Salute to everyone!
It’s been a long time since I wrote an article about celebrating my birthdays. And, by the way, the girl turned 34 years old. I’m writing, but I can’t believe it. It just doesn’t work out. Firstly, it seems that I was 5 years old just some time ago. Secondly, I feel much younger (and, according to others, I also look younger).
I want to remember and write here how it was earlier, more precisely, how I celebrated my days in the past years. One day being an old granny I will open this article and reading this will certainly put a smile on my face.
2009 – Cheltenham (England), in a Turkish family, where I lived for about a year. We were celebrating at home and my Chinese neighbor Mani was also with us.
2010 – London (England), with friends Kirill and Philip, on an evening cruise on the Thames with life music and dinner on board. This, by the way, was a gift from Philip, for which I am still very grateful to him
2011 – London (England), with my friends Philip and Zhanat (it seems that Kirill was not with us that time), dinner at a castle restaurant with an acrobatic show right next to the tables. It was very chic and atmospheric. I thank Philip again. It was his gift to me.
2012 – I hardly remember this year’s celebration. I have a feeling that I just celebrated in a PR group at the University of Westminster, where I was studying at that moment. London (England)
2013 – Omsk, photo shoot with Oleg Evseev (I wrote about this celebration here
2014 – Omsk, with relatives
2015 – St. Petersburg, a photo shoot with Max Burin and then a celebration with my friend Mila Berillo – https://westminsterscinderella.wordpress.com/2015/11/
2016 – Krasnodar
2017 – Busan (South Korea) with a friend from America (Caitlin) https://westminsterscinderella.wordpress.com/2018/04/
2018 – Yalta, Crimea https://westminsterscinderella.wordpress.com/2018/10/
2019 – Munich and Neuschwanstein Castle (it was my dream and I celebrated my thirtieth birthday there) https://westminsterscinderella.wordpress.com/2019/11/
2020 – Saint Petersburg + Repino (with a friend in Repino and girlfriends in St. Petersburg)
2021 – St. Petersburg, Astoria Hotel + photo shoot with Max Burin. And my mother also came to see me. We were together.
2022 – Cappadocia (Turkey), hot air balloon flight. That was also my dream. I am very sad and disappointed that I did not write about such an incredible celebration here.
2023… And then I found myself in Omsk. Initially I wanted to go to Kazakhstan, then I planned to go to Altai. But, to tell the truth, I was tired of constant travel, and I spent a lot of money in August and September and therefore I decided to give myself a little break in terms of travel. When I stayed in Omsk, I began to think, what I wanted from October 12? It’s strange but on the one hand, I live my life with the feeling that every new day is a day full of opportunities and new achievements, miracles, and I try to feel celebration and harmony, love of life always and everywhere. Then what’s the difference – is it October 12 or June 19, for example? On the other hand, as you noticed from my list above, I usually try to organize something entertaining on my special day.
Probably the most logical thing would be to spend my birthday with my relatives, considering how rarely I visit Omsk, and especially in October. But logic is not about me in this case.
I had several options for celebrating and I settled on gaining experience and emotions through various activities that would definitely bring me the joy of being.
My Russian article was bigger as I shared the way I prepared for my birthday and how I was organizing everything. I will go into details of the day X straight away here.
BREAKFAST WITH MY LOVED ONES
I got to my brother’s place at 8:10 in the morning. It was very nice when I went up to the 4th floor and entered my relatives’ apartment, I was greeted by my brother, sister-in-law and my eldest nephew (whom, by the way, I really wanted to see and, fortunately, the first lesson at his school was canceled so that we could meet. Well, isn’t it a miracle?) They greeted me with an incredibly delicate bouquet, cakes from JuliaCake (I’ve been wanting to try them for a long time, I could say that I even dreamed and every time I failed to go to her cafe and try the cakes). It was unexpected and very nice.
After some time, my relatives’ friends arrived (Vera is a famous photographer of newborns in Omsk and Andrey is her husband and the one who is behind the photo business, but plays a very pivotal role in it). Vera definitely does not need advertising, but I will still share her site so that you can see what beauty she creates. Beauty and memory for parents and their children. https://fotoveritas.ru/ I really love these guys, as they are open-minded, cool, kind, very funny with a great sense of humour, as well as talented and successful. In fact, even without listing these moments, I just feel a lot of warmth for this couple and therefore I was immensely happy that I managed to see them on my birthday.
I don’t want to talk much about our time spent together, because they are relatives and I usually keep such stories inside and don’t share them with everyone. It’s quite personal. But I can say that an incredible breakfast was waiting for me. Zhenya (my brother) and Tanya (Zhenya’s wife, my sister-in-law) are specialists, I would even say breakfast pros. It’s great that they invited me for a visit.
That’s actually what I am talking about:
We discussed work (everyone told something about their own business. I, in particular, shared the ideas of my English lessons), about travel, various activities and life in general. It was fun and emotional.
I was very pleased when I (after the stories about my lessons) received such a feedback: “Natasha, you are selling a business class at the price of econom. Do you even know how much such a service costs and that you charge very little for your services?” The funny thing was that that dialogue began with the phrase “we can’t afford lessons from Natasha. It costs an arm and a leg” but they changed their minds right after my “presentation”.
I want to also share the moment of blowing out the candle:
In addition to that I have a super photo where Andrey is photographing Zhenya, that is taking a photo of Vera, that is taking a photo of Tanya, who, in turn, is photographing me blowing out a candle. It was a lot of fun. The guys definitely made my morning! I will not post this photo here, because I do not want to violate other people’s borders, especially because it’s home environment on the photo (and the home wasn’t mine).
I was with my brother and his family from 8 am to 11:30. During our meal and communication, I received a message that the teacher of the language school was ill and instead of French, I would have an English lesson as a gift for my birthday! I wasn’t very happy about it, but I immediately changed my mindset. The world knows better why it should be this way and not otherwise. I agreed. Moreover, we were talking about a present that I wasn’t expecting to get.
ENGLISH LESSON
I was already sitting at the lesson at 12:00. One of my teacher’s first questions was: “Why are you here on your birthday? And such a choice of languages? You wrote about French or Italian or English. This is a very unusual request, we have never had this before” and I especially liked my favorite question “tell me about yourself briefly” – ha-ha-ha. I and briefly? But I tried my best. We also discussed my birthday, my teaching method, travel, Ksenia told me about her career path, work and so on. We also talked about the fate of Omsk, its development and the absence of some things, and why so many young people leave the city. We spoke only English during the lesson.
This is Ksenia by the way (and Natalia):
I really wanted to be in a dress, heels, and a white coat on the 12th of October, but it was an unacceptable luxury considering my schedule of the day. Therefore, such a look of the day was chosen.
What can I say in terms of Ksenia’s language. I guess we had more or less the same level of English. We talked absolutely calmly, on different topics, fluently but the teacher’s pronunciation was better than mine. Let me remind you that I did not study to be a teacher, while Ksenia has a diploma in this field and she spent hours working on her pronunciation and accent in English. That is, I would have rated her level slightly higher than mine, but I would not have gone to study with her. Firstly, there is not so much difference in our English. Secondly, I have very high expectations from language teachers. I am looking for a person with a very interesting life, someone who would take my breath away and who would inspire and delight me. Or I need to feel that this is my person. There was no match between us even though she was absolutely lovely and the hour passed very cool and unnoticed. I realized during the lesson that I was happy spending my birthday this way, and that was already good.
After the lesson I was presented with a certificate of 50% discount for a French lesson. It looks like I hacked this life. I came to the language center, where I did not plan to study, almost out of nowhere. And I had an English lesson for free and a discount for French lesson. But I do believe in the balance of energies and that if I get something, it would be great to take part in this circle of kindness myself. Of course, I also gave an hour of my time to Ksenia, and, for sure, I gave her pleasant emotions by communicating in English. But I wanted to thank her and I immediately ran into a nearby cafe, bought a box of truffles and brought them to school.
SANDPAINTING
After that, according to the plan, there was a master class “Drawing with the sand”. Fortunately, it was a 10-minute walk from English, but I was still walking pretty fast. I lost some time because of the purchase of truffles. Interestingly, even walking quite fast, I stopped to look at the blue sky, enjoyed the sun and good weather (although it was not so warm, 10 degrees above zero).
I came to the Art-center and found Svetlana Vladimirovna (our master) first and my friend Dasha came very soon. What can I say about this master class? That was a wonderful immersion in the moment “here and now”, a kind of meditation, filling yourself with femenine energy Yin and simply a beautiful time. It wasn’t difficult to draw, although I can’t say that we got masterpieces. The workplace looked like this:
The art-teacher told and showed everything very clearly. In order to attract love and happiness into our lives, we drew a couple (a man and a woman) in Paris, then we drew a stork with a baby in its beak, and then made the baby bigger. In general, we visualized our magical future with the help of sand, a lighted table and simple hand movements. It was interesting that Svetlana Vladimirovna chose the theme of France and then changed the piano music to French songs. I said that it was the closure in my gestalt, because the French lesson did not happen and so I had something different instead. I loved the lesson and I once again thanked myself that I had found such a master class and Dasha, who agreed to accompany me.
My friend and I were drawing the underwater world
As I did not know how to draw faces, I still do not know how. “S” means stability.
The same couple but is already in love. I kindly ask you not to pay attention to the fact that the girl has stubble, and the man has a potato nose. It’s just my “great” talent))
Metamorphosis restaurant
After our sand adventure we went to Metamorphosis restaurant, which was located in 50/60 hotel. It was my friend’s suggestion, for which I am very grateful to her. The very name of the restaurant set me up in the right mood. I have metamorphoses that evoke only pleasant associations. That’s my world and the way I see it.
What can I say about the place? The design was very stylish and expensive-looking. The food was also delicious, although we didn’t order that much. I took Caesar salad with salmon, Dasha had a cream soup with fried mushrooms and bruschetta with baked pepper and stracciatella. And also we got a piece of cheesecake with a candle as a compliment from the restaurant for my birthday. Surprisingly, they didn’t even ask for my passport, although I kept it ready. Honestly, I wanted to try more dishes, but since the breakfast was incredibly dense (thanks to relatives) and the dance class was approaching, which we went to right after lunch, I decided not to take risks and not eat so much.
A massive thank goes to my lovely Daria again, because she found and booked us a dance class at the Bagheera Dance studio, which was a 3-minute walk from the restaurant. With such a daily routine, it was a very important moment. The lesson we went to was called High Heels, because this is the main attribute of this dance style.
Our teacher’s name was (and still is Alina). I really liked her. A devoted reader will now notice that I am always who I am. I like everything and everyone all the time, without changing traditions. And this time there was no exception. Indeed, the girl was very pleasant, beautiful, slim. And what a jumpsuit she had! Even I couldn’t take my eyes off such a suit and body.
And I wanted to look the same (this is written by someone who has been trying to be herself for years and not compare herself with others). And the choreography itself was very beautiful, gentle, intriguing, sexy, feminine. As it seems to me, I turned out beautifully exactly until we were lying on the floor. The floor chorepgraphy is my weak side. There you need to show flexibility but I showed its absence, in addition, seasoned with clumsiness. It looked very funny, but, nevertheless, it was a super lesson and I remembered that it was my birthday and realized that Yes! This is what my soul loves and wants, and I am grateful to myself for such a celebration and to my parents, who could insist on my presence with them, at a general celebration, but this did not happen. I do not know such parents who would give so much freedom to their children and not be offended that a child (a 34-year-old child) does not celebrate his/her birthday in the generally accepted style. Besides, I rarely visit Omsk on my birthday.
MASSAGE AND SOMETHING MORE
After dancing, my dear friend and I took a taxi and went to the left part of the city. That was the final point of my celebration. Dasha showed me the way to a massage place and went home, and the most incredible massage in my life was waiting for me (but I didn’t know about it yet). Unfortunately (or fortunately) I will not share everything on the blog pages, but I will tell you some facts:
masseur Ramil is the brightest person with great energy
My procedure consisted of: tea drinking (I did not use this option), hand massage (painful, with the study of internal and external blocks, while explaining to me what this or that block was about. Then we followed a massage with cans (very painful. Ramil fixed the cans on my back and butt and I started to cry, but he also explained to me what it was for). Then there was a massage with metal brooms. That was the first time in my life. I hadn’t have anything similar before. Then I was burnt (basically you are covered with several wet towels, sprinkled with alcohol and then set on fire). The first time the procedure lasted around 15-20 seconds, and the second time I was being burnt for 25 seconds, if I remember correctly.
The photo below was taken from the video that Ramil took for me.
Then there was a massage of the legs and abdomen, the face, the study of blocks and conversations. And some more procedures that I will not write about here.
And these are the traces of my internal blocks or, more precisely, cans. Almost my whole back looks like this now. But I think it will heal before the wedding 🙂
Iwanted to go to Ramil because I saw Dasha’s story on Instagram, more precisely how she was being “set on fire” and I found it interesting. As I joked with one of my students, probably next year I will find someone who will cut me in half. By the way, this student said that he admired me and was surprised at how much adrenaline I had. Oh, he didn’t see how afraid I was of spiders and insects. He would be even more surprised)))
As a result, I received a huge range of therapies, work with my body and soul, important conversations, thoughts, information for me. For a long time I will think about what I have heard and felt there. And I would like as many people as possible to experience such an impact for themselves and discover a lot of new things. And, of course, I am very grateful to Dasha for such a contact and experience in my life!
So, having left home at 7:30am, I returned only at 23:00. It was a day filled with completely different emotions, feelings, impressions and experiences. And I am very grateful to myself for such creativity in my style. Yes, I did not receive so much attention and love from the outside, because there was no party for the whole day with all my family and friends, I did not have time to answer calls and messages. Apart from my brother’s family and my friend, then, in fact, my celebration was also made by strangers: an English teacher, a sand artist, a dance coach, a masseur (although he is something more than just a masseur).
It was like I had lived another little life, and it was just my thirty-fourth birthday.
I thank the universe and fate again for the fact that I am who I am, that I am surrounded by such bright, dear people and that life can be so interesting even at such dark times. How great it is to celebrate your day as you want, and not as society or neighbours want.
P.S. Regarding congratulations. A large number of people have written to me and I still haven’t read or answered them all. But since the area of my communication is extremely large, many people did not congratulate me either). Including friends close to me (for example, a friend from America). It seems that I focus on this and notice who did not remember me on the 12th of October. But at the same time, I can honestly say that it doesn’t matter to me. And I love my friend just as much. The attitude of a person towards me and our communication / friendship is much more important to me than a message or a call with beautiful and kind words. It’s nice, but it’s such a small thing. So if you forgot about my birthday, don’t worry at all! My attitude towards you is unchangable. Lots of hugs and love!
История Современной Золушки из Вестминстера. Westminster's Cinderella. 