Outlandish

Among the horribilities (I just made up a word!) in Paris during the past week it has been absolutely refreshing to notice some little good deeds that people do around us all the time. Like the video  of people rescuing animals from all sorts of places and situations.  Also at work, in accordance to the Christmas spirit, we are trying to contribute to the lives of some people who are less "fortunate" in life. Here in Slovakia poor families and families with disabled children don't get much support from the state. So the big companies that have come here want to do their share and, for example, we have this Tree of Wishes before Christmas every year here at work. Basically it's a Christmas tree standing in the lobby decorated with wishes from children in the institutions or programs that the company is co-operating with. Some lovely people in our team went and picked a wish: a kitchen with crayons and wax to form figures out of, not that much for us to pu...

Crossroads... I'm there again and it's time to decide whether to go right or left. Or more accurately, which I prefer, South or North.  Last week I applied for a job in Tallinn and another in our team (a promotion if you will). And I stupidly thought that the decision would be made easy when one of them I either didn't get or my salary requests were not met. But no. I got the job in Tallinn and here I was told that even though I didn't get the promotion my skills are needed. I could not decide so I listed some pros and cons. Bratislava is a sunny, warm city in the middle of Central Europe. Easy and cheap access to all big European capitals. People are nice, open and helpful. I have the most amazing team in a big company, which usually equals multiple opportunities for developing professionally.A big company has ensured the fact that I have forged friendships that I would never have even dreamt of. I have been able to arrange activities and events ...

God I miss my family... This Sunday was Fathers' Day back at home. My mum cooked a fancy dinner and they had the dogs over again for the weekend. I was looking for a card to send to dad but I was told that there is no such thing as Fathers' Day here in Slovakia. At least I could walk to the city centre on Sunday without having to watch happy families celebrating their dads all around. Another lazy weekend. I used to hate them. I used to be stressed about what am I going to do during the weekend if I didn't have my plans clear by Wednesday. But when the weekend arrives and everybody's out of town and you're on your own and you just have to deal with it. Despite the stressing, down-shifting for weekends has never been a problem for me. Not here.  It's a sad thought for me that some people have to pay money in order to be taught  how to calm down, let go of all work pressures or other worries and just enjoy the moment. Mindfulness they call it and it...

Days are getting shorter (according to Facebook statuses in Finland the situation has already got critical: only couple hours of daylight a day) but the raging colour schemes everywhere are bringing some solace. It's already November so I'm starting to feel like I'm on the "winning side" time-wise: December (= home) is only a month away!   You know that saying "Ignorance is bliss". I've come to realize how true it is. I notice a teeny tiny difference in my well-being when I don't watch the news for a while. A complete ignorance of how bad a place this world is feels nicer. Also at work I have thought how lucky I am to have such amazing team mates, but turns out that is only due to the fact that I don't understand a word of their conversations in the office. Turns out there's just as much bullying going on as there would be anywhere else, and like usually it's women who are the cruelest. Also, I've known since the beginnin...

Halloween I love! Even though in reality it's a very Christian time of the year when you should go to cemetery and light a candle for someone who has passed, but for me it's all about a world-scale costume party. And I loove costume parties! And at Halloween everybody makes an effort. This year I had a two-day Halloween, one in the office and one with friends on Saturday, and because I am a superficial person I couldn't wear the same outfit for two days in a row. As the Fun Team team leader I was responsible for organizing some Halloween happening in the office on Friday. So, the obvious option was a costume competition. Fun Team also took it upon itself to decorate the office in the Halloween's spirit. And we went all out! Even though we had to pay for all that stuff ourselves, it was more important to make the office presentable. We even had Halloween-appropriate music prepared, candy and cookies resembling various body parts and spider's web every...

The drive to Zuberec on Friday evening last week was quite bad: it was already dark and it was raining so hard that you could barely see the red back lights of the car in front. But one thing I did notice on the way: a huge castle lit up on top of a steep hill. Turns out it was the Orava Castle (Oravsky Hrad). I love castles (because I still want to be a princess...) so I wanted to at least stop on the way home on Sunday long enough to get a picture of it.  We did stop. But the moment we got up to the castle door it was literally closed in our faces. Closing time. Suomen Leijona !?!?!? The legend of the castle says that the noblemen owning the land made a pact with a devil because they wanted a castle that couldn't be built by any man. If the devil succeeded in building the castle in one day the noblemen were fine, but if not they would go to Hell. Obviously the devil didn't succeed (on purpose I expect) and the noblemen went to Hell. In proven fac...

Sunday morning, slow and lazy as it should be. The Sun was out as it always is on Sunday mornings and there were people already in the kitchen eating breakfast. Exactly what I like Sundays to be like. I like going for trips with a big group, the bigger the better, and somehow I love mornings then. Drowsy people sitting around table, one staring at the table cloth with blank eyes, couple people talking about which is the best sandwich cheese, one sipping coffee from a mug that's bigger than her head and someone going around asking who wants more of this or that. Life <3 Of course after breakfast comes the time to start cleaning up and packing. In Finland, when at the summer house, Sunday mornings were very efficient and fast for some reason. No matter if the weather was awesome we were in the car driving to the ferry before it was 12 o'clock. Since moving to Slovakia and traveling with my colleagues I've learned that Sundays can also be full of things to do before go...