About Me:
My name is Zdenka Baker-Zvadova. I am Slovak. I have lived in Cardiff for 17 years. I have 7-year-old daughter. I share custody of her with her father.
I work as a Student Support, meaning, I help students with disabilities to achieve their full potential at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Last year I was working with a wheelchair user who studies Social Work. What I learnt, taking notes for her in lectures and seminars, closely aligns with my other job – a Public Service Interpreter for Slovak and Czech languages.
I am working towards owning a house with a big garden and writing a novel. Gardening and writing preserve my sanity as I have been struggling with depression and anxiety.
I am a vegetarian and I love world cuisine, mainly Mediterranean and Arabic.
I love travelling and learning about cultures – their food, books, history, films. A few years back, I travelled for 15 months. We were going to Australia for a year. It took us 3 months to get there because we didn’t want to fly. It took us through Baltic countries, Russia (on Trans-Siberian railway), Mongolia, Korea, Japan. Because island-hopping would be expensive, we flew from Tokyo to Brisbane and then we travelled in a campervan all around Australia. I wrote a blog about it.
I was also writing a blog about intersectional feminism. Now I’m working on a novel based on my experience with post-natal psychosis and post-natal depression and depression. The publisher was once interested in my picture book but after a few emails, he didn’t come back to me. It was a book about a girl bear who was learning where honey, her favourite food, comes from. My friend illustrated it. It was the closest I got to being published.
I love cinema and I volunteer at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff so I can watch films for free. I used to do the same when I was a teenager because there were too many great films for my budget.
I also volunteer with an organization called Food4All. We collect food that shops didn’t sell at the end of the day and give it away. I hate food being wasted.
This year is the third year since my divorce and I am enjoying life again, fulfilling my dreams. For example,
I saw my favourite band Queens of The Stone Age in June and going to see them again in November.
I am going to see a singer-songwriter Thurston Moore who has a new book out. This is another once in a lifetime experience.
I have been to Greece, visited my brother in Spain and I went home in summer. My daughter impressed everyone by how much Slovakian she had learned in those three weeks there.
I have sent a short story into competition. It is a big step for me, and I am proud of myself.
Another amazing thing that has happened is that I can finally concentrate on reading.
I have also started learning about the property business.
And most importantly, I am doing brilliantly mental health wise.
Interested In:
– Activism
– Arts
– Creative Writing
– Cycling
– Depression
– Ecology
– Education
– Environment
– Feminism
– Film
– Finances
– Food
– Foraging
– Gardening
– History
– Interior Design
– Languages
– Learning
– Literature
– Mental health
– Mountains
– Music
– Nature
– Photography
– Plants
– Property
– Psychology
– Repurposing and upcycling
– Self-care
– Society
– Spirituality
– Sustainability
– Swimming
– Travelling
– World
– Yoga