animal planet

Don't you just love this beautiful muzzle?
by author

Yesterday

Yesterday was really frustrating, as the weather changed drastically and my blood pressure got very low. The day was a blur and I have no idea how I managed to finish my recent project in syncope. I thought I'd never see the end of the day, while the bosses were really in high spirits and kept on joking about me. So I began to wonder wether they had grown to like me or they wanted me to find a new job somewhere else. I'm still wondering.

Anyway, after work I decided to walk a little hoping to feel better. It didn't help, I just felt even more sick. By the time I came home there had been only one thought in mind to check my Facebook page and hit the bed. There was a new picture with me on Facebook. I clicked it... and here it was a beautiful water-lily, selected and marked as me (my name's Lilia). I was so much suprised that even shed tears. Then a miracle happened: the pain left, the blood pressure stabilized and I felt as good as new.

I'm really grateful to that boy for curing me so fast with a little lily :) The troubles really seemed so far away at that moment.

Go Jiyoung (Yellu)

exquisite canvases

shaping up

The time has come to take up sports again. So I'm trying to force myself to jog, I was a success three time already and believe it'll ll be a pleasure more than a torture soon.

In the meantime jogging hurts, as some part of the body is in pain by the end of the run. I also do some simple exercises to Cindy Crawford's cd's, I just love her programme!

The only thing I still have to persuade myself into is not- eating- after- 7PM.

a peaceful week-end

... and what a peaceful week-end it was! The cute little cat below symbolises it completely. There was no jet flights, many-hours walks or binges. I enjoyed idleness lying around the sofa, listening to music, chatting to pals online and reading the most tiresome and at the same time the most exciting author William Somerset Maugham.

I'm reading his Theatre. The plot of which I found really boring back in college, where we were supposed to read it, analyse it and write numerous essays. The storyline still doesn't impress me, but I'm absolutely enchanted with the language: the choice of words is amasing, the punctuation is perfect, the narration flows smoothly due to syntax. I'm simply in love with Mr. Maugham manner of writing and is now really eager to read more of his works.

W. Somerset Maugham once observed: When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me. And today I have to admit, there is something about his books that I'd like to become part of me.

animal planet

Friday is here. Time to rest and have a good nightsleep.

sedentary

Sedentary life is producing its effect on me. I become lazier, fatter, sleepier and sore. My back aches, I have migraines and become rather indifferent to everything.

Evidently 30-minute walks to the office in the morning and in the evening are not enough for my organism to be happy and energetic. I may need more exercises both physical and intellectual.

Well, there seem to be plenty of intellectual activities such as translating, reading and working and almost none physical ones as I'm too busy to go in for fitness. So I do a few exercises at work. They're easy and keep blood running.

Hope I'll be as good as new soon :)

available for sale

I spend almost the whole day surfing the internet searching for asp pulpwood on sale and posting advertisements about buying it. At first it was rather exciting, as I discovered a lot of curious sites about timber business, some funny company names and really cool commercials.

A little later I got really tired of copy-paste-send activity and dozed off. Too bad the executive director noticed me sleeping on the keyboard. He was rather nice calling me " a poor tired lamb" and palmed off one more ad to post. So I have to waste more hours at those bulletin boards. Grr.

a week-end on the road

The last two days were great! I'm learning to have fun again.

Early Saturday morning I received a message from a friend that she was on the way to St Petersburg. I decided to go to the country side as the weather in the city was going to be rainy.

I met my friend at the station to get on another train and we headed to Pushkin, a very beautiful town where the royal family used to live. The weather was rather loyal to us, so we visited the great palace, the park and even had time to walk around Alexandrovskiy Park, which used to be a forest.


On Sunday we went to Vyborg a very cosy town that posseses one of the most beautiful landscape parks "Mon Repos". We spent the whole day wondering around the town, taking photos and trying not to get lost on the way to the park. Why short-cuts turn out to be the longest ones. Anyway after and hour of wondering around we found "Mon Repos" and enjoyed climbing the hills, swimming and sunbathing.


That was a great and almost healthy weekend :)

animal planet

Time for discoveries

Six-Word Story (livejournal challenge)

Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” He is believed to have called it his greatest literary work ever. Can you write a story in six words?

my attempt

Red Cross cars: shot down. Flames.

work underload

Fully rested and energetic I came to the office an hour late and got down to all duties I hadn't fulfilled due to extreme fatigue of yesterday. The list, the boss had left, contained 23 things to do, which I have miraculously fulfilled by now. So I called him for further instruction, but there were none.

Three work hours to go and no activitiy ahead. Boring!

Work overload

The last three days were like a merry-go-round on loose. Can I say that in English?

On Friday night a friend invited me for a drink. Two mojitos, a cosmopolitain, stuffy room, wild music and endless chatter with strangers clouded my mind so much that by midnight my friend and me found ourselves in a gorgeous appartment somewhere in the centre, where the party continued with hip-hop dancing, a stripper (or was it me??) and karaoke singing. Later at night we sailed a boat down the river photographing, screaming and drinking again. I'm wondering if anyone believes that I was only on cherry juice by that time.

Anyway, by 7Am I got home just to realise that I have courses at 11Am. I remeber going to the coursed but they were blur as another friend picked me up after them and in an hour I was flying in a plane.

The party continued in the capital. We spend the day at a little lake not far from the city bathing and sleeping(yes, i needed it so much), then got home to spruce up and headed to a pirate club where the amount of alcohol in blood increased. More dances and more karaoke singing came. I won a bottle of champagne for performing "Old Devil Moon" on the stage of the club, must have sung really well!

Early in the morning I left to have a little nap at my childhood friend's appartment. She never let me rest enough, because she intended to go shopping on Sunday. And since I flew in there the whole way from St.Petersburg I was to join her. So I dragged myself to the shower, applied some mascara and lipgloss and we set off around noon.

Beautiful discounts and new accessory collection brought me back to life, or was it several coffees I had in a row. In the evening I changed in the brand-new clothes and headed to the airport to get a ticket, they didn't have any. Fortunatelly, an acquaintance of a friend of a friend had a extra train ticket, which I gratefully accepted and hurried to the railwaystation. The minute I got in the train it left.

I stretched out on my train cot looking forward to an eight-hour sleep on the way home, but there were really noisy tourists, who felt like telling me about their trip around Russia. So I listened untill they fell asleep and so did I.

The train arrived at 6Am, so I had a couple of hours to get home, take a shower, grab my suitcase and run to the office. What a week-end!

Monday was an extremely long day, I had a hangover and a lot of paperwork. Today's much shorter, though I still have a headache

P.S. about a celebrity party animal

animal planet

time to play :)
by the author

Are you up yet?

Got inspired by my and working girl’s post about morning routine and tried to figure out how not to be late. Thanks to the best browser ever and the cutest site I came up with the following list:

1. Do the maths
Stagger wake up time. Figure the amount of time you need to get ready without rushing things and set the alarm clock 15-20 minutes earlier than the actual time of waking up. In my case the alarm goes off an hour earlier & rings every 10 minutes.

2. Choose the location
Move the alarm clock out of reach from your bed that way you’ll have to get up to turn it off. My advice to use one of those crazy alarm clocks that has some flying parts so you’ll have to catch it to switch off.

3. Think Ahead
Have the clothes you will wearthe next morning ironed, nails - polished and painted in the evening. It’ll stop you from wondering what to put on in the morning.

4. Collect handbag items in the evening
Put all the necessary items in your handbag beforehand in order not to hunt down your cell, the second ear-ring or keys, which you “left right here in the evening”, all around the apartment.

5. Sleep Enough
Go to sleep earlier to allow yourself at least seven hour sleep. Besides complexion very much depends on the night rest.

morning

Every working morning the alarm goes off at 6am and blasts "We Will Rock You" at the maximum volume. I reach it on the floor, make sure it is 6 am and fall asleep again.

Next blust comes at 6.15, but I usually miss it.

At 6.30 the cell wakes my consciousness finally. I stumble to the kitchen, heat two huge saucepans of water. Yes, two huge saucepans that serve as a shower, as there is no hot water in summer. Times are really rough for the three of no-hot-water weeks, because I get dirty in summer twice as fast as in winter.

Anyway, while the water is heating I'm cooking breakfast for myself and a cat. If of course the cat falls at my feet with a squeaky "meow" otherwise I may not even remember that I have a cat! It is a morning, okay. I can't remeber much at 7 am.

By the shower time I'm almost happy as the outfit is chosen and the breakfast is eaten. So I grab a bowl and take the sausepans to the cold bathroom. Shiverring I pour more and more water to get warm and clean. Soon the torture is over, the clock shows 7.30am - the time to head to the underground station. However there's still make-up and hair to do.

By the time I like the reflexion in the mirror the bus has already left. So at 8am I leave the apartment. There is an hour and fifteen minutes of hustle and bustle of buses, trains and cabs ahead.

At 9.30 I'm in the office... at my door to be more precise, as I have forgotten the key at home.

Help!

I got a secret assignment to plan a week-off in Israel, so I really need some advice on where to stay in Israel, how to get around there, what the most comfortable hotels are at the Mediterranean Sea and The Red Sea, what cities are worth visiting and why, what are the places a touristr should never ever go and so on.

I've already googled for some general info on the country and now I need to know some personal experience of yours, what was there that you liked or disliked, why. I'd appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance

Saturday night out

Bored and tired I left the office and headed to my favourite "Liverpool bar" to unwind. The bar's the only place in town that serves great cocktails and provides me with rock-'n'-roll music and a good chat, the only two things that keep me going these days.

Unfortunatelly, that night was a blues - rock performance, as the lead singer was absent and the other group members couldn't sing much rock-'n'-roll stuff. So I got even more disappointed and tired and ordered a "Manhattan". By the time the band played "Still Got The Blues" I had finished the second "Manhattan" and was about getting really upset when a guy joined me at the bar and started chatting in English. I cheered up right away and we spent the rest of the evening discussing New York, pros and cons of city life, the sights of my city, families, jobs and what not.

You may be wondering what is so exciting about chatting with a stranger at a bar, well I'll tell you. I'm crazy about the English language! I love speaking it, listening to it, writing in it, however there are not many opportunities to use it either at work or anywhere else, so I go to bars for tourists to get a dose.

I may never meet that guy again, but I thank him anyway for those three hours in English, they were amazing.

Cute test

You Are Country Music

You are friendly, down to earth, and fairly conservative. You are true to your friends and your upbringing. Change is hard for you. But beneath your old fashioned attitude, you are expressive and artistic in your own way. Very few people can express pain and pleasure as eloquently as you can.

What Kind of Music Are You?

Coffee Test

Are you a coffee addict?

1: Do you prefer coffee or tea?
a) I don't drink coffee or tea and therefore has no reason to do this test. I just do it to laugh at coffee maniacs.
b) I prefer tea and should probably do a tea-test instead, but this test might work for tea too.
c) COFFEE!

2: What do you think of mornings?
a) I like mornings and start to work early because it's the best time of the day to get things done.
b) I don't do morning... I'm tired and slow and don't get started until noon.
c) I really hate the part between waking up and drinking the day's first coffee.

3: What kind of coffee do you prefer?
a) I like not so strong coffee so that I can drink a lot of it.
b) I like strong and tasty coffee! I have my special favorit and I rather not drink anything else.
c) I don't care much, but I drink it with milk because it's better for my stomach.

4: So what about coffee?
a) I'm already drinking coffee or had just had some.
b) Gaaaah!!! *runs to get coffee*
c) Gnnn! I NEED COFFEE! Where is it?!? Oh... right here. *drinks*

5: The one who is always in your dreams has invited you for coffee, but there was non, so you are asked if you want sex instead. What do you do?
a) SEX! We can drink coffee at my place afterwards.
b) No coffee at home? That's such a turn off! I stop dreaming about that freak.
c) I eat some CCCB that I always bring in case there is no coffee and then we can have sex.

6: What do you like to have with your coffee?
a) Biscuits, cakes and chocolate.
b) I can eat almost anything. It's more important how the coffee taste.
c) Coffee.

7: Have you ever drunk too much coffee?
a) No, I always stop after 2-3 cups.
b) Oh yes! It made me sooo sick! I'll try to not do it again.
c) Yes, I was so shaky and then I didn't have to drink any more coffee for an entire day!

Key

Count how many C you have and subtract the number of A you have and look at this table:

-7: You don't drink coffee, silly!
-6: You know that tea might colour your teeth?
-5: You only drink coffee to get friends.
-4..0: You have a strong love for coffee, but you're not an addict.
1: You're a coffee-addict. At least your coffee-drinking saves your liver a little. Please note that it's healthier with filtered coffee, as quit drinking coffee isn't an option for you.
2-5: You are very used to your coffee addiction and don't really think much about it.
6: Nothing means more than coffee for you and you want the entire world to know, to lower the risk that you ever be without coffee. But you should remember that there are people out there that want to torture you!
7: You're way beyond addiction - You have ascended! You are the Buddah of coffee addiction. Followers around the globe follow your orders to praise the holy bean and to maybe finally also become one with the bean.