Obscure Journey

Covering up is more important than ever

Publié le 22 Juillet 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #health, #lifestyle, #fashion, #life experience, #tips, #advice, #life lesson, #beauty

It doesn't matter you're a woman or a man - cover up!

I'm not a Muslim and i'm not any other type of extremist religious person, so before you bash my words, please read my 2 most important reasons I urge EVERYONE regardless of gender, race, religion, and skin color, to cover up.

What are you supposed to cover up? hair and skin. Hear me out!

REASON #1 - POLLUTION!

By covering up your hair and most of your skin, you protect them from pollution. If you live in a city, you're aware of the levels of pollution on the streets. If you live out in the country side, you might want to skip to the 2nd reason ;)

Sure, not everyone is made the same, but whatever skin and hair issues you may have, they can get worse when exposed to pollution. Dust and smoke get attached to our skins and hair, especially when our faces become oily towards the end of the day, most of the skin becomes sweaty throughout the day especially in summer, and so on.

We're then getting home and we have to use various chemicals to remove all the stuff our hairs and skins collected. Sure there are many products that use natural ingredients, but let's be real - not everyone can afford those, or pays attention to buy them. Most of us need to buy really aggressive cosmetics that leave our skins and hairs really dry, and in turn we need other products to help moisturize them back.

These products are pretty bad for out skin, hair but also for the environment. Maybe by covering up, we won't need such aggressive cosmetics, nor in such a large amounts. However, this need is influenced by other personal factors that you can't ignore and that i'm not aware 100% aware of.

REASON #2 - SUN DAMAGE AND SKIN CANCER

The sun does a lot of good but a lot of bad as well. Doctors say that you should be fine as long as you wear sun screen when you go out. Truth is that CLOTHES are the best sun screen - as long as they're not transparent.

Sun screen usually needs to be reapplied, usually leaves a sticky sensation on the skin which can attracts more dust and pollution on your skin.

The sun doesn't avoid some people - just because you're a person of African descent, and your skin is as dark as coal, it doesn't mean the sun won't burn you. It also doesn't mean you won't get skin cancer - not that i wish cancer on anyone, for i don't. You could be a dermatologist and still get it.

Skin cancer can be a small dot on your skin, can look like an ingrown hair. But I'm not a doctor so you better go talk to one, or do more research on your own. As you can see from the experience of that dermatologist, cancer can appear on your scalp too, if your head is not covered.

(Picture: New England Journal of Medicine)

You thought I'm done? not yet.

REASON #2 - PART TWO: PREVENT PREMATURE AGING

If you're a woman you may want to look young for as long as possible - maybe men want this too, but i haven't seen as many as i saw women.

Sun exposure doesn't only increase the chances of getting skin cancer, but also ages. Have you seen the truck driver with half face looking like an 80 year old man and the other half looking about 60 years old? His real age was 69 at the time of having his picture taken. Read more here.

The clear message from this man's picture is that the sun ages a person and that being somehow covered prevents that.

CONCLUSION:

Cover up! Cover up if you want to increase your chances of staying cancer free for as long as possible, and for looking younger for longer, without the help of bad cosmetics or plastic surgeries.

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Visiting the National Museum of Art -European art-

Publié le 19 Juillet 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #museum, #adventures, #impressions, #spoilers

Hello!

If you remember from a past entry, I visited the National Museum of Art of Romania for free. And I promised I'd do a second entry when I visit the other section.

The museum is split in 2 sections: Romanian art an European art, and you need to pay for each section.

I don't have much to say about this visit. This section of the museum is much smaller than the Romanian section - maybe less than half? Exploring it made me think of a maze.

I'll explain a bit more after the video.

There were many rooms, mostly because the museum is hosted at The Royal Palace. Additionally, going from one room to the other was a bit confusing - well I also had a low sugar level in my blood that day, so I was feeling quite weak.

I'm disappointed to say that the European art didn't impress me as much as the Romanian art did. The video is a quick collection of the works I liked the best.

There was a time when I wished I lived in such a big place. Not anymore - all the cleaning... remembering where to go to find the room i need... no thanks.. i barely find the stuff i need in an 1 bedroom apartment, let alone a huge palace like that.

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Roasting eggplant - vegan friendly!

Publié le 16 Juillet 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #life lesson, #Cooking, #recipe, #life experience, #tips, #advice, #tricks, #health, #vegan, #food

I have to post this, because for the first time I managed to roast eggplant in a way that worked, is healthy, and I actually enjoyed eating. Oh, and yea! It's vegan friendly!

So i had these eggplants [aubergines] about to go bad. So wondered what to do with them. Roasting them sounded really good. Here is how I did it!

Ingredients:

eggplants [as many as you like]
condiments [i used black pepper, basil, and thyme]
some salt
some cooking oil [unflavored is best]

I first washed and peeled the eggplants. Then I sliced them as evenly as i could - i'm really bad at this task. Their thickness was about 1cm - i didn't measure.

I realized that using a long-bladed knife helped a lot with this task.

I used the brush usually useful when baking, to lightly spread some oil on my baking pan.

I realized that the baking pan is quite important - I had some non-stick types, but they burned by foods as they were too thin, and the non-stick coating peeled.

The pan i used this time is thicker and rather shiny, but I can't tell what type it is, or what it's made of. All i know is that i can scrub it quite a lot and it won't peel. It's not really enamel either, or at least i don't think it is enamel.

After I sliced the eggplants, and after i had lightly oiled the pan, I placed as many slices of eggplant as i could in the pan. I then tried to smudge a bit of oil on each slice, and sprinkled with salt and the condiments, and then i put the pan in the preheated oven.

I let the slices stay for some 25 to 30 minutes, and then i flipped them over. I proceeded to still let them cook for some 15-20 minutes.

Unlike with the non-stick pans, the slices did NOT stick to this pan - they did stick to the non-stick ones when i tried the recipe before. I have no idea how it happened. All i know is that i got rid of the so called non-stick ones, but mostly because they started peeling.

I cook with gas, hence fire, and this may be a reason for my previous attempts at roasting to turn into failures. Vegetables turned mushy, or burned. I guess this baking pan is specially made for cooking and roasting with gas.

Bottom line is that if your roasts are not like the expectation, try to change your pan - it might just do the trick.

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Are Romanians psychic vampires ...?

Publié le 15 Juillet 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #adventures, #advice, #health, #life experience, #people

It baffles me how people fro different backgrounds or countries can have such different energies. Let me give you an example.

"the time to meet was too short."

I write this at the beginning of November*, a few days after we met with our friend from Japan. While we wish we were the ones to go visit Japan, it was him who came to see us. He took some 3 or 4 months off from work to have a tour through Europe. He wanted to come see us for a long time already, and we couldn't be happier to make this a reality. We hope he felt the same. For me, I'm sad the time to meet was too short. But we can't always have what we want, and the best things come in small portions anyways, right?

But despite the short time we spent together, I could notice a stark difference between him and the many people surrounding us on a daily basis. He's calm, peaceful, pleasant, and overall quiet. My partner and I can't stress how relaxing it was to talk to him. Despite what you heard about Japanese men, our friend doesn't really fit that image. He was very quick to ask for selfie pictures when we where in places that would offer a good backdrop to the image - not shy at all.

To give some more depth to the experience, a couple of weeks before he arrived, my partner and I attended a contest on Korean culture. We were just the audience ... along with the about 100 other women and a few guys. The event left us with barely any energy, a lot of anxiety and confusion. How was this possible? I wish I knew, because all we did was to sit on chairs, and clap now and then.

"Romanians sound angry or as if they're having a fight."

The event/contest was sorta boring in our opinion - no blog entry on it, other than this one. The sensation of being drained of energy is something we often get around Romanians - maybe it has something to do with them being too loud and us being too sensitive to loud noises? Often times when talking, Romanians sound angry or as if they're having a fight, much like Russians. Can you imagine we were afraid we'd feel similar around our friend? Yeah, neither can we. Clearly, because he's Japanese he's quiet, doesn't want to disturb or to upset anyone. This helped us realize it's not just our imagination that it is difficult to be around certain people, even though they've always been around.

"real psychic vampires ...?"

As the last thoughts for this entry, I want to say that if you feel there is any person draining you of energy every time you meet them, and others do not - it's not just in your head! They may not be real psychic vampires, but you should still consider having as little contact with them as possible.

*written in November 2017, posted in July 2018.

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Romanian style embroidery

Publié le 8 Juillet 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #book, #tips, #advice, #customs, #traditions, #romanian tradition, #DIY, #crafts, #sewing, #embroidering

Hello everyone!

Today I want to share with you my newest interest - cross-stitching. WooHoo! /throws confetti/ oh, i'll clean that ... later...

freestyle vs pattern

Cross stitching is something I didn't think i'd get into. But somehow it happened. The story is a bit longer than this. Back in 2015 I received this gigantic sheet for the inter blanket -duvet? I thought I can't possibly use it as it is, and i thought I could turn it into pillow cases. And therefore I started measuring, cutting and sewing -everything by hand.

If you don't have a lot of resources, and you need to hem your cloth, you can use some hair pins to keep the fabric in place. I found this method easy to use and not to ruin the material. On top of this, you can simply slide the pin as you need to advance.

As a curiosity, i used a running stitch on the fabric i folded twice, and the stitch didn't get ruined in the laundry machine.

my pictures, from my instagram @secret.agent0101

I wanted to use traditional motifs, so i asked people i knew if they had something to help out. I needed both patterns and thread. Of course they did and they gave me a book with traditional patterns and a lot of thread as well.

I flipped through the book to find a design that wasn't too complicated to replicate since I'm a beginner. And i found some that did looked easy, in a single color.

The one i decided on was all black and seemed easy enough. I copied it on paper using colored pencils, because i wanted some more colors on my pillow.

The next step was to make sure the colors looked ok together. They weren't bad and they look better in real life.

i changed the design a bit more [3rd picture above]

i changed the design a bit more [3rd picture above]

The design i chose is the one in the lower right corner, in the book. I also show you how you're supposed to embroider it, if you like it. It makes a really nice edge on stuff, if positioned right.

I thought that an all black design would look too rough, though it would have been easier to stitch.

Did you know that Romanians traditionally sew with red and black thread, on white cloth? White means purity, red means joy and black means life.

I wanted to have at least 1 traditional color in my traditional motif. And this is why i choose red.

Since the cloth i decided to sew on in not easy to count the threads, i needed more visual help. I used a fountain pen. If you want to use the same method, make sure it's blue ink: red and black are staining the fabric and are more difficult to remove.

Of course, i sometimes messed up the guide. But it's ok as some of the errors got covered by some of the later stitches.

None of these patterns have instructions on how or where to start from, so I had to figure these aspects myself. I figured that stitching the wave first would be easier later when i decide to add the other elements in other colors.

However, drawing the guide [here the dots], then crossing the location of each stitch made my work even more easy. This allowed me to embroider whatever element I wanted first.

Refer to the 1st picture in the beginning and the 3rd picture above, if you want to see what happens when you don't count the thread of your fabric, when you're supposed to do so.

And above you can see the end result. I decided to embroider a hen eating grass as well. For that design i decided to use a piece of etamin fabric to trace a counted guide. it made my life quite easy, but for the size, i needed thinner thread.

I like what everything looks like. I will continue practicing my embroidering skills though.

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strange dream and strange sky

Publié le 1 Juillet 2018 par Charly C.

Catégories : #dream, #weird, #sky, #moon, #light, #bizarre, #life experience, #bucharest, #story, #real

Last night [june 28th] I had another strange dream. Like a visit to a different reality. Again.

Before I start describing my dream, I want to point out I couldn't breathe in real life - the cold air made my nose stuffed. My partner was also listening to some music in the same room I was sleeping. On with my dream.

"The sky. The sky is different... [i think to myself in the dream]. It makes me suffocate."

The sky was blue, fake, and had some sort of bubbles. "Am i actually underwater?" The fakery makes me think of a snow globe. "This is scary. I feel TRAPPED and watched ... from every angle - there's no escape". This saddened me, and even though I felt and wanted to cry, I couldn't.

"What's this vibration? everything feels different than what I know, despite it looking just as i know it" This different vibration makes us be slower. And then HE told me, as we were about to go in the building <even if everything looks familiar, this is not your ****. Things are slower here. MUCH slower.> "What...? what do you mean?" <look behind you.>

And when i looked behind me, as i was trying to close a door, i see a trail of me's that were catching up to me, doing just what i just did. I also couldn't really move faster: i had to wait for my trail to catch up to me.

I was hoping we would get home, where i could breathe and move freely. The elevator was slow too. HE was there too, and told me it's slower than i know it - and sure enough it was.

[We got down -i don't know the floor, and HE headed to a different direction than i usually go to get home.]

there are many apartments on a single floor, not just 5 like i know. Some of the apartments had bars on the front door - and it was forbidden to go in them. plus we couldn't because they were locked. And the "ADMIN" had the keys.

We got in THEIR apartment and the TV was on, playing some music. some of THEM seemed to be watching whatever was on TV, but at closer look, they were acting more as if they were in a trance and looking through the TV.

The energy was very heavy and dense ... that's when i recognized Jewel [im pretty sure it was him], but im not sure who the others were. As soon as I recognized Jewel, I wanted to cry, but my tears were dry.

<don't you feel lucky she chose you? She chose to live with you.. i know i do [feel lucky she chose me] ....... very.... very happy.....> [sad voice]

i realised just how badly i wanted to be back home .....and i woke up..

Now, about the weird sky. I have a small obsession with looking up at the sky no matter where i am.

This year, in May we had a full moon at the end of the month. According to this site, it happened on May 29th. And I remember going out in the evening to get some fresh air and i noticed the full moon being quite high in the sky [or farther than usual] because it looked smaller than usual. This was either the 29th or the 30th of the month, when the moon still looks full enough to the untrained eye.

However, as June rolled in, something weird happened: there was no moon on the sky! At all! I didn't go out in the evening every night, but when I did, i looked up to see the moon - and if you live long enough in an area YOU KNOW when and where to search for the moon based of in phases.

I couldn't find the moon! for several nights! I only recorded the sky in one night, and YES, i know the quality is shitty, and i am really sorry i dont have a better camera to record such stuff. u.u I couldn't see the moon in the sky for at least 4 evenings in a row!

Then I stopped looking. then the moon phase changed, as did the weather as it started to get cloudy and rainy.

But the weird sky didnt stop with a missing moon! NO, sir! The next evening, after i recorded the sky with the missing moon, i noticed a strange light in the sky AFTER the sun set. it was almost 10 pm and there was still light out that evening, and a strange light RIGHT above my building! The source was hidden by a cloud.

The light was pretty indeed, but WEIRD! the "event" didn't repeat itself the next evening.

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