T5W February 1, Current Favorites that Aren't Books

This weekly book meme officiated in November 2013. Every week there is a new topic and your list of 5 nominates will be based off this topic. For further information check out the Goodreads Page.

The theme this week is: Current Favorites that Aren't Books

In this topic I can talk about any non-bookish things happening in your life. It turned out to be quite a lengthy post.

1. TV series
Death in Paradise (2011-)
       Scotland Yard DI Humphrey Goodman is sent to the Caribbean island of Sainte Marie to solve a fellow policeman's murder. Having done so, he finds himself seconded to the local police force as the dead man's replacement. Humphrey proves to be a brilliant detective, solving several complex murders.
       This is not highly intelligent TV series; I admit it, so not judgment. But the settings are so great: a tropical island, views of ocean, sand, heat and beautiful mountains. The pace of each episode is slow like the pace of life on the island.
     So this is a good type of relax after hard working week, when outside is - 15 and snowing, and you enjoy the movie with summer and exotic music and accents of the main characters.

2. Music
Currently I am listening to multiple singers, which are on radio all the time, but my 3 favorites are below:
      Leslie Feist (born 13 February 1976), known professionally as Feist, is a Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter, performing both as a solo artist and as a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene.
      Jo Harman is a British singer, songwriter. In 2014, she and her band mates in 'Jo Harman and Company' have nominated for seven British Blues Award. She also appeared at the Foyer of the RAB where her performance was recorded by the BBC and released as an live album.
      Katie Melua (Ketevan "Katie" Melua) is a Georgian-British singer, songwriter and musician. Melua is signed to the small Dramatico record label, under the management of composer Mike Batt, and made her musical debut in 2003. In 2006, she was the United Kingdom's best-selling female artist and Europe's highest selling European female artist.
Her voice is so soft and calming, real enjoyment; just listened to her Nine Million Bicycles song from Piece By Piece album.

3. TV Sport
    I am quite fond of sports and love to follow sport events on TV. During winter I am always
following such sports as biathlon, hockey and football. Apart from regular matches of English Premier League and "Kontinental Hockey League" two major European events took place.
      From January 25 to January 29 2017 IBU Open European Championships took place in Poland. Unfortunately the biggest starts of world biathlon did not participate as they save strength for World Cup rounds, but still there were spectacular races to follow.

     From January 25 to January 29 the 2017 European Figure Skating Championships took place in Czech Republic. It was absolute pleasure to watch Evgenia Medvedeva, the young and petite star from Russia. She defended her European title finishing first in both the short program and the free skate. She also reset the free skate world record (previously held by herself) with a score of 150.79 and became the current world record holder for the ladies' combined total score (229.71), which was previously held by Kim Yuna.  It is so amazing when a child makes you forget that figure skating is a difficult sport, it seems so easy and light, and you can hardly call it “sport” anymore, it is pure art on ice))

  4. Food 

    Winter is a difficult time when I always want some fresh fruits and vegetables. This winter I am however is highly hooked on Asian food. Every time I smell the spices my stomach rejoice in excitement)))

     My absolute favorites this winter are Pad Thai (Thai salad) and Pho Ga (Vietnamese chicken soup)

 5. Tea

     Absolute favorite for 3^rd winter is genmaicha green tea. Here below I found some information about this tea, and it was interesting for me as well to know something new.

Genmaicha (玄米茶), also called brown rice green tea, is the Japanese name for green tea combined with roasted brown rice. It is sometimes referred to colloquially as "popcorn tea" because a few grains of the rice pop during the roasting process and resemble popcorn. Although today it is consumed by all segments of society, this type of tea was originally drunk by poor Japanese, as the rice served as a filler and reduced the price of the tea; which is why it is also known as the "people's tea". It was also used by those persons fasting for religious purposes or who found themselves to be between meals for long periods of time. The sugar and starch from the rice cause the tea to have a warm, full flavor that is similar to that of nuts. It is considered easy to drink and helps one's stomach feel better.