Lessons learned

It has been a fruitful week for me with lots of lessons learnt. The notes I am sharing here are notes for myself I'm hoping to be wise enough to follow:

1. Don't get too excited there is a cheaper solution. Think things through cause you might end up paying much more, not even talking about saving. For example, travelers checks... bad idea, wire transfer is the way to go.

2. Teaching myself new things from time to time. After changing some HTML codes for my website I am now happy with the results of it's presentation (for now) and I did it by myself! It feels great to be able to tackle tasks on my own. I can't say I know programing now or even understand how HTML works, it is still a magic to me, but the fact that I was able to do it proves me that I can do it if I put time and effort. It feels very rewarding!

3. Catching up with the popular music scene. I have missed one full decade of rock music I'm too embaraced to say. I was on my way to miss another one, unless I woke myself up. I don't know how I let so much time pass without knowing about great artists like Bon Iver, for example. I also need to catch up with Colplay. I know a few songs but not full albums. It can be handy next time I go to karaoke to sings with my friends.

4. Watering a dry plant, even if it looks like it's already lost. Sometimes it can recover and a beautiful flower surprisingly grows.

5. Accepting changes with understanding and trying to adjust accordingly. Who knows, this might be the chance I was looking for. Anyone knows of a studio apartment, btw?

6. Taking a detour. A few days ago, while walking back from the farmers market I decided to deviate from my regular route home. This turned out to be a great idea as I discovered one of the most beautiful streets around I didn't know existed. Impressive houses, lots of greenery, dream-like. Really, a countryside in the middle of the city!

7. Groceries! Every visit in the grocery store costs me more than I have planed to spend. Even if I enter "only for milk", I leave with a few fruits, vegetables and Lotus biscuits. Ok, some of them are essentials, but I also eat out these days... I'm still looking for solutions for this problem but one of solutions I would like to try is checking what I have in the pantry before going, Usually I have pasta, almonds, beans and tomato sauce. This can be a base for a great meal, all I need to buy is lettuce, tomato and baby carrots and I'm good.

8. Be interested and patient with people. I have met a wonderful 80 years old architect, who was showing me an apartment he had for rent. I ended up staying for over an hour as he was going through fascinating stories about his life- how he used to have meals at Giulia Child's house, not far away from where he lives in Cambridge. Stories from his army service during Korean war in the 50's. He showed me his greens and tomatoes garden as he recalled his childhood in Alabama, back in the day when the family was poor and his mother used to can everything they grew in their yard. What a special man and what an interesting life he had. I only had to ask and listen.



* MUSIC INSPIRATION OF THE DAY: Chinese composer Gu Gan Ru, the piece: Four Studies of Peking Opera (2003) for string quartet & piano.
Amusing, eastern references are everywhere with much originality! Thanks to Asaf Peres for mentioning him.