Grand night out

I need to write something more. Day heavy on posts, but for those who complained about the silence, should be satisfied.
So yesterday I was out. Narcis' good-bye party. I will miss him a lot, he is a great guy but it's very possible that I will not see him again. He went back to Romania. It was too difficult for his family to live here so they decided to go back.
OK, so I was out. But I came back before midnight, which is very early for me. Today is Glossa's Xmas party so Prince is out. He didn't really want to go, he was complaining and so on. When I said that he should be out for at least 2 hours 'cause I want to watch a movie, he told me he will be back when he wants and so on. So I was under an impression he will be back between 8 and 9. It's almost 11 now and he is not at home! I'm shocked :)
I hope he is having a good time.

Cesky Krumlov

A while ago I promised to post some pics from our memorable trip to Cesky Krumlov. Here they are.

First a few of a most charming place I discovered wondering around alone, because Prince felt sick and decided to stay in the hotel.



And the ones below are taken a day before.

At the top of the castle tower.
Right before the big moment:


Right after (with the ring on the hand visible on the picture):

And together (Prince still looks a bit nervous):


Even our shadows are in love:

RPG Superstar

I guess Prince will not post anything so I have to post on his behalf. He is participating in the contest for RPG Superstar organized by Paizo and past the first stage. He was chosen as one of 32 people (out of over 800) to create the country. I am very proud of him. His writing is great and he is doing something he actually enjoys (in opposite to his job and most other things). His country seems to be one of the best so I am pretty sure he will get into the next round (top 16). He is so awesome.
So if someone wants to support Prince, go to the site, log in and vote for Iskandia. It is a very cool place. I love it. (And I have no idea about D&D all of that stuff, but I like fantasy and Iskandria is a great concept.)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Annoying

I'm still in the office. On the call. It started late, at 5.00pm, but was scheduled for an hour. It's 7pm now and we are all wondering when the hell will this guy finish?? It's not even interesting, the way he is speaking - no intonation, just bla bla bla.... I wanted to go to spinning! It started 15 minutes ago! Again, I will not go! Last week I was afraid of getting sick but now I feel fine. But no... And yesterday I had a French lesson. ...

IT'S DONE :)))

Now, I'm going home.

Przewlekle chora: starosc

As you know, last week was my birthday. I'm 26 now. And I think my body decided to prove me that I'm old. First, I had a bad cold. I stayed home for 3 days. Over the weekend I started to feel better. Not perfect, mind you, just enough to go to work. Everything is great, I don't have fever any more, my nose is running significantly less than it was last week. Except that now, I am getting annoying headaches every day. Not only. On Monday night I couldn't fall asleep. Nothing special, you will say. But I never have problems with falling asleep and I can sleep over almost everything. That night I was just laying there, my brain working like a computer with a new processor and really good memory card! After an hour I got up and read some. It took me 3 hours to fall asleep and the next day at work I wasn't able to do anything, I was so tired. But it happens sometimes, I thought. So the last night, I woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible headache and couldn't fall asleep. I took a pain killer and after some time went back to sleep. Then I woke up again with my stomach going all funky. After another half and hour I went back to sleep. So in the morning I stayed in bed longer. But I still could not eat anything, so far only a banana and a yogurt stayed in my belly successfully.
I am not that old!!! It seems that all the health problems I didn't get in the past years are coming to me now. I want to be young again :D

Time to go home

I signed in this morning, right after my morning coffee (around 10am) going to post something. I had nothing specific in mind, life is boring (nothing happening at work, Prince is sick, so we can't do anything after either). And now it's time to go home and I still haven't posted anything. I was actually going to close the window... and the computer and go home. Oh, first shopping - with a huuuuge list 'cause Prince shouldn't go outside. So I decide I will write at least this.
Stupid post, I know. But at least you know I'm still alive.

Sunday: FIRST SNOW!

Sicko

We watched Sicko by Michael Moore yesterday. Interesting movie, but of course people complain everywhere about their health care system. I cannot say that the Polish one is better, although I think that the Czech one is. It's probably offending for some of you to read this, but I am very satisfied with the service level I am getting here, especially with preventive care. But I that's not the point. The point is that I do pay for doctor's visits or for any special treatment. If I'd suddenly got some serious illness or had an accident, I wouldn't have to worry about money, because my insurance will cover it. But this is not the point, it's not what I wanted to write about.

The main thing, I cannot understand about America is the ideology of "the American dream" and individualism so extreme that only the individual. OK, you believe that every hard working person can live "the American dream" and earn millions of dollars. Somehow, I do not think it is possible. I guess I know too many people who could not live under pressure of success. I don't think I would like it, because for me success in life is something different than big bank account, something you cannot measure. But I am under the impression that it is extremely hard in the US for people who think similar, or who were simply unlucky. Because if you don't have money, no one will support you. And here is the difference.
In most European countries, the idea is that people should support each other and help the ones in trouble. You pay according to your means and get according to your needs. And everybody is happy. (I know, it's not that simple and every system has it's problems, but in my opinion it's still better than dumping sick people on the streets, 'cause they are not able to pay their medical bills.)

I know that this is again a post "how I don't like America". It is not my aim. Being with Prince makes me think about some things we in Europe take for granted. It makes me happy that I live in a system which cares about the people, where the government is for people, not the other way.

I have nothing against Americans, I loved the time I spend in the US, I think it's beautiful country with great people. It's just different. In some ways it's better, in some it's worse. Maybe I am trying to convince myself and Prince that Europe is better. But no, I know it's better :D (It's a joke.) It's just different.

A year older

GO MARTA IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY! GO MARTA!

That was the first thing I heard this morning and it was very sweet. Generally, the whole day is cool except I'm sick. But at least I'm working from home (meaning: checking email every half an hour, 'cause there is nothing to do).

Oh, you Americans

We saw "Who killed the electric car" yesterday. Very interesting movie, I didn't know it was technically possible. It's nice it is. I wish it would be still real.
But I don't want to write about cars, but about Americans. So they are talking about consumers not liking the car. The reason:
"For most Americans when we talk about sensitive energy policy, what most Americans hear: you're gonna make me drive a small car, you're gonna make me keep my house cold and essentially you're gonna make me live like European."
No comment.

BTW Iceland is using hydrogen powered buses - for those who saw the movie, it is actually possible.

Sad, sad day

This is a always a hard time of the year for me. First of all, the fall is already in its full, it's dark and grey. Second of all, the All Saints Day is tomorrow and I always think about all the people who left us. Wyborcza always publishes a list of famous people who died in the past year and it makes me sad, that all those great people are not here any more. All the war heroes, who fought for our independence, great actors and writers... This was in my eyes the best generation, the one of my grandparents.
Today is also sad in different respect. Someone left us, my company. Someone I really liked and who was fun. I know it may sound silly especially compared with the above paragraph. But I don't care. I will miss this person. We were not even good friends, that's probably even worse, because if we were, we would probably go out sometimes together. And I doubt we ever see each other. And there are so many people leaving my company... It's just sad. We are loosing good people but the management is not willing to realize it, to think about the reasons and to find a solutions. And they are usually so good with finding mistakes, causes and solutions. Except that they only think about processes and not real people. I don't think I fit in this, I am after all in "the management" (even though I have no power and no possibility to change things). Oh, this corporate world... I hate it.

My sister's brain

Yesterday was a very very good day. Not at work, not at home, not in Prague. In far away Poland.

My sister has been having those terrible headaches for the past few weeks and no pain killer would help. On Monday she had a CAT scan and got the results yesterday. She promised to send me a text after she got the results but forgot so I texted her in the evening. This is the answer I got:
" They did not find anything. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of my brains (since when does she have more than one??) but only a piece of paper with the results."

She is feeling better. I'm very happy. I was very scared that something bad may happened.

Take me where I want to go

I'm sorry for not writing for such a long time. I was sick a bit last week and stayed at home and when I came back to work, I was quite busy. So here you go, update for the last two weeks.
1. Poker night last Friday: we had a lot of fun, Prince won a lot (well, compared to what we played for - 100kc each, about 5$, so he won 20$). I end us even, which is good considering the state of my mind at the end of a game, around 2 am :) I tent to bet higher later in the night... and loose more. I guess I should not drink if I want to win, but then it wouldn't be such fun. At least this time I saw my card till the end :)))
2. Meeting with Jan and Vladka: a week ago Jan (known from posting comments as Bolek) visited Prague so we met for some beers. It was great seeing him! He did not change too much, with his bitter but funny comments :)
3. Rugby Saturday evening both weekend: it was a lot of fun. The first game England won with France which made me very happy. Unfortunately, they lost the final against South Africa, but I do not mind South Africa winning (and I mind France - I became very anti French because of people at work).
4. Elections in Poland on Sunday: I voted in the embassy. Platforma Obywatelska (Civil Platform) won! I am extremely happy. Finally, the end of right wing conservative rule! It was too much for me. Surprisingly, the turnout was very high: almost 55%, the highest since the end of communism. Hopefully, people realized that their vote is important and that if you don't vote, you may end up with two twin ducks ruling the country :) (For those not in the loop of Polish politics: the president and the ex-prime minister are twins and their surname is "Duck-like"). I hope that the new government will change something, especially economically. They have huge potential in my opinion, we will see how they will use it.
5. Discussion about the future cont.: yesterday we spend some time talking about the future, moving to Scotland, the wedding and so on. We decided what we want to do, but then Prince was looking into visas and work permit for Scotland and it did not sound optimistic. Now, we are thinking he might have to go back to school (which I think he might like and going into Academia is his best bet, but he does not fully agrees). The problem with that is the tuition fees - extremely high.
If we will not make it to Scotland, I am not sure about anything. Prince does not want to stay here for too much longer (I think a year is maximum), there is no more English speaking countries in Europe except for UK and Ireland. Maybe we should reconsider moving to the US, but none of us particularly wants that for certain reasons (two most important for me: not being able to see my family as often as I would like; the benefits I am used to does not exist there, for example free health care or maternity leave or 25 vacation days ... a lot of things like this that we, Europeans are used to).
6. Work: it's getting worse. We are currently doing performance reviews and I got frustrated because they didn't let me promote a person who is doing a great job. Also, I am going to look for another position within the company and my manager is going to support it. Which on the one hand is very good, because I am tired of what I'm doing now and I don't really want to manage people; on the other hand I am disappointed that I didn't manage to do very well. It's not only my fault, but still, I could have been better. Oh, well. Now, I'm concentrating on moving somewhere, learn something new, work with different people and more with clients.

Memory

Yesterday before falling asleep I was thinking about writing something very important on the blog. Of course, as usual with genius ideas that I have at night, I forgot it in the morning. But there is something funny that happened yesterday.
I started therapy. Yesterday I had my second meeting, the doctor did some tests. It was generally fun. One of the things she checked was my memory and she said I have an excellent memory. At night, already in bed, we were talking about it and I proudly told Prince how good my memory is. He asked: Did you remember about you dad's birthday three days ago? Yes, of course! And then I realized that it was my sister birthday! And I forgot about it! I quickly texted her, right before midnight!
So that's how good my memory is :)

If I remember what was so important, I will post again :) But it is probably lost! I think I would be globally known genius if I remembered all the ideas I have before falling asleep.

I want to go home

I don't really have anything to write about, but I still will. So prepare for a silly post without any greater importance.
We spend the weekend in the usual way: slept most of it :) No, it's not really true, but we took naps both days which is not usual for me. Friday I worked until 7.30pm so I was dead tired when I got finally home and we just watched TV. Saturday we went to Ikea, both some Swedish delicacies (glog, cheese and bread, all mniam mniam), tones of candles and other stuff that we always buy at Ikea even though we shouldn't. Nothing really important. And a pillow for Prince. I hope he will enjoy it.
We were supposed to watch rugby, go for dinner and a concert after shopping but Ade got too hammered the night before and when I called him at 3pm I woke him up. So we just went home, took a nap, went grocery shopping and watched Buffy.
On Sunday I went to Church and verified that we can get married in a Catholic church but the bishop would have to give me permission. Basically the priest did not see any problems with anything, not even the language. One problem solved (I don't mean that we decided that we will get married in Prague but at least we know it is possible.) And then we ate lunch, watched Buffy (we have to give the DVDs back at some point - sorry Megan that it's taking us so long, but we're really trying) and took a nap :) Prince had a lot of "me time" and by the evening he was a bit suspicious why I'm not complaining. Well, I just wanted to read my book in bed - the fall came and I'm all lazy and not wanting to go out of bed. At least for some time until I get used to it and the Prince will have to do stuff with me again :)
In the evening we went to see rugby: Scotland vs Argentina. I have to say that Scotland played much better than I expected especially at the end but they still lost (19:11). It was a good game.

Today I made a first step to move to Scotland. It sounds very serious, but what I really did, is put my CV on line on Scottish website. We will see if there are anyone interested, just to get an idea. Also, we could theoretically move any time. Prince does not know about it yet. He will find out soon.

I have not done any work today! Terrible, I know, but it's Monday.....

Yet another problem

We started talking about the wedding and stuff. We shouldn't have because soon we found a first problem: should we pay for the transportation of the guests to wherever we will get married. I know that it's not done in the US but in my family that is the custom (usually it's about 20km, not thousand). Of course we did not reach any conclusion but I decided I have to call my mum and ask her. The result of the conversation was that she told me that if we get married anywhere abroad my family would not come (except for the 3 of them). Now I'm upset. It's going to be even more difficult than I expected!

And the winner is...

Today I am going to surprise you with two posts :) Including one in English for all of you who does not speak Polish :) And actually I have something to write about.

The story starts sadly: one of senior managers in my company had a serious accident this summer. He was on holidays in Italy, jumped to the swimming pool and broke his spine. He was in comma for a long time, now he is getting better, but he still does not move his legs and is connected to all sorts of medical equipment. As it happens on such occasions, people decided to collect money for him and his family (he has a very young son, just over a year old). To make it more interesting, it was decided that we will organize a raffle. So today was the final day and the prices were given away. And I won! Not the iPod that I really wanted but something quite interesting, although much less healthy. Those are my prises:

Absolut Bling-Bling Vodka - Special Edition
Jose Cuervo Classico Tequila
2 bottles Red wine (Château neuf du pape 1996)
Turkish delight from Turkey

I am going to take it home and enjoy during Christmas with my family. Well, except for the wine probably. We will drink it with Prince, at least one bottle.

Nieoczekiwani czytelnicy

Ja rozumiem, ze nie tylko ludzie, ktorzy zostawiaja komentarze, czytaja moj blog. Rozumiem tez, ze skoro Ksieciunio nic nie pisze, to jego znajomi czytaja moj blog, zeby wiedziec, co sie u niego dzieje. Ale to juz przesada! Zeby Mam-Kryzys-Wieku-Sredniego, kuzyn jego mamy czytal, to juz dla mnie za duzo. Zwlaszcza, ze koles jest dosc specyficzny. Poznalam go w Swieta. Gdzies bylismy, podjezdzamy pod dom, a tam zolta korweta czy cos takiego, z lat 70tych, wypasiona. Wszyscy w szoku, kto to przyjechal, a tata Ksieciunia na to, ze to kuzyn. OK, kazdy czasem potrzebuje zaszalec. Ale tak... Wchodzimy, siadamy w salonie, gadka szmatka, a Mam-Kryzys-Wieku-Sredniego nie daje mi odetchnac. Tysiac pytan. Mily, sympatyczny i w ogole, ale do przesady Amerykanski. I taki przytlaczajacy. Az za mily. Ja sie nie czuje dobrze, gdy ktos w ciagu 15 minut powie mi 15 razy, ze jestem sliczna, albo mila, albo ze mam piekny akcent. Za duzo komplementow... az czlowiek zaczyna myslec, ze to jest nieszczere.
No nic, rozpisalam sie strasznie, a chcialam tylko napisac, jak mnie to zaskoczylo, ze Mam-Kryzys-Wieku-Sredniego czyta mojego bloga :)

Announcement

I am the happiest person in the world. Something wonderful happened: WE GOT ENGAGED!!!

We went for the weekend to Cesky Krumlov, beautiful medieval town in Southern Bohemia. Friday was a public holiday here so we went in the morning, we stayed in a pension that used to be a part of city wall, it was build in 1502. Cool. Saturday was beautiful weather, unfortunately Prince was not feeling too well, so in the morning I went alone for a walk, but in the afternoon we took a tour of the castle. He really wanted to go to the tower, even though we were there a year ago with his Dad. But he really wanted so we went up. It was late afternoon, sunny and warm and beautiful. We went to the corner with the city behind us and he knelt... I wasn't sure what is he doing, I was so surprised. I don't quite remember what he said but it was beautiful. And when he opened the box with the ring, I knew that he is proposing. Of course I said yes. (When I thought about it later, I realized I should say something like 'I will'. I hope it still counts.) We stayed at the tower for some time. It was the best moments of my life. I never felt so happy and so much in love. And I know I want to spend my life with him.

Now, we have a lot of things to talk about and to plan. Of course, it can't be too easy with us: we have totally different expectations (Scottish castle vs church, preferably catholic). But we will find a compromise. And we will be happy always as we are now.
I zyli dlugo i szczesliwie....