life experience

You probably know i have an interest in religion and praying -see this article and this one. 

disclaimer: I hope this entry inspires you to pray, be a more grateful and kind person. I want to mention that while I do mention God from the Bible, I will NEVER force anyone to share my views. Atheists might be the only people who see no need for praying and I am nobody to tell them otherwise.

I recently started to be more serious about it. This means I started to increase my visits to the church. This means I go more often, not just for Easter. 

This new interest so to say, led me to realize I have no idea of how to pray. I have no idea of what words to say, if there is something i should or shouldn't say during prayer, and so on. 

This meant that I had no choice but to find a way to improve - if i can even say this. I needed a prayer book. but i'm cheap. and i like my comfort. 

I could save several prayers on the computer, bookmark them or even print them. However, I thought that if i write them by hand, i'll remember them better, and i'll feel them closer to my heart. 

Not to mention I have higher chances of actually remembering them. 

I chose the above notebook. I received it in 2016 as a Christmas gift. [sidenote: i just realised i never mentioned the amazing gifts A and me exchanged that year! O.O i'm beyond shocked! I don't even know how this happened! and i'm super disappointed in myself.... ]

I had no idea what to do with this agenda. I really like the Art Deco style. This notebook is designed by Flame Tree Publishing, and it's the book 47 - FTNB47 (978-1-78361-191-1) and the image is based on The Balcony by Erte. I'm not sure how many pages it has, but it's thinner than an agenda with every day on a single page. It's about the size of a A5 notebook, and quite slim. It has enough pages for my needs.

I started with the Lord's Prayer. Every Christian should know this prayer. It might even help even those who believe in other gods ... but I'm not very sure. Mostly because there are some instances in the bible where those who don't believe in G-d should not pray to Him... or His word shouldn't be spread to them. Though if this is true, i'm quite confused.

Then i continued with writing prayers I would need in specific situations - when waking up, going to bed, when i feel lost, and so on. 

As of now, when I type this, the prayer notebook is not complete. I still need many other prayers in there. I do feel like im on the right path though. 

At the end I created a sort of an index, as i numbered the pages by hand - some 60 pages so far. The index is just for me to find what i need faster.

I plan on taking this notebook with prayers with me everywhere, once i'm done. But who knows if i will. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Today, I want to confess something. I'm not like you. Not in my head. [i hope] I'm not crazy, but...

If I were to talk to a doctor, they might eventually give me a diagnose of Asperger's Syndrome. Children suffering from Asperger's Syndrome might me easier to spot than adults.

We like to pay a lot of attention to details, we like anything technical, and we generally lack social skills. In a group of people we might feel uncomfortable, and we might unwillingly offend others when talking.

They say we lack empathy too. I say we repress empathy because it can overstimulate us, and we know it is impossible to help everyone - something empathy tells us to do.

In my case, I want things to be symmetrical, "perfect" from a mathematical point of view. I used to get very bothered when trying to part my hair in the middle: the 2 sides never looked the same or did they seem to have the same amount of hair. 

I also used to get very bothered if some relatively new object gets a small, barely noticeable scratch. This is because the scratch destroyed the "perfectness" of the item. 

In 2017 I watched a short video about Japanese aesthetics when it comes to ceramics. The person commenting said that traditionally the Japanese people liked it when their ceramics got a scratch or a crack or if the items weren't identical copies. They see those small imperfections as something that adds beauty instead of taking it away.

That day was like a revelation for me. I never thought of anything from that perspective before that moment. 

Since that day, I have started to tell myself that it's OK if things aren't symmetrical, if they're not equal or look perfect. Even if they're in my possession. 

Thinking this way is still something I struggle with. I don't know for how long I'll struggle. Sometimes it's easier, at other times is more difficult. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Being a religious person means that you believe that there is a Superior Force, beyond our understanding, which created everything we know today. As well as everything else that we have yet to discover, learn about. This Higher Force can be called God, Yahweh or by many other names. A religious person also frequents a church or some other place of worship, as a sign of their belief in that Higher Force. Those who don’t believe in such force(s) are called Atheists.

Atheists say that there is no need for a Higher Force to create everything that there is, especially not the Universe. The universe has always existed, it didn’t need Anyone to create it- it’s as simple as that, because if the Universe was created by Someone, then where did the Creator come from, or who created Him?

Another proof that there is no God, in the eyes of many Atheists, no matter His name - is the suffering we see around us everyday. People, animals and plants alike suffer, especially because of pests and because of what some individuals do to others - for sure God in His mercy when he created us, didn’t create something like pain and illnesses, did he?

A religious person, especially a Christian, would reply that it is easier to harm someone than to do good. They’ll even say that G-d “tests” us and our love for Him. but...

However, it was our original transgression and then the following ones that pained G-d. He wanted us to see it's not OK to make others sad, break their trust, or make them suffer in any way. So I think we suffer because we got too estranged from God and His ways. Everything started with Adam and Eve not listening to Him, and giving into the snake. Yes, G-d is vengeful, jealous, but He also loves us tremendously because He incarnated Himself and let Himself be sacrificed by crucifixion for our sins.

Many people would hide behind their religion to justify their behaviour. That can’t be right: one needs to think for themselves and then decide if this or that is right or wrong to do, especially when they know what their religion teaches. However, he really shouldn’t need religion to tell us “this is (not) ok to do” because Adam and Eve bit into the fruit that revealed them “good and evil.” That alone should be enough.

A good person is usually defined by the way they treat those around them. Compassionate is another way to say “good person.” You may or may not believe in an All-Powerful Creator, but you CAN be more compassionate towards others, animals, and the nature in general.  

With me having several entries posted on how to read the tarot, some of you might think that I do readings.

The truth is a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no. Let me explain more.

DISCLAIMER: Bear in mind that the links in this post are affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission. I used these affiliate links to give you the option to check the book out, for yourself, if you so wish, through a well trusted seller. While I will be very glad if you decide to buy this deck, the decision to do so or not, belongs to you. Thank you for reading!  

I recently re-discovered G-d. Praying has given me peace of mind, and I wouldn't change this for anything in the world.

You need to know that G-d sees witches and fortune-tellers as abominations. It's not my place to say this is true or not. I do think that perhaps the truth lies somewhere in between science and religion, in between things that are allowed and not allowed, possible and impossible. But in this earthly existence, we're not supposed to challenge the commandments we've been given. 

Somewhere in the Bible, I don't fully know my Bible to tell you exactly where to look, but Google sure can help, it is said that a fallen angel taught humans how to divinate and other such practices. This maddened G-d our Lord, and the punishment of that fallen angel will be shared by sorcerers and the like.

I'm not here to tell anyone how to live their life, and I'm not casting stones either, so you do whatever you think is right for you.

As for me, I see the tarot as a game. If I ask a question and I pull a card, it doesn't mean I'll believe it - it anyways tells me or points out something I already knew, it can't tell me anything new or that I didn't know already. It's impossible.

 If you are to read what other divinators say, you'll see they warn 'novices' about this 'risk', or better said reality. 

"A" did a reading for a girl online. The cards showed things she already knew about that girl. I'm sure the girl already knew the answers she's going to get ... she's just not ready to act the way she should to get what she desires. 

My warning is "don't do it. at all." I don't read the tarot. not as a fortune teller [though i think i could make some money out of it, but profiting off innocent souls for a material thing is in my opinion even worse than being an abomination in the eyes of my Lord.]

For these reasons - my thoughts were all over the place, as I typed this as I was thinking it - I'm not reading the tarot. This is the deck i own, if you want to also check it out.

I will keep the deck because as you can see it has beautiful pictures and colors. I will keep posting guides to how you can interpret the cards, but more rarely. I have no real reason or motivation to help others ruin their relationship with G-d. 

I'll keep doing this because I need help with "reading between the lines", improving my imagination and self expression - how many ways are there to say the same thing, I wonder? It's good practice for my writing skills. 

[and i'm aware this too is a motivation from the Devil :( ]  and to be honest, i don't see much difference between a tarot deck of cards and a deck of playing cards - just different images, and both can be used for the same purposes. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

This entry was quite long in the making, for several reasons: my poor memories, recovering and editing the pictures, and actually writing everything, in between other stuff going on in our lives. Published a bit later than hoped, but not that late, and better than never at all ;)

Last week of March was when all the winter happened as the worst winter weather hit us. Luckily, as soon as April started, the weather also turned into spring. It never snowed again, after that. YAY!

Since the weather warmed up, we were able to go out more and have various adventures. 

The month started off with the Easter celebrations in the Catholic world, but Romania is an Orthodox country so we had Easter on the 8th, 1 week later. 

During the first week of the month we were quite busy, and we couldn't wait for Easter to come so we'd relax a bit. Luckily, in Romania Easter Monday is a bank holiday so everyone stays home to relax and eat.

At 11 pm on Satuday we went to the church to to hear a bit of the mass and to bring home the "Light" - or a lit candle. All Romanians do this for good fortune in the "new year" [from an agricultural point of view]. 

Check out this video for a little insight into how the midnight mass goes. 

The next day, on Sunday Easter we were supposed to go to A's parents' house. And so we did. They moved out of city, but luckily the city bus takes us close to their new place. We had to walk from the bus stop to their house because the usual minibus driver doesn't work during major holidays like Easter. 

A small feast was waiting for us there - see the picture below. That's a cheesecake that replaces the traditional pasca which is a bit different both in looks and in how's made. 

The slices with boiled eggs in the middle are a special meat loaf made only for Easter, called drob. 

You also get to see a bit of the countryside, from A's parents' balcony, in the pic below.

Some time later, A's birthday came. That day we had to go with the older cat to the vet. He wouldn't eat and he would throw up if he did. The vet said it's just a gastritis, and gave him some shots and home treatment. 

Everyone praised Whiskey the cat for his prettiness and for being such a good boy. 

The next day, in the evening we decided to have a bit of fun. Or to try to relax a bit. So we went to see a movie - A Quiet Place. You probably already read my thoughts on the movie, and if not, by following the link you can do so now.

We also had to go search for a specific cat food, that we learned we can find at this rather new mall that opened not too far from us - some 6 tram stop away, and that's close. Check out this post about the public transportation in Bucharest.

There was an interesting place where they would only sell French fries. Of course we had to try them out. And I personally wasn't impressed - only 2 guys taking orders and serving people, so I had to wait some 30 minutes? The taste wasn't impressive either, but the fries were made on the spot which also added to the waiting time. 

And while I did say these were fries, they weren't thin like at McDonalds, but thick type, wedges. I also think they needed to be cooked for longer and maybe at lower temperature? 

In any case, we saw another location downtown, in the Old City Center area which is easier for us to get to. 

One day A asked me for avocado on toast. So I made some. Not much to say there, but it's too small to make a separate entry on it. 

Toast the bread. Cut open the avocado, remove the pit. Slice it up or mash it and spread on the toast. Then serve.

I discovered avocado tastes better with a dash of salt on top. If you think this is weird, wait for my entry on the weird foods I sometimes eat and enjoy. 

After some time, I decided to make some doughnuts. I decided to follow a Romanian recipe for "Little Lies" which I have to tweak. The recipe I had gave me some cookies or biscuits instead of donuts, which is probably why they're called "Little Lies" -in Romanian minciunele.

However, they were pretty sweet and worked well with tea and coffee, and there's that at least. 

I have this cat shaped cookie cutter and I decided to make some of them shaped like cats, because why not? I got the cookie cutter as a freebie from a box of margarine. It was meant to make cute looking sandwiches for your kids, but that's too much work for me. 

Once I find recipe that I like better, I'll share it. Till then, just a sneak peak at my Little Lies.

At some point we went to a cafe for the first time in ages. Or it felt like that to me. I think we had hot chocolate and tea? or something like that, I completely forgot.

Some time after that, I decided to turn some old shirts I had into pillow cases. I like doing things myself the most - this makes me feel accomplished. 

The blog entry will appear in June, [which is awesome because I discovered some pictures I forgot to add] however the idea was born in April and was mostly performed in May. If you read this entry when it's published, the link won't work, but if you read it some time in June, out of curiosity, it will work. You can have a little sneak-peak below.

We also had some work to do, and we still did go out after that. But nothing much happened, except for the adventure we had outside of the city, in search of an outlet. I'll let A talk about it, as it was her idea and i'll just add the pictures in.  

A month ago we decided to go to an outlet store that was suppose to be in an area we haven't visited before. However, we had no idea of how this trip was going to go. We sure didn't expect what was coming ~

First of all, we got in the bus and as we looked on the map, realized it was gonna take at least 22 long stops. 22!! We never really went that far. Beside that, the day was quite hot, it was a rush hour, and the bus was packed with people. So half way there i started feeling nauseous and like i had no air...many of the people in the bus seemed to have no problems as if they were used to it ~

An hour later (no joke) we finally got off the bus. It was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and even tho we went to other malls that are somehow out of city, this one was different. The entire area didn't seem safe at all, there was a lot of shadiness. We crossed the street and started walking by these what seemed to be abandoned houses and trying to make sure no stray dogs were gonna bite our ass. It wasn't comfortable at all and i felt quite unsafe...after walking a while trying to gather all our courage we ended up crossing a street to get to a railway and in that moment, we started to think what the hell are we doing. The mall didn't see to be in sight, actually there was nothing like a mall in the area at all. That's when we decided to turn around and go back as we didn't want to end up being there at night. 

After more waiting for the bus, it finally arrived and we got in. But, since we were already out, we thought it would be a good idea to go to another mall that was located somewhere halfway through the trip. And so we did.

Well, this mall was a lot better. We got to rest a bit while exploring it. I was looking for some sport shoes and at the very least they had some options. When we got really tired we went outside to a cafe to sit and eat something. We had some fries and a burger that were not impressive. The burger was supposed not to have any onion, but i found a big layered slice of onion in it. At least it looked funny. 

At that point we just wanted to get back home but didn't know how. We started looking at tram schedules to see which one we need to take, and spent some 15 minutes waiting in a stop. Then we realized that might not be the right stop as the tram we were waiting for somehow turned into a different one with another route. Pretty discouraged we went back at the mall and after waiting some more and trying to figure things out, we called a taxi.

Luckily at least that was uneventful. The taxi came fast and took us home, where we finally arrived home, 6 hours after heading out in the first place. This trip gave me some interesting feelings ~

First of all, i thought i knew the city pretty well so i didn't expect getting lost. I also thought its really hard to get lose and especially not be able to locate the transportation i need easily. Then there was the uncomfortable feeling of the area, which i didn't feel very often at all. Bucharest is generally a safe city with no problems, so i wonder where does that come from...
And the tiredness. I feel i'm becoming an old person since I got tired so fast. 

All in all this has been an interesting experience, but not one i am about to repeat anytime soon. The mall managers should definitely do a better job at explaining where its located so that shoppers don't put their hopes up in the first place....or maybe it was just a ghost mall that could never be found, o.o. Now that would be quite a twist....

Hopefully you didn't get too bored, if you managed to get to this point. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Recently I started watching videos on finances and minimalism. I'm not good with money and I'm not a minimalist either ... well, not really. I guess, I decided to start learning about the mistakes I could be faced later on, or how to fix the ones I already made [and I'm too embarrassed to talk about].

However, I realized that in a way I can be described with both epithets depending on the situation. Now, I decided to share with whoever reads this blog, some possibly new [and some definitely old ways] in which you can spend less money.  

"hacking" my clothes

Some of you might remember my post in which I shared how I added a pocket to my sweatpants that didn't have one. 

How does it save money? I didn't have to go buy another pair with pockets [not that I would have found something I liked] and I didn't pay someone else to do it for me. Of course, for this you have to know how to sew [by hand or with the machine]. 

To do this, you'd have to sacrifice some time. For this project I wasted a bit more time than I was supposed to, because of extra steps that proved not needed.

I have a similar project going on for a bag. Hopefully I can post it soon enough.

old stuff to rags

If you were to calculate how much you spend in a year for certain cleaning supplies - mop replacement, kitchen sponge, dust cloth, whatever else you use, how much do you estimate that would add up to?

Honestly, I didn't calculate myself because I'd have to keep track of how often I need to replace them. But my wallet is a bit happier I didn't have to buy kitchen sponges anymore - for like a year. 

Instead I use old kitchen towels that I cut into smaller pieces. Most my kitchen towels used to be bath towels that got too worn to still use as such. Yes they were that old. 

By doing this not only do I produce less waste and pollution, but I also save a bit of money. Why are kitchen towels so expensive? 

How about the clothes I mentioned, you say? Depending on the fabric type, I cut those into the shape and size I think I need, and use the rags to clean windows and their sills, doors and their frames, dust the few horizontal surfaces I have, or the tiles in the kitchen and bathroom. Cleaning the toilet with those rags is a good idea because once that's done, I can throw away the rag feeling less guilty about pollution. 

I have to mention that as long as I don't clean the toilet with said rags, I can wash them in the laundry machine, and re-use them until they can no longer be used. 

Some towels make an even better mop than the one I have, so why not taking advantage of that? Not to mention that once the dishes are done, I can rinse off the piece of towel I used, and hung it to dry - it's more hygienic than a sponge in this regard.

Tshirts, sweat pants and matching sweat-shirts are the best candidates here. I find this a really good idea for when cleaning due to moving. 

This is especially do-able for those who don't have a charity or some other place where to go donate or sell old clothes. Let's just say, towels are not a thing to make others use.

by cooking

Cooking can save you some money as oftentimes the ingredients are cheaper or add up to 1 meal at a restaurant, depending on what you order. Let's not forget that usually cooking means you get several servings of the food you make, and if you really like what you make, that's always cheaper and better. 

What I cook is usually sweets, soups, and stews. I can't really find the stuff I prepare at home in the store. Even if I did, the taste is not the same, and may have ingredients I want to steer away from (garlic, onions, preservatives, food coloring) from a health related perspective.

If you want to prepare a meal that is not really specific to the country you live in, the ingredients can cost quite a lot. You might actually save money if you went to have a serving of an "exotic" dish at a specialized restaurant. You'll also realize whether that food is really worth trying to make at home or not. 

eating directly from the pot

"Whaat? that's gross, weird!" - it's what you may be thinking. 

And you're right when you cook for a whole family and not just yourself. It's also not really gross if you just warm the food on the stove, in a small enough pot to hold 1 serving of whatever you eat. 

How does it save money? indirectly: you have only 1 container to wash, not 2. You save water and dish washer because you use less of both. Of course, this works only if you do the dishes by hand. If you use a dish washing machine, you might actually want to use a separate plate to eat in. 

I have to say that these machines are not very common in Romania yet, though they can be found in stores. Younger families are more likely to own them, than older generations. They are more likely to be found in newer or renovated apartments. We don't own one.

Each household is different, of course, and what works for me might not work for you. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Moving to another country is not what many people expect it to be. Sadly. 

It can't happen overnight - unless you're very rich, or maybe don't care about going into a big debt. To avoid this, you could sell everything you own of value - but what if you don't own anything at all? This is perhaps one of the first things to keep in mind especially if you're older and a school exchange program can't be applied to you.

You should choose a country where a language you know is spoken. In case you'll be interested in getting a job, having a diploma, degree, certification, or experience, will help greatly. Any of these attributes will help you secure decent employment. You do have other ways of generating income, and as a woman you could even get married to a rich man from that country - a practice frowned upon.

But I'm nobody to talk about those topics. As you know, we plan on moving to France, and it's not an easy process. We want to learn more about the life there, but there aren't many people writing or making videos about it. Following Youtube France ... I only get suggestions for comedy channels with pranks, or challenges. Not helpful at all, but we still try.

We're also trying slowly improving our grasp on French. We luckily learned some in school, but it's been so long ago. We do know that the quality of life in France is far better than over here, so why shouldn't we want to move there? After all you don't want to move to a country where you don't have access to running water or electricity, do you? You also want to have enough money from your paycheck to be able to have some fun as well.

The political atmosphere of the country is important. While I'm sure there are some people who would like to live in North Korea, they will never outnumber those who want to live in USA, Sweden, France, the UK, Japan, or any other country where people are free to say and do whatever as long as they don't hurt others. Not many people want to live in a very corrupt country either - Romania is one of the most corrupt ones out there.

Some countries have a more accepting attitude towards foreigners than others. This is why Canada is a place where foreigners are very welcomes, but countries like Japan, China, Switzerland are very enclosed and rejecting towards them. Sure there are reasons, however it is quite difficult for many people going to those last countries to feel at home, welcomed and accepted.

It is well known that some products or services you might need or like, are not available in other countries. For instance, Europeans going to USA won't be able to eat or even buy Kinder eggs, or that internet is heavily censored in China and that many sites are blocked over there. We're going to France, so I'll be missing some foods that I'm pretty sure I won't find there, unless I can find Romanian shops there. What's more, some stuff will shock you - maybe the so many vending machines in Japan qualify ...? Or that all the shops are closed on Sunday in France, Germany, and Switzerland - or this is what I heard.

Your safety is important, especially if you're a woman. You will want to know just how safe it is to walk down the street at night, or even in the daylight. Bucharest is rather safe, plus you definitely don't risk getting randomly shot because we don't own guns. We don't need them. Having thieves breaking into your home is relatively rare, as far as I know, especially since most buildings now have an intercom system, sometimes even a guard downstairs, and cameras.

What do you do if you have pets, like we do? You of course have the option to re-home them, but if you're like us, you probably think the pets are part of the family and can't imagine anyone else taking better care of them. Plu you'll be missing them a LOT. We decided to take 2 of them with us [we have 3], and to return for the 3rd one at some point when we become more stable with the money. But the pets need passports, vaccines, microchips, and I forgot what other documentation. What's more, is that we need money for all these vet visits and paperwork.

Then, we'll need more money for plane tickets, food while we're there till we find employment, and so on. Not to mention the time we need to invest in all of this. Just the pets' stuff might take up to 2 months. I always thought I can just pack my bags and be out the door, but I never really put much thinking into all these aspects that can be scary at times. Remember you can't succeed with fear in mind: you have to be somewhat brave.

I may have been a dreamer, and still am. There is nothing wrong with that as long as I'm aware of the effort needed to make my dreams come true, and being willing to do the work. And A and me ARE preparing to turn those dreams into reality.

In conclusion, if you too wish to move to another country, get as informed as possible about your destination to ease the process, and then start doing the work for it. Don't forget that sometimes it just takes more time than expected. Good luck!

©2013 – present. Charly Cross. All rights reserved.

As some of you know, I recently moved my blog and I also re-named it. All this trouble can be called re-branding! YAY!

So my rebranding consist of:

• new hosting platform 
• new blog name
• new author name 
• new blog and author logo - that I designed

In case you're wondering, the old version of the blog still exists, still on the platform I was using before, however it is being hidden from the public. 

Like many other people that try new things for the first time, there are some things I wish I knew before doing this step. Well, to be completely honest, I did no research on what rebranding or moving a blog so it's partially my fault. In any case, if you want to learn a few things, or think you might need a few tips in the future, please read on. 

Backing up pictures

Not everyone posts pictures along their blog entries. You'll see some of my own entries with no pictures whatsoever - they're not always relevant. 

However, if you do have pictures on your blog, you might want to back them up. From the start. The same goes for your videos. 

When I rebranded, I noticed several posts [this is just one of them] had broken images, and I was really scared I didn't have them anymore. But thanks to the hoarder that I am, I did find them. 

You might want to edit them and have them bear your new brand if you watermark them. I didn't do this, but maybe I should. The thing is I am not 100% sure I still have the originals or that I want to waste even more time for that. 

Edit / delete posts / entries

Rebranding usually has something to do with having changed your mind about the purpose of your blog. This means you'll have to go back on your posts and see if there is anything that doesn't fit your new perspective. Rebranding is similar to a face-lift so to say, so you'll have to do this.

I had to delete some entries that for some reason or another were blank. Originally those were re-blogs on my other platform, but perhaps the original poster also deleted the entries or something weird happened. Blank entries look weird and unprofessional, so in the bin they went.

At the same time, you might want to delete or add new pages for a better organization of your entries. Editing them [their content] is also a good idea, to breathe in some fresh air. 

Check and fix your URLs

My URLs were a mess after I moved my blog. It took me several days to go through all my entries and fix them. As a curiosity, they read something like: "http://www.obscurejourney.com/http://theownertravelsto.wordpress.com/missing-entries-on-my-blog" - WordPress is my previous blogging platform. This type of URL looks complicated, not functional and very unprofessional. My old blog is still there, but it's hidden from the public: it's my way of backing up my site. 

Not only did I have to fix the ugly URLs, I also had to fix any links I had in any post as well! My links were directing the visitor towards my previous blog and therefore the links appeared broken. I hope I did well and managed to fix them all. 

Learn about your new host

This should be a no-brainer. But, I jumped on this new platform without reading too much about it. I still hope I won't regret it, haha. 

You should learn about your new host because you want to go LIVE as soon as possible, so learning about the host - how to post entries, customize the appearance of your site, so on, should be done beforehand. 

For instance, WordPress and over-blog work differently when it comes to creating new pages. In WordPress you create a new page and it appears at the top, by default. On over-blog, you have to create the menu yourself. Each method has its own advantages - and i like that here, on over-blog if i want to change what a page says, i can just change the URL of the old one [if I want to keep it] and create a new entry with the previous link. It sounds a bit complicated, but it's really easy. 

Let's just say it took me a while to realize a few things, and only because I didn't properly study my new host.

Matching social media

I decided I should make social media accounts that match my new brand and identity. This is because I want to appear more serious and more professional. however, don't expect to see me on those accounts too much for they make me anxious, and it's close to a panic attack. But, if you want to show your support, you can do so there, if it's easier for you. Send me a private message or a public one, and i'll make sure to reply to it [sooner or later]. 

Before I was "the owner of the blog" or "the owner travels to" or something weird like that. Now I decided to take on a pen name [yea, sorry this is not my ID name - I don't connect at all with it] and a easier to remember URL. 

I therefore created "matching" social media accounts: on twitter and on facebook, and I connected both to this platform. I also have a "matching" email account on gmail [4charlycross [at] so on]. There's also an instagram account by the same name - you have higher chances of seeing me active here. 

You don't have to be very active on all of these platforms, but it's nice I guess to give people options to get in touch with you, other than through your blog [or youtube channel -yes I have one of those as well, for when I think stuff are easier to show through a video rather than pictures and writing. but don't expect 4K HD quality or anything as I'm just an amateur]. 

Logo

As you can see, I also have a "logo" that I use "everywhere." It's like a virtual signature for easy recognition. 

Use the logo across your social media accounts or wherever you want to be recognized. You can use a picture of yourself, if you're ok with it [i'm not u_u] or the same handle across all your accounts [as I tried doing]. 

This idea came to me, after seeing a vlogger i was watching, renaming her Twitter, and now her old handle belongs to a random guy who will benefit from her hard work. Her new handle is difficult to write and pronounce, and doesn't really have a connection with her life, except slightly. I try not to make that mistake and you shouldn't either.  

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Some of you might remember one of my past entries in which I talked about losing weight, and you can read it here. At the time I promised I'd talk about how I also gained weight. 

It wasn't very easy for me to talk about gaining weight, and the only reason I can find is that this is something a bit hard to think about. Right now, I passed through 2 periods of rapidly gaining weight. 

First time of weight gain

The first time happened after we rehomed a puppy we found on the street. There's no secret that owning a dog makes you go out a lot, and sometimes walk a lot. Owning a dog is great if you need an excuse to go for a walk to either stay in shape or lose some weight. Best results are when you find a dog that needs long walks, that is full of energy. 

Sadly, such a dog is not really happy in an apartment with other pets, or with people who are more lazy than active - such as myself. 

As you know, Kali [the puppy] found herself a home with a dog-loving family [we're more of cat people], and this meant I had no reason to go out and walk as much. This lack of exercise translated into extra 7 kg for me [about 15 pounds]. 

I gained this much weight in about 2 months. Sadly, I can't remember my before or after weight. 14 pounds in 2 months seemed a lot to me, but it really can be worse, like the second time around. 

Second time of weight gain

The second time when I gained weight happened at the beginning of 2017 after I gave up my job as a supermarket cashier. I haven't talked about this job because it needs a separate entry, and I'm not ready for that yet. You can read about other jobs I had though, if you're really curious. 

A bit of background info

Working in a supermarket as a cashier is close to working for the devil himself. And giving up that job was both a good and a bad thing for my health. If you ever worked in a supermarket, you'd know what I'm talking about. 

This place was opened from 7 am to 11pm and we were supposed to work only 2 shifts! i was very "lucky" [can you sniff the sarcasm there?] to work mostly the afternoon shift ... and this meant I'd get home at 1 am [because of random "duties" we were supposed to perform after the store closed]. 

This messed up my sleeping hours, that I tried hard to fix [I used to go to bed at about 3 or 4 am, and managed to make myself sleep quite early at midnight. with my new job, i'd go to bed at about 2 am]. A poor sleeping habit also means poor quality sleep, therefore not getting the rest I needed. Especially for the weekends I had to be there the whole day, from 7 am to about midnight. yes, you read that right - 2 days of 14 hours in a row, meaning on Saturday [make that Sunday morning] I'd sleep 2 or 3 hours? 

Of course, this further led to stress and having a breakdown at work and almost fainting. I also started to feel my overall health impoverishing as my diet was all over the place, not getting enough nutrients from my food. The breakdown and near-fainting happened after a couple of months on the job [wow, that was fast]. At that point I decided my health is far more important, so I decided to quit.

The aftermath

As soon as I finished working there, on New Year's Eve, I went into a sort of coma for 2 weeks straight. I'd sleep for 22 or 23 hours of the day straight with whatever breaks for restroom and food. A lot of it. All of it. Can you imagine what food with no working out does to the body? 

Before starting the job from hell, I was about 59 - 60 kg [so about 130 - 132 pounds]. While on the job [for some 3 months] I went down to 56 - 57 kg [123 - 125 pounds]. When I finally started to need less sleep I noticed i reached 70 kg! [154 pounds].

Gaining some 13 kg [28 pounds] in 2 weeks is insane if you're not pregnant! This happened in January of 2017. Only in October I managed to start losing a little bit of weight. Now, in April I'm about 67 kg [147 pounds]. I'm trying to work out as often as I can, and of course I'm eating much less. 

some advice:

If your job is too demanding and you can barely get any rest, it might be better to give it up, unless it's your dream job. In my opinion, no job is worth risking one's health because health is something we take for granted, but it has no price when we have it. As soon as we get sick, we start shelling all the money we have and don't have, just to get better. 

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.

Hello there!

My partner would label me a hoarder - at least in some regards. I totally fit the bill of "don't throw that away as you don't know when you might need it!" In recent years I started to tackle this and I generally stopped trying to keep every little thing. 

As some of you might know, I recently changed the platform I blog on. I used the well known WordPress but I think over-blog might be a better option for me. The blog on WP is still there, but hidden from the public. [as a back up >.>] 

During this move, I had to look at all the past entries and see if the images are still there, to check the links, and other stuff. To my shock, some pictures were completely gone! Luckily, I still had most of them on my computer, on tumblr, and even on a DVD. 

However, one blog entry in particular still had some pictures while others were nowhere to be found! DISPAIR! 

So I started to search for them everywhere. And I mean everywhere. The only place I didn't look until the end was a folder called "COPY." Lo and behold! The pictures I thought I lost forever, were there! The ONLY copy I still had of those pictures!

I was quite happy to discover them. I edited them as fast as I could and I put them in the blog entry. 

This is not the only time I kept something "for later use" and it was actually useful. But I have a hard time recalling the other times, at this point. I really don't know if I could get similar pictures if I didn't find them, so I'm thankful for being a hoarder. 

Piece of advice: You don't really need to keep 5 items of the same type, generally 1 is enough. 

How about you: Are you a hoarder? Did you ever find yourself in a situation where you wish you kept something you threw away only to discover it would be useful for X situation? Or did you at some point need something you knew you kept and were happy you did keep that thing?

© Charly Cross 2013 - present. All rights reserved.