Hello everyone,

It's been a long time since I blogged. What have I been doing since then? Lots of things.

First , I gamed, mainly Mass Effect : I love that game so much that I wanted it to be the first game for which I got all the achievements, I needed more than 120 hours to accomplish it. Hehe, and to know that I didn't like Mass Effect the few first hours, just shows how something can grow on you.

I also played Bioshock 2, a sequel and quite similar to the first game, but still so much fun. I'm not that far in the game but I can see its quality already.

But it's been more than 2 weeks since I gamed...

The weather started to improve so the gardening and bonsai season made their appearance. I worked a lot in the garden, it's so relaxing, I think I'm meditating while gardening ; I don't talk for hours and my mind is so quiet.

The last few years I've neglected my bonsai, ok, I still gave them water and fertilizer, but that's all. I didn't do any other bonsaiwork like repotting and wiring. That has changed this year.

I think I've been too focused on gaming the previous 5 years, I neglected my other passions and that's not a good thing. Someone once said to me "Life starts at 40" and I'll be turning 40 later this year. This year will be the year of changes, things have already started, I can feel it.

Maybe the thing I neglected the most, was my love for music. It has always been a very important part of my life, be it for dancing or just listening. When I was a teenager I wanted to learn how to play a music instrument but pretty soon another one of my passions took the upperhand : sports.

Since a few months, I started to feel that I want to go back to things I neglected or completely forgot about and learning to play an instrument is one of them. I was hesitant because wasn't it too late to start ? But then someone said "Well, in 10 years, you can say that you're playing guitar (cause that's the instrument I was hesitant about) or you'll still feel sorry and regret it that you never took that step". That was enough for me to make my decision : I was going to learn to play (acoustic) guitar !!

About a week ago I bought my guitar and started to practice every day. I still can't believe how relaxing it is, I found another passion that has the same effect on me as gardening and working on bonsai. In June I'm going to register for music lessons at my local music and ballet academy. Maybe I'll be the oldest student, but that doesn't bother me, someone has got to be the oldest. :D

Now you know why I chose this title for my blog but there's another reason. When the idea started to grow to learn to play guitar, the song that will represent Belgium this year in the Eurovision Songcontest, was announced, its title..."Me and My Guitar". I thought "This is no coincidence, it's a sign".

That's all for now. I hope everyone is healthy and happy. I'll leave you with 2 links to music videoclips. The first is of the song I just told you about, the second is a song that I love a lot, it expresses a certain "joie de vivre" so well. I'm sorry it's in Dutch (the title means "Three Days of Sun"). it's about everything and nothing, just listen to the music and rythm, I hope it makes you smile. :)

Take good care, till next time !

Edit : Here's a picture of my new guitar, an Ibanez SGT 120 E. It was difficult to get the right light (that's why I had to take it outside) so that it would show the real colour. Even on this picture, it's not like in reality...my guitar is more beautiful coloured ;)