Maree('s) Muses

Recently I have had a chance to take a couple days off work and actually leave my very lovely but very busy home town. Me and my sister enjoyed a winter mini-break and a much needed change of scenery, visiting a small town in Southern Bohemia, where our grandparents used to live. Here, for your viewing pleasure, is a frosty photo-heavy blog post. Nedávno se mi poštěstilo vzít si na pár dní volno z práce a dokonce opustit moje překrásné, ale hlučné rodné město. Vyrazila jsem se svojí sestrou a užily jsme si zimní prodloužený víkend v městečku v jižních Čechách, kde dřív žili naši prarodiče. Zde, pro potěšení vašich očí, je příspěvek, plný zamrzlých fotografií.  I tried to find balance between time spent outside and resting in the warm cosiness of the apartment where we were staying, and I think it all turned out rather lovely and relaxing. 10 point to Gryffindor/your respective house, if you can recognize where we were:   Snažila jsem se najít rovnováhu mezi tráv...

Hello hello, this is an introductory post to a short series on how I took up a new (but not so new) hobby and it made me feel and think differently. I thought perhaps some of you people out there might find interesting or perhaps even inspiring, so I’m going to share the story. But before I get to the point, I want start in a wider perspective and lay out something for you to consider. Zdravíčko, toto je úvodní článek ke krátkému seriálu o tom, jak jsem začala s novým (ačkoli ne až tak novým) koníčkem a jak to změnilo moje pocity a mé myšlení. Napadlo mě, že by to mohlo některé z vás zajímat, či snad dokonce inspirovat, a tak se o ten malý příběh podělím. Ale než se dostanu k jádru věci, chtěla bych začít z trochu zeširoka a předložit vám něco k uvážení. The positive effects of physical exercise on mental health have been well documented. The internet is full of articles about this phenomenon. Everybody knows it: Exercise makes you feel better, apparently. Similarly, we al...

Let's keep the bilingual party rolling!  Pokračujeme v dvojjazyčné krasojízdě! What happened in 2016 I read more books than the year before. I travelled. 4 short trips to Germany (Interesting. How did that happen to me?), 1 to London. I did a looooot of culture. A grand total of 24 events including music, film and theatre <3 I had a down in the dumps depressed summer I did not have a proper holiday. As in a prolonged period of time off work, when I travel somewhere else and do something completely different. My heart has been going though things... I gained a new interest in Operation Anthropoid (yes, thanks to the movie) and that particular era of our history, so I began a journey to a hopefully better and deeper understanding of certain aspects of my nation’s heritage. Work was… what work is, I suppose. Sometimes turbulent, painful, or mind numbingly drilling… Other times exciting, interesting, challenging, occasionally even rewarding. Co se stalo v...

We all run into those idiots in our lives, don’t we? Každý občas narazíme na nějakého blbce, že ano? For example yesterday: First day of work after the holidays, new year, new start, I arrive to work fresh and rested (haha. But definitely more so than before Christmas), eager to get into the giant pile of things I need to get done. When out the blue *TU DU DUUUUUN*  I get a phone call from an idiot, who had nothing better to do on this fine and optimistic morning than to pointlessly shout at me on the phone, because apparently I’m useless. Happy New Year to you too, sir. I don’t care that he’s an idiot incapable of understanding how much work I have, but he caught me unprepared and in the moment I didn’t have the right words and feistiness to stand up to him. That I hated the most. That I allowed him to be mean to me. And the whole thing dampened my whole morning and killed the good mood I had when I got up. Tak například včera: První pracovní den po svátcích, nový ...

About 6:30 am. I had to go to work an hour early that day. And it turned out to be lovely. Hello, hello! Long time no see, I know. Let's not dwell on that. Let's enjoy that for once in a century I have something worth sharing with the internet and here it is: I don't recall this ever happening to me before, but recently my nose has been very perceptive and it seems to affect my mood or appreciation of a certain place, a situation, etc. It might seem rather peculiar, but here is a list of interesting smells that caught my... er... nose... last month. Rabbits. A couple of hudreds pure-bred animals ranging from dwarfs to giants. Sometimes a slightly aggresive stench attacking your nostrils, but the fluffy bastards are so cute!  Sunlight . The early September heatwave. I love these late summer/early autumn warm days :) And the smell of long and dry grass, bushes and trees roasting in the constant, almost deadly, supply of sunrays. The poor plants, all scorched and...

I'm thinking... of "rebranding". Renaming and redisigning this whole thing. But I cannot come up with a suitable name that I would be happy with. I need to be happy with it. Otherwise I will get tired of it in 3 years. about all the Music Monthly's I had not written, even though I still take careful note of all my favourite songs each month. about what kind of wallpaper I should buy for the bed corner of my room. a lot of negative and bad thoughts. I don't like them, but I cannot stop them. of sharing my mental health struggles on the newly reborn blog, but I'm not sure anybody is interested in reading about how a girl in Prague is depressed. that unless I change something, I am headed towards being the crazy single auntie. Probably owning cats or other pet animals. Parrots or canaries are a cute option too. the lot of challenges ahead of me (at work and such...) and the lack of holiday before and after them. a monthly film club I would like to do wi...

In case you have not seen it yet, let me direct your attention to a movie trailer that keeps me alive these days. We're in 1942, Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The name of the film refers to Operation Anthropoid, which was the code name given to a resistance plot to assasinate Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich. Based on true events. Our heroes are real historical figures Josef Gabčík (Cillian Murphy) and Jan Kubiš (Jamie Dornan), Czechoslovakian soldiers trained in British exile to carry out this mission. Why is this exciting? Because it's an important story worth telling, an important moment in our history that is worth sharing, not only because it proved to have such massive and tragic consequences. So far, the prevailing mood among the Czechs concerning the movie is somewhat reserved, I would say. We are half excited and curious, half worried that "the foreigners" have butchered our history into a Hollywood flick. The trailer, however, looks promisi...