Happy Newyear; New round of new opportunities

How special it is every year again, you close one year and automatically start a whole new year, you will experience literally “new round of new opportunities .” Basically there is little difference in the transition from one day to the next , but with the New Year it is still always a magical moment. You get the opportunity to take stock and reflect on what went well last year and what you hope to do better or to do otherwise in the coming year. Especially when last year wasn’t as great as you liked or with adversity, whether personal, health or social level is does not matter. Not for nothing is it for many a tradition to make Newyears resolutions, these plans are actually nothing more and nothing less than a kind of self-reflection to come to a bit of self-understanding and preferably what needs to change and improve. You can pep yourself and speak courage that 2014 may be a better year. As I wrote earlier in ” Love is .. ” it is now also good to make a list of your good intentions. If you take the trouble to write them, they have more shape and you can look back from time to time to remind yourself what you want to achieve for  yourself. Try to describe as clearly as possible and try to chop your goal into pieces, I mean by that to see what intermediate goals you can think of as ever to get another step closer to your bigger goal, than it does not seem so far away during the coming period and have a tendency to drop out … do not forget also to celebrate small successes, celebrate life and enjoy! Good luck and cheers to new opportunities!

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Dance every day

Earlier I said that music is an important element for me to happiness . I like to enjoy dancing but as I get older I notice that I just dance less often. ‘Sing , laugh and dance every day’ the motto I think is an important message that I want to teach my children. When the children were young I danced a lot with them , they do constantly nowadays, even now while they are reaching puberty . Even though I try occasionally to take a moment of dancing. I like to dance to different types of songs , from U2 to Prince and everything in between , also good mixes of DJs can’t stop my feet of dancing . This week I hear the song Dance , dance, dance of Lykke Li in my head all the time. This is such a song where you can dance to, a bit easy dancing I admit,  it’s not a number where you can go crazy, but that is not always necessary anyway …. search your dance song and dance , it will do you good! 

Love is enjoying music together

Maybe you even wrote it in your list Love is but for me, music is very important. I love the variety of music, I always turn on the radio to follow the latest developments in the field of music. That’s why also was on my list: Love is enjoying music together.” This week I was reminded by the theme back to an old song, Your love is king by Sade. I couldn’t get it out of my head for several days. This song fits perfectly with moments 4 moods,  some moments go along with a perfect mood. Beautiful sensual song! Below you find the lyrics, but you can hear the song live here Let me know what music means to you.

Sade – Your Love Is King

Your love is king
Crown you with my heart
Your love is king
Never need to part
Your kisses ring
Round and round and round my head
Touching the very part of me
It’s making my soul sing
Tearing the very heart of me
I’m crying out for more

Your love is king
Crown you with my heart
Your love is king
You’re the ruler of my heart
Your kisses ring
Round and round and round my head
Touching the very part of me
It’s making my soul sing
I’m crying out for more
Your love is king

I’m coming on
I’m coming
You’re making me dance
Inside

Your love is king
Crown you with my heart
Your love is king
Never need to part
Your kisses ring
Round and round and round my head
Touching the very part of me
It’s making my soul sing
Tearing the very heart of me
I’m crying out for more

Touching the very part of me
It’s making my soul sing
I’m crying out for more
Your love is king

This is no
Blind faith
This is no
Sad or sorry dream
This is no
Blind faith

Your love, your love is real
(your love is king)
Gotta crown me with your heart
(your love is king)
Never never need to part
(your love is king)
Touch me
(your love is king)
never letting go
(your love is king)
Your Love is King
never letting go
(your love is king)
never gonna give it up
(your love is king)
I’m comming
(your love is king)
making me dance

Love is …

love isYou might also remember from the 80/90 the Love is ” and then there was always a wisdom behind. This week’s quote ‘live, laugh, love ” made me suddenly think about it. I used to have a duvet cover with this theme, the girl and the boy in the nude with the words “Love is Now I have learned that love is in everything and that nothing is more important than that and that love in good friendships, actually even is at least as important in all contact between people. Make yourself a list of  Love is”  and fill in, write as much as possible, you will see that it will make you happy!

Children laugh on average 300 times a day, adults, once they have passed the limit of fifty years , laugh only two to three times a day. It seems, therefore, that we laugh a little rusty and lost the child in ourselves. So we come to the conclusion it is important to continue being a child. The following poem says it all:

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.

– Samuel Ullman

Parmigiano Reggiano

regianoDelicious on a hot summer day as a booster during snack time or of course throughout the year, Parmigiano Reggiano as a snack with a glass of wine, Castello di Meleto Chianti Riserva fits perfectly with it. This old mature cheese has a delicious salty taste and for me personally a simple but irresistable treat. It is a dry, crumbly cheese with salt crystals in it. The most delicious one I have tasted was at the Ialian Riviera de Ligure, really an incredible taste sensation. For this cheese it is important that it should be made according to strict rules before the name Parmigiano Reggiano is allowed. In order to make 1 kg cheese 16 liters of cow’s milk is required, for a whole cheese approximately 600 liters. The cheese is approved by the Consorzio del Parmigiano Reggiano and gets next to the DOP (Denominazione d’Origine Protetta either Protected Designation of Origin) label the origin displays, all over the crust called Parmigiano Reggiano. If there is a superior quality then there is the supplement ‘extra‘ or ‘export’. The ripening process is at least 24 months, but cheeses of 3 or even 4 years are no exception. This problably explains why it was less good elsewhere in Italy because sometimes the cheese is sold as parmesan while there is none. If you find  pure cheese to intense in taste you can combine the cheese well with a fig compote.

Pure icecream

ijssalon florence

People who know me can tell that I‘m a bit obsessed with icecream. I must confess that I have become more civilized in the quantities, not only because of the free pounds I gained over the years but somehow I have quickly enough, thank god;). I‘m not really a stickler when it comes to good taste, that is a pure luxury problem, I know. But developing a sophisticated taste is also worth something, I think. Over the years, I always wanted to taste all the flavors, thought I was missing something. Since a year or two I’ll stick to the golden combination for me, strawberry and chocolate. These are such pure flavors that not only sublime fit together, but also immediately tells if you’re dealing with good and pure icecream. This summer I tasted the best ice cream in Florence Italy. Unfortunately I forgot the name of the ice cream shop, maybe someone recognizes it on the photo?
I read somewhere that the secret is in the pure ingredients and that the ice is a bit spreadable, not very hard but all a bit soft and that you are not thirsty after a good ice cream, never knew but really, I have experienced it. Back from vacation I prefer to get my ice at Choman. This is originally a chocolate shop where the most beautiful creations of chocolate are for sale. A few years ago they also got to sell ice cream. At any time of the day you can see people enjoying the best summer treat on one of the benches. A great idea because people like to treat themselves to an ice cream to get, or to stay in summer moods. So give yourself a treat and get a tasty Italian icecream!

Small happiness

Do you know the feeling of enjoying little things that makes you smile automatically without making an effort…. I do with all kinds of things, I get goosebumps when it starts to snow or by hearing the sea. When I spot a butterfly a smile on my face appears instantly. When I’m travelling it makes me feel okay at the first site of a white butterfly, I realised it some years ago and now I search for them consciously and it makes me feel comfortably. I also collect pictures which give me the same effect. I look at them when I have an off-day and I am able to turn my thoughts into positive ones. It doesn’t work always at once but it works if I set my mind to it. The field of poppy make me think of the summertime and give me an instant sunny feeling, I see a simple beauty which fulfills me with a lovingly feeling. A great feeling of freedom I experience by looking at the dune. Endless dunes where I, lying on my back, wonder off in my thoughts looking at the clouds in the sky searching for special forms with the peace giving sound of the sea on the background.

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