It was a bad year for Capricorns

The first thing I heard in the morning in radio was that it was a bad year for Capricorns. I laughed with my mum about it. I don't believe in horoscopes and don't really care about zodiac signs but it was indeed not a good year for me. Twisted leg, health problems, no vacation at all. I didn't send much letters, I almost didn't go to cinema, I didn't go to the theatre, didn't read much books, I didn't travel. I was too tired or too sick or too depressed. So I will welcome 2013 with big pleasure and great hopes.

What good happened to me in 2012:

I've been to Red Hot Chili Peppers concert

I started learning Arabic

I met new friends

I've been to Cracow for a weekend

I've been by my beloved lake for 4 days

I did piercing in the back of my neck

My favourite RHCP song :D

Mazury in Poland where I go every year (at my lake:)):

My piercing :D

And that's all I can think of actually. I didn't make any statistics regarding letters. Maybe I'll do it next year... I probably won't, I know myself well enough :P Last year I read 30 books so this year I challenged myself to read 35 but I read just 25 books this year. Oh well. But I started reading normal books (not just short stories for beginners) in Spanish so at least I'm proud of this. I read 18 books in Polish, 2 books in English, 5 books in Spanish.

My top 3 books read in 2012:

1. Rosario Tijeras by Jorge Franco. It is about a girl raised in poor and dangerous district of Medellin. She gets involved in criminal activities. She meets 2 guys from good families, one of them becomes her lover, the second one a great friend, though both are in love with her. Rosario although she might seem heartless and fearless killer, is very emotional, loving, hurt, scared, depressive, lost, living life to the fullest although she's playing with death a deadly game. I couldn't not fall in love with Rosario, like the guys in the book. And it joined a list of my favourites:) The movie based on this book is also awsome.

2. Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuściński. It's a non fiction. Kapuściński was a Polish journalist and writer. This book is about the rules of two shahs of Iran, father and son, and the life of people under their regime untill the revolution. It's not a typical bigraphy of the shahs but an analize of their rules and Iranian society. Written in an interesting way, great to learn something about Iran's history.

3. Geografias by Mario Benedetti. 14 great stories about dictatorship time in Uruguay and nostalgia about a country on an exile. Benedetti wrote this book while being on an exile himself.

I think I can call this an Arabic year. Besides starting learning the language, I've been going to this Arabic club, listening to Arabic and Turkish music over and over again, trying all kinds of sheesha.

My best musical discoveries this year:

Buika! I am enchanted with her voice.

Hindi Zahra.

My lovely Chavela Vargas died this year which made me feel sad:( I will never have a chance to listen to her alive. El ultimo trago hoy sera para mi Chavela;) I will love her forever.

Do you have plans for tonight? I'm going to have fun in Arabic rhythms, haha. I have already painted my nails golden color:) Now I just hope I will be able to squeeze myself in my dress after Christmas :P

I wish you all Happy New Year :)

Christmas tree and mail

Uff, I'm stuffed with food. I ate too much for those two days! But how can you resist while there's so much good food around? How's your Christams going?:)

This is my Christmas tree. I love the scent of the tree in the house in Christmas time^^

 

My favourite decorations. Little angels:D

These I gave to my mum and aunt for Christmas. Inside were tickets to theatre. It was a surprise, they didn't expect it at all and were very happy^^ When my aunt saw the envelope she thought it's from the kids and contains some handmade card:P

This is what I made for mail art + mini letter exchange last month. I made the envelope of materials from the Warsaw Uprising museum and a lacy heart I once got from Maria Laura. I put inside a postcard (also from that museum) showing marriage during the uprising (of which I unfortunatelly forgot to take photo) so I made war + love theme. 

 Christmas envelope. I took a white envelope and glued a Christmas themed table napkin to it, added some deco tape on the edges. It was an experiment but the texture of the envelope turned out very nice. Easy way to make colorful envelopes if you don't have better idea or materials to decorate it;)

Unfortunatelly I didn't manage to send Christmas cards to everyone I wanted to before Christmas:( I am so scatterbrained, do everything too late. I barely managed to find a gift for my dad before holidays. Did you manage sending all your Christmas mail? Am I the only bad one?

Merry Christmas to the penpalling world:)

My yesterday's post was bitter buuut it's Christmas, smile :)

I want to wish everyone who reads my blog

glitter-graphics.com

If you'd like to read about Christams traditions in Poland, you can look here.

A Christmas "gift" from Polish Post Office :(

I'm very miserable after decision of Polish Post Office about new prices of stamps. Since 2013 they will be 100% higher for international mail:( We'll have one of the highest prices of stamps in Europe, while having one of lowest salaries.

Since I started penpalling over 3 years ago, for 2 years I was very pleased with Polish Post Office services. I had no problems with mail getting lost. But since last year they keep losing my mail (even within Poland). They don't take any responsibility for not-registered letters. And now this price increase for their shitty services?

The way they treat clients is insolent. They ignore all questions concerning the new prices and give no official statement about it.

I have just few penpals so maybe I won't bankrupt (because quitting writing with any of them is out of question). But I am pretty sure many of postcrossers from Poland will limit their activity. Fuck you very much Polish Post Office!

:(

Citrus juice

Orange.

Lime.

Pink grapefruit.

And in the back labels from Lovelia.

A postcard from... Visakhapatnam, India

Namaste!:) This is my first postcard from India. I got it from Amit. It shows Buddhist site near Visakhapatnam, a city in the east coast of India.

And look how interesting stamps. This is traditional Indian texture called Banaras Silk (unfortunatelly the stamps are not made of it:P how cool would it be if they were, huh?;)) At first I read the name wrong - Bananas Silk and I was wondering if it's some special silk made of bananas, silly me, haha.

Little pleasures Monday

 It wasn't any special day, just a normal Monday but I have a new bath. The old one was leaking so I never used it. I was just always taking shower and it's been years since I actually took a bath. So it is real attraction for me now! You can't imagine how big! And then those wasabi peanuts. When I first tried one, I spilled it out. It seemed so awful. But then I ate some more and I started to love them. Me, who never liked spicy food. Those two little things made my day today and I thought of all little pleasures on a such a non-special day, the worst day of a week actually, Monday...

1. a long bubble bath
2. wasabi peanuts
3. a Vietnamese film (The Scent of Green Papaya)
4. a bowl of spinach
5. two chapters of Lolita (read in a bath)

 What little pleasures did you have today?

This one never reached it's destination. Not that I want to spoil a positive post:P I just won't make a separate post for this lonely envelope.

Citrus tea

Ingredients

• earl grey or black tea
• lime
• lemon
• grapefruit
• brown sugar

How to do it?

Make tea. Squeeze some lemon and lime juice. Add lemon, lime and grapefruit slices. Add 1-2 teaspoons of brown sugar. Enjoy while writing a letter;)

A postcard from... Pisa, Italy

I think I don't need to introduce the Leaning Tower of Pisa;)

Polish Independence Day

Today, 11th November, is an Independence Day of Poland. It is celebrated to commemorate the anniversary of Poland's assumption of independent statehood in 1918 after 123 years of partition by Russia, Prussia and Austria. During this time Poland didn't exist as a country and disappeard from maps.

Here's a short video presenting a history of this holiday.

And here you can watch a nice video showing scenes from last year's celebrations in Warsaw:)

Religious stamps

Whenever I choose stamps in Polish post office online shop, I am amazed with the amount of religious stamps they offer. There are stamps with pope, stamps with priests, stamps with saints, stamps with Maria icons... Look just how many Maria's there are! I am not religious however I do like some of them, those quirky looking ones... Still, the number of them is quite shoking, isn't it? Do you have religious stamps in your country?