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!