London. Bitter sweet symphony.

London. City of rush, tube, double-decker buses. Multicultural. Multinational.

Every time I visit this city, it doesn’t stop to amaze me. There’s no room for relax. It’s a busy place where one has to rush. Rush or die. You’d better not walk slowly down the street. There are crowds everywhere. And you’re being pulled into these crowds. You need to follow their rules. The minute you enter the subway corridors…ekhm… the tube labyrinth I mean, you start to realize you’re in some kind of game where other  players seem to know the rules better than you do. Who’s gonna win? Who’s gonna get out of this system of corridors and escalators first? Not in a hurry? You won’t be understood. I’m sorry. It’s a brutal world. Stay away from the left side. Move your ass to the right. Leave some space to those who constantly rush. Time is money. Especially in London.

Networking. And why you’re doing it wrong.

I meet a lot of people on a daily basis. Friends. Acquaintances. Potential business partners. Potential clients. People who are willing to do some interesting projects with me. People who I met somewhere on one of the networking events I attend regularly.
I meet them on the street, in supermarkets, at parties, at seminars, at trainings or workshops, while commuting or while buying my coffee at my favorite coffee shop…

Meeting people is great. Meeting new people is exciting and provides you with a lot of opportunities, both in personal and career life. But you all know that and you don’t need another truism from me 😉

Nowadays, everyone talks a lot about networking. I also mentioned about some pros of networking some time back.

Looks like everyone knows what networking is and how to do it. There are tons of pieces of advice on how to DO the networking. Which is great.

So… why so many people are doing it wrong?

Pastéis de Nata

Nah, you haven’t been lost. And this is not a food blog, I assure you. 
The reason I’m presenting you the recipe of this delicious pastry is the fact that I love to travel and taste good local food. What is more, it is no secret that I spent 6 months in Portugal some time ago and I feel like it’s my second home! 🙂

When visiting this wonderful country, you need to try Pastéis de nata, a Portuguese egg tart pastry. The most famous ones (referred to as Pastéis de Belém) are to be found in the famous pastry shop in Lisbon. They are indeed delicious!

So finally, last night, I decided to go ahead and bake them. I was a bit scared to spoil them as I’m not a typical Nigella Lawson in the kitchen. Believe me, if I managed to bake such a dessert, you also will! Mouth-watering. That’s the only adjective that comes to my mind when I think of what came out of the oven…

International Blogger Day

Today I went to an extraordinary meeting. I met other bloggers from the area which was truly enriching! What I love about networking events is the fact that you meet not only the people you already know (so you can obviously catch up) but also some new faces. I am fan of spontaneity and I can say that today has been full of spontaneous reactions. I popped into some long lost friends and we decided to hang out in the Old Town. Because I had a free afternoon I agreed to stay in the city a little longer. Our visit was documented by my crazy Huawei which surprised me by the quality of the pics. Just take a look. Isn’t the Gdańsk Old Town lovely?

How My Analytical Skills Helped Me Stop The Bast**d From Flying To The Dominican Republic… [Part II]

It’s about time I shared the rest of the story with you…
If you still haven’t read part I, you will find it HERE.

Ok, back to the crazy story.
In the hostel I already was wondering whether I should block my cards (both debit and credit). Everyone advised me not to. Why should I? They haven’t been stolen, right? So what else could happen?
Yeah… always trust your own guts! That one time I didn’t.

I came back home. Disgusted with what happened in Madrid (and I don’t think I’ll ever go back there to be honest). In the end, it was just some money that was missing after all. Life continued.

I remember that Friday evening very well… It was one week after I came back from Madrid. My flatmates went for a party. I stayed home, feeling like watching movies and just staying in bed. When the movie was over, I remembered to pay for a small thing from my credit card. I opened my online bank account and… to my surprise… it was showing I had to transfer around 1,000 EUR to my bank. I was like… WHAT? It was a frigging mistake! I double checked. I thought it was a bad dream. I saw a couple of transactions I hadn’t made. It was clear: someone had been using my credit card!

How My Analytical Skills Helped Me Stop The Bast**d From Flying To The Dominican Republic… [Part I]

Ha! I’m sure you have never heard a similar story.
Tonight I’m planning to share with you one of my numerous adventures which happened to me some time back on my trip to Madrid… I would really love to forget what happened the other day (or night, I should say) but then again it comes back to me like a boomerang. This week I have been writing about chargebacks for another fellow blog and I got actually inspired to share my crazy story with the wider audience. If only had I known what chargebacks were back then… But let’s start from the beginning.

Travel Around The World!

Many of you (like… hundreds? ;)) have asked me how the heck it is possible that I manage to travel the world. Do I earn a fortune? Nah, and actually far from that. (Especially now that I have quit my job.) Did I have unlimited days off from work when I used to travel like crazy? Nope, just the same amount as the other colleagues! 

So what is the magic trick? 
Well, first of all, I don’t live like a queen, I don’t need to buy all the fancy gadgets (such as iphone), I don’t ride a sports car, I don’t wear posh clothes. As a matter of fact, I use a decent smartphone device, my car is super old (sometimes I tend to enter it from the passenger’s side when the driver’s door is locked! and no-one knows why…) and if I wear any cool stuff it’s because I designed it on my own and my mom sewed it as per my design 😉 You know, there are people for whom “to be” is more important than “to have”…

Give Yourself a Break

Nowadays we do everything on the hoof, we are usually stressed and fully booked. As we live in a fast paced environment, none of us has actually time for “il dolce far niente”. While at work it became normal, it doesn’t have to be that way in your private life!

So what happened? What have we done to ourselves? It doesn’t matter if you’re a manager, nurse, teacher or stewardess. We all need to RELAX.

Work life balance, they said. It’s gonna be easy to manage, they said.

While some of us have no problem combining it all, there are people who still struggle. We all know them, don’t we?

Fortunately, today, more and more CEOs realize the fact that a happy employee is a more productive employee. So the employees are encouraged to go to the gym, swimming pool or tennis clubs, just to name a few. Most of technology companies allow their employees to work from home so they can spend more time with their families. Why not to take advantage of all this?

When life gives you lemons… grab tequila & salt!

Many of you ask me how to stay motivated when you’re sad or feel powerless. I am flattered, guys. Thank you for trusting me. I must admit, the most difficult task is to motivate yourself, even if you’re good at motivating others. Managers and HR people will know what I’m talking about.

The trick is to keep breathing, as Shirley Manson, the lead vocalist of Garbage, would say.

I recently found an excellent quote:

Another small success. Checked.

Remember me telling you about taking up running?

It was a month ago.

Now I run 7km. I mean I run. I don’t walk. I run. Who would have ever thought… 😉 I hated running with all my heart when I was a teenager. Well, look at me now!