Albeit a bit later than usual due to a well deserved holiday in Italy, I am back with a list of places, things, videos and thoughts I have liked during the past month and which I would like to share with you.
As a result of a hectic month with a different set of priorities than usual, my reading list was sadly thinner than I wanted, being composed only out of three books that should count as one and a half considering two of them add up to less than 250 pages and the other one I was done with on the 1st of June, after reading 90% of it in May. I can’t truly recommend any of the three for different reasons irrelevant to this post, but let me know if you want me to do a bigger book post about my favourites/my dislikes in the past year or about my read shelf and my TBR shelf. I have indeed started reading other 3 books in June out of which I have read almost 300 pages so here’s to hoping July will be the month in which I get to finish something (I hope this will be the case since I also just bought 10 more books *facepalm*).
Let’s get into it. Here’s what I liked seeing, attending, watching and reading in June:
VIDEOS
Notes on the set – ‘The Crown’
It’s not a secret I loved Netflix’s ‘The Crown’ , a series focused on the British Monarchy played by an incredibly cast. In this video, Martin Childs, ‘The Crown’ production designer, explains how his team managed to pull together interiors that resemble the original royal venues. It’s extremely fascinating and insightful and particularly interested for the fans of the show familiar with the scenes and with production and design passionates.
Before watching this video I never asked myself the above question, but now I am glad I know the answer to it. Bloomberg has done a particularly fine job bringing this topic forward and I hope to see more such videos from them in the upcoming months.
RO: Vlad Voiculescu’s TEDx talk
For my fellow Romanians who did not get a chance to watch this widely circulated video of a talk one of our former Health Ministers offered at TEDx Cluj, please carve 20 minutes out of your hectic schedule and watch it. Please.
PLACES
Villa Rufolo, Ravello
Out of my most recent trip to Italy this must be one of the most beautiful places I have seen! The gardens at Villa Rufolo are so well maintained and the views are absolutely breathtaking that it’s easy to forget you are not dreaming.
Hotel Covo dei Saraceni, Positano
Alright, so I might not be able to say a lot about the hotel since I did not stay there during my time in Positano, but their downstairs café/restaurant served the best sorbet I have ever tasted! Maybe I am slightly biased because it was lemon-based (and I love lemons!) and served in an actual frozen lemon, but it was for sure one of the most memorable things I ate while in Italy. Also, I sort of regret not going on a lemon farm tour (I didn’t know these were a thing!) so if someone can take me to the Amalfi coast again so I can see the pretties lemons again I’d be forever grateful.
EVENTS
Open Tuinen Dagen/ Open Garden Day (Amsterdam)
This classical June event is something I had been waiting for since last year, when I sadly learned about it too late. This event is centred around the gardens of the canal houses in Amsterdam, and it was mainly created as a way to raise awareness about them and their sometimes decaying beauty. Considering the participating gardens are mostly private or not easily accessible ones, the event felt like a special incursion into a magical and secret green world of Amsterdam.
Dan Ariely talk- The Philosophy of Money
In June I got the amazing opportunity to hear Dan Ariely talk during an event organized by the School of Life Amsterdam. He mainly talked about money and our financial habits and behaviours and I have noted down some really insightful thoughts that I decided would be great to share with you:
- We made saving invisible and we made spending visible. Do you know how much your neighbours are spending? Kind of – you know in what type of place they live, what car they drive, what clothes they wear and so on. But do you know how much they save?
- Life is a portfolio of decisions. What do you have highlighted in yours?
If you want to learn more about other ideas Ariely talks about, such as the pain of paying, the money you need to get to live happily well into your retirement years or why we should make our efforts visible in relation to our clients, you might want to read his latest book called Dollars and Sense: How We Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter.
Noaptea de Sânziene – Se deschid cerurile de Sânziene
I wanted to attend this event for more than three years and unfortunately I was either away or unavailable during the nights it was organized. For all my foreign friends and readers, every year on the 24th of June, Romanians celebrate the Sânziene, who are the closest beings to fairies who every year dress in white, gather flowers and braid them into crowns which are later thrown on house roofs to determine if someone in that household will die (if the crown falls from the roof) or if the next year will be a prosperous one (if the crown doesn’t fall from the roof). The celebration and our rituals sort of reminded me a bit of what I have read about the Swedish midsommar celebrations (by the way, if you haven’t watched this extremely humorous clip about these Swedish festivities, this clip might be for you).
ARTICLES
Want to understand experience design? Eat popcorn with chopsticks
Before reading this article I was a bit skeptical I would learn something new from such a seemingly irrelevant and click-bait-ish title, but I caught myself by surprise by learning more about how we can create memorable experiences with thoughtful design.
Here is where I am wrapping up this months recommendations article, with the hope you’ll also share what you have liked/read/watched or tried out and loved in the past weeks.
See you soon!
Laura
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