Saturday, September 30, 2006

Working too hard to keep fit?

Are you worried that you don't get time to take exercise because you are stuck in front of a computer every day? Help is at hand with the Geek-a-Cycle(tm). This recumbent home-trainer and computer desk is just the thing, you can work and keep fit at the same time. Just take care that you don't breath too heavily when you're on conference calls, though!
St Wenceslas Day

September 28th is St Wenceslas's day, and the Czechs have a public holiday to celebrate their patron saint, Wenceslas I, Duke of Bohemia. I often pass a really striking church which is dedicated to St Wenceslas and was built to commemorate his 1000th anniversary in 1929.

St Wenceslas's day was on Thursday and I had no lessons, although I managed to reschedule them to make up for the lost time. On this holiday the public transport runs to a Sunday timetable, and the big shops are open. The smaller shops were closed, but I was prepared for this and had stocked up on essentials.

We have had a real Indian Summer this September. The weather has been fine and warm most days. Thursday dawned chilly and misty and I thought we had seen the last of the fine weather. Fortunately the mist cleared and the sun came out later in the day.

I spent the late morning and early afternoon visiting the Czech Air Force Museum which is located at an airbase in the northern suburbs. I took pictures, but haven't yet chosen the best ones. Watch this space.
Karlstejn
Two weeks ago Sue came out again for the weekend. We decided to get out of the city on Sunday and headed by train for Karlstejn and its castle. We ended up leaving Prague late in the morning so we decided to get lunch before sightseeing. The station at Karlstejn is in the valley across the river from the castle and village.

There was a promising-looking bar just before we crossed the river (named after the Good Soldier Swejk) so we went there. The food was good and the prices were an absolute bargain, roughly a third of what we might pay in central Prague, and cheaper than the prices we are used to paying in the non-touristy parts of the city. The bar was popular with Czech cyclists and walkers, too.

After lunch we walked up the hill through the village to the castle. We decided not to pay for a guided tour of the interior as apparently it is quite bare inside, and photographs are forbidden. Instead we went for a walk hoping to get views of the castle from the other side. We didn't have a map but we followed some tracks and almost managed a circular walk. We could see our starting point, but it was about 200 feet below with a nasty looking steep drop. We decided to be safe and retrace.

We felt we deserved more refreshment so we stopped at another bar (again out of the village and popular with walkers and cyclists) for ice cream and cold drinks. We then made our way back through the village to the station for the train back to Prague.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

On Saturday evening we were out of milk. I knew that there was a small local shop which would be open, so I went there. Milk seems to be sold here in 1 litre plastic bottles for the most part, but 500ml containers are available. The shop had lots of litre bottles, but I don't use much milk, so I prefer the smaller amount. I a 500ml carton, read the word mléko (milk) and took it home.

We decided to have some tea before bed, and we had finished the previous milk earlier when we had a friend round after a meal out, so I handed Sue the fresh carton. Luckily she sniffed it before adding it to the tea. It was sour! I dug out the dictionary and read the other words on the carton carefully. Translated it read sour milk product.

It is quite refreshing if you know that's what you're drinking. It would not taste good in tea, though.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

The weekend

Sue came out for the weekend. For some reason flights on Friday afternoon and Monday morning were more expensive than usual, so she decided to fly out on Saturday morning and return on Monday evening. The flight was slightly delayed so it was almost 1pm by the time we reached the centre of town on Saturday. We decided to have lunch out, and went to the terrace bar I had visited the night before. The weather was excellent and it was nice to have lunch while enjoying a lovely view.

In the afternoon we left Sue's bags at the flat and walked through the local area (for about 5km) looking for interesting buildings before having a quiet meal.

On Sunday we took the tram to the old exhibition ground of Výstavište and walked through Stromovka Park to the river. From there we crossed two bridges to arrive on the north side of the river near Troja chateau. We explored the gardens and had lunch before we discovered that the Pragus Botanical Gardens are just up the hill from here. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the gardens before returning to Výstavište for the tram home.

I didn't have a lesson on Monday morning, so I was able to spend time with Sue until after lunch. After my class I just had time to dash to Vitkov hill wioth my camera to take some pictures of the sunset. I have now set up an account at Flickr, so my nicest pictures from the last week are now available here.
Payday!
The second Friday of the month is payday at the school. In some months there is also a teachers' meeting on this day, but since the new teachers had their induction and training this week there was nothing left to discuss in a meeting. The owners did host drinks in a local bar from 5pm, though. The bar chosen had a lovely terrace at the back which looks into a great bowl of a valley. This part of town is called Vinohrady and at one time was famous for its vineyards. Looking into the valley I could just imagine rows of vines clinging to the sides.

Since many of the new teachers are still progressing through the local bureaucracy, they do not yet have bank accounts. As a result the school paid cash to those teachers without an account. I haven't been paid in cash for work since I was 18! It was slightly unsettling going to the pub with all my money for the next month about my person. I did the sensible thing and had a few drinks before going home.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Connected!
As soon as I had a date to move into my flat I started making arrangements for an Internet connection. My landlord very kindly came with me to the Česky Telecom office to do the talking, while I signed the forms. The landline was connected this morning, eight days after placing the order.

I picked up a DLS modem from the Telecom office yesterday (over the last week they changed their name and branding from Česky Telecom to Telefonica O2 to make things more entertaining).

I had been told that I would get an e-mail with the account information for the DSL, but no such e-mail came. This afternoon I decided to plug everything in and then call the O2 help line to try and find someone who spoke English and could tell me the configuration information which I needed.

To my surprise as soon as the laptop booted it was on the Internet! The router was pre-configured with the DSL information and it was set up as a DHCP server, so everything just worked!

Maybe the fact that I am so surprised marks me down as an old-timer, but like Paul Humphreys I can remember the pain which we used to have to go through in the "good" old days to get a working network connection.

I really missed not having a net connection available to me. I'm really pleased to be back in contact with the world again, and now that I can use VOIP for phone calls, Sue and I should save a fortune.

Monday, September 04, 2006

A New Term
Today was the first Monday in September, and the schools here in the Czech Republic started back today. True to form the weather this morning was the best it has been for a few weeks.

Life will get busy from now on, the students have had their summer holidays and their English lessons will resume. We had an induction day at the school today, all of the new teachers were given a huge amount of information on how to deal with the Czech bureaucracy, and how to keep track of their schedules and timesheets at the school. I was able to help with this as I have now been here a month and have learned a bit about how things work here.

My new classes begin next week, and I will have a full teaching load by the end of this month.
A Golden Wedding
Sue's parents celebrated their Golden Wedding on Saturday, the actual anniversary was in August, but they scheduled the party after the holiday season. I flew from Prague to Newcastle on Friday afternoon, and Sue picked me up at the airport.

On Saturday afternoon we decorated the hall while the caterers set up the kitchen and the buffet. The party went well, Brian and Betty's relatives and friends from way back came along, and everyone enjoyed themselves. Sue had baked and decorated a cake for the occasion, and our nieces handed out drinks and canapes as people arrived.

There is only one flight a day from Newcastle to Prague and on Sunday it left at 9 am. I didn't get a lot of sleep after the party so I was feeling very droopy by the time I got back to Prague.
Moving Day
My move from the shared flat into my own flat on Tuesday evening went smoothly. Everything I had fitted into a few bags and the whole process of packing, moving and unpacking was over very quickly. My landlord went with me to the Czech Telecom office to sort out the paperwork involved in getting a telephone line, and I should be set up with a line and broadband Internet within the next couple of weeks.

I'm really looking forward to getting broadband, I feel as though I have lost a limb, or one of my senses, over the last few weeks. I have been able to get access to computers to check e-mail or update this blog from time to time, but it isn't the same as having full Internet access from my own computer at home.

I had no classes on Thursday, so I went to Tesco to buy a few household essentials, and now I feel quite at home. I took the Metro to the far western edge of the city where there are two big shopping centres, one of which has an IKEA. I was sidetracked by a big electronics shop (like Curry's and PC World combined in one) so I decided to leave IKEA for another day.

In the evening I went out for a drink with some fellow teachers and added to my knowledge of which local bars and restaurants are good value. By the time I get some visitors I should have a good choice of places to take them.
Where have I been?
I finished my week-long intensive course on the Friday afternoon (August 25th) and my student went home to Prague. I stayed at the hotel an extra night to recharge my batteries after a week of intensive conversation, and spent Saturday morning taking a short walk through the forest near the hotel and visiting an historic church above the town. The walks were pleasant but it isn't possible to cover much ground in a morning. The ideal tool for exploring countryside is a bicycle, so I should try to have a bike with me on future trips.

Owing to some confusion over the rail timetable I had a two hour wait at the railway station. Since I had two large bags and there was a severe rainstorm I decided to sit tight and read rather than go back into town to explore further. On Sunday I contacted my landlord and he told me that my flat would be ready for me to move in on Tuesday evening.