Coffee... my dear coffee

Coffee! Coffee...

Many years ago I started drinking coffee without sugar and I realized that actually, I didn't like coffee until then. Now, I just love it! Honestly, it tastes much better because you can smell just the coffee and taste the real thing... Hmmmmmm! I love it!

In Holland the senseo machine is very famous, but I don't really like it. It was always too weak for my taste. I prefer it the old fashioned way; if I am at home I will be just boiling water and using a filter, although some coffee machines like dulce gusto or nespresso also make decent coffee.

Yes, I do enjoy coffee the old fashioned way... Just like my great grandmother, my granny and my mom. The best!

In Brasília, you can also find delicious coffee at some nice cafe's, for instance, at Ernesto Cafe. They have several types of coffee and many are deliciously prepared with different toppings and blends. I became a fan, and have been going there sometimes. Let me give a short review: the place is cozy, nicely decorated, they provide good service and the coffee is fabulous!

They offer a special: "Ernesto café", made of a mix with vanilla ice cream, hazelnut liqueur and a board with nutella and grinded cashew nuts. It's irresistible! Sometimes I go there and try something new but many times I just prefer to go for it, again and again... It's addicting.

So, if you are ever in the neighborhood and are also quite a fan of coffee like myself, just go there and I am sure you will love it.

They provide also some nice cakes, muffins and other snacks and they are all served with good quality.

If there would be light on the little dark side of us?

Recently I was thinking about how people like to post and publish on social media the most wonderful things in their lives. I won't be a hypocrite; I do the same. I post mostly the nicest pictures of myself, the best places I have been and the best food I enjoyed and it may give people an idea that everything always goes well and everything is so perfect and we all know that isn't exactly true.

Nobody wants others to see the worst of themselves and we try to impress people with our best. As we sometimes feel that we won't be accepted or won't be admired when we feel bad or show them the other side of us.. the dark side.

For instance, I have pictures of me overweight which from time to time I hated to see.. hahahaha! And then I thought, well, that was me, right? I just had a bigger layer of fat which now it's a bit gone.. (I still want to lose some more, of course!) and it just hit me: that is just fat. That person was still me. I am that person and why doesn't she deserve to feel good and loved even with that extra fat?

Funny how we like to impress others with the best things. But it's just natural to want to be loved and feel we belong. Even the most dangerous criminals still want to be loved and seek someone's approval. It's a natural behavior. But why aren't we also happy about ourselves when we are down or not looking our best? Sometimes I wonder, if we don't like ourselves in that way, do we need to accomplish something to feel better? Do we need someone else telling us that we are accepted so that we will finally believe? Of course we all go through things and we all need to improve some area of our lives or else it will be impossible to live in society. As we are not perfect... Some of us may find difficult to look at the mirror and see the imperfections and we hear sometimes: "you can change what needs to be changed, but what we can't change, we need to learn how to accept it and live with it". But how do we know the difference between what needs to be changed and what we have to accept? I guess that is the challenge.

If we find difficult to get to know ourselves and see who we are and what we want... wow... imagine two lives merged together?! Doesn't that sound like a recipe for disaster?  hahaha.. Think with me: If I don't know exactly what I want, I mean, if sometimes I think this is right and later I think, not it's not right, so I don't know exactly what I want. It's not carved in stone, right? So, if we don't know, imagine walking along with someone else who also doesn't know? I think that if people are around us and willing to take steps and move towards a goal, a plan, a dream, a common destination, I guess the hard edges will have to be smoothed and untrimmed branches will have to be cut out eventually so that this road will be walked and this dream may be lived. However trimming sounds like a lot of work and smoothing edges?! That kind of hurts... doesn't it?

Once you find out who you are and learn to accept and live with your imperfections and have the humility to change what needs to be changed, I think that this may be a good start towards a life of joy and fulfillment. Then, at that moment you look at yourself and know the dark side, you will feel ok to know that you are going somewhere. You remember the old days and since the moment you realized that you have learned something, this gives you joy, because you are ok with what is in the past and now you are free to enjoy today, even when it may seem still dark now, you know that this will also pass, and you will get to another point. But first, it's nice to enjoy the exact moment of right now, because when the now is here, soon it will be yesterday and you can't see it anymore because another moment will come.

Alright, this was a bit too deep now, and I feel like I drank a whole bottle of wine, however, it was just green tea... hahahaha! I am going to get a new fresh cup of tea now... (deep conversation, very deep...)

Wrong way

I have been going for walks recently around the neighborhood where my parents live and it's a nice way to burn calories and enjoy the weather, which by the way, seems to be always perfect here in Brasília.

As we don't have a specific pedestrian path, there is only a bike path built and obviously no other alternative to walk except on a bike path...

I found out that some ciclists can get very annoyed when we meet along the way. It's almost like you are in their way and they can't seem to make any effort to go around us when we walk there. Some pass so near you that you can feel the wind almost slapping you...

I walk on the way contrary to them, as I learned in Holland, that was the correct way. Since you see the bike coming in your direction and can make eye contact with the biker and notice if he or she sees you or not and in case they won't see you (hope never happens!!) you can step aside and move quickly to avoid any accidents. (At least, that's what we expect people to think and know).

Well, this week, we were walking there, and suddenly comes this guy on a bike coming down hill, very fast, looking very annoyed and very angry and stopped almost in front of my feet with his bike and shouted very loudly: "that way!!" and pointed to the other side.

My mother and I were so shocked and I could just reply: "Wow, you were not going to stop? Aren't we in a society?". And he just continued angry and very fast going down hill with his powerful bike and his good manners.

From that moment on I thought, wow... what kind of society we live in?! How can a man do that to people who are just walking on a path, which by the way, was always a walking path before it became a bike path and regulations are that when there are only bike paths we obviously have no choice but to walk on it. So, what kind of a person does that? Just scarying us and shouting at us because we were on a different direction than what he thinks is right? Wouldn't he need to move aside when we were walking on the other side anyway? What difference does it make for him? Except that we would even try to move aside when we see him, walking nearer the other line not to bother him and he would have to move completly if he was coming from our back as we don't have eyes on our back?


After this event, we were impressed with the level of politeness and courtesy of people on bike paths around. And this is an area where people are supposedly more educated, wow! Can you imagine?! I always thought bikers were people with more feeling for nature, and respect for others, since they know a bit about disrespect and being in disadvantage when they are competing with cars! I mean, if a car would come as near as he did to us, would he have enjoyed it?

I am just disappointed with such level of ignorance and lack of respect for others. Unbelievable! Well, I really hope that next time he would say something less aggressive I would for sure like to spend my few minutes explaining to him why it's safer to walk on that direction and what he suggested is not appropriate in case of pedestrians x bikes. It does make sense with bikes and cars, since the consequences of an accident would be much worse otherwise. But this is not the case.

Now I wonder, what else is there in society? Someone does that to people walking on a path, it's just a path; if we would be on the other side he would have to move aside anyway... I wonder, is this attitude acceptable? Is this the correct way to behave? I have a very clear opinion on what is really the wrong way...