Père Lachaise cemetery on Friday. State of my body and mind: hypothermia.

Frozen.

tastier than it looks.

I was sitting in the office the other day and a colleague of mine, looked at me and said out of nowhere: "Sonja, what are your New Year's resolutions?" First of all - I didn't expect him to show any interest in my life - one of those guys... Secondly - I didn't have any. Or wait, I did - but I make them every 1st of a month, or every Monday, or every evening before going to bed. But - good point - New Year's resolutions add a nice touch to a new start. He told me a few brilliant resolutions. And I decided to think harder about mine.

A friend of mine went to the swimming pool two days ago. He went there at 7 am. I said - "WOW!" He said - "Yup, that is what I will do for myself twice a week this year. Thou, I am hoping the rest of the people will dismiss their New Year's Resolutions. That will make the pool less crowded. "

I restarted my running activities. I started reading books in French again. And I decided to do something for you every month... I will transform some of my 100daysofparis.com posts to desktop calendars! Click on the links under the photos to download the one for January!

Have you been, my young brethren,

Have you ever been to a graveyard,

To a large graveyard?

– Well, we are always in a graveyard.

The earth we walk on is a graveyard;

The water we sail on is a graveyard;

Yards and gardens are graveyards;

Hills and valleys are graveyards,

Each foot

Grave next to grave.

The monument of all times is a graveyard;

The books we read are a graveyard;

The history book of all lands,

Of the olden emperors, kings,

And the obituary of higher images

Of the chosen ones, of martyrs,

From as far back as memory goes;

It’s all a graveyard –

But a cradle too.

There is no name and no number

For all the stars high above,

And even less can there be number and remembrance

For the graves in the dear earth!

Millions were swallowed by darkness,

The pitch darkness of many a millennium,

Nobody remembers them still,

But a candle always burns for some of them.

It is either a candle, or the name is bright,

Or the deeds are ever-burning,

So that they adorn with their rays

The rows of the endless cemetery.

These graves,

Old, new,

They shine

For every generation –

When minds get engrossed in the past

For them not to get lost in the darkness;

When you plunge into the holy ancient times,

Both holy and cursed ancient times,

For your thought not to get you off your way.

They are harbinger fires,

Which reach from distant eons

In that long procession –

Shining a light for one another

With a stream which flows forth,

Striving toward a single goal, –

And so the bright beams

And so the bright traces

Of a single spirit of various ages,

A spirit which has no grave.

– It merely chucks the bones into the grave,

Shakes off the ashes which impede it.

For a faster progress, higher flight

Toward an elevated future.

He who turns around to look

With a clear eye and sight

At these bright graves,

History books in a long succession,

He must hear how,

Through centuries, through mist,

Grandfather to grandson, father to son,

Warrior to warrior

Loudly cried:

‘Where I stopped – you will go!’

‘What I couldn’t – you will do!’

‘Where I couldn’t – you’ll arrive!’

‘Whatever we owe – you pay it off!’

These are the words, these are the voices,

Which adorn the past,

Which penetrate through the world of darkness

From those shining graves,

Binding with a thunderous roar

And with a divine force,

Binding centuries together

And binding man with man.

[…]

Sofie from Seattle bought my heart straight away. Mellow tunes, guitars, strange instruments, beautiful voices. I melted, I listened carefully to find all the thin layers of emotions in their words, my eyes were wet, I smiled and I closed my eyes. That's what music does to you. It makes you feel something, just like a particular perfume that brings subtle memories.

I generally believe that our food could have munch better quality only if we would demand that. We are the customers and we CAN demand that. We can ask for meat with less male hormones and fruit with less female hormones and veggies with less pesticides and we can organize protest against all the "E"s in out food, but we simply don't have time for that... It's not that we don't care - we don't have time for that.

And that's sad. Because we are what we eat. And we are not getting any younger. We need to balance our meals. We need to eat healthy things. We need to be more aware what is in our food, what exactly we are consuming.

Green one is the good "cop", red one is the bad "cop". The green one is saying to the red one that they should go and continue informing people about the "good" food and "bad" food by scanning the bar codes.

There is a lovely french application, called Kwalito. You go to the supermarket, and scan the barcode of the chosen product. BAM! - Kwalito informs you what allergens that chosen product has. It also informs you what else is inside - eggs, emulgators, traces of nuts.... It is great for you if you are vegan or vegetarian. It is great for you if you are gluten or lactose intolerant. It is great for you if you care about your health. And also it is free! (in French, but free)

"But stop eating candies - they are full of artificial colors!"

One day, Aleksandra, one of the two master minds behind the whole project, asked me to do a small drawing every week for the Kwalito. She told me the story why they started the whole project and why they designed the whole application. I listened to her and said "YES" straight away. Since May, I am spending my Thursday with two funny, and well informed gentlemen (in the drawings). We call them les Kwalutins. I am drawing their stories and places they visited. Often, very often, they remind me how easy it is to choose healthy food. And often they remind me that I don't do that. Now, we have no excuses - healthy food search (or the search for food that suits you) just got easier... At least in France ;)

Green one: "There's nothing better that the fresh fish" Red one: "You can also find it in the supermarket and cut in the fish fingers"