09 Sep 2025
We ask a different figure from the local community to choose 10 questions to answer from a list of 50. This week: Adriana Dujkova, supervisor at Waffle Wands in The Maltings Shopping Centre.
What’s the first thing you do after waking up in the morning?
Unfortunately, go on my phone. It’s a habit I really want to break but right now I have friends with different sleep schedules, so often I get messages from them during the night and then my first response in the morning is to reply to all of them. After that, it’s easy to get stuck on social media and waste like an hour every morning on that.
What items do you always carry with you?
Tissues – you never know when you’ll cry, bleed or forget how to eat food.
What’s your worst habit?
Biting my nails. I have been doing that since I was a child and I go through periods of biting and not biting. I really want to get rid of it because I would like to finally have nice nails and paint them with some intricate design but it doesn’t matter right now if I sabotage them every two weeks. However, I am actively working on breaking this habit even if it takes a lot out of me.
What object would you save first if your house was on fire?
My phone, so I could call the firefighters.
What are your preferred pizza toppings?
All the veggies. Not because it’s healthier but because I genuinely love baked vegetables on pizza. Most favourite are bell pepper, courgette, mushrooms, red onion and tomatoes. In terms of pizza places, I have a weakness for the Domino’s veggie supreme pizza.
What’s your favourite place to have breakfast in St Albans?
Toast. I haven’t tried all of the places just yet, but from the few I had the chance to go to, Toast is my all-time favourite even compared to some that I tried in different cities. I would try the rest of the ones in St Albans, but I just love their food so much that when I crave breakfast in the city I just cannot help myself and go there.
What’s your favourite St Albans car park?
The Maltings. I work there so obviously it is the closest one and I prefer that one the most.
Where do you buy your coffee in St Albans?
Nkora. I became a coffee drinker fairly recently due to getting a new job and getting up earlier than I used to. I have tried the other chains and out of all the coffee shops on the high street I definitely prefer Nkora the most. I do still wanna try some of the smaller places though and there is a coffee cart on the high street during market days that I still want to try coffee from.
Wednesday or Saturday market?
Wednesday market. I much prefer the selection of goods on that one. I find that the food selections are better and more to my taste, but also there is this one stall that sells amazing T-shirts and button-up shirts that I cannot help myself with and buy at least one everytime I walk past.
How long would you survive a zombie apocalypse?
I think it would be either between dying on day one or never. My ego likes to believe that I am durable enough to withstand a zombie apocalypse to the point that I would be able to adapt to the new way of survival lifestyle. However, my brain tells me that I would die on day one.
