Exercise journal #1
Hey guys! Last week I mentioned I am back with my exercising. It's been a while, I was home, a had a lot of food because we had many holidays, lot of carbs as well, and drinking. And now it's time to get serious again. Last week I started exercising again, and stuck to the plan. I did 3 days, then break and then another 3 days and today is my break day. Exercise videos remained the same for the past week. I didn't want to change anything, as I took a big break and I wanted to "warm up" so that I can continue in full speed this week.
For this week (beside today and maybe Sunday) I will do exercise each day. That would be 5 days in a row, and possibly six. On Sunday I have a wedding, so I am not sure will I be able to do it that day. Also on Saturday I have a birthday, with means the weekend will most definitely be cheat day, and this is why I decided to eat more healthy this week. I don't count carbs, or follow any specific diet, I just add more healthy food, more veggies, less pastry, and so on. Maybe I will share some recipes here with you as well.
My measurements today weren't much different from last week. All changed for 0.5 cm. Only one measurement changed for 1 cm. But Last week I didn't care much about food. However, I did notice a lot of change in how I do exercise. I do them much better than before, and almost I will do all videos with no problem. Plan is to do same exercise (or to exchange 2 videos for 2 days this week, I didn't decide yet) for the next 2 weeks and then change to next level and harder exercise. Of course, if I feel I can do that after one week, I will do it then. After that, I plan in the first 2 weeks of July to do a challenge that I found on YouTube, but that is far away, we will see about it. For now, I do 2 videos for abs, 2 videos for legs, and one video for hands/back. I also do 40 seconds plank, this week I will go for a 50 seconds.
It will be interesting to see how much I can accomplish in this time, that is, if I manage to go with it. Thing is, I already started this a few times before, and I don't thing it ever lasted more than a month, and even that month wasn't so strict. Also, I know with each week the change will be more different from the start, but less different in week time, as those last few inches are hardest to get off. So we will see. So far I am happy with my routine, and hopefully I will stick to it.
Even though I would love to be able to show you the change, I am not so comfortable sharing my photos. Maybe I can share shorts photos before and after, but I am not sure. Measurements and difference in them, I will share by the end of the month probably (when there is more difference :D )
For the end, here is my meal from today. It was easy to make and very delicious. Just minced mead with seasoning in a tortilla with tomatoes, spinich and onions.
Photo that I included in this article and lead image are original and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
PS: I hope that I don't bore you too much with my "exercise journal", but this helps me to stay motivated and keep doing it! :)
Participation in photo contests
Contests and challenges on social media and platforma are great way to motivate you to post, give you an idea what to post, and also, sometimes a chance to earn prize. When I am stuck and have no idea or nothing new to post, I always turn to this contests as great getaway. Even if I am not stucked, if I like the theme I join contest because they are always fun, give you chance to meet new people and win something.
Last Saturday I joined a contest on hive, the theme was dogs, so it was perfect for me. I was lucky to win first place in amateur tier of the contest, and this was great motivation to join more contests this week. Most of the contests are weekly, and they require only one photo, but some (like that dog competition) allows more photos in the same post-entry.
First I joined shadow photo contest, and I was among 10 winners. I received 200 ecency points. I also earned a chance to be picked for another prize, but that was random, and I didn't win. Here is the photo that I participated with.
Then I participated in hive power day, and made a post about it. This was not a photo contest, but more of a challenge. However, it turns out there are some rewards for this too, and I qualified for it. Results are not yet in, and I am not even sure what the prize is, but that was another participation.
The next one was a photo contest, and the theme was roads. I like the theme and I knew what photo to post right away. The photo was not high quality, but I love it and this was great way to post it and still participate, so I did it. I didn't win anything this time. This was my photo for this contest..
Then I saw photo contest with bubbles theme and I just couldn't rezist it. I knew I had bubble photos with which I can participate. I was thinking about coffee bubbles or some other not ao obvious, but I deciced to go with soap bubbles. This was only contest that I thought I will win, because there were only four enteries and three prizes, but I didn't win. As I was fourth I got honorable mention. Better something then nothing, right. Here is the photo I participated with
And the last one was a black and white themed contest. Even before I made my entry, I saw many great ones. This is why I suspected it will be hard to get any prize, but I still wanted to participate. This was a great choice, because I didn't win, but my post did well, same as if I have won. Here is how one of my entry photos looked (as I posted more photos because it is allowed in this contest).
I think contests and challenges are win win situations. You post as you usually woukd, but also you can win something. I will try to participate even more. Also I would like to find some writing challenges here as well, if you know any, you can suggest me.
All photos in this article (including the lead image) are original and taken by me, using nokia 7 plus phone, and edited in some phone applications.
Thank you for reading my post 💕
Big fees
Everyone who is in online earning world are probably familiar with fees and how they work. When I first started in online earning world, I was shocked to realize how much time it takes me to earn something, just so 1/4 of it (or even more) will be stripped away on fees. Later on, I discovered it depends on from site to site, and usually, if cash out is a bigger amount, fees are included. You would need more time to reach the goal, but you will get whatever you earned, no deductions.
When I first started using noise, I didn't know much about BCH and what wallets are best to use. Other users wrote about many wallets, and where are fees bigger, and where they are lower. It didn't take me long to be in position to earn 2 or more dollars on noise, so 0.0 something fees didn't bother me much. I used blockchain and I even didn't notice that there is any fee at all, or it was very small (as change of BCH changes, and we earn in $, at first it was a bit hard for me to follow it up). At the time, it was hard for me to find many sites that support my country and I was okey with staying on Blockchain, which I was already familiar with.
Then, in December, there was some problem with transactions, and they didn't go through. This made a lot of mess and confusion on noise. In the end, there was a solution suggested by other users. Making account on bitcoin.com and connecting noise wallet address there. This way, you can see and access your noise wallet at any time, through bitcoin.com. I tried this, and I was very happy with the way it works, and it was less work for me as well, as I didn't have to transfer it from a noise wallet address, to another one.
This year was different. I am more active on read than on noise, and as soon as I become more active on read, I connected this wallet address to bitcoin.com. But then, some time ago, I started noticing fees for the first time. I noticed that amount is not the same when someone tips me, and when I tip someone, even if it happens at almost the same time (meaning change is not related to BCH price). Then I noticed also that in the notifications, it says I received more from Rusty, then it says in my wallet. I will show you few examples, and the difference. If Rusty tips me $0.40 I would get $0.36, which means 10% goes on fees. When it is smaller amount, difference is even bigger. If someone gives $0.5 I get $0.4, which makes it a 20% fee. Thing is, I calculated this in $ not in BCH, so difference might me smaller, and because amounts are small and BCH price constantly changing, I might me wrong.
I was aware right away that these were fees, but I wasn't sure on which end they are, and were they this big before as well? Maybe I just didn't noticed it before, or maybe it was due to different BCH at the time, or maybe this is new?
If any of you know more about this, please let me know. If it's bitcoin.com, maybe I could switch back to Blockchain, or you would recommend something else? But if those are fees from read, then I would stay on bitcoin.com, as I was happy with it so far. Let me know which one you use, and which one are you the most happy with.
Lead photo is from Unsplash.com, other photos included in article are original.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Spam and scam emails
Today I received a very weird email. I saw the notification, and the subject was "confirmation" so I was confused right away. As I knew I didn't order anything, this made no sense. Even if I did it somehow buy mistake (which is very unlikely), it wouldn't be written in English. Usually I ignore email notifications, because I receive so many on daily bases, and these are mostly subscriptions and news, nothing important, but this time I entered email right away.
On the photo below, you can see how email looked like. It was very simply, almost empty one. It said it was from "The Home Depot", but thing is, we don't have it here. The email itself included only two things, a link and photo that said, "Congratulations! You have been chosen to participate in our Loyalty program for free", as well as the newest model of some kind of drill. And of course, when you look at the actual email it came from, it's some nonsense: noreply@xsgcbshrirtphlsphukg...
It was very obvious it was a scam email, but I was surprised how bad it was done. There was no text at all, and it doesn't clearly say that you won anything specific and worth of clicking an unreliable link from a very unreliable email.
I know these things are very common, but what surprised me the most, was the fact that this email was marked as an IMPORTANT one. It is very strange that email like that didn't go straight to spam, specially with email domain ridiculous like that. But not only it didn't go to the spam, it was marked as important. So strange.
The email address on which I received this email is my most used one, and I have it connected to many things, but recently, I didn't sign up for any new sites with it. But it doesn't matter, scammers can find it on sites that you don't even use anymore.
Actually, it already happened to me, and I knew exactly from which site they took my email. That email said my username and password (probably thinking I use the same password and username on many sites), so that they confirm that they send it directly and specifically to me. It said they have video of me (and they were somehow sure it was me) doing "adult stuff" in front of the web camera. They threatened they will send the video to 8 of my friends if I don't believe it, and they will send it to everyone if I don't pay them exactly $2478 (it was 2000 and something, but I remember it was specific amount, not round number) but, in BTC. They even said I can look it up if I don't know how to pay in BTC. Of course, I knew it was all very fake, and as much as I love to joke with scammers I didn't reply, just in case. Also, I was lucky that I used that password on only one site, so I immediately removed my account there.
However, this email was in the spam folder, and I saw it by accident. I wasn't lucky with "Prince of Nigeria" and people who are dying, so they search for random people on internet to give them their fortune, but my sexy video almost went viral. I am joking, but I know some people, unfortunately, do fall for tricks like this. Specially older people, who are not so educated in this field. But everyone should be careful, and I always say, don't click on unknown links and don't give your email to strangers online who asks for it for whatever reason. Of course, not any other personal information as well, credit cards,... but I hope that goes without saying.
Have you received any interesting scam email? Was it ever marked as important?
Photo I included in article is original, and lead photo is from Unsplash.com
Thank you for reading my post, and have a great weekend ahead :) ^^
Making beans soup for the first time
It might be a bit weird that I am preparing a simple dish like beans for the first time, but thing is, this dish is cooked so long, and due to this reason, usually it's made in big quantity. At home, we often eat it, but we have a full house there, and I don't make it there, so this is why I am making it for the first time. I decided to make it and whatever is left to froze, because I knew I would have a lot of leftovers.
I made pinto beans, as I am not a fan of white beans and any dishes with it. I used 0.5 kg of it, and I let it in the water for the night because I knew I will make it the next day. This step is not necessary, but it helps beans to cook faster. In total, you will probably need about 3 hours to make it.
First step is putting beans on the stove and having water just a finger or 2 above it (depending on shape and size of your pot). You will leave it there until the water boils, and leave it to boil for a couple of minutes (5-10 minutes). Then stain the beans and repeat the process. This time around, you can also add dry meat, as we call it. That are mostly parts of meat with a lot of bones, like ribs. Again, you can do this only one time, or none, but it's not bad way to clean beans.
When you put it back on the stove for the third time, add a little more water, since this time it will be boiling much longer, and also lower the heat of your stove. It will usually take an hour and a half, or two hours, depending on the beans that you make. While it cooks you can add more water if needed, but also you don't have to, if you like it to be denser. When beans are cooked enough (you can see this by the color of water, or taking out the bean and checking is it soft enough) it's time to add spray (browned flour) and other seasoning. You should most definitely add salt, and other seasoning depends on your taste, you can add pepper, bay leaf, parsley,...
Spray is made by adding 2-3 spoons of flour into the hot fat or oil, mixing it nicely and cooking it, so it becomes homogeneous, and then adding sweet pepper in it, and cooking it a little more. When it's done, add it to the beans and cook it for about 5 more minutes (till it boils again).
And that's all. Many people also add carrot, onions, or something else, but I like it as simple as possible, just like this. Tomato and white cheese go great with this, and I like to add it all together in the plate, as well as one piece of bread.
It's always nice and fun to do new things, and have another "first" in your life. And as basic as this was, it was still nice. My first beans weren't perfect, they were a bit too thick, because my pot was too small, but I fixed it and add more water later, and it was good for the first time :)
All photos used in this article (including the lead image) are original and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Hello JUNE (May summary)
Hello guys, happy new month to you all! Time to look back and see how we stand from the previous month, summarize it and make plans for the new month. I have to say I am not happy how much successful was May for me. I was hoping I would do better in online world and finally enter 1 BCH club. And I was almost there, and it was for sure possible (specially with BCH price so down), but it didn't happen. Now with BCH rising up it seems even further away, but on the positive side, crypto market is finally getting greener.
Read cash earnings
Let's start with this platform right away. In May, I made 13 articles, which means I almost made a post every second day, which was my goal. Total earnings were 14.83 (but do note, this is expressed in USD at the time) which makes it an average of $1.14 per article. Most paid article earned $2.84, and it was "Happy Bitcoin Pizza Day". All articles were visited by Rusty, which makes me very happy and motivated to continue. If we look how much I got in BCH this month, it is 0.059 BCH which I am happy with, though I hoped that I would use this low price of BCH better. At end of each month I transfer my earnings to my main wallet, so this is payment and current price of my earnings from May.
I would also like to add one nice achievement, my articles reached more then 1000 views! This may be very little for some of you, but I don't have big audience here on read, so this is nig achievement for me :)
Noise cash earnings
I have to admit right away, I was not active here almost at all. I did make a few posts towards the end of the month, but having almost no earnings here is completely my fault. Well, maybe not completely, I still have no free tips, so I can't return tips other way then from my wallet. This is why total earnings were actually bigger, but due to my tipping it came down to only $1.68 or 0.008477 BCH. I will try to be more active this month, but without FT it is really hard to earn.
HIVE
Last site I want to talk about is hive/ecency. It is a bit hard to say how much I earned because earnings from posts come 7 days after posting, but I will try to estimate. For sure, I earned 38 HIVE (converted from HBD) and 17.6 HP, and from posts that are yet to collect earnings I will have approximately 7.6 HBD and 23 HP.
Total earnings
This makes my total earnings of 0.06751742 BCH and (approximately, with later converting) and 51 HIVE. I knew May will be a fast and fulfilled month for me, with many things happening, so I was hoping I would have more things to post about and be more active. Even though I did have more things I didn't have much time, but I can post some of those things later, in this month.
Goals for JUNE
I would like to have the same goal this month as well, which is a post each day on read and hive, and one post each day on noise. We will see if I can keep up with this and how successful this month will be. I wanted to make prompts for this month and try to post here every day, but I don't think it will be possible this month, however, it will stay as an idea for future.
In conclusion, month wasn't as I expected, but I am happy with earnings and will try to improve even more. Also entering 1 BCH club this month will be amazing. I will make post at end of this month as well with full report of my earnings.
All photos used in this article (including lead photo) are original and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Bullet journal - JUNE
Just like every other month, I will be posting my bullet journal spread. Last month I did one very fun and cute theme, fairy tale inspired, and this month I wasn't sure what to choose. Again, I was most focused on Amanda Rach Lee posts, as I like her spreads the most. But I did find one bullet journal spread that I liked previously, and it was not Amanda's, but it turned out to be more complicated, and I didn't have much time to do it.
I wanted something simple but yet striking, and I liked color last time, so I wanted them again as well. I remembered a long time ago that I found one bee themed spread, and I loved it, but it didn't fit for me that month, and later on, I couldn't find it. I searched this time again, and even though I didn't find the exact same one, I found many other bees themed spreads, and the decision was made. I did a bee theme but combination of few videos (yes, I just can't keep it simple). I almost kept it simple, but then I saw this gorgeous ink bee, and I just had to do it :D
I kind of messed up the cones, but it's because I did it free hand and I was a bit in hurry, it took me more time then I expected and wanted to spend on it. I also messed up right wing. Patterns on wing I also did free hand, in order to be faster, and also that I didn't want to have too much pencil to erase later, because eraser can mess it up all and make it stained. Not like it's too much important but okay.
Another thing I made was an exercise plan and table. My plan remained same, same exercise at last for another week. Measurements were okay, considering that I didn't care about eating or exercising in May at all. I am just still debating when to do my exercise. I used to do it around 1pm, but it is in the middle of the day and I feel like it takes more time of the day then it should. The other option is moving it to nighttime, but then I am not sure when I have my dinner, it has to be at the last hour after it, and then it can get late. For now, I will adjust it how it works for me, but I would like to have a fixed schedule.
I really loved this theme, and cones are perfect for other parts of bullet journal, like space for dates. It's simple, but it follows the theme perfectly, also I will add some little bees for rest of the pages, it won't take much time, but it will remain with theme and cute.
One more thing that I would like to add is that I find some photos from March and I could see difference from then to now. This means I am still on a good path and didn't get back to old shape even though I stopped working out for a while. I have one shorts as motivation and I would like to fit it again. I may even share compared photos if I end up being happy with the result, if not I will probably just share measurement difference.
All photos included in this article (and lead photo) are original and taken by me.
***Thank you for reading my post ^^***
"The first kittens are thrown into the water"
Have you ever heard of the saying "the first kittens are thrown into the water" ? It is used here to say that start was bad, but in a comforting way, as it was supposed to be that way, and it is okay. When I was little I never liked this saying, it sounded way too cruel, even though I know it was just metaphorical, not literal.
Unfortunately, last week, I discovered it literal meaning. Mila gave birth to six kittens, and five of them died the next day, only one was left. I know this saying is related to cats having their first kittens. First of all, if they are younger (less than a year old) that can cause problems, if there are too many kittens, that can also be a problem for mother cat, and when it is first time, the cat doesn't have "mother instinct" yet. I have to agree on the last one, because Mila was so rough with them. She was constantly stepping on them, and everyone was convincing me that it is fine, I really didn't like it. The only instinct she had was to be around them and not to let other cats come near. I can't know for sure what happened, it was all over night, and nothing we could do, but this saying wasn't helpful and comforting to me at the time.
As I am the way I am, I already took many photos of kittens and some adorable videos as well, and I never thought something like this could happen. I was looking forward to share great news, but it all turned around. I decided to post this anyway, because this is also part of the life, it is just how it is. Mila's sister Dobrila is also about to have kittens, and she is even bigger. I am scared she will have even more, and the same thing will happen. But I need to stay positive.
When we got Mila and Dobrila, it was Maza's first kittens, but there was only two of them, and she immediately took them away, and take care of them all alone, so we didn't expected this at all.
When I write about something, I like to look it up. Therefor, I look this saying up, to see how it originally was made. What I discovered was quite disturbing, and I hope it was not true. Apparently this saying started long time ago, during Ottoman Empire. This is related to the time that our country was under their power. Territory was divided into unites, and each unit had an aga who was in charge. They had unlimited power over enslaved people. When two people got married, aga was the one that bride had to spend the first night with. This is the reason why they couldn't know who is the father of first child and why they were rejected, and not uncommonly, killed by throwing to the water. I was shocked to discover this, and I never heard it before. I always thought it's related to weakness of kittens in their first days of life. I hope this is just old and made up story.
Anyways, I will try to avoid these sad and negative subjects from now on. I feel like there was too much of it lately.
Photo I used in article, and lead photo are original photos taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Rumor has it...
After a while, I was back on noise yesterday, and I saw many posts with wallet screenshots. Most of these were not in English, so I couldn't know what the problem was, but I didn't give it too much attention since things like this happened before as well, all these stuff is not 100% great all the time, transactions may be late, block chair may have problems at the time, there might be some bugs,... Even though it's not very common, it is normal that problems like this happen from time to time.
But the more I scroll down, I saw more people not only having wallet screenshots, but saying goodbye to the platform. I was confused at first, then I realize they all predict NC will end, because there were no payment procedure since last Sunday. As I was not active I didn't know do I have same problem, because I wasn't near my cash-out minimum, but during yesterday I reached it, and it was not transferred to my wallet. Before the problem was different, not like this.
Then I saw screenshots of address from which NC pays us, and balance was about $90. People were saying that is it, NC is come to an end, there is no more money to give, and it will be closed soon. Some were ever mad why there is no info about it and no one let us know what is happening.
All this was strange for me for a few reasons:
First, I never checked that wallet address and I don't know how it functions. I doubt they have all the money on the same place and address is never re-filled, but I don't know.
Second, people were claiming BCH is too low and NC and RC can't pay anymore. BCH is down more than ever (well, not literally ever, but you know what I mean), but it was like this for a while. And if that is a problem, they could simply lower the daily limit that they give out to users.
Third, I saw a very recent post of Mark De Mesel on NC, and it was video about current crypto market (here is video, if anyone is interested, link) so it makes no sense that he was posting on his platform that is about to go down, and it's not about this supposed end of it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTn5rK90yL0
Forth, there were still free tips given out, and if they don't have more founds I'm sure they would close this option first.
There was also a post with screenshot of RC wallet, and prediction that it has founds for the next 5 days more. Again, I never saw this wallet balance before, so I can't compare and know how accurate this claim is. What I will say that I don't know if anything is going on, but I hope it's not, and I believe it is not. Any site can go down anytime, and I experience this many times already. Difference here is that this site does not depend on users and advertisements, but it has an investor. If they are about to shut down the site for any reason, I hope we will get notice, but I hope this time will not come soon, if ever.
Another thing I would like to say is about one post I read, and I agree. It comes to the time when it is important to hold your assets. I know many people are panicking and selling, and it just makes things worse for everyone, and them as well. If you sell now, you are in most certain loss. Everything you have now can double, triple. When the market is down it is time to buy, not to sell, and this situation has happened so many times before as well. Only thing I can understand are people who are in current need of money, and they have no other option. But if you can, just hold to it and wait for a better price to sell.
I would also like to say that NC is by far the site where I earned the most money in the shortest time, and it was back then when price was bigger than now. NC is the only site of this type which I saw actively fighting spammers and plagiarisms, and I know it is a hard fight. I can only be grateful for this site, and I am sorry I have not discovered it before. I have to admit, I was skeptical because of BCH payments. At the time, I knew about crypto and had bitcoin, but all other crypto was not an option for me. NC entered me into another world and helped me realized it is not so complicated as I thought, but it is much better than all other things I did till then. I am now more focused on BCH, and I am choosing it as my prime crypto, actually. All thanks to RC and NC. But mostly noise.
Luckily, this morning, all payments are processed and everyone (I believe this is the case) have received their money that was on hold. Looks like this is not the end, at last yet. But I don't know, and I can't claim how long these site will continue to work. Maybe they last forever, maybe they close tomorrow. We don't know. If it comes to a time to say goodbye to these amazing platforms, I would be very sad, but also grateful I even discovered them. Also, I hope we would get notice about it, so we can say goodbye and connect to each other some other way, because I met many great people here. But let's not talk about goodbyes just yet, and let's enjoy another great day here. I think we can all agree we want these sites up as long as possible, so let us enjoy it while we can.
Just one more side note. As I was not active, I have no idea who started the rumor. I know how it works, like dominoes, and I am not surprised by the effect that it made so fast. But I would like to give you advice to check everything first before you pass on the information. There is so a good deal of fake news all over the internet, and people keep spreading them with no bother at all to check before claiming something. Now, I talk in general, not about NC and RC.
The photo I used as lead image is from Unsplash.com
Thank you for reading my article ^^
Evening swimming pool visit
For me, usually, summer is time for pool, and that is mostly when I go to it, if I go at all, because I have other options to go for swim. But from time to time I go to closed pools, which are available for visit throughout the year. One that I go to is a sanatorium also, and it is very warm water, and it's cool to go in the winter when there is snow around, which you can see through the windows.
But this time I went to classic pool, well, not exactly classical, dimensions are not standard, they are 25 m and 33 m. It is a closed pool and unlike sanatorium, it is used for swimming only (it is personal choice, but most people come for this purpose), not party and just chill. What is great about it, is work hours, it is open from 8 am to 12 pm, and people are free to come at any time. Daily ticket if you come at evening time is $2.
A mistake that we made was coming in the evening on week days, and I already supposed there will be kids who have swimming classes. I tried to find information about it online, but I couldn't. I thought that if they have classes, they won't be too late, and we got there sometime pass eight o'clock. I was wrong, as we got there one group was done, younger kids, and another had classes, so the pool was crowded. Luckily, we missed them in the changing room, they were already in class, so it was not too crowded, and I didn't have to wait to change. Another good thing is that classes were at start of the pool, in separated area, and at bottom of it, so the entire middle was free, and beside us, there was not too many people there (bet that people know the catch, so they come in better hours). But later on, it was pretty much empthy when kids finished their classes.
I mentioned dimensions of the pool before, I had to look this one up actually, but I did notice it is not standard dimensions (dimensions of Olympic pool are 50 m x 25 m). Though, I could tell how wide it is without checking it online. It is because I love to dive, and on open summer pool that I go to, I can dive wide side with 16-17 swings, and with no problem. It was same here, so I suspected that it's 25 m as I am used to.
Another great thing is that they have very good fans there, and many of them, so I could fry my hair easily and fast (since I love to dive, not going underwater wasn't an option for me :D ). There are also regular expected things as lockers, changing rooms, showers...
All in all, I was very pleased with the pool and time I had there, it is much easier to focus on swimming there, then on open pool in summer, where you have many people and kids, balls, everyone all around and everywhere. I wish I had closed pool like this near my place, where I could go more often. They offer monthly ticket, and it's around $30 (unlimited use) and if you take few months it comes even cheaper. And the pool is open almost all day, so it is easy to adjust time with your obligations.
Photos I used in this article (as well as lead image) are original and I took them.
Thank you for reading my post, have a great day! ^^
Green market
Hey guys, hope everyone had great day. I am trying to be more regular here, and am I slowely getting my habit back, but it's not constant yet. Today I planned to visit one of the popular Green markets in Belgrade - "Kalenic pijaca". This market is the biggest and probably most popular market in Belgrade, and takes name after last name of Vlajko Kalenic, whose endowment it is. In 2026. it will be 100 years old.
I went there this morning, in attempt to avoid strong sun and high temperatures, but also because the most and the best products are there in the morning, and then less and less through out the day. On the way there, I saw many beautiful may roses, it's wonderful to see them all around, even in the big city.
In this green market, even tough veggies and fruits are main, you can find many other things there such as cheese and eggs, and other daily used ingredients. They are sold in the front part, and behind there are counters with vegetables and fruits. Also, there are many flowers sold, whether it's for vase or in the pot, and they caught my attention the most. I debated in myself weather should I buy basil so that I have fresh seasoning, but I decided it's not the time.
Other interesting thing about this market is that there is part of it that is flea market. I hope translator is doing good job here, but basically it's market where you can find anything and nothing, many interesting old things, antiques and unique.
I was there mostly for the vegetables and fruits. Furthermore, I ended up buying a lot of goodies (lettuce, carrot, young baby potatoes, tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, bananas, oranges,strawberry...) but I was also not happy with most of the prices, inflation is going crazy here. I also bought some nuts and dry fruits, since there was one big counter with all of them. I usually buy dry graps and cranberries, almonds, indian nut, and I brought from home hazelnuts and walnuts.
Reason why I would like to recommend anyone green markets is because you will get better products than in supermarkets, and also you will help people who live of selling these goodies from their household. If you know someone personally, it's even better because you are sure you are getting home healthy product.
I went back with bus, even though it's only few stations, because it was way too warm for me, and I had to carry few pounds of stull I bought.
All photos in this article are original, taken using Nokia 7 phone.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Serbia is land of basketball
About a year ago, I made post with same caption like this article on one other platform (at the time, I didn't use read), and I am very happy that I can make it this year again, and it's not old news, but same thing happened this year as well. What is it about? It's about MVP players of the biggest basketball competitions in the world.
Last year, MVP (which stands for most valuable player), of NBA was Nikola Jokic, Serbia player whose team is Denver Nuggets. This year, he managed to repeat success, and he is yet again, most valuable player of the strongest basketball league in the world. Basically, he is the best player on earth, right? :D Beside him, only 12 other players in NBA history managed to have this title two times in a row.
Next is MVP of Euro League. Last year, this title belonged to Vasilije Micic, but this year, MVP is Nikola Mirotic, yet another Serbian player. He is player of Spanish club Barcelona, and even though Barcelona didn't win Euro League this year, or even come second (they were third this season), most valuable player came from their team.
I already mentioned Vasilije Micic, and he was MVP of Euro League last year, but this year he was also MVP, but MVP of final four (which are last 4 games with best 4 teams, semi-finals, and final, as well as third place game). Also, he is in top performance for this season, based on points.
Beside Euro League, there is also another basketball competition in Europe, Euro Cup. And believe it or not, the most valuable player of this competition is as well Serbian. It is Milos Teodosic, who plays for Italian club, Virtus. Also, he was very successful in the past, and I find him as another amazing player.
Last year I wrote about 4 MVPs but this year, there are 4 Serbian players that took this title. This would be success for anyone, and considering that Serbia is not a big and powerful country, it's even bigger success, for one country to have 4 MVP players in the same year.
I would say Serbia is the land of sport in general, we are quite passionate about it, and successful, but football is the most popular even though we are the least successful in it (in terms of representation). However, we are quite successful in volleyball, water polo, handball, and some other individual sports, like tennis, swimming.
I would like to highlight some national basketball success that we had so far, here is for woman:
Olympic games - bronze (2016)
EuroBasket - current champions - gold 2 times(2015, 2021), bronze (2019)
And for man:
Olympic games - gold (1980), silver 5 times (1968, 1976, 1988, 1996,2016), bronze (1984)
EuroBasket - gold 8 times (1973, 1975, 1977, 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 2001), silver 7 times (1961, 1965, 1971, 1981, 2009, 2017), bronze 4 times (1963, 1979, 1987, 1999)
FIBA Basketball World Cup - gold 5 times (1970, 1978, 1990, 1998, 2002), silver 4 times (1963, 1967, 1974, 2014), bronze 2 times (1982, 1986)
It is good to mention that woman basketball representation is far less part of FIBA, so their medals in that time of period are amazing. Also, as you can see, despite great players that we have all around the world, representation wasn't doing great lately (man representation wasn't even part of last Olympics), and hopefully it will change soon.
Photos used in this article are from Unsplash.com
Thank you for reading my article ^^
Happy Bitcoin pizza day!
Today is one very interesting day in crypto world. It is funny, but also an important one. A few days ago, a friend sent me a post about this event, that happened 12 years ago. In fact, it all started a few days before. All the way back in 2010, on 18th of May, programmer from Florida, Laszlo Hanyecz wanted to trade 10 000 Bitcoins for two pizzas. It was 4 days later, that he posted on the forum, letting know everyone that transaction was made, with picture of him with his kids and two pizzas that he got.
I tried to find the original post, but there is no info on what forum it was, and since it was 12 years ago, it is quite possible that the forum doesn't exist today, let alone post. However, if I find it later on, I will include it, and update the article.
This transaction, beside being funny and interesting, is important because it was the very first real world, known, bitcoin transaction. Laszlo sold Bitcoin to someone named Stardivus. Supposedly, he didn't hold all that Bitcoin throughout these twelve years, but he used it in order to travel.
I am not sure how long he hold his Bitcoin, but, Bitcoin reached $1 in 2011. Even if he sold it all at that time, he would have 10 000$, which, I suppose, most of you will agree, isn't small amount at all.
When I heard this story, my initial reaction was "Oh boy, if he only knew, or left some of those Bitcoins, or even just one". But then I thought about it, and I imagine he had much more Bitcoins at the time. He (Laszlo), claims that he doesn't regret this transaction, as well as Stardivus, who is happy to be part of history and this event.
I am not even gonna bother to calculate how much would 10 000 Bitcoin would be worth at it;s highest point, or even today, with crypto so down. Main thing is that both participants are fine with this =, and happy that they took part in first know Bitcoin transaction.
Also it was bit crazy for me to thing how this happened 12 years ago, which means Bitcoin is even older than that. I learned about it much later, in 2014. or 2015, probably, but feels like it was 5 years ago. But crypto is in our lifes for a while now.
What would you trade 10 000 Bitcoin for, back in 2010, or today?
Photo I usded is original and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post^^
PS: Due to internet problems, it was posted bit later.
Sick world that we live in
Hello guys, I am here to do a little rent, don't mind it, because it will be negative, or just skip it right away. I really need to vent now. This article is triggered by an event that happened yesterday, but it's also caused by this world, and the state that it is in for a while now. I am saying for a while now, that this world reach to it the highest point, and now it's just going downhill, at very fast speed.
This is related to current war in the world, but also to human sickness and stupidity. For those who don't know, my country didn't do any restrictions towards Russia (not like we are in place to do many, anyway), but also didn't approve war and aggression. We were in the same position as Ukraine, so of course, if someone won't support it, it's us. Only thing I don't see is, why do I need to hate all Russians who didn't have a saying about war at all, just like any Ukraine didn't as well. No one asked them do they want war, and I am pretty sure everyone in their right mind wouldn't want to go to the war. This is why I don't see the need to hate any civilians from wherever they are, and don't see how it's different if one country is making war, and if another is? If we want peace, we want it for all, right? Or some lives are still worth more than others?
Anyway, because we, as country, (so politicians, not civil people, no one asked us anything) didn't "say no to Russia", we are now saw as bigger terrorist then Russia itself. In previous weeks there were few bombs alerts in several places. Airport, airplane, many malls on few occasions,... But yesterday morning, 97 primary schools received sick email about bombs placed in all of them. Just think about it, 97 schools, how many innocent children is that? Their solution to "punish" politicians who didn't restrict Russia is to kill thousands of innocent children? IS THAT YOUR DEFINITION OF PEACE? I am so pissed, I can't even describe the stupidity and hate and terrorism this people have in themselves. My brain simply can't comprehend it.
In case you wonder why I keep calling them stupid, it's because for weeks now, both Ukrainian people and Russian people are coming here to stay and search for apartments. BOTH of them, so both of them feel free to be here and safe, and I am very proud that we didn't go under west media influence, and don't judge anyone for things that they can't control.
Besides this, I must say they are also huge hypocrites, because I don't see any restrictions or terror over countries that caused war in previous 10-20 years, or we have some that are allowed to kill?
I will say, there were no bombs found, but all children were taken out, and wasn't able to continue classes, and probably frightened. And bomb alerts continue. As well as message of anonymous today, saying we are next target, whatever that means.
In conclusion, we are now the target of terrorists, for no other reason than their stupidity and hypocrisy. And on top of everything that's happening today, it's really sad to see that this world can always go lower, and deeper.
I don't like to post negative things, but this things really get to me, and I needed to vent out somewhere.
Lead photo is from unplashed.com
Thank you for reading this post, if you made it till the end.
Eurovision semi-final 2
Hey guys, I am back with another Eurovision Song Contest, and this one is about second semi-finals night. This one is way more interesting for me, because, tonight will perform our representative, Konatrakta, with song "In corpore sano". She will be preforming under number 3. And for me, no doubt, she will go to the final. I wanted to post this article in real time, before results are out, but I came home much later, so I am not even watching in the real time. This is why I use future tense, but by the time I publish a post, this semi-final will already be over.
Konstrakta with her song was a surprise even in Serbia, and she won even tho she wasn't favorite. I think she is the winner already, as she became much more popular and promoting her music to people who never heard about her, or that kind of music. What I also like about her, is her performance, it is very simple yet very visualizing. She has a very catchy verse, and also a catchy "dance" that follows it, and people who follow Eurovision already know it very well. Also, I am very proud we are still singing in Serbian, like always. This time though, the song also has Latin lyrics which is the first time in Eurovision history.
Our representative, Konstrakta, already won second place, for best lyrics in this Eurovision. This is important, because it means that people did translate and understood her lyrics. How I would describe song to you? The song talks about health, how much it is important, how much we are focused on that, and are we really, really healthy deep inside? That is what Latin part says actually, "Mens sana corpore sano ", which means "in healthy body, healthy spirit". The song has good lyrics, so it can be interpreted in more ways, but the main subject is health, which is important subject now days, I think you would agree.
As I am watching this semi-final, this time it's harder to say who I think will go to the finals. So far, I can say, Serbia for sure, and I will have to see recap before deciding. Many different and interesting songs, but nothing stands out that much.
This was much harder then first night, and again, I am just predicting who I think will be in top 10, not which songs I liked the most. So here they are: Serbia, Azerbaijan, Malta, Finland, Georgia, Estonia, Belgum, Sweden, Checz republic. Again, I don't have 10, but don't know who to chose among rest. I will update after results.
Okey. So that was crazy reading of results, we had to wait till end to see our country. Anyway from the rest, again, I didnt get all right, but I have to say, I didn't expected to see Poland, Australia and Romania go through. Specially now, I checked odds, Poland has high chances, and I really don't see anything in that song.
Anyway it will be interesting final, I predict Konstrakta in top 5, but we will see.
The photo I used is original and taken by me.
Lead photo is from unsplash.com
Thank you for reading my post^^
Exhausting shopping
Good evening guys. I am trying to get back on track with my writing, and publishing articles as I set my goal. That would be each second day, if not each day. But I already missed so many days, due to many reasons, I am not sure will I get back in routine so easy. Today I just wanted to write about my few previous days and what I did.
I am back in Belgrade now, for few days. I had to do some shopping. I have upcoming events, two of which are weddings, and I needed some clothes for this occasion. I already bought one dress, but I decided to wear it for second wedding, as it is a summer dress and I don't do well on hot weather, so that dress is more suitable for second wedding, as there will be higher temperature.
For the first wedding, I wanted to do something other than dress. I am not a fan of skirts, and my choice was blouse and pants. But their clothes are different when you try it out, so I also find a few dresses, just in case I don't like how I look in the first outfit. I was looking everything online, as I do it usually, because, in my opinion, it saves time, and you can see everything, you can check sizes in stores...
However, the specific store I was looking at, had over 1000 dresses on site. That's just crazy, but I was happy with the big choice I had, only in one store. What I didn't expected, even though it was very logical, that it was not possible to find all of these dresses in the same store, shown. Even the site said it's available in the store, when I got there I didn't see a single dress that I looked online, wanting to try out, in the store. It was a bit frustrating, but I choose some other dress to try out (that, ironically, I didn't see online), as I was already there and wanted to try my first choice, blouse and pants. I wasn't so lucky with blouse as well, but at this point I decided to ask for help of a worker there. They have these devices that search the store for any product, as long as you have the article number. She told me my blouse will be near cabins in 10 minutes. As I got to the cabins, I could see so many women waiting there in the line. I got to tried out things and got out in the rush without anything.
Next day I decided to go to the mall and visit many stores I usually visit there. I found so many things that I like, but don't need at the moment. I also found some dresses, that could pass, but they stayed as backup. Furthermore, I did find pants that I wanted. However, the store I found blouse was not present at this mall, and I wasn't sure would the pants look good together with the blouse. I got home empty hands again.
Finally, today I was most certain to go to the biggest mall in the city, and to buy all I need this or that way. Lucky, I checked do they have my size of the blouse, and they didn't have it. I was so annoyed, once again. Finally, I found another mall that had both pants and blouse, and went there. There was again a big line in front of the cabins, and I decided to go to check out pants. They had it, but not the color I wanted. It was like someone was joking with me. I had planned the outfit and ready to buy it, but something always came up. In the end I bought the blouse and was looking at other pants, but thanks to come crazy luck, I checked online for the pants, and it said they got them. I found the worker again and asked for the pants. She got it for me, and finally my outfit was complete. It is nothing special, but I was more practical this time, and I can wear blouse and pants in different occasions too and with different combinations.
To sum up, I had three days of both successful and not so successful shopping. I made so many steps and walked so much. And, what's most important, I found my outfit. This is how the outfit looks, but you can't see much. Maybe I make better photo with shoes as well, and accessorize.
The photo I used in this article is original and taken by me. The lead photo of this article is from unsplash.com
Thank you for reading my article^^
Eurovision semi-final 1
Hey everyone! I wasn't posting as usual here. I was a bit busy, but also didn't have much inspiration and what to post about. Tonight, the fist semi-final night of the Eurovision contest was held. I went to my sister's place to watch it together with her and friends. I was already alone in the apartment, so company was good anyway.
I consider myself someone how has good taste in music and listen to quality and good music, not just something that is currently popular, or club music. However, Eurovision, even though I don't consider it to be a high quality music contest, is kind of tradition to me. I like contests in general, and here we also have all countries of Europe and even some outside of it. It's nice to see other cultures, how other countries vote, and to cheer for your own. I think, through years, I got some kind of feeling what will do well in Eurovision, and that is not necessarily the best song, the song I like the most, or the song with the best music and lyrics.
Beside not high quality music, other problem with Eurovision is politics. It become more and more present in Eurovision, and I hope it will not ruin contest (like it ruins everything else). Just like this year, Ukraine is the biggest favorite.
Tonight, in this semi-finals we could see representatives of seventeen countries, Albania, Latvia, Lithuania, Switzerland, Slovenia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Moldova, Portugal, Croatia, Denmark, Austria, Iceland, Greece, Norway, Armenia.
My prediction was that Switzerland, Ukraine, Netherlands, Moldova, Denmark and Norway will go to the final, and since I knew there are more who will go to final (10 total) I thought among them could be Portugal and Armenia as well. My prediction was pretty good, only Denmark didn't go to the final of all of my bets. And beside them, also Lithuania and Greece made their spots in the final.
My choice was not only made based on what I like, but what I think it will do well on Eurovision, what is interesting, and what is currently modern and popular. One thing I really like is when they sing on mother tongue. I think it's really important, and this kind of competition has no point if everyone sings in English. Specially when it comes to countries with great and melodic languages, like Italian.
The surprise of the evening for me was Moldavia. I haven't heard their song before this evening, and it was not something I expected. They also didn't sing in English, so that was a plus. It was different and attempt to mix ethnic and traditional with modern music. They used harmonica, which is used a lot of here, and song was dynamic and cheerful. The song reminded me of Ukraine song, which is also a mix of ethnic and modern (rap), but it has more serious subject.
On Thursday we will watch second semi-finals, and also cheer for our representative, Konstrakta. I am very glad she is representing us this year, and I like the song, it has good lyrics and meaning, but it's also catchy and good for Eurovision, in my opinion.
Do you watch Eurovision and do you have favorites this year?
Photos I used in this article are from unsplash.com
Thank you for reading my post ^^
May - bullet journal and plans
It's fifth of May already, and I feel like we are half month in. I have many happenings this month, and I am still home, so time pass fast. In this article I would like to share my bullet journal spread for May and also some of my plans and goals. I will also make an update about my exercising in this post as well, since it's been 2 weeks that I haven't made update on that.
Bullet journal
First, I will share my bullet journal spread for this month, in my previous posts, I talked more about all the things that I include in my monthly journal, so this time I will focus only on my spread, as this is probably the most interesting part for me as well, and I like to look on YouTube and see what other people did, as inspiration for monthly theme. As per usual, I chose Amanda Reach Lee, and her video for May 2021. It was a fairy tale themed, and I really liked it. It included lots of mushrooms, frog, fairies, and some other plants. I didn't do exactly like here, but it was pretty much the same. Also, unlike her, I used colored pencils, instead of markers to color it. ( Don't mind the quality of the photos, lighting in my room is just terrible)
Exercising
Because I haven't made any update last 2 weeks, I would like to include my exercise update here. Basically it's same. As I went home it was very hard to maintain my routine, there were holidays and happenings, and it wasn't able to continue my almost daily routine. I didn't do measurements, but I think (and hope) that they are the same, because even thought I wasn't taking care of what I eat, when I eat, how much I eat, or exercising, I was still more active than I usually am. I do daily walks with my dog, also I ride bike here, and in general, I move much more, I am in house, go inside, go outside, go bring this or that,... It's much more dynamic than just mostly sitting in my apartment.
As for the May, it's going to be difficult as well. I am still home, and I will travel to Belgrade for few days only, then back home for a week, then back to Belgrade. So I am not sure, I will just try to remain active, and exercise if I can.
Other plans
As I mentioned, I have a busy month. There were already some holidays, I have some family celebrations, wedding. This month will pass by fast for sure. In all that chaos, I also need to study, and that will probably be the only goal. I decided to stop using all "little" or low payment sites, it's simply not working for me anymore, too much time for too little money. I will remain active here, and on hive (my goal is to post at last every second day). I maybe come back to noise, since I wasn't active for a while. I figured out how to track my monthly earnings in bitcoin.com wallet, so I will share my earnings at the end of the month. I would like to prepare some posts for June as well, since I know I won't have much time then and not much things happening, but I will see how it goes.
Overall, that's all, nothing special. It will be a busy fast month for me.
The photos I used in this article are original, and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Labor Day
Hello guys, new month is here. I wish you all a great one. The first four months of this year passed so fast for me, can't believe it's already May. Here, start of the May is always celebrated. It is because we celebrate Labor Day on the first of May. I know it's celebrated worldwide, but in some countries it's not celebrated on the same day. It's also referred to as "May day" and it's celebrated differently, depending on country. Here it's a national holiday and most people have two days off.
Here the holiday also has another name, "Uranak", taken from word "uraniti", which means get up early, because you are supposed to get up very early for the first of May. Another custom is making a big camp fire. What people usually do is go somewhere in nature, with friends and family and make barbecue and enjoy in their free time.
I spend this holiday for years now with my friends. And since last year we go to our friend's cottage, which is actually not far away but still away enough to enjoy amazing nature. Before, we were going further away, on mountains, and camp, but almost every year there was rain, so it wasn't so great. This is why this option is better, we can enjoy nature and have place to sleep and place to be, in case of rain.
We go on 30th of the April, in the afternoon, and stay the night, and go back on first of May in the afternoon. When I was a kid we did a big camp fire, but now, there is no need for it, and it can also be dangerous, so we don't do it. But barbecue is a must, so there is some fire anyway. Beside barbecue, we also start salad season, we even took some zucchini this year, and it was grilled perfectly on the barbecue. I also made pie, and we had some other snacks.
Even though May is a good month here, weather wise, for many years there was a rain. This year there was rain as well, but in the place where I was, it was very short and light, so it didn't ruin the holiday. And also this year was much warmer than previous, but also not too hot.
There were eight of us, but we had a visitor. It's a small village dog, from house under cottage, and she joined us last year as well. She is extremely cute and she listens. We feed her, but she kept asking for more, and soon we realized she is making supplies all around the place, and buries all the things that she won't eat at the moment. We noticed she has puppies, so we continued to give her food anyway, because we knew she needs it. At some point there was a big black dog as well, which she has puppies with, but he was much more shy and distanced.
If you happened to be here on this occasion, somewhere in the nature, you will see a lot of smoke, barbecue, hear a lot of songs, see a lot of people playing sports or other games, and partying.
Do you celebrate Labor day in your country and do you do it on May 1st, or some other day?
All photos used in this article are original and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
My dog attempted suicide
A day ago, I had a restless night, thanks to my crazy dog. Now that danger is away, I can joke about it, but I was quite scared at the time. I will tell you the story and what happened, how my dog attempted suicide. Of course, he didn't do it on purpose, but he could have killed himself.
It was evening time, and we had a guest, so I put some cookies on a plate as serving. There were two type of cookies and maybe 4-5 of each. One was bigger and one smaller and round. At some point, I left and went to my room, and I remember that I heard Teddy (my dog) in the hallway.
After some time, the guest left, and my mom was seeing our guest off. Then I heard Teddy going downstairs, and I left my room to stop him, thinking he will go outside after them, but he just went downstairs, so it was fine. I entered the living room and saw the cup of coffee on the edge of the table, about to fall. It was weird, so I went to move it towards the middle of the table. As the table is short, and we have a big dog, we keep all things on the table move toward the middle, so he wouldn't kick anything with tale or by accident.
When I moved the cup, I noticed that the plate with cookies was empty, but also shiny, apropos, wet. Right away, I thought Teddy licked it, and that he maybe ate one or two that were left there. He never does it, so even if the plate was empty, and he only licked it, it was still strange because he never does it. He never takes anything from the table, the one in the living room or any other.
My dad entered the room and I told him what I think happened. He immediately noticed there is a little spoon that was used for sugar, on the floor, so we were even more sure that Teddy was on the table. Mom came back, so we asked here how many cookies were left and how much they ate. She said almost all left and as she saw the empty plate she screamed because she realized what happened.
To sum up. Teddy was in the hallway. As my mom was leaving with a guest, he saw an opportunity and used those two minutes to enter the living room, eat all the cookies that were on the table (we calculated that there were at last 3 of each of them, so 6 in total), leaving almost no trails at all, except the spoon on the floor and cup moved, there was no crumbs at all, so I imagine he just swallowed it. And then he left the crime scene immediately. Beside him doing something very dangerous, I have to say, he pulled it out almost perfectly.
Why was this such a big deal? Because cookies were with chocolate, and chocolate is deadly to dogs. Lucky it wasn't chocolate bars but cookies, so it was not all chocolate. But if a dog eats too much of it, there is no medicine. The only solution is to cause him to vomit. It was nighttime and there was no vet to take him to. I started googling and as soon as I start reading I realized it was a bad idea. I was more and more scared and didn't know what to do. Finally, I read that for a big dog like mine, it takes much, much more chocolate to be deadly. It should have calmed me down, but still I barely slept that night thinking about him and checking him.
You may say it's our fault, and we shouldn't have left chocolate cookies that he can reach. And you may be right. But also he is an adult dog, living inside with no limitations. Our kitchen is open, and he has access to it any time, same as any other table in the house, and he was taught not to touch food or anything from it, and he never did it. And I don't know what got into him, but from now on we won't leave food that he can't eat in places he can reach.
I know some people even think it's fine for dogs to eat sweets and chocolate, and "nothing will happen", but for smaller dogs it can be very bad and even deadly. And would you risk it even if it was "nothing"? I know I wouldn't.
I tried to make a funny story out of it, but I would also like to use this as warrant for all of you who have dogs and many didn't know about it, or just to take more care, just in case. Keep your doggos safe.
All photos used in this article are original and taken by me. Teddy is on both of them.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Celebrating Easter with my family
Hello guys, I am back. I was not active a few days. I am still home, and I was just enjoying free time, time in the nature and time with my family. Even though prognoses weren't well for the weekend weather, weather was good then and since then also, despite prediction that there will be rain. On Saturday I was just home preparing things for Sunday and Easter celebration. I helped to make Russian salad and cake. On Sunday first we had breakfast at my home, with that part of the family, and then we went to the village for launch with my other grandparents, and aunt and uncle.
When ever we are in the village, we go for a walk in the woods with dogs, no matter what the weather is like. It was not different this time. Also, I spent time playing with dogs in the front yard. Beside my dog, there is my aunt's and uncle's dog, and also two dogs that live in the village with my grandparents. I really enjoy time with them because I am a huge dog lover, and I always imagined living with a pack of dogs.
For lunch, we had barbecue, but also a ton of other great food. Like young (baby, new) potatoes, few types of salad, cheese, homemade bread. And of course cake that we made the previous day for dessert, but also another cake with strawberry that my aunt made that day. In conclusion, a lot of amazing food.
Beside eggs that we brought, there were also eggs my aunt brought, and the one that my grandma made. As it turned out, my grandma had the best colored ones, because she likes to use internet to find ideas, and she made very artsy ones, I liked them the most. My aunt had beautiful pastel colors, also made natural way only.
I would like to tell you about custom on the Easter. On Friday we color eggs, and on Sunday we break them and eat them. But you don't just break and eat them, you need to compete with someone. So you chose egg, and your opponent do the same. You agree who hits first, and other person just hold their egg. First you hit with pointed side, and then with blunt side. Winner is the one that break the other egg. But sometimes, one egg brakes on one side, and the other on the other side, so you can use sides that have not braked to decide the winner. What winner gets? The loser's egg to eat. Since I like boiled eggs, I like this custom a lot, and I had quite a few eggs on Sunday and next days as well.
All in all, it was a lovely weekend and holiday and I enjoyed it, as well as the following days. There is another holiday coming up this weekend, but I will try to stay active and still post. Hope you had a great weekend as well.
All photos that I used in this article (including lead image) are original and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my article^^
Earthquake alert
Hello guys, hope you are all doing good. I wanted to write about last night, there was an earthquake. I was watching a TV show, and I was alone with my mom. At some point I felt a bit sleepy and probably fall a sleep a little. But then I felt little movement, and I saw a shadow from the chandelier moving around. Thing is, we live near a big road, and sometimes the house "moves" if there is a big truck passing by. Usually just you can hear windows, but chandeliers don't move. I thought of saying to my mom that I think it's an earthquake, but I wasn't sure if she is sleeping or not, I couldn't see from my position. And also, I was sure she is just going to tell me it's a truck. I just continued watching the show. Not long after, my dog who was in the hallway, entered the room. Later, when I went to my room, I saw a missed call.
Turns out there was indeed an earthquake and there was a notification about it. Since last year, in June, android added a notification for earthquakes. Notification said that there is a possibility of earthquake in the next half minute or so. At first, I thought that they just have news that earthquake happened nearby, so they are just spreading the news. But that is not the case. How it actually works is by detecting waves. If the phone detects something that may be an earthquake, it sends a signal to Google's earthquake detection server, and it also sends the location. If it turns out that there are more signals in the same area, the phones nearby will get alert notification.
I looked on the internet immediately, and found out there was indeed an earthquake, in Bosnia, but it was quite strong, strength was 6 (5.7 by some news) units of the Richter scale. This is why it was possible to feel it in parts of the all neighbor countries. The epicenter was in one small place, and only 3 people were hurt. But unfortunately one of them died due to injuries, because stone fall on their house.
I went to tell my mom that there was an earthquake, but she laughed and said it was a truck. I tied to convince her and told her to look it up. As it turned out, it happened when I thought it did, and this was the reason why my dog came in the room with us. He is scared of things like this, and even though it was light, he felt it and didn't want to be alone.
Android feature is available all over the world. I think it's amazing feature, and it's amazing what can technology do, but still I don't see how much it can be helpful, because it predicts earthquake few seconds before it happens. I guess in some situations it can be, but not many. Since it hasn't been even a year since the feature was added, I am sure it will develop and probably get better. What is your opinion of this alert, and have you ever seen it?
Big earthquakes are not very usual here. The last "big" (over 5 units of the Richter scale) happened in 2010. But last year there was one big in Croatia, which is also neighbor country like Bosnia. In Bosnia, earthquakes continued during the night, but lesser intensity. Hopefully, there won't be any bigger and more damage.
All photos used in this article are taken from unsplash.com
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Great Friday
Today is a big Christian holiday, Great Friday. It is considered to be the saddest Christian holiday, because it's the holiday that commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The date of this holiday varies from year to year, in our church it can be somewhere between April and first week of May. But in case you wonder how come it's today, wasn't it seven days ago? Yes, it was, but for Christians that use Gregorian calendar, our church however, among few others, still use Julian calendar.
Some people are already fasting, before Easter, but for all fast is necessary on Great Friday. This means you can't eat any animal or animal product, beside fish. Usually I am not a fan of this food, because I don't like fish, but today we had a nice meal. Fish was the only one that I ate, and besides that, we had a lot of veggies, fries.
Just like any holiday, there are customs that follows it. Main custom today is coloring eggs. During the years, we tried so many techniques and did many colors, some were good, some not so good. Some were also not so eatable, and eggs would be colored under the shell. But since last year, we decided to try out only natural colors. My grandma traditionally does eggs in bulb, and my mom use neutral ingredients to get all the colors.
In the morning, I collected different types of weed and leaves for coloring in the bulb. This is not so hard since we have so many different plants in the garden, and my grandma didn't do too many eggs. Leaves are put on eggs, and eggs are put in a woman thin sock. This way the sock will hold the leaf, and the rest of the egg will be colored.
For colored eggs we used many different natural ingredients. We got red and pink from beet, blue from red cabbage (yeah I know how it sounds), yellow and orange from turmeric, and green by making egg yellow first, and then putting it in blue (not mixing colors). But there are so many options for each color, depending on what you currently have to use, or can get. Since you do egg by egg, this also takes more time. The only thing I would suggest, is to use only white eggs, if you want colors to be more vivid. We had mix, not only white ones, so we had different shades, as you can see.
It was fun to pain eggs before, but also I think this way of coloring them is very good, because shades are nice and also you know its all natural and good.
All photos I used in this article are original and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Football derby
Last weekend, as I already wrote, my brother came to visit. The main reason for his visit was the football derby, that happened on Saturday. I am a big fan of Red Star, but I don't usually go to derby. In fact, this was only my second time to go. Reasons are various, but mostly. But basically, the main problem that I have with football here in general are not fans, but hooligans, who are just using football (or other sport) to make fight. I don't think they even deserve more words.
But I love sports, and I love to go to watch it live. And this was my brother first time to watch it live. The match was part of the play-off, of our national league. Match was on stadium of my team, so I felt more comfortable because I was there many times. Funny thing is that my brother is a fan of the opposite team then I am. This is the reason why we didn't go to south (his team fans) or north (my team fans), but to "neutral" zone. This also wasn't bad at all, because we could see the game well, but also north and south, and how they cheer and choreography. We also didn't take any marks, just in case.
Since it's a high risk game, there were cops in many parts of the city, but also most of them were on the game itself. Many people come to the game, so they are around the city to maintain not only peace, but also traffic. Usually I see the ones with horses, but I didn't see them this time.
On the last photo, you can also see how fans of the opposite club are separated from other side. Main choreography was on almost the entire stadium, and it was saying "But better than..." which is part of the song, ad it was dedicated to opposite team fans. Meaning it's better for their team to take championship, then the opposite team.
Pyrotechnics are not allowed, but they are present in general, and if you go to the derby, for sure, there will be pyrotechnics. Torches mostly, smoke, but my team do fireworks also. This time it was very pretty, and I wish I could share video of it, so you can see better, but I will share a photo of it at last.
Although there were so many people, cheering, fireworks, choreography,... there was not too much good football, unfortunately. Game ended with even score, 0:0, and none of the teams didn't show the best play. However, I am glad I went with my brother. Derby is unique and exciting experience, of course, not for everyone, but people that love such things.
All photos used in this article are original and taken by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Visiting theater again
Hello guys, hope you are all doing well. I wanted to write about another play that I saw. This one was in theater in the Belgrade, and it's my favorite theater, and also the play was on my favorite scene. The theater is called "Atelje 212", which means studio/atelier 212. This scene is the small scene out of two scenes in the theater, and it's name "Petar Kralj" after the famous actor, that passed away. I was actually in that theater for the first time, watching a play that he was starting at. The play I saw this time is called "Regime of love".
The scene is quite small, and I know some people don't like it, and don't like to be so close to the scene, but I love it. I feel like I am part of it and enjoy it much more this way. Scene is different for different plays and chairs can be arranged differently, so I am impressed with how much they can do with such small place.
This time, the first two rows of the chairs were on the sides of the scene. I was in the fourth row, but because the first two rows were moved, I was actually in the second row to the scene. Also, the scene on it own was fascinating. It represented the "love rug", which means man's chest. Do they use this expression in your country as well? It's a funny one. It represented the chest of the main character, fatal man and playboy, Misa. I will add a photo, so you can see how it looked.
The play was about love, affairs, loneliness, relationships, sexuality, marriage,... And it was represented in a very interesting, modern, way. The play is age limited, and it's for older than 14, but I wouldn't say it's that explicit, rather that it just cover subject that are more interesting to older audience. It covers all almost all types of relationships in modern world, represented in comical way. It was very funny at some moments, and I enjoyed in overall.
I like plays with only a few actors, but this time there was a total of 5 people. Three actresses and two actors. It was supposed to be one actor that I previously watched, and I like how he acts, but he didn't play. However, his substitution was very fitting to the role, in my opinion. All of them were good, and I am not even sure I can choose who was the best. At times, they even sit next to the audience while taking their story. Plays on the small scene usually don't have much action, and usually not too many actors, because they don't have much space and change of scene. This time it was all happening at the same place, nothing changed. But I love to see how they adapt dramatic text to the scene, with not too many tools.
I already have few other plays that I want to see in this theater but I can't see any other this month. I hope to see one in may, but I will have to wait to see monthly repertoire to know if dates are good for me.
All photos I used in this article are original and taken by me.
Thanks for reading my post ^^
Two weeks update - stagnation
Hey guys, Monday and new week are here, and I want to wish you all a great one. New week means new update on my workout progress. I really should stop talking about things in advance. In the last update, I said that I don't expect my last week results to be as good as the previous ones. Mainly because I planned to continue the same exercises as the previous week, and just to get better at them, not to push myself more. When you do workout, and have a goal, results get slower by the time, just because it's harder to take off that last inch, then the first one. However, this was not the reason for my bad results. Reason was not exercising almost at all. Yes, I know. Disappointing. I ended up with fewer days working out, then rest days. I was more active, and I did a lot of walking this weekend, so this surly helped my results not to be worse. My weekend was busy, my brother came, but I will write about it more in the next articles.
Also, I didn't eat that well this week. I had fast food twice. It's not too bad, but I would avoid it if I could. It was just more convenient that way, because we didn't have much time to prepare, etc. Today, I am back on track and I already had a smoothie to start my day with. This time I chose some wild berries combination, so it was pink.
As far as my results are concerned, I stagnated mostly. All measurements are same expect my lower belly which somehow went down for 1.5 cm. This was surprising, and overall good that it didn't become worse, so I didn't annul previous results and progress.
For this week I plan to continue normal, but again, I am a bit scared in advance, because I am going home, and I hope I will be able to maintain routine there as well, but it will probably be hard. Also, I will not eat as healthy as I am (trying) here. Holidays are coming, which means a lot of tasty but not so healthy food. Also, I am staying home for a while, and more holidays are coming up next weekend. But we will see. At least I will be outside more and more active, that will help for sure. Just like it did this week.
Lately, my articles are not so good, I guess, but I will continue to write and try to get better. I have some interesting subjects from last weekend to write about in the next days, and also this week should be fun.
All photos I used in this article are original and taken and edited by me.
Thank you for reading my post ^^
Waiting for a train...
It must be that I said too many good things about trains in my last article, so here I am, waiting for one that's an hour late. My brother is coming for the weekend, and I need to wait for him. For things to be worse, it's a late train anyway, should have been here at 9.40pm. And in Belgrade, public transportation goes very rare, after 11, 12, it goes every hour only. Yes, there is a taxi, as an option, but in Belgrade it's not cheap at all. When I left my apartment, the train was half an hour late, and by the time I reach bus station, it was 56 minutes. Thing is, I could have returned to the apartment and left later, but the train was still away and could possibly be faster at other parts and lower the time difference. And I didn't want my brother to reach the station and wait for me. There was very little people outside.
I decided to wait for the first bus and go to the station and wait for him there, hoping that train will become faster. Maybe not the smartest idea, since around the train station there is literally nothing, but I thought I could take a walk. Luckily, the weather was just perfect. It was 17-15 degrees, and nighttime, so no sun to make it feel warmer. It's actually my favorite temperature. I don't do good on high temperatures, not even on normal if there is sun. Therefore, this evening was very pleasant for walk. I didn't want to go far away because I still didn't know when the train will come, but I wanted to make some extra steps. Also, the sky and moon were beautiful, even tho the moon was still not 100% full.
I ended up making around 3500 steps, just there. But I would say it counts as even more, because I didn't want to go far away from the station, so I went up and down stairs, like a crazy person. Luckily, there was only one person around, that didn't seem to care what I am doing 😁
I also took some snaps while I was there, just to not be completely bored, but there were not too many things around, just a train station. And it was nighttime and my camera is not the best for night shots, but I took a few anyway. I already added some, here is another one:
On this last one, you can also see the temple of Saint Sava in the background. And in the front is a train station. Finally, at 10.35, the train came, and we were able to catch a bus, not long after.
Lately, trains seem to be extra late, and ironically, it all started to happen more often, since they added a new, extra fast train, but it goes to other line, not to my home.
I hope that trains will go normal again soon, but I won't go by this "regular" one till summer probably, so I hope it will be fixed until then. I might try the new fast one, however.
This was a story from Friday. I was a bit busy and couldn't post before.
All photos I used in this article are original and taken by me. I also edited them in the default phone application for editing photos.
Thank you for reading my post ❤️
Well paid seasonal work
Our country is known for production of many fruits (plums, apricots, apples, blackberries,...), among them, raspberry. Specially part where I am from, West Serbia. Raspberry is very good fruit, full of vitamine C, it's benifitial for many things, health wise. Season is in summer only but we froze it, so we can have it throughout the year.
People usually have a lot of rows of the raspberry, and they need help in the season to collect it all, because it's necessary to be done in the certain time. It also depends on how good raspberry is that specific year. Some workers get paid per kilo of raspberry, and some by the day. Most get paid per day, I think, and if the worker is not from the same place, or near, they get a place to stay, as well as food. But it all depends on agreement, of course.
Usually this job is paid around $20 per day (it's not the same at every place). Last year, however, it was around $30, due to a huge raise in price of raspberry per kilo. Purchase price in refrigerators of one kilo was up to $4.5, and usually it was from $1-$2.5 (depending on the year). It never seems fair to me that someone puts all that work in it, and get paid $2 per kilo, while in some big supermarkets they sell it for much more (like, 250gr for $2, and I know abroad it's even more). Also, many people that live on countryside, have this as one of the main recourses of money, so they lose a lot if year is bad, and price is not good. Before there were even protests here because price was really bad at some seasons.
This year, however, they predict unbelievable price of 8-$10 per kilo (as purchase price, and later, they will sell it for even more), and it's because there was late frost and some plantations were destroyed, so there is less of raspberry. But also, inflation maybe, I am not sure. This is the reason why payment for pickers is now bigger, and it will be $50 per day.
Doesn't sound bad at all, right? You could have $350 in a week of work, and that's how much someone here earns in a month. But don't get tricked. Being a picker is not an easy job. You do work pretty much the entire day (from early morning, until sun sets) and you are constantly on your feet, standing or bend a bit, mostly in direct sun, because season in the summer. It's about 10-12 hours of hard work, and before it was paid only $20. Now payment is better, but still, work is the same. And having raspberry is not only seasonal work for those who cultivate it. It requires things to be done before season, and it can be all destroyed by the weather.
I never did this for payment, because earlier we had our own raspberry, so I did it as free work 😁 But I hated it, because I can't be long in the sun, and it's everyday work, and it seems like it will never end. We had other fruits and agricultural work that it was easier for me to do. Like plums. However, now that I saw price for raspberry this year, I wouldn't mind if we had few rows of it, if you get what I mean 😁
I like to eat raspberry, it's good for smoothies and it's great in cakes also. Here people even make brandy, rakia of it. But when I was picker I got sick of it for a while. Not only coz I could eat it daily, but also because I hated that work.
Did you ever did such job or similar, and what you think of the price? Is this type of work payed better in your country, or worse? Or it also depends on the year and price of the goods? Would you be a raspberry picker this year in my country?
Photos used in this article are original and taken by me. First one isn't raspberry though, but it's a berry 😁
Thank you for reading my post ^^ :)
Teddy and his friend
My dog Teddy has few "regular friends" that he sees every week. On Sunday we go to the village, and there he is playing with my aunts dog and two dogs that are living there. I would say he gets along with all of them now, even though at first, he is not favorite to other dogs. I think it's because he is bigger, so maybe they are intimidated, but he really only wants to play all the time.
A few years ago, Teddy and our friends' dog got to know each other. She came to us, and Teddy of course loved her right away, and wanted to play and was all over her. They came to our place, because we wanted to take them both to the river that is near our home.
Teddy loves the river, but he is not so sure about swimming. He knows how to do it, but he is little scared of it, and prefer to stand in water. The first time we took him to the river, I went a little more deep in the water, where he couldn't stand anymore, and he was barking and panicking, I guess he was worried about me, hah.
Anyway, the other time we took him with his friend, and she is a golden retriever, and she swims very well. Teddy was so surprised with this, and first he was barking at her, and then he finally swam with her, but he was whining all the time. He didn't want to let his lady swim alone, even though he was so scared.
I have to say, I was a bit jealous how he didn't come to rescue me in the water, but his crush? He was there for her constantly. I am just kidding of course, but it was so funny to see him overcoming his fear, just so he could follow up his friend.
Teddy and his friend didn't see each other for some time, and last weekend we decided to get them together again, but this time at her place. She wasn't so thrilled at first, I think she didn't like him being on her territory, or she forgot him, since it's been a few years. But after a while they were finally good and started to play and enjoy.
Hopefully, this summer weather will be good, and river side will be nice, so that we can take them both again to the river. They will enjoy there more, and for Teddy it's good to go to the river in summer, because he doesn't like heat at all, so it's a nice way for him to get refreshment.
All photos I used in this article are original and taken by me. The one from the river are bit blurry because it was long time ago and phone camera was not the great, plus they were constantly moving.
Thank you for visiting my profile and reading my post ^^
Have a great day you all :)
Lucid dreams
I am a dreamer. I dream, probably every night. I remember around 40% of the time, what I dreamed of, but with the first minutes of waking up, if I don't think of it, I forget it. Specially if the dreams are not so interesting and specific.
For example, I decided to write about dreams today, and I remembered I had an interesting weird situation dream last night, but then, a few hours after waking up, I couldn't remember what the dream was about.
Some dreams I remember for years, because they were so scary or vivid, and affected me at the time a lot.
I had a period of time in my life, when I had nightmares almost every night. It was always different, but always with the same goal. My mom even got worried because of that, but at some point it stopped. This was the first and only time (that I remember) I had I would say semi - lucid dream.
For those who don't know, a lucid dream is the dream where you are aware that you are dreaming, and you can control things some or all things that are happening in your dream.
I knew about this a long time ago, and since I dream a lot I always hoped I would have a dream like that, specially if I dream of something interesting. Lucid dreams can happen on its own, spontaneous, or it can be deliberately incited.
At time that I had nightmares, after some time, I had lucid dream. I think at that point, my brain was aware that this dreams of mine are pattern, and that's why I was able to realize it.
In the dream, my friend and I were in a scary situation, and my friend started to worry a lot, and I felt bad because of it, grab her hand and said "It's okay, this is only my dream". However, other than feeling less fear, and comforting my friend, I didn't have much control of the dream, but I woke up not long after that.
Also, soon after this, my nightmares stopped.
Dreams in general are very interesting to me, an interesting subject, even though a lot of times I hate that I dream so much, because I wake up a lot, and also sometimes I don't feel like I slept good because of the wild and vivid dreams. But also I have amazing dreams, like when I fly or just have some powers that are not real.
I have more stories about my dreams, and also I would like to write about interesting facts about dreams, I feel like not many people know about this.
I probably wouldn't know it as well if I hadn't had psychology in high school, and also crazy dreams on my own, so I looked up it more.
Did you ever have a lucid dream? Do you dream often?
All photos used in this article are original and taken by me.
Thanks for reading my post ^^
@moonlight22
