The lotus

 

Today I thought we will have just one picture: The Lotus, symbol of Kamalaya wellness retreat.

 

I feel very fortunate when looking in my flower book to learn that my birthday 16th of July has the symbol of the Lotus flower

 

The words above are:

 

Lotuses are ancient symbols of purity
and spontaneous generation.
They represent the unblemished spirit of mankind.
Growing beneath murky waters in mired
surroundings, they develop strong straight stems and
finally emerge from the water surface to sprout
sweet fragrant blossom in the sunlight.
The heart of human beings is like an unopened lotus;
when the virtues of true enlightenment are achieved
therein the lotus blossoms.

 

Feeling special

I felt very special today getting this wonderful flower from a wonderful person ...

There is something about orchids

Another reason for happiness. A customer sent us thanks from the whole family for a “beautiful trip” to Greece.

Sani Resort - a "beautiful" trip

They had a wonderful holiday at Sani Beach Club, which is the family hotel at Sani Resort in Halkidki.

Just a few lines only tell you that we were very, very pleased with our holiday at Sani Beach Club in Greece last week. What water! We swam, snorkeled, drove pedal boat and enjoyed the super-fine beach and bathing was absolutely perfect! The resort was both pleasant, tasteful and with a beautiful location, with a wide selection of good food and dine around program gave prized freedom and variety. The service was far better than I expected. Transfer etc worked perfectly. It was the closest to Swiss precision you can get. And the rooms were really nice with stunning sea views.


So, the whole family Persson is really happy and thank you so much for the beautiful trip you helped us with!

Sincerely

/ Magdalena, Jonas, Valdemar, Vera and Flora

 

Sani Resort - 9 bars and restaurants

Happy customers are what make our work feel most worthwhile….

First Class

I can't remember the feeling but it must be similar to travelling first class

Picture taken in the transfer bus on flight between Phuket and Bangkok

-- Post From My iPhone

Where happiness lies

The pursuit of bliss should not be founded on denial or illusion.
Says Julian Baggini in an article in FT 16/17 Jan

With happiness, as with much else, there is no algorithm and there are no secrets. Modern life can make you miserable but on average it doesn't and, in any case, a good life is not just a happy life but a truthful one. Knowing the facts can help us to live well but no one can provide us with a bespoke map to guide us through it. What they can do, however, is lead you astray with the promise that - with some survey data, positive thinking and a resolutions chart - mortal bliss is just a few steps away.

Among the most recent bunch of happiness books, there is s good one called: Smile or Die by Barbara Ehrenreich. How positive thinking fooled America and the world. I look forward to reading it.

Elated Gene Kelly as Don Lockwood in

'Singing in the Rain' (1952)

FT Jan 16/17

-- Post From My iPhone

Think outside the Botox

Beatrice Aidin gave up her injections and embraced a new beauty trend: Mobile facial features

"Botox pre-ages the skin," says some experts .. "If you reduce the blood supply to the area, then the area goes crepey.."

There are no real evidence of the negatve effects but I have a beautiful alternative for those clients who want healthy anti aging. We have an exclusive contract with the beautiful SHA Wellness Clinic in Spain. They have some lovely facial treatments that I will tell you more about.

Look for an invitation early spring!
I can promise you that you that after visiting SHA you don't only feel mobile in your face but even young at heart.










Expressive
Beatrice Aidin after giving up the botox injections (above) and the small picture during the Botox years

Financial Times Sunday 3 January

Post From My iPhone

Tea Time

I'm sipping my cup of tea and thinking how popular tea has become during the last years. First coffee became all hip with Starbucks and other coffee shops starting to educate the world in lattes, macchiatos, trippel venti soya cappuccino hazelnut sirups and so on. Now tea is making it's way up and everyone whos read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith knows that Rooibos is from Africa (the tea became hugely successful after these books were published). Green tea is popular with everyone who's conscience about health. I prefer chamomile tea and many others have started to drink black tea instead of coffee.

Therefore, when would be a better time to visit the world's most famous tea country than now? Sri Lanka, formerly known as Ceylon, has amazing tea plantations around Nuwera Eliya and in the central highlands. Our favorite hotel is Tea Trails in Norwood. The view from there is amazing and everywhere you look you are surrounded by lush, green, tea plantations. The scenery is some of the most beautiful you can experienced in your life. You can visit the tea factories and learn about the process of tea making. Then have a wonderful dinner and sleep in the comfortable beds in the clear crisp night in this amazingly beautiful hotel.

Call any of our offices and our sales people will give you personal information and more details and special deals at Tea Trails.

For lovers and me

The historical Forte in Galle dating back to the early 19th century, and still very little has changed, is a busy place with small roads and vibrant local life. You can stroll around it and enjoy the scenery and see the typical "umbrella couples", young men and women who come here to sit shaded (or hidden?) under umbrellas whispering sweet nothings and expressing their youth love. The sight makes anyone remember the days of youth when love made anything possible. Oh, who am I kidding? Love still makes anything possible!

I love this picture!

To D or not to D

One of my favorite news papers, The Financial Times has a great weekend magazine. Today I read a interesting article about Vitamin D and the discoveries of Dr Vieth.

To D or not to D

In recent years vitamin D has been going to some exciting places. Reports of new and promising studies seem to emerge almost weekly. A 2007 analysis of vitamin D studies found that individuals with higher vitamin level are significantly as much as 50 per cent - less likely to develop colorectal cancer. And the excitement is not only about cancer prevention. Low vitamin D levels have been linked to an increased risk of osteoporosis, heart disease. Multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, depression and rheumatoid arthritis, among other diseases.

So why is Dr Vieth so frustrated? Him and other vitamin D researchers around the world can prove vitamin D could help millions live longer and be healthier and yet they have not been able to convince their own governments.

When I was young growing up in Finland, my mother made me take one spoon-full of cod liver oil everyday. Today I love my sardines for breakfast even if I thought at that time that I'd never eat it voluntarily.

Vitamin D can be found in milk, eggs, tofu, cod liver oil, oyster, dried shiitake mushrooms, mackerel and tinned sardines.

So listen to mummy and take your vitamin Ds

Meet Jim

I want to introduce my mentor to you. Everybody, please meet Jim Grundström. Jim, happy to introduce you to everybody.

Jim and I met 18 years ago and he still manages to teach me new things every-time we meet. He has this special energy that really triggers me. Originally he and his life partner Alexander (yes, they are the ones who form the famous designer duo "Jim & Alexander") took upon them to design and decorate all my offices, an ongoing job that never ends. Because design and esthetically beautiful surroundings are so important to me the work relationship very quickly became much deeper and turned into a long-lasting friendship. Jim has become my very dear mentor in the process, he's also very important for my son who finds his advice very valuable.

Yesterday I had a long talk with Jim about integrity and respect and about my blog. It's not always easy to decide where to draw the line on how personal thoughts can be shared with all of you dear blog-readers. Jim is a very wise man and has given me many advices and tips in this matter. I hope that you all enjoy the balance that I feel I've found here.

And now I'm going to share something personal about Jim with all of you. He's very good at history, but among all else he's probably number one in the world on naming and recognising Swedish Kings. I witnessed this summer when my friend Sonja tested him with an iPhone quizz application about the history of Swedish kings and queens. Jim got full points and his knowledge was so impressive that I can truly say I've never seen anything alike before!

I'm a lotus!

As I love both beautiful books and flowers I just couldn't resist buying a wonderful book about flowers in New York. It's called "The Floral Birthday Book" and I am apparently a Lotus flower.

The other day a very dear and special friend gave me a wonderful book about flowers and in this one it describes a floating heart, that have similarities to the Lotus.

Name - Nymphoides Indica is derived from nymphaea, the genus of the water
lily, which it resembles. Indica probably refers to its appearance in India. It is often called
"Floating Heart" because of its heart-shaped leaves.

CNBC Business Magazine - Hotel Special

I read the last CNBC Magazine special edition about hotels and the future of hotels. Ok, this was very much focus on business travel, but it's still a very good article including interesting figures and facts. For instance Four Seasons CEO Isadore Sharp has said that they're going to double the number of hotels within ten years. They have 83 today. Starwood including brands as St. Regis, Le Meridien and Sheraton are insistent that they'll increase their global portfolio by 40% over the next five years. Marriott, which manages the Ritz Carlton and Rennaissance brands plans to open 130 new hotels in China, India and United Arab Emirates in the next four years. The figures go on including french Accor, Indian Taj Hotels and Resorts and Leela Palaces, Hong Kong based Langham Palace Group and Singapore based Shangri-La Hotels are all expanding rapidly.

So what is the conclusion of the article? Well it all boils down to the fact that people travel more and demand better and better quality and service all the time. It also concludes which four issues are important for business travelers;
1. "rates of interest" i.e. offers of free nights, cutting costs for travelers.

2. "homes from homes" i.e. offers of more of the amenities than we have at home, giving the traveller freedom

3. "connecting with customers" i.e. offering us free wifi at all times. Wifi is our holy grail when traveling, we can iChat with the loved ones at home, answer work e-mail and like me, update my blog

4. "online and on-message" i.e. how we use social-media networking in business sense today. Hotels are hooking up with customers via Twitter and Facebook and can from there use it as very clever marketing.

You can follow me on Bloggy (Twitters swedish cousin) through this address: http://leijagraf.bloggy.se/

See you in cyberspace, please keep me posted about what you want from us when traveling and we will make sure to send a tweet to the hotel.

Coffee friend

Having coffee with Kim Nyberg my very good friend from Helsinki. Kim told me already a year a
go to start a blog. I'm happy I started this communication channel that feels like going back to basics. A great way to keep my friends and valued customers à jour with my life. The good thing is that this works as a two way channel, Ive got so many wonderful mails and phone calls and contacs from old friends and customers after I've started the blog.


-- Post From My iPhone

Get Yourself a Great Weekend

I told my Assistant Hanna "have a great weekend". She laughed and told me that her boyfriend and herself always tell eachother to "Get a Great Weekend" She's so correct. Life is not about sitting back and just expecting things to fall into your lap, you gotta get your own happiness and luck.

I hope You all get Yourself a wonderful weekend filled with many happy moments.

A Kiss and an iPhone

I would love to be able to redesign my iPhone everyday acording to my mood. Today a Kiss would be great! The artist is Gustav Klimt, again, I just got a replica card of his last week. See blog post here.

Interdependent - what a lovely word

Dalai Lama talked about business when he give the speech at Thunderbird School of Global Management. He explained that our mind still think in terms of “we” and “they”, but in reality there is no such thing. The World is one body and we must recognize that "the others” are also part of the humanity and that my future depends on your future. “We may find comfort in the notion of independence, but in reality we are all interdependent”.

I read this in the Financial Times Magazine when I came home from New York and I just can't forget it. Consider the philosophy of "interdependence," where whole, centered individuals form a bond based on choice as opposed to need.

Interdependent, try the word, it even tastes well.

Life is filled with contrasts

Life is filled with contrasts.
See above the contrasts between my own quiet coffee moment at home, compared to our recent crazy morning coffee race in New York.

The same goes for hotels. One weekend I'm staying in a suite in NYC, the next in a lodge in Bhutan.

Contrasts makes our life exciting and fulfilled.

Homesick

An old chinese quote by philosopher Lin Yutang "No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow"

Right now I am looking forward to getting home. But already next weekend I'm off city hopping again with a girlfriend.

Here you can listen to a wonderful song by the band Kings of Convenience, the song is called Homesick

Sayings in Swedish and English and Leijaish

Karin Boye (1900 - 1941) said in Swedish "Nog finns det mål och mening i vår färd - men det är vägen, som är mödan värd". This was very revolutionary in the early 1900's, but is easily translated to daily life and poets of today. Paolo Coelho (1947- ) actually translated the meaning when he said "It's the journey not the destination that counts".

My life is a wonderful journey and I do not care about the destination, as long as I am happy when I arrive.



PS. Paolo Coelho's blog is well worth a visit

Ethics and Morals

I saw the film Wall Street with Michael Douglas the other day and it got me thinking about greed and morals. Every ten years these issues pop up again, usually as a result from a financial crisis when most unethical tricks are drawn out into the sunlight. It's quite horrifying what people would do for money and to what lengths they'd go. For me ethics and loyalty will always be more valuable than any amount of money possible. I would rather lose a million than turn on a friend or steal from my partners. Sometimes I'm told I should be tougher and see the world through the eyes of the Gordon Geckos and Bernard Madoffs in the world, but I do not believe that is the way to go through life.

What comes around goes around, and as my good friend always says "good things come to good people and bad things come to bad people".

Oh and by the way, I'm going to New York for the weekend, will return with great new hotel experiences and I promise to go nowhere close to Wall Street.

The picture is from this site