a Farewell and a Legend

From my 2009 diary.


As soon as my family found out that I was about leaving for Kabardino-Balkaria district, they freaked out. They warned me about locals who were capable of kidnapping a girl in order to marry, that they were hot tempered and I’d better never leave the territory of the hotel on my own.

They even told me a legend about a dzhigit* who once kidnapped a girl and galloped her up into the mountains. There he threw a yak-fell on stones, raped the girl and said that it would be her home from then on. The girl submited.

The story impressed me, of course, however I thought that if I had been that girl, I would have knocked down the guy, jumped onto his horse and galloped back to my parents.

What a romantic experience could it have been!

There were more stories about the habits of locals, but none of them would persuade me to travel there. That’s why I packed up my skiing gear and got on the first train to the Caucasus Mountains.

—
*dzhigit – an inhabitant of Kabardino-Balkaria district, the Caucasus Mountains; a very talented horse rider

What every student needs to know – in pictures

The slideshow from Advice To Sink Slowly is for students. However everyone should follow it.

Enjoy the project. "It Will Be Worth it":

... and "Be Yourself":

Winter clean-up

New year has arrived and it's time to clean up last year's stuff and remove 5 extra kilos I've gained during the festive season.

First of all I took down decorations. The house instantly turned empty and gloomy. Then I sorted out Christmas kitsch gifts and carton bags to forward them as presents recycle. Miss Christmas already.

Furthermore I donated XXL and pregnancy outfits to charity shops, made L clothes ready to wear and put M's on higher shelves of the wardrobe in hope to wear them again one day... Dream on, girl.

Finally, greeting cards from the last decade and old diaries went to the bin.

I'm very proud of myself now :)

I also flicked through those diaries. Found all kinds of entries from super embarrassing to cute. I'll probably post some entries here. Ah, good ol' days.

...Meanwhile have to work on those extra kilos.

twitter, my newsletter

Twitter is addictive, isn't it. Everyday I watch millions of people tweet their life away in great details. It's a bit different to me, though. I got an account in order to follow gossips and sneak peaks of my favourite TV shows and to learn about local discounts, events and news. Twitter also provides an occasional laugh and reminds that there is life beyond stay-at-home-mum routine. I read through trends dreaming of participating in that life. Not gonna happen any time soon, though.

Anyway, here are some fun bits about Twitter:

"you know you tweet to much when..."

and

David Letterman's list from 2010 show

1. You answer the phone, "Twello!.. Twello!"
2. You've spent millions developing iPhone waterproofing technology so you can tweet in the shower.
3. You ask yourself, "What would Jesus tweet?"
4. You sleep-tweet.
5. You stopped paying attention to this list after the first 140 characters.

There's more, click

Where real happiness is

"Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are."

by Osho

pic from deviantart.com

Happy Thanksgiving!

"Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day".
~ Robert Caspar Lintner

This is Finland

For the record: the tempretare in Finland can be higher than +30C. It is not the country that is covered with snow all year round.

Source

+15°C / 59°F
This is as warm as it gets in Finland, so we'll start here.
People in Spain wear winter-coats and gloves.
The Finns are out in the sun, getting a tan.

+10°C / 50°F
The French are trying in vain to start their central heating.
The Finns plant flowers in their gardens.

+5°C / 41°F
Italian cars won't start,
The Finns are cruising in cabriolets.

0°C / 32°F
Distilled water freezes.
The water in Vantaa river (in Finland) gets a little thicker.

-5°C / 23°F
People in California almost freeze to death.
The Finns have their final barbecue before winter.

-10°C / 14°F
The Brits start the heat in their houses.
The Finns start using long sleeves.

-20°C / -4°F
The Aussies flee from Mallorca.
The Finns end their Midsummer celebrations.
Autumn is here.

-30°C / -22°F
People in Greece die from the cold and disappear from the face of the earth.
The Finns start drying their laundry indoors.

-40°C / -40°F
Paris start cracking in the cold.
The Finns stand in line at the hotdog stands.

-50°C / -58°F
Polar bears start evacuating the North Pole.
The Finnish army postpones their winter survival training awaiting real winter weather.

-60°C / -76°F
Korvatunturi (the home for Santa Claus) freezes.
The Finns rent a movie and stay indoors.

-70°C / -94°F
The false Santa moves south.
The Finns get frustrated since they can't store Koskenkorva vodka outdoors.
The Finnish army goes out on winter survival training.

-183°C / -297.4°F
Microbes in food don't survive.
The Finnish cows complain that the farmers' hands are cold.

-273°C / -459.4°F
ALL atom-based movent halts.
The Finns start saying "Perkele (=damn), it's cold outside today."

-300°C / -508°F
Hell freezes over, Finland wins the Eurovision Song Contest.