I was invited to talk to you about the fate of an impending three-fold family in my last blog before I disappear into first-time motherhood. However the truth is that my enemy has become my friend. Firstly one does not have to wait till baby actually crowns to see what a family of three involves. Baby has made itself very present all throughout the first nine months of its existence forcing mum to change her lifetstyle, eating habits, clothes, image, daily pattern, increase in medical appointments, thinking about nursery timing, career and work.
Secondly the writer asks the reader to have some patience. This mum-to- be has had a topsy turvy life in the last two years in part thanks to the web-comm unit! Indeed! How? Firstly an ex-feminist would have never dreamt having a relationshop with a guy let alone marry, then have a child! Secondly, writing on the EP website has involved a more sedentary lifestyle as opposed to one where I was travelling for 70% of the month and hence having no time to simply “be” around in Brussels!
Anyways the point is that for the last nine months, if not two years I have had a lot to deal with. To plunge me into the daily reality of thinking about life with three is at the moment asking me too much. My shrunken brain can only cope with the today. Hence for me to relate what you would like to hear you will have to wait until baby shows its face!

"The Wanderer" by Caspar David Friedrich

Some secrets may best be left dead and buried….but our team kept its nose to the grindstone this year with the election run-up. Now it’s time to unwind pretty much like the string in the arrow after being stretched all along. We have hence decided to recharge our batteries, by breathing deeply in and out and let ourselves be inspired by the different members of our team about how to live life to the full, especially as all-round Europeans! Our beavers went around sniffing to build their summer nest.

Your senses are sollicited!

Colours, noise, music, beer, food……

As for me I like the theory about introverts and extraverts. The real theory stipulates that the introvert is one who to finds energy by withdrawing into himself whereas the extravert must spend time with people to do the same. It has nothing to do with people being shy or timid or open or loud! Hence it is subtle…but after reading this I will try to give it a guess at who is whom. Join me!

 As you approach, well I work just opposite Mindaugas’ office,  rhythm penetrates your bones before you realise his bulimia for music transcends just listening to anything all the time. One must listen to him playing the Birbynė. If you have not seen that instrument check it out! Beyond that our Lithuanian colleague is entirely faithful to his nationality. He plays basketball, once a week as he likes team play and strategy. But please note that this is the second religion in his country which nearly beat NBA.

 Another love of something traditional is ”táncház”. These are bars offering folk dancing in Transylvania, which also developed as an underground movement in opposition to Communism. But thank God for love….romance came to bless our Hungarian colleague one summer there as he met his wife. Today his latest hobbies include time with his children, cycling and did you say Tokay…? yes….unforgettable wine that transports one from Brussels to Hungary in a jiffy to Villány.

As our taste buds awaken we must visit the Vietnamese food restaurant in Place St. Josse that Christian, our German editor recommends for those solemn moments. A fan of non-fiction in English, not German, having accumulated miles of travelling to exotic places like Panama, Vietnam and East and Central Africa, Christian is more faithful to the sea than national mountains.

No more no less come Raffaella, beach, sun and hours of sunbathing personified. But you may also want to try her baked bread and biscuits on a dull glum day in Belgium or accompany her to alternative European cinema in Brussels.

True to the house tradition imminently established, Barbara, our Spanish editor has just returned from a cruise to the Balearic islands. Music, Spanish literature and swimming form her cup of….sangria!

Time to relax…do you hear the wind blowing, the swishing of the sea? Breathe in and out, think of colours, sun gleaming on the ocean. That was Sofia who adores the sound, smell and light of the ocean. That was just a power nap before being transported for a ride on public transport to Brazil and China.

Hang on for a second!? Florent has just come back from his second trip to China! If you missed that then look our for him sailing on the cost around Brittany. His dream is to sail around the world one day. Advise “If you give up your dreams you grow old.”

Florent also enjoys drinking beer with friends in summer. In that he joins Josh, our Slovakian colleague, who may equally be seen playing or singing along with the guitar alone or in Place Luxembourg.

Love of countryside is that of Hannariikke who is passionate about horses as they are intelligent and lovely. She hails from the country of thousands of lakes….so by extension this summer she will enjoy the Greek sea.

Leszek and Manja both love cycling…..with a difference! The first cycles to work to reduce pollution, the second cycles about 3 hours daily. A sport lover, look out for her on a racer at night. But in some ten years’ time  or later, you may want to look out in the skies to catch this lover of Polish fiction finally fulfilling his dream of flying after having obtained his pilot licence.

But beware Pavel in some thirty years’ time will also hope to be flying. At the moment his leisure is taken by a multitude of activities from juggling, to magic, to building and flying model airplanes which are radio controlled, to spending time with his two children, running and cycling. Am a bit out of exercise suddenly…shortage of breath hits me! Well, Pavel will you that “you cannot live without passion. Otherwise you can simply crawl into your grave. Leisure is the key to happiness, to enjoying life, otherwise we are impoverished. We need to find time for friends and to switch off. Just feel free to call Pavel if interested as he seems to not find enough people to share that passion.

On a quieter, pensive front, comes David, our British colleague. True to fact as I often catch him in the morning to work, he likes walking around buildings, along the sea…that is after work! and reading history books. I know where to go when I am looking for books like “Fortress Malta,” for example. Anete finds that her hobbies change all the time that it is hard to pinpoint….It is part of her wanting to learn new stuff, discover new countries, new territories, travelling like her recent trip to Corsica or Galicia….

Colourful is also Nadina’s office, our Romanian colleague….with watercolour and graphic painting in her office. Hobby thriving in spite and despite parents’ lack of support. So much goes for will power. Her latest craze is “Capoiera,” Brazilian combat dancing. She is currently reading Jonathan Safran’s book about life seen from an eight year old’s perspective. I think I will give it a shot.

Greenery, solitude……

We may all come from the EU but some of us have adopted Belgium, taken for granted by so many expats. Svetla likes walking in the Ardennes, and reading  in German and Bulgarian to maintain homecountry wit!

For those who know Belgium vaguely, this place offers nice gardens behind the grey-looking facades. Petra is in that typically Swedish and Belgian. She relaxes by touching the earth, planting flowers. Her latest craze is on “Cosmos.” but be careful to pick the slugs in time as you may see the flower disappearing before your very eyes.

Don’t you find that at one point you want to get away from it all? Thibault actually relaxes by writing…a novel  these days. He equally likes to be trasported by US thrillers and science fiction “loin du quotidien.” No , no Thibault does not escape all the time…you may catch him deftly, heftily around you taking photos. He likes portraits of people and likes working on people in photos….As long as he does not take my picture from profile I can live with that.

 Funny I wonder if our team drives Thibault, our coordinator, and Steve, the “one who responds reluctantly to the word boss”, nuts!  You see Steve also likes to “get away from it all. To unwind he thinks of…yes yes he’s British…hence hill walking somewhere “rainy and remote…in Scotland. The wilderness, the scent, the freshness. That’s the one thing he misses most in Belgium. He would love to travel to unfrequented places…Canada,  Australia…well he used to in his previous life (author’s comment). Otherwise he loves cycling and dreams of transforming his garden, currently serving as football ground to his two boys, into an English garden. That is not all. His dream is to write a great novel, you know” the novel that everyone has inside of them.” Does all this not remind you of “The Wanderer” by Caspar David Friedrich?

As for the writer, well I am currently so happy to have met all these people. That is one thing I enjoy in life. As for the rest I then need to withdraw into piano playing or silk painting, or writing but mostly reflecting and sipping a good cuppa of Earl grey in the sunshine in front of deep green-blue sea listening to the waves talking to me….!

Fireworks as fiery as the Maltese people DOI Malta

Dear reader,
our team is coming up with a lot of new antics to ensure that our website is attractive to the reader and to make sure every European citizen is informed about what the European Parliament is doing for him and her!

Hence, we are all looking forward to the eve of 7 June when the results are announced but MOST particularly when the turn-out of voters is announced. We simply hope you are one of them! Now the hitch is this. I come from a country which is hyper political. We eat, we think politics, we see red, blue, green…wherever we go and whoever we meet.  As a Maltese friend on Facebook said “The election campaign in Malta is not about ‘Use Your vote’ but rather who to vote for!” People think we are arguing when we are simply debating….hotly…about something political issue we are passionate about! What am I coming to? That may simply be too much for other temperaments but you may want to check electoral turn-outs. We are NOT obliged to vote against a fine like some countries but participation is high. What is the secret? We were simply trained to think that participating in the political and civil society is a sacred duty….because politics is about man and about seeking the common good. Democracy can only be democracy if we make use of our choice. Now if my reason tries to persuade you to vote and your reason says otherwise we are in a tight corner. However if we both try to reach that higher common good mountains can move and one can see that one vote counts and as that wise saying goes…if you light a candle in the dark, that one vote will count. The EU will be presenting one person less and democracy will suffer a bit more. Let us not forget what Churchil said of democracy:

“ Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

Voting from Bali or....quite© Luci Ferrero.

Joanna throwing her vote in Jakarta

Finnish citizen Joanna Chellapermal was basking in the sun along Bali beaches, not even intending to use her right to vote in the EU elections. When suddenly….here she is in Jakarta using precisely that ONE….

She writes:

I had not intended to vote in the EP elections originally. Had I been in Europe it would have been a different story but I was going to be enjoying the beautiful sights of Bali at the time.

Once I arrived in Indonesia I observed how Indonesians were caught up with their own elections. Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, had just finished its second democratic parliamentary elections and was preparing for the first round of the presidential elections. Everyone is following the elections – tv stations and newspapers provide daily analysis and debates. My taxi drivers, the people’s political analysts, would have long discussions on the state of the nation and strength of the candidates. My friends in Jakarta would provide me with the latest behind the scenes gossip on the candidates.

I guess it made me question how I as a European take for granted the right to vote in free and fair elections be it on national or European level.

In the end I decided to abandon the sunny beaches of Bali for a few days and to travel to Jakarta to vote at my embassy.

Why? What nudged me? In the end I got caught up in the EP election fever. It did make me feel still connected with Europe somehow although when I talked to European friends abroad I would get mixed reactions. A Finnish friend in Canada said ‘ but the elections are in Europe, what does this have to do with me?’

I tried to find out how many Finns are expected to vote in Jakarta. However for Finnish citizens it was not necessary to register, just to show up at the nearest Finnish embassy with a passport or other I.D document. This can only be to the advantage of such like me.

As I delved into the European election fever, I spoke with NGO activists and representatives of Indonesian parliament to find out if they were aware of what was happening on the European continent or about the biggest trans-European elections. However, I am afraid to say that they were not aware that the EP elections are taking place now. This said many did know that elections will be held this year and some even had read about the low turnout at the last EP elections; all which led to an  interesting discussion comparing the two election processes.

Regarding who my vote went for, once I decided to vote in the elections I was able to find all the information I needed……in a serene wi-fi café in Seminyak called “Grocer & Grind” where I spent considerable time over an espresso searching information on voting and candidates. Finnish websites such as

http://www.vaalit.fi/teksti/index.htm

http://www.europarl.fi/

gave me all the information I needed and the Finnish embassy officials in Jakarta were also very helpful with the information on election times and requirements.

I had a clear idea who to vote for from the beginning. I have seen how dedicated my chosen candidate was to protecting human rights and the environment during her two previous europarliamentary terms.

What struck me in these elections was the use of Facebook and internet in general. My chosen MEP has a facebook site and I was able to share the link with my Finnish Facebook friends some of whom joined her site. To crown it all I was even motivated enough to post a comment on her site. I am dying to tell you who I voted for…..