My Christmas wish

I have the same Christmas wish as the last year and the year before.
I would love to get an email from you.
To learn who you are. 
Where you come from.
Why you read my blog.
What my blog means to you. 

I promise I will not publish your emails, nor misuse them in any way.

My email: klara.soncek (at) gmail.com


I am looking forward to Christmas :)
I loved receiving emails last December from literally all around the world!  


PS: on the photo: our capital, Ljubljana, with Christmas lights. It is very pretty! Photo was taken few days ago when having mulled wine (=tradition here) with coworkers.

December

Since I try to save as much money as possible for "our little house" project, this year my husband and I didn't spend a lot for our holidays. The only overnight stays that we paid were 2 nights while cycling in Austria.

And yet, I am fortunate to have a job where I can travel often. I have just returned from Italy. Italy in December with all the Christmas lights is just beautiful! 

I have been doing really well this December. Not that many years ago, when in the darkest years of my infertility, I really suffered in December. Now I am getting my life back which means I am enjoying December.

There are moments that hurt (and there always will be).  Like feeling trapped in work lunch where all women are in the age group 30 - 45 and all they can talk is about their children's school and homeworks. Not long ago I would be depressed for days after.

Now I just thought it is sad for them if they are not capable of any other theme than this.

Me for example:
- I don't even mention my beloved Wolf to people who are dogless :)
- I don't talk about my husband, about beautiful things we did together previous weekend to my girlfriends who are single
- I don't talk about nice afternoon that I spent with my brother to a friend whose brother passed away or to a friend who lost her brother because of possessive sister-in-low
- I don't talk about beautiful gardening days that I spent in summer with my mom to friends whose mothers sadly passed away
- I don't talk about my plans to travel to a) Paris and Normandy and Provance and b) New Zealand as soon as the house is built and at least partly paid off  to friends who earn very little and can't ever afford any holidays
- I don't talk about my sport projects to a friend who has multiple sclerosis and who hardly walks
- ....


If infertility didn't come to my life, I would probably be the same as most people. But now I am not. I am glad to have this feeling what to say (or not to say) to people. I like to be compassionate. But sometimes it makes me angry - why can't the rest of the world be compassionate with me?  

Lago di Garda / Lake Garda

On weeks like this I just love my job. Here are some photos that I did on my latest business tip. Lake Garda is one of my favourite parts of the world (that I have seen so far). 

I had some time off so I phoned the man that I met almost three years ago:
https://thenext15000days.blogspot.si/2015/03/i-can-see-that-you-dont-have-children.html

and I invited him for a walk. It was a lovely walk, we talked a lot.  It is so nice to talk to somebody who is much older and wiser.

He got back the medical results one day after we met so I called him yesterday, just to check.

He said: "The results are not good, but they will have to be good." Meaning it is what it is and he has to make the most out of life he has.

Just like the rest of us. 

When walking and talking with him I realized (once again) that time is all we have.

Beautiful autumn

I have been busy lately with:

Being in Italy for work. Highlight: their delicious sweets.

First photo: apple strudel. Second photo: Sicilian cannoli.


I have enjoyed lots and lots of lovely autumn walks with my beloved Wolf.

 

And I have been very busy organizing all the paper work for our building permit. We have just filed everything, now all we have to do is wait.  Do keep your fingers crossed!

One of us

How I love reading! It takes me to countries that I have never visited and it takes me to times before I was born.

Have you heard of Alma Karlin?   Probably not, so I am attaching a short article about her:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Karlin

She was born in 1889 in a town that is less then one hour driving from mine. She was the first woman to (with a typewriter) travel the globe. The most fascinating fact is that she didn't have any money, she earnt money by teaching languages. 

I am now reading her book that was written in 1928, it is about her 8-year-travelling around the world that she started in 1919. The book was originally written in German language: Einsame Weltreise / it hasn't been translated to English as far as I know (Lonely/Alone Travelling around the World).

I just love her. Sometimes when reading her thoughts I think - those are my thoughts! And she was born almost 100 years before me. 

I love the quote from her book:
 “Alone and abandoned walks through life he who thinks only of himself; but he who knows how to lovingly adapt and turn everything for the better, who always knows where to offer a helping hand and gives himself to others, his life is a blossoming meadow, and traces of his work remain, even after he is gone.”

She was childless, just like me. And yet, she left something very powerful behind.

I loved reading the article about where I found out that a German painter Thea Schreiber Gamelin loved the book "Einsame Weltreise" so much that she decided to write to Alma. They started exchanging letters, after a while Thea visited Alma and they became good friends.

This made me smile. I love when someone who reads my blog (and likes me) sends me a letter (well, an email :)

This way going through life isn't lonely any more.

Saturday

Sometimes I let a silly remark ruin my day.

I went for a work lunch, there were seven women all 5-15 years younger then me. One of them was highly pregnant and I met a new girl that will replace her for a year.

I was the only one that did not know the new girl and I had met the pregnant one only twice before.

So I used opportunity to congratulate both of them - one for getting a new job, the other for a beautiful reason why she is leaving the company for a year.

The pregnant one replied: "You can congratulate me when this one comes out. For now there is no reason for congratulations - everybody can get pregnant. The problem is how to push the baby out!"

All of them laughed.

I guess it is funny. When you equal getting pregnant = sleeping with a man and when it happens as soon as you wish it to happen, yes, then it is funny. Otherwise not.

I try not to let silly people ruin my day. That stupid woman did ruin it, luckily only for one day.

Today I had a therapeutic walk & talk date with my beloved dog and with a friend of mine (who is childless because she never found the love of her life).  I made this photo on our walk through the forest, it was just lovely.

What the internet can do!

I am back from beautiful Paris. Everything was just perfect (I only wish I didn't have to work, so I could have more time for sightseeing).

Highlight of Paris was meeting a friend of mine that I met through blogging.
(this is what I wrote after our first meeting in the winter:
https://thenext15000days.blogspot.si/2017/02/meeting-beautiful-little-princess-and.html )

I loved having lunch with her and an afternoon walk through the city on the first day. And I loved the evening spent with her family on my last day. It was awesome to be able to speak French with the little girl. I understand a lot of French, but I can not speak - only the basic. The little girl is so clever - she understood my French completely!

When saying goodbye to Kaymet she said: "What the internet can do!".
Yes, indeed!