Christmas cards!

This year's cards are on their way - some have already arrived at their destinations. So here they are:

My first attempts at calligraphy :-)

Escape room!

Escape rooms are great fun for solving but also for creating!

The last couple of days I was brainstorming for random ideas and we came up with an - IMHO - brilliant escape room for fellow mathematicians. Now I'm curious if they manage to solve all the clues... :-)

This is just a red herring, one of dozens in the room :-)

Living Coral

Oooohhh, interesting.

 

Not a colour I'd pick, but then again, I'm not Pantone. I quite like it actually, Shimmering Sunset and Under the Sea harmonies being my favourite.

Siip Siie

Radio Paradise just gave a new meaning to mantra...

And yet, there are thousands of listeners tuned in - probably curious like me about when will it finally end. We are approaching the big 100 now :-)

Update: After over eight hours and 137 repetitions of the same song, Bob Dylan came along :-)

Ahhh, Nick!

I've been a huge fan of Nick Cave for ... almost 30 years.

So I was thrilled to find out that he started his Red Right Rand Files.

My favourite one so far, about creativity and ideas.

Perfection.

Not that I was expecting anything else, really ;-)

PS. In case the Files ever get deleted, here's a copy:

"Creativity is not something that can disappear. The creative impulse is simply the strategy used to catch ideas. Ideas are everywhere and forever available, provided you are prepared to accept them. This takes a certain responsibility to the artistic process. There is discipline and rigour and preparation involved. You must prove yourself worthy of the idea.

I have rarely sat down at my desk with something to say, other than I am ready. The sitting comes first, turning up with a certain alertness to possibility. Only then does the idea feel free to settle. It settles small and very tentatively, then, through your active attention, it can grow into something much bigger. Sitting in a readied state can sometimes last a long and anxious time. But you must not despair! I have never found a situation where the idea refuses to come to the prepared mind.

While you are in this prepared state, be the thing you want to be. If it is a writer, then write. Initially, stream of consciousness is fine. Write without judgement and self-condemnation. Write playfully and recklessly. Even if this initial writing appears of little value, keep going, for the beautiful idea has awakened and is moving toward you, as it responds to your display of intent.

The idea is especially designed for you in your uniqueness. If you are not there to receive it, or indeed you are not yourself when it arrives or, heaven forbid, disguised as someone else, the idea may scare and vanish away and be lost forever. It is you that it is searching for and you alone. Be yourself. The idea is moving closer.

Ideas are timid things, in my experience. They come as whispers and you need to hold them in honest regard in order to receive them. Perhaps the idea is as scared as you. Perhaps the idea is as invisible as you may sometimes feel. It may be that the idea is simply mirroring your internal self and is reluctant to settle in a mind that is heavy with uncertainty, and that is repeating ancient mantras of self-doubt. These voices can best be banished by a spirited disobedience, a playful defiance. Disobey the voices by continuing to write. They are a lot less robust than they appear. The idea is closing in.

So, Jo, here are some suggestions as to what to do:
Sit down. Be yourself. Be prepared. Be attentive. Defy the voices. Be the thing you want to be. Write. Be playful. Be reckless. Remember that you are uniquely designed for the idea that is moving toward you. You are good enough. The idea is about to arrive.

Love, Nick

:-)

Two things that made me very happy today:

1. SNOW!

2. I got the tickets to see Sergei Polunin!

:-D

School History Project

I looove my kids' school projects. Not only science but also history projects.

Like this one, when they had to make a prehistoric pile dwelling or stilt house. With a bit of my (and Mr. Mojcek's) help, this house was built.

And a dugout canoe.
With paddles.

Update D

D as Day trips.

We made several daytrips, including this one.

Update C

I am still going through family stuff that I inherited, including clothes from my Mom - and me, when I was young. Here are some wonderful examples of how fashionable we used to be.

In the sixties:

 In the funky seventies:

 And  fluorescent eighties:

 And here's is what I wore in the seventies and the eighties:

When did I change to jeans and black T-shirts?

I was probably the best dressed at the age of 2-5!!!
Maybe I should do something about it?

Update B

B as biking.

We've done quite a lot of (mountain)biking in the last months. Not yet the underground trails, as the kids are still too young, but in a couple of years when the grow up a bit.

Just an ordinary day at the Bike hotel :-)

Conversation with my aunt: "I am currently on Lake Titicaca"... "Well, we are currently on Lake Velenje..."

Update A

You know the feeling when a friend asks you how you spent the summer and you want to refer him to your blog - only to look at your blog yourself and realising that you didn't really publish anything... uups.

So, update A as Away.

We've been away :-)

 

And yes, this is A, the largest sailing yacht in the world.
If you look closely, you will see a regular yacht in front of it :-)

Le vent

You know, when you take a couple of days off work so you can catch up with all the other things that have been piling up for a couple of months now...

But the late autumn sun is shining and the wind, the wiiind is blowing. You just can't stay inside but rather go out and postpone the already postponed things ...

But the wind - so pure and so powerful.

And then I switch on the radio (Radio Paradise) and the first song I hear is Le vent nous portera.

Nix

Thought of the day:

Das ist das Schöne am Weggehen. 
Man kann nix machen außer nix.

Said a man sitting next to me on a porch, drinking a cold beer and watching the sunset.

He is so so right.

"New" Music

Since I started regular Body-balance classes, I learned about so many great new bands/singers/songs, most of them fairly unknown in (this part of) Europe. So I filled up my MP3 player with obscure NZ bands and am loving it! However ... all of them are some sort of ambient, pop, indie ...

So I wanted to see if there is some new music more on the rocky side. And just out of curiosity I switched to MTV Rocks to see what's new.

And I got (in no particular order) Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Offspring, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Green Day, Good Charlotte, Coldplay, Oasis, Kings of Leon, Linkin Park ...

All legendary bands and great music, but I mean, really?!?

The only new band to me is Biffy Clyro, formed in 1995!

Union Hotel

 My absence is excused.

I'm spending all days behind these wonderful Art Deco windows.

 In Hotel Union, Ljubljana.

But I will make it up.

One day.

I promise.

Update: some more pictures of the hotel.

 We're having poster sessions here :-)

Fact.

I love thunderstorms.

I love the rain, I love the thunder, I love the lightnings, I love their smell.

What could be better than reading a good book and listening to the storm outside!

Me happy.

Fact.

If you want something to be done, you have to do it yourself.

Fact.

Le Tour

Oooh, what a Tour!

I must say I am happy with the results. Thomas deserved the win, Dumoulin deserved to be on the podium. Shame for Roglič but hey, there's always next year.

All the rest also deserved the Jerseys: Alaphilippe the polka-dot, Latour the white one and my deepest respect has Sagan. Oh boy, he suffered. I also feel sorry for Quintana but at least he got a stage win and best team. Dan Martin deserved the red and I must say I haven't been so happy with the final results for a long long time...

Ah. All is well.

Well, no. I feel for Nibali, Gilbert, Porte and the rest of the injured ones.

Reading update

So, I've been reading quite a lot lately.

Not because I'm stressed but rather because I'm relaxed :-)

I've read:

1) Turtles all the Way Down by John Green. Loved it. Fresh and young and entertaining and serious and relaxed at the same time.

2) Boccaccio's Decameron. Ooooh, a classic. In a way I'm surprised that I haven't read it yet, although I quite understand now why we haven't read it at school :-) Needless to say, loved it. Such a classic cannot be rated, it's hors catégorie.

3) Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. Oh, dear. Ooooh, dear. I liked the film but the book is a) nothing like the film, b) boring as hell, c) shallow and empty and d) almost impossible to read. Do I have to say I didn't like it?

4) The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna. Another one of his books that doesn't disappoint. So lovely predictably unpredictibe and amusingly entertaining.

5) Blindness by Jose Saramago. Whooaaa. Disturbing. Thought-provoking. Brilliant.

If you can see, look. If you can look, observe.

6) A Little History of the World or rather Eine kurze Weltgeschichte für junge Leser by Ernst H. Gombrich. This is probably THE one history book that everyone should read. A little unconventional (it turns out it was originally written in 1935! and only slightly revised) but explains history in a way I never heard it. It is Euro-centric and obviously catholic but nevertheless, highly recommended.

30 kg

Unless you've pitted about 30 kg of sour cherries - each one individually, of course - you don't know how I feel.

Old!

My absence, again, is excused :-)

No wonder I got really interested in history.

PS. Assisi, Assisi, Todi, Spoleto, Perugia, Cesena, Cesena.

More puzzles

Just cleaning my memory cards and found a few photos of puzzles I recently did...

And yes, I have a reason for emptying my memory cards ;-)