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Alexandra Danciu – Freedom Station

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IN ISOLATION WITH SEVEN MORE PEOPLE IN A SHARE HOUSE, INCLUDING A...

April 14, 2020 0 comment
Get Inspired

I volunteered at a London marathon, which was also organized for the...

May 5, 2019 0 comment

How to travel in Dubai on a resonable budget

April 21, 2019 0 comment

“THE BEGINNING WAS DIFFICULT. AT A CERTAIN POINT, I HAD TWO MORE...

January 2, 2019 0 comment
Get Inspired

VISITING THE CREATIONS OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED DESIGNER WHO DRESSED UP MADONNA,...

November 25, 2018 0 comment

The first half-year in London and the changes it brought

October 10, 2018 0 comment
Stories

IN ISOLATION WITH SEVEN MORE PEOPLE IN A SHARE HOUSE, INCLUDING A MEDICAL STAFF

written by alexandrad
IN ISOLATION WITH SEVEN MORE PEOPLE IN A SHARE HOUSE, INCLUDING A MEDICAL STAFF

I live in London and since rents are high here, I share the house with other seven young people. The share house concept is frequent in many cities of the world and I’ll write a separate article about our life in a shared house. I was lucky. The house is big; my housemates are young and have similar interests. We are like a miniature world: two Romanians, one French girl, three English people, one Polish girl and one Australian boy. Until the pandemic started to spread and we went into general quarantine, we really enjoyed spending time together. We were learning cooking recipes from each other, exchanging music tastes and sometimes partying in all styles.

There’s also a girl from Brazil in the house. She came to visit her boyfriend and she remained stuck because the flight on 30 March was cancelled. She couldn’t care less. She remained stuck in the arms of the boy she is in love with and for whom she crossed continents. She told me she’s not in a hurry to go back; anyway, the first flight will be only in May.

The approach of the British Government was different from the mobilisation of other European countries, so while my friends from home were making the first steps towards the new lifestyle in isolation, I was still going to work with the same crowded London subway.

Every evening, all of us were coming back from eight different parts of the city. The probability to bring the virus home was very high. I work in the educational field, with children with autism, and I also have a part-time job as a receptionist, so I interacted daily with hundreds of clients. Marina is a model, Eli works in the fashion industry, Harrison is an engineer, Leighton works in the IT industry, Nicolae is a manager at a crisps factory, and Adrian is an Artificial Intelligence professional. Each of us had daily contact with many other people, and the most exposed one was Martina, as a resident physician.

When the general isolation measures were taken in the UK, Martina was sent home in self-isolation, being suspected to have the Coronavirus. The doctors were not being tested, they were only sent in isolation for one week.

She had fever, dry cough; she lost the sense of smell, and had all the other symptoms of the virus. We brought her food to the door, but we were and still are obsessed with the idea of disinfecting each corner of the common spaces, such as the kitchen, and also avoiding each other in the house.

The Coronavirus cases have grown a lot during the past two weeks, and now there are over 50,000 cases confirmed in England. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson is in intensive care after it was confirmed he has COVID-19. Things are changing from one day to the next.

Current measures allow us to get out of the house only for shopping once a week, to do sports in parks, to help vulnerable people or to go to work if we don’t have the possibility to work from home.

After only one week of isolation, Martina went back to the hospital. I interviewed her about the current situation there.

How are you feeling?

I’m actually good; I’m very positive. I’m back at work now, and I’m ready and firing, you know, that power.

How do you feel like? How is your recovery?

The first day back – I work at the eight floor – I was trying to walk up the stairs. The first day back was very difficult because I had to stop on every floor. I was quite short of breath and I did have a bit of dizziness during the ward runs, on the first day back, but I mean that slowly started to resolve, and I feel much better now, and it’s almost like back to normal. However, I do get occasional breathlessness, by periods, so I hope I’m now immune and they call it a super-human now, apparently.

How is the situation in the hospital now?

I feel we are about to approach a huge storm of patients with the infection, considering we had a lockdown so everything was closed for about two weeks now. It takes exactly two weeks for the initial symptoms to develop. We’re getting towards the peak of patients coming in. We have patients across different ages, so it’s not just easy to say: “Oh, because you’re an elderly, you’ll come to the hospital because you have comorbidities.” We actually have young patients as well and those young patients in ITU – Intensive Care Unit, sorry, ICU – Intensive Care Unit – those people are on ventilators. Our ICU is actually saturated to 80 to 90% already with people, so we are waiting for new ventilators now, but we don’t know when they’re going to come, so it’s quite uncertain.

We’re very short staffed in terms of nurses as they obviously have a more direct contact with patients than we do, and healthcare assistants as well, because they have to dress the patients, they have to clean the patients, etc., so they’ve probably been even more exposed than some of the doctors.

We do see a lot more people wearing masks with patients’ interactions, and most of our ward actually covered positive patients now.

Do you wear a mask or any other equipment during work?

In my ward, so far people who were tested positive are in isolation rooms, so-called side rooms. If they are suspected, sorry… They are in a side room, so they are in different base. In general, if people are suspected to have COVID-19, we just wear basic surgical masks. If I could just grab one for you… I actually brought some from work. That’s a basic surgical mask, it looks like this, and it’s got a bit of an adjustment for your nose so you could have a seal, like a better tight, a tighter seal, sorry, and then you just wrap it around your head. Then we wear gloves and a kind of an apron, it’s like a shape of an apron that you would wear in the kitchen, but it’s plastic.

We also have scrubs at work that we change daily. For the bigger masks, for the patients who are confirmed COVID, they’re actually FFP3 masks, which have a nicer filter and a tighter seal.

There’s actually some protection but I feel like we should probably be escalating it to a bit better things, but we’re very short of it. The whole world is short of it, so we just have to be very careful how we use it.

It’s very upsetting because people will going to die; I mean we’ve already seen people dying. We’ve already seen patients who were coming into hospital already dying. It’s very sad because it’s a viral infection, and for viral infections, our treatment is best supportive care.

We do treat with antibiotics, for cover, for extra coinfections with bacteria, which commonly coexist with the viral infections. However, it’s just the best that we can, so if you’re short of breath and you’re desaturating, that means the oxygen level in your blood drops, then we would put you on oxygen, and maximum we could put you on is 15 litres. So if you can’t maintain your saturation above 95%, then that’s quite bad, and we’ve had patients who were saturating on 80% and they were going down and down with 15 litres, and there was nothing we could do. So it’s very frustrating seeing that and knowing that those patients have a lot of comorbidities so if we were to put them on a ventilator, for a time being until the infection resolves and then extubate them, they would not survive.

From now on, the NHS staff shall be tested. Have you started testing medical professionals?

That is true that in my hospital I know they started testing the ICU workers so it’s where patients who are in intensive care unit are.

They are trying to develop the anti-body testing to make sure that people are fit and ready to go back to work, the so-called super-humans, with the immunity now. Hopefully, that will be developed a little bit sooner because the problem is we’re so short of these things and we have to be again very careful who we test because we can’t just throw tests randomly, there’ll be not enough people to actually perform those tests.

We take it day by day. Our policies, our guidelines change daily and we get updates daily. We get education webinars after work as well, as we can’t really meet in bigger groups with doctors or nurses as teams. We now have everything online, just like you and I are talking now. We have those kind of webinars because that’s what life is like currently.

April 14, 2020 0 comment
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Get Inspired

I volunteered at a London marathon, which was also organized for the children with incurable diseases in Romania

written by alexandrad
I volunteered at a London marathon, which was also organized for the children with incurable diseases in Romania

Recently, I volunteered for a marathon that took place in the centre of London; its purpose was to raise funds for many different humanitarian NGOs. More than 13,000 people ran in areas such as London Eye and Tower Bridge. Some of these were running to raise funds for the children with incurable diseases in Romania.

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May 5, 2019 0 comment
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Trips and Tricks

How to travel in Dubai on a resonable budget

written by alexandrad
How to travel in Dubai on a resonable budget

Dubai fascinates and inspires me. The thought that a city built in the middle of the desert, in less than 50 years, has reached such a high level of development gives me the feeling that everything that may seem impossible or difficult to achieve becomes possible in the Emirates. Dubai means more than the well-known skyscrapers in all the photos or videos we find in the online environment.

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April 21, 2019 0 comment
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“THE BEGINNING WAS DIFFICULT. AT A CERTAIN POINT, I HAD TWO MORE JOBS BESIDES BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER. I BELIEVE ONE HAS TO BE VERY CONSISTENT WHEN IT COMES TO TURNING ONE’S PASSION INTO A JOB, DESPITE THE DIFFICULTIES THAT ARISE.”

written by alexandrad
“THE BEGINNING WAS DIFFICULT. AT A CERTAIN POINT, I HAD TWO MORE JOBS BESIDES BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER. I BELIEVE ONE HAS TO BE VERY CONSISTENT WHEN IT COMES TO TURNING ONE’S PASSION INTO A JOB, DESPITE THE DIFFICULTIES THAT ARISE.”

Octavian Cărare is a Romanian photographer who has been living in the Belgian capital for 7 years, outlining stories of artists everywhere. If you open his web page and see his photographs, you could swear that he’s the luckiest man in the world – ballerinas of an astonishing beauty and grace as one can only see in art movies or on the great scenes of Operas around the world. This was the first thing I thought of when I saw his profile, ‘How does this guy feel at the photo sessions being surrounded by such beautiful women?’

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January 2, 2019 0 comment
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VISITING THE CREATIONS OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED DESIGNER WHO DRESSED UP MADONNA, LADY GAGA, RIHANNA, MONICA BELLUCCI AND CHARLIZE THERON

written by alexandrad
VISITING THE CREATIONS OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED DESIGNER WHO DRESSED UP MADONNA, LADY GAGA, RIHANNA, MONICA BELLUCCI AND CHARLIZE THERON

Madonna and Azzedine Alaïa

Photo: Steven Meisel

”I ALWAYS FEEL FREE. WHEN I DON’T WANT SOMETHING, I DON’T MAKE IT.”  Azzedine Alaïa

From Greta Garbo to Madonna, Tina Turner, Naomi Campbell or Lady Gaga, the celebrities worshiped and wore his creations on the most popular stages of the world. Azzedine Alaïa was one of the most wanted designers by the big fashion houses around the world.

Azzedine Alaïa’s exhibition at the Design Museum in London 

I went to this exhibition more dragged than willingly. My friend Andreea is passionate about fashion and everything that means make-up. Technically, the exact two areas that are science fiction to me right now. I sometimes believe that I have two left hands; the brushes don’t seem to follow when I try to put some blush on my cheeks. The shelves in her room are full of entire collections of fashion magazines and make-up products – they all have an honoured place there. Instead, in my house there’s none.

We went out for coffee some months ago and Andreea jumped for joy when she saw a billboard, “We’re going to an exhibition!” She told me how cool it was that finally this exhibition came to London. Seeing my perplexity, she put on a long face and asked, “You don’t know who Azzedine Alaïa is?”

Well, I really didn’t know. My knowledge of luxury fashion is rudimentary. She told me this man had dressed up all Hollywood’s celebrities and he had an impressive career, despite the fact that he came from a family of farmers. It was then that this story became the perfect topic for study, so I finally went to the first fashion exhibition of my life.

The exhibition was impeccable. Everything that I’ve seen with my novice eyes was a lot to my taste. It was easy to figure out who were the consumers of luxury items, their clothes showed it and their discussions proved it. The dresses were extremely beautiful and stylish and I admit that, even though I’d rather wear Indian baggy trousers, I imagined myself in some of the favourite dresses there and damn right I loved it. I think it was another revelation for me.

The famous dress worn by Tina Turner

Tina Turner & Azzedine Alaia by Peter Lindbergh

Tina Turner & Azzedine Alaia by Peter Lindbergh

The exhibition was a clear example of the fact that beauty is also created by the society we live in, not only by our inherited genes. Based on the clothes we wear, our entire social interaction can be altered, even though we practically have the same training. I certainly can’t appear with my baggy trousers on the red carpet, just as I can’t travel to India wearing a dress of thousands of euros.

The way the exhibition was organised contributed to creating the luxurious atmosphere. The mirrors reflected the dresses and in those lights carefully placed, the reflections made them look even more attractive. I never wore an item created by a designer so far. Instead, I used to wear second hand clothing. In my teenage years, I couldn’t afford to buy expensive things, and when I had money to buy a luxury bag, for example, I preferred spending it on plane tickets and travels.

What most impressed me at the exhibition was the story of the designer, especially because he originates from a simple family in Tunisia and he proved that by following his passion where his art would be appreciated (i.e. Paris), he managed to step up and become someone important in the world of fashion. This can be the story of any of us who come from simple families, but we work to become the best in our favourite areas.

Celebrities who wore the creations of the Tunisian designer

Azzedine was one of the designers preferred by the most stylish celebrities and his creations were wore at red carpet events all over the world. Madonna, Greta Garbo, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Monica Bellucci, Charlize Theron, Penelope Cruz, Victoria Beckham, and Michelle Obama are just a few of the world’s successful women who gracefully wore Azzedine’s creations.

Catherine Lardeur says he is the last couturier in the true sense of the word.

Source: Madame Figaro

Photo: Getty Images

REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

Sursa: E! News 

Azzedine Alaia & Lady Gaga, Vogue, Jan 2014, Rex Features

Azzedine Alaïa was born in 1940, in Tunisia, in a family of farmers from the Siliana village, but he lived with his grandparents in Tunis. As a teenager, he studied at the School of Fine Arts, specialising in sculpture. After graduation, he took a turn towards the fashion design field. Initially, he was a tailor assistant and later he moved to Paris, in 1956. His clear target was the fashion world. For a short period, Azzedine worked at the Christian Dior fashion house under the guidance of Yves Saint Laurent, but he also collaborated with other famous fashion houses such as Guy Laroche or Thierry Mugler.

The Paris of the young designer

Paris offered young Azzedine the possibility to grow in a field that didn’t give much chances in his home country. As one of the world’s fashion capitals, the capital of France open many doors to the women in the French high society. In this way, his talent spread and he got to work with many of Hollywood’s celebrities. In 1980, he launched his first personal collection, which focused on leather clothing accessorised with all kinds of metal objects. For those times, the outfits were considered daring. One of the traits he conquered the world with is precisely the fact that he dared to step out of patterns. He insisted in wearing only black clothes and ignored the calendar of collections, tirelessly supporting the haute couture traditions.

Photo: Jean Baptiste Mondino

The 30-year old friendship between Naomi Campbell and Azzedine Alaïa

 Azzedine’s friends knew him as a man who was extremely careful to other’s needs. He considered that when you spend time around Tunisian people, you’ll find out that keeping their house open for the beloved ones is something natural for them. During childhood, the designer was brought up by his grandmother (his mother’s mother), who taught him how to cook.

One evening in July 1987, when Naomi was only 16 years old and signed her first collaborations in Paris, she met the Tunisian designer. The young woman of that time had arrived to the French capital after her passport and money had been stolen. She remembers that she didn’t utter a word when she was invited to lunch by Azzedine because she didn’t speak French at all. Azzedine called Naomi Campbell’s mother and promised he would take care of her every time she would come to Paris.

In an interview with the journalists at Vogue, Naomi Campbell said she felt like Azzedine was the father she never had. He used to take her to the dentist, to the theatre, and he told her about art. “He was my papa!” she said.

According to the Vogue journalists, the designer’s whole life was built around his personal relationships with those for which he created.

Azzedine is a clear example of the fact that sometimes we need the right context to manifest our talent to its absolute value. For him, Paris was an art market where quality products were consumed with great appreciation. Most of the times, the decision to move to another country may come with the supreme acknowledgement of our potential.

November 25, 2018 0 comment
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The first half-year in London and the changes it brought

written by alexandrad
The first half-year in London and the changes it brought

“If you can make it the first 6 months in London, you’re surely going to stay for a long while!”

My friend Andreea, who has been living here for the past 7 years, often told me that the first half of the year is challenging. I moved to London on March 23, after I quit Pro TV. Technically, the day my notice expired, I flew to London. I wrote more about my experience in the television industry and the way I suddenly changed direction towards a job in education in this article. 

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October 10, 2018 0 comment
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It’s interesting how much freedom we have in choosing in which corner of the world to live in.”

written by alexandrad
It’s interesting how much freedom we have in choosing in which corner of the world to live in.”

“When you go see a new place, you naturally compare it to what you are used to, with the country you were born and raised in. This broadens your perspective by which you judge and compare what is positive or less positive in your country, you understand better why in some places it works and in others it doesn’t. Moreover, you learn that what is trivial in one society can be essential in another part of the world. So, you manage to better outline in what kind of society you would like to live for a long-term”. Roger Jin-Kang Cheng, 24 ani, Australia

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October 10, 2018 0 comment
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short documentaries

A Guide On How To Fall In Love With The Romanian Traditional Folk Costume

written by alexandrad

“The traditional folk costume is my identity mark“, Alexandra Negrilă, 29 years, Bucharest

Alexandra summarises in a very interesting way her passion for the Romanian traditional folk costume. She grew up in the village of Moromeții, at her grandparents. She had the idyllic childhood that I – growing up in the city – could have only imagined through books. Barefoot on the grass and eating vegetables directly from the garden, Alexandra recalls that she was attracted by the folk costume and by the rituals of the villagers since her first years of life. At that age, the fascination was a natural gift because it was the only universe in which she was living in. The honesty of her love for traditions and costume came true after her 20s.

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September 30, 2018 0 comment
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”Home could mean everywhere, as long as we are next to each other”

written by alexandrad
”Home could mean everywhere, as long as we are next to each other”

They gave up their careers of legal adviser and manager and left to travel around the world

Three years ago, Andrada – a 26 years old girl from Reghin, Romania – wrote a Facebook post saying she would like to give up her settled life and leave for an adventure on another continent. Petrișor – a 38 years old guy, manager at an international shoes company – read her post and immediately fell in love with the idea. He had the same burning desire.

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September 1, 2018 0 comment
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My Sister’s Journey From 220 Pounds to a Marathon on Transfăgărășan

written by alexandrad
My Sister’s Journey From 220 Pounds to a Marathon on Transfăgărășan

Physical weight is also an emotional weight, which is hard to carry on one’s back for years or maybe even a lifetime and which sometimes generates major depressions. Under my eyes, for nearly 20 years, my sister had lived feeling inadequate due to the extra pounds. She was a solitary kid, a child being laughed at by many; she was called names – and not pleasant ones! The words and rejections then made her isolate herself for a long time.

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August 7, 2018 0 comment
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About

Alexandra

Journalist in love with travelling and inspirational stories. 'Freedom Station' is an 'online station' where people meet to empower one another in discovering or rediscovering their passions – a place where artists connect to develop creative projects.

Recent Posts

  • IN ISOLATION WITH SEVEN MORE PEOPLE IN A SHARE HOUSE, INCLUDING A MEDICAL STAFF
  • I volunteered at a London marathon, which was also organized for the children with incurable diseases in Romania
  • How to travel in Dubai on a resonable budget
  • “THE BEGINNING WAS DIFFICULT. AT A CERTAIN POINT, I HAD TWO MORE JOBS BESIDES BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER. I BELIEVE ONE HAS TO BE VERY CONSISTENT WHEN IT COMES TO TURNING ONE’S PASSION INTO A JOB, DESPITE THE DIFFICULTIES THAT ARISE.”
  • VISITING THE CREATIONS OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED DESIGNER WHO DRESSED UP MADONNA, LADY GAGA, RIHANNA, MONICA BELLUCCI AND CHARLIZE THERON

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Recent Posts

  • IN ISOLATION WITH SEVEN MORE PEOPLE IN A SHARE HOUSE, INCLUDING A MEDICAL STAFF

    April 14, 2020
  • I volunteered at a London marathon, which was also organized for the children with incurable diseases in Romania

    May 5, 2019
  • How to travel in Dubai on a resonable budget

    April 21, 2019
  • “THE BEGINNING WAS DIFFICULT. AT A CERTAIN POINT, I HAD TWO MORE JOBS BESIDES BEING A PHOTOGRAPHER. I BELIEVE ONE HAS TO BE VERY CONSISTENT WHEN IT COMES TO TURNING ONE’S PASSION INTO A JOB, DESPITE THE DIFFICULTIES THAT ARISE.”

    January 2, 2019
  • VISITING THE CREATIONS OF HOLLYWOOD’S MOST WANTED DESIGNER WHO DRESSED UP MADONNA, LADY GAGA, RIHANNA, MONICA BELLUCCI AND CHARLIZE THERON

    November 25, 2018

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