Around the world, people have different holiday stories. Celebrating the end of the year and winter holidays in many weird and wonderful ways. In the Ukraine, for example, they celebrate an old folk holiday called Malanka by dressing up as devils, goats, or bears, and performing in their thousands. In Tibet, they celebrate Losar, one of the most colourful cultural celebrations worldwide. Namely because it involves a lot of fire: torches, firecrackers, and incense all feature in their huge public gatherings.
I myself am cold-blooded, and so will be seeking out warmer waters and taking it easy. Since I have no bones, you can bet that, wherever I am, I’ll be busting moves on the dancefloor. But enough about me.
This year at Plesk, we have a lot of festive offers to wrap up the year. But we want to start the celebrations by finding out what some of our global team are getting up to. This is what happened when I sat with one of our program managers, Ivan Chega, and asked how he spends the Winter holidays season.
Hey Ivan, tell us (and our readers) a bit about yourself.
Hi, I’m Ivan Chega, Program Manager at Plesk. Novosibirsk, Siberia 🙂
Describe a typical workday during the winter and any rituals to keep energies high.
All my weekdays tend to be the same.
- 6am: Wake up, light breakfast, vitamins (Omega-3, multivitamins, Vitamin D).
- 7am: Pick up my daughter and take her to kindergarten.
- 7:40-9:40am: Crossfit training (each workday).
- 10:30am-7:30pm: Work, normally from the office
- (swimming pool twice a week after 7pm).
- 7:30-23:30pm family time, reading, studying Spanish.
Share some activities/traditions that mark the end of the year both at work and at home.
At work we’ve got a very nice corporate New Year’s event with lots of entertainment. At home it’s nice in other ways, because I’m usually driving around, buying presents for my kids from me and from Ded Moroz (Russian Santa). It’s a lot of fun giving presents to relatives on January 1st.
Do you have any funny moments/stories to share?
Every Siberian can tell you lots of stories from his/her experience on how to start a car at temperatures below -30 C and lower. Also, the choice of winter tyres – Studs or studless? That is the question.
What is the nicest winter memory you can share with us?
When I was a child, my grandfather used to own a big cabin in Taiga (even with electricity produced by hand-made power station installed in a creek), quite far away, and on the weekends, we used to go there to ski or snowmobile. Sometimes even spent the night there. Best times ever. Nowadays, Cross-country Skiing with my older son is my favorite Winter activity.
What’s your favorite winter dish or dessert?
- The first is Boozy – If you don’t know it, click and learn – you can thank me later.
- Omelette with sausages and special salad with cucumber and radish. And BOOZY
What advice would you give Plesk Users at this time of year?
It’s too easy to enjoy summertime – though Winter requires more creativity, you can find ways to enjoy it as much as you can. Be active and let no holiday blues creep into you.
We hope you enjoyed the interview above, and make sure to heed some of Ivan’s advice and have a very happy and active holiday season wherever you may be.
Keep your eyes peeled for more from our Pleskians in our 2019 Holiday Stories series on Facebook and Twitter. Are you enjoying these stories? Let us know below.
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2 Comments
hi~ ^^
Is the festival event over? Do you have other promotions?
Yes our holiday promotions are over, why don’t you sign up for our newsletter and stay informed on upcoming promotions? https://plesk.com/blog/