Some (nerdy) shopping

Hello everybody!

Yesterday I spent all day outside, from 9 am to 9 pm: in the morning I was at university, then, at 6 pm I had my piano lesson. But I had free time from 2 pm to 6 pm and I decided to go to the city centre.

I didn't have anything to buy in particular, I just wanted to have a look around and have a walk. I went to the bookshop, the Benetton store, Pull&Bear, Zara, then I wanted to see what exhibit there was at the Palazzo Reale.

Walking around, I reached the Disney Store and, suddenly, I remembered that I received a mail a couple of days ago which said that there was a discount (20%) on some Star Wars merchandise.

I thought it was an online discount, but I wasn't sure so I went in to see if I was right or not. As soon as I entered the store, I saw in front of my eyes the figurine playset I wanted to buy.

My sister had already bought a figurine playset, but not the deluxe version: in her box, there were 6 characters instead of 10. I wanted to get this one because I really like Han Solo, Chewbacca and Poe Dameron, not present in the normal playset.

So, today, I have tidied up my shelf, I have dusted it and I have put the action figures in place. They are really well made, full of details

Now, only the BB-8 and the Chewbacca plushies are missing to my list, but I'm sure I'll find them somewhere, I won't surrender.


See you soon


Yours, Silvia

First impression - the train

Hello everybody!

Today I want to tell you a funny story, which is the story of the first time I catched a train. This could sound a bit weird, but I'm not joking: I swear it is all true.

Due to the fact that the elementary and the middle school aren't so far from my house, from the age of 5 to the age of 14 my mum used to bring me there by car. Then, when I attended High School, even if the school was a bit far, I used to go there in the same way.

So it ended up I catched the train only when I was...16 years-old!

On that time, we had to go to a conference - or something like that - at the university of Pavia and if we had caught the bus, we would have spent much money, considering also the fact that the place wasn't too far (30 minutes by car) and that the university was in the city centre. So we opted in favour of the train.

I didn't know what to expect, because the only train I'd ever seen was the one shown in the Polar Express film.

So, when, finally, I arrived at the station, I felt a great delusion. To summarise my reaction, I could write this:

EXPECTATION

 



REALITY

 

 

But I've learnt that this is not the uncomfortable type of seats.

 

Moreover, you have to be grateful if, on the way to your destination:

- the train doesn't stop in the middle of nowhere and it remains there for an undefined number of minutes;

- in summer there is the air conditioning or, at least, the possibility to open the windows;

- in winter, the heat doesn't recreate the typical climate of the tropics;

- the train is ON TIME;

- you don't have to stand near the doors with the noise from the outside.

 

I catch the train almost everyday to go to university now, so, if I want to plan a holiday and I have to buy the train ticket, (if I can) I choose a confy seat, as one in the first class of a high-speed train (I catched the train Italo to go to Bologna and Firenze): at least once a year, I would like to feel relaxed.

 

Anyway, I felt the atmosphere of the Polar Express one day in Milan, when I got on a tram like this one:

 

A historical tram in Milan

It was like travelling back on time, a magic evening in a warm autumn.

 

 

See you soon

 

 

Yours, Silvia



Surprise yourself!

<<Wonder is the first of all the passions>>

(René Descartes)

<<Curiosity [...] is appetite of knowledge>>

(Thomas Hobbes)

<<Wonder implies the desire to learn>>

(Aristotle) 

 

When something new happens to me, or when I get to know new things I always feel happy, because the most beautiful sensation I can feel is when I am surprised.

I think I can be considered a rational person, who uses logic to understand a great part of the events I partecipate in or the stories people tell me to listen to my point of view.

Logic is useful, but it's important to be wrong sometimes, especially because the unexpected is much more interesting: "in medio stat virtus" ("virtue is in the middle", Aristotle), we have to be both logic and dreamers.

Without wonderment, life can be very boring and plain: what would be missing would be the desire to know, to understand, to interpret reality, that heat which grows inside ourselves and makes our eyes glisten.

The first step is to be interested in something: if you aren't, you can't experience wonderment. For example, I love the paintings of Kandinskij, even if I usually prefer realistic paintings. When I saw them for the first time, I felt astonished because I could see the same balance and power of other artworks based on reality. So I started to look for more informations and I learnt a lot of things I ignored before.

Then you have to accept the surprise, abandoning your beliefs for a while and your usual path as you are looking at things for the first time. You know the sky is full of stars, but it's wonderful when you are walking in the countryside and you see them lighting up the darkness of night. The fact is that we are used to take a lot of things for granted and this won't let us change our way of seeing the world.

Wonderment is also connected with the sublime, which can display itself in different forms, as in the limitless strength of nature. It is everything which makes you think, the first impulse which can generate a new way of facing life.


Bye for now


Yours, Silvia

A kind of sweetness

In these days, I'm studying for an important exam for university. Usually, when I have to study, I stay at home and I go out only if it is necessary, so that I don't waste my time and I focus on what I'm studying.

Yesterday, instead, I decided to go to the supermarket, because my mum didn't buy my chestnut honey.

I'm happy now, because it was a very beautiful sunny day, not too hot and not too cold, with a slight breeze and a calm atmosphere (I met a fluffy cat with blue eyes and two white little dogs). Moreover, I like going for a wander because I love nature (and, so far, there aren't mosquitos) and walking helps me to relax.

Even a cup of tea helps me to forget my problems and that's why I needed the chestnut honey.

The fact is that I'm a perfectionist: it is both a flaw, because it's a neverending search, and a virtue, because it means that we always try to be better and happier than what we already are.

There's a connection between tea and perfection and I tell you why.

I used to drink tea with my family. If I think about my past, I can't remember a moment when we didn't have tea at home. My parents used to squeeze some lemon in it and I drank it this way too, even if that combination of tastes didn't convince me.

Even adding some sugar, that harshness stayed the same. I couldn't remove lemon, because I thought that there was something missing. So I changed the type of sugar and I bought the brown sugar, but it was the same.

So I realised that I should stop drinking tea: if I could drink it only trying to hide its real taste, maybe coffee was better for me.

And I became a coffee person, but I wasn't sure it was a good idea. I felt a kind of emptiness. When you drink coffee, it's because you don't have a lot of time. I prefer the tea atmosphere, when you sit down in a warm room with your mug heating your hands.

When I went to England, I savoured for the first time tea with milk and I didn't like it. Now, instead, I only drink it with milk and honey. Of course, not every tea is good with milk, but I create a combination I love, the one with the chestnut honey.

This specific honey is sweet and bitter at the same time, it has a brownish colour and it's dense. If I don't have it at home, I use the multi-flower honey, because the acacia honey is a little bit flavourless (I'm also trying the eucalyptus honey, which reminds me my place in the mountains).

My favourite tea is the Twinings' Earl Grey, even if I like discovering new tastes (tell me if you have some advices about this).

I think I have found a balance for my afternoon and that's why I went to the supermarket: to reach perfection.


Bye for now


Yours, Silvia

Valentine's Day

WARNING

Keep on reading the rest of this post

only if you know what sarcasm is.

. If you can't, you will surely find something you may please in previous posts.

Thank for your collaboration.

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When you are single, this day is not so happy and full of romance. You wake up in the morning and you know very well that you will see tons of flying hearts, common words, chocolates and all kind of presents you can barely imagine - not for you, of course.

Precisely, this is what you have seen for at least two weeks before this wonderful day (wonderful for some of us): it's not that I hate sweet things and corny tear-jerking phrases

The fact is that there is no justice for singles. We don't have an official day when we can say to the world: "you know, I don't have a soulmate, but I don't care, because I have freedom to do what I want (within the limits of the law) and I'm happy anyway", we can't find stuff in shops, like mugs with "PROUD TO BE SINGLE" written on it (maybe I haven't found this kind of object).

If you feel a little bit desperate, don't worry, because you can survive even on St Valentine's Day, it is only a matter of self-control.

So I decide to write down a list with some advices which can be helpful:

1. This day does exist and you can't change the situation, but you can prepare yourself to live this moment, for example occupying your mind looking at the emptiness of some people's brain.

2. I start to do some exercises to keep me in shape: you will realise that it's not your problem if you are single, the fact is that nobody deserves to stay beside you.

3. You can get through the concept of "day for couples" and you can spend the day with your friends, sharing this difficult moment together.

4. You can take some advantages during this day: I love stuffed animals, so, even if I'm not a baby, I can buy them and nobody would say I'm childish.

5. You can also buy chocolate to drown your sorrows and then you can continue with training (you have to pay for your mistakes).

6. Going outside can be risky, because you could meet that alien called "romance". If you have to, imagine your freedom and the troubles you can avoid being single.

7. For every moment of sadness, there are moments of happiness: the best is yet to come (a lot of VIPs are single too, isn't it?).

8. Maybe you are simply living in the wrong century and that could be a problem, but surely on Earth there is someone who feels the same.

9. If you think your expectations are too high to reach, you can temper them, so that you will like even idiots, or keep on living like a Romantic hero, fighting against the storms of life.

10. "After all, tomorrow is another day!"

Stay strong, you are not alone!


Yours, Silvia

Philosophical currency

My favourite philosopher is Friedrich Nietzsche, but sometimes I'm willing to get to know also the thoughts of other thinkers..

We have a lot of brilliant intellectuals, so why could I fixate on only one of them? It isn't fair and above all it is not useful for my brain to think about just one thing. How can it grow stronger and healthier without any kind of training?

So today I'm talking about Arthur Schopenhauer and, in particular, about a sad truth called "boredom" in his way, because on these days I comprehend his definition very well.

I don't study Philosophy, but I love learning about humans' activities and, in this case, how they explain reality and its occurencies.

Schopenhauer is basically a pessimist, even if I think this definition is not completely correct: he is just a radical realist who believes that we won't never be able to see the real essence of the world. All it's just a mental representation, because we can't separate the subject (our awareness) from the object (the world).

It is justifiable, if we imagine that we get to know everything with our perceptions and that everything pass through our experiences and is shaped by them. All becomes a phenomenon, known by our senses.
Schopenhauer says that what we see is different from what it truly is, because we establish an order using the categories of our awareness, space, time and casualty.

The "real reality" is covered by a sort of layer, called "Maya's layer", that can be torn thinking about the fact that we are both body and soul: the intuition that all the phenomena have something in common,  an irrational and free Will, because we can feel that Will of being alive.

This Will leads us to the boredom: we have needs and desires. We suffer without what we want, we are bored with what we wanted.

Pain or boredom?

Schopenhauer gave us some solutions: art, ethics and ascesis.

Why did I feel bored?

I had nothing to do, so I have to keep on dreaming.

Yours, Silvia

The truth about cinema

Hello everybody!

Today I would like to tell you a funny story.

It's basically the relationship between the cinema and me, characterized by love and hatred.

        My "enemy"

I love going to the cinema, because I love watching films in that immersive atmosphere, the smell of popcorns, the big screen, the high volume of the speakers and so on, but the cinema hates me.

In particular, the cinema near my home hates me: in fact, every time that I see a trailer of a new film and I choose a day to go to watch it, obviously that precise film won't be showing there.

I don't know if it's a matter of a  curse which someone casts on me long ago (if it is so, I'll find you, funny man), or it's just a discordance between me and the general manager, or maybe karma is at fault in my situation.

Anyway, the results are the same: I can only wait for the DVDs and write a list with all the films I have to watch.

This month I have to add "Macbeth" with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, "Carol" with Cate Blanchett and surely "Hamlet" with one of my favourite actor, Benedict Cumberbatch (but I still have hope for this, keep the fingers crossed for me).

It's a bit frustrating: destiny is telling me that I must study, even if I try to keep a glimmer open to my social life.

At least I will try to watch "The abominable bride", the special episode of Sherlock Holmes series.

I will keep you updated ;)

Yours, Silvia

p.s. if you have any suggestions, I'm glad to hear them

Who do you want to be?

It's the 2nd of January, so it's the moment to think about New Year's resolutions.

Before a gallons of ideas submerged your minds, I would like to tell you where the name "January" comes from.

Ianus by the Dutch artist Jacobus Harrewyn (1698) 

 

Ianus (Janus in English) was the Latin god of transitions, time and beginnings. He had two faces, so he could look at the past and the future, the inside and the outside (he was also the god of doors and passages) at the same time. He was considered the Creator god overall and, due to this, in his opera "De Civitate Dei", Saint Augustine wrote that "ad Ianum pertinent initia factorum" (which means that this god acted in matter of things concerning starts). 

 

Going back to the New Year’s resolutions, the first thing I would like to do is taking good marks in my university exams, especially in the Japanese ones.

 

Then I would like to visit a city abroad, maybe Istanbul or London or Berlin. I already went to London and Berlin, but I have loved them a lot, so it will be wonderful to see how they’ve changed across the years. I saw some photos of Istanbul and I think it’s worth giving it a chance, though.

 

The famous Tower of London

I also hope to keep in contact with my friends, to meet them as many times as possible and to live new adventures with them.
 

I wish I could go to some exhibitions at Palazzo Reale in Milan (last year I saw the Chagall’s exhibit with my best friend Luisa), watch all the Star Wars saga and convince my mum to plant a fruit tree.

 
Soon I'll buy a little wooden house for wild birds to feed them during the winter. Yesterday morning and even today, after lunch, there was a great tit on the iron grating of my window. 

  

  

I would like to be happier or, at least, to bear difficulties and problems with strength and faith.

"That which does not kill us makes us stronger" 
Friedrich Nietzsche

 

Best wishes

 

Yours,Silvia

 

 

Feel

Today is the Winter Solstice (and also the birthday of a famous italian composer, Giacomo Puccini, the author of some operas like Tosca - which I woul love to see - and Madama Butterfly).

I love winter, its silence and peace, the trees sleeping outside the window, the birds dancing in the cold breeze. But I'm sad this year, because the weather is warmer than the usual, which means there is no snow.

Every season has its beauty: the spring has the flowers' blooming, the summer has its atmosphere full of bursting brightness, the autumn the magic colours of the pirouetting leaves. And the winter has that sense of wait, as if everything stops for a while and you have to face your life.

Also, winter is the last season, so it's like you have to think about all the events, the emotions, the joy and the pain that comes across the year and it's like nature gives you the possibility to do so, the chance to sit down with a cup of hot tea.

It's not an easy season, you can practise across the year so you will be ready enough to bear its difficulties, both phisical and emotional. You have to live the stressful moments of choosing the best present for your family and friends, the hostile climate, the foreseeable films on tv.

But winter is also hot chocolate, warm blankets, colourful lights walking down the streets, Chistmas songs, kind smiles andd much more.

Winter is slowing down, appreciating every moment, sensing everything.

See you soon

Yours, Silvia

p.s. a song is hidden somewhere in this post ;)

Proust

Yesterday I was tidying up my room and suddenly I found a key ring, which I bought last year in England, in Lyndhurst.

Lyndhurst before & after

It is a key ring with the White Rabbit, the famous character of Lewis Carroll's "Alice In Wonderland". In Lyndhurst there's the grave of the girl who inspired Carroll's Alice, whose name was Alice Hargreave ( maiden name: Alice Liddell).

The Church and the grave of the "real" Alice

When you forget about something, this doesn't mean that you have also forgotten the memory of the experience you lived. Sometimes, there're objects bound with a particular event and it's beautiful relive the scenes in your mind.

This is exactly what happened to me. I've remember the streets and the buindings of that little village, the magic atmosphere walking around the tiny shops and the trip with my host family at the New Forest.

 

        The New Forest             

                            



It also came up in my mind the 2010 film by Tim Burton, with his atmosphere between fairy tale and grotesque.

Let the fantasy fly away. 

Close your eyes and dream.


Yours, Silvia

p.s. the title refers to the "madeleines" of the book "In search of lost time", by Marcel Proust, which inspired. this post.

Tea

I don't remember exactly the moment when I start to love tea.

Precisely, I like to savour the different tastes of everything I eat or drink: I feel a sense of satisfaction when I can recognise, for example, a spice or a specific ingredient in general.

Anyway, drinking tea is something special: I sit down and I try to let everything go. You can appreciate the loneliness in a crowded place, the beauty of the cup, the smooth surface of the tea spoon.

I love even the colour of the tea, which can be darker as mahogany or lighter as dawn. You can also observe the moment in which the water, once transparent, becomes orange, softly like the smoke outside a chimney.

Furthermore, it reminds me of my journeys in England, the astonishing landscapes, the old villages, the silent parks, the sense of freedom looking at the sky while laying down on the grass.

Tea can help you when you are studying for an exam and you want to finish at least the chapter you are reading, because you are falling behind studies enough.

Tea keeps you warm

Tea makes you happy

Why shouldn't you love it?