Off to Israel

See you next week... hopefully

Crazy neighbours

Oh, how I miss the time when we lived in an apartment building where everybody knew our name...
When we bought this flat we were warned: don´t play any loud music, the lady downstairs hates it. Also, this is the woman responsible for this buiding and here lives the one that washes the stairs every week.
First the responsible lady. The only time I see her is on her balcony smoking. If we should ever need anything from her, she is absent. And you are already familiar with her weird messages on the elevator door. She is just great.
The cleaning lady, as it seems, washes our floor like once a month. It´s okay until someone spills something just after her monthly passing... I am yet to test if  it really is so...
But the true gold is the lady just below us. Until now (we live here almost two years now...) I´ve never seen her. Never heard from her. Nothing. As you know, we bought a new washing machine. First washing we spilled some amount of water- the drain wasn´t properly conected. We dried it and forgot it. That was in very early January.
LAST WEEK I got home one day, exhausted, I sat down, put on some movie...  before the logos were gone somebody was knocking on our door. TH was excercising, so I got it. And there she was. Claiming that we flushed her... that her tiles are loose. I was surprised. Our plumbing isn´t the best (we had a case of bad smelling drain for the last month or so, our dishwasher is broken...), but I didn´t know anything about possible running water problems. I invited her in for her to check out for leakage. In response she just invited me to see the effects. I politely declined and asked what is it she wanted us to do. And she said: WELL, IT HOLDS FOR THE MOMENT, SO NOTHING. Oh, and when I asked her why she didn´t come earlier (she admited that it could have occured in January) she said she often goes to visit her daughter in another town. This will be important later in the story.
Yesterday I met her again. In the elevator; she joined me with some unknown man. I recognized her by the pinkorange crocs and blue hair. Because in two years I´ve seen her only once before! Smiling she noted that we obviously had a good time on Friday. Shame, she had to get up at half past four on Saturday to go to work. With that sweet passive-agressive note in her voice. So I told her, that she could come to the door and said something... or banged on the ceiling with a broom... or something. Her response? YOU AREN´T LITTLE CHILDREN, ARE YOU? I just apologized that you and BiL come once a year and we mostly try to keep it down the rest of the time (it´s true, TH is very sensitive about noises precisely because of the neighbours). Smiling she added: I slept in the afternoon, so no worries.
I was going to see my parents then, so I exploded there. The last addition to this perfect story was by my mother: How could she be at her daughter´s for that long if she needed to go to work this Saturday? She is well past the age of retirement, so... part time, I guess? I´m glad she still has time to nag me in her free time.

Je pôst o tom byť Yes-Man

Tak nám začal pôst. A rozmýšľala som o tom, aké predsavzatie si dať. Z Adventu som sa poučila, že

keď sa vzdám čokolády, som naozaj nepríjemná. Snažila som sa nedať si príliš vágne predsavzatie, ale nakoniec som si dala niekoľko drobných. No nie o tom som chcela.
Pamätám si časy, kedy moje predsavzatia bývali o tom- pomáhať druhým. Vlastne teraz v práci je to každodenná "povinnosť" (ktorá je občas... oh so hard). No a tu prichádza na rad ten yes-manizmus. Je pomáhanie o tom odpovedať každému za každú cenu Áno?
Vlastne rozšírme túto otázku na kresťanstvo ako celok (Pretože pri pôste sa teoreticky máme snažiť ísť mimo svojej comfort zone... ale predsalen->). Ak za tebou niekto príde s prosbou, ktorá nijako neohrozuje tvoju nesmrteľnú dušu, máš za každú cenu prikývnuť? Napriek tomu, čo sa ti chce, čo vládzeš alebo po čom túžiš? A nie je nakoniec tak trochu pokrytecké robiť niečo nasilu a potom si búchať hlavu pretože to bola chyba?
Áno, byť Yes-Manom má za úlohu rozšíriť tvoje obzory, dostať ťa zo svojej ulity, ale naozaj neviem, či je to pre každého.

Video worth sharing no. 11

Dánske dievča

Ja som sa na tento film tešila. Trailer bol pekný, Eddieho mám rada, nominácie a nejaké ceny pozbierali... A v poslednom čase ma trans-ľudia zaujímajú. Ibaže nikto nechcel ísť so mnou. Aj som si začala hovoriť, že som asi divná, že ten film chcem vidieť v kine. Nakoniec som presvedčila PS (Ďakujem!) a vybrali sme si najnešťastnejší deň- Valentína. Kino bolo plné, všade veľa ľudí... Mali sme si lístky kúpiť skôr.
Danish girl je príbeh o manželskom páre. Obaja sú maliari- on krajinkár, ona portrétistka. Jeho diela si spoločnosť cení akosi viac. Ona potrebuje dokončiť dielo, ale neprišla jej portrétovaná baletka. On si kvôli nej natiahne pančuchy a priloží šaty. Niečo sa v ňom prebudí. Na najbližší ples ide ona a Lili. Lili chce žiť viac ako on. Ona začne Lili portrétovať a jej obrazy majú obrovský úspech. Lili chce žiť.
Film mi mnohým pripomenul The theory of everything. Eddie hral podobne zlomenú postavu, takým tým nežne chlapčenským spôsobom. Páčilo sa mi to, ale Oskara za podobný výkon už doma má. Pre mňa to bol príbeh o Nej, Gerde. Ich manželstvo bolo umelecky vášnivé aj obyčajne krásne. Svojho manžela milovala nadovšetko a tiež chcela byť úspešná. No nechcela by ho preto obetovať. Keď sa však rozhodol stať sa Lili, milovala stále tú istú osobu. A hoci ju to možno ničilo, nikdy ju/ho neopustila. Opisuje sa to veľmi ťažko, ale to sa mi na filme páčilo najviac. Gerda. Ona si svojho Oskara rozhodne zaslúži.
Čo sa týka trans agendy, film urobil menšine trochu medvediu službu. Okrem pár výnimiek som mala pocit, že Lili ide iba o pekné šaty a musí sa snažiť, aby sa ženou stala. Viackrát vyznela veľmi trucovito až sebecky. V pár momentoch ale film dokonale zachytil, ako človek môže nenávidieť svoje telo.
Ak by som to teda brala ako film o Lili, neodchádzala by som z kina spokojná. Ale film o Gerde bol nádherný. Réžia, kamera, hudba... krásny romantický film. Iba romantický hrdina má problém...