Hettie’s Reflections – Blog Posts

Pictures From Prague December 12

In view of today’s tragedy in Prague, I was unsure whether I wanted to keep posting happy pictures of the city, but decided to go ahead.

December 12 was the only day when we had a chance to see the city in daylight. We met my friends who moved to Prague from Moscow and since the weather was perfect, decided to spend all the time we had wondering around.

Old Railway Station building
A Flying Deer 🙂
Continue reading “Pictures From Prague December 12” →

Pictures From Prague: December 11

Prague at Christmas time is amazing, and even though we barely had any time to spare, we went to the old town several times, mostly in the dark, but that was even more stunning!

In the first post with Prague pictures, I show the ones that I took on Monday, December 11, the day we had just arrived. Almost immediately after arrival, we went to dinner with my co-presenter and her husband. After dinner, we walked from Hrad down to the Vltava River and crossed the Charles Bridge. Now, I continue from there – most of the pictures are from the Christmas market.

Continue reading “Pictures From Prague: December 11” →

Catching Up With Christmas

This season, more than ever, all I want is some additional time in my life, and nobody can give me it! There was a marathon of writing cards, packing and shipping, and finding the last missing gifts, and I didn’t go to bed earlier than midnight (and one day, it was 1 AM again!). So many things went wrong this season, that I can only hope it will never happen again.

To answer the question I was already asked: Hettie, why won’t you skip this season or just downsize – I can’t describe the joy of seeing parcels mounting on my dining room table, going into big bags, and then to the Post Office counter! It feels so good that I was not even tired the other night when I stayed awake until 1 AM. I just feel an adrenaline rush, and I am so glad I did it!

Random Facts About Staying In Prague

As I mentioned, I didn’t have time to post about anything because I hardly missed a session at the conference, and I was busy talking to people during the “hallway sessions,” and also, I was participating in the after-hours events every day. This is going to be probably the only non-conference-related post.

In the airport:

  • First time ever, I saw a separate exit line for business class travelers (which was very convenient)
  • The most unusual buffet in the business class lounge (photo below at (*))
  • Extremely unclear marking of the check-in desks (and wrong information sent in the check-in email)
  • First time for a very long time: very unfriendly, almost rude check-in desk personnel
  • A good surprise: duty-free shops open at 5 AM! I didn’t even plan on purchasing anything in the airport due to my super-early departure

In the hotel:

  • It is gigantic! Almost uncomfortably gigantic
  • Gigantic food court for breakfast. What was interesting is that they do not even check your room number and whether that is the first time that day you enter. And I do not think it is even possible to check
  • The fitness center is not inside the hotel but in the mall located in the same building, and thereby, it does not open until 7 AM, which was a problem for me (I didn’t have enough time before the sessions started). The fitness center is also gigantic and always busy! And they offer personal trainers, and I actually saw people training with somebody (I am not sure how useful it is to train with somebody who does not know you, but whatever)
  • These days huge problem for me: no makeup applying mirror in the bathroom, so applying makeup was “the best guess”.

In the city:

  • There is still the same insane number of tourists as I saw during my first visit, even very late at night.
  • There are plenty of public bathrooms (sigh).
  • Very few homeless people, if any.
  • Everything is at least twice cheaper than in Chicago.
  • Sometimes, I would run into a “socialist-style” service

(*)The airport lounge buffet:

Overall: a conference in December is a bad idea!

“Postgres at Scale” Community Panel

“Postgres at Scale” Community Panel

The Conference Is In Progress, And I Don’t Have Time For Anything Else!

At the Speaker’s Dinner- there are way more women in Postgres these days!

Prague At Night

Continue reading “Prague At Night” →

Flying To Prague

The last time I flew business class across the Atlantic was when I worked at Pepsi Americas and had that long business trip to several European countries. Interestingly, it was also American Airlines—lots of very nice food and an option to sleep horizontally for several hours.

O’Hare Terminal 3
O’Hare Terminal 3
BA lounge in Heathrow
The Clarion congress Hotel is integrated with the shopping mall, so I am not sure whether this part is still considered a hotel lobby or not 🙂
The most common business trip story: the only time you see the city if after dusk!

A Week In Review

Time will tell whether it was a good idea to try to accomplish the impossible. For the whole week, I would go to bed about midnight (except for Saturday, when it ended up being 1 AM Sunday)and wake up at my usual time, which is between 4-30 and 4-45 AM.

At work, having been in the office for only four days between two weeks of time off, I had endless meetings and then worked after hours trying to do some actual work. I was planning my presents, ordering things, writing the cards, etc. In addition, I had many problems with my conference website, sending tons of emails trying to correct them and meeting with the Talk Selection Committee. I had to prepare a million things for the upcoming PG Conf EU week and manage several 2024 conference submissions.

I took Friday off, and I decided not to go to the Corporate Christmas Party because otherwise, there was no way for me to bake my Christmas cookies. I want to be very clear here: this was not a sacrifice on my side; these are my priorities, and I would be way unhappier if I didn’t do cookies this year.

Lena also took Friday off and left work earlier on Thursday to drive to Chicago so that we could start baking early Friday morning.

I do not recall whether I mentioned it, but this year, due to all of the time constraints, I decided to utilize the Tree Santa company for my Christmas tree delivery because I knew I wouldn’t have time to go and choose it. Since Friday was literally the only day I was at home, I also scheduled the tree delivery for Friday.

It turned out the tree was too thick to fit into my tree stand, so they had to give me one of theirs, and it was not as nice as mine. As for the tree itself, it was fine, but the shape was not as I liked it (too thick in the middle), and the top was “tripled,” and Lena and I spent a lot of time trying to put the star on it.

At 5 PM, we called it a day and went to the Christkindle Market and then to Millennium Park to see the Chicago Christmas Tree and listen to the carolers.

Continue reading “A Week In Review” →

Guaranteed

The two-year pilot program, which provided guaranteed cash payments for its participants, ends in December.

Here is a WBEZ episode that recaps the results of the program. The most important aspects highlighted by  author and scholar Eve Ewing are the following:

More flexibility. A lot of other assistance programs dictate how funds can be spent. Guaranteed income programs let people use the money however they want.

An investment in public safety. Ewing says when people return from jail or prison and have alternative forms of income, that decreases the likelihood they’ll resort to violent crime.

One word: Dignity. Ewing says guaranteed income challenges the notion of “deservingness,” and that the right to safety, education and housing should not be decided by economic status. 

The Guaranteed podcast.