Hello guys,

are you into experiments? If yes, then I am here with one for you. Some days ago one girl was talking in the chatroom about blood group and effect of it on personality and it sort of motivated me to start this research. Are there any prooves? Hard to say. So what about to try it right here and right now. Let us try to find out, if people with the same blood group will react the same way on below mentioned questions or not. It is easy. All you need is to know your blood group and fresh mind to answer my six questions. You will just choose one of the options: a, b, c or d.

Not a big deal... am I right?

I will publish all the answers this Sunday because I think it would be better to let it hidden, so that it wouldn't influence anybody. So on February 15th 2015 at 6pm GMT I will come up with the result of this short research. By the way you have time to answer until Sunday 4pm GMT and your comment you leave here on this blog should look like this:

Your blood group and then options you chose for example: 1a 2c 3d 4a 5b 6 c. I hope you all got it ;-)Just don't panic comments are hidden and will be visible on Sunday :-)

Note: This test is not here to tell you what is your blood group but thanks to it we may find out, if people with the same blood group react in the same way. So if you don't know your blood group, your answers are useless.

Please one more thing, let's take it as a fun, so save me from the comments like: "Somebody will answer with five IDs or we should investigate every account, which is going to participate." Thank you for understanding, I believe we are mature people and there is no need of such kido attempts.

Here are the questions:

1. You are at school and your classmate, whom you dislike, who gossiped a lot about you wants your help with the test. How will you react?

a) I will strictly say: No way!

b) I won't take a risk because of somebody like this. I will overlook this student.

c) I will think, if it is worth it to help and if this person would help me too.

d) I will help somebody who is in need, no matter if I like them or not.

2. You won 1.000 dollars in lottery. How will you spend it?

a) I will throw a big party and will simply start enjoying my life. In some weeks I will have nothing.

b) I will think properly, if I should invest money in my education, family etc.

c) I will not touch it, I will let it be and will save it for my future.

d) I will go abroad, will stay in some English speaking country and will study English there.

3. What is the most important for you?

a) to live my life in peace

b) health

c) to become rich

d) to have nice family

4. Imagine you are in relationship with somebody and you want to leave this person but he or she is blackmailing you with comiting suicide. What will be your reaction?

a) you will leave this person because people who talk about it will never do it

b) you will leave this person but will check if he or she is alive

c) you will be scared to leave this person and will be confused, stressed and totally down

d) you will never leave this person because it is a huge risk, so you will force yourself to stay and will believe things are again fine between both of you

5. If you are in a danger, what is your reaction?

a) I am calm and try to think, how to manage such situation

b) I am freaking out, yelling, panicing, people are scared of my reactions

c) I am fighter, I immediately start doing something no matter what the result will be.

d) I am just watching others around me and waiting who is going to help me out of it.

6. It is your birthday party and there are so many aunties, uncles, all your family gathered on this special day. You will get a gift – old-fashioned sweater you totally dislike. What will be your reaction?

a) I will say: "Who the hell gave it to me? Is it punishment?"

b) I will just say: "Thank you."

c) I will pretend it is nice gift and will add: "I always dreamt of such sweater."

d) I will put it on the chair next to me without saying anything.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, that is all. I think six questions are enough, I won't torture you any longer. I hope you liked it and thank you for your time you gave to me :-)See you on Sunday with the result.

Picture was taken from: http://espacoastrologico.org/a-doutrina-astrologica-dos-temperamentos/

Hello Jack,

thank you for your last email, it was full of awesome jokes as usual. I must share something I experienced yesterday! I don't want to spread any rumours but I am still shocked! Yesterday on my way home from work near Liverpool, just few kilometres before I reached home, I had to stop my car and helped two people. They had problem with the tyre and none of them was able to deal with it. When I came closer, I realised it was my neighbour and some woman. However, it was not his wife!!! He said: "Ohh, I am glad to see you around. You know we are in need and also in a hurry because we are going to the theatre." I didn't know how to react, so I just asked: What is on the programme?" What a paradox that he answered: "Romeo and Juliet." Oh my gosh, such womaniser! I have no idea how I will react when he visits us with his wife.

Best regards,

Adam

Hello Adam,

what a weird story but as we all know rumors are here to entertain people, don't you agree with me? Be happy that it was just a few kilometers, you were able to repair a tire and didn't need to give them lift! You know, I realized here in San Francisco neighbors are people I have no idea about, so I don't care who of them is out with lover and who is at home with wife. Anyway, thank you for reminding me of the theater becuase I have two tickets and one of them is yours. You can guess what will be on the program. Definately not Romeo and Juliet, my old buddy! Calm down and believe me or not but life is not only about faithful people, such womanizers are around every corner! By the way I am looking forward to see you soon and I hope we will enjoy it here.

Cheers,

Jack

In this blog I decided to sum up main points related to the Czech dining and cuisine. Some of my points you might find interesting, others disgusting or maybe you will get to know things you have never heard of before. So no more explanations, let's start!

1. We eat early

I can say that in comparison to other countries we eat very early, no matter if it is breakfast or dinner. We also wake up earlier and our working time starts from 6am or 8am. It means that breakfast we take usually at 6 - 7pm, then we take lunch between 12am and 1pm and our dinner is raedy most of the time at 7pm.

2. We eat heavy food

Our cuisine is very tasty but unhealthy. It is something related to our history because in the past people worked hard on the fields, they didn't sit in the office the whole day. The thing is that food is still the same but people don't have so much physical activities and also free time. This all lead to one big problem called obesity.

3. Our main food of the day is : Lunch

It might sound weird to you but it is like this. Our lunch is consisted of soup and warm main food, sometimes also people eat dessert. It is the heaviest food of the day and the most nutritious. On the contrarery dinner is lighter and from the medical point of view it is healthier not to eat so much in the evening, so I am satisfied with such life-style.

4. Sunday's lunch is something special

Let's not leave the topic lunch. Tradition of Sunday lunch is also something that has its roots in the history because Sunday used to be a special day. In the morning people went to the church and then they took festive lunch – something not so ordinary. We usually cook traditional Czech dishes like SVÍČKOVÁ (svi:chkova:) – meat, vegetable sauce and dumplings or ŘÍZEK (rzi:zek) – shnitzel with potatoes or potato salad. Some of us still keep this tradition, others cook what they want to.

5. We have special public dining rooms

When children are done with their classes at school, they go for lunch. Part of the school building is also one specious dining room, including equipped kitchen with stuff. In short it is very practical because parents don't prepare anything at home for the kids and kids can have fun and eat together.

The same you can also see in the big companies. When there is lunch time, employees go to dining room to take their lunch, which was cooked by special cooks.

6. After good food is a must to drink good beer

Czech beer is one of the best in the world, so no wonder Czechs are proud of it and dirnk it usually after Sunday's lunch, it is good for digestion. Anyway as we say in kind of sarcastic way:

Bear makes good bodies. (ehm not good bodies one would be proud of).

7. Tip is not included in the bill

Tipping is something little bit special as for our restaurants. How does it look like in real? During your stay a waiter usually jots down on the little paper what you have ordered and leave it on the table. Then when you want to pay, he counts it and says for example 20 dollars. At this moment is polite to say … 23 dollars. We decide what tip stuff deserve and if you are greedy or not satisfied with the service, you can simple stay quiet :-D

8. Killing a pig is a tradition

In the villages time to time people organize a big event called ZABÍJAČKA (zabi:yachka). People gather, a butcher kills the pig and then others help to prepare products of it. Cut the meat, cook soup made of blood, prepare special sausage meat etc. I know now you all feel like vomiting but once you would taste one of these products, I bet you would change your opinion ;-)

9. Exotic Czech food

The best in the end, so let me name now some of the little bit weird or interesting Czech food we eat here:

Soup: Noodle soup, Potato soup, Garlic soup, Cabbage soup, Cow's stomach soup, Goulash soup

Meat: Chicken, Fish, Beef, Pork, Rabbit, Duck, Goose, Deer, Livers, Kidneys, Beef Tongue :-D

Sauces: Tomato sauce, Dill sauce, Horseradish sauce, Mushroom sauce

Sweet: Crepes, Pancakes, Buns with Vanilla Creme, Cherry Pie, Sweet dumplings with strawberries, plums and many many others which aren't even possible to translate :-)

* The pictures were taken legally from Google, those one can share free with permission and from the website www.varecha.sk

Luci: Hello my dear cat Noas, what is the weather like there?

Noas: Ohhh Luci, here in Kuala Lumpur was today in the morning partly cloudy but now in the afternoon it is cloudy with heavy showers. When I checked temperature one hour ago it was 31 degrees. How about there?

Luci: NOOOO !!!! I envy you such hot weather! You know, January is in the Czech republic the coldest month of the year, so you can imagine it. Oh sorry, you can't :-D Anyway, we are lucky to have a lot of snow this winter and at nights it usually drops below freezing.

Noas: Wooow, I wouldn't survive there. Well, don't worry, you don't need to be jealous because according to the local forecast tomorrow is probably going to occur thunderstorm. Luckily it is going to clear up on Sunday. By the way what is the forecast like for tomorrow?

Luci: Here in Ostrava snow is slowly melting but it is little bit dangerous because when it starts freezing at nights, it might be very slippery and roads might be icy. After such night in the morning our car will be definately iced up. Everybody hates it! As for the forecast, tomorrow we expect 1 degree and the sky is going to be overcast. Is it windy there?

Noas: No, it isn't windy at all, just some light breeze time to time. By the way I find such weather you have described depressive! I need sun to walk outside and enjoy everything around. Besides, I am happy that here sunset is now at 7:30pm. Is it the same there?

Luci: If only!!! In winter it is getting dark at 4pm, fortunately lately it is getting little bit better, which means we are blessed with light until 5:00pm. I was counting it and believe it or not in winter time out of 24 hours remain only 9 hours during these we can enjoy daylight fully. Maybe we will become soon vampires!

Noas: Haha! Oh my goooshh, I didn't know that you lack daylight there and that especially in winter it is such a drastic change! Anyway, every place has its negatives. Honestly I am used to for living here, no matter what we have to face. For example sometimes floods, humidity is so high but it is something we take as part of our daily life.

Luci: I do agree and I am happy for all seasons we have here. In winter we can experience -15 and in summer here is +30. Thanks for this short weather chat and I hope the storm won't be anything terrible there.

Noas: Thank you Luci and watch out. As you have mentioned there might be slippery tomorrow and I can't imagine worse tragedy than you with broken leg 24/7 online on EC. Do believe me that people wouldn't survive it! :D

Yesterday I realized something weird. Yeah guys, I feel now like I am  part of some minority or somebody whose opinions are not typical for country I live in. I was surfing on the Internet, reading the articles. I guess we all do this but this time I decided to pay attention to the comments bellow the text, which were written by the random people. Guess what???!!! I got almost heart attack.

One thing is more than clear. Some people's self-confidence grew a lot thanks to the social media and anonymity it provides because the comments I have come across were full of the oversmart opinions, racism, intolerance,insults of the smart experts, prejudices etc. Firslty, I was thinking about adding my opinion but later after reading reaction of one guy who was also against this majority, I gave up on it. Why to stress myself, why to be attacked by some anonymous virtual people?

It is pretty easy. If you give it time and think about this issue longer, you will find out that people thanks to the Internet can look up so many information. There are countless sources but tell me honestly: "Who can assure us that they all are true, not fake and that they were written by the people who understood it?" Of course, that nobody and this is the power and impact of mass media on common people. I noticed that those so called oversmart experts on the basis of one or two read articles suddenly come up with their opinions, conclusions on some particular topic and feel like genius. People study politics, religion, history, economics, psychology etc. at universities, however those anonymous oversmart ones gained somehow self-confidence, feel very knowledgable, superior and I think that answer like: "I don't know" - would destroy their ego. Besides, some of them are even able to mock educated people, which is very sad fact. Intelligent people with better knowledge of some issue, who are able to debate and express their opinion, which is based on well-founded facts not on some internet doubtful article seem to be for such sort of people nobody.

From my point of view to express own opinion, to explain to others what we think is healthy for every society but to behave like I know everything and I was everywhere, to offend respected, intelligent people is something I would call big disrespect. I doubt that such "unique people" would be able to write at least one article including strong points and facts. We can disagree, why not but we should be able to distinguish between what is appropriate reaction and what is beyond the limits. Honestly, if such people should represent my country, believe it or not, I would rather immigrate because yesterday I felt ashamed of them.

Your Loyal Wife

Stolen sweet thoughts, miserable weird mood,

on the table your keys, in the fridge your food.

Clocks is ticking backwards but life goes on,

things will never be the same when you are gone.

Your smell is still around, your shadow next to me,

our future is just past, nothing was meant to be.

My tears lost salty taste, reality is forever blurred,

Why those bad ones are always happy and nice are hurt?

Only warm shower can wash away all my sorrow,

"Relax, girl, there is new beginning, new tomorrow!"

Then in the mirror I see strange face without life,

this devastated woman is me - your loyal wife.

P.S. It has nothing to do with my real life, it is just my fantasy :-)

I live on my own and I am happy like this. Only my family - I mean my husband and my kids. Some of you might opose that families should stay together but from my point of view it can sometimes create many generational conflicts. Here in my country living with elder generation isn't so common, maybe more in the villages but in the city we definately prefer own privacy.

Such way of living has of course many advantages. Nobody tells me what to do, which is the most important thing for me. I am independent person with own way of thinking and I want to live my life as I wish not as others tell me to do. I know that in other countries people still prefer living together and I can also say that since they are able to get on with each other, then everything is great. However, in my opinion even parents want to have some rest and don't need to listen yelling grandchildren around, want to dedicate their life to hobbies and also want some privacy. It doesn't mean I don't love my parents, it doesn't mean I don't want to be with them. I love them more than everything but once I am mature I should according to our life style enjoy my own family life and shouldn't put my nose into their personal matters (in case they both are healthy). We love to meet, we do enjoy time we spend together, we go for the trips and we are simply happy even without sharing one roof.

Hence we should enjoy our own life because we live only once and I am sure that nobody wants to regret one day that they lived according to some advice or orders they found unacceptable or illogical.  

I read here many blogs lately about the affair in France. I think there exist two radical opinions and of course that these are influenced by the environment, religion, culture we live in. I am average European woman. I planned to visit the UK in spring and honestly after reading today's news I am not sure, if going to the west is a good decission. To be sincere, I am sort of scared and I simply don't want to find myself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I have thought about it all for some days and eventually I realized that something is being missed here. Don't you think there should be some MIDDLE GROUND - the way how to compromise and stop it all? On one hand people protesting and defending freedom of speech, on the other hand people celebrating that western people died. As for my opinion - they both are wrong.

To make fun of any religion is from my point of view totally wrong, no matter if it is sarcasm or parody. Especially, if it is something so extreme such as Charlie Hebdo's case. Freedom has its limits and as long as people think that to mock something so sensitive is ok, then they lost respect. On the contrarery to go and kill is pretty psychotic attitude because LIFE is the most precious thing we have and nobody is allowed to take it.

We all should learn how to compromise and tolerate each other instead of insulting each other. It might take time, it might be sci-fi but only then things might get better.

I am aware of the fact that all the blogs on this topic disappeared for one simple reason - not to cause the fights. I didn't write it on purpose to fight, I posted it just to open people's eyes and see the things from different perspective. Anyway, I respect EC and that's why I won't allow any comments here. It doesn't mean I am against freedom, if you want to express your opinion, you are free to send me a message.

Hello everyone,

today in this blog I would like to share with you Czech traditional Christmas Eve dish, which is:

FRIED CARP AND POTATO SALAD

This recipe isn't complicated and I think that even amateur cooks can easily prepare it. We eat it as I have mentioned on Christmas day as diner and it is one of my favorite dish, which is another reason why I have decided to come up with this kind of recipe. 

For those who don't know what CARP is, let me add that it is fish that lives in our ponds and before Christmas you can buy it on the street, in front of malls - alive or dead. Some people still keep the tradition and kill the carp by own hands but it is not my cup of tea, I am not such sadist :-) Anyway, enough of talks, let's cook!

This recipe is for 2 portions.

Ingredients:

A) Fried carp

• 2 carp fillets - if you don't have carp you can use other fish such as cod or you can also use chicken breasts
• flour (all-purpose flour)
• egg
• dry bread crumbs - if you don't have it, you can use chopped crisps
• salt, lemon
• oil (not olive oil)

B) Potato salad

• 4 big potatoes
• 150 g of the peas and carrot (I use frozen)
• 1 egg
• 2-3 sweet baby pickles
• little bit of water from the pickles
• white onion (up to you how much you want to add)
• 5 table spoons of mayonnaise 
• 1 tea spoon of Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Directions:

A) Fried carp

1. Wash the fish properly in the cold water, then dry it.

2. Salt it and also use few drops of lemon. (Tip: I usually place it into the fridge for one hour so that it would absorb the salt and lemon but it isn't necessary.)

3. Take 4 deep plates. In the first plate put flour, in the second one put beaten stir egg, third one is going to be full of dry bread crumbs. What is the fourth plate for? :-) You will simply place there the breaded fish that is going to wait for being fried.

4. Put fish into flour and cover it properly from all the sides, then put it in the egg - little bit salty beaten stir egg also must cover all the parts, use the fork for replacing it to another plate with the bread crumbs. Again the same process like with flour - cover fish properly from all the sides and then place it in the fourth plate.

5. Heat the oil on the pan and let the fish fry from both sides. Remember that there should be oil under the fish because I am sure you don't want to eat burnt fish :-)

6. Fry the fish on middle heat so that fish wouldn't be burnt on the surface or raw insinde.

7. If you don't want to eat oily fish, better use paper napkin, which will absorb the oil from the fish. 

B) Potato salad

1. Boil the potatoes in skin until they are soft. In another pot cook in salty water carrots and peas - again until everything is soft. As for the egg, boil it for ten minutes, since the water starts boiling.

2. Meanwhile potatoes and vegetable is cooling down, cut the onion, pickles and egg.

3. Take a bowl and put everything you cut into it.

4. Peel the potatoes and cut them in little cubes. If the carrot is not cut, cut also the carrot.

5. Add the potatoes and vegetable into the bowl.

6. In the end add little bit of water from the pickles (not too much because of the consistence), salt if needed, Worcestershire sauce (optional) and mayonnaise.

7. Mix it all. 

Note: I would like to recommend you to start with potato salad because it tastes better, if you refrigerate it for some hours ;-)

B O N   A P P E T I T !!!

Lately I have come across here many so called "blogs", which I wouldn't be able to call the blogs even in my wildest dreams, so let me tell you in short my opinion about something I am able to call THE BLOG.

In your blog you can write about what you do lately, what is just right now bothering you, what you have experienced, about your hobbies, places you have visited, people you admire, you can share poem you composed etc. Blogging is about expressing yourself, your opinions, ideas on particular topic and the blog should contain in my opinion at least 100 words. By the way would you believe that even now I have written more than 100 words? Ok, it should be longer :-D

What I wouldn't call a blog:

1. Copied text from the Internet

If you copy something, you must mention the source, otherwise it is called plagiarism and here on EC you are being warned not to plagiarize. Let me add that I will never get, why to do something like this, why to post text written by somebody else and pretend it is mine - childish, don't you think so?

2. Picture with the quotation copied from the Internet

Well, I can understand that you might like such picture and it represents your opinion but in this case, why can't you write a blog about this topic by your own words? We are here to practise English so let me ask one simple question: "Does sharing pictures improve your written English?"

3. A question addressed to the readers.

If you want to debate on some topic, ask the question in the different section, which is called: discussion forum – you can check it here: http://my.englishclub.com/forum

4. One or two sentences blog with the quotations or text no matter if from Quaran or Bible is also something we can hardly call a blog.

I can understand that our level of English is different and that to write a blog might sometimes be not so easy but from above written is more than clear that this is not the right way how enhance our English.

Please think about it and try to practise your written English as much as possible since you have here on this website opportunity. I bet people will enjoy reading blogs written originally by you ;-) 

The last tip: As long as you want others to correct you, which I find verry beneficial, just type into tags – corrections.

Winter is here and I feel once more again like a little girl because snow has without doubt mysterious impact on me.

Everytime when I see the snowflakes falling down lazily, something magical wakes up inside of me.

I even don't know what exactly it is, be it the excitement or the happines, I just know that the Queen Winter has decided to visit my place this year.

There are so many breathtaking moments starting with watching the landscape covered with snow and ending with admiring the paintings drawn by Mr. Frost on the windows.

I personally love to spend the winter time in the mountains and there I do enjoy every crunchy step I make into snow.

Cold air, cold fingers, everything is cold but nobody cares because the beauty of the white color is stronger.

If there is a sunny weather, I try to absorb each and every ray. Watching the reflection of rays on snow can conjure smile on my face and definitely fill me with energy. 

When I am back home, totally frozen with pink cheeks, I enjoy warm shower and then... I am like reborn.

In such situation a cup of hot tea is a must and honestly to feel soooo exhausted after stay in winter weather is awesome unforgottable feeling...

P.S. Btw guys, I am sending you hectoliters of water.. ooooops.. I meant snow that melted during the transnport :-p

I love Christmas time, the magic atmosphere, which makes us stop for a while and enjoy these awesome days full of love, peace and happiness. In my country Christmas is lately something I would say more related to the traditions than to the religion.

Everything starts at the beginning of November but usually in December the real Christmas shopping fever controls almost everyone. The malls turn into the places with colorful decoration, lights blink in every corner and meanwhile you do the shopping you can hear Christmas carrols, which make these moments more relaxing and enjoyable.

On the contrarery in many cities you can visit Christmas markets where you can come across typical handrcafts, can taste traditional svařák - warm wine with herbs or local smith can make nice horsehove for good luck in front of you. Here is the picture of one of such markets I visited some days ago:

Anyway let’s move back into our homes. Almost every woman cleans everything starting with the windows and ending with the floor so that we would be ready to welcome Christmas day with perfectly clean and decorated household. Usually one or two weeks before Christmas day is high time to buy a tree. There are many possibilities where we can buy it - on the street, in the malls or even legally in the forrest. By the way we store the tree on the balcony in the bucket with water so that it would survive.

Our Christmas day is on December 24th, unlike UK or USA. In the morning we eat vánočka (va:nochka), which is traditional Christmas dish made of sweet dough, raisins and on the top of it we put chopped almonds. Here you can check our vánočka (va:nochka), we ate yesterday:

Later during the day we just enjoy the time with our family, send each other Christmas wishes, sing Christmas carrols and watch the fairy-tales on TV.

On this very special day we also keep many traditions. We believe that if we are going to fast, we will see a golden pig on the wall. We cut an apple into two parts and if there is a star inside made of core, it means we will be healthy during upcoming year, if it is rotten, it means sickness. We put carp’s scale under the plate, which means that we will have enough money etc.

When the first star appears in the sky around 5 pm we can finally eat our dinner. What do we eat? Many families prefer peas soup, in my family we eat mushroom soup and then as a main dish we enjoy potato salad and fried carp (fish). We decorate out table in Christmas style so that it all would make us feel this awesome special atmosphere. Here is carp and potato salad we ate yesterday and I can’t even see it today becuase I ate too much.. ehm as usual we all feel overeaten then :-)

Now the most important moment will come, so be ready :) Meanwhile we are eating one of the adults have a kind of hard task - to put all the wrapped gifts under the tree so that kids wouldn’t notice anything - sort of adrenalin challenge but what wouldn’t we do for the kids to make them happy. Then when we are done with dinner...that one adult rings the little bell and join the rest in the kitchen with the words: "Ohhhhhhh I think Ježíšek (Yezhishek)  has already come. Did u hear it? Let’s go and check the Christmas tree."

In the living room carrols are being played and the tree is blinking. We turn the light on and yes this is the most beautiful moment - to see the kids so happy and excited in one because Ježíšek (little Jesus) has come.

By the way let me add something mysterious. There is no picture of our Ježíšek since nobody has ever seen him, we can say little bit weird but true. We unwrap the gifts, eat the sweets we call cukrovi (tsukrovi:) and we all feel so happy and close to each other..

Later at midnight some people go to the church to take part in Midnight Mass, which is unforgottable experience. I enjoyed it many times and hope will be able to go once more again.

So it was our Christmas day, hope you liked it and I am glad I could have shared it with you, guys ;-)

M E R R Y  C H R I S T M A S

Today I am coming up with my confession. It might be for you something shocking, something you have never had to face in your entire life or some of you might think I am a psycho or mad. Anyway, let me share what is on my mind and what has scared me to death several times. I am going to talk about... Sleeping Paralysis.

Is this expression new to you? Let me explain firstly what it stands for because not all people are familiar with it. I don't want to copy some lines from Wikipedia, so I will better use my broken English. Sleeping Paralysis is something what happens to people when they want to fall asleep. It is like brain is still somewhere stuck and doesn't sleep, meanwhile body is totally dead and sleeping. In this stadium we usually experience those situations like we fall from stairs, tree etc. It all would be fine because we wake up from this and we are maybe scared, however after some time we feel fine. BUT there is one big BUT because those who suffer from Sleeping Paralysis wake up and... they can't move at all. According to our smart scientists every 10th person experience something like this once in their life and every 1000th person suffer from it time to time or frequently. Unfortunately I was blessed to be that one 1000th person and do believe me that there is nothing to brag about or to envy.

I have suffered from it since I was 18 and I don't know why but it I have experienced many forms of it. It started like I was falling down into the black hole and I just knew that when I reached the bottom, I was going to die. Pretty scary and when I woke up, I couldn't have moved with my hands. It took me time to realize it all, it caused me many sleepless nights because when you get into this stadium, it is not a big deal to recognize it, you have some halucination, you can hear weird sunds and these all are signs that something very bad is coming. Besides you are even able to go trough it many times per night and it is the worst about it. To wake up scared, can't move properly and then trying to fall asleep with knowing that it is coming back again.

Basically, I didn't pay so much attention to it because it happened to me I guess twice a year. Later I came to know that it usually happened to me when I was very very tired and exhausted. I tried to prevent myself from it but since I have kids now it is more complicated because as you know almost every mom lacks sleep. So do believe me that once I was even watching myself and my husband while being out of my body, was yelling at my husband to look at me and no voice was comming out of my throat. Again too much scary, something what woke me up, forced my soul to come back to my body and for the first time I found out how terrible it was. I couldn't have moved my single finger, hand, leg, nothing. I thought I suffered from stroke and that I would die soon. Just imagine you are on your bed with open eyes and can't say anything, can't move. Exactly as I have described above - body is sleeping but mind is active. It took me like one minute and I was again able to move. I had to get used to for it, I learned to calm myself down after each and every "nightmare" like this and to realize it is just that one disgusting part after waking up from it.

I know that people say: "Don't google this or that, just see a doctor." However, as for this I am happy I found out on the Internet what is wrong with me, I searched for more information about it, found out there are many people with the same problem and it all just gave me better feeling. Feeling that I have to get on with it and shouldn't be so scared of it, else it would maybe control my mind and make a psycho of me...

Hello folks,

if you are inerested in cooking, want to exchange some recipes with people all around the world, don't hesitate to join my new group

EC COOKS

Here is the link, check it and you all are more than welcome!

http://my.englishclub.com/group/ec-cooks

I have been missing you... Guys, this sentence thanks to the modern technology might be in the near future vanished out of our life. I realized it a couple of hours ago, was thinking and thinking and decided to dedicate this blog to this issue, sooo here I am with some interesting views. First of all just dont think I'm freaking out, ok? I will show you right here and right now that I mean it.

Don't you think that the world we live in is overtechnologized? It isn't a big deal to buy a new smart phone, a modern laptop and many many other devices. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter etc. play important role in our life and thanks to them we can be 24/7 in touch with people, who we consider our closest ones. On one hand practical and without doubt it makes our life easier, on the other hand something what may change many things in current society and especially in interpersonal relationships. So let me ask one question:

"Do we have a chance to miss anyone?"

(Let me add that I am talking about people who are alive)

Why would we miss people, since it is a matter of one second to send them message. In my opinion to miss somebody has its own magic, it drags us into our past, it somehow forces us to recall memories and at least for a while to appreciate that one missed person. Another quiete an interesting thing I would like to point out is that we tend to overact and make a buzz about issues, which would our ancestors find totally ridiculous. For instance to say: "I haven't seen you online for two hours, was so worried about you, was missing you badly." Is this normal? From this example is obvious that some people just become very dependent on being still in contact with others and it makes them ehm little bit obsessed.

Anyway, now I would like to demonstrate above mentioned to you by these two examples:

1. A letter written 50 years ago by a woman who was missing her husband:

My beloved Jack,

I have waited for your letter for the centruries. Every day when I woke up, opened my eyes, the first thought I dedicated to YOU. I missed you so much and finally after three months I can read the first lines written by you. It is such a realease, one can hardly describe. You might think I am mad but I am so happy to hold the paper in my hands, the paper you were touching with love when you were thinking of me. The moment when I found your letter in the postbox, was one of the happiest of my life. I just wanted desperately to feel your smell from this letter, to read something from you.....

2. A message written yesterday by a woman who was missing her husband:

Hi Jack, what's up there? You dind't reply last night but I can undertand you were tired after the whole day. I miss you a lot. See you later and take care.

Can you feel the difference? Even though to miss beloved person might be painful, on the contrarery when we recall such memories, when we remember how badly we missed somebody, it is just a proof we cared and also something what shows us importance of privileged people in our life.

Dear Noaspls,

I hope you are doing well and as I know you, I bet you are in a good mood unlike me. Let me share what's new with us. You know a few weeks ago our family won the lottery and some people can't stand it. They evny us a lot because as for financial situation our life is now pretty good. I don't want to show off but we bought a new house, good car and many other luxurious things. First of all we were so happy but now we are just desperate. Well, to sum it up, I can't more agree with saying: "Nothing is so good as it seems beforehead." It may sound good to be millionaire but sincerely it doesn't feel good at all. I can't sleep well, neither eat well and my health isn't as good as it used to be. Do you think everything is going to be good once more again? Money is evil and thanks to such experience I realized I didn't know some friends of mine very well. Would you believe that even our good friend Expector Smith asked me yesterday for money? Honestly I wish envious people disappeared from my life for good because I don't feel well being surrounded by them. I hope I expressed myself well and you got my points. Please, help me out of this miserable situtaion and make me feel good at least for a while.

Cheers,

Yours desperate millionaire Luci

P.S. Expector, nothing against you, I just found this sentence funny :-D You can take revenge :-p

Maybe you have already heard that Japanese people are hardworking, Germans are punctual, Englishmen are reserved. Can we apply something like this on the whole nation? As we know every nation is created by the people and their characteristic features, customs, habits, atmosphere in the society, historical development etc., in fact all these aspects from my point of view form typical national character. Since everyone of us belongs to some nation, it is obvious that sometimes we might be not aware of good or bad side of our own national character and in this case it is the best idea to ask foreigners. Only people from the different culture, society can independently tell us what they find little bit different in comparison to their national character. Have you ever asked your friends here on My EC what do they consider weird, funny or ridiculous about you, your customs or habits? If not - go for it, propably you can find out something new, what will widen your horizons and will force you to think about it long and hard. Ehm, exactly as I had done before I started writing this blog.

Anyway, let's move on. Dear friends, today in this blog I would like to introduce you in short the Czech nation. I don't want to talk only about our national character but also about what we like and dislike or what you can come across when you visit my country. Please, take it easy, read it at your own risk and I hope you won't block me afterwards because..... I am one of them :-D

1. Czechs are cold and reserved at first sight

Let's start with something negative since Czechs are according to the reasearches one of the most pessimistic nations in the world :-D Well, talking from my own experience, yes I have to admit that when you come here and see the people walking on the streets looking down, nobody cares about anybody, nobody smiles at anybody – it might give really weird impression. It doesn't mean we are heartless but we are not simply so friendly with the strangers. Howerver, once you give us a chance to enter your world, we can show you that we are the best companions with the awesome sense of humour.

2. Socks and sandals in the summer? Not a big deal!

I seriously don't know, if this fashionable issue is some historical herritage but one thing I know – I hate it! Czech women are fashionable I can say but sometimes when you see next to the noble lady a man wearing socks and sandals then one must laugh. Of course that partly this woman is reponsible for it but some men are simply so stubborn that they don't care about their ridiculous appearance.

3. Czechs blow their nose in the public without hesitation

Once I had a skype video call with my friend and in the middle of it I sneezed. I started immediately blowing my nose and that one guy was staring at me with open mouth. I asked: „What's wrong?“ and I was told that in many countries blowing nose in front of other people is being considered something totally impolite. Oh my gosh!!! I didn't know it so since that one moment I am more careful. Here people blow their nose on the streets, if it is needed and nobody cares, even in front of the family members we are free to do that.

4. Czechs like the fairy tales

There is a long history as for the Czech fairy tales. There are many Czech cartoons, many movies were filmed and inspired by our national fairy tales, some of them even in black and white version. When Christmas time comes, there are always so many fairy tales on TV. It might sound maybe little bit cool but during the Christmas day all the family gather in the living room and watch the fairy tales, no matter how old they are.

5. Czechs don't want to hear that you are doing fantastic! We are envious.

If two people meet accidently and ask each other: "How are you doing?" Do believe me that if one of them would answer: "Ohh, I am fantastic, I have never been better." In this case the second one will start doubting if the first one didn't go mad OR worse option - they will start envy. Envy is one of the worst characteristic features of our nation. We envy too much each other – no matter if it is question of money, better job, great figure etc.

5. Czechs LOVE Ice Hockey

I would say the most popular sport people watch on TV is without doubt Ice Hockey. As soon as our team is qualified for the final during the World Championship or the Olympic Games, we become so patriotic and support our team no matter what. It is also great that our top players who play in NHL or in other countries take it as a duty to join the national Ice Hockey team. Families watch the match, people gather in the pubs and watch the match, there are big screens on the squares so that people would be able to watch the match.

Czech people turn to the absolutely crazy fans and want the only one - victory!

6. Czechs have cool sense of humour

This is a special chapter, which is hard to describe. We have very unique sense of humour. Even though we are in some bad situation, we are able to make jokes, which somehow push us and force us to overcome it. Another one important fact I would like to mention is that we can make fun of ourself. We don't take everything so seriously. Our sense of humour is specific and also very smart. I have just remembered that once when I used to study we went clubbing with our English teacher from the USA and we told him typical Czech joke: "A sceleton comes to the pub and says: One beer and.. floorcloth, please." I don't know why but it took a long time to our teacher to get it. We all were staring at him and were waiting and waiting, finally in some minutes he burst out laughing.

Well, there are so many other interesting facts about Czech people I would like to share - for instance we are one of the most atheistic nations in the world, we like collecting mushrooms, keep some traditions etc. but I don't want to make it boring for you. So thank you so much for reading it and I would be glad, if you leave a comment with at least one line about your national character.

Yesterday I took part in an awesome, traditional event, which is related to Christmas. It was the first of four Sundays of Advent and it means we should have lit the first candle on the traditional Christmas wreaths. For better imagination have a look here:

Anyway back to an unforgottable, magical experience. A huge, coniferous tree was standing in the middle of the crowded square and was planned to be lit up exactly at 4:30pm. Yes, so early! However, here it is already dark at this time so I know that it might sound little bit weird to some of you. All those impatient, nervous, frozen people had something in common, they were eagerly waiting for one memorable, magical moment. To see the colorful, blinking lights, which decorated this awesome, big tree. It was an incredible, breathtaking second when the lights were turned on and I am looking forward to see it once more again. There are just two minus points: firstly I will have to wait almost for the whole upcoming year and secondly I hope there won't be such chilly weather like yesterday. Let me add that it was "only" -4°C.

Here is the picture of the tree. Source: http://dk-akord.cz/program-kurzy/kalendar-akci/ostatni-akce/rozsviceni-vanocniho-stromu.html  My phone is now being repaired, so with the phone I am using now I couldn't have taken any normal picture :-/

Something woke me up and my dream about exotic island was gone. I opened my eyes and saw somebody standing on the balcony. Oh no, I am home alone! I ran into the kitchen, switched on the light to find the knife and when I turned around, oh my gooooooosssshhhhhh IT was standing right in front of me!! Alien wrapped in the toilet paper!!!!! Only his big eyes were visible. I started yelling: "Nooooo, don't do anything to me, destroy this house,take money, just leave me alone!" Alien answered: "Luci, I won't torture you, I saw you yesterday chatting on EC and I fell in love with you. This toilet paper dress is our traditional wedding costume. Will you marry me?" 

Hello guys,

I was thinking about some "Challenge" and would like to test your creativity. It isn't big deal at all, just write a story - only 50-70 words BUT use these words:

DESTROY, TORTURE, TOILET PAPER, LIGHT, KNIFE, ALIEN, ISLAND

Just write a blog and give it title: Short Story Challenge: + add your title

All above mentioned words should be in the story so these who would like to give it title TOILET PAPER ISLAND can forget about it :-)

!!! I am looking forward to read funny stories from you !!!