Tobogan / blog

Kako ste? I dalje isto, većina nas radi od doma. I onda se izmjenjujemo. Sastanci su i dalje on-line pa već sada (pre)poznajemo urede od doma svih naših kolega. Sastanak i edukativni maraton za cijelu firmu poznat kao Veliki ponedjeljak (ali koje se održava utorkom) također se preselio on-line. Isto tako je bilo i božićno druženje, ali, priznajemo - uživo je to puno ljepše. Menadžment je dovršio sastanke s klijentskim i proizvodnim timovima o planu za 2021. godinu. I to u ritmu - dva sastanka na dan. Nakon kratke pauze, opet je počeo rad na razvoju CATHY - alatu za category management. Na novogodišnjim čestitkama imamo razigranog direktora u indijanskim bojama. Marketing je rekao da će to ljudi sigurno zapamtiti. Uspjeli smo u ovoj strašnoj godini i direktor je sretan. 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

Isto kako je i panika oko eBF došla, tako je ibrzo i nestala. Svatko ganja s tim s čim kasni, ali ne svi baš uspješno. Umjesto odmora se gromovito brzo bliži Božić, a s njim raznovrsno ukrašavanje prozora, terasa, balkona, vrtova, krovova i kućnih ljubimaca, pečenje kolača, izrada adventnih vijenaca i kao glavno Djed Mraz. Istina je, da će večina samo otresti prašinu sa starih vijenaca i napiknuti nove svijeće. I ovako se nitko ne sjeća kako je izgledao prošle godine. Ti malčiće detaljniji će onda kao kamuflažu promjeniti boju svjećica. Na kraju tjedna nam je i pao prvi snijeg. Jedina mogući užitak je bilo čišćenje auta, što se je na kraju pokazalo kao dosadno i kontraproduktivno. Proveo sam 15 minuta čišteći a i onako za 15 minuta mu više nije bilo ni traga. Neki poput Lukaša Z. su počeli božićno čišćenje. Ukoliko želite znati razliku između božićnog i onog običnog, razlika ne postoji. Taman si uz božićno napravite punč i odmah je ljepše, božićna atmosfera. Kad već spominjemo Božić, ne mogu si dozovliti da zaboravim na tu umjetno „savršenstvo“ na trgu. Do sada nisam znao da i sa umjetne jelke može opadati. Ostravski zrak očito ne paše ni njoj FOTO. Ni manje ni više, bilo je dovoljno ljepilo i selotejp i sve iglice su bile nazad. Gospodin na trgu je rekao kako se prema njoj odnosi kao i prema prirodnoj, na što je izvadio zavarivač i bacio se na posao. Nakon cjelodnevnih popravaka, gdje je jedino što je falilo bio Aautogen, se nisam mogao prestati čuditi. Ništa se nije promjenilo. u subotu je radek opet uživao u kulturnoj večeri u sklopu noći kazališta na Exit Game. Očito to i nije bilo toliko uzbudljivo s obzirom da tamo sa obitelji nije izdržao ni pola sata. Lukaš K. je za promjenu otišao na vikend, sa cijelom obitelji, u Pustevnu. Putem nazad mu je u naručju usnuo sin. Nije ga htio buditi a i isto tako je htio malo vježbati i ispasti frajer pred svojom ljepšom polovicom. Navodno je isto istreniran i jednako jak kao i kad je bio mlađi, tako da u sljedećih 5km nije pokazivao nikakve znakove osim malo tvrđeg izraza lica. Nažalost iduća dva dana nije mogao dignuti ruke iznad razine ramena. Tako vitalan kao prije baš i nije. Ili je ali u tom slučaju ne želim pitati koliko je imao iz tjelesnog. Sličnu formu ima i Malcolm, ali njemu se da više vjerovat u to. I kroz početak mraznog razdoblja, nije propustio utrku. Ovaj put je trčao na Ostrava Movember 2017 Fun Run/ Walk i opet su mu na formi i enegriji mogli zavidjeti mlađi konkurenti. Ne znam da li je pobjedio ali koliko ga znam, nekakva medalja je bila. Nadam se da ste uživali u produženom vikendu i vi i želim ugodan tjedan. JC