Dear readers!

I really feel that I have to apologize for being so slow lately and not writing and answering to you :( November is always a hard month for me, as there are a lot of birthdays and other events in our family that happen exactly in this month. The biggest turmoil is because of my dad's birthday and actually my own birthday...
That is why I was kind of lost for my blog lately. So many things I had to arrange for my dad's celebration!.. My head went round, I was so afraid to forget something necessary, I couldn't sleep thinking about making the party the best... well, I was pretty tired honestly.
But it resulted in a great 3-day's partying for my young dad (that is only 45-years old now) and lots of our friends!
Well, no need to say that my dad was very glad and happy, and every single person spent great time. But when I finished with this long celebration I had no will or strength to think about my own... There is only 4 days difference between my father's and mine birthdays and so I had to cancel on it. I didn't invite anybody and didn't arrange anything. I wanted only to have a quiet dinner with my parents (as it was tuesday) and nothing more. Hm... my dreams didn't "full fill" though :) starting from the early morning I was receiving phone calls and flowers and post cards and presents.... and so all day long:)) For the end of the day I wasn't able even to smile - I don't even say talking!.. And for my quiet family dinner arrived lots of friends! They said they don't really care that I didn't want to celebrate my birthday, they just came to congratulate me and show some love:)) This was amazing!.. No, really, I'm so thankful to everybody and everyone in particular for being so nice to me during that day!!
I was only sending some comments to my Twitter page (I'm actually kind of in love with it lately), so some of you have been probably reading what my B-day looked like:))
So, I'm kind of back now, so I'll do my best to answer to each of your messages and letters (and comments), just give me so time please!

Elegantly yours,
Olya Nikol P.

These lovely... Seahorses

Yes... Today I have for you a picture of a lovely creature named
Thorny seahorse:

(c)DouwmaGeorgette/Bing.com

I love this animal so much!.. I have great memories related with a seahorse from my childhood... I was 10 years old and traveled to the seaside with my grandparents and my aunt... it was a pretty long trip - for about a month, and I remember it as something very sunny, warm and bright! One of the days, my aunt took me to a boat ride, and when we were returning back to the coast the captain presented me the dried seahorse, that looked just like alive!..
Well... I have no idea where this souvenir is right now...ahh... but I still remember and keep my warm memories in my heart:)
On this pic - thorny seahorse against soft red coral in the waters off of Malaysia.
*Click on the pic to enlarge it

The Art That Brings Joy

Good day, dears,
Here is a little story I'd like to tell you,
When I was a little girl, I once found a big but thin book on the book shalves in my grand parents house. I opened it and I saw a lot of different pictures drawn in pencil. No colors, only black lines of white background... Men, women, children, animals... no words! Literally: there was nothing to read!.. I was very little that time, and though I was turning and turning pages with the drawings, I didn't understand much in this book-album. I asked my granpa to explain me, how to read this book :) and he promised to me that I'll read it when I become a little bit elder :)
But every time after that case I went to grandparents house - I was taking that big thin book and tried to understand the meaning :) Not very soon though but it happened, and since then I love to open time after time the book of a wonderful and witty artist Bidstrup and "read" it again and again...
So, in this section, I would like to show you his great caricatures:

"1942"

I hope you enjoy it! And let me know what do you think.
Elegantly yours,
Olya Nikol P.
*Click on the pic to enlarge it

Places in the world I would like to visit

Warsaw, Poland:

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(c)Bing.com

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An amazing landscape of the sunset in this nice city you see here. I've never been to Poland, but the dad of one of my grannies was from Poland, though lived in Russia. Too sad that I don't know that much about my family's history... :( But one day I think I will visit this country and hopefully I'll see such sunset.

*Click on the pic to enlarge it

In the Notes

As my sister has just returned to Russia from Cyprus and has been so glad to spend there two months, I have few pictures made by her on the island that I'd like to show you:

"Unforgettable travel, enormous life experience, gold beaches, the bright sun, the sea of colour of turquoise, the star sky, the richest cultural heritage.... And 55 days of happiness. It is paradise on the earth... It is Northern Cyprus..."

What Irina was saying is that this place is a real paradise. Well, I've never been there, so I can't tell, but I prefer to believe my sister :) Would you like to visit Cyprus?..
*(c)IrinaSukhanova/Vkontakte.ru

How was your weekend dears?
Mine I've spent on the beach with my parents and friends. We haven't been lucky - the weather was pretty bad :( It was cold a bit, rainy and all these days cloudy.. Not really the best weather for the weekend, especially if you are on the beach.
The ocean was quiet and peaceful and we are very much upset that we couldn't swim.
All these four days were pretty calm for me, just that yesterday in the evening I had a dispute with men...argh...well, what can I say, the discussion started by one of the friends has been finished with the sex battle, as usually though. The subject was ridiculous, and I was even offended by the guys' opinion. But, well, this is nothing actully :)
I was sitting near the swimming pool, listening to my favourite music, watching some little birds flying pretty low around and time after time drinking water from the pool and I was thinking about the one I love. The thoughts brought me back to the time when I was sooo happy... But as there nothing I can change now, I just made myself feel sad again. Hate myself sometimes!.
Alright, guys, wish you a nice week.

Elegantly yours,
Olya Nikol P.

Such a nice evening...

I hope you all had a great evening tonight, well I did!
My dad prepared a nice dinner, and though he wanted to invite some of our friends to join us, we didn't - so it was a quiet family dinner. Still I can't forget the disgusting thing my father has confessed the day before, but I pretended there was nothing.
Just four of us - my parents, my brother and I - we were laughing and speaking on insignificant subjects. Was cozy and 'homy', so I feel relaxed now and in a great mood.
Good mood to me has added also a new Martin's blog post, he sounded so cheerful!.. So I've even surpassed myself and left a pretty long comment :)

Ok, as adorable E-Type says "many hugs and have a wonderful weekend" guys, hope to find time to write you coming days

Elegantly yours,
Olya Nikol P.

One more terrible thing I've just found out

During today's dinner with my family, I discovered that I can't even trust my own dad.

It all started when my brother was telling something about sushi he was ordering home by internet in Moscow. He was telling which sushi he liked, how many times he ordered it, etc. When suddenly our dad started to argue with him, saying that my brother just ordered home this sushi once in reality. At one moment mom asked dad why does he think that it was just once, why he's saying so, if he wasn't in Russia during a lot of time.

...My dad smiled widely, and said something about that he was connecting to my brother's computer, somehow through his web camera, and actually have seen everything what he was doing and when...

I didn't get it at first. But when I started to understand what he's talking about, I felt such disgust. I couldn't believe my dad could do something like this. It's like when you suddenly find out that you don't really know the person you think you are close with and can totally trust.
When several seconds after all these thoughts came through my head I looked at my dad's face and asked how could he do something like this to his son, the smile on his face became even wider. "I was doing the same thing with you", he said with joy.

I didn't ask him (though I really wanted to) does he understand how ugly it looks? Because I was looking at him and I saw that he doesn't see anything bad or strange in what he's done. I think I've just lost the last drop of respect I had for my father. It's too sad. I feel deceived.

Elegantly yours,
Olya Nikol P.

In the Notes

"Happiness".
I've found an amazing note written by my friend, and I didn't really know how to comment it, and should I comment it. However, I didn't. But I found out that it is so true - a little story of feelings - I understood that I've had kind of the same story. Well...honestly, I'm still in it.

"What is happiness? For me it is a kind of feeling that is very hard to describe. Sometimes you can feel so happy, that it seems like everything inside you is going to explode…you can’t control it…you can barely handle it.

And sometimes you feel so happy, that you can’t even sleep. You just lie there, next to him, afraid to breathe in order only not to wake him up. And in the morning, when you open your eyes, you feel his warm arms all around your body and you realize that there is no way to be happier than you are. It’s like you reached a limit, you’re just flying somewhere in your dreams, carrying that warm “piece of happiness” inside your soul. But soon after that you get so scared…extremely scared at the thought that it will all be taken away from you…and it definitely will. Just disappear…like it had never happened to you."

In a memory of T. "
 
Do you know what she is talking about?..
I do.
 
Elegantly yours,
Olya Nikol P.
 
*(c)IrinaSukhanova/Vkontakte.ru

Another sunny working day

Hello guys,
I hope everything is ok with those of you who still suffer from the terrible heat, like some of my relatives do now in Russia. The weather here is pretty fine: at least it's not raining all days long, and mornings are full of sunshine.

What is about my job - flowers have dissappeared. Suddenly, during last weekend. The worst thing is that nobody can really explain what's the reason. And now we will definitely have problems with shipments for the 1st of September's Day of Knowledge. Well, the clients didn't really help also: this year they've sent their order just few days in advance and forgot about making prepayments on time. What is going on this year?? It seems that everybody is crazy around me, most of the time I stay in 'non-understanding ground'.
Well, GOLDEN LINE is doing much better however. And that's really make me think of working in tourism sphere closer than I wanted before. The last client spent amazing time and left lots of beautiful pics with the wish of bringing her son and her friends here. I actually starting to fall in love with this place, it's pretty new and fresh; it's kind of far, but the ones who visited it say it really worths visiting.

Now what is coming is my brother's leaving to Moscow, Russia. He studies there in the school yet. But I think he will also stay there for the university. It is always hard to say 'goodbye' to him - as I will see him only in half a year... I miss him so much! But well, he's education is out of any doubts of course.

Ok, well, have great Thursday!

Elegantly yours,
Olya Nikol P.