Today I Was Downtown Again!
We humans, but of course, not all humans, are always unhappy with what we have and how we live. And, in general, we would like to have or live like other people we see or know. Always what the other has is better and someone else's life is better...
Most of the time it really is!
Because we always relate to those who have more than us and lead a more fortunate life than us. But we don't know the secrets of other people's lives and we can't know if the one who has more than us might be unhappier than us!
The recipe for happiness is if you manage to be content with the life you have... As I write this I already feel I am wrong, it is so hard to be content with what you have when you have very little. When you have very little and you see that others have very much.
The question is why does it happen like that? The answers are countless, the causes are countless. The simplest is to refer to luck. Some are lucky and some are not!
I have made such a long introduction and touched such a sensitive and painful subject, a problem that neither religion nor politics can solve..., only chance can, i.e. luck!
Some may say that this is not true, that they worked, that they learned, that their ancestors accumulated and passed on the wealth. I believe that the same luck is to blame. Somewhere along the generations, luck, or lack of it, intervened and made everything good or not...
The life of some of us may be in the country, in the village and others may be in the city... It can be considered luck or misfortune in either case. Depending on one's needs.
I live in the city and often wish I could be in the middle of nature and I think that similar to me, someone who lives in the country would like to be able to easily go to the theatre or cafe...
Always what the other has is better. I learned this painfully from my granddaughter Ilinca, who is three and a half years old. It's a torment when I go to the park with her. She wants all the other children's toys, she doesn't even want to look at hers. Even though she has so many...
Because my life is in the city I have to write almost exclusively about the city. I would like to write about walks in the woods or by a river or a lake. To describe an encounter with a cow...
Instead, I'll write about walking on the streets, about cars and traffic jams and, in the best cases, about exhibitions, cafés, shows...
This is fate and I'm at peace with it!
Today I was downtown again!
I live in Romania, in Bucharest. On the outskirts. Although it costs me only half an hour to get to the city center, it still feels like I'm traveling and visiting the city, as long as the periphery doesn't resemble the big city at all, the periphery resembles a small town where people from the country live.
I was invited by a good friend ( a theatre director ) to see the avant-premiere of her latest play. That is, to attend the first preview, that is, the first performance with an audience, an audience of friends, before the first official performance.
I don't know if what I said is clear and understandable. A theatre show, before the first official performance, has two more performances, for the director and the actors to make final improvements and changes...
The performance began in the lobby of the theatre, with one of the characters briefing the audience on the characters of the play as well as the plot we were about to see.
Then we were invited to the showroom...
The actors were already on stage. They were waiting for the audience, i.e. us, to start the show, which had already started in the lobby.
The play is called The Supreme Party ("Cheful Suprem" in Romanian) and it is a comedy.
The story is simple. A meeting between two families, an invitation to dinner. There they ate a mushroom meal. To check that the mushrooms were not poisoned, they gave the same food to the dog, two hours before they would eat it. After that, fun!
When everyone was happy and joyful, misfortune came. The dog shows signs of illness and the maid announced that it has died.
Obviously, everyone who ate the mushrooms was horrified to learn about the dog and began to feel sick.
The fear of death grips everyone.
One of the guests at the table was a doctor and had a bottle of morphine pills in his medical kit. He offers them all these pills to relieve the pain caused by mushroom poisoning. Everyone's mood changes immediately.
Everything turns, because of the drug, into a real orgy...
After the drugs wear off, something happens that gives the comic side of the situation. All the participants of this party, knowing that they have little to live for, tell all their dirty secrets, especially about their relationships. Relationships of adultery, dishonest business behavior, etc.
After everyone found out everyone's secrets, what had to happen happened, because it was a comedy after all. The dog emerged very much alive and… unharmed!
It was a pretty funny show. My friend, the director, was not too happy with the result, but the audience appreciated and applauded for a long time.
The premiere is tomorrow night. Until then everyone involved in the production of this show will have to fix everything that went wrong.
Now I think a little music would be nice!
After so much drama and suspense I think a little music would be nice. In fact, one of the hundreds of songs I like that you might like too. This a reminder, because I'm referring to older music or a novelty. Even if, as I said, it's still an old song, usually from the last century!
Music is part of our lives, perhaps even more than we can imagine. I can't imagine my life without music. In this idea, I thought I would put the music ( #myfavoritemusic ) that comes to my mind while writing. It may or may not be related to the blog topic. All I wish is that you will enjoy listening while reading. Maybe to surprise you with a song you don't know.
More than that...
To make it a little riddle and invite you to try to guess.
I'll give a few little hints!
- It's hard to give clues because I think it's hard to guess anything from French music in the first place, especially if it's old... Maybe it's about a singer who is French of Armenian origin, his name is Charles ... and he sings about what he was like when he was twenty. Super melancholy! The song is called "Yesterday Again".
Listen to the song HERE!
Since today is Friday and our thoughts turn to @dswigle who will be pursuing everything we write in #MarketFriday about why and what we spend our money on, I have to talk about costs too!
This time it cost us nothing. We were invited to the theatre by the director of the show himself. Lucky for us to be such good friends. A friendship of over twenty years, during which time we didn't pay much for theatre tickets.
Yet...,
After the theatre, there was also a walk through the Old Centre, a picturesque place sought after by foreign tourists coming to Bucharest more for fun, i.e. food, drinks, men and women.
I rarely stop at a terrace here, I don't like the crowds, I don't like the prices made somehow especially for foreigners who spend more without restraint and there are a few reasons that I don't remember now.
I didn't do anything here either that would warrant fitting the post into the #MarketFriday rules, but it wasn't long before I got to my favorite coffee shop, so $10 ran out of my pocket to turn into two cappuccinos and ice cream!
Apart from coffee, we love to watch the street...
... as do the two baristas when they have a little free time.
However, such a day is not complete without seeing some shops. We had to buy a gift for another friend of ours who is celebrating her name this Sunday. The little shop we needed is so close!
The street I see through the shop window stirs my memories and melancholy. The street is called Eforie and somewhere in the middle and to the right is Cinema Eforie. You can see the yellow sign. It was in this cinema that I spent much of my time in my teens and youth. Here in the 1970s was a kind of film library, the only place where I could see art films from all over the world. It was my place as a cinephile!
But let's leave the memories behind and get pragmatic and current. Back in the shop!
We went in to buy a scarf that, along with a book and a flower, would be a gift for our friend. But more than scarves, there were shoes and handbags in this shop.
I was lucky. That day there was a big discount on everything you could buy from there, all prices looked cut in half!
I managed to make a small expense here, $10 for the scarf and $22 for a pair of sandals for my wife. More than reasonable, considering the sandals are also beautiful and made of real leather!
It has been a long but beautiful day! Eventually, I got tired and missed a flower, a sign that it was time for #alwaysaflower and the end of this story.
But my true flower is just as much in love with shoes as my wife...
I believe that some people born with their luck, some not. We can see this in our environment. Some people achieve their goals or whatever without much effort, however some people including me drag themselves up by their own bootstraps.
I don't call this destiny, but luck.
Thank you! It means you're thinking the same way I am on this issue.
Now i can clearly see why people love to visit downtown :p
Glad it shows, thanks!
Yay! 🤗
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I understand what you are saying about wanting what you cannot have. Isn't that always the way? Well, perhaps not when I was a child, growing up. We were happy with what we had and I can honestly say that we didn't feel without - probably because we were so loved in our life, we felt rich. We were not by any means, if anything we resided on the poorer side. We never knew. Honestly. It wasn't until I was an adult, looking back that I realized we probably were much poorer than I ever knew. If only looking at pictures, I can see it, but my memory doesn't comprehend that life was anything less than wonderful. Do you see what I just did? I was equating rich with good life because that is how I feel, rich in life. I am saying that wrong, but, I trust you know what I mean.
The preview was so fun! I dated someone years ago that was a Production Manager at a Playhouse outside of NYC and I loved being involved with the theater. You had some really fine experience going to the reopening shows like that. Much more professional, but the experience to see it before opening was fun for me. It is pretty special too. The show was a little bit hilarious and plenty funny! I like the whole premise and I didn't see the ending coming! The dog lived. Who would have guessed?? After all the dirty little secrets are gone! Oh, there is truth in the saying, taking it to the grave! Just for reasons like this!
The walkabout through the town is nice, I like getting a different view to get to my destination. Coffee with you is always a treat. Small things about that time, the baristas and their view, the window which always has something going on outside, even if it is only the weather. I get to stop, look, listen and it opens up another whole world once again.
The shopping was a success! Do you know how difficult it is to find a perfect pair of sandals? It is nearly impossible! So that was a great day altogether! The flower is always such a sweet gesture! #Alwaysaflower and Ilinca is such a sweet little girl and you take great pictures of her! It is hard to not get a good one she is so sweet looking! I think that her wanting all the toys has a lot to do with her age and of course personality, but, also she doesn't have to share at home, she is an only child. It all belongs to her. :) She will grow out of that, especially with you and Magda there to steer her in the right direction too. She is surrounded in love. Thank you always for taking me with you!
#MarketFriday began as a way to reach out across the globe and learn about different cultures through their markets, especially local markets and farmers' markets, and eventually branched out and evolved over time from straight shopping to a cultural affair as it highlights how we differ and then again, how much we are alike. We have become a melting pot of culture, but it is still the Rituals, Festivals, food, architecture, and even your language/languages that separate us... Along with the fact that these things are normal for us. There are unwritten rules that rule our social behaviors. I see this as allowing for increased tolerance between cultures and nations, and opportunities to come together on an even playing ground. A strong culture can be beneficial to a country as it promotes unity, especially during a crisis, peaceful debate, and open dialogue. I have learned so much about all of you and it has been an amazing experience. I can only hope that learning about each other can help us work together for a peaceful world.
Thank you for being a part of #MarketFriday
I cannot believe I almost passed you up this week!!! I went back to check on the missing posts and there you were!!! Seriously! I would have missed out on a great post and the music! I am still playing it, I let it run to the next song and the next... and so on. Great choice! Oh, you know! All things French for me~!! Another reason to love Little Paris!