I'm becoming a fan!!!

It's so good! Y'all have got to see it!

I love Paris! I have a dream now :)))

Ratatouille

I'm finally starting to get the whole 'cool thing' about journalism.

I get to be the first one to hear and see stuff!

For example, did anyone hear about the new Disney movie called 'Ratatouille'?

The whole world premiere to be June 28th.

Well, I-i-i-i... get to see it on June 19th!!!

I'm among the few 'chosen ones' to get this special treat!

cuz, you know, I'm an editor now :)))))

This sweet children's movie is not that big of a deal,

but I'm really excited about this unique opportunity

to be one of the first ones to see something BRAND NEW.

To find out more about this cute mouse, look HERE!

The Shrek 'Voices' actually LOOK like their characters!

Click here!!! :))

I'm IN!!!

How fun and how exciting!!

My boss called me in (which got me a little freaked out frankly speaking)...

to congratulate with my official position! She called me just to say

how much they all appreciate me and that I successfuly passed my three-month test.

I am officially an EDITOR now...

God knows where this position will take me in future.

A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who supported me in this crazy idea

to write...

My sweetest, most supporting and loving husband,

my both pairs of parents,

my 'prophet friend' Katya who always knows what is to happen with me even before I do,

my Auntie Lena who basically found me this job

and of course my generous 'secret admirers'

who paid for my school, giving me this precious opportunity

to change my job...

Thank you all.

My dream is coming true :))

Thank the Lord! Hallelujah!!!!

Did you know that many people drown because of cramps when having a swim in deep waters? You've all had cramps, I'm pretty sure. It's when the muscles (mostly it's the calf) suddenly become so tense it hurts awfully and you can't move your leg (or any other part of body). It happens as a result of big physical tension or sometimes sudden temperature change (for example cold water, it's colder where it's deeper). Anyhow, if you ever get these spasms in water the main thing is...
1) of course not to panic (that will do no good)
2) while keeping your body on surface of the water with arms, use your healthy leg to stretch your invalid foot, try to pull it with one of your hands getting a grip on your big toe.
3) it will help if you guide the pain signal somewhere else (sounds weird): pinch or even bite yourself. The best would be having a tiny safety pin on your bading suit, then you can use it to prick yourself into the crampy foot or elsewhere - it should help the spasms.
4) while swimming back to the shore keep taking short rests on the surface of the water.

That's scary, isn't it? Did anyone have that experience in the water? I get cramps once in a while but never when beeing somewhere deep. I had a bad one in gym once. Turned out that I put extra loads on my legs that were of different weight. The foot that had a heavier load was quite upset with me for a while, I should say... :)

Learning every day

Being an advisery editor is rather challenging, you've got to be able to write about nearly ANYTHING that may be helpful to very different people. I had to write about raising children, conflict with neighbours, various diseases and means of dealing with them, recepies of different dishes, sports and diets, LOTS of countries with specific information about them (national currency, weather, prices, transportation, visa... and many other things). While searching for all kinds of information I learn new things every day. One of my new shelves of knowledge today was about alcohol. I had to write this article based on an interview with an expert.

1) It is more preferable to drink wine that is stored in bottles of dark green, and even better - of brown color. White glass (transparent) lets the sunshine through. Even 2 hours under straight sunlight change good wine into dangerous toxic 'poison'. You wouldn't be able to feel it right away, your body would let you know later that you drank wrong stuff 20 years ago. It is notional for Ukraine. In European countries white bottles are made from a different glass, that doesn't let sunrays through. Also, if the transparent bottles are stored in boxes or are wrapped in paper or cloth, it's no problem either.

2) In all the countries people normally drink wine with their meals or after their meals. It is only in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan that people drink before meals. Bad for health ;-P Has to do with culture, I guess.

3) If you need to drink something after a shot of vodka it has to be plain or mineral water. Sweet juice or lemonade after or with vodka... bad choice. Long molecules of alcohol being united with long molecules of glukoze affect liver and kidney terribly. As a result, headache in the morning and negative result in future.

4) Ladies, Martini is not to be drank with sweet juices or our favorite Schwepps tonic. Sourish juices are acceptable (Italian orange, lemon, blackcurrant)

Be careful when drinking, my friends :)))))

The latest news...

Hello to all... I would have been more faithful with posting, but I'm in the midst of my exams. I'm getting my second bachellor's degree!!! Since I have no time to add news every day (or even week), I decided to shortly tell you about the recent important things in my fun life.
Well...

#1...

I got "A's" on both of my first exams ('Practical English' with detailed stylistic analysis of a given text and 'Foreign literature of XX century'). Two more exams to go ('English Stylistics' and 'Theoretical Grammar', English of course).

So, I'm in process of gaining knowledge, and frankly speaking...

I'm enjoying it.

It's me during exams, pretending to be smart ;)

#2

Verka Serdyuchka, the STAR of Ukrainian humor got the 2nd place in Eurovision International Contest. Verka Serdyuchka is actually a man (a straight one in case if anyone is interested) who chose this character of a 'train conductor', an ironic funny woman, who represents most of the Ukrainians. She/he/it speaks a mixture of Russian and Ukrainian, enjoys simple pleasures of Ukrainian life and traditional dishes (salo with bread for example), laughs at herself and our whole nation. Ukrainians like to laugh at themselves, because it's hard to survive our tough life without sense of humor.

While watching the contest we decided that if our Verka enters the victorious '10' it will either mean that the rest of Europe has the same sick sense of humor as ourselves, or that the rest of the countries actually respects Ukraine. Well, it looks like both apply to us because in my opinion it was a dreadful show, and quite embarassing, too :) BUT... we're ahead of Russia!! and that's our biggest victory! Oh, and ALL of the countries except for Albania voted for Ukraine! Europe seems to like us :))

#3

For my birthday (that actually was almost a month ago... oh well) I got lots of great presents, including a bottle of my favorite Bailey's, Irish coffee mugs, fitness mat, LOTS of flowers and attention... But I was most surprised with a present my co-worker Yulia MADE for me.

I absolutely love these necklace and bracelet! Yulia is such a sweet

wonderful caring and multitalented person (and editor).

#4

My dear loving husband continues surprising me with his cooking skills. Today on the Menu... 'Chicken fillet roasted in bacon'. MMMMMM..... No comments :)))))

#5
For now this was the hardest article for me to write. 'How to choose and purchase the right bycicle' AAAAHHH! It was hard to write about something I know absolutely nothing about. Even Internet couldn't help me as much as I was hoping it would. Turns out there is no precise bike classification. There are lots of types, but I had to write about the main ones. How shoul I know which ones are that? Anyhow, with the help of our designer Sergey who knows pretty much everything about this topic, I DID IT! I can tell you pretty much anything about a bycicle. So here is the page with my 'long-suffered article'. The world got to see it.

And I don't care if the world doesn't like it, I do ;)

(click on the picture to enlarge, perhaps you can even read!

The one with the shampoo and in the pink box are mine, too)

Welcome a New Life.... Anastasiya

A little more than a year ago my cousin Jenya married my classmate Anya. We all studied together in high school. These two were a crazy couple. No one ever knew whether they were dating or not. One day they seem to be together, the next day Anya tells us about this 'other guy' she likes. One day they look so in love, the next day Jenya says he doesn't like any girl and prefers not to waste time on relationships at all. Then we graduated. Then suddenly we found out they are planning to get married. Bam! What a surprise! Is it for real or something that will last for a day again? It did happen though... I was there, I saw it. It is true...

Just about half a year ago another shocking peice of news...

A girl to come! Precious Nastya on her way to this world

(Nastya is a short name for Anastasiya)

I'm not sure what amazed me more... looking at a tiny newborn, my first and only neice, or looking at my 'baby cousin' being a real man. Jenya and I grew up together, went to school together, sat at the same desk for many years. We saw each other grow mature, we were there for each other when I became a wife and he became a husband. Now he is married to one of my closest school friends and we live 5 minutes away from each other. It's a wonderful-wonderful world full of pleasant surprises. I'm so thankful to God for His perfect ways of all the things.

The best cook EVER!

Since we're still on the 'birthday theme', let me brag a little on how wonderful my husband is and how fun his birthday was (more than a month ago :)

Because of my new job that ends at 7 p.m. I wasn't able to prepare anything special for Jamie that day, not even cook for the group of friends (who would by the way come no matter whether we would invite them or not ;) For my birthday Vadim and Katya came even before the day started... I came out of shower and BAM! they were there with presents and charming smiles! Anyhow, we're talking about Jamie. That day I felt really useless, there was nothing special I could do to arrange a party or at least a proper dinner. I left work a little earlier and by the time I got home... Jamie, my Jamie prepared delicious dinner (chicken with pinapple), set the table and was ready to meet guests :))) This is just a little taste of how special that day was...

Precious memories. Hyper-talented husband. Great dinner. Glutenfree desert :)

Happy birthday to meeeee!!!

Peanut butter ROCKS!

Dasha surrounded by two favorite Katya's

One of many Grandma's presents - my childhood memories - pirogi ... mmmm...