ass birthday pancake breakfast;

- cheering for the Norwegians finishing the annual Oslo Marathon (and almost starting to cry when I found out there was one - my goal for this year was to take part in a half marathon but I couldn't find any in a suitable date before I leave for the States, so I decided to move that goal for the next year. Turns out I could have done it during a trip. On my birthday. With the Vikings. I don't think it gets better than that...);

- cooking the most delicious birthday dinner with two other Poles, an Australian, a Lithuanian and a Romanian (ha, I bet you didn't know Norway is so multicultural, did you?). Getting the maximum taste after having stuffed our faces with leniwe in a creamy garlic broccoli sauce, mushroom and cod fish risotto followed by home made chocolate cupcakes mixed with caramel ice-cream. I don't remember the last time I had so many food babies;

- a pancake carnage of a Sunday breakfast - eating so many melted chocolate & banana pancakes sprinkled with the best halva since my Belgian days that I had to skip lunch and dinner, because I wouldn't feel any hunger;

- going mushroom hunting in a wood surrounding a beautifully set lake on the outskirts of Oslo and realizing there were no mushrooms to hunt;

- doing a 40 minute jog back home and finally beginning to digest breakfast (breakfast - 11 am, jog - 6:30 pm);

- dancing on a stage behind a crazy blues band at Oslo's most talked about Sunday night venue - Bla.

Not too bad, me thinks!

Running away to the Vikings

You know what they say - if you wanna feel young again, roll with the Vikings!

(Ok, admittedly - I might have made that one up.)

However, that's still what I'm doing this birthday weekend. In order to embrace my age more gracefully (a quarter of a century already!), I've decided to make myself feel younger by spending my d-day (b-day) in a beautiful settings with a looong history. Thus, Oslo - beware!

*      *       *       *       *

In the beginning it was supposed to be just me, then Ewa & me, then like 7 people & me, suddenly 12 people & me. Now, as everyone's been cancelling, up until the very end, it will most probably be 4 people & me. Plus our hosts. Plus their surfers and maybe other CSer. So still quite a party. And yes, I'm counting on being the youngest of the bunch! ;)

*      *       *       *       *

See you from Norway!

I'm not the only one who loves to be right, right?

Not so long ago I shared with you a strong feeling I had, namely that the better and more exciting part of the year was just around the corner. And I was so right.

Still can't come out with everything, as some projects are not finalised yet, but let me tell you - it's gonna be awsome.

*     *     *      *      *

Tonight starts the craziness of the better part of 2012. 

Let me explain how so:

Sat, 08.09 

8:30 am meeting 

10 am a shopping spree 

4 pm a wedding and a reception

Sun, 09.09 

8 am bus to Poznan, 

2 pm have lunch in Poznan

3-3:30 pm back on the highway to hitch hike to Frankfurt an Oder 

6-6:30 pm (hopefully) get picked up by Paula somewhere in her town :)

Mon, 10.09

5 pm leave Frankfurt for Poznan

7:30-8 pm arrive in Poznan for the night

Tue, 11.09

8 am bus to Warsaw

2:00 pm arrive in Warsaw, eat lunch, grab Zumba gear

4:45 pm give a Zumba class

6 pm tutor English

7:30 pm dinner with a French friend

Wed, 12.09

leave Warsaw in the morning and head for the lake region to work at a corporate event

Thu, 13.09

work at the event

Fri, 14.09

2 pm come back to Warsaw

6 pm catch a train to Wolomin (a town outside of Warsaw)

7 pm give a Zumba class

Sat, 15.09

8:30 am - 3 pm attend Kongres Kobiet, a national event focusing on women

4 pm co-host a Zumba marathon

7 pm arrive at WITC end of the season BBQ

Sun, 16.09

10 am - 3:30 pm massage course, this time using coconut bowls

You get the picture or should I go on?

*     *      *     *     *

By the way - a curious thing. 

One of my friend's fb update said something along the lines of "Only 3,5 months and the new year is here:)!", which got me really surprised. In the comments she said that this year has disappointed her and she can't wait for it to be over. So I write her "well, you've 3,5 months to make this year amazing. Ready, set, go!" but I guess she didn't share my enthusiasm. 

Man, why do people prefer to count down till the end of the year already deciding that it's not gonna bring anything good, instead of working at making the remaining time so amazing that it will feel as if the whole year's been superb? I know that it's gonna be the case with me (you'll see just how much so once I get one more set of plain tickets...) and I believe those upcoming 15 weeks are enough for anyone to live some great adventures. 

So please people - ready, set, go!

 

Salad creation - my new favourite pastime

After the night I spent investigating raw food diet, I decided on it being my long term goal. Or at least giving it a shot for a couple of months and seeing how I feel.

I've never had a strong enough will to go on any diet (or maybe I just never truly felt I needed one) and food/eating habits are the part of life I have most difficulties being strict with. Thus, I'm not looking to go all extreme and deprive myself of all the "goodies" ("badies" when you look at it from your health's persective) I'm used to, because it's not about loosing weight. It's about eating myself healthy instead of eating myself sick. I decided to start with being more aware of what I consume and also how much I consume of it, which will hopefully lead to healthier choices.

*     *     *     *     *

"You can either pay the cost of health or pay the price for sickness"

                                       D. Graham

For quite a while now, I've been keeping a record of all my spendings, down to every penny. It helps you understand your spending habits and, if you so wish, enables you to easily see how you could be more efficient with your money (aka stop spedning on unnecessary sh**). Those last couple of days I took a new approach to reviewing my almighty Excel sheet, which is to say that I've classified one month's food spendings and gave different colours to "healthy", "sweets", "unnecessary" etc. Wow, I'm really bad at this health stuff! (even if I am getting better with $ management...)

*     *     *     *     *

I've started avoiding meat and processed foods but hey, you can't change it all in one day! However, I've been trying to eat salads as the two main dishes during the day and munch only on raw products. I did slip by having another Limoni ice cream (seriously, their stuff is just too good), though I did take healthy (sounding) flavours at least! (banana, peanuts)

As I am already beginning to adapt a new approach to eating, I've decided to get more creative with heathy(er) food. 

For example today - for breakfast I made myself a salad consisting of: red grapes, red bell pepper, red and yellow cherry tomatoes, a nectarine and a tiny bit of blue cheese. While I was cutting all the ingredients, my dad was looking at me as if I were crazy. Admittedly, I considered putting some watermelon in there as well, but I chickened out. Maybe it's good that I did, because the taste was better than I imagined! The veggie-fruit combination interrupted by tiny chunks of blue cheese is a revelation to me.  I would have never guessed those things could go together so well. I think I need to trademark it or something. 

For lunch I had to turn to processing a bit - bought big courgettes a couple of days ago and I'm not sure if and how you eat those raw. A bit of olive oil, garlic, hot pepper and a couple of minutes on the frying pan resulted in the basis for my next salad invention. My parents brought a lot of cherry tomatoes from our summer house, so I added more of those to a bowl where the chopped courgette was waiting, plus some raisins and hazel nuts, a small piece of peccorino-like cheese from Milan, sun dried tomatoes and two spoons of natural yogurt. 

The result? Moist and crunchy veggies coupled with the spiciness of garlic and finely chopped hot pepper, the salty cheese mitigated by yogurt, which in turn stands in great contrast with the taste of sun dried tomates. We mustn't forget the occasional sweet surprise in the form of raisins, which are a winning combo with the very few nuts. 

D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. (some sunflower seeds would have made it perfect)

If anyone's got any ideas for names for the two above, hit me up. 5% royalties is yours.

Magu's Bucket List #18

Do you have a Bucket List?

I do! But somehow it seems that I always just partially get things done.

Like the "show and dinner at Moulin Rouge", which I did without dinner but was so disappointed with the show that I don't wanna go back there again.

Or "learn to surf on a beach in US" whereas I did so on a beach in Indonesia.

Or "do an internship abroad" which I did in India, but it wasn't quite as valuable professionally as I would have thought, thus not really meeting my criteria for this BL point.

*     *      *      *      *

"Have my article published" is what it says at number 18, with a deadline for 2013.

"Your story has been chosen among the contest works and will be published in our travel journals ebook, to be released beginning of October." reads an email I got around an hour ago.

*     *     *      *      *

I must admit, I feel pretty damn' proud of myself. 

But then again, does a travel story qualify as an article when it comes to my Bucket List #18...? ;)

You are what you eat = towards raw diet?

Was staying at my parents' place for two nights and came back home tonight just to find out that there will be no gas for 3 days, which means no warm water, which in turn means no cooking and no showering. So I'll most probably go back to my parents' place for a couple more nights.

However, the fact that I couldn't cook anything for dinner tonight (was planning cousous with chicken and aubergine in coconut milk...) made me think about the raw diet concept.

*     *     *     *     *

It's not the first time I've thought about it, although it's not been long since I first started playng with the idea in my head. The first time was when I met Maggie, who told me she had to adjust her diet while in Poland and eat 'normal' food, which made her feel worse and gain weight in no time.

I think she's the first raw-getarian I've met. 

I know a couple of vegans and quite a few vegetarians (a guy I was with for over 4 years has been vegetarian since birth), I've even been told by a friend that I'd go vegetarian myself one day, because "I had a vegetarian face" (love you, Chloe baby!).

The truth is I like meat and I never really had a bad conscious about eating it. However, the more I read about nutrition, health and the "quality" of food that we get fed with, the more I'm beginning to question every eating habit I have. And well, it doesn't look good.

*     *      *      *      *

When asked about a proper diet and their eating habits, a lot of people use the excuse of a lack of time to convince themselves it's ok to eat the way they do, even though they know they should change it. I cannot be using that excuse now, as I'm free to cook every day (apart from the time they cut off my gas, but that's once in a blue moon) and for every meal. Why don't I then, why do I keep on eating the same low-quality foods all the time?

It's not really the question of f.e. eating less white bread or less sweets, 3 or 5 times a day, with or without breakfast. It goes way deeper than that. Mostly, it's about the type of products I consume (processed, not bio, cooked) and how much I consume of it (way more than my body actually needs).

*     *     *      *      *

I go around telling everyone how people could use some more self-awareness in their professional and personal lives. How they should start asking themselves "why am I doing this?", find the true motivators behind their choices, or the lack thereof.

I think it's about time to start being more self-aware when it comes to what I fuel my body with and how I affect it by not giving much thought to my eating habits. Maybe not even that, but doing more research on the matter. As I've already mentioned, I never felt the need to go veggie but I always came to the conclusion that the veggie people I got to know where the most knowledgeable when it came to health and proper nutrition. Most of the people I met who did extensive research on how given foods influence our bodies, ditched meat and some other products at one point or another. They might be on to something...

*     *      *      *      *

It's not to say that starting tomorrow, I'm completely changing my diet. However, I think I've finally matured enough to start consciously choosing how I'll reshape my eating habits.

Once upon a time I used to drink lots of Pepsi, Nestea and such. Now, I've a problem finishing a glass of soda. Once upon a time I didn't like drinking plain water. Now I don't really feel like drinking anything else (which many a time is very hard for people to understand, especially when we're out and everyone looks at me as if I'm crazy for not wanting a drink or even a cartonbox juice, opting for water instead).

I didn't use to like so many vegetables! But I made a conscious decision to change it and little by little, I've taught myself to tolerate, than like and finally enjoy the majority of those. 

So this is what I'll do - I'll start eating myself healthy, strong, active and happy. 

Still figuring out what the exact steps will be, so if any of you have some good reading material, I'd love for you to share it either here or on the fanpage. I know it'll be hard, 'cause I'll be fighting with 25 years of habits and the whole environment which doesn't really help the cause of healthy dieting. Also, I throughly enjoy the unhealthy and processed food, or so I think. 

Seeing how I used to love Pepsi and now barely can drink it, I think there's hope.

*     *      *      *      *

A couple of cool sites I've come across, if you're interested in seeing what I'll be aiming at incorporating into my life:

Rawmazing - amazing how delicious those innovative raw recipes sound, can't wait to try them out!

Salad Pride - tens of salads 

Feed me better - healthy recipes in Polish

Dietetycznie w kuchni - a healthy way to prepare some well known dishes, in Polish

Dietetycznie siostro - two Polish sisters showing us how to prepare our fav dishes in a clean healthy way

Rawstaurant - vegan, raw and with videos!

Plus a short article, just to get your juices flowing in the right direction.

*     *     *     *     *

Let me know what your views on a healthy diet are!

The appaling things we do to our planet

One of the jobs I've been doing lately is translating for an Australian company that runs rainforest conservation projects. I translated all the needed legals, the company mission statement etc. so I already knew more about how badly we need to start changing our carbon footprint but still, nothing hit base quite as hard as the statistics I've recently finished translating.

*     *     *     *     *

Did you know, that:

* 55% of the world's largest rainforest stands to be severely damaged from agriculture, drought, fire, logging and livestock ranching over the next 22 years?

* 2000 trees, or the equivalent of 7 football fields, are being cut down every minute in the Amazon rainforest?

* only 4% of original forests in the United States remain, the rest are gone?

* the length of time carbon dioxide stays in the earth's atmosphere before it is absorbed into carbon sinks is between 50 and 200 years?

* in The United States, cars and trucks emit 314 metric tonnes of CO2 every year, and that is the equivalent to burning as much coal as would fit in an over 80 000 kilometres long train?

* an average tree absorbs about 20 kilograms of Carbon Dioxide per year. The average person produces 7 tonnes of Carbon Dioxide per year?

* in 2008 the arctic seasonal sea ice melt outpaced normal levels by 34% and there has been a 70% increase in the rate of Greenland's ice melt over the last five years?

* on average, the 140 million cars in The United States are estimated to travel over 6.4 billion kilometres in a day, and according to the Department of Transportation, they use over 200 million gallons of gasoline doing it?

* the consumption of oil in the United States and Canada alone is said to be close to 11 litres per person, per day. In other countries that are part of the OECD, the consumption of oil is 5.2 litres per person, per day. In other nations that are not part of the OECD, the consumption is as little as 0.76 litres per person per day?

* in 2007 $1.6 billion of jet fuel was burned by planes waiting in line to take off at airports?

* 1% of Australia's untapped geothermal power potential could provide enough energy to last 26,000 years?

* citizens in the United States spend $25 billion a year on lawn care. Residential lawns and gardens are doused with 80 million pounds of chemical pesticides and 70 million tonnes of fertilizers annually?

* only 1% of China's 560 million city residents breathe air that is considered safe by the European Union. Cancer is now becoming China's leading cause of death?

* very few oil spills are ever officially reported. On average there are 27 oil spills every day somewhere in the oceans of the world?

* with current human population growth and global warming, the world is going to be fighting over drinkable water supplies by mid-century?  

* by the time you finish reading this sentence, more than 50 000 aluminum cans are made in The United States?

* in The United States they throw away enough aluminium cans to rebuild their entire commercial air fleet every three months?

* the US, Mexico and China lead the world in bottled water consumption, with people in the US drinking an average of 200 bottles of water per person each year. Over 17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 86 per cent of which will never be recycled?

* about 1% of U.S. landfill space is devoted entirely to disposable diapers, which take 500 years to decompose?

* for every single garbage bin that you take outside on garbage day, 70 equivalent cans of garbage were produced by all the various manufacturing processes that created the bin in the first place?

* if the entire world lived like the average American citizen, we'd need 5 planets to provide enough resources?

* cigarette manufacturing uses almost 6.5 kilometres of paper just for rolling and packaging cigarettes? That is one tree for every 300 cigarettes produced.

* there's a swirling vortex of waste and debris in the Pacific Ocean, which covers an area twice the size of the continental U.S. and is believed to hold almost 100 million tonnes of garbage?

* with the current levels of rainforest destruction many local species are going extinct at a rate of 100 species per day?

If you're one of them skeptics but with an open mind, a recource you might wanna check - Skeptical Science.

*     *      *      *       *

As for me, I can already see a change in my behaviour when it comes to consuming some of the goods. More about that in one of the following blogs though, together with a couple of real simple pointers about what we can do that will slightly change how we live and mightly change the impact of our lives on the planet.

So naive it hurts

Whenever people seem to think I travel a lot, I always tell them: Nah, just Europe mostly. Sure, I had my periods of more intense travelling but I wouldn't go as far as to say I did a whole lot of it. 

*     *     *     *      *

However, I must have somehow got caught up with all those praises and in my naïvety, I too started thinking I was well travelled in Europe. So when a couple of days ago a thought of I-know-what-I-should-do-next-year came to mind taking the form of I'll finish visiting all the European capitals, I had the notion of it being an easy task.

Then I went back to the map.

And almost shouted out in shock.

If I'm so well travelled, why are there more capitals I haven't been to than the ones I have??

Out of the 47 recognized ones (incl. Ankara and Baku) on Wikipedia, I've visited 21, with one coming up in 2,5 weeks (Oslo). However, among those 22 there are 5 that I'd like to revisit, as my memories from those places are very vague or I haven't spent enough time in there to get a feel of them (Rome, Ljubljana, Monako, Amsterdam, Zagreb).

So that kind of leaves me with 17 out of 47 capitals.

Well travelled my ass, I tell ya.

*      *      *      *       *

Long story short, if anyone's thinking about visiting any of the below next year (or till Oct 23rd this year) and would like some company, or can give some vital advice about and is willing to share, please step up. 

1. Ankara, Turkey

2. Moscow, Russia

3. Baku, Azerbaijan

4. Podgorica, Montenegro

5. Kiev, Ukraine

6. Tbilisi, Georgia

7. Skopje, Macedonia

8. Vilnius, Lithuania

9. Belgrade, Serbia

10. Riga, Latvia

11. Minsk, Belarus

12. Bucharest, Romania

13. Yerevan, Armenia

14. Helsinki, Finland

15. Tallinn, Estonia

16. Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

17. Chişinău, Moldova

18. Copenhagen, Denmark

19. Lisbon, Portugal

20. Bern, Switzerland

21. Tirana, Albania

22. Athens, Greece

23. Vaduz, Liechtenstein

24. City of San Marino, San Marino

25. Valletta, Malta

26. Vatican City

 and I'd also add

27. Edinburgh

28. Cardiff

plus the ones I want to revisit

29. Rome 

30. Ljubljana

31. Monako

32. Amsterdam

33. Zagreb

Damn', that would have to be some intense capital sight-seeing! (pun intended)

Discovering new potential

One of the jobs I have at the moment is organizing MICE movement (meetings, incentives, conferences, events) with a cool event company based in Warsaw. A couple of weeks back, I had an inquiry for 4 different types of courses, although the client had no idea what kind of courses they wanted. I went with massage as one of the options.

Now, a massage course had been on my mind for a long time and I figured it might be interesting for the client to have their attendants participate in one. Never having done any and not knowing about it all too much, I started my online research to find reliable partners (i.e. massage academies). There are many, just as there are many types of massage. Yet again, I was a bit unfamiliar with the matter at hand. Long story short, I called a couple of venues up and got their offers, asked them what they'd recommend for my specific client profile and never thought of it much. Until a week later, when I got a phone call from one of the academies I hadn't been able to reach.

I was surprised to get a phone call after a couple of days saying: We just heard the message you left us (in which I stated how urgent of a matter it was) and are getting back to you with our offer. At first, I admit, I kind of wanted to laugh at their service, but then thought - hey, maybe they've something interesting to offer. The lady I was on the phone with started telling me about a trizillion of different massage types they were teaching, all of which had mysterious names such as "bamboo sticks massage", "a burning candle massage", "Thai stamps massage" etc. I started feeling I'd need a head massage soon, if I were to remember the specifics of all she was listing, so instead I just said I'd have to come by when they had one of their future courses, so I could meet their training specialist and see how the whole thing looks like. And then, to my surprise (a very pleasant one), the lady said: We'd love to have you over for a course then. I'd love to have them have me over for a course, I thought to myself, and asked her to send me the dates of whatever they had scheduled for the coming weeks. A couple of days go by and I receive an email with 4 different courses, saying: Please let us know which courses you would like to attend.

So I go - 'courses'? Wow, I can take more than one? That is so cool!

However, not wanting to overdo it, I signed up for just two - the bamboo sticks and a chocolate one.

*     *     *     *      *

Let's just say a couple of words of introduction to each other. First of all, it will be nicer to work together. Second of all, I'd like to know how long you've been in the massage business for, or in the cosmetics/beautician business. It'll make my job easier to know how much each of you knows about how the body is built etc. says the trainer and I begin to feel a bit out of place.

Somehow, I'd assumed that as it was a short, 6 hour long course, it was mostly attended by amateurs like myself. Wrong. I was in a group with a girl holding a master's in physical therapy, two owners of massage parlours wanting to introduce new products and a masseuse working for the venue the training was taking place in. Yikes!

Umm or if someone's not from any of the above? I suggest shyly. The surprised trainer asks what I mean and as soon as I follow it up with the The only thing I've in common with massage is that I've been given one twice. answer, I see consternation and dismay on his face. Oops.

*     *     *     *     *

To get the most of such a course, you work in pairs. While the first person is receiving a massage, which the other person is learning to give, they have a great opportunity to soak in whatever movement their partner is doing and at the same time listen to the trainer's instructions. They say it's a lot more beneficial, if you're the first to lay down (no pun intended, guys). Seeing how I was way behind with any knowledge that might be expected of you at a massage course, I secured the better spot. Knowing that I was kind of out of place, I did my best to remember as much theory  as I could and pair it up with the movements I could feel being practiced on my body. By the time it was my turn to start giving the massage, that's pretty much what I did - I just started performing it. 

Regardless of the bamboo sticks that come into the picture later during the massage, you have to warm up the body first and in this case, the warm up was to be ended with a short shoulders and neck massage.

Why did you lie? I hear the trainer, who suddenly appeared to my right, ask. 

Eeee? I answer brightly.

Why did you lie you never did a massage course before? He insists.

Eeee... because I never have? Yet again, those brains of mine!

And then it turns out that apparently he could never tell and that I've just the hand movement needed to be a good masseuse.

You've got talent for it, Magda! He says and leaves puzzled to see to the other pair. Not as puzzled as I am, I can tell you!

*     *     *     *      *

The course was a lot of fun but it is indeed good that I got to chance to take part in it for professional reasons as well - now I know that it's definitely not the type of a thing I would suggest to a corporate client. It also gave me a chance to pick the instructor's brain about what would be good, and he mentioned the burning candle massage. It so happens that he's giving that course tomorrow and I got invited to participate in it as well. It will be followed by the Sunday chocolate massage course, which I'd been already signed up for. Am really curious to see what those two are all about! 

Plus, the fact that by being invited to participate in those 3 trainings I'm saving almost 500$, and still getting the diplomas, makes it all the more exciting!

*     *     *     *     *

The truth is, before last Saturday's course I thought of it as an "only for fun one-time thingy" but now that I've done it, I figure - why not? Why not get myself a set of bamboo sticks and practice on my friends? I enjoyed doing it and maybe if I've the "talent" for it, as the instructor so graciously put it, one day I could use it to make some cash? I don't think I'd ever consider being a full-time masseuse but having one more skill that others will pay for cannot be overestimated.

*     *     *    *     *

So what thing have you randomly tried lately which helped you realise you had a talent for?