December 31, 2016
December 30, 2016
Weirdest and funniest things
Here are some of the weirdest things I have ever done:
- Travelled across Europe by sea, land and air, when the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010. I had to get home, from place A to place B. Had to. And I got there.
- Linked to the above; spent a night at Athens Airport sleeping rough. Me and my backpack. On the following day I checked into the hotel and after lunch I collapsed in bed and never got to enjoy the luxury facilities the hotel had to offer.
- Visited the Abney Park cemetery in London several years ago and took photos of the graves. Now, I'm not sure that's appropriate, but anyways..
- When I was in college I had a fight with my brother: I ended up with a black eye and had people giving me funny looks on the following day.
- Visited Pripyat and Chernobyl in summer 2016. That's extreme, if anything.
- Had my appendix removed many many years ago and the sutures were supposed to have been "absorbable". Several weeks ago I felt something "sharp" and pulled out about 5" of a suture material. The wound did not open, much to my relief.
- Caught a salmonella bug in South Dakota and began to feel really and truly unwell in a public transport. Proceeded to vomit all over the place..
- While at work one summer, I must have randomly pressed some random keys in the keyboard and the system started printing pages and pages of some stats. I called the IT and thanks to them and "Control-C or B or V" the printing stopped, but I had to hide the evidence.
- Baltic Sea cruise: I must have had one too many, combined with seasickness, I ended up laying on the dancefloor and I can't remember how I ended up there. Later in the cabin, my friend and I were violently ill and woke up in the morning with a smell of ... vomit. Yuck!
- Bought a pair of bright red designer shoes (no need to mention the price tho..) and made a mistake of wearing them outdoors. Before I knew it, my ankle twisted real bad and I fell.. right on a busy road. My ankle and pride were hurt. The shoes.. their story came into an abrupt end. 7" heels, never again.
- After riding my horse few years ago, I rode back to the stable, dismounted.. or so I had planned: my shirt got caught in the Western saddle horn and I was half way down, still stuck in the saddle (horn). My weight combined with the earth's gravity and a desperate attempt to pull myself free caused most of the shirt buttons fly all over the place across the stable yard. Just a few buttons were left and I wore the body protector for the rest of the evening. Since then I have learned how to dismount correctly.
- Once when walking home I thought I'd take a shortcut across the parking. One of the cars had had an oil leak or whatever that black stuff on the ground was: I slipped and fell, and all the groceries in my bag rolled across the parking lot: cans of Coke, pineapple, oranges etc. LOL. I did not get hurt.
- I was cleaning (read: trying to unblock) the kitchen sink in my old house. I poured the contents of a drain opener powder into the sink, left it there (read:forgot) for quite a while. When I came back, I poured boiling water into the sink and the mix of caustic soda and boiling water exploded. There were burns in my head, eyes, hands and some damage to the kitchen cabinets. Thankfully I managed to rinse some of that stuff off, called my friend, who took me to hospital for a grueling two hour eye rinse procedure using Morgan lenses. By then my eyesight was not great and afterward I realized how lucky I was that I did not lose my eyesight completely. In fact it actually got better, but this is no way to improve anyone's eyesight. I was so drugged up at the end of the procedure that I can't remember much. My friend took photos of me and the Morgan lenses and it was not a pretty sight. My advice: don't do it. Ever.
- Once I fell off of a horse at the very end of a riding lesson in South London. A big brown horse. An ambulance had to be called and I was taken to the very same hospital where I worked. Cool.. Not. Embarrassing.. Yes.
- During a presentation not long ago once I began to feel sick.. a form of diarrhea. I managed to get to the end of the presentation and left quickly. Not quick enough. I spent what seemed like hours in the restroom washing my trousers, but my underwear was beyond help and I had to discard them. A day without underwear is like no chocolate treat on Sunday, when you have been waiting for it all week.
- Once in London I got confused of the direction of the traffic. I saw my bus coming, jumped in, and ended up traveling less than a minute when the bus reached it's final destination.
- Again in London, after a yoga class in Central London, I took the underground train home, fell asleep and woke up somewhere in Zone 6 (Zone 2 was where I was supposed to have been heading).
- When I was flying to London from an unnamed airport, I nearly missed my flight and had to literally run to the right gate. There was another airline departing to London same day and time, and I had been waiting at the wrong gate. During the flight I messed up the aircraft toilet, because of a nosebleed.
- Travelled across Europe by sea, land and air, when the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010. I had to get home, from place A to place B. Had to. And I got there.
- Linked to the above; spent a night at Athens Airport sleeping rough. Me and my backpack. On the following day I checked into the hotel and after lunch I collapsed in bed and never got to enjoy the luxury facilities the hotel had to offer.
- Visited the Abney Park cemetery in London several years ago and took photos of the graves. Now, I'm not sure that's appropriate, but anyways..
- When I was in college I had a fight with my brother: I ended up with a black eye and had people giving me funny looks on the following day.
- Visited Pripyat and Chernobyl in summer 2016. That's extreme, if anything.
- Had my appendix removed many many years ago and the sutures were supposed to have been "absorbable". Several weeks ago I felt something "sharp" and pulled out about 5" of a suture material. The wound did not open, much to my relief.
- Caught a salmonella bug in South Dakota and began to feel really and truly unwell in a public transport. Proceeded to vomit all over the place..
- While at work one summer, I must have randomly pressed some random keys in the keyboard and the system started printing pages and pages of some stats. I called the IT and thanks to them and "Control-C or B or V" the printing stopped, but I had to hide the evidence.
- Baltic Sea cruise: I must have had one too many, combined with seasickness, I ended up laying on the dancefloor and I can't remember how I ended up there. Later in the cabin, my friend and I were violently ill and woke up in the morning with a smell of ... vomit. Yuck!
- Bought a pair of bright red designer shoes (no need to mention the price tho..) and made a mistake of wearing them outdoors. Before I knew it, my ankle twisted real bad and I fell.. right on a busy road. My ankle and pride were hurt. The shoes.. their story came into an abrupt end. 7" heels, never again.
- After riding my horse few years ago, I rode back to the stable, dismounted.. or so I had planned: my shirt got caught in the Western saddle horn and I was half way down, still stuck in the saddle (horn). My weight combined with the earth's gravity and a desperate attempt to pull myself free caused most of the shirt buttons fly all over the place across the stable yard. Just a few buttons were left and I wore the body protector for the rest of the evening. Since then I have learned how to dismount correctly.
- Once when walking home I thought I'd take a shortcut across the parking. One of the cars had had an oil leak or whatever that black stuff on the ground was: I slipped and fell, and all the groceries in my bag rolled across the parking lot: cans of Coke, pineapple, oranges etc. LOL. I did not get hurt.
- I was cleaning (read: trying to unblock) the kitchen sink in my old house. I poured the contents of a drain opener powder into the sink, left it there (read:forgot) for quite a while. When I came back, I poured boiling water into the sink and the mix of caustic soda and boiling water exploded. There were burns in my head, eyes, hands and some damage to the kitchen cabinets. Thankfully I managed to rinse some of that stuff off, called my friend, who took me to hospital for a grueling two hour eye rinse procedure using Morgan lenses. By then my eyesight was not great and afterward I realized how lucky I was that I did not lose my eyesight completely. In fact it actually got better, but this is no way to improve anyone's eyesight. I was so drugged up at the end of the procedure that I can't remember much. My friend took photos of me and the Morgan lenses and it was not a pretty sight. My advice: don't do it. Ever.
- Once I fell off of a horse at the very end of a riding lesson in South London. A big brown horse. An ambulance had to be called and I was taken to the very same hospital where I worked. Cool.. Not. Embarrassing.. Yes.
- During a presentation not long ago once I began to feel sick.. a form of diarrhea. I managed to get to the end of the presentation and left quickly. Not quick enough. I spent what seemed like hours in the restroom washing my trousers, but my underwear was beyond help and I had to discard them. A day without underwear is like no chocolate treat on Sunday, when you have been waiting for it all week.
- Once in London I got confused of the direction of the traffic. I saw my bus coming, jumped in, and ended up traveling less than a minute when the bus reached it's final destination.
- Again in London, after a yoga class in Central London, I took the underground train home, fell asleep and woke up somewhere in Zone 6 (Zone 2 was where I was supposed to have been heading).
- When I was flying to London from an unnamed airport, I nearly missed my flight and had to literally run to the right gate. There was another airline departing to London same day and time, and I had been waiting at the wrong gate. During the flight I messed up the aircraft toilet, because of a nosebleed.
December 29, 2016
A vandalized car
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| On Saturday 24 Dec I discovered that my car had been repainted. Just in time for Christmas. |
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| I have no idea what this stuff is (a mix of paint, thinner, acid, oil..?) |
 |
| Those people who did this must be so awfully proud of themselves right now. Yeah, let's celebrate. |
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| Deliberate? Yes, even the police thinks so. I hope the vandals experience the same one day. Only then they would know how it feels. |
November 19, 2016
Drive carefully
I
was riding my horse out in the desert in the one afternoon just at sunset time last week . We were just approaching the fence that surrounds the area, when a driver in a black Hyundai sedan drove past, way faster than the speed limit. He probably did not see me and the horse, because he were in a hurry, well above the speed limit (I just said it, didn't I?) and the
car engine and gear box sounded like they are about to give up. Solution: drive slower or get a car with more powerful engine. I wasn't really thinking about that poor car at the time, but right now I think that car's lifespan may not be very long...
My horse got spooked (and so did I), but I managed to keep her walking for another five
minutes. Then she started to speed up, trotting sideways, shaking her
head and because I didn't want to fall off I had to dismount and walk
back to the stable.
In
all fairness, there are no cameras watching over that part
of the road, so 90% of the drivers conveniently forget about the speed
limit. I think someone should be made aware of the lack of observing
speed limits in the camp and ask them to install more cameras.
I
worked hard to be able to ride my horse out of the arena and the last few
rides have been quite pleasant, however that ride last week ride really began to
destroy my self-confidence again. I will take more lessons and next time
I head out, I hope there won't be any race drivers
around.For your own sake, I hope you were wearing a seat belt. For your sake, I hope a police catches you next time before you injure other road users.
 |
| The horse disapproves speeding. |
November 12, 2016
Buildings in Chernobyl and Pripyat
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| A building in Chernobyl |
 |
| A building in Pripyat |
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| Somewhere near Duga |
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| A stadium in Pripyat |
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| Kindergarten |
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| in Pripyat |
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| Kindergarten in Kopachi |
 |
| ChNNP |
Dark tourism
When beach holidays, sightseeing tours in a bus with a guide, package tour with a full board aren't enough, what to do then? A DIY vacation. Go to a place where your neighbor and work colleagues never go. Visit Chernobyl, Pripyat and other areas. Some people call it "dark tourism" or "extreme" to say the least, but to me it was something unique. Something that can't be explained to anyone else, because just 1/10 people would ever understand why I need to go to a place like that. At times I felt some parts of the tour were "staged", but still there are so many other interesting, weird and creepy things to see, so who cares if it staged or not?
Silence.It was something that I did not expect, because the world has sounds, people, animals, airplanes and birds in the sky, traffic, TV, radio, cellphone networks and towns and cities. There was nothing like that in Pripyat. An eerie silence. In some places I heard my own heartbeat, nothing else and the sound of your own footsteps on a gravel road. All those empty buildings and streets, and still expecting that a group of people would appear out of nowhere and the world would be the same. No faces in the windows- not even zombies.
The nature has taken over. There is more greenery than signs of civilization. I did not see wildlife, but I saw the people: those who are working in the Exclusion Zone and of course my fellow tour group members. If all of them were gone, I would have thought I am the only one left in the world. I would have reached a dead end. At the same time I wondered if it was safe to spend a night in Pripyat? Probably not a good idea. If the radiation did not get you, then maybe a lone wolf or a collapsing building? Or maybe it would be just like any other night in your own bed? Who knows? I don't think I'm going to try.
In February, God willing I will return just one more time. Winter in the area is beautiful.
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