Romantism

I was told that I have made love become so idealistic in my world and I should not. I certainly know that we should sometimes put out feet on the ground and stop dreaming :-). I don't think I have an ideal way of seeing how love should be but I think I need a bit of escapism when it comes to love to feel the extraordinary that love brings. Maybe I have romanticized how love should be but why not? I don't want a love to die out after a few years, I don't want that the boring aspects of our lives interfere and put off the fire, I want that there is a meaning of a person meets another one. It is not only with love in fact, we should for once stop and start listening to what our heart tells us, let go of the little voice that whisper otherwise.

Why not to let a song touches our soul very deeply or let a gesture or a smile or a joke to be the greatest thing of the day? They say women who are abused by their partners easily forget the abuse every time their partners make a nice gesture. That is pretty true but maybe we all need to believe in something great. My mom certainly put a stop on the abuse though and she still thinks there is some goodness in my dad, so I guess if you have a good heart, you will always believe something good. On that aspect, I don't want to change anything about me :-).

So, there are a lot of songs that touch my soul this week. One of them, a Jacque Brel classic "Ne me Quitte pas" but absolutely wonderful lyrics, for example:

Moi je t'offrirai
Des perles de pluie
Venues de pays
Où il ne pleut pas
Je creuserai la terre
Jusqu'apres ma mort
Pour couvrir ton corps
D'or et de lumière
Je ferai un domaine
Où l'amour sera roi
Où l'amour sera loi
Où tu seras reine
Ne me quitte pas

Ne me quitte pas

Ne me quitte pas

Ne me quitte pas

Ahh, lyrics of the present can't never compare to this..Why wasn't I born earlier! How precious it is to offer someone perles of rain from a country that has no rain ;-). Why wouldn't leave this guy hehehe

Sad

Well, the whole Belgium has been struck with sadness by a school trip bus accident in Switzerland.More than 20 children lost their lives and I can't even imagine how much pain their parents are going through right now.

It is very sad that those children have gone before actually being able to live their lives. It is sad that parents live but cannot see their children grow up...It breaks my heart. I lost one of my friends in VN at a young age and I could not forget that, I don't think I would be able to forget. These things you just don't forget.

My thoughts go to parents who have lost their children, and the partners who have lost their friends/wife/husband...Nothing can describe or measure the pain in losing someone dear to us.

" Under the Tuscan sun"

Here I am after a week off to Tuscany.

If you wonder how my holidays went, it was great! :-). Although beginning of March is not really the time to go there since the vineyards seem to be a bit dead and it is a bit too windy in Siena but all in all, it is still enjoyable. I left Brussels on a cold, rainy day and there was a delay at the Brussels airport as they needed to defrost the airplane but arrived in Firenze in a much better weather (until the evening when it started showering!).

It felt so long since the last time I traveled. When I was in Firenze, Pisa and then Siena, I really enjoyed the train transport, especially the slow ones. They pass the countryside, vineyards, the sun shines through the train wagons and then you can look at the faces of the people who sit around you. There were these Southern Italians who are loud but warm, the Chinese, Japanese tourists who look at you trying to figure out whether you are also Chinese or Japanese like they are, and the American tourists who discuss about their own travel journeys. I met a Belgian couple who live in Antwerp during this vacation, they are federal polices, and super nice people. I intend to get in touch with them very soon.

The wine tasting in Italy is nice but less informative than those in France. We were given olive oil, bread, hams to taste as well. Maybe the funniest for me has been to be in the accompany of Alesjandro who is the tour guide to the Chianti region (there is no train to get there, so if you don't drive, you can join a group tour). His jokes, his accent, his sincere love for Tuscany made us all laughed with tears. I enjoyed talking to the owner of the local wine producer, Maria, I just can't forget how she raised her arms up in the air and said 'terrible, terrible, where do you find these" when I bargained the price of my total purchases :-) and then held my face and gave me a warm kiss. I also can't forget Andrea who asked me what was the name of the vine/cepage that they used to make their wines, when I answered " Sangiovese" (that is because I asked her several times the name since it is the first time I heard that vine), she said 'you passed the exam' , kissed me and wished me well.

That is really what I have missed from travelling, being in a new place, meeting people, nice or not nice, it is all part of the experience, I guess. Food in Tuscany is absolutely wonderful, especially for pasta lover like I am...Panini sandwiches, pizza, pasta, truffles, mozzarella, cheeses, hams, sun-dried tomatoes, fresh cold pressed olive oil, balsamic vinegar, bisecca florentine...I wanted to stay there forever! And leather goods, OMG, they are good quality and way cheaper. I bought shoes, bags, I went mad :-). It is not even the shopping, it is the whole experience of building a connection, a small chat, talk with those people, I bargained every where I went, even in a expensive clothing shop :-) and I got my discount, very good even. I just have my nice way to asking and I usually get it hehehe.

Anyway, the airport in Brussels changes a lot since I was there last time. When I got back, there was a fire, so couldn't get the train but took the bus. Luckily, it stopped in Luxembourg station, so I just needed to walk home (save me more money for next travel hahaha).

I plan to go around show casing my new shoes this weekend!

Solitude

I have recently seen a very long documentary call "milestone", it is based a very famous poem of Hochiminh, the documentary was about a group of hippi, intellectual who lived in the US after the VN war. We are obviously far from that state of living, that innocent, generous way of life. People care for each other, help each other without having to think whether the person deserves help, when a problem of a person is the problem of a group, when it is your own problem and you fear to bring the whole group down with you...When I talk about being generous, I don't mean it in any financial or only a character, I mean generous in the thought as well. Generosity actually becomes a habit, the right thing to do toward each other and not anything exceptional.

When I went out with friends and talked about music or movies or books, some of my friends sometimes just stops talking, stares at me and says "my gosh, it seems to me you like old music" :-). I guess I really am belong to another era. Maybe this is a bad dream, and when I wake up, I could enjoy all the good things around me, but then again, maybe I probably wake up wishing that I would have known all the great people that I have met? :-). I listen to a lot of jazz, a lot of blues, a lot of Jacque Brel, a lot of "The animals". Honestly, these stuffs touch my soul deeply. The lyrics, the way they sang their songs. When I was in VN, if it was about French songs, there were Vanessa Paradis (love her last name), Adamo (many cheesy love songs but then again, we Vnese are maybe romantic at heart), I used to love French a lot, beautiful language. My uncle in VN listened to the Bee Gee, I remembered I was wiping the floor and thinking how much I liked those songs even though I had absolutely no ideas what they were about. I guess it is not about I like old music, it might be more about my ears have been accustomed to listening to them...

Anyway, the same for books, I love books that give me insights or when I know there are a lot of research to do. So, I usually check the reference pages :-), am I crazy? I am reading a book on Belgium's history and how it relates to the EU institutions, brilliant book. Some of the stuffs I begin to understand better...Hmm, some of the things I will bring up for discussion when I see my Belgian friends.

Solitude, this is a state of mind that sometimes I have. It is not exactly loneliness because I am surrounded by my friends, my mom, and uncle, have fun in weekends. Solitude to me is more in not having someone who shares your thoughts or ideas. Maybe some of the ideas, my friends support and share with me but sometimes I feel as if the fundamental score that I try to convey is not successfully shared.

Probably too serious for a post?