A good night's sleep!

(no, this is not the continuation of the previous post.... :)

I opened my eyes and saw a bit of light sneaking into the room despite the heavy curtains... ok, it's not soooo early, there's light outside... turned to my side and reached to the bed side table to see what time it was... and was pleasantly surprised: 10am! Aaaah, Sunday morning! And me managing to sleep late! Stretched my limbs and stayed in bed for some more time looking at the ceiling and thinking how great it is to sleep well! Now, perhaps to some of you this sounds weird but I'm one of those people that my biological clock gets tuned the whole week and during the weekend, even if I don't have anything to do, I wake up early... and there is nothing more frustrating the opening my eyes on a Sunday at 8:41am... ok, this was a slight exaggeration, surely there are more frustrating things than this but you get my point...

Even when on holidays it takes me some time to get adjusted to the relaxed rhythm and enjoy my sleep until late... usually a couple of days but some times even more... So when I woke up this past Sunday at 10, you can imaging that I had every reason to get a big smile on my face! And I kept it during the rest of the morning, leisurely enjoying a cup of coffee and checking out Facebook and horoscopes and listening to some music... Nice! Very nice! No stress, no work, no reason to put on shoes... Because no matter how much I love shoes, and mind you, I do... a lot... still I need to have one day per week that I do no need to put them on! It's what I call "sleepers' day" :)

So, no matter how trivial this may sound to some of you, to me a good night's sleep is better than shoes... perhaps not better than ALL shoes as one could think certain foot candy for which any girl would trade a sleepless week, but most shoes... And as for me, I will be looking forward to next weekend hoping that again I will manage to wake up as late as possible :)

following a dream...

...is better than shoes no matter what type of shoes you are wearing doing it... usually a pair of sneakers...
No, I will not talk about myself in this post... I will talk about a boy who at the age of 17 declared his independence from the family (and society) constraints and stated that "all he wants to do is make music" and he went ahead and did it for the years that followed... And it has not been easy for him since, not at all... lots of frustration, lots of opposition (yes, opposition, what do you think, the average Greek mother wants to hear that her son is not to become a doctor or an engineer and, on top of it, will carry on his life holding a guitar??? pleeeeease...) lots of work (lots and lots and lots of it...), lots of compromise and sacrifice...  and a substantial amount of pain... those strained tendons do hurt... No, not easy... So, why did he continue then? Because, along with all the above came at the same time lots of joy, lots of pleasure and lots and lots of music!!

So, there he is, some 15 years later, still holding a guitar (and as it turns out also keyboards and drums and microphone...), still making music, still following his dream and making all of us around him dream along in the process... and yes, to me this is worth mentioning in this blog... because  having dreams and following them is not just better than shoes... it is better than all-time-classics Christian Louboutin silver python pumps with 50% discount!!! I know what I'm talking about... because not only I have been following this boy very closely and have seen the fulfillment he has enjoyed over the years but I have felt the joy he has been offering to the people who are close to him in doing so...

I am convinced the whole deal is worth it... though I'm one of those people still in search for a dream (ok, those Louboutins do not reeeeeeeeally count...) to follow... or perhaps waiting for a dream to find me, if we assume that a dream finds you and you don't find it... no matter what the case, I do strongly recommend having one and seeing it through... so, get out and follow yours dreams people :) and do not forget to enjoy the ride!

PS. The boy is my brother... and I'm as proud as can be for him!! Which, in its own, is also better than shoes!

The art of baking cookies...

Keeping my promise, I left The frozen Netherlands some days before Christmas and went looking for better-than-shoes experiences in the warm south... Not without problems was my departure... Though I guess I was the lucky one who's flight was not canceled on the 20th of December (those of you leaving near by already know what that day was for air and land transportation means... they were all white... and immobile!!) but we actually managed to take off in that small moment the snow storm subsided, only with a couple of hours delay. The horror stories I heard from people traveling that day... brrrrr yeah, I was lucky! And leaving the winter behind I arrived in the spring!

Indeed, it is not about where I arrived, but mostly when I arrived! And I arrive at that time of the year when the temperature is 21 degrees, the sun shines and one can enjoy a cold coffee outside without needing a coat or jacket! No lie, that was Christmas season for me: spring!
Though I can understand the complaints of the indigenous people who, perhaps rightfully so, think that this is no Christmas weather and they wished for a snow that was falling very far away, I have to say that I loved it!

And  I was out a lot and met family and friends and... baked traditional Christmas cookies with my cousin and niece!! I call them cookies but they are really special, delicious (well, if you get to do them right that is...) and covered with sugar! Every house in Greece has them at this time of the year! Never did it before as an adult, neither did my cousin on her own, so I guess it's good we had my 7-year-old niece to help us... the laughs, the jokes, the fun we had was unprecedented!! We kinda followed a recipe, we kinda improvised, we kinda forgot to turn on the oven at some point... yep, essential if you actually want to bake the little rascals, but at the end we made the best cookies ever!!!! Ok, perhaps not the best ones ever but surely the best for us three! And in the process we did have a better-than-shoes time!!! Totally! Experiences like this are priceless and they will always be in our memories... while that pair of snake skin Jimmy Choo sandals will fade...

PS. Happy New Year!!! May this one be the best of the ones past and the worst of the ones to follow!!