Simply said, it was a great experience. Shit cold (they played in a hockey stadium with the ice intact, covered up by temporary flooring), the show was real fine and if you just listened to the music, it wasnt difficult to think this is a real pink floyd concert (for a rather small audience of some 2.000 ppl) and being a litte boozed, so sometimes loosing the grip and making littel variations away from the original sound

So it was not exactly Pink Floyd and who they are and most of all how they play, but was close enough – I do recommend to all who realy like PF but are not shit crazy about them so will listen to every tone misplayed.

It was good and I am glad I went to see this, even though it was rather by accident – I went to buy tickets for Stomp (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu15Ou-jKM0) but changed my mind in the process …Heck, stomp is in march, I still might change my mind and go there too

So now I have seen The Offspring and Pink Floyd (or at least the closest you can get), which are the two international bands that influenced my teen-music-formation-period. Job well done. So lets see whats next, afterall, music soothes even the savage beast.

Goodbye blue sky

So, I climbed my first artificial wall today. I have mixed feelings, I liked the feeling of going up – achieving something, on the other side I felt doing it alone can get tiring, and most of all – I am weak. After a short, enthusiastic climbing, my hands got tired and wobbly, considering that even before that I was able to hold only on the biggest grabs is not too good news.

I basically have two options – stop after first try or really get into it. This is not like cycling or running that its ok to be slower. In bouldering you can hold on to the wall or you cant. So that might be one of the reasons to put this post up – it might push me to do those push ups, pull ups and at least once weekly go to see if it has any effect… I might actually manage to start with the second option, lets see if it stays

And as final I have to say I have seen the kind of beauty of a rather Michelangelo kind. If you check his paintings, he was painting women being rather masculine and having musles. No way am I saying that the girl I have seen today on the wall looked like a man (NO way), but when she was hanging by fingertips on the wall on her back I have seen flexing muscles that I havent even know exist Michelangelo was an autist who had crazy talent for art, but in this case we would agree

And if you think that picture looks good or think that girls climbing is not sexy, you should check www.stonenudes.com

- my colleague from MC Sue told me she is engaged

- I had 4 beers, 2 ganja joints and 1 jack daniels with my current colleagues

- I called some doctors and asked if they want to work in Germany

- was told that starting tomorrow I will be finding and calling potential sales managers for a company that sells turbines/generators for middle-sized power plants with a monthly wage of some 20.000 EUR

- am going to sleep at approx. 2 am

- talked about pakistan and india and than about the importance of genes vs.  society in terms of differences of behavior of different people

- have been told I should get 14 days free during xmas…. paid

- havent seen my flatmate, he went to work before I woke up and fell asleep before I came back

- watched a lot of dumb videos on the internet tubes

- realized most people dont like their job but still some like doing it (e.g. me)\

…actually this is a normal day

you know, sometimes you just feel like you have to do something and right now I feel i need to write this story while its still fresh in my memory. Because it surely is one of the weirdest 1 hours in my life.

At 22.50 I have decided I feel like a beer. In the part of town I live now its possible – go to a few bars around the block or just go to a TESCO some 2 km away. So I decided to go for a walk and go to TESCO. I logically wanted to take some empty beer bottles so I dont have to pay for them again. Just to realize that the huge collection of empty bottles has disappeared – 1 month worth of 8 people drinking beer… So I assumed someone took them to the shop to collect the money, so I asked and was told they have been all thrown away! Where I asked – in front of the house, big blue bag full of bottles. So I decided to take a few with me… filled in my backpack with them… and decided… that I am gonna take them all! Walking 2 km (= 0.5 hr) with a backpack and a huge blue plastic bag in a hand was what I considered to be weird and worth calling it a strange day… Sweated I reached the TESCO – 56 bottles, thats 20 kg of glass… Of course I bought only new beer and chocolate for the money I got for the bottles…

So I started walking home, nearly midnight. And see an old lady pushing the TESCO cart on the other side of the street already some 5 min walk from the TESCO. The cart was sliding, jumping, going out of its way to make her stride slower and more tiring. So with the first bottle of beer open in my hand I have decided to cross the street and offer help. Thats when the stranger part of the evening started…

She said yes, visibly already tired. Realize, its midnight and an 80+ year old lady is pushing a TESCO cart on the street with her shopping in it… She agreed and while leaning on the handle of the cart together with me was pushing/pulling the cart. She didnt live that close, actually even a little further than me, had to ask me to slow down and take a rest a few times while going, told me about her son who “is coming late, so she didnt want to wait for him”, that she “was hungry at home because she all her food and thats why decided to go shopping”, that she is “very tired, because she hasnt been going this way out for a while”… Even in two it was not easy pushing the unstable cart on the stone paved side walks. And when we have been only behind the corner from the place she said she lived, she asked for a rest… And started to fade away… She was leaning on the cart handle, eyes closing, hands loosing grip, knees slightly bending. She said she is just very very tired, was yawning, looking like she will faint. I picked her up and sat her on the ground with beck to the wall. Only when I started to dial the ambulance did she wake up and shown some ability to get home. But her ability to walk was close to zero, just slowly moving feet, to tell the truth I was not sure if she is ok (if thats possible in this situation). So I had no other choice just to pick her up and like a baby bring her to her door, sit her down on the stairs, unlock the door, carry her to ther door and let her enter. She asked me to bring the cart in the flat – cause “last time someone stole it”, but the shit was damn heavy. So in a spark of genius I asked if I can take it to tesco on my own, right agead.

She agreed, let me take that stupid piece of metal away and invited me for coffee any time I feel like… I feel like going to check up on her these days and making sure that she is ok… Coming over repeatedly and making her shoping… She was so vulnerable, lost, repeating herself without noticing… If I hadnt brought her home she would just stay somewhere and fall asleep.

I drunk a bottle of beer, ate a big bar of chocolate and went to sleep thinking how weird this city can be.

2. Location update: I am in Slovakia. I came from Ghana in August, in August went to Cairo/Egypt for a week to see the wedding of Gannat Akef and use the chance to see Cairo and the White and Black Desert (www.picasaweb.google.com/klepo.egypt), in September I went for a week to Krakow/Poland and Lvov/Ukraine just to see Mia/Ania/chatbuddy and now I am again home in Vrutky/Martin/Slovakia looking for job or a suitable TN in HR in Europe

3. Today I walked through fog and wind on the top of a mountain above my town, it was so windy that even the deers could hear me I have faced a 2m tall male from like 10m and actually came as close as 4m to a pair of females! In both cases I just came from behind a fog covered curve and stood there staring at these beautiful animals. Sadly they always run away before I could take a picture But I took pictures of the foggy hill, will post tomorrow.

And yeah, I promise to revive my blog… actually even plan to add articles about what was going on with me in the whole last 8 months…

Exactly… I am bored

catching the balls

girls and me on the ride

Starting from Accra by bus/car going to Akosombo – a small town first built to provide living space for the the workers building this amazing dam and later becoming a tourist spot. Akosombo dam is THE biggest man-made lakes in the world. It covers 3.6% of the land of Ghana. A friend of ours (Ghana-born Indian ) took me, Heleni, Jorien and Isabella for a ride on his boat across the lake – damn cool stuff His company is producing plastic stuff and everytime he comes he brings a bag of one of his products – a childs toy plastic ball that he throws in water for the kids from the fishing village to pick. Its a real fun sight as not just kids but whole village gets on boats and makes a race of who gets the most with those still on shore cheering for them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akosombo_Dam

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Next is the time to climb Highest Mountain of Ghana – Mount Afadjato – with amazing 88O m

slovak posing on top of Ghana

Slovakia vs Ghana

It sounds like an easy thing to do but in the heat and humidity its a real torture and getting to the top not being covered with sweat is impossible. The view is great to Ghana on one side and Togo on the other. Add to it the walk through jungle and the cool signpost on the top and you have a very good reason why to do the climb.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Afadjato

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And the third is the most amazing part of the trip and actually one of the best things to do in Ghana – take a shower under a 60 m tall shower – the Wli waterfalls. Its a two level waterfall that is very easy to reach from the village of Hohoe by foot, first you get to the lower stage with a beautiful lake and waterfall and hundreds of fruit hanging on the walls above you and than those who feel like can climb to the upper level (some 1,5 hr hike up the hill through jungle), where you find another lake and a waterfall that you can partly climb (trying at least to climb the rocks while the water is falling on you from the sky). This was the only time in Ghana we actually felt cold because the water was chilly and air too. The water was actually coming from Togo

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=105563

1) a small boy, that I once invited for food and once for cinema – telling me he “needs school schoes that cost 7 USD”;

2) my colleague – telling me that if somebody calls and asks about the result of his interview that was few months ago, he wont tell him the obvious thing – that the guy didnt get the job (a person is employed in 99% within 1 month after interview)… reason? I wasnt here so I wont tell him anything. After 10 minutes of arguying I realized that he is just absolutely stuck on this, accepted it, decided to not assign him any tasks that are connected with a past and wished him in my mind luck with being Recruitment Officer (becasue with this kind of approach – not taking responsibility for anything that happened before you joined – will not allow him to be a Recruitment Manager).

3) my colleague – I make her very busy, she makes calls on my behalf to job applicants, so I started to be friendly with her and tried to support her, even brought her a chocolate in a half-joke once… Now when she saw me with chocolate from home (Slovakia), she wants one. And not half, but a full one, and not tomorrow, but today. I have not given any of it to anybody till now, I actually have not even eaten nearly any of it on my own. But she wants one. I gave her a piece of a 100g bar (because I have no smaller), she got offerended (of course still with a smile on her face) and put it aside and said “Its okay” (understand: “Its NOT okay”).

4) job applicants – I made the mistake to give some of them my number as I needed some information from them, now some of those dumbasses call me up at random times, Sunday 5.45 am, Wednestay 7.30 am, Thursday 10.30 pm, Saturday 10.00 am…. Outside of my working hours – LEAVE ME ALONE!

5) a seller of eggsandwiches – she sells close to the cinema where I go like once a week, she was really friendly, making jokes and sharing stories. But after a while I realized that her stories often dont make sense and that I am not getting their point and that more and more often she is mentioning the fact that she doesnt have a cellphone and wants to call her friend in UK who is driving a bus there and is called Christine and who is thinking about moving to Australia and blah blah.

6) and there is one that I can share only with close friends

I always thought of myself as a friendly and easy to connect to person… and that its nations like Germany or those, that people get annoyed with the amount of “contact” with people – its actually exposure to their attention and affection. But here also I am starting to be annoyed, its fun for some time, but sometimes I just wish they would leave me alone.

I guess I will enjoy going to the beach before dusk more often, sadly also there will be people who will say “now that we are friends, can I have your number?”

No worries about me, and please also no offence, but I guess I am still in the second phase of cultural integration (1. excitement, 2. annoyment, 3. acceptance, 4. accommodation or assimilation)

Right now I wish deeply to be somewhere out in the nature, away from people, and take pleasure in getting physically tired with a simple goal – walk in a direction the whole day, go to sleep, and after awakening continue in the same direction.

When the body beats the brain, when sharpness of mind can not help the fact that its your feet tht have to carry you on and on, when you feel away from people and in the middle of real world, that is the kind of beauty that you will always remember.

After being to dozen countries, those 6 days when I just walked are much harder to believe than me standing at the foot of Nanga Parbat, me hopping of a train in a small town in the middle of a desert or me sitting under palm trees on a beach in Africa. 

This feeling makes me play with the decision to end this internship in June 2009 (making it only 9 months long) or maybe stay longer or go somewhere else, so that I arrive to Slovakia before summer 2009 or 2010 and than spend another at least a month just walking and walking… Maybe its time to go East to West, and maybe not stop on the border…

Its sad that I cant walk or cycle in Africa, its too hot….

First, “who is Salius” – a Lithuanian guy who is in Ghana for the last 3 years

Second, “what is the title about” – its playing with “Simon says” game

Third, “wtf??? You have malaria??? Are you still alive? Flying home right?” – malaria that the f*** / Yes / Yes / No

Ok, so what is malaria…?

me: some sickness which makes You feel like You are in the worst hangover, except that You dont puke but shit a river (at least there is something left in the stomach and after). You get it from those damn mosquitos that fly here everywhere and that I am systematically killing (with pleasure and a feeling satisfied hunter) every day/evening. You need to take pills or You will feel shitty even longer. There is no vaccination, You can only eat pills so You dont take malaria, because than You would have to take pills (exactly… You take pills for weeks to avoid pills for some few bad days).

wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria

How did I get it?

I caught a mosquito and sucked his inside…  :P  It bit me, what else?

How am I feeling?

Now I am good, but as soon as I get late with the pills by some hours I still get a headache.

So how to know You have malaria?

Go to doctor. But basically: You feel dried up, mouth feels like You liked dried shit in terms of it beeing full dry and bad taste. This even a minute after drinking. You dont feel like eating and all food tastes bad. You have a high temperature that sometimes switches to cold skin. You have headache, pains behing eyes, in shoulders and hips. You feel dizzy and are not too good in keeping balance. Your mind and body is slow, sometimes You feel like a puppet on strings. You feel like sleeping all the time, but cant stay sleeping – wake up every few minutes and feel like You slept a lot but still feel tired. In my case I had slightly halucinative dreams involving a huge number of pillows in my bed and me mindcontrolling electric wiring in the house by “growing” into the network.

What is the Salius guy about?

I was at a friends house, still thinking I just got food poisoned, I lay down and take a nap. When I wake up Salius is in and he shakes my hand…. And while doing so says: “You have malaria, right!?”. Thats when I realized I have fever and now have all symptoms of malaria (I had 39 C). He took me to the hospital where I got some drugs and started to get better.

Is it fun?

Well its like getting food poisoned in Karachi… You dont get it – You are lucky… Come and try on Your own.

The CEO and HR Head were trying to find a new Recruitment Services Coordinator, but none of the people interviewed did fit them in terms of wage, experience, attitude or whatever else. So they got insted a guy with limited experience but ability to learn and put him on my place… But what to do with me? Well there is a chair free

So yeah, so now I can call myself boss… Not that it would matter much, wage the same (and I am all fine with how much I get) and chair too. What matters is that now there is two of us so we can handle more work, where I am the more experienced (I did recruit for more than 2 years) so its also my job to keep the other guy busy and interested… Works till now pretty ok.

So yeah, life is good

One movie costs 0.5 USD and they mostly play two per night, with the first being the main and second any random rerun or really old movie.

And they play the crappest movies ever… in the good and bad sense

Monday – Indian, Tuesday – US Action, Wednesday - any action, Thursday – Chinese Kung-Fu movies, Friday - Indian, Saturday – any action, Sunday – “stories”. 

The best I saw there till now: The Way of the Dragon (Bruce Lee), Men of War (Dolf Lungren), Escape from LA (Kurt Russel), Don, 

The worst I saw there till now: Naked Weapon, 7 steps of Kung-fu, Dhoom…

And on the way back home, carefully avoiding the holes in roads, I stop for an egg sandwich which has finally enough spice to get close to the pakistani food I am missing.

Yesterday my direct boss, head of Recruitment, resigned.

Which leaves a total of one person in Recruitment (me) and one as the boss (head of whole HR).

Today I have been given her JD to post around and screen potential applicants

But from my experience of the last weeks, the fact that I am doing interviews at least twice a week is not going to change, so yahooooooo, back to work…

For those interested in what I actually do I am preparing a rather daily update on my job-achievements (thank YOU for the inspiration) so You get the image of what am I earning my living from

Hola, good night for today!

Those who know my Laptop know it was named Mua’d Dib…

Those who know the status it was in for the last months (fixed with sticky tape and being slower and slower) will most probably not be surprised to find out that….

….he is dead

Like no beep, no light nothing, peace of plastic and metal now. Mua’d Dib rests now on the bottom of my schelf waiting for a decision on what do I do with him…

…I am so glad that like week before (after the keyboard went crazy) I copied all my data on a portable USB drive!

You were my true mate…. Pakistan, India, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, Poland, Romania… through hills, forests and deserts …. to school and work and for pleasure. Boy, if you drunk beer I would call You a best friend, but You didnt (well once You drunk some water but that doesnt count)….

I will miss You…

• In morning all roads are clugged because everybody goes to work
• On midday all roads are clugged because everybody goes for lunch
• At afternoon all roads are clugged because everybody goes home