Coffee

Coffee. One simple word and we have so many thoughts coming up to our minds. Some of us can’t imagine a day without coffee, because they have to transform from monster into human being every morning thanks to this magical drink. Some of us take coffee only for a special occasion or from time to time. Most of us appreciate spending time on chattering with our friends and having a cup of coffee and some piece of cake. Personally, I can’t live without coffee and because of that I want to present you some interesting facts about my daily dose of energy.

1. Frist one concern well-known French writer Honore de Balzac. It is said that he consumed about 50 cup of coffee every day, when the lethal dose of coffee during a day is 100 cups. He drank it to obtain an inspiration for creating his novels.

2. The word coffee originates from the Arabic word ‘qahhwat al-bun’ which was then shortened to ‘qahwa’. The Turkish called it ‘kahve’ after which the Dutch made it ‘koffie’, until it was finally translated to ‘coffee’ in English.

3. I also found that in in ancient Arab culture a woman could only divorce her husband when he didn’t like coffee enough. Good reason!

4. There is an idea that coffee can actually be used to fuel a car. It’s any idea for distant future, but seriously, can you imagine fuel your car by coffee? And the smell of coffee emitted from cars around us.

5. I guess that everyone has already heard about this, but just to remind: the world’s expensive coffee is made from coffee beans eaten and excreted by a Sumatran wildcat. It coast over 300 pounds.

6. Have you ever wondered where the name “cappuccino” comes from? If not, I’ll tell you anyway. The word comes from the resemblance of the drink to the clothing of the Capuchin monks.

I guess that we can finish by these 6 facts. They may sound unbelievable, but who knows? Maybe there is a grain of truth in each of them.

Grave of the Fireflies

There are a lot of movies which refer to the Second World War and its catastrophe. Recently I have watched one of them directed by Isao Takahata and named “Grave of the Fireflies”. It is a Japanese animation created in 1988 and based on a 1967 semi-autobiographical story with the same title by Akiyuki Nosaka. 

The movie tells the story about two siblings Seita and Setsuko. The action is set in the city of Kobe in Japan during the last month of Second World War (to remind: Japan suffered from USA’s bombardment). After one of attack, their mother dies. As their father is a Capitan of the Japanese Navy, he can’t take care about his family, so children have to stay with their aunt. Since the family start to lose food supplies, their aunt become unbearable and malicious person. Seita decide to take his little sister and find new place. Also he find out that their father is dead. And then begins their struggle for survive which is full of sadness and powerlessness. 

I recommended it to watch and think a little about the love between siblings, the sacrifice and the nightmare of war. This story touched me to tears. I think that we should keep in mind the consequences of war and all of these cruel things it does. 

Notre-Dame de Paris

This time I want to briefly describe the history of Notre-Dame de Paris. Why did I choose this well-known and banal monument in Paris? Because when I was visiting this cathedral during my visit in Paris, it gave me more impression than I had expected. I wish I spent more time there. 

Firstly I would like to start with some basic history of the cathedral. Notre-Dame de Paris is a medieval building, created in 1163 (completed in 1345). It is situated on the Île de la Cité, in 4^th arrondissement of Paris. It is considered as the finest examples of French Gothic architecture. But during the French Revolution, Notre-Dame suffered the desecration from radical phase and later it had to be renovated. If it comes to the details of architecture, what is the most interesting for me are small strange creatures placed on the construction like gargoyles and chimeras. 

What I like about Notre-Dame is this special and magical atmosphere surrounding this place. When I was there, I could feel the spirit of the times. I thought about all this huge events in the history of France passing near the main door of the cathedral. In addition, try not to get hypnotize by watching this outstanding stained glass. It should be considered less just like a tourist attraction to check off the list and take a photo. For me it was exciting and magic experience.

To be honest I wrote it because I miss this place and recently I watched The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.

Poetry

Today I would like to tell a few words about poetry. To make everything clear – I’m not a huge amateur of poetry, but every once in a while I like to spend my time reflecting on meaning of poems. 

In general I hate when authors are pathetic and when they are concentrate more on fancy language (like so many stylistic measures, chocking a recipient by creating new words and new form of poem). It is interesting in some way, but what I mean is that I care much more about how the poem makes me feel and what it gives at the level of emotions. I like minimalism and simplicity. I don’t expect that the meaning should be obvious. I’m just not into linguistic games. And because I like doing things otherwise, I want to share with you with my favorite poems of Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński. As we all know he is well known for various metaphors and it is what I like in his compositions. 

So, my favorite poem of Baczyński is “Niebo złote Ci otowrzę”. I don't like to discuss about it now, I just want you to read it and maybe share some thoughts about it. 

I like also a music interpretation of fragment of poem called "Szczęśliwe drogi". It is made by Czesław Mozil and Mela Koteluk and in music version it is called "Pieśń o szczęściu".

autumn wibes

Welcome back!

For my returning post I've chosen (I hope) a pretty pleasant topic. Because it's October and my favorite season is in full swing and want to share with you with some autumn’s music which brings me to this special and magic ambiance of colorful, falling leaves. For me all of these songs below are perfect for this time. They are slow, a little sad but mostly they give a while of reflection which creates a good connection with typical autumn’s weather. I can’t wait to take my headphones and go for a walk to the most out-standing parks in Poznań (Park Sołacki, Cytadela). But coming back to the music, I hope that you will like it and of course, I would like to know what are yours types for autumn’s songs.

Book

Have you ever heard something about the book “How to stop worrying and start living” by Dale Carnegie? If not, voilà!

I bought it in the idea of stopping thinking about things which make me feel bad and stressful. Stress is my main enemy in every life’s situation, so I really want to change it. So when I saw this book, I thought that it will be helpful. “How to stop worrying and start living” contains a lot of this a little banal advices like “don’t think about the past”, “stop caring about what people say about you” etc. For the first sight it seemed to be unnecessary and helpless.

But I’ve changed my opinion about this book and I can recommend it. Even if it is full of advices that we have already known, after every banal sentences, there is a story. We can observe people who took their lives in their hands with using these advices and who kept going on. It gives a huge motivation and after reading I realized that I wasted my time on worrying for stupid reasons (now, I still do this). Maybe it isn’t an example of good book for make your life better, maybe there are some better books, but for mi is quite well written and even all, I liked it. It reminded me about some obvious facts which I had forgotten.

Colmar

Today I would like to come back to the topic of holidays and present you a wonderful city in France. Colmar is situated in Alsace region in north-eastern France. It is also seen as a “capital of Alsatian wine”. Colmar delights us by outstanding architecture, beautiful landscapes and the Statue of Liberty! (No, it isn’t a mistake!)

First of all it is necessary to say something about Little Venice district, because it is one of the most recognized places in this city. Name for this district is given thanks to the huge resemblance to the real Venice in Italy. Originally it is inhabited by a rural community of wine-producers, market gardeners and boatmen.

The second interesting attraction in Colmar is House of Heads. The house of heads, a fine building dating from the German renaissance, owes its name to the 106 heads or grotesque masks that decorate a rich façade on which stands also a three-storey bay window. It looks quite unusual and in some way strange.

Fun fact about Colmar is that there, we can see a 12-meter high replica of Statue of Liberty. The creator of this real one, Auguste Batholdi was born in Colmar and to celebrate his 100th death anniversary, people decided to prepare this replica.

Animal

There is one special animal which is so cute for me, so when I need to cheer up myself, I start to scroll down the pictures with it. And I really regret that they aren’t domesticated animals. For this time I would like to present you some fun facts about penguins!

1. The World Penguin Day is on 25 April.

2. The colors of its plumage have a really important reason. It is a camouflage! Its black back blends into the murky depths of the ocean. From below, its white belly is hidden against the bright surface.

3. All but two species of penguins breed in large colonies of up to a thousand birds.

4. Most species are also loyal to their exact nesting site, often returning to the same rookery in which they were born.

5. In some species, it is the male penguin which incubates the eggs while females leave to hunt for weeks at a time. Because of this, pudgy males—with enough fat storage to survive weeks without eating—are most desirable.

6. Penguin parents—both male and female—care for their young for several months until the chicks are strong enough to hunt for food on their own.

7. The first published account of penguins comes from Antonio Pigafetta, who was aboard Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe in 1520. They spotted the animals near what was probably Punta Tombo in Argentina. (He called them "strange geese.")

8. Because they aren't used to danger from animals on solid ground, wild penguins exhibit no particular fear of human tourists.

Its carrying about family and gentle adoption make it the cutest animal around the world. I wish I had one.

My dreams

Holidays are coming, so because of that I want to dream a little bit and present you some places where I would like to go but it is too expensive.

1. Australia

Australia captivates me because of its beautiful views, enchanting beaches and of course, because it is really closed to coral reef. It seems to be a dream place to take a rest. In addiction Australia is covered in 90% by a desert which make this much more interesting. What I would like to visit there is also Coober Pedy where the temperature is so high that people build their houses underground.

2. USA 

To be more detailed - California. It doesn’t sound really exotic and unusual, but after watching all of these films, where people live near the beach and go surfing every evening. Where sunsets are marvelous and the people are so kind, it is one of my biggest dreams to go there and verify if it is so wonderful.

3. Japan 

This country is fascinated especially because of differences between their culture and this in Poland. The country of a blooming cherry is full of mysteries thanks to unusual temples, which would make mi feel like a huge discoverer. I am also interested in Tokyo – the city of lights and mass of people.

Jimmy Fallon

I think that it is the time to change a topic, because recently I was too focused on films, actors and music. In this post I would like to describe briefly the reasons why I got addicted to “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”.

To be more specific what I like in this show it’s not an interview with any guest. I find it quite interesting, but for me the best part of this show is these ridiculous and crazy games. But in fact they are stupid too, which give me a nice way to chill out and forgot for a little while about serious things. I have also a guilty pleasure when I watch all of these stars or celebrities who do stupid things, who are fooling around – it makes me feel better.

But to be honest, I don’t really like Jimmy Fallon as a person. Okay, he’s funny and he’s good in his profession. But from the other hand I think that he is a liar. For me he tries often too hard to be a good “comedian”, but instead of that he becomes unnatural. I don’t buy it.

Throwback

Today I want to go back to the past and discover some old songs, which will probably make you feel more reflective and thanks to them you will stop for a moment. It won’t be only the songs from my childhood. In contrast I will choose some older songs to take you the times of 80s, 70s etc. Have fun!

I would like to start with a beautiful song which is all over my head all day. "Africa" is a 1982 song by the American rock band Toto. I hope you recognized it. Personally it takes me back to holidays when I was a child. I guess that my parents were big funs of this song. 

The second one is a song which always makes me feel happy after all. “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club has this special magic in its melody and lyrics. And simply – it’s so funny when they sing “karma karma karma karma karma chameleon”.

And now it’s the time for the beautiful ballade and its “osiem zapałek”. And the tears of each girl! 

The last song for now goes to one of younger songs. “Wannabe” by Spice girls it’s like a princess of every party. When I hear it, I can’t stand – I have to dance!   

In fact, this list of songs has no ending, so if you want to share with me with some old song -  go ahead!

Mamma Mia!

There is one film (to be more specific - musical) which is completely fantastic. I have already watched it a milion times and I'm not still bored. This is "Mamma Mia" by Phyllida Lloyd.

"Mamma Mia!" was made in 2008. The story is about Sophie who is just before her wedding. She doesn't know her father, because her mother (Donna - played by wonderful Meryl Streep)  keeps it in secret. But thanks to her mother's diary from her youth, Sophie find 3 potential fathers. So decision is simple - she invite them all. It looks really unbelivable and also quite kitchy, but for me it the best solution for bad day. It always makes me smile and near the end of the movie I sing with them all the songs.

What is the best thing about this film it's not the story or the actors. It's Abba, because all the songs come from this band. I love this! Abba is an adorable, pretty old band, but their songs are like medicine for headache. For me it's the best entertainment detachment from reality.

If I have to choose one Abba's song from the movie, I will choose this one:

Jennifer Lawrence

Today I want to say a few words about one of my favorite actress - Jennifer Lawrence. Probably most of you have heard something about her thanks to the trilogy "The Hunger Games", but in fact she also took part in other really famous productions.

She is born in 1990 and since she was teenager she wanted to be an actress. Her first steeps in acting met a big approbation and respect. After a small episod in a few films, she appeared in "Winter's bone" which made her been nominated to Oscar in 2011 for the best actress. Later she played "Mystique" in "X-men". In 2012 she played Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" and after that she became one of the most recognised actress in the world. Her next big role it was in "Silver Linings Playbook" as Tiffany Maxwell, because she won an Oscar for the actress for this film. Now she plays in quite known films and she can boast of a lot of prizes.

The reason why I like her is simple. First of all I like her as an actress, because she shows always the good quality of acting. But the main reason is that she seems to be a really cool person. I appreciate her lifestyle and attitude towards life. But what I appreciate the most is her sens of humor. I have already watched some interviews with her and I can ensure that every time she is hilarious.

Pearl Jam

In this post I would like to talk a little about what I listent to recently and especially about one song which makes me feel diffrently every time I hear it.
Pearl Jam is an American rock band formed in Seattle in 1990. The history of Pearl Jam is quite complicated, but if it comes to the band's members, here there are: Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard Mike, McCready, Matt Cameron, Boom Gaspar. What is interesting for me is their first album "Ten". "Ten" contained eleven tracks dealing with dark subjects like depression, suicide, loneliness and murder. For exemple the song "Jeremy" is inspired by a real story about a teenager called Jeremy who killed himself in front of class.

But I felt in love with the song "Last kiss" which in fact is a cover song. I can listen to this like a hundred times during the day and I'm still not bored with this moving melody and lyrics. I didn't search for a back story. For me it's enough when I hear "oh where oh where can my baby be" and I'm crying. I guess that I like it so much because of simplicity and credibility.