Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor

is my favourite sonata by Beethoven. I love it so much so that I make sure that I don't forget to mention it on my CV under my "Interests". :-)

I don't believe in any specific God but, I think there could be something that might have created this big big universe. If I may refer to this "something" as my definition of "God", ultimately this "God" figure should be everywhere.

We all are, and whatever we all have created in this universe are direct/indirect products of "God" - you, me, us, time, love, cars, space, air, music, my thoughts and etc...Hence, my "God" that I am not able to define with one particular name does reside everywhere.

As cheesy as it might sound, listening to Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor right now, I am thinking I might be listening to "God" - so delicate yet passionate...

Really, how "YOUNG/OLD" are we?

My dad called me during his lunch break yesterday

and,

In one of the conversations we had, he mentioned how we only get to live 1/2 of the time we think we have lived at the end (generally speaking of course). His logic was basically that we all have 24 hours a day and if we were to spend more or less 8 hours on sleeping and another 4 on some essential misc stuff such as eating, walking etc. there's really not much time left for us to be productive or work for our dreams - at most another 12 hours. To sum up, this is exactly what he was saying: if we were to die at at age of 80, we are only really living 40 years of our life-time.

Now, do I agree with him? Yes and no. I found some logic in that however, I also enjoy my time of eating, showering, walking, running errands (I love the word, "errands") and etc. that my dad categorized under misc. Sure, they are truly essential part of our life (now, don't try to argue that we don't HAVE TO shower, eat nor etc. we are only "generally speaking", remember?), but they are also joyful, aren't they?

I genuinely have loads of fun making a list for my weekly grocery shopping day as I get to look around all these different things, compare and choose what I want to buy at the store - definitely exciting.

In the shower, I think about "what kind of body-wash do I want to use today amongst these 3 I own?", basically a question of how do I want my day to be? fruity? flowery? or maybe something else? or what kind of music do I want to hear in the shower and etc.?

Eating? God forbid, I enjoy eating and in order to appreciate the taste of my food better, I don't really drink water while I am eating. Really, I can go on and on about how I find every "mundane/routine-based" parts of my day still really exciting and enjoyable and they can also get productive - they make me happy and that happy vibe keeps me motivated when it comes to carrying out other tasks during my "non-misc" time!

I am fully aware of the fact that it's totally fine to have a different view on this but didn't want to tell this to my dad. He is a very hard-working man and I look up to him very much. I know I wouldn't have been here being "able" to enjoy my "misc. time" without him and his not-so- meaningful/enjoyable misc. hours. In this sense, he's already given me a better life than what he's had and how can I not love my daddy and look up to him?!!!

Anyway, back to the point and my conclusion here is that instead of 1/2, I would say we really do live 2/3 of our life time being fully awake! (also, "1/2 theory" of my dad is kind of sad, if you think about it...) Sleeping is also essential and very enjoyable part of our life but unfortunately, we are not exactly awake with a very active mind. So yeah, If I die at the age of 90, I would have lived 60 years, really...

So how young/old are we, really? Could I say...well my "sleeping+non-sleeping" age together is (say 30 as an example), and my "active" age is 20 actually?...

What it all boils down to is that... we tend to think we have the whole life ahead of us to do this and that and put things off but really, how do you know when your privilege of even being able to count your age in these two different schemes might stop? If what my dad wanted tell me with his "1/2 theory" was that we all should be more productive, diligent and proactive, what I want to say is that, on top of that, we need to learn how to enjoy every single moment of our life better.

Well here's my thought. For starters, there's not enough time to "love" - love yourself, friends, family, lovers, phone, shampoo, candles, waffles, "coco berry's", Beethoven Sonata, your misc. time, errands...anything and everything that are part of you and your life...xxx

In an ideal world: Part Une

In an ideal world,,,

I would like to own a cafe/bakery with the best pecan pie and the best chocolate croissant in the whole world. I recently found a pie place that resembles to my imaginary cafe/bakery by about 48.7%. I must admit though, I was still lucky to find a place like this in the city where I live in currently.

Well, I like how this place is cozy and has the yellow walls around. However, it's a bit too small and doesn't smell "pie-y" enough from outside and inside both...(minus points? hehe I am being the pie shop patrol right now!) You know what I mean though, right? One would definitely expect to smell some fresh pies from inside at least if not outside, and some coffee too! Besides I felt like there were not enough flowers inside... I would most certainly try to give more life to the place, had I owned the pie place. Colourwise, it was very yellow and brow and I personally liked it very much - just thought the place could use a bit more of white, green and light pink.

So here's how my own pie place/cafe/bakery is (in an ideal world):

*Description of colours that the place contains: yellow walls, brown furniture, white flowers (green leaves attached), light-green cushions, green plants (mini cactus pots with dark pink flowers on each table?), pink (NO neon-pink) napkins, or the logo of the place could be some kind of pink? and white and blue plates!

*Menu-wise, I am sure I will come up with something great but here are some essential things that will be included on my menu: awesome coffee, pies, chocolate croissant, cinnamon rolls, tiramisu (my fav dessert!) and many other delicious things of course! oh! and I do wanna sell some flowers on the side perhaps...

There are many other small little things that live in my ideal/dream world. It was just part one. Maybe I will write more about them soon!

It's so much fun to be in your own world every now and then. Sure we all grow older, we all get serious responsibilities, we all have to face the "reality" but really, does it mean that we need to stop picturing our ideal world and having fun, or forget about all that we used to dream of when we were young??

AND! guess what? you never know, some day, these dreams of yours/crazy ideas might come true!

Don't ever let anyone stop you from hanging onto your own bubble - just don't forget to jump back to the reality when needed...

Anyone wants to 10-4 me on this?! ;-)

My Beloved Taco Ladies & Tacos de Adobadas

Mexico is one of the few countries I feel very connected to for many different reasons, not to mention that I lived there for a while in the past. Actually, before I decided to move there for a while, I had visited the country twice through two different exchange-programs (in highschool and university) Now, you can imagine the way I feel for Me-hi-co.

Something about the country is definitely addictive. I think it might be the mixture of its beautiful weather, friendly people (except for those "naco"s -sorry!), great music and "antro"s and most importantly its DELICIOUS cuisine.

Mexico is a relatively big country and each region has its own special type of food that they are well known for. Unfortunately, despite the amount of time I spent in Mexico, I still haven't been able to try them all but I do know my favourite is "Tacos de Adobadas". (Photos attached!)

So, right by the place I used to live in Mexico, there was a local taco stand owned by 4 sisters. I used to call them my "dear taco ladies". ;-) As adventurous as I am, I tried many different taco stands and local restaurants to find the best taco place. It was probably one of the biggest silly personal goals I had during my stay in Mexico apart from trying to figure out the titles of new "hot" reggaeton songs played in "antros"(clubs) with my best team-mate of all, AMD! haha (we all have those secretive/almost nerdy personal things going on most of the time, right? or is it just me?! lol)

Anyway, I wasn't sure and am still not sure what these 4 sisters did to the tacos but their tacos were just so amazing!! The taste of meat was amazing, their homemade salsa was delicious and they had the best smiles of all at all times. By the time I had to leave Mexico, I knew I wasn't going to be able to find any tacos like that anywhere else in the world, and that my taco ladies were the best in the field of making good tacos (esp. tacos de adobadas).

The last day of my stay in Mexico, these four ladies and I exchanged e-mail addresses with tears. By the way, only one of them had an e-mail account. This morning I received an e-mail from one of the taco sisters, Leti. It's been almost 6 months since I spoke to her last. It was a lovely surprise.

We randomly meet so many people everyday and we sometimes underestimate how great those "random" encounters can turn into something wonderful and bring us some unexpected joy and laughter!

Oh how I miss you those scrumptious tacos de adobadas and my "dear taco ladides"!!! Un besote (a big kiss)!!! xxx

Ze first post: "Candles and/in the rain"

Hi all,

At the end, this might end up being my personal online diary but hey, (friends and soon-to-be friends) I really just want to collect and share genuine(could be random) thoughts of mine for those who are interested...

Ultimately, regardless of who we are, where we are from, what we are doing and etc... we all are breathing the same air trying to be good and happy everyday! For as long as we remain as imperfect human-beings, our real-life stories might be more or less similar in the sense that most of them are rather trivial and simple.

So here goes my first very simple story of the day. I just bought a new candle-holder today from a dollar store for actually $1.50 (yes, dollar stores do have things that cost more than a dollar sometimes!). It was "Made in China" (shocking!) of course, but lovely after all. It made my day and also, literally lit my night - thanks! Attached, please a find a picture of it, should you be interested. hehe

It's been raining all weekend. Yes, it's that time of the year. The monster monsoon has arrived! :-) I LOVE the rain. It gives me the best excuse to stay at home all day being all artsy (or trying to be artsy) and dorky with myself. What do I do with myself?? Here's what I do, but I am pretty sure there are at least 4 billion people enjoying the same thing as I do. (Now, that's more than 1/2 of the entire world population (6.8 bil))!!

Anyway back to the point, "j'adore" watching outside through my windows, observing what kind of umbrellas are in style these days (lol) trying to pick out Miss. Umbrella of the day, paying attention to how colourful the day gets with all these umbrellas in different colours (ahh what a joy!), drinking some tea, listening to some jazz tunes, reading all these books I've been meaning to read for a while, writing e-mails and most importantly, with my vanilla candle on! I must say though, my favourite kind is definitely vanilla. m m m

Something about candles... They seem to have an amazing power to somehow pause the time, capture you in that very special moment/space and let you feel the world. I find that effect extra amazing in rainy days. So, just to celebrate the beginning of the Monsoon season of 2010, I bought a new candle-holder that cost me just more than a dollar which will make this year's rainy season unique and artsy in its own way.

It certainly doesn't seem to cost much for one to be happy!! xxx