Both my parents were born in peasant families and they were the firsts
from their relatives living in an apartment in a big city.
As a child, I was sent to our peasant relatives from the first day of each vacation
because my parents had nobody around to watch and feed me during the day.
Looking back, I am very grateful they chose to solve the issue like that
because the vacations spent at countryside were the best time of my childhood.
I was blending very well among my peasant relatives,
but some things were very strange compared to my back home apartment.
The strangest among all was the fact that during winter all people in the house
were practically staying and living in only one room: the kitchen.
The kitchen was very large and had not only a cooking and eating area
(wood stove, table, chairs, cupboard), but also a sleeping area
(one or two large beds, depending on the number of family members).
There were 2 main reasons for that: temperature & economy.
As the place where fire was burning all day long for cooking and all night long for heating,
the kitchen was the warmest room in the house.
The other rooms were not heated at all during winter or very rarely.
For economy reasons because wood was not cheap, nor easy to cut in pieces for the fire.
As I said, I was blending very well, but the fact that I was forced
to stay, eat and sleep in one room with 5 more people was not funny at all.
Therefore, one thing I truly appreciate is privacy.
The other thing I truly appreciate is warmth during winter.
I hate cold and winter so much that I'd wish to be able to hibernate.
Get asleep in the autumn and wake up in the spring.
This year the winter was very, very cold.
And I live in an old house, heated by gas stoves.
Each room has an independent stove and only one is really performing:
the one from Octav's room. The other two are performing much worse
and they are not able to heat properly the other rooms.
As a privacy lover, I don't like to invade my son's space.
But as a warmth lover I had to.
And that's how I ended repeating the history:
crowding together in the warmest room of the house.
Isn't it funny?
Note: Don't worry, we're not cooking, eating, nor sleeping all together in Octav's room.
We're just chatting, playing, surfing the net or reading. :)