The One Where A Childhood Dream Comes True

There is this tradition that when dining on the Christmas Eve you should prepare an extra tableware for an unexpected guest.
I had always wished such a guest would come. And this year my wish came true.

Stay tuned.

The One On The Independence Day

So far, the only positive way - i.e. unpretentious, not pompous, and devoid of national martyrology - I have found to celebrate Poland's Independence Day is running.

Run an 11-km Independence Day race - checked.

By the way: still hanging around 5min./1km pace. Satisfactory.

Stay tuned.

The One In The Book Fortress

Visiting a library I got books from almost all departments (good thing they all have separate limits):

• adutls'
• chldren's
• comic books'
• foreign languages'
• youth's (despite the fact that I am not really allowed to borrow books from there, since I am neither youth nor any pedagogical sciences student)

And a new library card, even though my old one was still in a good shape.

Incidentally, I made at least one person's day better on that occasion - a librarian smiled looking on my 'book lover' pendant and said she should get one too.

The most successful book hunt in ages.

And the best part is I do have time to read all that - Summer is here!
(Btw, is it weird that my dream holidays do not include me laying in a sand fortress on a beach, but me surrounded by a book fortress anywhere...?)

Stay tuned.

The One In The Mountains

In the mountains, first time in a looong time.

Physical stamina tests - lung capacity, muscle strength - passed. Never got out of breath, never felt totally exhausted.
Jogging, Irish dancing, cycling seem all to work out well and keep me in good condition.

Living in the most flat of all countries is a plus when a bike is your main means of transportation.
And you do not really notice - until you get back to normal and suddenly long forgotten bike gears start being useful again.
And you start missing slopes, hills, mountains...

Stay tuned.

The One With The Wall. Or How I Spent My Summer Vacation

I built a wall.
I have build a wall.
The wall in my friends' house-in-progress.
The wall that some day some one will lean on or hang a picture or sth.
In case you do not believe I have superpower: see proof.
It took me approximately five days of hard work.
But it feels... WOW!!

Stay tuned!

The One Where You Realise Summer Is Here Already

The Summer holidays are here. Which means: lots of great, non-mainstream movies all over my favourite cinemas, all days, every day, for the whole three months, and as cheap as a beer.

Perfect Sense

A chef (Ewan McGregor) and a scientist (Eva Green) fall in love as an epidemic begins to rob people of their sensory perceptions.
I did not know what to expect of that movie, since every description was so obscure; you could find more detailed ones, or some trailers, but they all failed to shed any more light on what to prepare yourself for.

In short: perfect music; perfect words; perfect moments of silence; perfect contrasts; perfect movie; perfect sense.

It left me speechless, crushed - in a similar way Melancholia did. As a matter of fact, the films are alike in some aspects, e.g. each of them presents two different attitudes towards the imminent catastrophe; they both give you different perspectives on how people can act on, approaching inevitably, end of the world as we know it.
Despite (or rather owing to?) the overwhelming feelings, I believe the film to be perfect.

Copie conforme (Certified Copy)

A middle-aged British writer has just published a book on the value of a copy versus the original work of art. At a book reading, a woman (Juliette Binoche) gives him her address, and the next day they meet and take a country-side drive to a local Italian village. Here, they discuss various works of art found in the town, and also the nature of their relationship - which gets both more revealed and concealed as the day progresses.
The movie copies the scheme of Before Sunrise / Before Sunset: we constantly follow a couple - we watch them walk, eat, have some chance encounters, we listen to them discuss various subjects, we observe them argue and see them reconcile etc.
I liked Before Sunrise and Before Sunset more, though. Maybe the reason would be that the protagonists of the Certified Copy were older, more experienced, and in a much different place in life, so I could not really empathise with them. I am not saying it was a waste of time, on the contrary, I did like it and had fun watching it and trying to unravel the puzzling story and the enigmatic nature of the couple's relationship. It just did not move me much.

Stay tuned.

The One With Christmas Wishes

It has begun.

However, it started quite nicely: not with long but scrappy and empty wishes, or with thoughtless Merry Christmas.
It started with considerate, forethought and sincere words.

Nonetheless, I am certain others will follow and that each time the experience will be less and less pleasant and just more irritating...

Any way...

Stay tuned.

The One Without The Christmas Spirit

Me and my friends agree that there's some thing missing around now and that some thing is snow. You can feel it in the air. You get the impression that it's going to fall any minute now - so it feels quite weird when it doesn't. You literally experience the lack of it.
Additionally, the season for all the X-mas decorations has just opened. All in all, it's only a month away from Christmas, so it's not that bad I believe...
The point is that without snow you cannot really feel the Christmas is coming. It feels wrong.

Or maybe the Christmas spirit is here already but I'm simply unable to spot it...?


Stay tuned!