Sunday, August 27, 2006

Two years later....


I cannot believe that it's been two years already
since I joined OMV (for the ones who do not know, this is an Austrian based oil & gas group) ...

A lot happened in the meantime, of course ... I no longer work for OMV but still experience a bit of a nostalgia thinking about the five absolutely superb months spent in Vienna (August to December 2004) .... What great times!! Thank you OMV for making that possible!

Here are some pictures ....









Sunday afternoon drivel….

When this online little diary friend was started, it was meant to be an accurate log of my journeys and nothing more… In the meantime, it has become more than that… a log of my state of mind, my thoughts, my feelings… It has been ages since I last updated it and I feel so guilty for neglecting it!

First I want to thank everybody, friends and strangers alike, for visiting my virtual little world and liking it! I am trying not to disappoint, of course, but I will always be as blunt as ever … with everything. Even if this will, most probably, upset some of the readers :-) That's me and don't think I'll ever change in this respect ....

Maybe I should say a few words about HK as it was a very pleasant way of ending our holiday in China. HK was (literally) a breath of fresh air after the dodgy hotels experienced in China (especially in Xian and Tibet). In HK we stayed at the Renaissance hotel in Kowloon which was quite luxurious … Alex was very amused when I declared that I instantly felt like living again! Actually, when we left Tibet (we flew Lhasa – Cheng Du – HK), we felt that we were actually leaving China and I was quite relieved.

HK is a great city, with breathtaking high buildings (the highest I have ever seen!) and atmosphere that resembles that of London. Of course, driving on the other side of the road (the correct one, as some people would say, hehe!) and the fact that all signs are in both English and Chinese help the traveller associate it with a British city.

We had a great time just wandering the streets of HK, climbing (twice!) up to Victoria peak and admiring the astounding view from the top, having delicious meals in pleasant little restaurants and … simply resting. HK by night is fantastic, one night we took a boat ride and admired the fantastic lights of the city.

I arrived back in Brussels only to spend here three days and I was then dispatched to Stockholm for a short (one week) assignment. Stockholm is a very pleasant city, very civilised and clean, very blond people, I felt almost at home there.

That is a brief update of my travelling since I last updated this blog.

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I came back from my holiday in Asia only to find out that my best friend and her boyfriend split up while I was away. To me this was no great shock, I had never really believed in that relationship – I was, however, dismayed and had to consequently spend a lot of time comforting her (which task, she living in Bucharest and I in Brussels, was a bit tedious... Long live Skype!!). The whole story saddened me as the guy’s conduct really proved scruples and my friend is a nice girl and didn’t deserve it. Well…. Such is life! Life is shitty and then you die, as one of my friends rightly put it once.

On this note, I feel compelled to dwell a bit longer on this idea of relationships …. I have done some serious thinking about relationships recently. I know I wrote on this subject some time ago and am now wondering why I feel so keen on going back to it.

I have often wondered if we should settle for a lukewarm relationship rather than leave it and start looking for fireworks. I know the common view which predicates that the fireworks do not last long and the butterflies in the stomach should hopefully transform into respect, care, warmth, concern, etc. And while I totally agree with that view (even though I find it quite common place and, why should I not say it, boring) I wonder if it wouldn’t be possible to make the fireworks last for a lifetime… To make the passion last forever... Maybe it’s just a matter of finding the right person? There must be something we could do to preserve this blissful state ... I also know the view according to which it takes brains and imagination to make the fireworks last for a lifetime. And efforts on both sides …. Maybe I’m an incurable romantic in longing for the perfect relationship in which your heart races madly when you hear your lover’s voice, their touch sends shivers down your spine, the distance between you is so unbearable that each moment alone is a burden you feel you’ll soon collapse under…

Maybe, probably, this is absolutely impossible. It exists in fairy tales but definitely not in real life… Fireworks that last for a lifetime…. Errr…. What a life, what a love!!

Monday, August 21, 2006