better than shoes?... you bet!!!

My affiliation (no, no, I will not admit obsession...) to shoes is known to more or less everyone who knows me personally... and to all of you who read me, obviously ;) My friends often tease me about it, especially because I will not think twice before buying  a pair of 10cm stiletto heels and then leave it in the box, in the wardrobe, for the following 4 years without ever wearing it... because, supposedly "the right occasion never came up"... booooo.... yeah, that was me boooooing me... who am I kidding?? Surely not my friends...

Anyway, boooooing and teasing aside, the subject of shoes comes up every now and then in our discussions and sometimes even in the electronic ones :) So it was not a surprise when a dear friend of mine sent me this picture of chocolate shoes mentioning that it depicts "two passions in one" :) And indeed it does!! I could not agree more! I mean, there are very few shapes in which chocolate looks more delicious than a shoe shape... and I will not, repeat, WILL NOT mention any of those, use your imagination... As far as I'm concerned, chocolate shoes are better than shoes and deserve to be mentioned in this blog ;)

So, I take the opportunity to thank T. L. for letting me know about this delicacy, making sure I will be sending him the bill from my order which most certainly will take place soon, and I post the picture I got for all of you to see and covet!

having a stock of good thoughts...

...helps!!

I woke up this morning and my mood was as dark as the sky outside my windows... The familiar crack in the curtains which normally lets about three rays of light sneak in to my room and help me get out of bed, was only giving way to a grey so thick it could only compare to the thick grey curtains themselves... No, getting up was not easy nor did it get easier when I went downstairs to have a cup of coffee... And there was no improvement while I was taking my shower and got dressed for work... In my car, on the way to the office, my iPod decided to entertain me with Nick Cave and his dead wild rose... right... why don't you give a razor with it, will you?...

At work, things only got worse, as expected... not even the usual breakfast chat or the 11:30 ciggy break helped... And then, as I was sinking deeper into the blackness,  I got an idea... All this time, for about three years, I have been piling up in these posts all the good thoughts I have been making! I have been listing all those things that have put a smile on my face day after day and have made me see life as the great gift it is! Well, then, that was it, that was the solution, right there staring at me! That was the way out of today's misery! I should read them!! So I started reading... No Hemingway stuff, of course, I would never even claim I am a writer (though I have secretly dreamed about it, I must admit...) but a lot of good stuff, all of them ready to remind me of their existence and make me feel better!

Kid you not, it worked! Ok, not entirelly... after a lunch with my friends, I still feel blue and today would certainly not be the day to share with you another one of my usual "beter than shoes" experiences... But I have come to terms with the fact that today it is a day to cash in on all those that I have been saving here! And it is indeed the day to realise that having a stock of goof thought does actually help on days like this when making new ones seems impossible! And that cannot but qualify as "better than shoes", can it? What do you think ;)

"No, no plans for the weekend..."

... is perhaps the most misunderstood phrase in the world of phrases! There is such a discrimination against it, it makes my heart ache! Having lived here in the north for ten years now and having been working in an International Organization which employs a lot of people from the north, I have faced many a time the raised eye brow and sad look that this phrase produces to them... I mean, I'm Greek, I grow up never having plans for the weekend and, especially in my Uni years, always being busy as a bee!! Though I have left my country for a long time, I still take pride to the fact that we do no use our agendas normally in order to go out with our friends... we just call them on the day and meet them!

So, yes, the weekend... I have passed the last three months (more or less) being away for almost every other weekend... And yes, I has affected my writing, I am not the type of person to keep blogging while being in a car doing 230Km/h and heading to Munich for the Oktoberfest (I promise to tell you the story...) so I have been rather quiet lately... And to tell you the truth I have enjoyed every one of my little escapes, may that be for the beer festival, a cousin's wedding, home to see my brother or whatever... But I am not that young anymore (although I am the only one allowed to say it!!!) and all this has taken its toll on me... I got tired!

That is why I  adopt the little phrase from now on and for some time... No plans for the weekend and proud of it!! I will just spend my two free days without any specific schedule, I will just stay home, go to the cleaner's or the supermarket and watch films and stay in my pajamas or... not do any of these things!!! And I will embrace this state of freedom and I will defend the argument that not having plans for the weekend is better than shoes (and gives you time to go shopping for them...) until... well, until I change my mind and feel the buzz again and hope on a car or an airplane to get away for two days ;)