Happy New 2013 !

 

 

I am closing this year with old wounds and new hopes, asking for health and expanding my generosity, forgetting the hatred and loving the beloved ones, and I am praying to God in all his dimensions, through all his prophets for a better world in 2013 !

 

With all my best wishes

Con mis mejores deseos

Avec mes meilleurs voeux

Happy New Year !

Честита Нова Година !

¡ Feliz Año Nuevo!

C новым годом  !

Bonne Année !

Gott Nytt År !

كل عام وأنتم بخير

 

 

 

 

 

 



Nostalgic trip to my Swedish Christmas o ¿Cómo ir a Suecia sin salir de tu ciudad?

To round up my Christmas series, here comes the story of my “nostalgic” trips back to Sweden.  No, I don’t take the plane each week in order to see my beloved Djursholm or to enjoy the view of the Stockholm archipelago. Though I’d wish to do it very, very much…Instead, I organize a special family escapade that turned already into a tradition. Because, like the true love, our “Swedishness” hasn’t faded but increased in time.

Our Christmas visit this year wasn’t that different. Sticking to the well-established pattern, we got into our SAAB, listening and singing ABBA and headed to the nearest IKEA. Ardent clients like us are always welcome. Probably, you know that all IKEA stores around the world are absolutely identical. So, being in Madrid or Malmö, once we go to IKEA we are in Sweden. 

Normally, we walk faithfully around the shop, buy something that we need or we don’t, and end up at the restaurant eating typical Swedish meat-balls or salmon with potatoes. By the way, the Swedish meat-balls or köttbullar have Turkish origin, but that’s another story.

The Christmas nostalgic trip has its extra. A special “pilgrimage” to the IKEA food store. We pile up the trolley with basics like herring (at least in three types of sauce), Swedish bread, Swedish cinnamon biscuits, Swedish jul glögg, Swedish sausages “princess korv” etc. etc.

Once we go back home, where we have our Swedish advent lights, Dalarna horses and candles, traditional red textiles and our Mora clock, I prepare a sort of “expat julbord-to-be” and see…we have our Swedish Christmas, without leaving Madrid. God Jul!

Christmas in Madrid- part II

 The not so posh Christmas Madrid

 

But such a fun

 

Plaza Mayor and the Old Town

 

Making balloons no matter where

 

 

Plaza de Santa Cruz with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs behind. The old palace from the XVII century has seen a lot

 

 

  Wow, she is really floating !

 

 

Everybody to enjoy it !

 

The image I'll keep for me - moms singing "Dulce Navidad" on the street with their kids

 

Some Christmas music to enjoy..

Un poco de música de fondo...

A mi hija le gusta mucho.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oOzszFIBcE

Christmas in Madrid - part I

 

 

My Christmas starts with the red color. I got accustomed with the "non-white" Christmas (not always due to the global warming...). After three years under the palm trees in Doha, Qatar, now I feel the X-mas spirit everywhere...And the spending, as well...

Here: Madrid- Serrano these days...

 

 

 

The Chocolate bar

 

The "best" place to buy a Christmas present.. 

At last something for the kids !

The Nativity in LLadró ceramics

 

Another "treasure" in the forest

Kiehl Christmas shop ! Probably they were just over prepared for the clients after the "end of the world" from yesterday

El Corte Inglés Department Store at Castellana Bulevard

The day the world was to end...

Hoy ha sido un día de invierno soleado en Madrid. Mi asistenta doméstica tuvo un accidente de tráfico, mi hija participó en un concurso de talentos y mi vecino se fue a pasear el perro. Si había alguien escondido en un búnker, no lo sé. Por lo menos, no parecía que a mis amigas pijas, dirigiéndose a la tienda de Carolina Herrera a comprar regalos de Navidad les importara mucho…

En todo caso, decidí pensar un poco sobre el tema de cómo se va a acabar el mundo…

Si alguna vez  habéis vivido al Este de Viena (Austria), probablemente habréis oído hablar de Nastradin Hodja.  Y si habéis nacido al otro lado del Bósforo – seguramente.  Ese peculiar personaje, representante de la sabiduría Oriental tenía una respuesta bastante interesante  a mi pregunta: “La mitad del mundo se acabaría cuando se muera mi mujer, y el mundo entero se acabará cuando me muera yo.” No sé si aquel señor quería tanto a su mujer, o sólo estaba muy acostumbrado a vivir con ella, pero dijo una cosa muy relevante -  Nuestro mundo empieza y acaba con nosotros, con nuestro “ego”:

Y para los que no están tan centrados en si mismos y sufren al ver tanto injusticia, horrores, violencia,  pobreza, guerras, hipocresía, avaricia, indiferencia, soledad etc., citaré a mi hermana, que hace una semana dijo : “Espero que el mundo de verdad se acabe el día 21 para que el día siguente renazca en una versión mejor.” Eso espero yo, también…

 

Today was a perfect sunny winter day in Madrid. My domestic assistant had a car accident, my daughter went to a talent show and my neighbor took his dog for a walk.

If there was someone hidden in a bunker, I don't know. At least, my posh friends heading to the CH boutique to buy Christmas presents didn't seem really to worry.

 

However, I decided to explore the idea of the end of the world..

If you have ever lived somewhere on the East of Vienna (Austria), probably you've heard about Nastradin Hodja. If you were born across the Bosporus- definitely.  This peculiar character, embodying the essence of the Oriental wisdom, had a very interesting answer to my question: “My world will be half gone, when my wife dies, and the world will end when I die.”

I am not sure if he was really in love with his wife or just was accustomed to live with her, but at least he said something quite relevant: Our world starts and finishes with us, with our "ego".

For those, who are not so self-centered, and who do really suffer witnessing so much injustice, horrors, violence, poverty, wars, hypocrisy, greed, indifference, loneliness, etc.,  I would quote my sister, who made a wonderful statement a week ago: "I hope the world would end on 21st, just to be reborn the day after in a better version." So do I…

Music of the day...

Another lovely Lisa Ekdahl song,


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8X-lMEBsuo

CHRISTMAS AROUND MY WORLD

Christmas is coming and the stress is going high. Among gifts and parties (even in crisis), apparently most of us forget that Christmas is, actually, a religious holiday...For most of the "modern" Christians, it's just another consumer event. The show and lightning included. Apparently, we don't realize how it marked our identity since we were born. Like the Eid for the Muslims, or Hanukkah for the Jewish ...In our childhood memories we all have something about this day. Warm, loving, sometimes sad or even tragic...but it's there...Always related to the ancestral hope that tomorrow will be a better day, that future will bring us a positive change...

In my mind, I don't have only one Christmas. No, I see three...Sometimes, even four. How come, you would say?

You see, I was born Bulgarian Orthodox in a family half very traditional (my father's), and half- not that much. The "not that much" half was full of contradictory members: a) my great-grand mother Tana, one of the first Methodists in the country, b) her daughter-in-law, my maternal grandma, Granny Borka, still alive by the way, with such a blood mixture, that she never understood was she Orthodox or Catholic, Bulgarian, Serbian or Italian, so finally decided to do it her own way i.e. just to party, c) my mom Fanny, a true believer, who wished to do the things really well and provided us with all the love, joy and pieces of traditions she could manage to assemble from her quite peculiar family background.

And I married a Spaniard! So after the enough confused Bulgarian Christmas, I have my Spanish Catholic Christmas.  In Madrid. With the "belens", the typical Christmas carols, the "turron" and the "Misa del Gallo", i.e. the Midnight service on 24 December. And nobody is fasting! In contrast with the Orthodox traditions where the dinner on 24th is entirely vegetarian, because it is the last day of a long fasting, the Spaniards eat lamb cutlets! You should've seen the face of my mother the first 24th December she spent with my Spanish in-laws...

Then, we lived for five years in Sweden. So I also have my Swedish Lutheran Christmas. With the Advent lights, stars, glogg, candles and ... Julbord...

I'll be dedicating to all of them my next entries...

In the meantime....To those who care for it - Happy Christmas preparations...

Music to wake up our sensations:

Lisa Ekdahl et Salvadore Poe, L'Aurore (2000)


www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6iKt4csdTQ

Sont très sympa les deux

AL NACER MI BLOG

Hello to everybody...¡Hola! Bonjour..

This blog will be written in various languages.

Cuando me vienen ideas en castellano, lo haré así...

Même en français de temps en temps....

O en búlgaro, ruso o árabe..Y si un día aprendo chino, también...


Today I am in a Spanish speaking mood...

No creo, que un perfil explica a la persona. Da datos, pero no demuestra su espíritu. Si tengo que decir quién soy, prefiero que mis palabras hablen por mi. Las únicas libertades que tenemos garantizadas al nacer son el pensar y el sentir. Abrir la ventana de nuestro piensamento es lo que nos acerca a los demás...a los que comparten con nosotros el viaje maravilloso de la vida.

He decidido compartir mi viaje, porque al parecer la soledad al caminar no es lo mio.


Así que,


EMPEZAMOS