Who is she?

She's not a karate kid...



And she is already independent (=sitting)



And yes is my littlle niece already 4 months old...having fun with Chris, in Brasil, one of her three hometowns :).

The ugliest shoes...probably ever

Yep, there is a top "Ugliest shoes ever" and the award (my choice) definetely goes to...THIS:



Imagine someone using his/her brains to create this...gee! Imagine a woman wearing these shoes and going out! Oh dear! Some designers really need a break!

How are u all, after my long pause with this blog? Many interesting things happened during this time...but this pair of shoes beats them all ..by far...hehehehehe!

Rainy days

Uf! rainy days these days (I would say 1 week and a half by now) and too much water for the earth "to drink" at once, so many floodings all over RO. Surprinsingly Tuesday morning I could barely enter in the building I work, the whole courtyard was submerged and the water coverd one's feet. In the afternoon the waters grew even more so the water was 1 meter high. The firemen had to come to help.

I heard that the road from Cluj to Gherla and then Baia MAre was closed due to the floodings. I searched for some news and here is a picture taken Wednsday in Jucu, near Km 17 for those who know the area. See the traffic signs half submerged.



They say it was worse than this in other regions. Poor people! Now it seemes to be better but during the weekend more rainy days are expected.

Forgot to mention that temperatures dropped to 12-13 C. So it's a very good weather and terrain for off-road activities.

La vie en rose...

If "ma vie est rose" I think everybody's can be the same. Here is someone who is totally agree with me on this one:



Laura with one of the dresses we (mom and I) bought for her. Of all I loved this one the most...and I was right! Is she real or simply a doll? :)

LAURA - my niece

She is 1 month old and is the newest member in our family. I've only seens her in pictures so far, hopefully we'll soon meet in person. Here I've stolen some pics from Chris just to show the world that I am the most proud auntie of all:







Although 1 month old she seems to be the younghest fan of Brasil football team:



Anyway it's hard to be a baby:



...especially in daddy's hands:



She is sooo cute, don't you agree? I cannot realize yet that my Bro and Chris are parents ;)!!!

Older pics II

... I stil have a few pictures left.

This is from 2008 - Bro&Crhisr visited Romania (first time for Chris). We went clubbin' in Cluj:



Some of my first drawings...and the final project...unfinished though:






The fifth member of the Ballas', HERA, she is a lovely, smart, loving dog. She can be happy, upset or loving just like a human being (2009):



Giant mushrooms, we went on a Sunday to collect them from the fields around Cluj. My parents-in-law a mushroom lovers and knowers. But this one is giant (my father-in-law here with a white one) - 2010:

Older pics I

Today I finally managed to ask a colleague from work to help me with downloading the pics I took with my mobile phone. Gee! I have pictures from 2 years ago on it...and all this time I couldn't convice myself to get that downloading cable I needed in order to complete the operation.

Now, here are some photos taken during 2008-2009 winter, at Suior, skiing session. My folks were around too:





Some Romanian artist pictures (Diaconescu, I had one with Florin Piersic but lost it) - we've met them in Cluj at different events (2009):



Having dinner at Marty restaurant with some fiends (Marta, Edit, Istvan - the guy is the singer from SEMNAL M band) - this is our 40s gang (2009):





Meeting Santa and cute Rudolf (2009):



Out in the freezing cold of 2009 winter with HERA our dog (2009). Yep that's me! I had 3 overcoats on me and feeling almost confortable and there were -15 degrees Celsius outside - in Faget:





...

Some of my drawings

I am a student at Popular Art School at Interior Design class and in first year we had to draw in crayon, charcoal, etc. As I have never paint/drew before here some of my first drawings...I have one preparing for the end of the term and is bigger and more complex.I hope it will be good enough at least to post it here. I have few more on my mobile phone but unfortunatelly I cannot download them...maybe next time.



With this one I've participated to an exhibit organized by the school. Both are made in charcoal.

Now and then

We had a great weekend, bbq with some friends coming from Suceava on Sathurday and with tehir 2 1/2 and 1/2 years old boys. No pictures taken as everybody forgot to take their camera with them. On Sunday we went to Faget just for a walk in the forest...beautfiul, warm, green and fresh air. Again no pictures taken just walking...

And as I was looking through our pictures I've notice the change of our TOY.

This is BEFORE:





And this is AFTER (NOW):



You can see but most of all you can feel the difference!

The married couple of 2010

Bro got married!...or I have a sister-in-law! Even though it was just a formality, like in our case, Bro and Chris finally got the PAPER...hehehhe. Another one to put in their personal archive and need to take care of for the rest of their lives. Even though we weren't there to celebrate with them the moment, we really enjoyed the pictures.



You are really great guys! We wish you "Casa de piatra!" (= a sort of Congratulations! in EN:)

Feeling useful but having fun

We really felt useful last week when some new friends from the off-road club invited us to help the Red Cross from Cluj in order to deliver food and clothes to people living in very remote places and hard or impossible to get by car. Red cross had the initiative, the goods and the list with the people in need and we had the off-road cars, the gas and the mood and crazyness to get up the mountains and give a helping hand and few minutes to talk to the izolated ones. So at 7:30 am we met and started the Red Cross Caravan:





It was a great opportunity for us to help those in need, to meet new people, to try the car in off-road terrain and to see how beutiful can nature be in those untouched places. Time has stopped for those people:



I've talke to an old lady of 85 living only with her old man and having their closest neighbour 5 km away and when I asked "How can you manage here alone with the household?" She asked: "Only God help us here!" Well you get to think that you take all you have for granted, it seems normal for us to have a slice of bread and a plate with soup at the table, but we cannot really tell the price for that. But those people can!



I like their serenity and the fact that they stick together and help each other. We were welcomed because we brought some hope in thei souls but they are rather harsh people and don't like their peace to be bothered.

We had some fun in the sun and in the mud as well. Here's the proof:

What we've been doing lately..

Well the spring is here finally so we started spending lot of time outdoors.
Last wkd Peter participated for the first time in an offf-road contest, they call it Eurotrial, which took place in Cluj.



I was just a spectator of my husband's foolishness. He has driven that car for a few hours before the openning of the Eurotrial so it was a real madness to compete. But enthusiatic as he is he did it this time as well. I was at home clening the apt. and he called to say: "I am in" ...me speachless, he was supposed to go there as an organizer and our car just be exposed for advertising.

Strange, but I was excited about the ideea so I picked the camera and went for Polus Center parking, where the competition took place. And here it is (only the green "environmental friendly" car is ours:)









The organisers said he did well the first day and had a good total score. He was on the top 3 at the end of day 1. Unfortunatelly, along with other 7-8 cars in the competition, and because of the hard conditions, our Sammy broke up, the clutch failed completely and nedeed replacement (afterwards I've heard is a frequent suzuki problem). It was impossible to repair that during the night. So the contest ended for us day 1.

Conclusions:
1. we like this kind of contests and this sport;
2. this extreme sport is quite expensive for the owner of the car;
3. it's hard to drive and cross the finish line;
4. I was the craziest wife-supporter behind the "do not cross" line, tried (not succesfully though)to negociate with the arbitrators (the rules are very strict at this kind of competitions) - but didn't get any prize for that. So next time I'll be Peter's co-pilot;
5. you meet nice, relaxed, crazy people;
6. you always win something - Peter got experience and a participant diploma :)

Enjoy more pics on my picasa album!

Today vs yesterday

I was just having a break at work and reading the news on-line when I suddenly ran into some old pics of important sites from Cluj taken in about 1827-1850 and which were presented versus the photos taken nowadays.
My conclusion: the city looked more nice at that time, I love the simple, mistic air of 1800s' and 1900s' and I really think at that time people apreciated more open-air walks and entertainments as well as spending their spare time with the others. This justifies the better look and shape of parks, opera, theatre, back then.
You can see it for yourselves:

Central Paark - Fountain

Yesterday:



Today:



Central Park - The Casino

Yesterday:



Today:

How was the BALLET?

Pretty interesting and we could manage to stay till the end of the show. That's a plus.
What I like about the ballet shows:
1. The music - I only like symphonic music when I listen to it LIVE.
2. The dance - they are pretty good, some problems only with syncronizing.
3. Women's costumes - classic but nice. I always dreamt wearing a dress like in the 1900s and I can say I did...at my wedding. I love them (to watch, it's quite a stress to wear them).

What I hated about the show:
1. Too hot in the Opera;
2. Men's costumes - quite funny, especially the "trousers".
3. The people coming to these events and eating bomboms out loud and trying to impress the new girlfriend with sweet talk during the show, in front of me, taking all my sight! Gee I couldn't stand the couple in front of me espeacially the guy who was about 2 m tall so in the second act I dared to say:" Could you please in this 2nd act talk less cause I can't see a thing!" They dazeled at me, said ok, stood still the rest of the show....but not sure they understand what 2nd act meant. Peter laughed at me all night because of this!

Reccommended:
Try to stay at the front of the hall or in the upper seats at the balcony. It is essential to see the ballet dancers legs. That's the ideea!

Conclusion:
I will go to ballet shows in the future but they have to be good. Maybe famous dancers.

Night at the Opera

Is not a title or a movie is what we'll be doing on Sunday evening. We're going to the Opera but for a famous ballet show: The Swan Lake (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky). See here more details : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake.

I always wanted to see this show but couldn't make it. And now the Ukraine dancers (I think this is how you call the ballet dancers) from The National Opera from Kiev are coming to Cluj. I've heard they are pretty good and I simply love the music, hopefully the dancers will be tallented at least for 3 reasons:
1. I am going with Peter and if he doesn't like a show (play, movie or else) he simply gets up and leave...first I was shocked now I am doing the same thing :). I used to stay to the end of the show even if I hate it. Not anymore: why waisting my time for a famous play just for the image (it sounds good when telling others you've been to the Opera....but what they don't know is that you didn't understand a single thing of it) when I can use my time doing something more useful?
2. I like ballet if the music is good too, and I want to go to other shows. If this one will be bad surely I'll "miss" all the other to come. (it happened with the Opera - I simply don't enjoy the show, only the music. But we love theatre - lately we've been to several ahows - very good!).
3. I like Tchaikovsky's music hopefully they won't spoil it!

I've always admired ballet dancers for being able to just stand on the top of their toes. And I heard it's pretty difficult to do that (Peter's aunt was a ballet dancer - now a teacher so we have the information from a safe source). Those shoes they're wearing have a weird name even in RO so no ideea how they call it in ENG.

About winter sports

I love sports in general and since is stil winter in RO we manage to practice some. We had two ski sessions (last 2 wkds) near Baia MAre in Suior, and realized they started to get modern. They have now the possibility to ski at night (lights on the slopes - nocturn in RO) and it's very nice. Also they have artificial snow cannons and a very nice wooden restaurant on top of the hill.
Skiing it's a bit expensive. Lucky us we have free accommodation at my parents' house!
We've been skating a few timea on an artificial skatering in Cluj. Peter wanted to try on a lake about 3 m deep which was frozen only in the middlle and full of crazy people skating for free. Gee! The must be insane! I simply refused so we didn't go! Luckily nobody was hurt. But how on earth can you leave your child to skate on an alake which is not properly frozen! By the way we kicked the ice to see how thick it was an it had no more than 5 cm. God! When seeing that i simply ran away, Peter laughing at my back!

Anyway the Olimpics from Vancouver are near. When in Baia MAre I used to watch on TV the competition. Not anymore, only a bit of skating and skiing but doing something else (like reading a magazine) at the same time.

Yesterday we had another sport, this time within the city...they call it SHOPPING :)! I am great at it!

Since it was a success...

...here you have more photos of the Black Sea frozen or close to frozing. These are from another source (it seems everybody was amazed by the view).







Have you seen the sand dunes frozen and slightly covered in snow...and it's real! Here are some details - a closer look!