"Ok Tiger! Listen carefully: I'll be on vacation from tomorrow til the 14th so pleeeeeease, try to be nice while I'm gone. Get in no trouble. Dont eat any shoes. Dont pee on the neighboor's leg please. While with G&C (my parents) be obedient. Dont jump on their bed as I thought you...you can do that only when they are away, and you know they catch you everytime since you leave your black and white hair on their sheets. Then what? Try also not to eat chewing gums you find at every corner since you probably dont really understand how disgusting it is to take out of your mouth. Steal the apples and peaches you'll find on their table because I always tell you they are good for your health...then act like you have no clue of what they are talking about if they ask you if you ate them.
Ok Tiger, No trouble while I'm gone please!"
Not sure if he actually got the point!!! :-))) But still...who cares...he is such an adorable dog!! Unless he eats my shoes....
Photo by lilypenelope

I had 12 ideas for a blog post. Now the only thing coming out is a key chain. With the number 12! Photo by lilypenelope

My granparents restaurant. All what's left is a precious glass. And told memories. Photo by lilypenelope

A walk on the beach. The city behind me. The horizon in front of me. Water in-between. The sound-{s} of nature. Thoughts are flying. In space. The end of Land - "Finisterrae", the beginning of a new "state": Imagination. Photo by lilypenelope

Couple of years ago I read a fascinating book about litterally the "small pleasures in life". Small pleasures like those gestures, actions that we, consciously or not, encounter on a daily basis often without even realizing how important / fullfilling they actually are. "Whether it be a croissant in the street, the Tour de France, a potluck, shelling peas, a glass of port, the smell of apples, the mobile library, a garden in August, getting your espadrilles wet, or an autumn sweater".

Lately I have been often talking about the fact that, after years of profound struggling with food allergies / intollerances I tried my very last option to fix/solve these problems. I seriously couldn't handle anymore the fact of getting convulsion, badly sick, sometimes even fainting in restaurants even after telling the waiter(s) I couldnt eat certain stuff (but still finding them hidden somewhere on my plate!). After almost 8 years of trying every type of possible "medical solution", and after being told there was nothing I could do since it was, unfortunately a permanent state I should live with for the rest of my days, a friend of mine told me about an alternative cure (that apparently fixed all of his allergies/intollerances in a couple of months): Magnetic bioresonance. Well, I said, what the heck...one more try wouldn't hurt plus it was completely natural. It turns out another friend of mine had a studio of naturopathy right next to my office and...so I went, without having any expectations.
4 months have passed and my allergies/intollerances are gone, they disappeared!!!!

Why have I started this post with a book on small pleasures of life? Well, right now I'm in the phase of re-introducing all the food I haven't eaten in 8 years. All that food that contains lactose: yogurt, ham, sausages, butter (ohhhh yummy risotto!). Let me tell you...eating just bits of this stuff was like eating the best things ever for the first time ever! A milk shake at the bar on the boardwalk, a sausage at the barbecue with my friends, the famous risotto made by my mom (finally the real way...with butter not with olive oil!!). Well, exactly like those things Philippe Delerm was talking in his book "We Could Almost Eat Outside: An Appreciation of Life's Small Pleasures" (in italiano, en français) Photos by lilypenelope