17 December
5 minutes of Nothing
If by chance you are wondering if Oreste is tired...no:
she's exhausted!
Christmas is so close, but there are so many things to do.
You should know that there is a very intense preparation for the Magic Night.
First of all, physical: Oreste and her sisters must practice every day to pull the Big B's sleigh because they have not done it for a year, and they would risk running over themselves or worse: toppling over.
In addition, there is the technical test of the sleigh: they have to check that it is not damaged, that all the pieces are firmly in place, they have to test it with Santa and the magic bag.
And the letters.
Oreste also helps Santa read them. After all, she knows so many languages! Don't you know?
And there are millions of letters! With wonderful drawings and thoughts. She has a lot of fun.
But sometimes, they seem endless.
And our dear reindeer is really, really tired.
But don't get her wrong: she's overjoyed!
She goes to bed at night, destroyed but satisfied.
That's why today she's reminding you to take a break from the hustle and bustle that is life:
5 minutes of a good nothing.
Stop for at least 5 minutes, and empty your mind.
Breathe in.
Exhale.
Or if you must, think of something you particularly like to do, read a book, take a walk, watch a movie, cook, paint, climb a mountain, build something...and do it!
Don't procrastinate.
You have the right to take time for yourself and enjoy it!
You deserve it.
Useless advice
Grab your keys.
Love actually
A multifaceted Christmas romantic comedy.
9 stories intertwine in a snowy, festively lit London. And all are about and examine the complexity of that emotion that unites everything: love.
In its many facets and epilogues.
A Christmas cult to laugh, be surprised and be enchanted by stories of any life.
An ode to love.
On Amazon Prime Video.
What You Can See From Here
Mariana Leky, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019
“The okapi is an incongruous animal, much more incongruous than death. It looks utterly disjointed, with its zebra shanks, its tapir haunches, its giraffe-like rust-red torso, its doe eyes and mouse ears. An okapi is completely implausible, every bit as implausible, in fact, as the sinister dreams of a woman from the Westerwald.”
We are in Germany, in a small village nestled in the countryside.
Luise lives with her grandmother Selma, who dreams of an okapi 24 hours before someone in the village dies. The dream always creates chaos in the community that meets, approaches, lives in fear and anxiety that the whole thing will be fulfilled because the vision never reveales who will die.
And that's how we get to know the inhabitants of this fairy-tale village, like the optician, secretly in love with his grandmother, or Martin, Louise's best friend.
And that's how you live everyday life, never superficial and obvious, studded with love, loss, friendship and people a bit 'bizarre but true.
A novel in which irony, mystery, popular beliefs, dramas, joys and sorrows alternate in perfect balance.
