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.