There are a lot of places in Bucharest which I never been to.  And its a pity because some of them are really interesting from my point of view. 

For example, last week we went to Obor train station to pick someone and the train was late as usual and we just strolled around.  It was such a lovely Autumn day, sunny and warm. 

And then out of nowhere a beautiful cat…

It was so pretty and it kept meowing but never came close to us.  I think she probably knew I was going to steal her if I would’ve gotten my hands on her.  I know, I know, I already have a cat at home and he’s been keeping me busy lately and it’s not nice to steal.. but it was so pretty. 

Anyway, as I was saying we strolled around and went to the park, we went up on the old bridge that overlooks the train station, we went to a nice bistro had an omelette, and I even managed to buy some new clothes. 

After I read Stardust I started looking up more books written by Neil Gaiman.  And on my quest I found this awesome video with Neil Gaiman discussing Internet piracy. 

The reason why I like this video so much is because it’s 100% true.  That man speaks the truth. 

Every time I pick up a book I actually know beforehand what I’m getting myself into.  I either read books that are recommended by people on the Internet, real life friends or actually books that at some point or another have been made into movies and I became a big fan and just wanted to read the original book (Harry Potter is a really good example here). 

And then there were times when I bought books just because the title was interesting and ended up throwing them at garbage.  And they were new books, freshly printed and I had no remorse throwing them. 

Basically 75% of my books are second hand.  The other 15% are mangas (which have to be new and shinny) and the %10 remaining are books that were given as a gift by family and friends and of course they bought new books. 

If I like a book there are chances that in the near future that book will end up on my shelves.  It doesn’t matter if I already have the audio or pdf file, that book will end up in my room. 

Its been ages since I had a morning like this one.  I can’t even remember the last time I actually had time and energy to just do my thing. 

I don’t know if its because of the weather or just my screwed up sleeping pattern but I woke up early, around 4 AM. 

I stayed in bed up to 7AM, then I woke up, did some cleaning, shopping, eating and then just took time for myself.  And for the first time in months I actually took a real bubble bath.  I was sitting then just trying to figure out when was the last time I actually did something like that.  I can’t remember! 

It’s just sad really, doing so many things and not having time for yourself.  Must make a note to myself to include self indulging in my next list. 

Until then, I am just going to watch some American Dad and maybe we’ll go to the park and I can take more photos of Autumn. 

An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African-American maids’ point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis. 

The story basically resolves on the hardships of black women during the rights movement (in America, during the time of Martin Luther King and President Kennedy).  The story is placed in one of the worst places in America to be a black person, a little town in Mississippi named Jackson. 

A young woman, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, who just graduated comes back home to her family.  She is surprised to see that the black maid that raised her is no longer working for her family.  Skeeter tries to find out what happened to her babysitter but her family just insists she resigned and moved on. 

While Skeeter is out with her childhood friends she realizes that the black maids are being treated a lot different from the employees from her family house.  Since she is dreaming of being an aspiring author, Skeeter tries to convince the maids to tell all about their hardships while serving the white families of Mississippi and put all of those stories in one single book called “The Help”. 

At first, Skeeter has no success in convincing any maids to help her, until Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, two of the maids of her “best” friends, decide to open up about their lives and hardships. 

And from here the story picks up, it has its ups and downs, makes you laugh and cry and just keeps you glued to the screen. 

The movie is really that good. 

But if you’re not the type to enjoy this kind of movie you might get bored.  Yet its a beautiful movie, with a beautiful yet sad story. 

There are many movies that represent the lives of black people when they weren’t considered first class citizens, almost 99.99% of those movies present a story that took place in America.  I am not sure if I should ask this, but are Americans the only ones that had black slaves in those days? 

I don’t remember of ever seeing a movie presenting the lives of black slaves in Europe. 

This is a delicate subject that needs to be looked into before making any comments or asking any questions. 

Still, if the movie was this good I wonder how the book is.  After all the movies is based on Kathryn Stokett book with the same name.  The book was published in 2009 and the movie came out in 2011.  I guess I have some digging up to do so I can find the English version book. 

What a more beautiful way to start Autumn then by watching a beautiful Bollywood movie. 

So, I got my little notebook and looked and names that might inspire me.  I picked “Paheli“.  I picked the movie mostly because I have some of the songs on my MP3 player and the songs are really beautiful and soothing. “ Paheli” it’s an “old” movie from 2005 and it stars Rani Mukerji and Shah Rukh Khan. 

The plot is very simple and straight forward: a ghost (played by Shah Rukh Khan) falls in love with a newly wed woman, Lachchi (played by Rani Mukerji).  Lachchi just wed a man name Kishanlal (played by SRK as well) who is more interested in pleasing his father wishes than to play the part of a husband. 

So, Kishanlal leaves the house the very next day after the wedding.  Lachchi is left distraught and lonely in a new home with no friends.  This is where the ghost comes in and takes the identity of Kishanlal.  He hides the fact that he is a ghost from everyone except Lachchi.  She has to chose between her husband who left her or the ghost who came all the way for her. 

Pushed by loneliness, she picks the ghost and they spend 5 beautiful years together.  They enjoy each others company, the simple life and by a twist of events Lachchi remains pregnant.  All is well until the real husband returns home and the family is left dumbfounded and unable to figure out which is the real Kishanlal. 

“Paheli” lasts 140 minutes; even so it has a nice flow to it that I didn’t realize when it ended.  Unlike other Bollywood movies that make you lose your patience and just skip certain parts just to get to the end, Paheli just works its way nicely till the ending. 

It’s a relaxing movie.  Its a movie that lets you sit back and just relax.  It allows you to drift off and not worry about having chores to do or having to go to work.  No dramatic twists and turns of the main plot, no real villains and no silly drama. 

The songs are also beautiful.  I’ve had some of the Paheli soundtracks on my MP3 player for years now and I still listen to them.  My favorite is Dhere Jalna.  Enjoy! 

I do believe that there is a slight chill in the evenings and mornings but during the day it’s nice and sunny.  It’s actually a nice combination if you ask me. 

But its not like I am awake during the day.  I actually sleep most of the day off, get up around 4-5 PM and then just get on with my business.  So, I miss about everything that goes on during the day.  Its a sad reality at the moment but then again I remember that I am not the only one that works and is busy with her own life.  Everyone around me is busy these days, its just they are busy during the day and I’m busy during the night. 

I could say I hate it, but its really hard to get mad when going to work in such a fun environment, I get to sleep with my cat, enjoy the silence when I woke up and find there’s nobody there to bug me with different things and so on…

Anyway, I just finished reading “Stardust” by Neil Gaiman, am currently thinking of what books I should read next, finished a stitching project, kept my promise of working out for at least a month and other unimportant things (to other people). 

And there is one thing that I have not been doing at all in the past month: using my photo camera.  It seems that I’ve neglected it for such a long time and yet there was nothing important for me to photograph these days.  Nothing caught me eye, and I was mostly on auto pilot when going outside so I didn’t noticed much in the first place. 

And then I found this pic on my phone. 

I took this pic with my Nokia X2.  It’s actually a pic from when we went to Fetesti.  I was not expecting the pic to be this clear and… lovely. 

I miss my photo camera!  So October please let me take some nice pictures of the Autumn foliage. 

I am now going back to look for some nice fairy tales for adults.  They seem to work wonders on my general mood.