That incredible place where happiness is.

Text and Photo by Nora Vasconcelos

Not son long ago I read on the news the story of a English man who presented his resignation by writing it on the icing of a cake.

What motivated this action was his recently born child and his desire to spend more time with him, what he’d be able to do while taking care of his cake business.

This story made me think about a couple of recent movies I’d seen, based on books that talk about this desire to by happy while trying to achieve at the same time a succesful career.

One of these movies was The Pursuit of Happiness, based on the true story of Chris Gartner. The film shares all the difficult moments that Gartner had to go through from being completely broke to become a multi millionaire business man.

From the very begining, Gartner had in mind what he wanted to get in his life, and he worked hard and made lots of sacrifices to become one of the most well recognized brokers in the world. It was then when he found happiness.

The other movie that made me think about this topic was The devil wears Prada, based on the book under the same title. Here, a young woman who’s recently finished her journalisim studies accepts a job that makes her forget about everything. Very soon, her job becomes her life, and she racionalizes this situation like a temporary sacrifice in order for her to advance in her career.

However, after some time, she realizes that she’s on the way to become someone she doesn’t recognizes, and that she doesn’t even like. It’s then, when she’s able to see that what’s really important to her is the happiness that she finds surounded by her true friends, in the city she likes, and then, she finds a job that allows her to be herself accompanied by the people she loves.

While going through all these thoughts, a recently published ebook caught my attention, it’s called A reasonable man, by Oscar Hughes.

This book takes the readers inside of a plane trip where a particular conversation between two men attracts the attention of the passangers around.

As the plane advances, these people discuss about the decisions they’ve made regarding their jobs and their desire to achieve success, and how these decisions have affected their personal lives.
This situation made me remember a quote from the Numb3rs TV series that goes: “A great job doesn’t compare to a great life”.

What I could say in the end, is that success is whenever happiness is, and that happiness can be found in the biggest achievments as well as in the little things that life can offer.

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Weekly Photo: Escape

Photo by Nora Vasconcelos

Let’s fly away!

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Weekly Photo: Paterns

Photo by Nora Vasconcelos

It’s incredible what can be discovered just by looking around!

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An unconventional book on Mexican Food

Text and Photos by Nora Vasconcelos

Mexican food is well known around the world for its tasty food. And, although its many times spicy – hot flavor, sometimes hard for delicate stomachs, dishes such as ‘Mole’ (chicken with chocolate sauce), ‘chilaquiles & enchiladas’ (fried tortillas with tomato or green tomato hot sauce) and its huge variety of ‘quesadillas’ (stuffed tortillas with cheese) and ‘tacos’ (stuffed tortillas with all sort of dishes) appear very often in the international menus of all sort of restaurants around the world.

So, it’s often easy to find Mexican restaurants in different countries, some of them as far away from Mexico as Madagascar or the Czech Republic. Even more, in 2010 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) include the Mexican food in the List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, considering that “Traditional Mexican cuisine is central to the cultural identity of the communities that practice and transmit it from generation to generation.”

What’s curious to know it that many of this food that it’s so common to find everywhere nowadays, is that it had its origins in the Colonial Convents that became very famous in their time (mainly 18th and 19th Centuries) for their well elaborated food, made with all sort of ingredients which complete preparation could even take hours and hours.

To remember those times, the book Delicias de Antaño. Historia y Recetas de los Conventos Mexicanos (Delights of yesteryear. History and Recipes of the Mexican Convents), not only collects a long list of recipes, but also, shares many stories of the practices, customs and anecdotes that occurred on those majestic convents (many of them, originally built in the 16th century).

So, this book, by Teresa Castillo Yturbe and Maria Josefa Martinez del Rio de Redo, give the reader the opportunity to learn how traditional Mexican deserts such as ‘arroz con leche’ (rice with milk), ‘buñuelos’ (sweet fritter) and ‘dulces de leche’ were made during those years by the nouns.

It also shares the recipes of the ‘Chiles en nogada’ (stuffed Poblano chiles with walnut sauce) are to be made following the conventual method, as well as other dishes such as ‘Mole Ranchero’ and ‘Chilaquiles’.

All in all, going through this book is a complete delight, even if one is willing to take the challenge of preparing any of these recipes, or if one is only interested in history or wants to spend a relaxing time.

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Weekly Photo: From Above

Photo by Nora Vasconcelos

Look down

Wandering around I had the unique opportunity to take this photo of a huge bell right from above it.

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How far would you let your dreams go?

Text by Nora Vasconcelos
Image: Patrimonio
Illustrationsof.com

I always say that it’s a very lucky day when you see a movie that really manages to move your heart, specially when you’ve hear nothing about it and you only got it because the summary on the dvd case made it sound appealing.

It just happened to me. Although Salmon Fishing in the Yemen was launched in the UK in 2011, I’ve just had the chance to watch it and I found it not only interesting, but also really sweet in the way a young reach man who could have anything in the world, decided to go for his biggest dream, to bring live salmon into the Yemen and create over there, in the middle of the dessert, an “oasis” of lively waters filled with this particular upstream fish.

The movie, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt, was based on a book under the same title, written by the British author Paul Torday, who found in this novel a way to express, and explore, his love for fishing and his interest for the Middle East.

The book, written with a more satiric style, attempts not only to talk about the dream of the young rich man who happens to be a prince, but alto to make some sort of fun of the ways of his own country.

The movie of course takes some of that, but it’s more focused on the romantic side of the story, an impossible dream that has to face uncountable challenges to become real, and even then, it need to find its own strength to remain alive; and the own challenges of the team who would have to believe in themselves and in the dream first, before realizing that it actually might be possible to be feasible.

The film of course, also goes for the romance among McGregor and Blunt, who, at the time they meet, are facing the challenge to make important decisions about their own love lives.

At the end, the story leaves a very comforting feeling that, every now and then, dreams actually can come true.

As for the author of this fantastic story, his way to writing becomes also an inspiration as he published this, his first novel, when he was 60, after a long life working as a businessman.

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Weekly Photo: Culture

Photo by Nora Vasconcelos

“When the Saints go Marching in”

Jazz Music is an amazing thing in New Orleans, where everybody who wants it, can enjoy and express all those strong feelings that only this form or art born in the US, is able to create.

“Ain’t no city like New Orleans”.

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