Merry Christmas!

It has been an important pause since my last posting. We have a valid excuse though: my little family has shown exemplary solidarity in being sick  - nobody was left untouched. A good thing in being stranded at home for several weeks is that the usually fretted Christmas rush became actually a joyous and long-waited return to the civilitation! What a glorious an hour-and-a-half of wondering in the Christmas fare.. I managed to do all the planned Christmas shopping AND even get a haircut impressing even myself of my time management..Besides, there was going to be no preparation stress this Christmas anyways - we would be spending it peacefully at home with our little family of three. Looking at the news with people having spent a small fortune to spend the Christmas period on a mattress at the airports made us feel very lucky..

For some reason the need to prepare to-do lists emerged anyways: finish projects at work, send thank you notes, clean email box, get Christmas photos for cards, search missing addresses, send cards, get Christmas tree, book the cleaning lady, get Christmas star and red candles, prepare menu and grocery shopping list..the list goes on..strangely enough, in these times of prosperity that we live in, a most peculiar phenomenon occurred to make our preparations even harder - many of my strategic Christmas items are OUT OF STOCK in this city!

Ice-prevention liquid is out from the whole country and therefore airports closed for days, cleaning services are "out" because my girl is sick, no red glu wine in Ikea or Christmas cookie dough for cookie houses..the cherry on the cake was that my personal Christmas Tree Hunter went to 5 different places to get 1,5 - 2 m tree with no success! And one was finally delivered at home. How poshy is that. It's beautiful. And you can smell the price.  But let's remain positive - our Christmas is saved now! Another positive thing I need to share, cleaning my house all by myself made me realize two things: 1. I am definitely not over paying for my cleaning lady. It took me 7 hours instead of 5, but compared to her I am an amateur and perfectionist 2. There is something therapeutic in cleaning Your Own House. Your (not so little) Love Nest. And it definitely contributes to the Christmas feeling.

Then the moment comes; everything is finally ready: cooking, cleaning, wrapping, decorating - all done. It is evening, I sit down and enjoy. Christmas tree decorated, the table beautifully set with fruits, candles and chocolates, the Buche de Noël taking savour in the fridge. We did a long walk the three of us in the snow and admired the houses in Christmas decor, so white and peaceful. I feel utterly happy. It will be a Merry Christmas. 

White Chaos

I have been silently praying for us to have a white Christmas. It arrived early this year. Last night. It is difficult to describe the feeling when you are taken by surprise the first morning after the snow fall. There is something peaceful and magic in the white velvet suddenly covering trees, bushes, streets. Everything is pure and silent. It brings memories of childhood..winter games, red noses and hot chocolate. 

Until the first resident in this foreign country wakes up.

It seems quite funny that every single year 'snow' is considered as a phenomenon of  'force majeur', unfamiliar and -predictable guest creating a complete chaos in this country. 

Motorways are blocked as there is one snow cat serving half the country. They manage to reach the capital region in the evening. And then clean one lane only. The right one. People responsible are interviewed in the radio inquiring why the country does not have infrastructure necessary to clean the roads. Budget restrictions. BUT as a credible contingency plan they have invited the "free-lancers" -farmers from the periferia- to help clean the capital region roads with their mini-trucks. It takes two days before they have cleaned their way out to even reach the civilisation. 

Schools are closed due to risk at slippery roads and no transportation is offered. 

People are freezing due to unfamiliarity to heating systems and/or how to dress in layers. 

It is hilarious to hear the news announcing with trembling voice as a national drama that the temperature is likely to drop to -9 °C in the following night. Back from where I am babies are sleeping outside in -25°C.

It is equally entertaining to witness my fellow residents to clean their cars from snow. What a triumph of creativity! CD-covers, boxes, books..Great entertainment value, but why don't they just invest 2 euros and buy the proper equipment?

Ah, I really love this season!

Selective parenting

Monday morning 8 am. My husband is eating breakfast, our baby crawling happily on the floor, I am rushing to the bathroom. I hear my husband ask: "Hey honey, do you want to allow the baby go through your purse?" What a question.. "Noooo my love, I do not want her go through my bag."
I say no more not to start the week being annoying. But it obviously was said with an assumption.

5 minutes later I return to the dining room just to find my daughter in complete charm having emptied the full contents of my big bag to the living room floor. She has a focused look, mouth in a serious roll and hands processing out kleenex one by one. And my husband is eating breakfast.
"Loove, why didn't you do anything?"I scream. My husband lazely turning his head towards the mess: "Well Honey, I thought You might want to tell her she is not allowed to your bag."
"And why exactly did you think I would like to do that?" I ask.
"You do it so well."

I do it so well. I see. So it has started now. The game. My husband's strategy is obvious.
The "Who's in the good cards" game. "The Good cop, Bad cop" game.
Above all, he bursts out laughing when I confront him!
He admittedly does not want to forbit our daughter in order to stay in the Limelight in front of her adoring eyes. Mommy can do this part of parenting. What a fare share of work.

P.S. So the solution for rainy days is: what you do not see you obviously cannot forbid.. 

Questions of interpretation

A good friend of mine shared a lovely life wisdom with me yesterday. It goes like this: "Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, totally worn out and screaming 'WOOO HOOOOO what a ride!'"


I loved it! How authentic, strong and sexy!


Until today. When the truth came from my Dear Boss' mouth: I have obviously very successfully lived by this very motto.

We are looking together the "Who is Who" picture gallery of our work colleagues. Suddenly my photo appears. Pause. I hold my breath, silently congratulating myself of a surprisingly well-chosen photo - I actually look Happy. And tanned! Waiting for the gentleman compliment what do I hear instead? A Spontaneous, Hearty, Cruel laughter accompanied with: "What the Hell is this - taken 10 years ago or what?!!" 

The little bustard. I have to bite my tongue for not replying: "No, just before starting working for YOU".

Oh well, not to take too seriously Sisters. The capital is elsewhere as we all know. Life before husbands in crises, house renovations, 10 month long sleep deprivation, house loans and other complicated life arrangements May have been wrinkle free..But so much lacking flavour..


She says while reaching for the glass of Chateuneuf du Pape.


To the Girls!


P.S

Inside every older person is a younger person -- wondering what the hell happened.    ~ Cora Harvey Armstrong ~ 

Lingering culture shock(s)

I've been living abroad since 8.5 years now.  As in any other relationship, years tend to smoothen the roughest edges and build comprehension. But C'mon, let me share some of the "bizarries" that make my days:

(Nb! We are in an EU country here. 30 years after Just-in-Time delivery concept was invented. In the Era of IT. Of a Green(er) Europe.)

1. Delivering express mail home during office hours with 99% chance there is nobody there. Makes all your green efforts of taking the bike seem a bit silly, doesn't it?
2. Delivering goods to home with a timespan between 07:30 -13:00. So you are expected to take half-day off from work. And then you wait. The guy arrives 12:50. Or not. The same applies with Gas/Electricity technicians and plenty of other services. How difficult is work and route optimization? Applying GPS??
3. Introduce customer data in a pharmacy in three different places: 1) piece of what-ever-paper 2) little paper booklet 3) Computer database. This may be nice for the grannies needing social contact, but less nice with a 8-month old runny nose.  Was it CRM?
4. Pick-up garbage during high traffic hours. No comment. I really don't understand the logic behind. Except that overtime is expensive.

So to make life enjoyable in this setting I have had to follow the advice of my "beau-pere" to "Be kind, rather than Right". 

The same obviously applies with your Significant other =) 

ADSUM!

Ex tempore. The inspiration to write arrived! As suddenly as my little baby's burp. My feelings are mixed between embarrassment and enthusiasm: I am so late with this initiative! The original plan was of course to be among the trendy forerunners blogging already five year back. The contingency plan was to give birth to my blog in parallel (or little after) to my baby. Here I am one month before the end of parental leave keen on rendering the famous idle free hours (minutes?) of maternity leave ever more productive and fun. Powered by Baby brain. By the way, I just read an article putting an end to the nonsense myth of women being more forgetful or somehow intellectually "reduced" during pregnancy and early maternity. Quite the opposite! Check yourself at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1138954/Baby-brain-myth--womens-intelligence-increases-motherhood-claims-study.html.

After Inspiration came the evident questions: Why should I write? To Whom? Would I have the time?
I have been itching to share my thoughts of everyday life since I moved abroad almost ten years ago. About the craziness of cultural differences of my new home country. About the wonderfulness of my different identities as a Wife, Mother, Manager and Student - to name some. Labels may not be politically correct, but they do come handy in introductions.
The first idea was to write to my family and friends only. Then the fascination of wider audience hooked me. And anonymity will allow juicier stories. About the time then. The question came from my husband: "When will I write?". The priority order is the following: 1. Him (never forget) 2. Baby 3. Sports 4. PhD research 5. Blog. BUT before doing over time working hours, baking a cake or watching movies.. There's the plan. And only when I have something to say. There, my first post. Prima vista. Look forward to hearing from you!