You've got mail!

Personally I have no stronger addiction than gmail. And checking messages way too many times a day...

Doing it so often I rob myself of the joy of receiveing real e-mails. Non Uni-related, neither reminders, nor facebook spam, but the messages of substance - truly friendly conversations. Had I checked my account less often, I would find something nice in there almost every single time.

However, we live in times of Blackberry & iPhone. (So far I resist the temptetion of receiving everything immediately, hoping at the same time that this stressful moment of being "connected" at all times will never come... to me at least.;p) As a result many people reply immediately, no matter where they are. Hence, the messages get simpler and shorter. And here, in the 21st century, we reach yet another mailing crisis.
Has any of your parents or grandparents ever mentioned a dying art of writing letters?
I'll go one step forward. I'd say it is more often that we forget how to write e-mails as well...

This week I got a few nice surprises... for all of which I'm thankful! There is nothing better than coming back home, running to turn on the laptop even before taking a coat off... ;) and realising we've got something important to read. :) Something we care about. :)
And so for example this Friday, following such a reading session, I went to cook myself a dinner and couldn't help it but dance and sing while preparing my meal! And believe me, my kitchen doesn't have the space for dancing...;p

This time I would like to end my entry with an appeal.
Think of someone who you haven't talked to for a while. And write them an e-mail. Don't just live them a note on their facebook wall. Write a real message consisting of more than "hi, how is it going? and btw, i have a favour to ask...'
I promise that you'll make this somebody's day.
What for though?, one may ask.
I was recently told that I see the world the way it could be... the way it could be better. I never thought of myself this way. I'm not trying to change the world here. It's simple. In the end, the favour of making somebody's day may be returned to you and I think there are just too many ways of experiencing 'a kitchen dance' to let this smile pass by... ;)

I'm alive, don't worry ;)

My last post had a rather pessimistic note... and then questions aroused when suddenly the address wasn't correct... but do not fear! ;p hahaha I'm alive and, as you can see, the fruit of my recently rather busy mind is as well. We're both fine, thank you very much.

When it comes to the change of address... this one is final, I promise. :)

Since the first term is coming to an end, threathening us with its unavoidable deadlines, there isn't much to say apart from "work, work, work", "library" and "more work". ;)
Over the past week I could add "The newest Harry Potter movie is hilarious. I laughed through the whole film, especially the so called 'scary' parts... I do not recommend full stop." or "Cooking experiments are fun, relaxing and in addition to that as a result of this entertainment you get really tasty food(most of the times at leat;])"... :)

So as you can see everything is as it should be. Sky is blue, grass is green and we haven't frozen YET. (With the emphasis on 'yet'. Surprisingly, I'm still in the UK and it's freezingly cold HERE... I don't want to think how it's going to be back home. My only hope is that next Friday both Heathrow and Warsaw's airports will work normally. Amen! ;] )

:)

My heart aches... literally, physically, and metaphorically.

I don't know what to do any more. Situation slightly slipped out of control...
There's lots of chaos and panicking and I don't know how to deal with that, because panick attacks isn't something that happens to me. I'm not a panicking person. Apart from the fact, as it turns out, that I actually am.

All those deadlines, all this stress, all those mixed feelings...
And 185 unread messages.
My heart aches... whenever I start thinking.

all shades of friendship

I went to see To The Ones I Love by Compagnie Thor (9 males of African origin dancing modern dance to Bach's music.As simple as that;]) and I was fascinated by how inspiring can art, concerts and shows like this one be... for me, obviously.

I'm not gonna write in details about their smooth movements and TOTAL body-control (I envy them that one). I'm not gonna mention their half-naked bodies (or maybe I already did... oh well;p). I'll just mention something that I realised during this dance performance.
Something seemingly unrelated.

During the evening, to me, all 9 dancers were influencing each other. Some of them dancing the same parts at the same time, some just repeating the same amazing sequences. Some solos, but there was a lot of group interaction. The main indicator of influences in the group were their changing, colourful T-shirts. One after another, the whole scene was full of red, green, yellow, purple T-shirts...
and then I thought:

How much do other people influence us? Friendships? Relationships?
As much as one can argue that it is always our choice, that we become who WE want ourselves to be, not the person that other people would want us to be (in case of human beings capable of critical thinking, obviously...), but still, we are under great influence of people around us.
Consequently, those choices in terms of friends that we make, in terms of all the relationships around us, will actually make us who we are. It is a widely known truth that you can tell something about the person knowing who he/she is friends with. But looking at it from the other side, it's not only that choice itself that matters, but also the fact that those friends will influence taste and interests of a person in question. Might be by contradiction, might be by inspiration. Anyhow, not only who we want ourselves to be will make us who we are, but we also have to ask ourselves a question: who are the people around us?

Conclusion seems easy... choose carefully - or you may end up not being able to recognize yourself, not knowing WHO YOU ACTUALLY ARE.

And at this point I should thank all my dearest friends, because it's thanks to you that I can be who I am :)

P.S. Christmas Market at Southbank - nice. Churros con chocolate - very nice. Mulled wine - great. Good company doing all of that - priceless;)

A foggy day in London town...

As Frank Sinatra used to sing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3HAQyu-Vjk&feature=related


It doesn't happen very often around autumn/winter time that I say I'd rather be at home... weatherwise.
Usually it's like at least 10 degrees colder in Poland and yet today, I must admit, it was much colder here! (at least according to Internet updates)
I'm not complaining though. We live in a foggy-land now.;p You cannot see more than just a few meters ahead of you. Milky air has flooded everything and everyone around... and it's like that all the time. One could say that this 'greyness' is depressing... but on that ocassion I'll point out that there's a funny side to that. Do you know the stereotype of Asians taking pictures of everything? ...kind of true;p or at least I've seen quite a few taking pictures of themselves "in the fog" today. ;)


(...)And through foggy London Town
The sun was shining everywhere. :)

Imagine...

Sunday evening. Royal Festival Hall is full. Standing ovation after 3hour concert... You've got to love London Jazz Festival! :)

Herbie Hancock rocked my world this weekend. He just left me speechless on so many levels.

And I know it may seem as I'm overrating every single concert I go to, but - believe me - I'm either incredibly lucky, wise when it comes to making choices what to see or the music industry just decided to get better and better with EVERY SINGLE CONCERT. ;p
Hancock is already a legend anyway. How he does what he did with that grand piano remains a mystery to me... wow.
And he works with great musicians too. Obviously, not all of them go to his tour, but when you watch a trailer of his new IMAGINE PROJECT (link below) you'll understand why. Marcus Miller, Jeff Beck or, if it's more known to some, Pink and Seal - those are just some of the names.

And maybe he wasn't the most charismatic person I've ever listen to when twice he started talking to the audience ("not the most charismatic" is an euphemism here;p), but when he starts playing... my heart brims over with joy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TII6ZNyrXOE

The happy(ness) endings

For inspiration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=963Tt7CEt2s

from 10/11/2010 (that's what you get when you go to the library late at night...)

My life is a movie. A constantly ongoing movie. And though I sometimes like to watch drama, I'm always directing it towards the happy ending. :)

Having said that, why do we sometimes make things that we know will make us feel miserable?

Even if we're happy, especially when we're very happy, we - or maybe should I say "I" to be more specific - do something that will make me feel sentimental, surreal or just sad...
This masochistic almost pattern, however, doesn't mean that I make myself unhappy.

Do you ever feel like 24/7 of smiling is just too overwhelming?
In such moments I sometimes remind myself of something that makes my smile slightly smaller. It can be just a song or a memory of something that's gone. For a moment I remind myself how that felt.

Hapiness is a strange feeling.
It comes and goes.
When you don't have it, you wish you had.
But when you do, you can't stand it either.
Finally, even if you're brave enough to try not to remind yourself of other states, then comes the thought: "If I'm happy; if I'm so genuinely happy - is there anything better than that?" And the thought that there is nothing better to wait for is a sad conclusion.

the most useless word of the day

Studying German, sometimes I get to translate texts which seem to me as useful as learning chemistry (and I do not remember a single chemistry-related thing from school...;p).

Today's winners are "brain bleeding", "trachea" and "intubation".
I can't help but wonder, will I ever need to understand those in German? I'm an optimist and therefore I'm assuming that on my year abroad there will be no brain bleeding going on ;)
I certainly hope that's not going to be the case. :)

It is time!

A concert. BBC Symphony Orchestra is playing, conducted by Tortelier.

I'm not a massive fun of classical music. My knowledge is extremely limited in this field. And I didn't even choose to go to this particular concert for a reason...

Yet I must be extremely lucky, because every time I decide to do something different I end up overwhelmed with pure joy.

Have any of you heard of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition?
Well... I haven't until today. And I have definitely missed out a lot!

When the Orchestra finished, there was no end to the ovation. And when THAT finished, words such as "wonderful", "incredible" or "amazing" were repeted over and over again. I myself managed to make an uncontrolled and slightly too loud "woooow" sound, while still staying seated with music vibrating in my ears, head and the whole body really...

It was the most "wonderful, incredible & amazing" piece of classical music I've ever heard in my entire life (not that this life has been so very long or anything;])

And it is in such moments of true happiness when everything simply falls into place.

Energized and inspired I left barbican, once again, with plenty of new ideas.

For instance, for the last couple of weeks I started thinking that I not only should make my career in interior design, but also specialize in lighting. That's always been the most important element of all my spaces and the idea of dedicating my time to it has been coming back to me, especially since we covered this topic at Chelsea. 

And I could've been thinking about it for weeks, but tonight suddenly I just felt sure; entirely sure that this has to be my next step.

I really like those moments of certainty. Doubt is bad;p

Last but not least (and actually I probably should've started from that point) I decided to write a blog in English now. The purpose of this venture is to keep friends and people who are dear to me informed about what inspired me to do what I'm doing and what exactly it is that I'm doing and where (there is always a lot of confusement in that matter;p). There will be lots of crosscultural references and anecdotes since Travel and Adventure are my middle names. :)

We shall see how it's gonna go this time. ;)

Because... it is time! I've been here long enough to say that I feel like London is my place now. And I shall report on all the greatness that it brings me. Welcome and I hope you'll enjoy this jurney. :)

With love,

Kasia/Katarzyna/Catherine/Kat/Kathy/Kazik/Kasica and many, many others ;)