How can a down-to-earth woman turn into a weapon

I am giving driving lesson to one of my friends once a week. Once a week I am experiencing a real horror, feeling sorry for all the drivers around us. Usually, I am pretty calm person but sitting next to her just makes me yell at her.

Her uncle offered her an old car last year, just like a present, and she was pondering whether or not to accept it. She is 30 and took her driving licence when she was 18 and has never sat at the wheel ever since. No wonder she was a bit worried about the idea of driving as well as owning and looking after the car that looks like it really has seen its better days. So she asked me for some advice. As for the car itself, my point of view was like don't look the gifthorse in the mouth and you can always get rid of it and so on. As for her driving abilities, there was no other way then to promise to help her remember everything she has forgotten. If I had known anything about her gift to cause an accident even on a totally trafficless road I would never have promised someting like this. I wonder how she could pass her test.

Well, yesterday she wanted the drive in the opposite direction on a crossing while turning to the left. You can imagine the other's drivers eyes as we were heading right to their body fronts. When we reached the traffic lights blinking permanently orange she just stopped not willing to go on. She explained to me, she wanted to wait either for the red or green light. The drivers behind us got frantic with all the honking. Of course, she got so nervous that she was unable to start driving. A few minutes later she didn't give the way on a roundabout. When I asked her if she didn't see all the cars whose drivers had to slam their brakes, she just shrugged mumbling I am so sorry, I am so stupid… I remembered being in the cinema with her the other day where she put on her glasses. So I asked her if… Sure, she is suppossed to wear them while driving but sort of forgot them yestereday. At the top of that, she just crushed into a horizontal bar. Fortunately, her favorit speed is about 30 km/hour, so nothing serious happened.

In short, this fragile and gentle girl, highly educated, clever, nice, down-to-earth is becoming a loose cannon, a dangerous weapon every time she is a driver, forgeting all the basic rules and playing havoc wherever she drives. Is it possible that some people are just incapable of driving? That they are so clumsy and totally clueless while driving?

I wonder what was going through her head as she just had to see that bar across the road comming slowly, really slowly, closer and closer and she still went on without breaking. It was just that scratching sound, as the metal was brushing against metal, which eventually made her stop. There must be only one answer: women or from Venus so that men can never get their heads round it. I consider it quite normal but it freaks me out sometimes.

P.S. I don't have the guts to tell her that she will never drive safely.

I am sitting in a editor's chair again

One of my former co-workers asked me for help with some project two weeks ago and I nodded to it. Perhaps I should not have taken on more responsibilities as I am unable to catch up on anything.

He promised the job would take some four hours a day and and wouldn't last longer then four weeks. I reckoned the number of articles that need to be translated from English to Czech and other duties awaiting for me and finally said yes. Of course, the job has turned out to take more then four hours and it looks like they are going to ask me to stay longer. I have made up my mind to say NO this time.

Nevertheless, the job has been pretty interesting so far. I work in some totally web news edition that started two years ago and unlike many other web papers it came into being without the real paper basis. It has grown into one of the bigest on-line newspaper in my country and is pretty good. They started to cooperate with a big Czech publisher house issuing a newspaper some weeks ago which means to send them four completed pages full of news. It is a bit funny when pure news web is coming back to paper, isn't it? They found out soon that didn't know how to transform the news into a layout as most of them are young journalist without any praxis in real papers. So that the editor in chief remembered me.

So I am sitting in a editor's chair again, trying to explain to those young people over and over that writing for newspaper is something else then for the web, that every artical needs its precise size as well as the headline, that every "today" must be changed into "yesterday" and so on and on. Fortunately, they are good pupils.

The first week was realy tough, this second one has been a bit better and the next one is likely to be a smooth sailing experience. As far as I know myself, the last week is going to be a bit boring for my taste, more routine then discovering new things. So it will be time to say hello to them and return to the adventure of translation. And hopefully open this blog more often.

I wouldn't want to take it back

She looked at me and said something like „OK, nobody wanted to work on you for fear they could break some of your bones, so I'll try.“

She was a physiotherapist, pretty inexperienced as she was only 23, I was a poor patient freshly diagnosed with frozen shoulder and osteoporosis. I couldn't move my left arm which was not only painful but also annoying because something like frozen shoulder keeps you from many ordinary activities like driving your car or putting your shirt on. When you can't rise your hand higher then to your breast level and are unable to move it behind your back there are many limitations. I was afraid I could be crippled this way for the rest of my life and this girl just gave me some hope.

It has been right nine years since we met first. Feels like as it was yesterday. At the beginning we saw each other two or three times a week and my therapy proceeded well. We chatted all the time and once when I coudn't come as a got stuck at my work, she told me “I missed you.” I missed her as well but I didn't tell her anything about my feelings. I was twice as older as she was in those days and I found myself way too old to hit on someone this young so I tried to curb my feelings. But I felt that my relation with her was more then a mere liking. Four months had passed I my shoulder became completely healed. Then the time came for our last session. Instead of therapy we were just sitting and talking, feeling mutual attachment more then ever before. The one important thing was hanging in the air but remained unspoken. Suddenly, our session was over, I said to her “I'll send you a Christmas card, OK?” (it was summer) and left. I was walking ouf of the hospital feeling that something very nice but fragile was just ending and that I did the right decision to stop this young love. I fell in love and so she did but the age difference just seemed too big.

The next day she phoned me: “It is just impossible to wait till Christmas. I wanna see you right away.” So we met that evening and were sitting on a rock above the river, watching boats and stars all the night. All the unspoken was finally said. That was the day we officially started dating even though we didn't kiss that night.

So many things have happened since then. Maybe I should have said NO! that day when she had asked for our first date. But then, I would never have experienced what the true unconditional love could be like with all the joys and despairs. She's turned my life upside down. Our souls clicked as best as you can imagine but it wasn't in the cards to stay together. This time nine years ago, it was the beginning of the chain of events that still has no ending. I wonder ten times a day how is she doing. It seems impossible to forget. Nothing funny.

I've come to realization that all those beautiful and equally not-so-beautiful things that have happened within those nine years are just a part of my fate. There's only one way how to deal with it - to accept it. There are things in our lives that we can't change, as if they were prepared for us.

Do you have your own statue?

Some months back I got an e-mail with a picture attached. When I downloaded it I couldn't stop laughing. I was looking at myself being a statue. It was me, just me and only me. Some friends of mine (thank you Mrs. and Mr. Topinka) took a snap of it in Scottish town Perth (after they had stopped laughing). They told me this was just a statue erected on the street which is considered to depict some uknown man from the crowd. If I had gotten this picture today I would have thought that this was a Photoshop work, that my friends have wanted to rejoice me at April Fool's Day. But it happened last September. So I guess the sculptor must have had some photo of me and managed to copy my face really well. The other possibility is that I have a twin somewhere but this seems very unlikely as my parents had never mentioned something like this.
Well, how many people can say they have their own stutue? Isn't it great? Unfortunately, my neighbourhood haven't noticed yet that I am so famous. But no doubt, this must be their fault.

In other news, this month a year ago I started to fool around with the idea of writing a blog. I have published 79 entries ever since and to my huge surprise most visitors have come from English spoken countries which is a lot greater then having my own statue in Scottland. I am grateful for this.

Fancy tai chi?

Belive it or not, I have discovered the glamour of tai chi.
It is said to be not only beneficial to body condition but it is also soothing. After a couple of lessons I am able to do the first set of it pretty smoothly and I like it. I find it quite challenging as you have to coordinate many of your body parts and concentrate on breating at the same time. It seems like a combination of body movement and some mental strenght mixed with emotions and elegance. It is a true opposite to today's hectic world. You don't need any special dress, t-shirt and loose jeans are sufficient, and I prefer being barefoot which is generally something I like. Moreover, the gym is some five minutes away from my home when riding my bike. I wonder how far I am going to get with this. It looks like it could fit together with my sedentary job and with the nice but still sort of one-sided cycling.

If I had known what I know now…

Most of my friends and acquaintances are single, mostly divorced. In my country, the divorce rate is pretty high, almost half and half. I am not an exception.

Being in a relationship is a hard job that needs to be cared and one has to learn how to listen to each other's needs and wishes. It seems to be the most important responsibility we have in life because the content partnership between a man and a woman is the base for everything else we want to achieve. Unfortunatelly, there is no sure recipe for this lottery and the disappointment from breaking up can be enormous.

Going through some blogs I have read some small paragraphs out of context. I think it doesn´t matter. Each of them is a beginning of a story that only life can write. Anyway, my niece got married when she was twenty. She divorced three years later. Now, she has a live-in boyfriend and is pregnant without any intention of remarrying.

Poptart
As much as I love being spontaneous, I think we need to have some kind of organised date each week (or, if we're too busy, every fortnight LOL). Something we can do together. Something to look forward to. Something fun.

fluteanjel

I am more and more amazed every day at how much easier it is getting to be open with Joe. I really can tell him anything and our level of trust in each other has gone through the roof.

Jackie

I am in tears right now. I may lose, or may have lost, the one and only person that has ever truly meant anything to me. Why? Because, I Jackie, am the worlds hugeest dumbass/jackass/jerk/horrible selfish person.

The Girl

We both woke up around the same time, but just laid there laughing and snuggling and talking. Son came in to snuggle and then would leave, come back and leave. We had a good laugh with him coming in and sticking his cold feet on us. It was such a relaxing morning.

Laura

Wow, I haven't been in a relationship in a really long time. hahaha.

The way to a man's heart

I locked the door and waited for an elevator when a smell of someone's luch hit my nose.

It is funny how a simple smell can evolve imagination and affect feelings. It must have been some thick sauce with beef and probably with dumplings. I stood there and soaked up that smell which not only did make me hungry but also reminded me of the happy times of earlier years. Chatting in the kitchen, asking about seasoners, dishing out, touching hands and saying Enjoy your meal and chatting and eating, blowing out the candle, washing dishes… Such a commonplace for many. I cherish the memories of those commonplace moments. Yes, the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, well, one of the ways...

It took only a few seconds, the elevator arrived at the mine level, the door opened which brought me back to reality. But the smell of that thick sauce lingers. I guess, he who has never been in this state of mind can never trully understand what Johnny Cash was singing about in his "Sunday Morning Coming Down".

I'd smoked my mind the night before
With cigarettes and songs I'd been picking.
But I lit my first and watched a small kid
Playing with a can that he was kicking
Then I walked across the street
And caught the Sunday smell of someone's frying chicken.
And Lord, it took me back to something that I'd lost
Somewhere, somehow along the way