New Year's resolution - 12 months, 12 cakes

Today we made (tasty) cake that didn't look neither tasty, nor beautiful. So I made my New Year's resolution to make 12 cakes next year.

12th of them in December is going to be something like this, just hopefully much better.

My new friends

Find-the-item game

Towel 3
Bath mat 1
Toilet bowl brush 1
Soap dispenser 2
TV-set 1
Remote control 1
Telephone 1
Blanket 1
Clothes hanger 5
Picture 1
Vase 1

It is just a part of the list I had to check and sign about the items in my room upon the arrival in the hotel.

That's not so easy at all! It took time to understand that the forth towel actually is not a towel, but a bath mat. It feels like in a computer game when you have a list of items and have to spot all these items in some picture. Still can't find the second soap dispenser, but the time is running out... Not sure if I will complete this level without hints from reception.

I love first snow!!!

In a morning: just a normal autumn day. Some leaves have not even managed to get yellow yet.



And in the evening everything has changed!



That's a joy!!!

Summer to do list

in Berlin

Already on the first evening in Berlin we had several hours’ talks with local people – Lala, Marcel, Sasha and a judo teacher with an old dog. Isn’t Germany a great place to visit? Not really...

We arrived at a hotel an hour before the official check-in time. There were some girls at the reception that asked us to return later - at the official time. So we did. Unfortunately there was nobody at the registration at that time. Except an old man sitting with his beer and informing that the personnel will be „gleich zuruck”.  It took at least some 10-15 minutes until this „gleich” was our and we finally received a key to our room, but as the receptionist was a Spanish girl that did not speak any English. I’m not sure if she even speaks German.

So we tried to find our room. It is on 9th floor. We step in the elevator. Hm... on the buttons it says: 6, 8, 10... No 9th floor. We get on the 10th. It is 10th. We get on the 8th. It is 8th. Where is 9th floor? On the 8th we luckily found an evacuation plan that showed that there are some outside stair through the balcony, so we used them to reach the 9th floor. Later we found out that elevators to 5,7, 9 etc. floors are on the other side of building.

 After a walk in the city at around 9pm we returned to hotel as I had to prepare for my tomorrows presentation. We opened the apartment room, but the door of the room (where we left some of our bags) could not be opened! The key just didn’t work. I tried. Ilze tried. I tried. Ilze tried. After some minutes I was in the right mood to go down and try my „Spanish” skills. Luckily there was another Spanish girl who spoke English. So you meet Lala. Doors didn’t open also to her. That was a part when they started to offer us free drinks... So she called a boy from some nightclub next to the hotel – Marcel. And as he also couldn’t open the door, he called some kind of a manager Sasha. Meanwhile we were sitting in the registration that is kind of a little cafe and talking to a local woman that lives in the same building and is a judo trainer and has an old dog with sad eyes. Those sad eyes are for the dog, not the woman. Sasha tried to open our room by the key of his home. So this key got stuck in the key locker. Anyway, after 2 hours they finally broke the key locker and let us in.

When I arrived at the conference (not perfectly prepared because when I finally get into the room to my materials I was already exhausted), it took a while to find the right building. My surname was wrongly spelled. Some of the planned social events did not take place and there was quite a lack of information. This was not a high quality conference...

When returned to hotel I asked for wireless access password. They gave me one. But in the room the right network couldn’t be found. But I had no more power (and will) to go downstairs again and try to explain the situation to that only-Spanish-speaking girl. Tomorrow is Lala, I think she could help. Maybe. And Sasha gave us his phone number – just in case. Germans are nice and country is a nice place to visit, isn’t it?

atgādinājums

Darīt visu tikai DIEVAM PAR GODU.
Darīt VISU tikai Dievam par godu.
Darīt visu TIKAI Dievam par godu.

nezinu, kam tādas zināšanas noder, bet..

..četros zeķu pāros tiek izadīts aptuveni 1km dzijas.

this and that

"that's impossible" - said reason
"this is folly" - said experience
"it's useless" - said pride
"try..." - whispered dream

all that you need will surely come

Today I was in a shop and there was one of my favorite songs (Savage Garden - Truly Madly Deeply) on the radio!

So I slowly walked the aisles, collecting what I need and enjoying the music. After some time I noticed that I was actually singing this song out loud and some people standing beside me.

And now this song is in my head all the evening!Hopefully nobody else hears that. :)

Kurš putniņš agri ceļas?

Little bit of sunshine for those who are not here

Random walk and random dinner toppics

I was having a dinner at the conference hotel with two random guys that sat at the same table. One of them was chinese (CH), other - jew from Russia that now lives in US (lets call him RU).

RU knew about New wave festival that is held in Jurmala.
RU: They were joking in that festival that Jurmala is empty because everyone has gone abroad to work in EU.

CH couldn't pronounce the name of my country and kept calling it "Lativa" or something like that, but said that he knows a basketball player from there - Sabonis. I don't know much about sports and the surname sounded familiar so I agreed that he is correct. Now when I checked with google, it turned out that Sabonis is actually from Lithuania.

CH (randomly changing topics): So you are religios?
I: ?
CH: I see you have a cross (necklace). So you believe in Jesus?
I: Yes, I do.

And about that random walk part - I just loved some presentations (ok, not about random walk, but about cox proportional hazard model (just the one we I'm working on right now) and estimating the trust in central bank as a function of inflation, unemployment, growth and some other factors). But later in evening I actually applied random walk process and went to explore Athens a bit better.

Feeling like a hostage

Recently I posted about a hotel in Athens, Greece called Hostage (Omiros). Now I know why the name is such. Though it is (only) 32C outside, it seems SO hot; air conditioned room, a bath and free wi-fi are much more attractive. At least till the evening.
And this is a view from the window, though it could be any other as the curtain is closed all the time to avoid sun.

little things that make day happy

There are days full of misery and days full of joy. I'm happy that today it was one from the second kind.

There were just so many things to be happy about - sunny morning, funny conversation in the morning, miracle that I could finish all tasks meeting the deadlines, inspiration for the commentary I had to write, the fact that also others liked the commentary, cammomile tea in the afternoon, the first presentation of our research, note that maybe we will be sent to a conference, feeling of a well spent time in work, feeling that I have done also everything that I had promised to do for my co-students, news that the deadline for one other task is extended by half a month, implication of that news that I can rest this evening, meeting friend, exploring the city while searching for a closed club, cartoon, song of the captain, peppermint tea, small rain instead of heavy rain showers, pink and purple flowers, my fish still alive and so on and so on...

All those little things that makes day to be happy. Hope may of them will meet me also tomorrow. At least those flowers will.

About rain

"It always rains on tents. Rainstorms will travel thousands of miles, against prevailing winds for the opportunity to rain on a tent." Dave Barry

...

Šodien kāds pārdevējs tirgū (uz mani): "Kundzīt, nāciet, pagaršojiet zemenītes!" Kundzīt? Vai tas nozīmē, ka palieku veca?

IF

About hotels

I'm planing my trip to Greece so I booked a hotel. After doing so I asked dear friend Ms. Google to translate the name of the hotel. I wish it were Hotel Marigold, Hotel Sunshine or anything like that. But it was a hotel named "Hostage". Wonder why the price was so acceptable?

What is the chance that you will meet dinosaur while walking on street?

50%!!!


You will either meet it or not.

300g auzu pārslu, 4 olas, glāze cukura, 200 g sviesta, miltus aizmirsu pielikt.

Man nav talanta cept auzu pārslu cepumus. Otrais mēģinājuma otrā panna vismaz sanāca pēc formas līdzīga cepumiem. Garša arī tikai attāli līdzinās cepumiem.

Should I try one more time?

what matters

Don't print your life on paper, don't spend much time accounting about it online. Print it on other people, at least then it counts.

not FAQ

Mēs lūdzam un vēlamies redzēt Dieva darbus savās dzīvēs. Bet vai vēlamies piedzīvot Dieva klātbūtni?

/We pray and want to see God's work in our lives. But do we want to see God's presence in our lives?

Emergency

Tomorrow all econometricians in the world will be on strike. How can we manage to live a day without them?

How Deep The Father's Love For Us

Gavēnis ir dvēseles pavasaris

Happiness

Liquidation of flood consequences

Today I participated in liquidation of flood consequences.



Ok, that didn't look as bad as in this picture. Only 35 liters of water flooding my room. Lesson 1 in setting up a new aquarium: water level MUST be horizontal, otherwise it can break the glass.

Just received a letter

..from myself year ago. [You write a letter for some certain date in future, put it in envelope with this date signed on it and later, when that day comes, you can open and read that - it is fun!]

This is a good reminder about things that are truly important. I have fulfilled some dreams, some not. There are some things I fight with myself and now - I open a letter and there is written - I hope that you have not stopped doing smth or that you have started doing smth else. And that makes me think - Hey, I don't want to disappoint that girl I was a year ago, if she hoped and believed in me, then I can change where changes are needed and I can remain as I am where changes could be harmful.

So, while you are writing your New Year resolutions, think of this and maybe writing just a brief note for yourself after a year or two could could have even greater results!