It is finally snowing in Slovakia. Almost one week after Christmas, we might get some white powder and go hit the ski slopes this season. It all started all of sudden while I went to see my friend's appartement.
The fun is that it is the first time I took out old car I used to drive - Renault Megane. It was parked in the garage for two months and it still has summer tires on... and there I am, on the fresh snow with these tires feeling like Santa on the sledge.
But fortunately everything ended well and the car is again in the garage and I am next to the fireplace. Wish you all that just nice memories of 2006 will remain.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Monday, September 25, 2006
Life in big city is lonely...
Sometimes it gets so lonely that you are desperate. Today, at the bus stop, I have seen one gypsy guy talking to a girl on a city-light poster :)))
This one:)
This one:)
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Revolutionary HRM tactics
Yesterday evening I went to pay a visit to my friends living in another Prague apartment.
I took a tram at about 9pm at the square where I live now. I went to the second train because those are usually less crowded and I wanted to sit down. Haha, I tried hard to hide my smile when I got on. Inside there were exactly 20 dirty gypsy construction workers occupying all the seats on both sides of the tram. I don’t need to mention the unbearable smell of dust and sweat everywhere the train :-) But I was doing everything to prevent laughing seeing this “crew” :-)
I was lucky and did not suffocate because at the next stop, their leader said “Hajdu!” and they all got off, leaving 20 seats what means an empty train. Plus, warmly welcomed space for fresh oxygen.
Later that evening with my friends we were laughing at this scene and talking about it in terms we all know really good. The team of 20 gypsies was actually on the teambuilding, to be more accurate they were teambuilding a building. This is a new trend in HR, you know. Funny and useless activities like bowling or other bullshit that HR agencies organize are obsolete. People now spend and enjoy together 12 hours of hard physical work, preferably on the lowest level in construction with no decision making powers – because this is what they will do in their jobs! They will arrive home exhausted and dirty because they just meet with dirty people doing dirty things (so it’s easiest to comprehend this while working in mud and dust). Of course that these guys I have seen in the tram were not gypsies but refined and educated Indian youths and all were hired for some IT implementation BPR SAP WTF DICK office job in Czech Republic. Every evening they go back to the slum on the outskirts of Prague, they have a bath in the river, then drink cheap rum. When they go to bed they all know this teambuilding event will finish soon and again they start to wear their suits and ties – but now in their career, they will be unstoppable ;-)
But my evening was niiiiiiiiiice (respect to Borat!). I took a bottle of wine, Zolo had already cooked lasagna... and we enjoyed a peaceful evening thanks to locally illegal substance :-) Zolo is not only a great cook, a great masseur and a great seducer but also a great football player and has some health problems with his knee. So Zolo, we all wish you'll be good soon, cheer up! Plus I want to have a beer with you :-)
PS: I have to say that I nothing against Indians; I met a few during my studies and they were all smart and in some way, funny too.
I took a tram at about 9pm at the square where I live now. I went to the second train because those are usually less crowded and I wanted to sit down. Haha, I tried hard to hide my smile when I got on. Inside there were exactly 20 dirty gypsy construction workers occupying all the seats on both sides of the tram. I don’t need to mention the unbearable smell of dust and sweat everywhere the train :-) But I was doing everything to prevent laughing seeing this “crew” :-)
I was lucky and did not suffocate because at the next stop, their leader said “Hajdu!” and they all got off, leaving 20 seats what means an empty train. Plus, warmly welcomed space for fresh oxygen.
Later that evening with my friends we were laughing at this scene and talking about it in terms we all know really good. The team of 20 gypsies was actually on the teambuilding, to be more accurate they were teambuilding a building. This is a new trend in HR, you know. Funny and useless activities like bowling or other bullshit that HR agencies organize are obsolete. People now spend and enjoy together 12 hours of hard physical work, preferably on the lowest level in construction with no decision making powers – because this is what they will do in their jobs! They will arrive home exhausted and dirty because they just meet with dirty people doing dirty things (so it’s easiest to comprehend this while working in mud and dust). Of course that these guys I have seen in the tram were not gypsies but refined and educated Indian youths and all were hired for some IT implementation BPR SAP WTF DICK office job in Czech Republic. Every evening they go back to the slum on the outskirts of Prague, they have a bath in the river, then drink cheap rum. When they go to bed they all know this teambuilding event will finish soon and again they start to wear their suits and ties – but now in their career, they will be unstoppable ;-)
But my evening was niiiiiiiiiice (respect to Borat!). I took a bottle of wine, Zolo had already cooked lasagna... and we enjoyed a peaceful evening thanks to locally illegal substance :-) Zolo is not only a great cook, a great masseur and a great seducer but also a great football player and has some health problems with his knee. So Zolo, we all wish you'll be good soon, cheer up! Plus I want to have a beer with you :-)
PS: I have to say that I nothing against Indians; I met a few during my studies and they were all smart and in some way, funny too.
Friday, August 25, 2006
For marketing you need a marketing personality
Yesterday evening I went out with my colleagues to do some teambuilding. The bowling sucked because of the lanes and no bowling shoes… but the evening was even funnier than I had expected. I was crying of the things my colleagues have been doing and saying. Rule number one is that if you go out with people from MARKETING departement they will do even funnier and sicker thinghs than they do in the office everyday.
Last time they only sent the email with topic “How to introduce yourself on the company line phone” which was just light fun. According to “the rules” you always have to say: “Media group MAFRA, Ctirad Svoboda speaking at the telephone. How can I help you today?”, loudly and clearly and change the name for yours. But anytime you notice somebody from marketing picking up the the phone, you hear them say “Kriz.” (a name) or just “Uhm?” They also wrote in the mail that you should not speak in higher voice depending on the distance of the caller (some people in the office tend to shout when they talk with somebody from another continent or any further than Prague). Their whole email was a joke. There is a woman in the office, about 50 yrs old called Mary, Head of sales, who believes them everything they tell her. She forwarded the message immediatelly to all her subordinates – poor girls and asked them if she really has to say “How can I help you today” ?
Back to the evening. After we finished with bowling (team of marketing departement guys won the prize, shit – they are going to be proud all next week for sure) we went to another pub called Backdoors. Petr (head of Mlada Fronta newspaper marketing and biggest clown) was unstoppable. Two girls ordered coffee with milk and he drank one of the milks from the shot glass just as the waitress was putting in on the table ? He was pippeting her coffee with his drinking straw and showing everybody around that he is not even touching it with his tongue – arguing that he got this skill when he was working with HIV bacteria in the same way. Then he was demonstrating “a mill” with his food (a disgusting trick when you pretend to mill the food in your mouth and it’s coming out). When the waitres brought him his drink and asked “Cuba Libre?” he just said “No, I just wanted a coke with white rum”.
All of these things might sound stupid and not that amusing but if you knew Petr with his sparkling eyes and rascal smile you would be in tears as I was. You might imagine my situation – being unusually silent at the table and asking myself all over again – Are these the same people who I work with in the office?
Last time they only sent the email with topic “How to introduce yourself on the company line phone” which was just light fun. According to “the rules” you always have to say: “Media group MAFRA, Ctirad Svoboda speaking at the telephone. How can I help you today?”, loudly and clearly and change the name for yours. But anytime you notice somebody from marketing picking up the the phone, you hear them say “Kriz.” (a name) or just “Uhm?” They also wrote in the mail that you should not speak in higher voice depending on the distance of the caller (some people in the office tend to shout when they talk with somebody from another continent or any further than Prague). Their whole email was a joke. There is a woman in the office, about 50 yrs old called Mary, Head of sales, who believes them everything they tell her. She forwarded the message immediatelly to all her subordinates – poor girls and asked them if she really has to say “How can I help you today” ?
Back to the evening. After we finished with bowling (team of marketing departement guys won the prize, shit – they are going to be proud all next week for sure) we went to another pub called Backdoors. Petr (head of Mlada Fronta newspaper marketing and biggest clown) was unstoppable. Two girls ordered coffee with milk and he drank one of the milks from the shot glass just as the waitress was putting in on the table ? He was pippeting her coffee with his drinking straw and showing everybody around that he is not even touching it with his tongue – arguing that he got this skill when he was working with HIV bacteria in the same way. Then he was demonstrating “a mill” with his food (a disgusting trick when you pretend to mill the food in your mouth and it’s coming out). When the waitres brought him his drink and asked “Cuba Libre?” he just said “No, I just wanted a coke with white rum”.
All of these things might sound stupid and not that amusing but if you knew Petr with his sparkling eyes and rascal smile you would be in tears as I was. You might imagine my situation – being unusually silent at the table and asking myself all over again – Are these the same people who I work with in the office?
Sunday, August 20, 2006
My today's workout
Weekend is for sports! I so wanted to play squash but could not find anybody... and I was bored to do push-ups (not the bras!) or sit-ups at home. I thought about some running in a nearby park but then I noticed a friend's bike. YEA! Let's go on a bike trip!
I set my journey by the riverside to a nearby village. I thought it will be nice - you know, the river is nice, the name of the village (Krallupy) also sounds ok, and I had a cycloroute all the way.. shit I was wrong!
The cycloroute began okay in the park, then it was just worse and worse. Imagine, one section was looking like this - a narrow path for one bike right next to the river - but the river was 3 metres below! One fault and you are done. This looked like a Czech version of the Dead Road from La Paz to Coroico which I did last year. The Bolivian one was right next to abyss of 100-200 metres :) But still I did not expect this today!
I arrived to the dreamy village and already had enough of biking for a week. I never thought that only 25 kilometres from Prague you can find such an ugly village!!! La Paz in Bolivia seemed hundread times nicer to me. I took a different route on a way back - at least I tried to, I had no map so I relied on indigenous peoples' advice. The return was neverending but so much nicer, a normal road with almost no cars, going through small villages and fields with sunflowers. Totally PEACE, brother.
When I arrived to Prague, I was ready to be buried alive. I checked my cyclocomputer for the result of today's trip - 70.05km!!! For the rest of the evening I am eating bananas and watching U TURN movie. And I guess I am going to buy Lance Armstrong's book because now I know again how it feels to be tough on bike!
I set my journey by the riverside to a nearby village. I thought it will be nice - you know, the river is nice, the name of the village (Krallupy) also sounds ok, and I had a cycloroute all the way.. shit I was wrong!
The cycloroute began okay in the park, then it was just worse and worse. Imagine, one section was looking like this - a narrow path for one bike right next to the river - but the river was 3 metres below! One fault and you are done. This looked like a Czech version of the Dead Road from La Paz to Coroico which I did last year. The Bolivian one was right next to abyss of 100-200 metres :) But still I did not expect this today!
I arrived to the dreamy village and already had enough of biking for a week. I never thought that only 25 kilometres from Prague you can find such an ugly village!!! La Paz in Bolivia seemed hundread times nicer to me. I took a different route on a way back - at least I tried to, I had no map so I relied on indigenous peoples' advice. The return was neverending but so much nicer, a normal road with almost no cars, going through small villages and fields with sunflowers. Totally PEACE, brother.
When I arrived to Prague, I was ready to be buried alive. I checked my cyclocomputer for the result of today's trip - 70.05km!!! For the rest of the evening I am eating bananas and watching U TURN movie. And I guess I am going to buy Lance Armstrong's book because now I know again how it feels to be tough on bike!
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