After a long absence one very long post with thoughts, pictures and videos.

Brainstorm in their most memorable moments: the videos of "My star," and "maybe." I could not find the song they play in "Lotte" but sooner or later I will. For those from the other side of the Atlantic: They are the signature band of Latvian pop music, although probably they would rather be in the rock, more traditional side...or would have, it has seemed to me.
In any case, Emil likes them and the rest of us sort of enjoy their music also...but the very best ones are more recent such as the two at the end of this post: "a thunder without rain" and "a day before tomorrow." Enjoy!

I have no idea what I should be starting with today, I am not a reliable narrator. Thoughts cling in between lines, and the events get lost in badly choosen expressions. I have a terrible English day! But my mind is imploding and I will give it a try given that we have not been very communicative lately; Without any special introduction let´s say that it was Saturday, very late in the evening when my deepest thoughts then immersed in a festive decorating mood, a real wave of creativity and daydreaming collided with real life concerns. First of them (chronologically speaking, for it was not the most important matter of the past week) a coughing attack; A late indication of the respiratory condition of Joonas...The three children, in mathematical sequence, got ill and incorporated their cranky beings to my daily (on duty 24 hours) routine. They are afflicted by bronchitis. The second, more compelling and thought provoking, a terrible case of domestic abuse. I was swimming in a pool of illustrations, prints and drawings, surfing the internet and bookmarking inspiring sites, reading decorating dramas on the web and touched by remodelling experiences for less than 500EUR (A self induced nirvana for the kind, my kind), when a woman who was in down town Madrid, with a one year old baby in her arms, trying to escape her abusive partner, with no more than 2EUR in her pocket called to J. She was sore and bruised all over her body and had just arrived in a train from a different province of the country. She wanted to go back to Estonia and feared that the man, like he had done before in 2 occasions, would find them and bring them back home by the hair only to recruit her back as his personal slave.
There are too many details to the story but surely not needed to reflect on what that meant to us. This entry is not about her story but about the moral dilemma that situations like these pose to people who´s lives are disrupted only by heavy traffic, a rude neighbour, or a dish too salty. How to define social responsibility, or else, whatever it is that a person who lives a comfortable, if not a perfect life has to assume when there is a call from someone in need? It does not have to be a telephone call, as we received, it could very well be a realization of the ridicule one could perform if letting small constrains and negligible mishaps disturb us. People suffer, really suffer very much and about most of that suffering we cannot do much. Sudan is too far, the Bosnian victims unreachable, we have no call to go on missions or to participate in charitable events. Some of us do not march against terrorism, but we could do something else. It is not about morals alone, but about practical living. The world would be better if we cared a bit more for the happiness (satisfaction?) of those around us. Why we afford depriving close relatives and friends from the minimum care and affection? Why we get busy with crap (most TV programming for example, gossiping, being mean and resentful, etc.) instead of sharing more of our time and efforts in constructive deeds? What a boring living room, an old sofa or an unsymmetrical wall mean when people suffer such tragedies? Can one be absent from the world miseries and concentrate in those small, superfluous details? Should one not be at least, if not engaged with projects or charity directly, be more concious, kinder, solidary, generous and at least less frivolous when choosing how to spend our worrying energy about? This case completely removed me from the decoration emergency I was experiencing, and up to now I have been unable to get into cool design or wonderful cuisine blogs again.
The woman and the child stayed with us a couple of days (It was not only shocking but also very educational to Emil, Juulia and even Joonas who showed excess attention withdrawal symptoms) and finally was escorted to the plane by J. this morning. Her tragedy is far from over. A woman who enters and stays years in an abusive relationship thinks very little about her self and has plenty of self esteem issues to deal with before she recovers her dignity and can manage to establish healthy relationships. Now, even more than before, stripped from self worth she is vulnerable to fall into another abusive cycle. People like her are struggling a lifetime with these problems, often with very little help/support. Others spend (waste?) years of their lives worrying about things: clothes, furniture, ornaments, cosmetics, wall paper, etc... and get sponsored, endorsed, and admired.
I like objects as well, beautiful ones. I tend to like them too much, and I feel sorry to concentrate on that exclusively, sometimes. It really happens only sometimes.
I am taking pictures of the letter E to use later in print, maybe even to include them in the book that one day I hope to publish with Emil´s recipes. I had taken many, but they are lost with the laptop´s hard drive. I was left with only with these 3:

As announced, Brainstorm again. More "mature" and consolidated 1. Thunder without rain and 2. A day before tomorrow: