A sudden change of heart

Do you ever...

When you have been rummaging in the refrigerator a bit too much and feel as though your butt is a bit tight in your pants, feel like you need a bit of exercise?
Yes this happens very much in my case and actually exercise doesn't come to mind very much since I love eating and I don't love exercising. I stick to my belief that those who do love it are a bit masochistic (no offense).

However, it is now summer and I can jump into the pool and actually enjoy working my body as I swim back and forth. But the water is a tad cold today... OK a bit more than a tad... Let's just say that it isn't something you want to dive head first into.

Do you ever change your mind halfway through a jump? I'm calling this my silly act of the day. I jumped and in the air changed my mind about hitting the ice cold water, there wasn't much I could do and my jet pack was unfortunately in my other swim suit. When you change your mind halfway into the jump the water always seems colder, don't you think?

Food Craving of the month

Yes, I am making a big deal out of this. I think what you have craved, for an entire month, says a lot about what you crave out of life at that moment.
This month, ever faithfully, I have been eating packs and packs of Smarties.
Not those giant tubes that no one likes that are full of giant smarties but the small boxes that have tiny little smarties inside.

OK, chocolate and women do have a long time relationship that will probably last until we have all evolved into large lizards that don't eat chocolate because they have lost all capability of thought and have no taste buds. I myself come from Belgium and my people's affinity for chocolate (and beer) will always come back. It's in my genes

 As for craving something in comparison with what you have been craving all month I have a creeping suspicion that I am 'en manque' as some would say and that my dreary and depressing sex life has me eating chocolate all day everyday. Sigh... At least it's tasty.



PS: If anyone ever tells you that you get the same feeling from chocolate as you do when you are in love they are very mistaken and are probably hiding a very handsome man in a drawer somewhere... Or in a plastic wrapper. 

Paris

Sigh... I'm elated at my future living area and the idea of living in Montmartre. I have found a dream apartment, or so it is for me. Even though I have to walk up thousands of steps to get to the top of Montmartre it is worth it!!! And any workout is never a bad workout (hmmm... actually I don't think that is completely correct).
Let me break it down in the only way I know how:
Wednesday
  We went to see the first apartment and then had lunch at the Moulin de la Galette. I had the chicken with champignons and an amazing carrot based sauce that just melted in your mouth... pause for the delight of the memory..........................................

So! Moulin de la Galette! Famous in many ways for many things but I believe one of the greatest things about it is that this (look below) was painted there.
This brilliant little painting was named after the Moulin de la Galette and -of course- was painted by Renoir.

Then we went and visited a smaller apartment in the fashion district. It was wedged between two designer stores and the window overlooked a fashion designers studio. Extremely adorable, though albeit not exactly the cleanest one we saw. The whole street was full of fabric shops including one store that was reserved especially for buttons, which I will tell you now, I am obsessed with. There is nothing very much better than finding a beautiful button and putting it to good use somewhere, somehow.
After perusing the shops and buying some very delightful cookies, we continued on to the last apartment that in the end I chose for mine. I can only say that it is about ten steps away from the Sacré Coeur, it has the warmest homey feeling and you need to go over a little bridge to get to the entrance. In short... It is amazing.

Thursday
After being woken up by a call from my father at an impossible hour in the morning (9:00 OK not reeeaaalllyy impossible), we carried on through the cold morning streets of Paris and found our way to the last apartment. Pausing on the way there to enter a Phone House, I managed to get a new phone for 30 cents because I hadn't bought a new phone in France for so long and had accumulated many, many, Many points. Anyways, I got a Samsung and I love it. When done tinkering and sniggering over my new phone we continued onwards to the apartment.
The apartment itself, although very high up (six floors and no elevator) was very beautiful but too large for just one person, especially one person who doesn't want to have to bring any furniture to her new apartment. Funny how the apartment belonged to Americans and it smelled like America inside. It instantly gave me a warm feeling.
We then proceeded to spend the rest of the day loitering around and waiting for it to be time to take the train home. The later the train, the cheaper the ticket. We spent the time rather well, which equates to a new T-shirt and blazer for me and a new shirt for my brother.
All in all... A good trip!

Excited

I am off to Paris tomorrow to find my new apartment and cannot be more excited! I will also, during the process of jumping from apartment to apartment, buy a new phone that does not shut off every five seconds causing me to explode into a blazing fire of anger and disappointment (Note: I am disappointed because my present phone is awesome and adorable and I am heartbroken that it does not work anymore). Do you ever feel like getting a new phone is like getting a new pet? It seems to have become a kind of commitment you take. My family was giving me some pointers on what to choose, others were asking me if I was sure if that was the kind I wanted, people comment on battery life and reception quality. I feel like if I don't make the right decision they will all look down upon me, but then you don't really care - when you meet somebody new - about what kind of phone they have. Funny isn't it?
So, to recap, off to Paris. Excited. New apartment. New phone. Have to wake up at 4:30AM which is less exciting. So I'm off to bed.
Good Night!

Reminiscing

Taking by a sudden onslaught of nostalgia, or perhaps bored because my vacations don't really start until next week when I leave for Italy, I turned to all the old albums that lay gathering dust in the bookcase next to my bedroom. I carried them all over to my Mom's room and we sat on her bed happily, looking at every picture. Although horrified at first by how old we were and then horrified some more by how many things we had completely forgotten we had done, we had an awesome time.
Seeing all of this though, has brought forth an uproar in my mind against the damn times where we don't print any pictures anymore. It used to be that we HAD to print them because otherwise you never saw them. Following the rivers of my discontent I have sorted through all of my sd picture drives and am off to print everything to then organize every picture into an album. These albums will follow a timeline and be sorted from past to present with specific dates underneath the pictures! SIGH!
OK... I'm done...

Recommendation

I have many things to say but am so tired that I will just give you all a great (in my opinion) recommendation :)
I have started listening to a band called 'the Baseballs'. The group remakes popular songs in the style of Elvis, with surprisingly good singing voices. The beat just makes you wanna dance through your house so I recommend turning the volume up and dancing like no one is watching.

By the way, I have just bought myself a bonsai. It is my first time keeping one and I couldn't be more excited, hehehehe!

Thoughts

I have a family member. One that I am really close to. Who is quite self destructive... he ruins any kind of fun he could have by complicating everything and finding fault in everything.
I think that it's important to look at things in a good light even when there is a lot of negative things going on. Do you know the saying 'voir la vie en rose'? Loosely translated it means 'to look at the world through rose-colored glasses'. That's a nice concept isn't it?
Sometimes it's important to slip on a pair of glasses or you might loose taste for some of the things you love most.
So from me to you... Grab on to the pleasures in life, things that make you irrevocably happy, and live life for the joy of it, even if it only lasts a couple of seconds.

Sigh... Do you have moments when you feel ridiculous? Even when I am all by myself I manage to do the silliest things (if you are wondering what happens when I am not all by myself then I can safely say that I do silly things almost exclusively).
It is when these things happen that I cannot find anything better to do than laugh by myself, in big booming laughs, as they do in 'My Neighbor Totoro'.

Today's silly act was of course:
Jumping six meters into the sky when my toast suddenly popped into the air.









Incidentally. Watch 'My Neighbor Totoro' and you will once again feel like a very silly and very happy child.

An interesting fact

Did you know that you can only drive an Aston Martin when you are 27 years old? Unless you pay a... Exorbitant amount of money to insurance.

Have you ever tried to spend a whole day starting with 'did you know' every time you talk to somebody?
Try it sometimes, you'll be amazed by how much you actually know. Even if it is useless information (or not).

ps: Did you know Queen Elizabeth the first had teeth so rotten they were black?

Moments in life

When I was sitting in the aviary outside my house it started raining, pretty hard, and my immediate reaction was to pull up my shoulders. I don't know why we do this, must be to cover the sides of your face. But as I looked up at one of the birds he was chirping merrily along and extending his wings to catch as much of it as possible. So I put down my shoulders, ran out of the cage, and started playing catch with my dog.
I am now slightly drenched but smiling like an idiot.
Do you ever do anything idiotic?
If so, isn't it great?

After careful and deliberate thought I have come to the conclusion that I must, one day, wear a large Native American chief's, feathered hat.

Week One, Day One

Although I have never actually kept a blog, or a journal, or anything of that genre for that matter I believe that trying something new here and there is always an experience. I'm not saying that they are all good ones, but even the bad ones lead somewhere or at least teach you where not to go.

Since I am sharing I will share throughout and I have two things to share today.

One:
Don't make too big a deal of things that really don't have to be a big deal. If you want to eat a delicious piece of cake but still want to fit in a dress for a party next week. I would choose the cake, you'll look great anyway because of the joy the cake brings.

Two: Dessert
You should try this cake. Sacher Torte.

This is an Austrian cake that can only be called what it is a "Chocolate Cake" with a subtle hint of apricot jam under the icing.
If anything were to tempt you, let it be this.