Eat, Pray, Love

This summer I have been reading Eat Pray Love. It came about because of a trip to the cinema I took with my sister and best friend Long Legs and we saw the advert for the forthcoming film. Seeing that it was based on a book, and I was a mere few days away from going on holiday, I quickly jumped onto Amazon and bought it,thinking it would be a nice light fluffy read for my hols :)

When actually, it has turned out to be a lot more than that. Have you ever read a book, or heard someone speak,listened to a song, seen a film, looked at a picture - anything - and thought Yes. That has been me. That has been me exactly,like down to the very finest details?

Well I got that sensation (as I'm sure many other women - or quite possibly men) when I read about our authors Liz's encounter with the bad boy love of her life David. Hearing her descriptions of how brutally one person can shake you all about inside so you don't even know who you really are anymore reminded me of a girl very close to home and the way she was last year...

She also talks of how she longs for adventure in her life, and not wanted to be confined by the boxes and labels of society. She doesnt want children, she doesnt want to be married,she dosnt want to have to sit withall the other 30-something year old women just because they were a similary age and thats what is expected. She wanted to see things,feel things, experience things, love and pleasure, and find a harmonious balance between the two.

She does this by taking a year out and visiting Italy, India, and Bali - Italy to eat. And eat. and Eat. On a No Carbs Left Behind Diet - which frankly sounds like my kinda diet ;)

She rediscovers the simple pleasure of food, and falls in love with the Italian language, and learns it in her own unique way, for pleasure.

She then visits India, and lives in an Ashram, discovering more about her God and her own spirituality, through meditation. Now, this part of the book wasnt as interesting as the rest to me,because I couldnt relate to her theories on God and meditation - I can hardly sit still for 10 minutes. But just reading how she is grateful for everything around her, the air, nature, flowers, friends made me think.

She then goes to Bali to learn about the balance part - how to combine this new found strong spirituality along with her own pursuit of pleasure - not the seedy sex kind but just simply being happy, and enjoying herself,being happy in her own skin.

That where she meets this guy (below)

Hmm I know...droool.

In the book he is a Brazillian man who falls for her instantly because of how happy and radient she has become within herself, she is happy with her life now and it starts to show on the outside.

The desriptions of how gradually but simply they fall for each other is so endearing. And, whether it be in a book or in real life its nice, just once in a while to hear a straight forward, plain and simple romance story. No break ups, no make ups, no huge secrets and drama and arguments.

As my Mum once said about my horrible romantic affairs in the past ( all of which were doomed from the beginning haha) 'At some point it should just be simple.'

Yes the drama is fun. But you can't live on it, the nervous energy of it can wipe you out.

So Felipe is a wonderful real life character. Their staright forward dating and eventual love affair reminded me of the exciting but simple way Alex and I ended up together. So obviously I liked it :)

This book has made me want to go travel too. I have always loved travelling even on cross country trains, but reading this book in a beautiful country (Portugal) and having new experiences there made my feet incredibly itchy - I wanted to go and have a look at stuff!

So that is now thr plan, for a long term thing I think. Plan and save, save and plan, for a little travel trip :)

Any travellers out there who has come across a beautiful place, or has any good info tips on this please comment or email me - I need all the help I can get! :D

Oh and P.S - Buy the book :)

x

In Fair Verona.... Letters to Juliet

So my sister, Aimee and I went out to the cinemas the other night, as our Aims needed a bit of cheering up. After plenty of giggling and a kerfuffle in the queue while we were buying our ice cream (the staff always get the order wrong if my sister is ordering, I think they all fancy her and get distracted) we finally settled down in our seats to watch Letters To Juliet. Just a typical girlie rom-com, but as we love typical girlie rom-coms, we thoguth it was ace!
And I now obviously want to go to Verona and travel Italy now :) I honestly think I could live on their diet :)
In the story, theres these women who answer the love letters that people pin on the wall below Juliets balcony, and I found out people have been pinning their problems and broken hearts onto that wall for well over a century! I bet that wall has seen so much heartbreak, but a lot of hope as well :)