Changes...

Recently some significant changes occurred in my life... Some good changes I hope... What is more, it's still summer here, smiling faces walking down the street, great holidays coming up very very soon, but my blog is still black, sad, not really corresponding with my mood right now. So I thought: why not changing it? And so I did! And I hope you like it :)

A bit of freshness and serenity... Just like me...

Past, Present, Future...

I've had a very lazy Sunday today. Maybe I haven't done anything concrete, but still managed to reply to some e-mails, go through all the papers and mail I have been collecting on the shelves for the last few weeks at least and... a lot of time for thinking... Thinking about the Past which keeps haunting me over and over again, not letting me breath and move forward... Which keeps me stuck in the old souvenirs, memories, events, people... I feel I am getting really fed up with it and the time has come to fight with it, to put the new ideas into action!

At work, whenever the subject of budget planning comes, I tend to say: we should look at the past in order to create the future. But when I look at my own life right now, I realize it has nothing to do with a budget and therefore in order to survive I should actually forget the past and look into the bright future! There is no other way and solution for me if I want to grow, to change, to bring back my usual passion and motivation for life...

I've just had a look at my 2010 New Year's Resolutions and realized that we are already in August and I have still so many things planned to do this year. How could I have let that happen? How could I have forgotten about it and wasted so much time??!! Game over beybe! The time has come to start looking at that list from time to time, a bit more often and cross out, step by step, those things I was dreaming of and which I wanted to happen this year. If not now, then when?

The nutritionists and diet specialists keep saying: if you want to lose on weight, don't tell yourself you will start that tomorrow. Just start now! At the moment of thinking about it! Later on it might be already too late!

So... the Time has come... and the Time is NOW !!!

...

"(...) Still, despite all this, traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant  in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves. I feel about travel the way a happy new mother feels about her impossible, colicky, restless new baby - I just don't care what it puts me through. Because I adore it. Because it's mine. Because it looks exactly like me. It can barf all over me if it wants to - I just don't care. (...)"

Impatiently looking forward to my next big trip in September...

Inspiring lunch...

I’ve been always telling myself that whatever I do, wherever I go, I can always meet people from whom I can learn something, get inspiration, which would afterwards have an impact on my life or my own character... And so another event of that kind happened to me today…


It was my 5th day at new job. The passing week has been a true learning experience: meeting new people, getting to know the organization, setting up my office. I was alone in my department that day, my colleagues being on holidays or working from home. So I decided to ask the interns from the Legal department to have lunch with. Their manager joined us as well. And of course, the big part of the conversation went about the legal items, lawyer’s experiences etc. I was getting pretty bored when suddenly they changed the subject completely! The Manager told us about her theatre classes the day before, what kind of improvisation she did, what big applause she got from her class mates. Then the Intern Boy mentioned that he is a big fan of short movies (“court metrage” in French), even wrote 2 scenarios himself but didn’t have a chance to realize them, but for sure, one day, he would like to start up a company who would be producing such short movies. The Intern Girl said she is getting married this weekend.

And then I started thinking… If Lawyers can go for theatre classes, get married and produce short movies, then what can a Finance Analyst like me do with her life…? What will be my afterwork activities that I will undertake? What are the things I can do for my own personal development? Dancing classes? Sport? Foreign languages? Hmmm...

31st March... 20h20...

Violet, blue, yellow, orange, pink, blue again...

The sky...

White clouds like soft pillows on which you would love to lie down...

The most beautiful scene I have ever seen...

The sunset...

Up in the air...

Me, myself and I...

After the whole week of "afterwork activities", the thing I always appreciate the most is such a lazy Saturday, when at 5pm I can still say, with a banana-smile on my face, that I am still wearing my pyjama, I don't really care about the world outside, I'm just spending some quality time with myself, my dreams, my thoughts and my diary...

However busy the passing week might seem, I've just realized that each day actually brought some positive lessons and moments...
                                                

                                                            Monday

... One of the New Year's resolutions has been realized! together with Neli and Karim we bought tickets for our big trip to Madagascar! watch out Africa - here I come! I still cannot believe it... I think I will believe it only on 4th September when sitting in the plane somewhere up in the air...

Tuesday

... I went to the cinema to see the movie "Nine". Hmm... apart from the music and songs, it didn't make any "wow" effect on me. Sad story, depressing even.... I realized not all the movies having a big advertisement campaign are really worth seeing. But you may never know it until you see it yourself...

Wednesday
... St Patrick's Day! A good reason for an afterwork with colleagues and my crazy Ewa :) A few beers, irish music in the pub, walking in Paris and... some surprising and spontaneous moments, seconds even...

Thursday
... Another good, however a bit sad, reason to go out at Champs-Elysees: a farewell of one of my Team pals. The evening would be great, almost perfect if only... we had chosen the club better! 1 hour to leave the clothes at the wardrobe, 1,5 hours to get them back, 15 euros for entrance for which you get a few drops of (fake) champagne. Disaster!!! Well, at least the music was very good...

Friday

... My favourite sushi and watching SATC dvd's until 4.30am. Am I crazy? Maybe... But I love it! And I adore those New York girls which make me laugh and cry in the same time! And which... make me feel like going to New York some day soon... Should I plan it as the Big Trip 2011?

Saturday

... So far very lazy, still in pyjama, catching up with all the lost time recently. Looking forward to the Starbusk's coffee (Caramel Macchiato of course!) and walk on the Parisian streets with a friend. I hope the weather will not get worse in the evening...

Sunday
... Don't know yet what will happen... We will see... But who knows, maybe the best is yet to come... :)

J'aime Paris!

It was already the 2010 Valentine's Day and I was having a great party time with a few people I mostly just met that evening, all of us not real Parisians, but young people who came here some time ago to check this city out, to try our luck, to see how it was going to be...
Some of us came here for a job, some for a great love and some just because they had been always dreaming about it. But what turned out is that we all have a big thing in common: we all just love that city! And when we were asking each other "Why?" is that actually - nobody was able to give a reasonable answer. We love it just like that! Because we feel great here! And that's it!

However waking up this afternoon, I asked myself: What do I love this city for?

... for all the great friends and life-long friendships I gained here?
... for all the great moments I am passing here and never getting bored?
... for that I can go to cinema every day for a few movies and I pay only 19,80€ a month for that?
... for the charming restaurants, good bars and great clubs that you can find here at every corner?
... for the possibility of going to a concert of an artist I've been admiring and singing the songs since I was a little girl ?
... for that with my colleagues we are not only sharing the daily work problems, but we can also have a great time learning to dance brazilian forro after the working hours?
... for that when I have a hard and long day at work, I know I can come back home, hide in my room and relax in front of my favourite "Sex & The City" and with my adored sushi take-out?
... for that I can wear a green skirt, yellow shoes and pink shirt and nobody would laugh at me in the street?
... for the "Have a nice day!" from the cashdesk lady in the supermarket and the "Oh, you have changed your haircut?" from my optician?
... for the smiles and "Thank you!" from my friends who were dreaming to come to Paris and I could host them so that their dreams could finally come true?

I could continue this list for hours, enumerating all the little and huge things that make me happy here. But no matter what their number would be, no matter what their content would be, I know one thing, and I know it 100% sure: I love Paris as it is here that I found my home, it's here that I found "mon petit chez moi"...

In the end...

In the end, I'm just a finance analyst... In the end I'm just putting numbers in excel sheets, inserting formulas and waiting for the final result... And in the end, the final result is also just a number...

One simple number, but it can make some people's lives very complicated in the end... Because it may lead to their end... Their last day at work... Where they spent so many years, where they met so many good people, where they built friendships, maybe they even met their life-partner there, who knows... Where they spent so many hours trying to satisfy their supervisors, to bring results to the company, doing all their best, but still trying not to forget about themselves, their own dreams, their families...

It's the movie "Up in the Air" which inspired me tonight... When you see it, you will probably understand my feelings. But please, don't judge me on the job I'm doing right now. In the end, I'm just a finance analyst...

New Year's Resolutions

In the words of Oprah Winfrey, “The New Year is another chance for us to get it right,” so let’s make a resolution, and let’s make it right this time! (article about New Year's Resolutions)

Have you made your 2010 Resolutions my Friend? Or maybe you don't believe in this "American kind-of" stuff? Or maybe you just don't know how to start?
To be honest, I started doing it last year for real and with the 2009 coming to an end, I actually discovered that most of my 2009 Resolutions were realized - it was such a joy! And it motivated me to do the same for 2010. And so I did! I ended up with a list of 17 Resolutions. A lot you think? Too much? Too ambitious? I don't think so... Because I double-checked the list a few times, and I'm sure I want to leave the 17 points the way they are!
I would share it with you here, but as some of them are actually my little and big dreams, and I was always told not to talk about my most precious dreams before they come true not to bring the bad luck, this time I decided I will share with you the moments when those Resolutions will come true, one by one, step by step, not all at once for sure...
I will share with you just one very important thing: I called my 2010 a Year of Pleasures. And for sure I will not resign!

2010 has just come...
So...
LET'S GET IT STARTED !!!