The calendar says that it is the last day of the year, again. I’ve never seen this day as an ending nor have I taken my time to start fresh on January 1st. Most of the times on January 1st I am too tired after the New Year’s party. And again, no New Year resolutions. For what concerns me, for 2016 I only want to be healthy and happy, the rest I think I can learn how to manage, as long as I want to. 2015 has been a good example of taking it one step at a time and enjoying the ride. I will not go into talking about the year that has been, but I did make a cheesy photo collage of some photos I found in my phone. It turned out looking quite good: lots of tennis, concerts, the sea, sunsets (that would be nice to replace with sunrises but I am not an early morning person, yet), school and my awesome job. None of these were resolutions, I worked and wanted to make them become part of my lifestyle and apparently they did. And I had great people by my side, people that I spent time with working, talking, enjoying, watching tennis, dancing, laughing, crying, singing. For them and for you my reader (thanks for reading my blog) I wish you health and happiness, the rest will come as it may. Happy New Year!
I mentioned some weeks ago that I had the opportunity to be in the audience for Noble Minds. Now it’s time to write a bit about it. First of all, it was quite unexpected and unplanned, but I had the advantage of my student status and took the chance to attend. You might think that you go there to increase your knowledge and steal some wisdom from some great people that have been awarded the Nobel Prize. Well, you do, but in a totally different way, at least that’s how things went for me. One thing is clear, it is not a lecture where really smart people come and preach, it’s more a discussion where really wise people share their experiences. So in between being very honoured to be there, I was also very touched and, every now and then, hilariously amused. So between talks about the cures for tropical diseases, poverty and life in authoritarian societies all of us got some pretty good lessons about life.
The show has a very simple format: students ask questions, Laureates answer. And the anchor is Zeinab Badawi, BBC journalist, a person I am quite familiar with from work and whom I discovered to be an excellent professional. I touched a bit with journalism in my work and studies and I must say that the concept of “journalist” changes drastically once you get the opportunity to see someone like Zeinab Badawi working right under your eyes. She makes it seem so easy when in reality it takes skills and hard work, a lot of hard work.
The talks with the Laureates were juggles between specific and general questions, it showed their professional aspect but also their human side, we assisted on discussions on economics, science in general, chemistry, medicine, writing, researching, teaching, opportunity, envy and worms. As for me, I had in front of my eyes people of extreme creativity, talent and drive. I would be grateful and lucky If I get to do 1% of what any of these persons did in their lives, but I am aware that to reach that 1% I have to work hard. I had researchers under my eyes, I listened to them, but I also saw people there, and passion and love and inspiration. I will not bore you anymore, nor will I go into details about their talks. If you have 50 minutes you can watch the show below.
Or cats, to be more precise. And a dog. I almost forgot what fun it is to have cats around, the free entertainment and falling asleep to the purring of a cat… waking up at 5 am to let the cat out of the room and again at 5:05 to let two cats back in. Still they look at you with their big eyes and you can’t do anything more than mumble a sleepy “cute” and go back to bed.
Other than that my heart is somewhere in between Sweden and Romania. It’s always hard to leave Stockholm just as I know that it will be hard to leave Bucharest. Christmas time is family time and I can’t really see myself now spending Christmas anywhere else but at home in Romania. I am saying it like this because I have another home in Sweden, or at least that’s how it feels like. I guess this happens because both places offer me quality time with amazing people and great things to do. Right now I wouldn’t want things to be any different, says me while I am writing here surrounded by 3 cats and eating Swedish godis, looking at the glowing lights of the Christmas tree and planning my next days in such way that I make sure I meet everybody I want to meet, rest, sleep, read and work a bit.
I wish I said that it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas but actually things look a lot like Spring is coming. It is warm, no snow, though the mountains looked amazing when flying over them, and I miss the cold and icy wind of Stockholm, because it’s the season to actually enjoy the cold. And I want it to snow! As I doubt I will have any time or be in the mood to write anything the next few days, I am taking this opportunity to wish you all Happy Holidays, may they be exactly as you wish them to be! I leave you below with a night-time pic of Karlaplan taken a few days ago on a beautiful snowy evening.
For a while I wanted to see Marillion live, that’s why I keept a close eye on their tour dates. Well, they’re not touring now but the singer goes on a solo Christmas tour and this year he decided to include Stockholm in it as well. I thought about it a bit and decided to give it a try. And what I made out of it is written below.
For me it all started with Tracy LaBarbera’s cover of “Beautiful”. Until then, the other songs and videos that I was occasionally listening to and watching on a VCR were just there as good music my brother & sis liked (thanks for that!). And I didn’t make any sense of “Brave”, the movie, at all. But this cover changed everything, though I had it written down as Marillion.
Then “barefoot on the lawn with shooting stars” (“Kayleigh”) started to make sense when I actually got to be barefoot in the grass as seldom as going to the countryside, and that happened once a year. Then they made it onto my playlist.
Somewhere on my late evenings at work I started to listen to “The Hollow Man” and “The Great Escape” but that was already more than 10 years after listening to these songs for the first time. Then Politics and Popular Culture happened and “Brave” got a totally new meaning. Or, it got a meaning.
I went to this concert with no idea what to expect. The venue: The Baroque Hall, The Swedish History Museum. A few people waiting in queue, the doors open with a small delay but 10 minutes after everybody sits down Steve Hogarth, Marillion’s singer, comes and sits in front of us all. He starts to joke with the audience and invites us all to ask questions and request songs. After a small chit-chat and after he let us know that he’s usually used to having a band with him, he starts playing “The Hollow Man” from the album “Brave” (which in the meantime became one of my favorite albums ever). And I was spellbound. That voice, and that piano and that music!
To my surprise the second song was “You’re Gone”, a song I have a history with and I connect to it far more than just liking it for the beautiful song that it is. “You have the day/I have the night/But we have the early hours together”, and Steve says that he actually wrote this song in Stockholm.
The concert goes on with “Season’s End”, somebody asks for “Easter” so he sings it, “This Train is My Life”, “Sympathy” and this is where I stopped writing down each song and just stared into nothing and listened to the music. I recognized so many songs I heard before, I sang along and clapped as hard as I could and at a certain moment a song came, even though not “The Great Escape” which is my favorite Marillion song, but “Beautiful”. This “Beautiful”:
“You wild enough to remain beautiful?”
At the middle break people decorated the Christmas tree that was on stage with ornaments that they brought from home, they talked to Steve and took photos. And after each song they clapped like crazy. And they cheered. And at the encore they hit the floor with their feet. And we were maybe 300 people. I’ve never seen such a wonderful and passionate community of fans.
And I haven’t been to a concert this beautiful in such a long time. Just a man and his piano and lots of passion.
In between my last exam and work I had the time to see Stockholm from above at night, to attend Noble Minds (post about it will come shortly), swing, walk a dog and go to a rock concert, among other things.
Loosing my student status makes me a bit sad, i wrote about it before. But I feel relieved not having to write any more assignments. I hope that won’t stay like this for long though now I feel like writing another thesis. Walking a dog… well, that might not be that fun when the dog is crazy but playing with her in the middle of the night in Humlegården was lots of fun, especially since this is my favorite park from Stockholm, so far. Swinging when it’s just 2 degrees outside was fun too, I love swings and thankfully, all parks have them. A good laugh and a glass of wine added to an amazing evening.
Last, but not least, the rock concert. First one for the week-end, as another one comes tomorrow. Thank you girls for the ticket, great birthday present. The concert meant seeing KajHolst again and The Nomads. Had no idea who the second band was till tonight. Funny how at home and how comfortable I feel at a concert, especially when the music is great and the company is pleasant. And there is beer, you can’t have a rock concert without a beer. Below is KajHolst’s latest video, because yes, I was there mostly to see them and they played all my favorite songs (“Matter”, “Walls” and “Road”, wrote about this before here). They’re such a boost of energy and so fun to see live. Now excuse me, I have to go find the Nomads on Spotify and start following them cause I just came across a nice band. What else to do late at night when there is a party in your building?
The calendar says that it is the last day of the year, again. I’ve never seen this day as an ending nor have I taken my time to start fresh on January 1st. Most of the times on January 1st I am too tired after the New Year’s party. And again, no New Year resolutions. For what concerns me, for 2016 I only want to be healthy and happy, the rest I think I can learn how to manage, as long as I want to. 2015 has been a good example of taking it one step at a time and enjoying the ride. I will not go into talking about the year that has been, but I did make a cheesy photo collage of some photos I found in my phone. It turned out looking quite good: lots of tennis, concerts, the sea, sunsets (that would be nice to replace with sunrises but I am not an early morning person, yet), school and my awesome job. None of these were resolutions, I worked and wanted to make them become part of my lifestyle and apparently they did. And I had great people by my side, people that I spent time with working, talking, enjoying, watching tennis, dancing, laughing, crying, singing. For them and for you my reader (thanks for reading my blog) I wish you health and happiness, the rest will come as it may. Happy New Year!
Spinning Words 