An Award Winning Soap Opera

Voted Best Couple of the Decade in a TV Drama-Christian and Oliver

My interest in soap opera with controversial themes started after I watched the Philippines TV drama, My Husband's Lover(MHL). A Facebook friend suggested that if I like drama in the same genre as MHL I should looked into the German drama titled Verbotene Liebe( Christian and Oliver). To my surprise this drama(Forbidden Love) had been in TV for quite sometime, but I have no idea of its popularity with millions of viewers in Europe and in the US. Luckily old episodes are available in the Internet and I am starting to view old episodes and enjoying it. The topics portrayed in this drama are indeed ground breaking exploring issues that is of interest not only to the LGBT community but to all lovers of soap operas all over the world. Like most popular TV dramas, the series is about Money, Sex and Power. For the summary of this drama series read the Wikipedia.

An Excerpt from the Award winning German TV drama, Verbotene Liebe, translated as Forbidden Love

The series has become well known for its groundbreaking treatment of LGBT characters, presenting bisexuality and homosexuality as normal, and homosexual and bisexual relationships as equal to heterosexual relationships on the show. For this reason, it has become popular with gay and lesbian audiences in Europe and the United States. Ever on the cutting edge, the series is not afraid to tackle controversial issues such as drug addiction and abuse, murder, rape, suicide, adultery, incest, homophobia, alcoholism, HIV, schizophrenia, miscarriage, kidnapping, and sexual confusion.

In 2005, Verbotene Liebe (Forbidden Love) received the prestigious Rose d'Or award for "Best Soap," and in 2010 was nominated for the category of "Best Soap or Telenovela." More recently, the show was nominated for eight German Soap Awards in 2011, winning three. The show is filmed at the Cologne-Ossendorf studios of the Magic Media Company, with outdoor scenes and exterior shots regularly shot in and around Cologne and Düsseldorf. In January 2011,the series began filming in high definition.

Old episodes of this drama is in the Internet. Happy Viewing and let me know if you like this drama and if this is also your first time.

My Wife Quit Smoking Cold Turkey

After 40 years of smoking my wife decided to quit smoking cold turkey last month. I am so happy for her and I admired her for her decision. During the last 40 years she tried to quit at least 3 times. The first time was through an aversion therapy clinic sponsored by my former employer. She quit for three weeks and had a relapse. The other two times were her cold turkey attempts. Her last attempt and hopefully a successful one was last month. I bought a nicotine patch package, but she did not used it. As of today 4 weeks after she quit, she appears to be well adjusted and had not touched a cigarette. Her withdrawal symptoms were mild, thanks heavens.

I attribute her success so far to the following health events in her life. Six months ago she was diagnosed with PD. After a brain scan the neurologist observed that she had also a mild heart attack (TIA) that we were not aware of. A week later after all tests( 5 diagnostic tests) were conducted, she was diagnosed to have right carotid artery stenosis with infarction. The doctor advised her to quit smoking, but she was not ready. Five days ago she had carotid endarterectomy surgery and now recuperating very well from the surgery. One of the post operative care was to quit smoking. She decided to quit cold turkey and hopefully there will be no relapse this time. Here are the benefits of stopping smoking: Within hours of stopping cigarettes, the body starts to recover from the effects of nicotine and additives. Blood pressure, heart rate, and body temperature, all of which are elevated because of the nicotine in cigarettes, return to healthier levels. The lung capacity increases and the bronchial tubes relax, making breathing easier. Poisonous carbon monoxide in the blood decreases, allowing the blood to carry more oxygen. Quitting smoking is one of the best things one can do, for short and long-term health. In addition, you save money by not buying cigarettes and in our case, that is about $150 savings in our monthly budget and expenses.

The following video is informative and most of what the video says applied to my wife's cold turkey experiences.


If you were a smoker who quit cold turkey, please share your experiences, so we may be able to help them in their nicotine addiction.