90/40

I'd like to start this post with what I've been told by the chronicler of the local hockey club - ''we need to keep them in mind so they won't be forgotten''. He has (with help from other people, of course) prepared an exhibition that shows the history of ice-hockey in Pardubice. His quote was even more touching because at the exhibition we bumped into Michal Mikeska, a player who won the cup with Pardubice in 2005 and then went to play abroad... he still lives in Pardubice, but nobody really thought of him until he returned to the Czech league a few years ago. Out of sight, out of mind.

This year it's 90 years since the team was first formed and 40 years since the team first won the Czech championship. However, I don't think you'd be interested in all the facts and random memories that came to our minds when looking at photos of players we know (Dušan Salfický, a goalie who's signed a contract for next season, as a rookie in 91/92 season - priceless), laughing and bringing back the good and the bad times.

I was only disappointed by a video footage, which was a part of the exhibition. It was too long and the sound was too loud and... well, seeing videos back from 1970s was not really interesting and the past 10 years are not really something ''historical''. Plus that's all on Youtube, huh.

old-style zamboni!




Milan Hejduk's Maurice Richard's Trophy

A couple of medals, the two broze medals on the right are Aleš Hemský's from WC 2012 and 2006 Olympic Games

Šťastný - Novák - Martinec

Lost along the way

April 19th, 2013

I've got to tell you that I feel like I've been travelling in time, I've got no idea how have the four months of this year passed by. I can't believe the hockey season for me ended over a month ago and the final series are down to games 6 and 7 (crossing my fingers for game seven!). I can't believe I've already finished high school,  it feels like I left primary school yesterday. Time flies by so fast. And the faster it flies, the more I will be posting about it flying by.

Seriously, April can't be over halfway gone already.

Making (pre-season) dreams come true

The hockey season is over for the local team and for the first time in last 5 or 6 years I don't feel like my life has ended, it's more like my life has just started. Along with the fact that I'm not going to any more balls this winter... hello, free time. The last two weeks were bizzare, especially the last week, home games on Monday and Tuesday, away game on Thursday and then two balls (Friday and Saturday)... I swear I was completely numb and couldn't even stay awake on Sunday. Plus the fact that I have been fighting this stupid cold since mid February, it always gets better for a couple of days, only for a tissue and my nose to become best friends again.

However, all the full of emotions, time consuming, beloved events are over now and I should start focusing more on things like school and stuff. Don't worry about me though, I'm not serious.

I've tried to make my sick soul feel a bit better and bought myself a pair of wedged sneakers. I have wanted to have some since forever (okay, since August but it's been too long) but I haven't been sure about the Asos sizing to order them online... on Tuesday, I bumped into these and I think they are just perfect, aren't they? 

Movie: Jud Süß

I'm not much a fan of old black/white movies but when I heard about this one I knew I had to see it.

Imdb.com profile: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032653/

My rating: 8/10

The plot takes place in Germany in 1733 but it's clearly a pro-nazi movie. What's really suprising is that  the picture of an ordinary German man is a bit blurred and there is even a wise restrained rabbi. Goebbels must had been in a really good mood when he gave this movie a permission. However, it's a really nice movie that doesn't only give us a look into the mentality of German people, their relationship with Jews, but also shows how damn fragile the human life is. It's a great eye-opener, I really recommend it for everyone to watch.

- "How can we ever defeat the Jew? He is so much cleverer than us."
- "He is not cleverer, only more cunning."

Life lately

My life is consumed by school, thinking about school and more school. I mean, if I seriously did what I have to do then I would probably have no time left for other activities - such as working out and watching ice-hockey... which are basically the only two things I ever do because school can always wait. (Bad attitude, don't ever follow this rule.)

The school leaving exam is 3 months away. What scares me the most is German. Not that the language is scary but ''ich habe Angst''. I'm scared. Scared because I feel like if there won't be my German teacher testing me, I'll fail desperately. Bad attitude, again. However, I've applied for a German course, that will be 4 days (x 5 hours each day) in March and April and hopefully it will help me to gain confidence in my German. (I believe that you have to use a language to learn it because once you stop using something, you tend to forget it. I mean, how much from Chemistry do you remember from high school? Not much, I guess.) I'm not as pessimistic about it as I may sound, I passed one testing without any preparation but I want to do my best in the end.

January favourites

Hello to all my followers! I'm back. (Or at least I'd like to be back, let's see how this works.)

These are my 2 favourite items of the first month of 2013.

Coconut shower gel from Marks & Spencer - I've bought this shower gel right after Christmas. It smells amazing and what's suprising - the coconut smell is quite permanent and lasts for long minutes.

Orbit grapefruit chewing gums (I'm into all the super-weird flavours, watermelon is my all-time favourite.) - their grapefruit taste disappears after a few minutes (or even seconds) but it's worth it!

'Tis the hockey season

Christmas time means the World Juniors time and across the years, this tournament has started to mean a lot to me. It's not only the reason why I'm mad at the Charles University for not opening Danish Studies next year, why I'm (somehow) fluent in English, but it's also the reason why I've fallen in love with the game of ice-hockey... (and I'm still only talking about the 2008 World Juniors). 

The WJC is in Ufa, Russia this year and it is awesome because:

1) It's in Russia.

2) The timezone change is -5 for me so I don't need to stay up all night to watch games. First game starts at 8 am for me, the last one at 3 pm. 

3) It's in Russia.

4) It's in.. you know.

Let's skip the fact it's in Russia, this year's World Juniors may be my favourite because it gives me the opportunity to watch ice-hockey all day. Literally. Wednesday 26th was the first day of the tourney and some kind of a hockey-marathon for me. Latvia-Finland started at 8:30 am, followed by Canada-Germany, Czech republic-Sweden, a few minutes of KHL game  (Slovan Bratislava-Kazan) during first intermission and Slovakia-Russia (maybe it's only my television but the Slovakian TV coverage of WJC is probably not HD, BUT they even have got a TV studio - which obviously seems to be ''too cool'' for the Czech TV) when CZE-SWE was over. It was the last WJC game of the day, so I switched to Davos for Ufa-Fribourg, a Spengler cup game. Then a few Czech league games, followed by Canada-Mannheim (Spengler) that started at 8 pm.

What else to say about it?

I love the game of ice-hockey more than anything. Yes.

I'm nuts. Yes.

Before the tournament started, I was 100% sure Finland would go far and even win. They seemed pretty strong and motivated. Now that they are in the relegation group, I don't know what to think. Paska, paska, paska. (I don't mind being a little rude, the only other Finnish word I know is ''kiitos'' and there's nothing to be thankful for.)

Anyway, good luck to the Czech boys in the quaterfinal game against the United States tomorrow!