I totally dig this spreading the love business.

Hello my lovelies. Sorry I've been a bit quiet lately. There's just been too much going on- a lot of work, a couple of new projects on the side and also- yeah, I do gladly admit it- a lot of partying. I'm happy though and really love my life at the moment. I feel balanced and at home here again- like I have finally arrived in Switzerland. And to make up for not posting for a while, I will tell you a cool little story.

Just before Christmas, one of my best friends and I went on a little princess trip to Milano. We stayed in this most adorable little boutique hotel and just spoiled ourselves with good things- lots of shopping, lots of laughs, lots of prosecco, espresso and good Italian food, breakfast in bed... all that kind of stuff. On the last day, I was getting close to a shopping overdose... we had been hitting it really hard. We went and had a prosecco and nibbles break at this cool lounge bar to get our energy levels back up. You do what you gotta go.

When we left, I still felt quite exhausted from all the walking around. We crossed the piazza in front of the beautiful dome and I said to my friend, "My god, I'm so stuffed- I can barely lift my feet." Next thing I know, we see this two young guys, maybe about twenty year old, in the middle of the piazza, holding up a sign saying "free hugs". Needless to say, I loved the idea and went straight over to get a hug. I was so impressed with the idea and we spoke to the guys for a while to find out why they were doing what they were doing. They said it was just an art project for them to spread the love and see how people react. Apparently they had been getting all kinds of people coming up, from business men to kids to pregnant ladies to teenagers and little old ladies.

Then one of the guys said, "Do you want to try?" Of course, I was all over the opportunity. I held up the sign, and before I knew it, I had people queing for hugs. There was a couple of young men, a middle aged woman in a business suit, a young girl, another man... it was amazing. I had seen a couple of people at music festivals in Australia before with "free hugs" t-shirts, but this was in a city in the afternoon, where people don't usually talk to strangers and where the majority is not drunk and feeling more liberated than usual. I couldn't stop laughing and was simply blown away to see how many people craved just a little bit of love. It was incredible. After a little while, we said good-bye to the guys and were on our way. And miraculously, I felt like a new person. Suddenly, I wasn't tired at all anymore. In fact, I felt full of energy, happy and bouncy and ready to take on the world.

It was definitely one of my highlights of this trip. To see how love can multiply itself out of nothing was unbelievable. All it took was someone to do something unexpected and the love spread out like a fire. Every single one of the people coming over for a hug walked off a happier person- even if just for a moment. I've always been a huge fan of random acts of kindness, but this puts a whole new meaning on the term.