Category: Personal

Despite being at work all the time, and being constantly busy, I am still a human. I am social. I have a life, family, and friends. I have thoughts and experiences. Once in a while I share them, and when I do, I do so in this category. If you don’t know me personally, chances are you’ll find posts in this category particularly boring.

The Lockdown

Starting from today, we’ll be on permanent home lockdown. Gone are the times, when our front door was open day and night. Never did we lock it no matter where we were – inside or outside. But that is gone. At least for those times when we are inside the house.

Sound weird to you? Well, the reason is rather simple. Maxim learned how to open the door and how to walk of it. He did it by accident yesterday. Today though he does it with more comfort and confidence than Olga and I combined. It almost looks like he installed this door himself.

So we’ll have to lock the gate the outside world. He can still watch it through the windows. And he’ll figure out the computer is connected to a global network pretty soon. And when there is a world at your knees, who needs to go outside?

Maxim and the polar bear

Maxim and the polar bear

In the morning, my brother and I went for a perilous journey. We had to drive a really old car (“don’t live the city borders in the piece of machinery” type) in heavy rain and limited visibility conditions to Larnaca airport, where we had to pick up an unknown guy, who we had to bring back to Limassol and make and exchange with. This poor soul was a yachtsmen. He had to get to his team and we were his only hope. Team’s coach had a valuable posession for us. It was a package from my father.

Overcoming obstacles one by one, which were many by the way, we managed to succeed in our quest and get the package. In it, there was plenty of stuff. Most of it was for Maxim – books and a giant polar bear. Soft. And huge. He was exactly the size of Maxim.

Maxim showed a more than average level of excitement. He played with the bear, talked to him, and took him for a walk. He even wrestled him to the ground and than picked up into the air – that was a particularly hard thing to do, which you can witness from the pictures in the album.

Thanks Dad – very much appreciated. And vodka too, by the way.

Album location: /photos/2006/2006-02-08_POTD

Speechless. With a lot of words.

I can’t really describe how I feel right now. But I’ll try.

Angry. Outraged. Speechless. Sad. Shocked.

(You probably shouldn’t read this post altogether, as it is more for me to release the hate, rather than for you to worry about.)

Continue reading Speechless. With a lot of words.

Preventing hangovers

Curing hangovers is one of the most popular issues to talk and read about ever. I did my part of the research too, but it was as helpful as for everyone else. The fact is, if you’ve got yourself a nice hangover, there isn’t much you can do to get rid of it. You can make it slightly easier on you, by choosing to follow one of the billion advices.

Luckily, I found something better. In stead fighting the hangover, I simply prevent it. It turned out to work much better, and simplier too. How do I do it? Two simple steps.

  1. Try not to mix different drinks. If there is no choice, than always drink the stronger one next. In other words – if you have to drink both beer and vodka, than drink beer first, and than follow it up with vodka. This way you won’t get as drunk, and you won’t have as terrible of the hangover in the morning. But this step is a minor one compared to the next.
  2. Drink lots (and I really mean LOTS) of water before going to bed. The more water you drink, the better you will feel in the morning. Dihydration is the main component of the hangover, and you can’t fix it while you’re sleeping. So, just take care of it before you go to sleep, and the water you drank will last you through the night.

That’s it. These are basically the only two things I care about when I drink alcohol. And I haven’t had a hangover in years now. Except that one time, when I didn’t have any water before falling in bed. And that was one of the most horrible days of my life.

Yesterday, I had more than half a litter of vodka (with friends and food). When I came back home, I think I drank up the whole plastic bottle (1.5L) of water. Five hours later when I went for a walk with Maxim, I didn’t feel a thing. Like I wasn’t even drinking the day before. It was so good that it actually felt weird.