COLD

 I'm a little bit 💥sick today...

but don't worry, nothing serious 😊 It's part of life. I live in Istanbul, near the sea, and the weather conditions are very strange here. For example, today it's beautiful sunny, about 11 -12 degrees outside, but I'm sitting at home with my poor husband because we are both sick, and I'm sure many others are in the same shoose. As yesterday was raining cats and dogs and besides there was a cold wind. 

However I had to go to the centre of Kadikoy to buy yarn, but even this unpleasent weather and the fact that I was knee-deep in water (because I was soaked with water by some poor guy who can't brake when he sees pedestrians passing by on the road...never mind 😏) didn't make me feel any better, but I promised someone I'd make him a scarf, I went and I kept going. To cheer up I took some nice photos of the yarns there, because they really are beautiful and colourful. By the way, a lot of people knit or embrodering , even the young ones, because the yarns are really good and cheap here and they are making such beautiful thigs out of them, like these:  

This strange wind, by the way, is one of the interesting things about the weather here. In the summer, it seems very pleasant in the terrible heat, but you can still get sick from it. It's very cold, it comes from the sea and in winter it makes you sick almost immediately, you can get a good sore throat. I have to mention that almost all the medicines you buy in Europe are available here too. There are well-stocked pharmacies and very nice pharmacists, many of whom speaks English. 

So the wind is so special that it even has a name, it's called "Lodos" which means "south wind". 

So I recommend if you come to Istanbul to bring a scarf or buy one here on the first day (because you can buy beautiful scarves and shawls here).

So I went to buy yarn and I didn't give up my intention to do so, because I'm not the type to give up...and I don't take the easy way out just because it's more convenient. And especially when I make a promise, I do my best to keep it, even if I don't always keep it, but I do my best. Walking for sport has helped me a lot to keep going. It has taught me a lot of things, discipline and to put away a lot of things, like the weather, the pain, the thirst, the sweating, the fatigue and to stick to my plan, so I go beyond my moods because I want to do it, because I have a goal, like 10,000 steps every day and I stick to it because that's my intention. It is a deliberate thing, a decision, a plan, not an accident or an act of mood. It is good not to be fatalistic (as a dear friend of mine said) e.g. if you are ill you may have to stop and stay at home, get better, so it is important to find the balance between effort and effort.  

Here I would like to recall what Silo said, in a very important speech for me, which went like this:

"Dear friends!

We have failed... but we persist!

We have failed, but we persist in our plan to humanize the world.

We have failed and we will fail again and again, because we are flying on the wings of a bird called "intention", which flies over frustrations, weaknesses and smallnesses."

Silo, First Anniversary of his message, Punta de Vacas, Argentina, May 4, 2004. 

Another important experience for me (I think I learnt this during the pandemic) not to postpone things, just because for example the weather is bad 😊 by the way, there is a nice Hungarian proverb for that: "What you can do today, don't postpone until tomorrow", because the longer you postpone something, the harder it is to do it and meanwhile the subject you are postponing is using up a lot of energy, beacuse of trying to hide from something from yourself what you don't want to deal with or don't like to deal with. But there's nothing dramatic about it, it's just good to notice😊 

And here comes my favourite topic, the music. Today I'd like to share a video with you, with one of my favourite singers (actually he's my absolute favourite :) but I don't know how did I got to know him first and became so fast the one I love so much: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g9kDtm_t9U

So that's all for today! Cheer up