Book Review No.12

War of Ware by Robert Harvey

The year is 1792, the world is controlled by Europe especially those crazy Revolutionary Frenchies. Click on the “Book Review“ on the right hand side and read my review that is only slightly shorter than the 1000 pages this book covers.

Book Review No.11

A week ago I remembered how to write, now I've overcome my inability to read and have finally finished another book.

Actually I finished this particular book at Christmas but was too lazy to write about and now that I'm halfway through another it seemed best that I I should say something about “Armageddon” by Max Hastings.

So click on the Book Review link on the right hand side and find out what I've been keeping from you.

Frozen Waterfalls

Sometimes I almost forget that I live in a foreign country. After all I play football, work and go out primarily with people from Ireland in England and rarely hear a word that isn't in English. But then there are days when something happens that completely blows away this impression

Sunday was one of those days, which was a when I saw frozen waterfall. Yes completely frozen, not one with some snow and frost around the edges but a twenty foot drop of solid ice. As well standing on the frozen river you could stand or slip as in my case behind the waterfall itself.
Apparently this happens every year, but what is unusual about this winter is its severity.

This morning the temperature was minus 20, not minus 2, but twenty.

We're talking about Napoleon's retreat from Moscow weather. If you take your padded glove off for a minute of less it starts to burn with cold.

Yet as enter my second year and winter over here I have become a bit more accustomed to the sight of snow for weeks on end. And although temperatures of - 20 takes some getting used to, it isn't quite as horrific as it sounds. Fortunately there isn't the wind that you get back in Ireland so the wind chill factor isn't' as bad it could be.

Bloody hell, now that really would be something.

I've been told that about sixty miles inland the temperature is actually at minus 31.

The scenery on the way to the waterfall, was of vast areas of forest and coastline covered completely in snow and ice. I don't wish to sound like a cliche, but you really have to see this stuff to believe and appreciate it.

Until next time....

New Year New Blogging

Happy New year and belated greeting to one and all.

Finally after a month and a half I have eventually gotten around to writing a new blog. My absence wasn't due not having done anything over the last six weeks, but rather now that I am back in the working world when I come home all I want to do is vegetate. But no more, my somewhat delayed new year's resolution will be to dispatch at least one blog a week.

Last weekend was rather eventful in fact I may even be able to stretch it out for two blogs, saving me from tiring myself out and ease back into the blogging universe rather gently.

On Saturday morning I wrapped up in two pairs of socks, two pairs of trousers and countless other items of clothes just to get the local indoor football pitch, where I took most of them off again ten minutes later.

My grand plan for setting up a football team that will take part in the Estonian third of forth division has come to a stuttering halt. Due to administrative, financial and personnel reasons the dream has come to an end as some of the players head back to their home countries. But do not despair my athletic god like appearance will not fade away just like the team as we still have enough to have our Saturday kick about.

Football on a Saturday morning has definitely become something to look forward and a constant source of creating stories. I know that it has been snowing in Ireland lately and its not that Size matters, but we've had 65cm of the stuff. In fact just before Christmas the heating failed in the arena and when we hit the ball on the roof of the arena, ice had been forming on the inside and now fell like snow.

Now that's cold.

As with each and every Saturday we all walked away with a few bumps and bruises, but the important thing, is that we were still able to walk away. As in Ireland the economy here is still in a bad way and that is one of the causes for some of foreign legion of footballers leaving Estonia and heading back to the homeland in pursuit of work.

A couple of hours after the football and being convinced that I still had the stamina of a twenty year old, Una and I went trampolining.

Did I mention previously that Tiiu changed her name to Una? Well just in case I hadn't, she has, you know, just in case you were wondering.

Annnnnnnnnnnnyway we went to a leisure centre for a few hours where trampineing was the main attraction, where you could just jump from one trampoline to another and if you were able to avoid the countless children that just seem to pop up you could bounce along for 20 or 30 meters. If you haven't tried it before, its well worth it although in the end it almost seemed like exercise as the sweat was pouring of me. Although I lept about with all the graze of a drunken gorilla http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-gUYG5sv50, Una was able to perform one trick after another.

In between the bouncing we tried our hand at sumo wrestling.

As you can see I have put on a little weight since we last spoke.

When all the games were over it was time to put back on those countless items of clothes and went to Una's friends apartment for some cards and cake. As you may have come to expect by now this wasn't just any old cake, for we made it ourselves. Off course when I say we, I mean Una, but I did get to eat it. so I was a little involved. The secret ingredient in this cake was a plentiful sprinkling of "Vana Tallinn", which is the local liqueur.

Many hours later we trudged back through the snow, knowing that in the earlyish hours of the next morning we would be going on a trip to see a frozen waterfall. But that, as I said at the start of this blog, is for another day.

Nations Cup

Yesterday the world cup came to Estonia, to be exact it was actually the "Nations Cup" where sixteen countries of the world were represented in an indoor 5-a-side tournament.
Each team need to consist of at least 3 nationals are and two "Legionaries", that's foreigners to you and me.
As there was no Irish or English team to join and the old Chines Dragons were already full I became the newest member of the German team. However with only three Germans on the team and two of the remaining places filled by legionaries I became German or at least my mother became my "Connection" with Germany. However the co-ordinator of the event didn't seem to convinced of my parentage.

Anyway after four matches the first German footballing campaign in decades came to end without them reaching the competition final. As with the previous tournaments that I 've played in this one really was more about the taking part than the winning of it.

Now I know that this may sound like a cliche, but its true.
And if you want to hear some cliches, how about "We was robbed", "that was never a penalty", "nor was that one", "that was never handball", "come on ref are you blind", etc, etc.
As with our weekly practice kick about, this tournament brought a bunch of former strangers in a foreign country a little bit closer. As the beer, Cider and chicken at David's house alongside a litre of Garlic, loved it.

Guess who got a cat?

I've always considered myself to be a dog person and never a real fan of cats, the idea of actually taking one as a pet never crossed my mind. Yet three weeks ago that is precisely what happened.
Before arriving at the Cats and Dogs home Tiiu and I had only two requirement in choosing the cat, the first was that it couldn't be white and the second was that it would somehow chose us and not the other way around. When we went into shelter there were twenty cats lounging around in a couple of rooms drinking and staring out of windows, a scene which somehow reminded me of a bunch of businessmen hanging around an airport.

There were cats of various shapes, sizes, ages and colours. Some sat up proudly demanding your attention, while others swarmed around my feet like Piranha. OK cats being compared to Piranha, now that is odd even by my standards, anyway you get the idea there were lots of cats...lots of them.....everywhere.
But that was also part of the problem, there were simply lots of cats and not one cat that somehow grabbed my attention and it seemed that we were about to leave empty handed, until a panther black cat did precisely that.
As I stood beside a window ledge where three cats seemed to be planning an escape as they stared outside, one of them stood up on its back legs and put his front paws on my shoulder.
This was it, this was the sign that we had been hoping for, yes this was the cat for us.
We told the caretaker that this was the cat for us .
She congratulated us on our choice.
The cat looked at me I looked at him and then he bit me.
Yep, that's right, the one and only cat in the entire world for me, took all of five seconds to bite me.

For the first twenty four hours in the apartment, he crept around the place diving into every bit of darkness that he could find. As the days and now weeks have gone by that scary cat has long since vanished and replaced by someone who struts around the place as if he owns it and we are his guests
Oh yes and his name.....its HAPPY

The Sick man of Europe

Stealing this historical reference from the old Ottoman Empire, I have been stuck in bed for the last couple of days, feeling very much like that proverbial sick man.
Having checked my symptoms online for Swine flu, I was relieved to discover that I only had five of the eight and belatedly agreed to leave work and head home before these five symptoms went looking for further victims.

This seemingly small matter raises a greater question.
Namely Sick pay.
In Estonia if you are out sick from work, you receive no pay whatsoever for three days and then on the forth day you receive a percentage of your wage as long as you get a doctor's note.
Now, I'm not seeking to condemn any particular nation’s treatment of its sick citizens, as most countries have similar policies and in these times of international crisis cut-backs appear to be a necessary evil.

What I am questioning is the real value of this law and the attitudes of and effects upon those runny nosed and coughing individuals, as well as their not so honest compatriots who take unofficial free days. According to a recent survey over here 50% more people are now less inclined to take time of work because they cant afford to miss a days pay.
So I guess we have a successful law?
People are no longer trying to pull a fast one and get a free day?
Companies, the economy and the country are saving money?
Right?
Well.....No....Not really.

Admittedly this looks like a successful law, but it isn't.
Employment law should be a dual approach of encouragement and personal responsibility, not just punishment . Employees should want to go to work and for right reasons, not out of fear that ultimately hurt their employer.
Perhaps it’s because I spent many years in Irish Catholic schools, but whatever the reason, I have discovered the answer and the correct approach to be taken and it’s "Guilt".
That's right, Guilt.
Make your employee feel guilty about missing work, make him feel responsible not only for his own performance but that of his team and colleagues.
Trust me on this, Guilt works, I've even used it myself

Luckily for me I have a job that I actually enjoy. I still get a kick out of it when the plan comes together and therefore my employer has achieved his target of a happy (at least relatively) employee.
I wanted to go into work today and felt guilty about not doing so. It would have been madness to do so as I continued to feel bloody awful, but the important thing here is that I wanted to. This desire was partially through a sense of guilt about letting the team down, but also out of a sense of professionalism that encourages me to do a good job.

But I digress somewhat. If the employee feels appreciated and enjoys their job they don't need draconian laws to keep them in place, as they will want to turn up and do the job. Yet with this current law you end up with people who are forced to go to work, spreading their germs on their way to and at work onto the rest of us, who in turn get sick. Our own performances will initially slip, and then we’re forced to take time off work, ultimately the companies productivity slips.
So explain to me again how these laws help the economy, the country and the employer?

So the next time that you are on an overcrowded bus and someone coughs in your general direction, polluting what little clean air that there was, tell them to do us all a favour and please go home.