Whether you are celebrating this religious event with family or just enjoying the sunshine on this extra day off.....I hope you will have a wonderful time! Easter has never really played a big part in my life, unlike Christmas which we somehow celebrate with great tradition and pomp, when I was growing up. Other than the extra school holidays and yummy chocolate Easter eggs, we use to just sit and watch cartoons on telly during the Easter holidays. So Easter was never really a celebration of much significance to me, until....a few years ago when I visited a kind and loving family in a little village called Skalite on the borders of Slovakia. No doubt, many like my dear Judita will be travelling from foreign lands or from west to east of Slovakia to reach their homes in order to be with those who really matter, and indeed this was also what I did to reach a very well loved family in Skalite for almost three years. They are a family who accepted me as one of their own, despite my limited Slovak language skills and all my lacking ways, so they shall always be a blessing in my life.....and it is with great fondness as well as love that I think of them this Easter.
Easter became meaningful to me because of them. I still remember the frenzied rush to bake all sorts of yummy cookies and cakes that filled their home with the most delicious of aromas, the pristine cleaning of every little corner of their home, and the sounds of laughter from the people who came to visit me. I remember the shock I had when I went downstairs for breakfast but was suddenly splashed with a glass of cold water and blessed with a rhyme of chants for my good health as Slovak tradition dictated. I remembered how I started laughing and tried to run when I heard the doorbell ring and saw the little male cousins of the family who decided to bring a bucket of cold water to bless the girls of the household. Then there was also the symbolic whipping dance, where the girl dances on the spot and sings a rhyme whilst the man gently uses a weak whip lovingly handmade from grass to pretend to whip the dancing girl. I remember laughing when I saw this whipping dance being performed by Slovakian celebrities on the evening news, and I remember being emotionally surprised when I saw the grandfather sit in the garden weaving the coarse grass blades into a neat ponytail-like soft whip. I also remember how the grandmother always baked Bukti (Slovakian buns made with blueberries, crunchy crumble and soft fluffy dough) twice no matter when I visited.......always once in anticipation of my arrival so that I may have my favourite Bukti for breakfast during my stay, and once again before I leave so I may take containers filled with Bukti as I travelled home to London. Easter became more than just a religious holiday, with cultural traditions performed so lovingly in the hope of good health and in the wishes of happiness to families across Slovakia.........and today it has also become a loving memory of my past that I shall cherish for many years to come.
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| My Spring Look......in preparation for Mayday! |
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| Wembley Arena, London. |
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| Time for Mayday's Just Rock It Concert!! (Wembley Arena, London) |
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| Winney and me...taking our seats to wait for the concert to begin...... |
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| Taiwanese band Mayday (Wu Yue Tian) Concert at Wembley Arena, London. |
As promised, I shall disclose some details of my end of term ballet performance and the fun night out I had with my sweet friend Winney at the Mayday (Wu Yue Tian) concert recently! As we officially entered Spring and I had harped on about the concert in a previous post, I decided to make the outing an opportunity for the alternative non-floral Spring Look so that I may share it with you darling readers! I was trying to achieve the leaving behind the cold and dark gloom of winter sort of look with lightening greys as well as white feathered gold-toned chandelier earrings, but instead I think it became a day after the office sort of look! So there I went rather unsuitably dressed for a pop Taiwanese concert requiring lots of jumping, and began doing a mini photoshoot on the way to Wembley Arena (London) amongst the stares of passers-by, who probably thought I was a little crazy or in need of some sort of medical attention. But the concert was brilliant fun and I forgot how unsuitably dressed I was as soon as the band began playing!
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| Polly and me practicing..... |
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| Time to practice! |
As for my ballet performance, I really did enjoy it and started feeling like a real student of ballet...eventhough only at a beginner's level! I don't have any photos of the performance itself, so I am afraid I can only show you some photos taken on my phone during our practice session before the performance with my lovely friend Polly! After the Easter weekend, I shall really be looking forward to the New Vintage Look charity night at Proud Cabaret (10th April 2012)....still need to decide on what to wear......and then my trip to Vienna in the following week! Have a fabulously happy Easter weekend my darlings!
Until the next time,
May xx
