mellow friday night doing website design, dancing in the living room and writing. saturday morning workout with dan the trainer. fantastic. left me feeling totally amazing. maria lands, we go for dim sum with j on baker street. shopping, hail in london, dressing up for o's party, hot hot short short black dress and boots. drinks at m's then cab to essenza dinner. italian. the game. panacota. walk to westbourne studios. memories. great drinks, great company, confused dj. reggae, dancing, couches, tables, mojitos, dancing, fleetwood mack, lionel ritchie, madonna. dancing dancing dancing. we don't do this often enough. walked home with e and i. singing poker face by lady gaga totally sober. home at 4am. up at 9am. shower, cleaning, laundry. brunch at k and g's. amazing brunch! 35 people, champagne, muffins, bloody marys. grand piano. candles. posh posh posh. meet with maria. shopping on kings road. fresh mint tea and muffins. m's for slumdog millionare movie in. pizzas and ben and jerrys ice cream. guanabara with m. forro dancing! i must have been born latin in another life. seriously. i love love love latin dances. so much fun. amazing amazing. late night dinner at some hole in the wall place in soho with crap greasy food. home with maria. shower. bed by 3am.
Sea salt from Peloponese Greece. Pulvoron from Goldilocks California. Crackers from Korea. Ingredients from home that somehow make us feel a little less far away from the smells and flavors of the kitchens we grew up in.
Last week, a sudden burst of gratitude came over me while Maria and I were making dinner in her flat. We were making baked salmon and broccoli. She opened a plastic coke bottle full of olive oil and started pouring it over the fish. It was olive oil from Greece that she brought back with her over Christmas. Then she opened a cardboard box full of sea salt, dried and hand picked by her dad off the beaches of Peloponese, and sprinkled it over the salmon. Just as food cooked by a loved one tastes so much better than food you cook on your own, so does food made with ingredients from home. Even though I haven’t met Maria’s parents, somehow our meal that night felt like it was made with their love. It reminded me of warm nights in my Mom’s kitchen, the stove bursting with steam and flavors, the room noisy with conversation.
Food is such an enabler of love and togetherness in families and between friends. It is the bedrock of social interaction in many cultures and an instant ice breaker between guests. It’s an expression of love unique to all others – food takes time, it takes care, it takes meticulous planning and work. The best meals can’t be bought in stores or restaurants – recipes must be perfected over time, passed down from grandmothers and mothers, mastered over many rainy Sundays in small family kitchens.
The Dalai Lama once said, “Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon”. They’re one in the same. =)
I went to the gym last week and Dan-the-trainer weighed me for the first time since I started seeing him. And I just about fell over myself! I’ve gained 6 pounds since October. SIX POUNDS! I’ve been at the same weight since I was 19 years old so to hear that I gained 6 pounds boggles my mind! But he says that much of it is muscle. Oh really? Where?! I don’t see it!!! The only thing that has felt even remotely muscular these days has been my butt. It’s bigger. It looks bigger, it fits tighter in my jeans, I hit things with it when I turn corners. I have an ass now! But could it really be 6 pounds worth?!? I don’t think soooo!
In all seriousness, deciding to work out on a regular basis has been the best thing that I’ve done for myself all year. It’s not cheap to have a trainer but I decided months ago that I’m going to invest in my health and in my well-being. You only have one body! You better use it and take good care of it. The workouts have totally been paying off. I have so much more energy, I sleep much better at night, I’m less stressed and my mind feels clearer each day. The endorphins that are released after a work-out are addictive – they give you a natural high and most nights, I have more mental energy after I leave the gym than before, even if my body is completely wrecked.
There is also something really raw and sensual about working your muscles, working the physical aspect of yourself. I sit in an office all day long, working my mind, always in my head about everything. It is so nice to just get down to the basic, animal rawness of working your body to a sweat, of watching your muscles tense up as you lift weights, of feeling the burn of that one last push-up before you collapse into a heap on the floor. A body in motion is so beautiful – angles and curves, softness and hardness. It’s art. And it makes you appreciate just how completely miraculous the human body machine really is. The pain and relief, the anguish and joy – it all makes me feel so so alive.
If you aren’t already committing yourself to regular exercise, start!!! It will be the greatest gift that you can give to yourself this year. I promise.
A lot of things have happened in my life over the last 1.5 years I’ve spent living in Europe. I needed change, I needed to get away from some pain I had with A, I needed a shake up. I had planned for my time in Europe to be short – a year – and knew that I would be back to my normal life in no-time. Well, a little less than two years later, I’m still here but in such a different place emotionally and mentally. Sometimes I think about how different things would be if I hadn’t left and I know that I probably would have been just as content and happy —- but a little less exposed, and much less knowledgeable about myself and the world. Times like this change a person. You outgrow a few things, you learn a lot and if you’re watching carefully, you become aware of all the amazing gifts and blessings that come your way.
Like girl friends.
The two best loves of my life right now are M and C. The relationship that we share has been medicine for the heart. Before them, I hadn’t had any close girl relationships in a very very long time. Having had a boyfriend for nearly 6 years made it really hard for me to get close to other people and because I’m actually a very private person, it makes it hard for me to get close to people regardless! But, there is something so special and unique about having true girl friends.
We cook together and share family recipes. We will kiss each other goodnight after a long crazy day at work. There is always a tea-time check-in and a bedtime laugh. We push each other to live our dreams, to get rid of silly boys, to live up to our potential, to stand up for ourselves, to smile often, to worry less, to dance, to laugh. To laugh, to laugh, to laugh.
Our relationships are so open and honest. They’re the kind of women I can cry to about nothing, I would swim naked with in the ocean, whose secrets will be buried with me to the grave. They are family and laughter and joy. Their love has been a true blessing in my life.
If I come out of this time abroad with one thing that has been truly life changing, I would really have to say that it has been the blessing of girl friends in my life. They are food to the soul.
I found this excerpt in my “Drafts” folder. Another example of why travel is so good for the soul.
I’m back from China. And I don’t think I realize just how much that trip has affected me. It’s the kind of trip that will take weeks to settle, the kind that was so stimulating and so mind stretching, that the effects will come only after I give myself the time to let it all seep through. It was amazing. Shocking, uplifting, physically and mentally challenging and just a real eye opener. I’m back feeling grateful, a little more wide eyed and stretched than before. I see things differently. There is a simple abundance everywhere. And I hope that this feeling lasts. I want it to live in me for a long long time. I’m full of so much mental energy, I really don’t know what to do with it. I am craving the stimulus, the novelty, the shock of being somewhere different and new. I love the idea of meeting new people, hearing their stories, making them smile. I feel somewhat limited in this life right now – stuck in an office all day, wishing for something different.
On Tuesday, to celebrate St. Patrick’s day in good ol’ Ireland, we went out with the Arabic team. I know it’s not politically correct to refer to your friends as “the Arabic team” but since we work with country teams all the time, we really do refer to them as the Arabic team. =) Dublin was packed full of green-faced revellers and I wasn’t really in the mood to go and hang out in smelly bars with drunken people. So we opted for a long dinner in, at a Spanish/Italian restaurant in the city centre. So grown up huh? Skip drinking for a civilized meal. =)
We had two huge paellas, the best Italian garlic bread I’ve had and some mediocre house wine.
The best part about dinner: I came up with one of my best ideas yet.
I was talking about the Lonely Planet book that I’m reading — it’s about the couple who actually started the Lonely Planet empire. They were young twenty year-olds looking for some adventure in the mid seventies. With a few hundred pounds in their pockets and an old beat-up van, they decided to DRIVE from London to Sydney Australia. DRIVE. Through Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia and across to Australia. They arrived in Sydney with 37 cents between the two of them and the blessing of British passports that gave them the legal right to earn some money to get back home.
I’ve decided that I want to do this. It’s got the exact combination of insanity and danger that i thrive on. And I’m looking for adventure seekers who are willing to join me – preferably big and burly so that you can fight off attackers when we’re in the middle of nowhere Iran in our old beaten up van. Oh, someone who knows how to change a flat tire will also be an asset.
Listening to her both calms and saddens me. This song is so hauntingly beautiful. I’ve been plugged into my ipod for the last hour, listening to this on repeat. Isn’t she exquisite?
Hi there! I'm Denise. I share my name with Dionysia, the Greek god of wine, pleasure and joy. I'm a photographer, writer, marketer vagabond. I take photographs of enchanted places and the people seduced by them. This blog is an account of the wisdom, joy and grace that I've encountered along the way, and a place where I showcase some of my favourite photographs.
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