Summertime and the livin is easy... :)

Some of my summer moments in my dear, beautiful hometown - Riga.

To be continued... :)

The song of the day

Can't sit still with this tune :)

Quote of the day :)

Home

Oh, where to begin...

It's been a bit more than a week since I am back home - in Riga. And it feels sooooo good. At the same time there is this strange feeling as I simply can't believe that in a few days time I won't have to pack my bag again and head to the airport. In fact almost all bags and boxes are unpacked and most of the things have found a comfortable place in my little apartment.

As to my beautiful hometown - it has got many new lines in her face since we parted (I guess as well as myself :)), not the ones which are ageing her but those which give her a character. So many great new places to lunch and dine in, many new venues, construction and reconstruction works taking place. My hometown is getting ready to become a European Capital of Culture in 2014.

I have a rather long list with all the events and places to visit. Here are a couple I managed to go to and liked a lot:

LiveRiga photo

La Kanna - apparently very famous for its Saturday and Sunday brunch, which I still have to try out but so far I enjoyed their delicious Pavlova, home baked bread and welcoming service.

And the other one is called Stockpot - a place run by Richard Johnson and his Latvian wife Linda who have returned to Latvia after years of working in different countries and gathering experience in tastes and flavours of the world's food now resulting in very tasty plates they offer in their cozy and relaxed resto. As they work only on working days and until 20:30 I suggest it is a place for lunch or after-work snack. Definitely will be back.

I promise to continue my research as this summer might turn out to be a season of many friendly visits from abroad :)

The song of the day

Closures

I am leaving back home to Latvia in a bit more than a month time. So my epopee of 6 years life in Luxembourg is coming to an end and it is quite a strange feeling I have to admit. It has been a long period of my life and there is a huge change awaiting, and though it was a conscious decision of mine a part of me is scared sh..less while the other one is very excited.

This all has made me think about the human ability to learn to say goodbye - to places, to people, to things. This is not the first time I've been living abroad so I know how hard it can be but it is also a human nature to get used to everything, even to saying goodbye. Of course with nowadays possibilities of communication and travelling these are probably not real closures. But still. Besides I have a strong belief about the relationships which are meant to last and those which are not, time and distance only serves to recognize the difference. Not everything has to last in our lives and the funny thing is that it actually never does so it is very valuable to learn to appreciate the presence of someone or something as well as to learn to let go.

These last months I've had a revelation that by actually facing the fact that everything is terminal I have been enjoying life much more, becoming more open and adventurous. And another thing I've noticed is that even time seems to pass slower these days because I absorb every minute of it. In fact real life is what happens between Event X and Trip Y. But so often people tend to live in a constant waiting line for these unknowns. Maybe I've finally come closer to here and now conception. I wish :) Anyway these are all just digested notions with an added value of my own experience.

In the light of my removal and conclusion that I've accumulated way too much stuff during these years I have to mention these "Less is more" type of projects I've come across - Project 333 and Be More with Less which came in handy not only from the philosophical but plain practical point of view. Getting rid of clutter in direct and metaphorical sense is really relieving.

And when talking about the philosophical side of it all here are two books I re-read again with pleasure:

To sum it all up I will post a short part of the lecture of timeless and wonderful Alan Watts. Sleep well and enjoy the dance! :)

The song of the day