Tobogan / blog

How are you? Still the same, most of us work from home. And then we take turns. Meetings are still online, so we already know home offices of all our colleagues. The company-wide meeting and educational marathon known as Big Monday (but held on Tuesdays) has also moved online. There was also a Christmas get-together, but, let's face it - it's much nicer live. Management has completed meetings with customer and production teams on the 2021 plan. And in rhythm - two meetings a day. After a short break, work began again on the development of CATHY - a category management tool. On New Year's greetings we have a playful director in Indian colors. Marketing said that people will surely remember that. We succeeded in this terrible year and the director is happy. Howgh.

Welcome to Anglický Tobogan, nebo Mikulášský Tobogan. Svatý Mikuláš in English is Saint Nicholas, which became Santa Claus, so basically they’re the same guy. So I think we can safely say that Mikuláš is the official start of the Christmas season. Yay! And to mark the beginning of the Christmas season at NAR we got the traditional NAR Christmas tree, this year bigger than ever! FOTO. Barča and Janička finished decorating this monster at 9:30pm on Thursday night, with the help of a few glasses of víno, and here it is: FOTO. They also set up the traditional Christmas shopping line, this year with the all new innovative numbering system :-) The top secret work was all going on behind closed doors, so nobody knows what they are going to get, no, no way: FOTO. In further Mikulášský news, Ivanka was enjoying the Mikulášský snow on Velký Javorník: FOTO a FOTO; Daniela and Adélka were doing Mikulášský stuff: FOTO; and Maruška was doing Mikulášský stuff: FOTO a FOTO. Peter Mikuláš and his daughters are doing something called postcrossing, and got some postcards from Japan and France: FOTO. I wonder if they celebrate Mikuláš there? It was my birthday again, so on Monday I got my usual stash of booze: FOTO, and treated my colleagues to my lovely home-made biscuits :-) FOTO. As for the weekend, the Kaplans spent some time with friends “na chalupě ve valašských kopcích” - FOTO, FOTO a FOTO and on Sunday went to the gospel show: FOTO. I did my usual weekend stuff. Saturday was Mikulášský běh in Martinov: FOTO (2nd place in the old man’s category). Sunday was Lysa Cup, jako vždy, but this time I met a hairy man in a kilt, and he wasn’t Scottish! FOTO a FOTO. Meanwhile Jana flew off to England, and sent me these photos from London... Australian beer - FOTO... American milkshake - FOTO... and a Dutch bridge - FOTO... At least the telephone box and Windsor Castle are proper English :-) FOTO. Happy Mikuláš!!! Malcolm

As usual, I got a bad week for Toboggan. It was the shortest working week of the year, and half of the company were away on holiday, while many of the rest of us were recovering from our weekend in Slovenia. Here, a week or so later, is a memento of our rafting experience. On Monday we congratulated Martin Mikušec on his birthday which had taken place on Saturday, and he provided us all with some tasty treats. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos. On Tuesday I counted only twenty of us in the office, which was a pity since it was Petr Donath’s birthday, and his wife Ester had provided us with a boundless feast of homemade delights: FOTO. Oh, and in the evening England won a football match. On Wednesday there were still only twenty-odd people in the office, but there was still plenty of food left: FOTO. Radek and his family came back from Egypt where he and his boys had been enjoying the sights and cheering on their favourites in the World Cup (England and Croatia, of course!): FOTO and FOTO;&nbspThursday was Saints Cyril and Methodius’ Day and the first day of a long weekend (for most of us). ;&nbspFriday was Jan Hus Day and the second day of a long weekend (for most of us). Jirka and his family spent an enjoyable four days at an Aqua Park in Budapest: FOTO and then a few more days in the High Tatras, here on a summer toboggan :-) FOTO. On Saturday I ran in Městský běh Karvinou at the same time as England were playing Sweden. Running was less stressful than watching the football! My only problem was that I had broken my glasses so I was running like a blind man :-). Of course both Croatia and England won their football matches, and will play each other this Wednesday evening. Who is Radek going to support now? :-) MJC

Today, Monday the fifteenth of January, the third Monday in the year, is, unofficially, the most depressing day of the year. It’s become known as Blue Monday. Christmas and the New Year celebrations are but a distant memory; the decorations are down; the Christmas market has packed up and left. It’s cold and it’s dull and it’s grey. What’s more, we spent all our money on Christmas presents, booze and fireworks, and are now waiting impatiently for our next pay packet. We’ve given up drinking; we’ve given up smoking; we’ve promised ourselves to exercise regularly. Now we’ve realised this is reality. Spring and Easter are the light at the end of a very long tunnel, and winter hasn’t even started properly yet. I can also announce that last week, the second week of 2018, was literally the most boring week ever, at least for the people of NAR. Nothing happened. Well, not much happened. I know this because I only got one email for toboggan, and no photographs. So thank you Mr Jiří Špalek. On__Monday__ we welcomed in the New Year at NAR in the traditional way, with a glass of bubbly (or not, for those of us who have forsaken the demon drink) while Mr Kaplan said a few words. I have no photograph of this event, but as most of you were there, you can picture it in your mind’s eye. Tom and Jirka went to the pub in the evening – and that’s as exciting as it gets this week! On Tuesday nothing happened. On Wednesday nothing happened. On Thursday nothing happened. On Friday something might have happened, but I don’t know because I wasn’t here. I know that our Zlín student cadre were busy doing their mid-term exams, so I hope they were all successful. Oh, and of course there were the Czech Presidential elections, so I hope you all exercised your democratic right to vote. What about the weekend? As befits the weekend before the most depressing day of the year, nothing happened, except Jirka went to the theatre with his wife for her birthday and to the cinema with his wife and kids. As for me, I ran up Lysa hora on Sunday morning, but as I do this every weekend this is nothing unusual. However, I can report that when I got to the top of the mountain, above the clouds, the sky was blue and life didn’t seem so depressing after all :-). MJC

Welcome to English Toboggan VI a.k.a. Tuesday Toboggan. I’m making no excuses, but I spent most of today travelling back from Berlin, where I spent the weekend without my laptop, so I’m doing this at 23:45 on a Monday night. Don’t expect War and Peace.  Monday: The first international PROEBIZ beach volleyball game took place on Masaryk Square with Andy, Juraj, Jan C, Matej and Igor M. Besides this I have no other details other than it was great! Unfortunately there are no photos, but I’m sure they all looked fab! Jirka Š and family moved into his parents’ house for the week as security guards while they were away at a spa.  Tuesday: JŠ left Ostrava on 5am for Bratislava, having four meetings during the day and another with a partner in the evening.  Wednesday: JŠ had his first teleconference about price. It was very tough, but the result was that we have a big new Slovak client. So, great result!  Thursday: JŠ had a busy day (as always) because it was the last day before his holidays. It included a videoconference between various PROEBIZERS where it seems that Petr Donath has either moved to Australia or decided to become a bat: PHOTO. The PROEBIZ PR & Marketing ‘B’ team were in lovely Košice for the WIRE 2017 conference (Week of innovative Regions in Europe) seeking out people of potential interest for eBF and beyond. Several useful contacts were made: PHOTO, PHOTO and PHOTO.  Friday: While everybody was wilting in the heat, Danka finally found herself in her element. Adélka missed the last week of school through illness, but they made it there on Friday to pick up her report and celebrated her straight ‘A’s with the traditional nice meal and in the afternoon they went to the Catalan carnival in Ostrava: PHOTO, PHOTO.  The weekend: On Saturday, JŠ and family had an enjoyable time watching Ja Padouch 3 (Despicable Me 3) at the cinema. Igor M. spent a brilliant, relaxing and fun weekend in Krakow: PHOTO, PHOTO and PHOTO. As I said at the start, I spent the weekend in Berlin. The part we were staying in was more like Damascus than Germany, but none the worse for that. On Sunday night we went to see Arcade Fire, who were fabulous. The only annoying thing was queuing for 90 minutes to see a concert that lasted less than two hours: PHOTO, PHOTO and video.