And what can be more passionate than a tango? For those dropping by just now, I am collecting for this challenge my happiness moments and for sure one of them is dancing with the one I love.

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For those who visit my blog quite often, this is not a surprise - I am a bookworm. I cannot imagine my life without books and while having hard times I always find my escape and peace while reading. This year I have started a challenge on Goodreads, namely to read 50 books in 2014. I have managed 23 books, which is quite a lot now that I ponder on the topic. I have actually managed to fall in love again with the process of reading and it gives me much joy to be able to say at the end of a book - what a story!

And I think I might plan this for my new flat, what do you think?

And I will leave with a quote from the last book, The Big Picture by Douglas Kennedy:

“We all crave latitude in life, yet simultaneously dig ourselves deeper into domestic entrapment. We may dream of traveling light but accumulate as much as we can to keep us burdened and rooted to one spot. And we have no one to blame but ourselves. Because-though we all muse on the theme of escape-we stil find the notion of responsibility irresistible. The career, the house, the dependents, the debt-it grounds us. Provides us with a necessary security, a reason to get upin the morning. It narrows choice and ergo, gives us certainty. And though just about every man I know rails against being so cul-de-saced by domesic burden, we all embrace it. Embrace it with a vengeance.”

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The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
Martin Luther King, Jr.


Don't be afraid to fail. Don't waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It's OK to fail. If you're not failing, you're not growing.
H. Stanley Judd


The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.
Gustave Flaubert


We must accept life for what it actually is - a challenge to our quality without which we should never know of what stuff we are made, or grow to our full stature.
Robert Louis Stevenson


If you live a life of make-believe, your life isn't worth anything until you do something that does challenge your reality. And to me, sailing the open ocean is a real challenge, because it's life or death.
Morgan Freeman

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Someone in your family that means so much to you.
There is only one - my mother!
All that I am, and all I hope to be, I owe to my angel mother ~ Abraham Lincoln

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What was your biggest dream in life (you wanted to do as a kid but no longer can)?


To become a marine biologist! Now this took you all by surprise didn't it?

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What is your biggest dream in life (what one great thing do you want to accomplish)?

To go beyond my so-called limits, to feel that I can use my skills, abilities, qualities at their maximum. 

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To be the best I can be as a human, daughter, wife, friend, worker ...

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How do you handle/deal with both success and failure?


Case by case and with optimism, in the end there is a silver lining somewhere!

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So here I was, enjoying my cup of coffee, being at home with a cold and thinking well now I have nothing special to do except rest and maybe read a book when suddenly the work phone rang, one of my suppliers, asking me where am I? And then it did hit me, I did promise to be in a conf call despite my sickness. So after 4 hours of working I realised that no plan works that well! Life :)

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You have one of those days, you wake up you look outside and it rains. And you think, how I would love to walk and have a nice time in the forest but you don't actually consider it as a great idea, but you do trust your instincts and you go out and then in the middle of your walk you receive this wonderful gift!

Life is great right?

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Listening to the first time to carillon, I cannot describe the feeling but the music is so powerful

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when coffee is missing :)

Picture from here

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My best friend Monica, lead singer of All in Green and my rock when things go wrong. Happy to have her in my life!

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My current favorite movie and you might wonder why? Well, because it proves that nothing is impossible if you want it!

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None to register, kind of boring, so I cannot actually fulfill today's challenge theme: Something that shook your belief system to its core (a big disappointment in your life).


So instead a bit of laugh, I hope :)

Picture from here

Picture from here

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Who had an impact on my life? Someone I met randomly? The first thought that came to my mind is Anja, a nice Polish lady I met on the street of Warsaw 10 years ago. I was there for only 1 day to get a travelling visa for Latvia, for a conference. The taxi driver left me at a wrong address and I did not know how to reach my hotel or the embassy. And then she came, I noticed that was my age, I approached her and I asked in English if she could help. And in no time, this amazing woman, pointed out the hotel, it was in an inner court, I have missed it and then she said, leave your bag I will go with you the embassy. I knew it was very close by, so in 10 minutes we have found it. When I wanted to say goodbye and thank her once more, she asked if I would have dinner with her in the evening, she would show me the old town and introduce me to some nice Polish meals. It was a lovely evening, we chatted, she was an editor at that time, and had lots of fun. When I tried to find out how could I repay her for her kindness, she just said: do the same for people in need. And I did follow her advice from then, I always try to help people who are lost in a new town. She was my angel and I do regret that she moved and I don't have her address, but maybe one day we will meet again. By chance!

Thank you Anja!

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Someone with whom you shared a friendship/relationship that simply drifted out of your life is the theme for today's challenge entry and I am having troubles finding someone who fits the description. A former boyfriend, well I kind of stayed in touch with all of them, not truly friends but at least I know where each one is. A good friend which I lost? Not really, the truly dear ones to me are still present in my life. So I am afraid this is going to be like this:


No lost friend.


Good? Bad? What do you think?

Picture from here

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This is the book that I’ve read and changed my views on life, especially in not taking yourself too serious.


Some marvelous quotes from the book


"I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first."


"Parents are the bones on which children sharpen their teeth."

"Once we are destined to live our lives in the prison of our mind, our one duty is to furnish it well."

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I wrote this a while ago but I had to share it again ....

Otta (= German version of grandfather), the father of my mother. The most patient grandfather in the world. I think I drove him nuts with my questions, especially WHY?? We had a routine, on each Sunday morning (to give my mom some space), Otta took me for a ride in town, we went on a bus drive around the city and he showed me old building, told me stories of his youth. He never got tired of answering me questions. And somehow he always managed to answer them. One question I remember pretty well: how is butter made? Why of milk? Where does milk come? and so on and so forth. I miss him a lot. Unfortunately he died 10 years ago but he always will be in my heart. In a way I will never forgive me for not saying good bye. He died while I was on a business trip and I was not there. Miss you Otta! Miss your blue eyes looking towards me!

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