A precious gem

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Let me introduce you to my home country *drum rolls* 

Taaa-daaaa... 

This is Albania, located in Southeastern Europe's Balkan Peninsula.
Beyond vague recollections of its Communist past, few travellers know much about Albania. Its rippling mountains and pristine beaches, lands littered with historical Roman ruins and pretty Ottoman towns remain largely undiscovered. Most never see the alluring azure lakes or the picturesque valleys occupied by immensely hospitable locals, and instead bypass the country for its far more popular neighbours.
Following decades of isolationist rule, this rugged land still doesn’t seem to fit into the grand continental jigsaw, with distinctly exotic notes emanating from its language, customs and cuisine. But it’s those idiosyncrasies that make it such an intriguing and rewarding corner of Europe begging to be explored.
Those seeking to take Albania’s true pulse should head to the mountainous hinterlands, particularly sleepy hillside towns of Berat and Gjirokastra – both essentially open-air museums of life in Ottoman times. Keen hikers will want to explore the valley of Valbona, where karst limestone mountains harbour astonishing biodiversity, and as the snowcapped peaks of the interior drop down to the ocean, the immaculate beaches along the Ionian coastline are among the Mediterranean’s least developed sands.

What should you visit?

According to TripAdvisor you should go to: 

1. Butrint in Saranda
   
2. Blue Eye in Saranda
   
3. Berat Fortress in Berat
   
4. Ksamil Village in Saranda
   
5. Mount Dajti in Tirana
   
6. Apollonia in Fier
   
7. Shkodra Lake in Shkodra
   
8. Voskopoja Village in Korça
   
9. Penisola Di Porto Palermo e Castello in Himara
   
10. Skanderbeg Museum in Kruja
    

If you Google for Albania Destinations you will see a variety of cities you should visit where each of them gives you the opportunity to see and taste our culture. 

You Deserve to Be Inspired

“I am participating in the Writing Contest: You Deserve to be Inspired. Hosted by Positive Writer.”

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I can proudly say that I have the most amazing family ever. Two loving parents who are head over heels in love with each other and a younger sister who always gets on my nerves. 

My life turned upside down on December 2012. On Christmas Eve I bid my farewell to my hero. 

My dad had never been sick or never been to the hospital. Yet, he had acute pancreatitis. For years he had had this infection and it was too late to do anything about it. 

My dad passed away on 23rd of December. I saw the entire world crashing right before my eyes when later that evening mum gave us that terrible, heartbreaking news to my sister and I. 

What were we supposed to do? What ought a housewife do for her daughters respectively 18 and 14 years old?

We couldn't and we still can't be fully happy. On birthdays or different celebrations our hearts miss a piece. A really important piece.
It's like a puzzle, you know? When you have everything except one piece and the picture is not the same. So, this is why the puzzle is never completed. 

Days went on and on. It has been 4 years and 102 days without him. More days, weeks, months and years are to come and he will never come back. 

I always say that the things I miss the most from him are his laughter, his soft hand, his advice and his goodnight-kiss. His memories are precious to me. 

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What are the three main lessons I learned from this?

1. Life is too short. You will never know when it's time to say "Goodbye" to someone you love. 
2. You have to be strong to stand up when you fall. Fight for your dreams and keep the promises you make to yourself. 
3. Enjoy the little moments in life. Enjoy every bit of life, actually! We only have one life, so we should make the best out of it.

Monday Morning

Good morning from sunny Tirana :)

I hope that all of you have a wonderful week ahead full of opportunities and inspiring things. Don't forget to be awesome all day long and let this new Monday be the sign of setting new goals.

Love,
Xhesika <3

I CAN DO IT!

‘How I did it’ books give me a sinking feeling

The poolside is twice as pleasurable this year because swimming is so much more enjoyable. The credit goes to pioneers of new methods of swimming instruction, Steven Shaw and Terry Laughlin. In my experience, most swimming lessons are delivered by charming young Australians, excellent swimmers who have been at home in the water since they were young children. They regard those who flounder in the water with incomprehension. They say ‘watch me’ as they vanish towards the other end of the pool. But what bad swimmers need is to be taught to do the things good swimmers do naturally. Bad swimmers must overcome their fear of water and learn to balance and float.

The skills of being good at something and being good at teaching others to do it are completely different.

That lesson seems relevant to the pile of bad books by my deckchair. I have been skimming the clutch of recent guides to entrepreneurship. Most are spin-offs from television programmes. The message of all is that anyone can do it, which is indeed the title of two of these books. I do not know whether skill or luck was the more important contributor to the development of Coffee Republic, the success of mobile phone magnate Peter Jones, or of publisher Felix Dennis or the coups of property speculator Duncan Bannatyne. Nor do these authors know. But whether you are successful because you are skillful, like swimmer Mark Spitz, or successful because you are lucky, like a lottery winner, you can easily, and mistakenly, convince yourself that your own experience shows that anyone can do it. After all, anyone who is Mark Spitz can be an Olympic swimming champion, and anyone can be a lottery winner if they buy the right ticket. There is nothing to be learnt from memorising the banal tips provided by these books – aim to succeed, show determination, have a good idea, work hard.

John Paul Getty, asked for the secrets of his success, said it all: ‘Strike oil’. If you are looking for common characteristics of these successful entrepreneurs, you learn that none of them can write well and all of them are vain. I am sure you do not need to write well to succeed in business. Perhaps you need to be vain: or perhaps vanity is just a characteristic of the self-selected sample of entrepreneurs who write books about their experiences. Television finds an even more unrepresentative sample of those who have made it in business. Only a few entrepreneurs aspire to be movie stars. Fewer still commend themselves to producers as having star quality. The business people whose insights I value mostly think that business is complex, that there are few universal recipes for success, and explain that much of their time is spent gently coaxing the best from people. Such entrepreneurs do not make it onto the small screen. Those who appear on television are, of necessity, people with outsized personalities who exude confidence and possess a talent for one line answers. That is how Sir Alan Sugar and Donald Trump become the public face of business. It propagates the idea that the main quality required is aggression. This emphasis is misleading for those who want to go into business, and reinforces the prejudices of those who are instinctively hostile to it. Perhaps I am too hard on these books about entrepreneurship. If you look at the reader reviews on Amazon, you find touching public expressions of gratitude for the inspiration people say they have found in them. This is the role such books can play. No one can seriously imagine that by reading the memoirs of a sporting hero they will learn how to be good at football. But some kids who read these books may be fired with ambition to succeed at football, or in life. The mistake both authors and publishers of business books make is to confuse a book about ‘what I did’ with a book about ‘how to do it’. The result gives us insight from someone’s biography only accidentally and has little to offer in terms of useful advice. The skills of the coach are not the same as the skills of the practitioner. That is true in both the pool and the boardroom.

© John Kay

Të uroj - Victor Hugo

Pikë së pari, të uroj dashuri. Dhe duke dashur, uroj të të duan. Por nëse kjo nuk ndodh, atëherë tregohu i shkathët për të harruar. Dhe pasi të kesh harruar, uroj të mos pendohesh.

Uroj vërtetë që kjo mos të të ndodhë, por nëse ndodh dhe ti harron, shpresoj të mos zhytesh në dëshpërim.

Të uroj të kesh shumë miq. Edhe nëse ata janë të këqinj ose të parëndësishëm. Uroj të kesh miq të guximshëm dhe të vërtetë. Dhe uroj që një prej tyre të jetë më i besueshmi.

Por sepse jeta është në këtë mënyrë që është, të uroj armiq. As shumë, por as pak. Një numër i ndërmjetëm, që të të bëjë të pyesësh veten për të vërtetat dhe siguritë e tua. Dhe le të jetë mes tyre njëri që do jetë i drejtë, që të mos ndihesh kurrë i sigurtë në idetë e tua.
Uroj të jesh i dobishëm, por jo i pazëvendësueshëm. Dhe në momentet e tua më të këqija, kur të mos kesh asgjë, ajo dobishmëri të të mbajë në këmbë.

Në proporcion me të, të uroj të jesh tolerant. Jo me ata që bëjnë gabime të vogla, sepse kjo është shumë e thjeshtë, por me ata që bëjnë gabime të mëdha, të cilat nuk mund të zhbëhen. Përdore mirë tolerancën tënde që të bëhesh shembull për të tjerët.

Uroj që kur të jesh i ri, të mos rritesh shpejt. Dhe atëherë kur të jesh rritur, mos këmbëngul të jesh sërish i vogël. Dhe kur të plakesh, mos u dëshpëro. Sepse çdo moshë ka kënaqësitë dhe dhembjet e veta, dhe ne kemi nevojë për të dyja këto në jetë.

Gjithashtu, uroj të jesh i mërzitur, të paktën një ditë. Kështu në atë ditë do kuptosh se të qeshësh çdo ditë është mirë, të qeshësh shpesh është e mërzitshme dhe të qeshësh vazhdimisht është çmenduri.

Uroj që të zbulosh me shumë shpejtësi nga ajo që thashë më sipër, se në botë ka njerëz të palumtur, të depresionuar dhe të patrajtuar mirë.

Të uroj të përkëdhelësh një qen, të ushqesh një zog e të dëgjosh cicërimën e tij, që dëgjohet në mënyrë triumfuese çdo mëngjes. Sepse në këtë mënyrë, do ndihesh mirë, pa arsye.
Dhe pastaj, uroj të ujisësh një farë, sado e vogël qoftë ajo. Dhe të jesh dëshmitar i rritjes së saj, që të shohësh se sa jetë jeton një pemë.

Të uroj gjithashtu, të kesh pará, sepse duhet të jemi praktikë. Dhe të paktën, një herë në vit, t’i vendosësh përpara teje e të thuash “Këto janë të miat.”. Kështu, do kuptohet se kush zotëron kë.

Uroj që asnjë nga të dashurit e tu të mos vdesë. Por nëse disa prej tyre vdesin, uroj të qash pa pendesë dhe pa u ndjerë në faj për fjalët që kurrë nuk ua the apo gjërat që kurrë nuk i bëre për ta.

Së fundmi, nëse je mashkull, të uroj një femër të mirë përkrah, e nëse je femër, të uroj një mashkull të mirë. Dhe ta doni njëri – tjetrin nesër, dhe ditën pas të nesërmes. Dhe kur të dy të jeni të lodhur e të buzëqeshur, uroj të keni sërish dashuri për t’ja nisur ditës tjetër nga e para.

Nëse të ndodhin të gjitha këto, atëherë nuk të uroj asgjë më tepër se kaq.