Datedays

I adore date-days! They make me remember who I am, who my awesome wife is and who we are!

Life is amazing!

6am...

I just wanna sleep one night without being woken up at 5-30 or 6am! I have never once had a full and calm night's sleep for almost 5 years. And sometimes the attitude is just what could make me blow up:

Coffee office #1

Snuck up on my alkA today while she's studying in a nearby coffee shop. This is what her morning office looked like 

Keys to The Doors

a poem I enjoyed..

I loved your eye of wonder: your third and fourth and fifth years spent astonished,
widening your eyes at each new trick of the world - 
and me standing there,
solemnly explaining how it was done.
The moon, the stars, the rainbows, 
photographs, gravity, the birds in the air,
the difference between blood and water.

In true life? you would say, looking up
and I would nod, like some broken-hearted sage,
knowing there would be no answers soon
to all the big questions that were left,
to cruelty and fear,
to age and grief and death,
and no words either.
And you, like me, will sit and shake your head.
In true life? 
Yes, my sweet, strong one, I'm afraid there is all this as well,
and this is it: true life.


by Robin Robertson

Buddies

Parenthood. Never what I expected. So much more difficult than I thought. And now - so much better than it was. These past few weeks I can feel a new fun era of fatherhood emerging. Sami is now a person with opinions, likes, dislikes, and even a stance on some serious issues such as the dinosaurs still live and some train-tracks near our home in Brisbane no longer in use, are in fact millions of years old.

He is at the stage where he wants to do everything himself - make his breakfast, pour his water, bring me another beer from the fridge, massage mommy, drill holes, tie screws, vacuum the house...It's overwhelming of course and difficult as hell as A and I both know he'll drop, spill, mess up, and break things. But we try to bite our tongues and let him be...as much as we can before he fills his sleeve with water when pouring himself a glass.

The most amazing part of it all is the communication - in a funny Englo-Bulgarian we raves about dinosaurs, about "The Night at the Museum", about fossils, sea creatures and not eating animals. Ever! He cannot comprehend how people slaughter a cute little creature and put it on their plates. We never forced him to be vegetarian, on the contrary - offered him meat so he could choose. But we did explain where it came from, so Sami won't grow in the denial and oblivion most others do thinking that there is no connection between the life, the slaughterhouse and their plates.

Our games are so much more fun these days that fatherhood really grows on me. Oh of course, I still need a glass or four of wine at the end of the day, to strip off the wHining but at least I am now more tired than flustered.

When we were on our little campervan trip around the beaches of North Queensland, we set up a little surprise for him - fossil digging at the beach. And that made his trip! He was mesmerized! And the friendship grew even stronger...

So to those of you, tired, frustrated and confused by parenting, hiding behind masks, so they can meet social expectations of being perfect moms and dads, I can gladly say - it will be fun! And that fun may last for a very short time before you get rejected by your teenager. So, embrace it and leave facebook for the moments when you REALLY will have no chance to roll little cars down the cabinet or play with dolls. Live in the now!

Coconut mission

1. Man go jungle

2. Man find coconut

3. Man bring back

4. Man work very hard peel coconut

5. Man poke hole in coconut and put straw

6. Woman and child drink

7. Man repeat

Пряко включване от плажа със снимки от телефона и лаф

Тате, ский колко далеч е отишло морето!

Recycle - home edition

 The more I become aware of my own and my family's 'environmental footprint', the more I freak out about the amount of waste we all must burden our world with...every single day. Starting from a single bread loaf that for some reason has to ALWAYS come in a plastic package of some sort these days (more sanitary, right?), going through all the old computers (please wait a couple of days and you'll see how much e-waste we captured back in Vegas one day), clothes and...furniture. Can you imagine the toll of one single person and one single household on our fragile world? And what about all of us? What about cars, fuel, and...whims. 'Honey, I don't like this couch any more. We should buy a new one.' Yes, sometimes you'll sell the old one off but often you might just toss it on the road-side and wait for the garbage truck to pick it up.

Well, coming to a whole new country, not only did we have a concern about how much money to spend on all the new stuff we had to buy, but also we were mindful of how much more garbage we were going to generate. Additionally, having spent a couple of years in the 'old world' and...losing some dear to us people from our ancestors, we came to appreciate older stuff that much more. Rarely nowadays does a 'modern home' emit as much warmth and home-y-ness as the history of the past. So I present to you some of our home, which we furnished from scratch for under $1000 (which includes a fridge and a washing machine). This is what we now call home...

Couches are $50 each. Table is a box for $5.
Small table is off the road-side with a wine box on top. Rug is a blanket/throw.

Table with chairs - $25 for all. Small table in the back is a vintage table off an oooold house - next to free.
Armchair as well. Stand on the left is $30-new.
Stereo is $30 from a total Australian white trash. Candle-holder is $3!
Tray with tea-pot was $10 from a garage sale. It's actually silver with a stamp! 

Kids' labour is free :)

I had to have this plate! It's awesome for serving sushi.

This stand is totally DIY made from pallets, purchased second-hand.

Sami's tent is new. The carpet we brought from the UK (crazy).
The fire-truck was $5 (new but reduced by mistake at the store).
And the $20 bed, alkA sanded down and re-painted.

This vase was super expensive but we loved it too much.

Balcony furniture was a gift.

Here's our exceptional late 1920's (top right sticker says 14-3-31)
French box-suitcase for which I talked a woman down from $50 to $10.
It has customs stamps from Canada, France, Alger, Scotland and...ended up in Australia.

Vases were next to free. The pot-holder ladder on the balcony was at the road-side.

Reuse! Reduce! Relove! Reenjoy!
Live with history!

Лафове...

Новата серия от лафове...макар че вече като че ли порастваме и е по-интересно колко 'големи' думи ползваме:

"От мен да мине, тате, ще ям супа!"

***

Давам му да подаде подаръка на майка си за имения ѝ ден:
"Да си жива и здрава, мамо!"

***

А: "Сами, не слушаш ще ти прибера играчките!"
С: "Аз пък ще ти прибера обеците!"

***

Аз: "Сами, спокойно, утре ще отидем на доктор и той ще ти помогне с кашлицата."
С: "Няма нужда! Мама нали е доктор!"

:)

A gourmet Saturday

Beet and tomato caprese salad with pistachio pesto

Sami helped us cook picnic pizzas - super thin Italian dough, organic tomato sauce, mushrooms,
olives and red onions topped with mozzarella. Classic, quick and tasty! (10 minutes in the oven).
 Then with a bottle of wine eat at the lawn outside.

Blanched green beans (4 minutes in boiling water with salt) topped with pistachios,
squeezed orange juice, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Lavender and chamomile tea. Alex calls it 'love tea'. It actually tastes good even to an non-tea-lover like me!

Brisbanature

Brisbane offers us an amazing combination of amazing weather, nature and a beautiful balance between parks and city. There are huge green parks everywhere. Some of them practically still jungles full of snakes and giant spiders just as well as kangaroos and koalas! WILD! I can't even begin to tell you about all the amazing birds!
Here's my collection of recent favorite photos representing our life and joy in this beautiful place: