The good, the bad and.. that’s it

I’m back and still alive… I had no internet for 2 weeks, it was awful (trust me, it’s a nightmare playing Heroes and Solitaire for so long).

Italians celebrated Easter last Sunday. They’re catholic, like the Pope All in all i find them pretty boring. They go to their families to have lunch, the streets are empty as my wallet and the only Easter-related products were some chocolate eggs with toys inside.

Easter for me was yesterday. My other half and i were supposed to go on a visit out of town but we didn’t quite sleep and didn’t feel like waking up early. Plus it was raining since saturday.
And this was my first Easter without red eggs.

In Romania we have the habit of saying “Christ came back to life”, but since the holiday already passed i hope everyone had a good time and relaxed

yup.. i actually like to cook

I realized this some time ago.
My dad always used to tell me to go sit in the kitchen with mom, to see how she cooks so i could learn, but I’m a bit too stubborn and didn’t listen (always thought i had all the time in the world. I’m still disappointed that isn’t’ suppose to be true ).

At first i only knew how to make boiled eggs and fried potatoes (even that was a disaster).

Little by little i tried to make other dishes. Classic peas sote, mashed potatoes, vegetable soup… simple foods. Then i thought why not mix more ingredients and see what i obtain. It turned out to be a good idea

I never asked for help or advices. I always preferred to make things by myself (darn stubborness…). I don’t deny there were a lot of times when i had to throw out all the food and order pizza but in time i realized i like to cook.

Since i realized i have a passion for kitchen activities, i started to work on my veggie-food site (i’ve been a vegetarian for almost 5 years).

Cooking is quite relaxing, and i feel great when someone tells me how tasty the food is

I still have to try harder with baking cookies. Rarely they turn out to be eatable.
But i still think i have all the time in the world

I was talking to my other half the other day about sports and i remembered how much i miss it.

I like ‘movement’ since i was little.
My dad had an aunt who was a great ballet teacher. I was 5 and my sister was 3 years old (as far as I remember) when we started taking ballet lessons. I remember my grandma used to pick us up from school and some hours later our mom would come pick us up from granny and take us to ballet lessons.

I also remember mom always told granny the ballet lessons start one hour early, so we’d be there in time because my grandma talks to much and we were afraid of being late.

I think my sister and I took ballet lessons for 4 or 5 years..

After that, there was a looong break from sports. We only used to go out and play with the other kids. oh, and there was a time when my dad and i made push ups, abdominal exercises and all sorts of exercises  we were able to do indoors (he was trying to lose wight and i was also a bit… “balloon style”)

Meantime, in school, i realized i actually like sport classes. And since i used to kick my colleagues ever since i started going to school, i started Wing Tsun classes in the 9th grade.

My mom and my grandma were desperate! I always came home with a new bruise to add at the collection, a new ache (my arm, a foot… something had to hurt).

Mom tried to convince me to quit but i am a bit too stubborn I liked kung fu so much i actually put my grade diplomas on the wall.

I loved practicing wing tsun. It was relaxing and hard at the same time. But it felt good to be able to make 30 push ups without rolling on the floor after, or running or swimming without having to take a break every 2 minutes, or having your colleagues tell you how good you look!

Unfortunately this only lasted for 2 years.

First of all, the ‘teacher’ (wrote it with quotes, let me explain) took this less and less serious. He saw i managed pretty good and at times he asked me to fill his place so he’d go do something else. I wasn’t learning anything new, it began to be a bit annoying.

Then there was my dad who always has to pick on me. “you’re not learning enough for school”, “you’re coming home to late”.. and so on. So one day i remember being so annoyed i said i’ll quit. Since that day i actually quit wing tsun and I’m still sorry.

Luckily  i moved back to the old apartment i grew in. Ramona and I re-bounded and went to karate classes together, for a while. But we quit that too. I was too busy with college, she was too busy with work and so … that was the last time i practiced sports.

My beloved practiced martial arts too He also had to quit because of work and he also missed it.

I miss practicing sports. I remember i felt much better when i came home from classes. I ate better, i slept better, i learned better. Now i feel like a raw vegetable.

But all is not lost. I can’t wait for spring to come (it actually came already but it’s cold outside) and maybe i’ll go jogging on the “public passage” (have no idea how to translate it in english, it’s a long quiet street on which people jog or walk their children… it’s very nice).

I just need.. the mood.

So here I am in Italy for almost 8 months now.
It’s pretty crazy because I never thought about leaving my country. Life in Romania is …well, awfull. You can’t have a decent salary, some have to get 2-3 jobs, they don’t see their families because they work all the time; and there’s others who don’t work at all because they keep whining they can’t find a job but they’re not even looking for one.
I always thought i could have a decent life in my country and still.. i left.

okay, enough winning

I got the taste of a better life from my first salary here in Italy. I could pay the rent, buy clothes and eat a lot and still have plenty of money for going out or for saving. Things that in Romania seem almost impossible.
I met people who started working and after a few days already made a loan in a bank. You can’t do that in Romania, i barely barely got my laptop and i’ve been working for 5 months already and still they didn’t want to approve the loan. Here you need to prove you have a workplace and it’s enough.

But.. things got a bit worse lately. I can’t find a job because of this damn crisis. I went to a lot of work agencies, they didn’t call. I tried to find some work through internet, didn’t work.

Like my sister said, the whole world is falling appart!
Every day i see more and more people begging at the corner of the street or hear about people suiciding because they hav too many debts. It’s to sad to be true..

But still i believe this has to be over sometime. I still believe i’ll have a better life and be able to live decent. I just hope it’ll be over sooner.

… dough used for pizza

I actually did try this at home

I made pizza from bread dough. It’s really easy to bake. At first i was afraid of dough made with yeast, but i see it’s pretty simple actually.

You need these ingredients:

1 kg. flour

2 tablespoons of sugar

3-4 tablespoons of salt

2 glasses of milk

oil

1 small package of yeast

How to bake: Put the flour in a big vessel. Add the yeast, sugar and salt. Add the milk and some oil and mix well. Leave it to grow for about 1 hour then spread it on a tray and cook in the oven (~200 degrees) for about 10-15 minutes.
Take the dough out and add pizza stuff: tomato juice, vegetables, cheese.. and so on. Then put it back in the oven for another few minutes (15-20… just don’t burn it ).

Enjoy

Well… i’m back.

I know i haven’t written anything for a whole month but i have a really good excuse for it: my internet went bye-bye, and this domain expired just 1 day before i got back online. Whoopy!

Good thing i know bad luck likes me so much, so i won’t spend money on lottery tickets

It’s the last saturday of the month Seems like a decade since the beginning o the year. I haven’t really done anything the past month. I tried to occupie myself with my websites but the internet moves so slooowly..

Everyone is asleep in the house. I’m the only one awake. I got bored and cleaned up the kitchen, washed all the dishes (i actually like doing that), cleaned the oven.. and now i’m having my coffee ‘on the net’, meaning i actually have a real coffee beside me while browsing

I’m a bit concerned because this domain is expiring and i forgot to go to the bank and fill up my account a bit, but there’s stil time. There were moments when i thought about letting it go but i’d feel like i’ll be kiling someone Even if i don’t write in it so often it’s still MINE

I’ll get back to browsing now. I discovered i like reading about… history. It’s pretty interesting, in school we only learned dates and boring stuff, i never thought there was more

Ingredients:

8 yolks

8 tablespoons of sugar

300 ml. cold espresso

500 ml. whipped cream

2 peaches

50 g.  almond flakes

How to prepare: You beat the yolks with 6 tablespoons of sugar. You put the recipient in bain-marie and include the espresso, while steering. We need to get a fluffy cream. You take the bowl out of the water and put in a recipient on ice. Mix until the composition cools. You beat the cream with 2 tablespoons of sugar and mix it with the rest. Put the cream in dessert bowls. Cut slices of peach in half and decorate the espresso cream. Fry the almonds and sprinkle the cream. You can also decorate with mint leaves.

Back in Italy

I went home in Romania these past 3 weeks. I wanted to be there for my sister’s birthday, on the 25th of December (yes, Santa gave our parents a cute baby-gift ). So i was home for half of the holidays.

I had fun, a lot of fun. I spent some wonderful time with my best friends, my mom and dad were happy to see me (and happy to see i’m ok), my grandma was crying her brains out when she found out i’m home and we had a nice quiet Christmas (except for my sister’s birthday party.. that wasn’t really quiet it was a blast!).

I said half of the holidays because i really really missed my other half. I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, couldn’t smile at my full-capacity .. so i decided one evening “i should return the heck back!”
And so i did. Packed my bags on Christmas day and left on the 26th.

It was the most annoying trip ever.. Felt like the drivers were sleeping, they seemed to move to slow! But i arrived safe and sound and got the best birthday gift: i got to spend my birthday with my loved one

I wish everyone happy happy holidays and a happy happy new year!

Ingredients:

500 g. of biscuits

500 g. sweet cheese

3 eggs

4 small cups of coffee

sweet liqueur

cocoa

150 g. of sugar

How to prepare: Mix the yolks with sugar and add the cheese and the white stuff from the eggs (beaten untill it becomes a foam). You dip the biscuits in coffee and add liqueur. On a shelf you lie down a layer of cream over which you put a layer of biscuits … and so on. You put the cocoa on top.