Author: Hettie D.

My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996. I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future. I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life. As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.

The First Work Week After

Since I barely blogged this week, it should be obvious that the first week after the conference was very intense. There are several projects which I both need and want to do, and each of them could easily take all the work time I have. I would be happy to have sixteen extra hours a day, because I really-really want to do it all.

On top of that: the program committee of PG Day Chicago started regular meetings, and I feel terrible that it’s not that much I can do at the moment. November PUG is less than two weeks away. Mom is having multiple health issues, mostly related to arthritis. When she feels better, she does not want any help, and when she feels worse, she does not ask, which does not help me to address the situation.

Also, I am still seeing too many shows (and I know it’s too many, but I can’t resist the post-pandemic luxury of ‘all is open.” Last night, I was at CSO with my neighbor, and we listened to the Bartok Second violin concerto with Christian Tetzlaff, and it was so amazing, I still can’t get over it! There are lots of his videos online, and if you watch just one, you’ll see what I am talking about!

So – today is Friday, and I want to do so many things during the weekend, that I am sure at least 30% of them will be not done!

Coming Back From Helsinki

There will be no more direct flights to/from Helsinki until the end of March, and I forgot what a pain it is to fly with a connection! I made it more difficult for me by reaching Finnair Gold – to maintain it, I need to choose Finnair whenever possible, and Heathrow is not the fastest connection and not the most comfortable airport. I will respond to their request for review and tell them why it is not the best option :).

The connecting flight was delayed one hour and forty minutes, and when we arrived at ORD, there was no gate for us, so we had to wait for another thirty minutes. But when we finally arrived, a miracle happened. First, the gate was the closest to the arrival hall, and then there was no line for passport control at all! They said – go to any officer! Also, although they didn’t restore the automated passport control, you do not need to fill in a paper slip anymore. The officer gives you a paper slip with his marks, and you go to customs and give it to them. Not sure what’s the purpose of this, but it is better than using a pen :).

This trip was my first after I earned Gold status with Finnair, and I have to admit that the ability to use the lounge is essential :). If not for the lounge, waiting at Heathrow would be way more miserable! Although sometimes, the lounges are so crowded that it might be challenging to find a seat!

On the left, there is a list of calories for all food and drinks
And I want to mention that an office worker needs less than that!

My Halloween Costume

I didn’t get a prize for it, but I still like it, especially because the top is the real thing from Western Ukraine (I have had it for at least seven years, if not more). And I had to order the headdress, ensuring they won’t send a Frida Kahlo one!

The Conference Recap

I never had such a professionally-successful week! Starting from Monday, when I presented at Helsinki PUG and had such a positive response and new contacts in Aiven, continuing through the PG Conf EU was fantastic!
I told Boris that I would never have anything like this ever in my life, and he replied that he thinks it will always be like this now:).

We’ll see. The last time I thought “things are going my way” was before the pandemic. To be fair, if not for the pandemic, we won’t write the book. And for the past two months, I started to feel again that things are going my way, which is exciting and scary.

I had two talks, and both got tremendously positive responses. My first talk was on the first day, right after the keynotes, and I had two hundred people in the audience. I left fifteen minutes for questions, and people were asking even after that time. Pretty much each time I was alone in a hallway, somebody would approach me and ask something related to my talk. My second talk was on the last day of the conference, but still, there were many questions, and some people even offered to contribute to my projects. It’s a little bit scary when younger attendees ask to have a picture with you and tell you that you are their role model :).

Another thing that made me happy was that I saw a lot of my former colleagues, and nobody was mad at me; people still liked me and wanted to talk with me.

Also, we had a first program committee meeting, and my conference is progressing! I could not be happier with that development!

The Russian Embassy in Berlin

There was no time to walk around Berlin, at least no daylight time. In part, it was my bad planning – after I changed my flight from Chicago to Friday instead of Sunday, I could easily change the flight to Berlin to come earlier on Tuesday and leave later on Saturday. There was just way too many things going on, and I forgot.
Besides the conference, we could do just one thing – walk to the Brandenburg Gates and then a little bit along Unter Der Linden. We also walked to where we had dinners, but these walks were in complete darkness, and we could hardly see anything around.

This morning, we used the only daylight time we had – less than two hours before going to the airport, so we could not go far from the hotel.

First, we saw the word AEROFLOT on the top of the nearby building, then we saw the barricades around it, and then we saw that the barricades continued along the whole block, And only then we figured out what was a setup – the barricades were guarding the Russian Embassy!

I didn’t see the sign that this is the Russian Embassy, only the flag on the top of the buildign

The memorial is located in the middle of Unter der Linden, so that it is clearly visible from the embassy windows:

And there is an incredibly powerful message on the opposite side of the strre, once again, visible from the Embassy:

During the conference, I talked with many people from different countries about the war. I think, the words of my long-term Republican friend from Texas says it all: we are sending guns to Ukraine, and we will keep sending guns. Ukraine is defending all of us. If not for Ukraine, we won’t be in Berlin today.

We always have political arguments with this old friend of mine whenever we meet, but this time, I didn’t even argue with him about the gun laws when he said: we need guns to send them to Ukraine!

I Am Back To The Same Place…

Berlin was my first “zagranitsa”, I wrote about it here. Today, I was standing at the same place where I stood thirty-eight years ago. Actually, I stood a little bit further, we were not allowed that close to the Brandenburg Gates.

Today, we walked from West to East Berlin, and back, something I could not imagine would ever be possible for me!

Choosing the Wall. souvenirs
I didn’t get this one, but I loved the idea!

PG Conf EU

I am in Berlin – we came here last night, today was the first day of the conference, and my talk was the first talk after the keynote! I never talked at a conference with over 600 participants in a full room (there are four track, but I am pretty sure more than 100 people were listening to my talk!

All the presentations are so interesting, I wish I could be at four places at once! And people stop me and ask questions about my presentation, an I never had such level of interest!

Haven’t seen Berlin in the daylight yet :).

Biking In Helsinki

I will never get tired of saying that I love biking in Helsinki! Even though it is so much colder than in Chicago (it was a peak of Indian summer in Chicago last weekend, with temperatures rising to 74F), it is so much nice! I can’t stop marveling at the fact that there are safe bike paths everywhere! This time, I bought better and warmer biking gear, and I like it so much that I almost want to take it back to Chicago :). We went on two bike rides, Sunday and Monday, and the weather was perfect for biking!

Scroll through my instagam post about our Sunday ride!

Helsinki PostgreSQL User Group

Hettie D.'s avatarThe World of Data

I am so happy I finally fulfilled my promise to contribute to the Helsinki PostgreSQL community and present at their meetup last night! Thanks to Aiven for hosting, and many thanks to all organizers. My talk was a preview of the talk I am giving at PG Conf EU tomorrow!

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Fazer Ice -Cream

I wanted to try one of Fazer’s ice cream creations for a while, and yesterday was the first time tried Fazerella. And believe it or not, my verdict – too much chocolate! Boris was wiser to choose rhubarb sorbet with truffle ice cream!