My 2011 Gratitude List

Gratitude is a major key to one of the locks of the seemingly impenetrable door to happiness.
Therefore, alkA and I urged each-other to focus on the positives of the past year in order to appreciate life a bit more in the cold, short, rainy, even lonely winter Manchester days.

So, here's what defines 2011 for me:

I am now a Master of Research in Psychology - albeit a boring-sounding degree, I am very proud of it as well as of my Merit award of the course. Now I feel that I can finally be a bit more appreciated for what I know and what I do and not merely for how well I bow and kiss ass as it was with my U.S. job.

I have fallen deeper and deeper in love with my family core! - the three of us are the absolute heart of my life. No job, no band, no place in the world, no reward is ever more important than US. However difficult it may be for me to remember it in times of hardship, this is the ultimate truth. I would absolutely and without a doubt give my life for my alkA and Sami. And even though that's not just been true for this year, it has now solidified with yet another year.

We traveled and than traveled some more. This year alone we have been in a total of 5 countries! And it still feels like it wasn't enough. I realized that traveling is absolutely my favorite occupation. If I could travel and write, that would be it for me!
So, we were in Bulgaria twice;
in the UK we explored Liverpool, York, London and even the amazing Lake District, for which I will soon write you more.
In September we went to Spain, France and Monaco and I have been writing about those experiences since.

I had amazing, blissful moments of reconnecting with my wife and with my son. Multiple moments where I could stop my mind from always racing and enjoy the MOMENT - the look in my wife's beautiful eyes, the excitement in Sami's...

I found wonderful, honest ways of making money without being devoted to a 9-5 job.

My band - BFH - recorded our best, according to me, album ever, called Bits oF Humanity. I am mega excited about it and cannot wait to be able to share some of the songs with you,

We had a concert again! Being front-stage is an amazing feeling and sharing the intense energy with another 300 people felt like an out-worldly experience.

I mastered my diet a lot by reducing all dairy and learning to cook delicious healthy vegan meals. I found true joy in cooking.

I learned that I am capable of writing such a daunting thing as a dissertation and even enjoyed it.

I started volunteering for Manchester Drug Services and found out that I can experience true joy of going to work for the well-being of others even without being paid.

I worked quite a bit on my blog and developed its design to what I find a more eye-pleasing and interesting layout.

I found out about mindfulness and acceptance and opened the door to a new world of conscious living.

I saw my favorite bands live - Roger Waters from Pink Floyd - The wall and The Ocean. I even got to hang out with The Ocean and even had the displeasure of explaining to them that I would not be able to have them sleep in my tiny apartment.

I made a few (but very few) great friends.

I skateboarded with my son many many many times and experienced the joy of skating in a half-pipe myself.

and then...

I loved, I made love and I was loved back! And this is really what made it all feel like a LIFE and not merely like existence.

That's a Game I Didn't Think I'd be Playing Yet

***************** HAPPY HOLIDAYS, FRIENDS! ****************

The Cooking Monster

Thanks to my unemployment I managed to master my long-time favorite hobby. I am so happy to cook lately, that I'm almost worried about my masculinity :D

So, here are my latest creations. Feel free to ask me for recipes. I will not bore you with them, as this is not one of them cooking blogs ;)

My first ever sushi attempt - California and Philadelphia rolls with sesame and black masago - unbelievable!

Parsley burgers with home-made hummus - better than any meat burger I remember from 17 years ago!

Shrimp and salmon stuffed roasted pineapple with a pineapple and raspberry spinach salad, with vanilla-shallot vinaigrette! To die for!

THIS CHRISTMAS...

Please BUY NOTHING! Please, buy no gifts! Please, if it means anything spiritual to you, then do something spiritual for somebody else. Don't perpetuate the corporate and political machine of turning yourself into a mindless gift-shopping zombie! Ignore the herd! Ignore the stigma, put forward by commercial interests and perpetuated by idiots! If you love somebody, simply do something for them! Or give them a symbol of your love for them. Nobody needs to store crap they don't need, purchased with money you do not have! FREE YOUR MIND! BUY NOTHING!

Don't Wash Your Hands!

There are many things I can never make sense of in this eerie country. It's Europe, but yet, it's not. People keep walking dressed in t-shirts, even when it's 1 Celsius with horrible winds and act like they are peeeeeerfectly fine. Additionally, why the fuck do they drive on the other side of the road??? I mean, the whole fucking world drives on the right! What's up with that?

And finally, and most importantly:

HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO WASH MY HANDS?? Hot water burns to blisters, cold tap makes my hand numb. Not that I don't like dancing in front of the sink, as I criss-cross my hands to wash the soap off. The alternative is to stick with what I have and when I'm done, melt the block of ice around my right hand by rubbing it into the piece of hot coal that my left hand has become.

Help me here!

Лафове

Много съм щастлив когато синът ми от 3-годишен ми казва "Тате, разбрахме ли се по мъжки!?"

Става леко тревожно, обаче, когато ми каже "Ах, мама му стара, пак се разглоби играчката ми!"

...знаех си аз, че трябва да се пляскам по-често през устата ама!

This is Why I Want to Move Again

Honey, get the boat! We're getting out of here!

The Emigrants' Blog Facelift

I constantly get bored with the image of my blog and constantly look for ways of improving it. The blog has increasingly become my artistic platform and albeit rather timid and concise in my writing lately, I enjoy tweaking the image of it at all times.
So, what I love the most is the opportunity to reveal my Darker Side to you. (Unfortunately, blogspot.com is bugged as hell and rarely recognizes the changes as I make them. For example, currently the 'Dark Side' and 'Bright Side' buttons constantly stop reacting) When everything's ok, there will be a player there with some of the more thoughtful music I listen to at the moment. For, as you probably have noticed with me, it's not only peaches and cream. But instead of forcing you to read about the darker side on a coffee morning and possibly darkening your day, I've chosen to separate the two as two separate blogs.

The pages:
Under 'Music' blogspot does not allow separate posts, but just one. Therefore, I will simply update that with my latest finds in the world of Hardcore/Punk, etc. After distributing CDs and stuff throughout the late 90's, my e-mail address gets littered with the newest information of releases, so I may as well pass it on to you there.

'My Favorites' contains the links of my all time favorite blogs which may have remained far in the past if you are a new reader. Therefore, as I remember of some relevant or interesting old posts, I will highlight them there for you. After all, I am extremely rarely proud of anything I've written. So those are the few that make the cut for me.

'Cool links' I rarely have time for just browsing the net, but whenever I stumble upon interesting websites, they'll go there. So you may as well check them.

Additionally, on the left handside you can see what's been read the most. For some reason, the California road-trip report seems to be the most-read thing I've written. I am starting to dislike the constant presence of that one there, but there's nothing I can do to reset the viewer count on that one, so we are all stuck with it.

I am extremely, extremely grateful to those who read my blog! I can assure you that there is NO GREATER gift for me than the one of a new reader signed up, a comment or a 'like'. I thank you for that! And if you haven't subscribed, please do! That shows me that there's a reason for writing all that.

As for the posting, I have quite a few things I would like to share with you during December, so keep on reading ;)

Love,

CToRH